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atruththatyoudeny · 4 years ago

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Happy 28th! Here’s this month’s list of amazing fics. I can‘t thank every author enough for keeping me sane with their fics ♥

When Least Expected | Rearviewdreamer | pandemic fic - online relationship - kid fic - fluff - 22k Drowning in a sea of emails and Zoom meetings in the living room, his lonely son falling more and more behind in his kitchen classroom, and crushing weight of the world being on house arrest for the foreseeable future, one fateful online interaction suddenly has everything looking up.

Across the Grey, Salty Sea | thecheshirepussycat | Dunkirk AU - prostitution - 20k Prompt 212: Alex from Dunkirk and French escort/prostitute Louis who ends up in Alex’s quarters more nights than not. Alex gives him his dog tag to wear maybe just a lot of smut and dirty talk with Louis being a pretty princess.

Sakura Sunset | MsHydeStylinson | flower shop - break up - post-break up - getting back together - miscommunication - angst - emotional hurt/comfort - 16k Harry and Louis have a tradition. Every spring they stand below hundreds of dazzling cherry blossom trees in Kew Garden, and year after year they come back to walk amongst the trees and experience that love over again. This year everything changes. Louis is offered a once in a lifetime opportunity in Silicon Valley, California. Only after Louis has left does Harry realise he made the biggest mistake of his life breaking up with Louis, and he has to live with the consequences of his actions. Four years later, Harry discovers that Louis has returned to London, and in an effort to find the closure he desperately needs, he must tell Louis the truth behind their break up so he can move on with his life.

it's hard to fight naked | bluestarwitch | enemies to lovers - roommates - fluff - smut - 11k Prompt 6: Louis and Harry are roommates, but they cannot stand each other. When Harry heard Louis moan his name while Louis was riding a dildo in Harry’s room (Louis thought he was alone at home), Harry couldn’t stop himself and so he ended up fucking Louis against the mattress. Happy ending! or where Louis leaves dirty socks on the couch, Zayn does assignments while he's high, and Harry is hopelessly crushing on his roommate.

where they glow | falsegoodnight | Tangled AU - fantasy - historical - royalty - magic - slow burn - first love - 70k “Look, sweetheart,” Harry starts, shaking his head. “Name your price - seriously. I’m willing to be generous, just don’t make this more difficult than it needs to be. I’ll take my crown and we never have to see each other again. Easy peasy.” Louis frowns at the term of endearment that sounds condescending dripping from Harry’s lips, stepping closer. “Something brought you here, Harry Styles. Call what you will: fate, destiny…” “Liam Payne,” Harry mutters. “And I have made the decision to trust you,” Louis says, ignoring the odd comment. “A horrible decision, really,” Harry says, looking amused. “Then again, I’m the one sitting here in ropes with multiple bruises on my head so who am I to say anything about decisions?” - Or, a Tangled AU where Louis dreams, Harry runs, and the sun prince has been missing for almost nineteen years.

Too Young To Know | 2tiedships2 | a/b/o - exes to lovers- k Louis blinked awake and quickly wiped the tears from his eyes. This was the second morning in a row he had woken up after dreaming about Harry. “Babe, what’s wrong?” Eric asked as he held Louis tighter in his arms. Louis liked being the little spoon, except for when he’d rather be holding someone else. Which were the past two days. Or the one where Harry doesn’t present as an alpha… until he does.

across city skyline (and straight through my heart) | Halos_Boat | famous/not famous - angst - slow burn - friends to lovers - miscommunication - unhealthy relationship - fluff - 76k Louis Tomlinson meets Hollywood Heartthrob, Harry Styles when he walks into Louis' little bakery one day. Immediately, Louis is charmed by him and Louis thinks Harry might feel the same way, given the fact that Harry has visited the bakery everyday since he'd come to town. Until one day, Harry walks in with a boyfriend under his arm and a smile on his face. The one where Louis owns a small bakery that's well known in his town and Harry Styles is an actor who comes to town to film a new movie. Louis is endeared by him, but that doesn’t seem to matter since Harry Styles is already taken.

High Noon Or Midnight, I Don't Want To Know | creamcoffeelou | royalty - a/b/o - bonding - 24k The intruder stands there for too long before he reaches into his bag, pulling a length of rope into his hands. The darkness is too overpowering for Harry to make out any of the alpha’s features, rather he can only see the sweeping movement of his hands, his legs as he takes a step closer. Harry knows what’s happening, can see exactly how this is going to play out, but he almost doesn’t want to fight the idea. “Wait,” Harry starts. The words come faster than he intends, mouth moving before he can think through what he’s saying. “Let me get dressed and pack a bag. And then I will go with you.” OR: Harry is an omega prince who doesn't want the crown and will do anything to escape. Louis is an alpha who does and will do anything to get it.

Landslide | ohpleaselarry | 90s AU - road trip - angst - implied mcd - crying - fluff - smut - no happy ending - 38k In the summer of 1995, Harry finishes his second term of university with flying colours, and decides that the only way to truly celebrate is to go on a four week long road trip around the UK filled with music, sight-seeing, and way too much pot. When Niall refuses to go, he has no choice but to accept the company of a spontaneous boy with an eccentric fashion sense that he’s only just met. Louis is wildly loud, blunt, and may or may not be everything Harry’s ever needed in life, even with the boy’s knack for causing mischief and ranting about mortality. Oh, And Louis has a big fucking secret.

Shut Up and Wink at Me | kikikryslee | high school - pining - hate to love - fluff - 14k “Did you get your housing information yet?” Louis asked. Harry pursed his lips. “Yeah. So?” “So? So it looks like we’re going to be roommates. Don’t you think we should know each other a little bit?” “We’ve gone to the same schools since Kindergarten. I already know you.” “Yeah, but we’re not like, friends,” Louis said. “Ouch.” Harry pretended to be hurt, holding a hand over his heart. “That stings, Louis.” Louis rolled his eyes. “Look, I would like to know at least something about you before I live with you for an entire school year.” “What do you suggest?” “I don’t know,” Louis said. “I guess just like, hang out and make sure we’re compatible?” “You make it sound like we’re going on a blind date.” “Trust me; we’re fucking not.” “Again, ouch.” --- Or, the one where Louis wants to go away to college to get away from everything having to do with his hometown. So when he finds out his roommate will be Harry Styles, perfect school athlete and the exact opposite of what Louis wants in a roommate, he's not happy about it.

Hiding Out in the Kitchen | LittleMousling | famous/not famous - dating - romance - touring - angst - jealousy - 28k Harry's in an internationally famous boyband with his three best mates, he gets laid on a pretty regular basis, and he's headed to Australia in a week. He doesn't need anything else, and he certainly doesn't need a boyfriend. If this nice guy he met in a coffeeshop wants to date him, great—but that's all it is. Right?

Things Unsaid | LadyLondonderry | soulmates - meet-cute - 4k "That chunky oversized sweater is like a clown outfit made for winter." It feels like time slows down. Those words echo in his mind, familiar. Why are they familiar? The— the sweater he saw last week. The one with all the knit squares. The train slows to a stop and Louis just— he doesn’t move. He feels frozen in place as people surge around him. Suddenly everyone is moving too fast and then just as suddenly the car is near empty, taking off again. The man is gone. His soulmate is gone. Or, where you have a tattoo of the first thought your soulmate has when they see you.

Please Be Naked | Only_angel_28 | college/university - nude modeling - strangers to lovers - banter - fluff - sexual tension - 17k Louis starts squirming, desperately needing something to do with his hands. Needing to do anything, really, to distract him from the perfect male specimen standing naked in front of him. In the end, the only thing he can do is strip out of his own jeans and briefs, which he does with trembling, clumsy fingers, his heart beating out a violent, chaotic rhythm in his chest the entire time. He hears Harry’s sharp intake of breath, and slowly raises his eyes from where he was staring at his own bare feet to meet his gaze. “So,” Harry says bashfully, his voice gone even deeper somehow. “We’re naked.” “Yup,” Louis squeaks. “You okay?” No! “Yup,” Louis repeats, sounding just as unstable as he did the first time. This is the last favor Louis Tomlinson is ever doing for Zayn Malik. (Because, after today, he’ll be dead, but that’s neither here nor there.) *Or the one where Louis agrees to help out Zayn with one of his art projects and ends up getting much more than he bargained for.

Baby, Teach Me How To | FallingLikeThis | student/teacher - pining - nude modeling - 13k At 10 am, the door to the studio classroom shuts with a bang that makes Harry jolt in his seat at the sound of it. He turns to see an absolutely gorgeous man standing there, hand still on the doorknob. His hair falls in a windswept swoop over his brow and he’s got a sexy scruff on his cheeks that Harry immediately can’t help imagining between his thighs. The man’s eyes shine with mirth, lips quirked into a wicked grin at having gotten a reaction from nearly everyone in the room. Harry watches him with unfettered curiosity, idly thinking he’d be a beautiful subject for a portrait as the man’s hand falls from the door. “Hello, class,” he says, clapping his hands in front of him and Harry’s eyes have a hard time staying in his head. This is Professor Tomlinson? Or Louis is Harry's art professor and they both know it's forbidden to fall in love. Somehow, they manage to anyway.

darling, you give love a bad name | snowcaplou | shotgun wedding - arranged marriage - mpreg - childhood friends - friends to lovers - miscommunication - fluff - angst - 29k “Harry,” Louis says again. He’s swallowing down tears that have already pooled in his irises-- he’s cried enough today. He needs to get this off of his chest, he needs Harry to know what’s going on. Harry nods, encouraging him to speak, but Louis is sure that he would not be so calm if he knew what was coming. Nothing could accurately prepare him, though, for what leaves Louis’ lips next. “I’m pregnant.” OR Louis' has been best friends with Gemma all his life in this stupid little town he's grown to hate. What happens when, after one night together with his best friend's brother, he falls pregnant? Surrounded by small minds and conservative cultures, Louis has to deal with parents that demand they do the "right" thing. Get married before anybody finds out. Alternately known as "The Shotgun AU"

Be with me so happily | BriaMaria | enemies to lovers - fluff - light angst - animal death - smut - 43k Harry Styles may have had his doubts at first, but by the time the gates to the elephant sanctuary came into view he was one hundred percent positive. Louis Tomlinson hated his guts. Like hated, hated. Like loathed-him-on-sight hated. From what Harry could tell, he hadn’t even done anything close to insulting enough to warrant the disdain that was Louis Tomlinson’s default expression whenever he looked at Harry. It really wasn’t fair. Especially since he’d been lusting after the man from the second he’d laid eyes on that pretty, pretty face with those pretty, pretty eyes. Or ... the one where Harry Styles has a bad reputation and a heart of gold, and Louis Tomlinson wishes he wasn't so enchanted by boys who looked like Disney characters and wore shirts with bumble bees on them. [aka Louis is the director of the Styles Elephant Sanctuary and really doesn't want to babysit his funder's spoiled lay-about son for two months]

#28th appreciation #fic rec #my reads #monthly reads #larry fics #completed fics

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fabulaee · 3 years ago

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COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE

// A 🐺 fic based on my Stay journey’s aesthetics which was a coffee shop au bc they remind me of those times when I used to go to the café to draw and would see fellow regulars but unlike y/n and Chan, I never interact with them. We all just share a table 😂😂😂

Monday. Wednesday. Friday

That was the set schedule for your coffee run. MWF from 9 am to 10, then coming back with your study supplies from 1 to 4 in the afternoon. It was routine; the small college café a safe haven from the slight messy floor of your dorm and the formal vibe of the library. Here you were focused and at peace of mind. The aroma of the coffee beans and soft sounds of the coffeeshop’s playlist serving as background noise.

There wasn’t much students at this time of the day compared to the much later prime of the evenings. The café then filled with college youths grabbing a drink after a long day’s worth of lectures and test reminders or staying to cram a night’s worth of information. There was something about cafés that seemed inviting and less suffocating yet at the same time a place where you can find the nursing students with their big thick books opened with streaks of neon yellow running across them.

“Vanilla Bean Cold Brew for y/n!”

Standing up, you went to grab your drink leaving behind the pastel rainbow set of highlighters and gel pens on top of your notes. You quickly thanked the barista as he handed you a straw before plopping back down on your seat continuing where you last went off. Something about the history of impressionistic art. You sighed as you lifted your eyes across the room, it was currently 2:30 pm on a Wednesday afternoon. A good time to take a break before your mind starts to commit brain fart.

Chris Bang. Affectionally called Bang Chan by his friends. Music major with golden hands, a good candidate for the honor roll, member of the varsity swim team, and resident social butterfly. An all rounder any college is proud to have.

You heard about him once or twice from your common friend, Yang Hongseok. They met at the gym apparently and became quick friends through the Japanese exchange student, Adachi Yuto, and their shared love for fitness.

You see him sit at the same spot everyday since the middle of sophomore year. His laptop with the cute decal of Deadpool open and his AirPods snugly tucked in his ears. He's always has his blonde head bopping to a song he's playing on either his phone or his laptop. Always seemed so engrossed in this little world he made for himself across the room, ignorant to the bustling crowd of students that come and go.

He looks up catching you off guard. His lips curled slightly upwards, chuckling to himself as he watches your cheeks turn pink in embarrassment. Great, he must think I'm a weirdo!

With a quick exchange of nods you both went back to doing your own thing. Just a regular day at the coffee shop.

“Do you mind if I sit here?”

It's the Friday following Monday's slightly embarrassing incident. You looked up to find the same Chris Bang, laptop in hand, smiling at you like a friendly yet lost puppy. Warm brown orbs looking back at yours.

“My laptop's about to die and this is the only table with an outlet.” He explains himself, a tiny awkward giggle making up as the period.

“O-oh, of course!” You stuttered, hastily making room for him despite the large space as you swiped for the stray pastel highlighters and napkins closer. “No one's sitting here so go ahead.”

He whispered a small thanks before setting down his laptop to grab his bag from his usual spot while you went back to your notes. It was silent for awhile, only the sounds of pen against paper and the soft tick tack of the keys. At some point you hit a mind block, eyes glazing in boredom as you stared at the blank space of your notebook. You felt your table mate leave his stationary position too. he stretched in his seat before turning his attention to you.

Sensing his sudden gaze on you, you flashed him a small smile. You were never one to start a conversation, often keeping to yourself and minding your own business. A bit of a complete opposite towards the friendly Australian who somehow knows at least three students from each program.

He smiles back at you showing off his cute dimples and an outstretched hand. “Hey, I'm Chan. I never caught your name.”

Again with the cute giggle. It seems to be like a signature to him but it's cute still the same. You grasped his hand giving it a soft shake. “Y/n,” you answered curtly.

The following days you find yourself hanging around Chan more. Afternoon study sessions were no longer a date between you and the textbook or the small watercolor set you laid out on the table. Chan was there to fill the space making the long table that was a party of one to a party of two and maybe some on certain busy hours but mostly it was the both of you in your own tiny world.

You got to know him, his likes and dislikes. His major and passion for music, sometimes slipping in a few complaints about certain homework here and there; What else he likes to do. Apparently mr. Chris Bang was gifted in so many areas you often wondered what good he must've done in his previous life to be this gifted. Not only was he a jack of all trades, he's also the master of all.

You even had a small debate between Deadpool and Spider-Man. God, he's such a nerd it's adorable!

In return he knew these things about you. How you're taking up art as your major hoping to make it out as an illustrator one day—

“it would be so cool if you drew a variant cover for Deadpool!”

“Ha! We'll see about that, Chris Reynolds.”

He knows how you like to collect stickers and are quite passionate about making sure your notes are beautiful. He knows how you loved your drinks iced despite it being the middle of winter.

“Isn’t the weather too cold for that?” He’d ask with a quirk of his brow, amused brown eyes glancing at the iced hazelnut latte you have in your hands.

“Nope!” you replied, taking a sip as you did so. “It’s always the perfect weather for an iced coffee, Bang.”

He only chuckled at that.

It hit you like a freight train. You didn’t mean to fall for him. It wasn’t supposed to happen. You and Chan? No way, it was just supposed to be just friends. The kind where you hang out and have fun, no feelings attached. He was just supposed to be that regular from the café, right?

That was the plan, right?

But you can’t deny the small flutters from your heart much like those newly emerged butterflies. How you can feel that giddy feeling of excitement when you spot his mop of chocolate curly locks outside the café’s window. How you mirror his smile when you get together to talk about anything and everything under the sun. Bang Chan in all his cute dimpled glory, soft curls and hearty giggles was just too much to adore.

Yet it wasn’t that what pulled you in to the Music major. You felt love blossom when you both stayed up late, when the café was quiet after a busy day. The only people around being a couple medical students, some late night goers, and the employees. You felt the tiny flower buds start to bloom when he stayed with you then; keeping you company under the dimly warm fluorescent lights, laptop tucked away and a hand playing with yours.

You felt it bloom when you cuddled on the booth’s sofa one rainy November day. He scoots over next to you when he saw you shiver from the corner of his eyes. He’s naturally warm —you’d often tease him how he made the room hot. Why? well it’s because he’s from Australia! which earned the loud chorus of laughter from his friends and Chan’s ears turning into the color of the fire hydrant.

“Babygirl, you’re shivering.” He mutters as he wrapped an arm around you, pulling you gently towards him. You accepted the subtle invitation, sides sticking together as you both went through forgotten notes and half finished coffees.

You felt it when you caught yourself staring at him a little longer than intended. Eyes drifting from Jisung’s expressive face to glance at the older one. You watched him look at the former with such adoration in his eyes; how he looked like a proud dad. You watched him nod along and laugh to Jisung’s animated story about how he and Hyunjin would fight back in the day, a fact that still seemed to shock you seeing how they are the best of friends.

Your eyes would linger on him while he worked on his music; focused and determined, hiding the exhaustion and sleepless nights prominent on the dark circles under his eyes. He was handsome even if he looked like shit. Hell, he was handsome even when he sported the infamous broccoli colored hair. You’d find yourself in a trance, like it was a dream. The world didn’t matter as much anymore when it was only you and Chan in the small dimly table, surrounded by the aroma of coffee beans at the small quaint cafe at the corner of the street.

You loved him. You loved him in the most beautiful of ways; you loved him in the most perfect highs and in all those crevices full of flaws.

You loved him in those bright moments, when the lights were shining on him during a 3RACHA gig. How they made him more beautiful, how they made him stand out from the 2 younger members. You loved watching him do what he loves; how he immersed himself in a world that was different from yours. How his version of colors and dried paint were beats and melodies, rhythm and tempos.

You loved him in the lowest moments; when the tide was high enough to cover you. You loved how you fit perfectly in his arms, how he became a shoulder to lean on when you felt the world was against you and you to him. When he would open up to you about his worst fears and his grandiose ambitions; when he spilled his heart out at the underlaying insecurity that’s been biting him due to his perfectionist attitude. You became his confidante; the one he can trust his heart to.

You loved him in the times he was vulnerable. You loved him when he would bask in glory and shining lights. You loved him like those cheesy lines in love songs. You loved him like how the tides would look at the moon in awe and yearning; gravitating with every push and pull.

You loved him in ways words can never describe. How the seeds he planted in your heart bloomed to the most beautiful bouquet of flowers.

You love him simply because he’s Chan.

You promised yourself you’d be just friends. It was safer that way but then again, what is love when she’s not one without twists and turns?

What is love when she comes to you, sneaky and sly like a weed disguised as a flower, whispering into your ear that it’s him.

It’s him, it’s him, it’s him.

It was always him, it just took you some time to figure that out.

When you first met Chan, he was simply a friend of a friend. Someone you knew because your brothers are his friends. He was the guy you’d hear about in passing, the popular cool guy with a heart bigger than a massive sized teddy bear and a smile that could cure the most depressing of days. Someone who, in probability, would just be an acquaintance to you.

He was that guy you regularly saw at the coffee shop you visited every week. He was just some guy from the music department who would flash you a friendly smile because you were a familiar face.

Funny how fate made him more than what you originally expected him to be.

#Feels like love #🐺97 #amg no idk what happened in thw middle of writing #but I’ll tag if I ever write the letter version which will probably have more #bc it was a bit hard to write in 2nd person #I haven’t written since 2019 😭😭😭 yall will habw to #forgive me #my skills be rusty af #also this wisnt proofread so if there’s any mistakes that’s the work of my sleep deprived braincell #BUHU PLS BE GENTLE WITH ME THIS IS MY FIRST TIME AND IM SHY AF 😭😭😭#but u know what Im not shy of???#MY INTENSE LOVE FOR CHRISTOPHER BANG #amg ok shall hide now ú///ú

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hela-avenger · 5 years ago

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poison & wine- part 1

Author: hela-avenger

Word Count: 1470

Summary: Prince Loki of Asgard is in need of a date to take back home. That’s where you come in with a task of your own to make the whole trip with an insufferable prince worth it. Too bad that things don’t always go as planned and you end up giving more than you can take. Fake-Dating AU.

A/N: Let me know if you’ll like to be tagged! This series will probably be a long one!

Hela-Avenger Masterlist

You must have looked like a fool. Smiling up at the sky with eyes closed basking in the warmth that the sun provided. You hear the clicking of the shade being moved and scowl as the sunshine on your face disappears. You pout and turn to Wanda who’s offering you a smile in return.

“If you keep showing your face it won’t be long till someone recognizes us,” Wanda warns her as she fixed her sunhat. “Then we’ll really get in trouble.”

“Yeah, like she said,” Natasha mutters as she hid behind a pair of sunglasses. “Anonymity is key.”

“It’s a nice day out,” you remind them. “And for once you’re not on a mission. If you guys didn’t want to leave the compound then why are we even here.”

“Two words,” Natasha states. “Bottomless mimosas.”

You laugh in response knowing she had a point.

Brunch was something the three of you enjoyed and something you insisted on doing in the city whenever you came to visit. Tony tried to change your mind saying he could provide everything in the compound and do it better but you persisted. You knew he was worried about the media and potential threats that could find you by leaving the safety of the compound but nothing has happened yet and nothing was going to happen.

“Alright, now that that’s settled, can we finally talk about the elephant in the room already?” Wanda asks turning to Nat in question.

“What elephant?” you ask. “What happened?”

Natasha just offers a quirk of a smile on her lips and sips her mimosa slowly.

“A certain god in the compound was trying to talk me into being his date for this Asgardian visit,” Natasha responds with a shrug.

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” you comment. “And why would you say no to Thor? I thought you guys were friends.”

“We are,” Natasha answers. “But he wasn’t the one who asked.”

“Oh,” you whisper in realization. “It was Loki…”

“Yes,” Natasha chuckles before turning to Wanda. “I don’t know how this one knows though. It was all hush-hush.”

Wanda simply grins at the accusation.

“It’s because he asked me first,” Wanda explains. “But Steve overheard his request and he was quick to tell him that I was needed here so I told him to ask you instead.”

Natasha shakes her head at hearing this, “He wasn’t surprised when I said no. Our history isn’t the best.”

“He must be pretty desperate then,” you state.

“He is,” Natasha agrees. “I don’t know why though. He’s gone back home before without caring about bringing a companion but now he suddenly needs one. It doesn’t make much sense.”

“Wait this trip is to Asgard?” you ask interested now. “All expenses paid, free stay at the royal home in the realm of the Norse Gods...and you guys said no?”

“It’s not worth going with the most despised god in the world.”

You nod knowing she had a point but you couldn’t help but overlook that detail.

Asgard was a place you longed to visit. It held answers to the questions you’ve been holding on for so long in your life. This was your chance to liberate yourself from them. This may be your only chance.

“Earth to Y/N,” Wanda sings out. “Earth to…”

“Sorry guys,” you answer as you shake yourself out of your thoughts. “Got caught up thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“About Loki’s request,” you answer. “He can’t be that bad, right?”

“Have you even met him?” Natasha asks him. “Man reminds everyone he’s a God and that us mortals will never compare to all that he is. He also hasn’t apologized for New York and on top of all that, he’s just an overall ass to everybody.”

“Yeah… that sounds pretty bad,” you mutter. “I’ve only met the guy a handful of times whenever I come around and we’ve never been on a mission before so I guess I don’t have the same experience you guys do.”

“He destroyed New York,” Natasha reminded you.

“I wasn’t here for that,” you shrug earning a glare in response. “Don’t worry, I get it. I completely get it. Loki = Bad Guy.”

Natasha nods and changes the topic of conversation no longer wanting to give any more time or thought to the God of Lies. Unlike her, you weren’t unable to stop your mind from lingering on him. The equation still calculating in your mind but with a different result every time.

Loki = Asgard.

The return to the compound was as warm as the sun that had been shining on you all day. Your two closest friends besides the girls were hanging out in the living area waiting for your return.

It had been a long time since you’ve come by for a visit. You didn’t tend to stay long not allowing them to get to close to you. You didn’t enjoy attachment especially not in this line of work.

“Hello you two,” you greet as you made your way in. “Is good to be back.”

“How long you staying, kid?” Tony asks with a knowing grin. You rolled your eyes at the nickname but let go of arguing against it.

“Yet to be determined,” you answer.

“Well your room’s made up either way,” Tony states. “Stay as long as you like.”

“Cool,” you whisper as you take a seat on the couch. Tony was serving himself a drink while Steve set his book aside to focus on you.

“What have you been up to?” Steve asks as you make yourself comfortable.

“Just the usual, traveling.”

“Where to?”

“Backpacking through Europe,” you mutter. “Not much has changed since the last time I was there.”

“Where to next?”

“Probably a trip to Asia next or maybe Australia,” you answer trying to sound excited. “Has yet to be decided.”

“Getting bored already?” Tony jokes.

Honestly, you were but you couldn’t tell him that. He would try to convince you to stay and start a new chapter of your life with them but you were not ready for that. You loved them. You really did. But staying was not a trait you held and he knew that.

“No, not yet. In fact, I have made up my mind on my next adventure,” you assure him. “New cultures, new horizons, new… everything.”

“And where is that?” Steve asks. “I thought you’ve been everywhere.”

“I have which is why it’s time to expand those limiting horizons.”

Tony and Steve share a look wondering what you could possibly be talking about but you don’t offer much of an explanation. You simply squeeze Steve’s shoulder and take your leave knowing you had a certain god to speak to.

Tony had set the Asgardian Gods aside in their own building seeing as their travels to their homeland and back kept ruining the landscape he so nicely paid for. You take your time entering the living area knowing that sudden entrances tended to startle the gods into action. You had never been a part of such an occasion but Tony and Steve had enough to say about it.

“Anyone home?”

You can’t help but look around as you wait for a response. It didn’t look much different than the guest rooms you usually stay in when you decide to pop by but it was personalized. You took notice of the artwork and books that were not of the world you know. They were beautiful and you wish you could understand the inscriptions on them.

“Don’t touch that.”

You jump at the sudden voice and you can’t help but grow still in embarrassment. You hadn’t realized your right hand had been reaching to touch one of the many beautiful books on the shelf.

“Sorry,” you apologize turning around to face him. “Got curious.”

“Well, don’t.”

You can’t help but chuckle starting to realize that maybe Natasha had a point. The younger prince was certainly a bit prickly but not enough to scare you away.

“What are you doing here?” he asks as he scowled down at you. “No one invited you in.”

“I knocked,” you pointed out. “No one answered.”

“That’s because I was trying to avoid this,” Loki answers his scowl deepening. “Whatever this is…”

You ignore his abrasive behavior and decide to rip off the band-aid already. There was no point in pushing this off. The more you interact with him, the more you were starting to believe that this might actually be a bad idea.

“Look, I just… I heard you were looking for some kind of date to take to Asgard,” you state. “And I’m in. I’ll do it.”

Loki’s scowl fades away as he narrows his eyes at you questioningly. He seemed to be considering it before he opened his mouth to speak.

“Who the hell are you?”

Loki Tag: @unicorniorosacomefrutillas @thesilentbluesparrow @oddly-drawn-muse @josiehosiedaninja @hp-hogwartsexpress

All Works Tag: @not-zari-tak @jmb959 @astudyoftimeywimeystuff @hellocookiecutter @steve-rogers-personal-hell @buckybarnesyard

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kvngjoong · 5 years ago

Text

she was a rainbow [three - seo changbin]

→ seo changbin x f!you, university!au, in which changbin discovers that his feelings aren’t as easy to understand as he first may have thought → 7.4k+, it’s fluff. all fluff and cute things, with a last minute confession

part 3 of 3

“Do you remember when I got mad at you about the project?”

“Mhm.” Changbin was busy eating his noodles and didn’t pick up on the signs you were showing him. He tries to make a joke, since when he looks up you look a little sad. It was just the downturned lips and sparkly eyes. Glassy. Changbin means glassy. “You told me that you wouldn’t talk to me again.”

You hum, facing the table for a little longer than usual. “I was a bitch ‘cause my boyfriend and I broke up.”

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” Changbin replies honestly. He should have expected it. You both hadn’t know each other that long then, and you already had broken up with your boyfriend? It surprises him. It angers him that someone hadn’t appreciated you enough to love you.

“Hwang Hyunjin?” His name burns some hatred into Changbin. That asshole? Yeah, everyone know who Hyunjin was. He didn’t realise you two dated, and he would have warned against it if he did know, even though you both weren’t that close. “Yeah, I should have realised that was going to end up that way.”

Changbin has a pick of everyone he wants.

Realistically, it’s always been the same for the Korean boy. He’s rich, he’s handsome and like hell does he know it. Ever since high school when girls would flock around him to see whether he really was that flawless in real life (he was, for the record) and if his hair really did stand to be the most beautiful style on the grounds. His spoiled ways proved to be too much for people to handle and they quickly disregarded him leaving the best option for him being to move abroad and act like he never even knew the streets of the various other countries he lived in.

He used people and he didn’t care, and that never really changed. Sure, he had two good friends. The first was a boy named Chan who usually would be found in the music production rooms with his headphones on, creating new songs like the genius kid he is. Chan is from Australia and didn’t have any other friends. Seeing him as, for lack of a better description, weak, Changbin managed to make friends with Chan but then realised he truly did value the friendship he had. Then there was Jisung, the first year student who had helped Changbin out in the music department when he first started. Changbin, in his own way, admired Jisung for carrying on his passion for music despite studying International Business. Another rich kid that Changbin emphasised with too much.

But Changbin realised in university he can’t be the person he used to be. There’s no cliques like in high school, the majority of people are just genuinely interested in studying and he often looks stupid when he expects the girls to come flocking in the clubs. His pearly white smile and equally white trainers don’t attract the attention he wants.

Not that he doesn’t get any. Changbin might not have the same charm as before but girls do love him. They love his persona and how if you hang around with him you automatically get the reputation of dating a rich kid who had a lot of money to spend which his parents sent him every week. Girls used him, actually. They used him for the reputation like he used to use them for the same thing.

It drives someone to loneliness, actually.

Changbin sits alone in lectures now. He used to sit in the middle with girls either side, sometimes not paying attention but often having a girl or two chatting about a possible date and another on the phone sending him photos he shouldn’t have been looking at in the middle of a lecture.

He walks into his class on international markets, his least favourite unit this year, expecting the back row of the lecture theatre to be completely empty like always. He pulls out one earphone, analysing the girl sat in the middle of the back row with an emotionless face; reading a book, studying each word, lost in the fantasy world which is created from it.

Changbin frowns. He takes a seat two places down and uses the seat to his left to keep his bag on so he can easily pull out his phone later to concentrate on something other than his lecturer who is the quietest, but most lovely Chinese lady to exist. The act manages to catch your attention as you don’t expect it. Your eyes meet Changbin’s and he feels like he’s frozen for a second.

“Sorry,” you mumble quickly, closing your book shut. Changbin is stuck looking at you so forgets to check what you’re reading. He hopes it’s worthwhile. “Do you want me to move up?”

Changbin shakes his head. He brings his fingers back through his freshly washed hair as he clears his throat and looks away. “It’s fine. Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologise.”

When Changbin didn’t spend his Saturday nights watching anime and checking snapchat to see if there was a party he could jump in on, he would have took this as an opportunity to continue speaking to you. Right now he looks back towards the front of the lecture hall and scratches his ear as he sighs. He doesn’t care, if he’s honest.

“This is the lecture on international markets, right?” you ask him. Changbin doesn’t look back to you, as he really does not care all too much for what you’re saying, and instead continues looking forward and planning on what game he’ll be beating Jisung at this evening. “I’m new and I guess… everything has been kinda messed up for me so far. I never end up in the right place.”

Changbin hums, nodding quietly again. “Yeah, it is.”

“Okay,” you answer, smile on your lips. You seem to ignore his blatant lack of interest which surprises Changbin a little. He pulls the disinterested card on girls and usually they beg for his attention and make it known that they’re not happy which how he’s treating them.

You, on the other hand, don’t even bat an eyelid.

That’s the thing which surprises him the most, especially since his cold and unattentive personality would usually have a girl angry at him for not trying too much with them, or have them rolling their eyes and vowing never to speak with him again.

He spends far too much of the lecture watching you concentrate on the topic being taught from the corner of his eye, your face burnt into his memory whether he wants it or not. Primarily he would have hoped at some point you’d have noticed his gaze shifting your way every so often, but when you don’t acknowledge him until you’re asking him politely to move out of your way so you can get to your next class, Changbin decides that he’s not going to let you bother his thoughts again.

Except he does let it bother him, a little too much if he’s honest.

It’s easy to shake you from his mind each time he stares at a blank wall or zones out from Jisung speaking with him about something he doesn’t care all that much for. It’s not so easy when you force your actual presence into his space a few days later at his seminar for International Trade later that week.

You sit beside him at the back, which again was usually a row he sat in on his own, but don’t pay too much attention to him since you were busy texting someone and didn’t notice him in the corner.

At least he thought that, since you didn’t even look in his direction until the teacher had everyone talking for a reason Changbin didn’t know - since he was busy on Instagram (trying to find your profile, for science of course).

“Hey,” you say, turning to him and catching his attention. He panics a little, eyes wide as he locks his phone and places it face down just in case you saw him searching through group followers to find anyone who resembled you. “I saw you in the lecture on international markets.”

Changbin finds your way of speaking with him a little unusual. You remind him ever so slightly of Jisung. Forward, but friendly, and somewhat good intentions. “Yeah, that was me.”

“I’m (Y/N), by the way.”

“Great,” Changbin replies. He may have come across as more rude than he intended to be, though he wanted to make it less obvious he had been waiting for your name this entire time. Pretty, he thinks, and it suits you. He panics, again, and tries to recover himself in possibly the worst way possible, “do you need something?”

“We need to work in pairs for the project on trade policies. I was wondering if you wanted to work together?” you ask.

Damn, he had hoped for more than that.

“Oh. Right.” Changbin’s quota for smiling had already been filled up since Chan slipped in the kitchen this morning when he dropped his milk everywhere. He might have been able to give a little more happiness if you asked him for more than just uni work. Well, saying that, you wanted to spend some time with him so you must have liked him in some shape or form. “Sure. We can work together.”

Changbin responds to your smile with his own tiny one which he spares for you from the bottom of his heart. He regrets it when he realises you probably just sat with him because you remembered him and didn’t know anyone else, but he notices there are quite a few empty seats around the room that you could have sat in should you want to make some other friends.

So he takes it as a win, even if you did probably enjoy the familiar aspect of having Changbin around you. Oh well. His ego will take it the other way until he’s ready to accept he’s lonelier than ever and anyone is better company than Jisung at this point. No offence to Jisung, he was just going through a… phase.

“I’m Changbin, by the way.”

Giving you his name goes a long way to creating a relationship between the two of you, since you exchange numbers pretty soon after and Changbin walks home with a less blank than usual look on his face. When he gets home he lingers in the living room for longer than usual and even Chan asks him what’s made him so happy.

He could have been happier if it didn’t take you two days to actually ask text him. Sure, he could have texted first, but didn’t want to overstep a boundary you might have wanted to keep. He could message you but you knew what the project was about and he would have probably cleared his schedule for you anyway, so he waits patiently for you to come to him.

Maybe to restore that mindset that people wanted him, or maybe because he was nervous. The latter was pretty much impossible.

Providing that Changbin’s (pretty much) squeak when he sees you’ve finally text him after all this time.

You: Are you free tonight? Changbin: Yeah You: Okay, do you want to go to the library? We can meet there and work on the research? Changbin: It would be easier if you came to me. I’ll send you my address.

Changbin’s parents were always apprehensive about him giving out his address, hence why he went elsewhere for parties and avoided having people back here. He asked Chan and Jisung to live with him with a pretty cheap rent for the company of having them around, and so far they were the only ones he had ever actively asked to be at his.

This was a different story, however. He trusted you enough to give you an address that his parents specifically wanted on the downlow (they didn’t want anyone to take advantage of Changbin’s wealth, and you didn’t seem like the type to do that). The first one ever. Changbin was really firsts with you already.

It brings butterflies to his stomach, almost as many as when two minutes later he realises his room is a mess and he does his best to tidy everything in the twenty minutes he probably has before you arrive, if you lived where he suspected you did.

He was just about right - nineteen minutes after he started cleaning and making sure his washing was (less than neatly) placed in his washing bin, you’re knocking at his front door and he’s running out of his room begging that no one else heard the door and opens it for him.

Lest be it that Jisung or Chan caught wind of him inviting you here; Changbin would never hear the end of it.

Changbin, slightly out of breath from mad-pace cleaning and running at full speed to get the door, forgets the smile he promised himself he’d give you, instead staring blankly at you and letting you walk in. To his surprise, you ignore a greeting too and walk inside, looking around the room at the barely covered walls (apart from the mirror Jisung took pictures in, and a shelf for Chan’s books). “Your place is… Nice.”

“Yeah, nice,” Changbin replies, clearing his throat as he shuts the door. He’s usually so talkative, what is about you that stops him from being able to form coherent sentences? Changbin isn’t sure. He stumbles over some more words as he follows you in staring down everything he jointly owned. “It’s uh… let’s do some work in my room. My friends will only cause problems if we’re in here.”

You nod, walking after him as he leads you to his room on the back at the right. He shuts the door behind the two of you, weary that Jisung would be able to hear your voice and come to inspect all that was going on.

Changbin watches as you sit on his floor, beside his desk, leaving the chair open for him. Not wanting to be a dick, he sits opposite to you and copies your stance in the hopes you won’t feel awkward being in a new environment. Changbin will learn that one of the things he loves about you is that you never seemed to be bothered by things like that.

He’s busy watching you log into your laptop, so your voice catches him by surprise. “I was actually looking into some studies yesterday so we can use that as a starting point. Unless you want to start over, and we take a different approach?”

“You already did some work, so you clearly know what you’re doing.” Changbin likes that you’re smart, too. He reveals in the fact you’re not just there for him because of his money, or because he can music,or even because you thought he was cute. You’re there for work and he respects that. “Just let me know what you need doing and I’ll help.”

He respects it to the degree that he can, anyway, since he didn’t particularly like doing the work and also felt bad when you sat there and did absolutely everything on the project whilst he just admired your pretty eyelashes and soft lips and… That’s for another day.

He sees you a few nights of the week, and somehow he manages to avoid both Chan and Jisung the entire time. It’s for your sake more than his, the pair of them were both on the get Changbin a girlfriend bandwagon and it annoyed the shit out of him.

Which is why he panics when he knows that Chan and Jisung are going to be at home and you’re most likely going to see them.

“Can I come over today?”

“That’s forward. Why?” Changbin asks, surprised by your presence directly next to him in the lecture hall. You usually left at least one seat between the two of you, but given your panicked voice, you were trying to cozy up to him for a reason he already knew the answer to.

Maybe he’s acting like this because part of him really just wants you to ask to come over so you can both spend time together without the underpinning task of your joint project. Yeah, Changbin hopes that you see more to him than just work.

Judging from your deadpan look, that is not the case. “For the project. It’s due soon and we’ve barely done anything.”

“Because it’s not that deep.” Changbin replies, shrugging as he returns to his notepad and writes the date in the top left corner. “If we fail, we fail. They’ll pass us anyway because if they fail us they look bad on rankings. Why bother?”

You don’t react to his words. Changbin should try a different approach to get some emotion from you, and the right emotion at that. “So we can get a good grade.”

“That’s not important to me. I don’t even wanna be in that class,” Changbin tells you.

“But I do, and I want to do well. So please, Changbin, just put a bit of effort in for me? I won’t bother you after this project, I won’t even talk to you, just help me get a good grade and it’s done. We won’t work together again.”

Ouch.

That hurt Changbin more than it was meant to, or at least more than he should have allowed it to. He sits in silence the rest of the lecture, checking on you every so often out of the corner of his eye, though not bothering to distract you from your work any more than he already had.

Part of him thinks that he should have stopped you before you left the lecture hall to apologise, but unfortunately for him his mind doesn’t work that quickly and he’s not sure how to make it up to you straight away.

He’s not even sure why he’s so bothered. You don’t mean that much time him, you’re just his partner for a university project and you probably won’t speak to him again afterwards.

Except he hoped you did speak to him afterwards, and he hoped you saw a friendship like he did, because it’s not often that Changbin has someone on his mind so much.

He didn’t want to sound like a stalker or anything. He wasn’t going to follow you around, he wasn’t going to make sure you were the only person he was talking to (since he was pretty sure you had your own group of friends which included one of Chan’s other friends, Felix), but he couldn’t help but wonder what you were up to at different times, or if you were thinking about him too.

God, it was like you were a drug he caught wind of and now he’s hooked to.

Which is why, the next day, he shows up at the library where he knows you’ll be (since you were always there on that day at that time, according to your snapchat), with the intention to apologise to you in a way that only Changbin can do.

It takes a while to find you, but when he does, he’s glad you’re on your own because he had a feeling that Felix boy had a thing for you given that he posts about you all the time and looks at you with massive heart eyes that Changbin wasn’t particularly in the mood for.

“Hey,” he says, sitting on the opposite side of the booth to you.

“Changbin?” You ask, raising a brow at him. You were clearly surprised to see him, too. Given his slight smile in your direction, you warm to the possibility of a conversation to him and pull out your earphones, abandoning the work you had in front of you. “Hey. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

Changbin finds himself at a loss for what to actually say to you. On one hand, he could say sorry, but that doesn’t really mean anything unless he’s actually showing you that he’s sorry. He should invite you over, he should ask you to do something with him, he should offer to finish the project for you, he should--

“Do you need something?” you ask, cutting off his thoughts before they got too much for him.

“Oh, yeah. I do, actually.” Changbin clears his throat, leaning forward on his elbows, hands clasped together. He can make it genuine, because for you he is genuinely apologetic. “I’m sorry about before. I was an asshole to you for no reason. You want to do well and so should I. So, you can spend the weekend at mine and we can finish the whole project then, and do it well. I cleared my schedule.”

His apology works like a charm, actually.

Probably because he was genuine towards you, and you could see that. He stays with you for a little bit but leaves eventually, heart a little warmer and blood free from any emotion he didn’t want (ie animosity). His walk home is filled with ideas for what you can both do together, since he didn’t intend to have this project take up the entire weekend, and he settles for getting you to play video games with him and actually asking you for your social media so it’s acceptable for you to follow him on everything.

Having you around fills him with this emotion he couldn’t quite process (ie, not animosity, but something more like adulation) and it does strike him exactly like the strongest drug he could have ever purchased. One right at the bottom of the black market, with a selling price of well over what he could have ever afford.

The difference with an actual drug? The effects were permanent. So maybe you were like therapy for a blackened and closed heart.

“I’m so tired,” you say, laying on his floor with your eyes shut.

He hides his silent chuckle at your form and his pout because he can’t stroke your hair like his gut told him to. Is that what you do in a relationship? Likely so. He wasn’t entirely sure, but that’s what they do on Jisung’s dramas. “I literally just got us pizza.”

“I know, but I’m still tired,” you reply, opening your eyes and looking straight to him, “we can just get up early and work on this tomorrow.”

Changbin shakes his head at your suggestion, gesturing over to your laptop that now has a black screen since you haven’t touched it in roughly… forty minutes. “No, I don’t get up early. We’re finishing this tonight. We just need three more paragraphs and we are done.”

You don’t concur. Changbin looks down to his keyboard, attempting to finish his sentence, though he feels your eyes on him and is compelled to look back to you and see what you need. Just like a relationship.

“What?” Changbin asks, studying your pout like he’s never seen one before. Well, he has, but mostly because he was rejecting a girl who didn’t care all too much for him. “Why are you doing that?”

When he brings up your pouting, you stop and return to an emotionless stare. After a few moments of unbroken eye contact, you sit up and push the chair from your face adjusting your sleeves. “Let’s just take a break then okay?”

“A break?” Changbin repeats, one brow slightly raised. He couldn’t dream of saying no to you again, since last time he hurt your feelings and he wasn’t ready to do that again. He likes talking to you. You’re interesting, and you make him feel like he is too. Whatever feelings you have towards him, it’s most definitely mutual. “Okay, we’ll take a break. For five minutes.”

“Tell me more about you, Changbin.”

“What do you want to know?” Changbin replies, noticing how quick you jump on the opportunity to ask him something person. Did you can about him? It would seem to be that way. No one really wants to know about him. He didn’t even want to talk about him, either.

But for you, he’ll say everything.

“Anything. Everything. Tell me your life story. That will get my mind working again so we finish this and have tomorrow to do whatever we want,” you return.

Changbin assumes you’ve forgotten the whole not talking after the project is over, and he’s happier than he’d want to admit about it.

That’s almost a turning point in your relationship. Almost because it changes again, all thanks to him, but that marked the two of you actually being friends, and Changbin likes that more than he would care to admit, too.

And friendship for him is more than he could have ever thought to ask for.

He thought that he say Chan and Jisung a lot, but compared to you it was nothing. The nights he would spend on his own were suddenly filled with your presence and he actually enjoyed being around other people for once, in the nicest way. There was something about his mostly extroverted but potentially introverted persona that meant he enjoyed the loneliness in the slightest way.

Except now, he didn’t at all.

He’d invite you over whenever he could, make sure that he had you around him when you were able to. Though your days were reserved for your other friends, which did include Felix and his friends, you spend your evenings with Changbin doing both work and friend things.

He enjoyed both, much to his surprise, but it was probably because he enjoyed the way you told him about business things much more than his teachers. Did he ever mention he loved how smart you were? Because he does, so much.

He also loves that you’re so effortlessly his best friend, in every way that you can be.

“No, Changbin,” you say, pushing his hands away from you. He acts surprised by your defiance, not giving up on having you play like you had agreed. You, however, continue your protests with a “stop it. Don’t make me say it again.”

“You started it! I’m sorry you’re a major pussy and can’t play horror games. We said we would take turns!”

“It’s not funny!” You look away from him with a pout, the very one he’s grown so fond of over the time he’s know you, and face the door. Hearing Chan and Jisung chanting at the TV over some football game that was on, probably wasn’t the best thing for the situation. “Your friends probably think I’m stupid. I screamed loud.”

“Wanna bet?” Changbin asks, challenging your words in the best way he knows how.

Because you haven’t actually met the double team of Christopher ‘Chan’ Bang and Han Jisung, and Changbin knows that people aren’t usually that easy to adapt to their friend’s other friends.

If you’re easy to warm up to them, then Changbin knows you’re going to be easy for him to get on well with in the future. Who knows, maybe he can extend his relationship with you and you can be more than friends? That’s on him though, since he’s sure you don’t actually have any feelings towards him and he’s going to respect that until he’s one hundred per cent sure that confessing you is the most appropriate thing to do.

So Changbin drags you out to his friends, despite your very basic protests, planting you straight in front of the TV and making sure to deal with Chan and Jisung’s eye rolls and complaints that they were interrupting whatever team was playing.

“Chan, Jisung. Do you think she’s stupid?” Changbin asks, his dominance in their friendship clear from how he approaches them. He looks between them, then to you, switching between the two until he gets the answer he’s looking for.

“Stupid?” Chan repeats, looking over to you. He shakes his head, careless to what Changbin’s actually intentions were here. “No, you were playing Outlast, weren’t you?”

Jisung, on the other hand, has the full intentions to make sure that Changbin regrets ever trying to impress you with his friends. The youngest has a smirk as he directs his comments at both of you, but mostly you. “Hyung, you were screaming louder than her, you’re the pussy.”

Honestly, Changbin didn’t know someone’s laugh could brighten his entire day.

But that’s normal right?

To want to make you laugh every day, to listen to it on reply, to have to you laughing at something he said (so that you’re laughing because of him)?

He’s not sure, maybe he’s got a delusional idea of what is right and what is wrong in his head. Either way, Changbin vows that your friendship will be good and you’ll enjoy every minute of it that you’re in it with him.

And that means that you’ll be doing everything with him, whether you like it or not.

Changbin hopes you do like it, though. He can’t keep wondering whether you will, so he decides one day when you’re both walking to class together that he should check. “Let’s do more stuff together.”

“More stuff?” you repeat, looking up to him questioningly. He nods, though you’re still not buying. “You literally leave the house for lectures and that’s it.”

“But you like doing stuff, so I’ll do it with you,” Changbin says, hoping to convince you with a little bit of affection.

That works well, too.

Changbin went from not being able to talk to you, struggling to know what to reply to you, and being as awkward as he ever could be around a person, to silently begging for you to want to spend more time with him.

And do you? Well, Changbin would wait for you to answer that. At first he thinks not, since you don’t approach him with anything, but when you spot him at the cafeteria in one of the business buildings, and you run after him with a wide smile, he changes his mind a little.

Skip the formalities, a greeting from you is a form of therapy within itself.

“There’s this thing.”

Changbin hums, looking to you as you both approach the elevator to go to your class on the third floor. “Right. This thing.”

“Can you come with me?” you ask, surprising him a little. He doesn’t frown, his eyes just widen a little. You must have noticed because you’re quick to try and convince him. “It won’t take up too much of your evening. I don’t want to go on my own.”

Oh, you must want him to come if you're convincing him.

“I don’t even know what it is you want me to come to,” Changbin returns, shrugging.

“It’s just a… poetry, thing.” Changbin thinks it’s cute, though keeps his look placid to make sure you’re not quick to read him. He worries, given that you’re basically an empath, you’ll catch onto the fact that his feelings are becoming a bit too prominent for him to control. “Boring, I know. I’ll make it up to you, but you might enjoy it. Who knows.”

He didn’t need to enjoy it to go along; Changbin was going to seize an opportunity to spend some time with you on your invitation again.

Since your presence was the drug he couldn’t kick from his system as of yet, or a therapy session he paid above and beyond for, and a poetry session with you was a strange way of getting a high, or help, he needed.

To imagine you each time they spoke of a starry sky, a roaring fire, even a firework that explodes in the sky, he would have paid a lot for that anyway.

And he got it for free.

Spending time with you was something Changbin would have given a lot up for. As it turns out, you liked it too, since you let him walk you home and even invited him in (politely asking him not to judge your place since you weren’t rich and student loans didn’t provide that much to an international student anyway). No, nothing happened, as much as anyone may have thought it did.

Changbin didn’t have the intentions to do something with you, and maybe you felt the same. He didn’t notice you didn’t have any pictures of you with any guys at home, or their clothes in your room, so maybe he did have a chance.

That was a weight off his shoulders, at the very least. You probably didn’t have a boyfriend, and he was moving more in that direction now.

“Hey,” Changbin says, distracting you for the lecturer at the front. You look over to him, since you both sit directly next to each other now, and nod for him to continue. “Are you free, later?”

You nod again. “All day, why?”

“Do you want to do something together?”

“Sure,” you return, bringing some relief to Changbin’s heart that was beating at about 200 miles an hour. He lets his cheeks twitch a little, but never does actually smile at you. You keep your voice down but still keep your interest at hand, “what do you have in mind?”

Changbin shrugs, passing his phone across the desk to you, since he had a film already opened that he thought would be cute to see with you. A horror movie, at that, but it was up his alley and yours too. “This movie came out recently and if you wanted to, we can see it together?”

It’s a terrifying three seconds waiting for you to answer. “I’d like that.”

So seeing a movie becomes your weekly thing together, alongside the things you already do. You really do end up spending every night with him, the bonus being that you also get along well with Jisung and Chan too, and the four of you somehow form a friendship that Changbin would never have been able to foresee in the past.

You were once someone he sat a few seats from in a lecture, and now you’re standing in his kitchen playing hot potato with a sponge that Jisung had used to mop up (quite a bit of) soy sauce from the side that he spilt. Given that Chan and Jisung had been throwing at each other, and then Jisung involved you, it was a given Changbin was going to get involved to.

“Hey Changbin,” you shout, the boy looking up to you with wide eyes as he leaves the bathroom, still drying his hands on his jeans, “think fast.”

Changbin’s heart is heavy because you remembered to include him, of course he very much enjoys your thoughts going straight to him, so he doesn’t get much time to react to a soy sauce soaked sponge launched directly at his chest. “Hey!”

“I said think fast!”

Chasing you into his bedroom is one way to get a girl in there, even if it’s because you know he works out and if threw that back at you, you would probably lose a rib because of the sheer force. Not that he would actually do that - he throws it back to Chan who looks at the two of you like you are a resident married couple.

No that you have to know that. “Get back here!”

Yeah, his bedroom. You have a lot of memories there. From getting to know him in there, and finally understanding what goes on in his deep, dark mind, all the way to watching horror movies together and eventually sleeping in his bed together.

On your demand that is. You think Changbin has it in him to ask if you want to stay over? The poor boy could barely get out 4 words about his feelings, yet alone ask you something like sleep in my bed or even just stay over, and he would stay on the couch.

“Your bed is so comfortable.” Your words, like always, catch him off guard. He was working on a song with both Jisung and Chan, and he had the lucky job of producing the final product. “Let me sleep here.”

Changbin avoids having another internal meltdown and deals with this by not actually dealing with it at all. He nods, noticing that you’re pretty comfortable already. “Okay.”

“Okay,” you repeat, slightly questioning his response. Did you expect him to say yes? Probably not. Changbin gave you the impression he liked his personal space. Luckily he knew he would be pretty boring tonight and would be up to the early hours of the morning, so letting you sleep meant he could get on with the song without the recurring thought of you. “I bet girls ask you to do this all the time.”

“Sure,” Changbin answers. You weren’t wrong, they used to, but he hadn’t even spoken to another girl since… you came into his life.

He has all of about ten minutes of actual music time before he realises you’re already asleep, tucked away in the corner of his bed under the black blanket he usually didn’t use because it got to hot.

You’re cute when you sleep. Changbin can’t help the warm feeling that spreads over him as he admires you from the other side of the room, smiling to himself as he tries his very best to get on with the song he wanted to.

He does have to stop a few times to look back at you, check you were okay and we’re too cold (or too hot, for that matter), but he finishes what he wanted to around 4am and practically collapses in the bed beside you without even considering whether he should have slept on the floor instead.

His eyes were too heavy and mind clouded by music to even consider that you were nothing but his friend and the few inches of space between the two of you was easily filled if one of you moved.

If both of you moved, well… it would mean you ended up with your head on his shoulder, his arm around you and resting on your waist.

“Sorry,” you say softly, lifting your body when you realise what position you’re in. Changbin was an active participant in that too, but you probably didn’t realise. It will forever remain a mystery which one of you initiated the (kind of) cuddling. “I didn’t mean to…”

Changbin shakes his head, pulling you back down to where you were before when he sees the numbers 07 on his clock at the end of his bed. He’s too tired to notice you place your arm over his chest, and he’s practically sleeping again when he mumbles to you that he’s okay with it. “It’s fine. I didn’t say anything.”

That’s practically where your relationship starts to change. Not that you both confessed your feelings to one another when you woke up later, but there was a definite shift in the dynamic between the two of you.

Things continue as normal, with a hint of a romantic feeling between the two of you, though neither of you address it. Changbin’s content with where you both are, even if he realises that he does get jealous of you and Felix, you and whoever isn’t him, because he most definitely has feelings towards you which reflect that of a boyfriend.

A boyfriend you already had, mind you.

“Do you remember when I got mad at you about the project?”

You hum, facing the table for a little longer than usual. “I was a bitch ‘cause my boyfriend and I broke up.”

Of course Changbin reports this information back to Jisung (and Chan, since he was there) since the youngest had been the first to realise that Changbin was, you know, in love with you.

Even before Changbin. That little asshole figured it all from the silence of his own bedroom. Is it weird that he was listening through the walls to figure out just how his hyung felt towards the pretty girl who kept coming over. Then he shared it with Chan, who also had his suspicions, but kept it quiet.

“He said he didn’t love her,” Jisung retells a tale he heard from one of his other friends who knew Hyunjin from some society, Woojin. “What a dick.”

“You should tell her how you feel,” Chan interjects, seeing an opportunity for things to be made better.

Changbin, however, does not see things the same way. It’s probably his fear for the situation, a genuine worry that anyone who loves another has when it comes to confessing. “What if it makes things worse?”

“No, it won’t,” Jisung states, taking a bite from his apple.

“You sound sure.”

Jisung nods at Changbin’s words, finishing his bite before talking. The youngest, like most of the youngest in friendship groups, sees himself as a bit of a prodigy in relationships. Didn’t Changbin write the love songs? He did. Jisung nods again before confirming. “‘Cause I’m right.”

Changbin hopes Jisung’s right, too.

He’s a nervous wreck the entire day he plans to tell you how he feels.

Probably the fear of rejection, no matter how much Jisung told him that he wouldn’t be rejected. He asked to meet you at 1pm and he shows up twenty minutes early, expecting to be alone, but sees you sitting at the able you both claimed as your own in the cafe near to uni.

He panics briefly, walking away with his head hung low, though stops himself and walks back to you when he remembers that he’s doing this for more than just his own state of mind.

It’s so that you know not everyone is like Hwang Hyunjin, and you can have someone love you.

“Can we talk?” Changbin says, stopping beside the table with wide eyes.

“About what?” You look up to him and frown at his expression. Though you gesture of the seat opposite to you, Changbin takes a few moments to actually sit down. He’s surprised you already bought him coffee, and it’s exactly how he likes it too. “You’re the second person today who looks like they’re going to pass out on me. Seriously, are you okay, Changbin?”

“I’m fine,” Changbin answers.

The coffee is hot and burns his tongue a little. He tries his best not to react, staring at you with the most affection he can actually process. It’s for the best to tell you, and it won’t change things drastically. If you wanted to reject him, you wouldn’t have returned some of his signals. Whatever they were. Jisung was convinced they were there.

Fuck it. Changbin places his hands flat on the table when he realises that he needs to just say it rather than keep it as a thought in his mind.“I needed to admit to you that… I’ve seen you differently, recently.”

“Differently?”

You were clearly both on different wavelengths.

“I think I love you.”

“Love me?”

“Well, I didn’t think it was love but then I was thinking more about it and I realised that every time I’m with you, it’s like the sun has a single beam that is shining right down on me and I literally just want to stare at you and listen to you laugh and watch you smile because you are the very definition of what makes me happy and it’s hard for me to explain because I know how much you doubt yourself and you will never see yourself the way that I see you, but… I do love you, and there’s nothing in this world that I could want more than showing you that.”

Changbin could put that in a love song.

He’s breath is a little shaky as you look back at him without an answer. He doesn’t particularly need one, lest it be for you to admit that you do actually feel the same way towards him. He stops thinking about it, like he should have a long time ago, and asks you what he’s wanted to since you slept in his arms and you laughed at his jokes and you showed an interest in him that no one else ever had.

“So please, for the sake of my own sanity, will you be my girlfriend and let me show you the love that no one else has?”

He’s sure that no matter what answer you give to him, he’ll always love you anyway.

For you were the one that showed him what it’s like to have a different perspective on life, too.

You didn’t see yourself the way he saw you, but it was the same vice versa. The very definition for happiness in your own personal dictionary always had his name written down in it. Seo Changbin, the one who could love you back.

The song that never leaves your memory.

The key to a lock that was never opened before.

Saying no wasn’t an option.

You were a rainbow, and Changbin had been waiting for you the entire storm.

#changbin reactions #changbin smut #changbin scenarios #changbin imagine #stray kids smut #stray kids reaction #stray kids scenario #stray kids imagine #stray kids

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the-observant-frisbeetarian · 5 years ago

Text

George deValier (2015 profile)

since: 05-02-10, id: 2348750, Profile Updated: 06-02-13

country: 🇦🇺 Australia

Author has written 17 stories for Hetalia - Axis Powers.

If I lose the light of the sun, I will write by candlelight, moonlight, no light. If I lose paper and ink, I will write in blood on forgotten walls. I will write always. I will capture nights all over the world and bring them to you. – Henry Rollins

Hi! I’m George. One day, I will be a professor of history, who wears tweed suits and lives in a library. Right now, I am a graduate student, who wears jeans and t-shirts and… um… lives in a library.

Reviews and PMs.

I don’t demand or even expect reviews. They do, however, make me happy. So if you are kind enough to leave one after reading, please know that even though I may not reply, I read every single one, and I am incredibly grateful - your few words of praise have brightened a moment of my day. :-)

If you send me a Private Message and don’t receive a response immediately, please know that I am not deliberately ignoring you. I find it a little difficult to keep up with replying to PMs; if I haven’t responded to your message in at least three months, it’s usually because I’ve, er, lost it. Feel free to send me another one calling me a giant prat and demanding a response.

Fanart and Translations.

I am perfectly okay (quite ecstatically happy, actually) with people doing whatever they like with my fics – whether that be translations, fanart, cosplay, AMVs, whatever. You do not need to ask permission - I will always say yes. All I ask is three things. One: please credit me as the author (and a link to the original story would be fantastic). Two: please let me know so that I can check it out and thank you profusely! And three: something I hate to have to mention, but please never do anything to make money out of these works. Obviously, Hetalia does not belong to me – it belongs to the amazing Hidekaz Himaruya, who is incredibly awesome for giving us such fantastic characters to play with. :-D

MY STORIES

THE VERAVERSE

The Veraverse is a Hetalia World War Two AU, of fics involving different characters and pairings, all living within the same time period and all interconnected in some way. As each story in the series is named after and loosely based on the lyrics of a wartime song sung by Vera Lynn, I flippantly dubbed it the ‘Veraverse.’ The name has sort of stuck, however. I have posted a list of character's birth dates here: http://george-de-valier.deviantart.com/art/Hetalia-Veraverse-Birth-Dates-340315828

This series is, at its core, about the power of love over war. It's about the real reasons people fight, and the real reasons they survive. It's about finding something beautiful in the midst of something ugly and evil. But overall, although I hope there is more to these stories than just romance, they are essentially about love.

Don’t expect every fic to be updated quickly. These stories intertwine, and will be published simultaneously, and it may be a while between chapters for each specific story. Most can be read separately, however a few will require that you read at least one other story in the series to make sense of it (e.g. ‘My Echo’ does not make much sense unless you also read ‘Lily of the Lamplight.’) Rest assured, they will all be completed.

We'll Meet Again Alfred Jones/Arthur Kirkland (America/England)

Complete - Thirteen Chapters

‘We’ll Meet Again’ is about love arriving when you least expect it, and how it can transform loneliness.

Keep Smiling Through Alfred Jones/Arthur Kirkland (America/England)

Complete – One Shot

Just a little mini-sequel to ‘We’ll Meet Again’ about a brief moment in Alfred and Arthur’s lives.

Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart Ludwig Beilschmidt/Feliciano Vargas (Germany/Italy)

Complete - Eighteen chapters

‘Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart’ is about love being blind, proving stronger than hate, and lasting longer than war.

Bésame Mucho Antonio Fernandez Carriedo/Lovino Vargas (Spain/Romano)

In Progress – Fourteen chapters

‘Bésame Mucho’ is essentially about love overcoming fear.

Lily of the Lamplight Gilbert Beilschmidt/Roderich Edelstein (Prussia/Austria)

In Progress – Eighteen Chapters

‘Lily of the Lamplight’ is about selflessness, survival, and how love can change you for the better.

My Echo Unrequited Vash Zwingli/Roderich Edelstein (Switzerland/Austria)

In Progress – Six Chapters

‘My Echo’ is about how true love is selfless – even if it is unreturned.

Jealousy Ivan Braginski/Yao Wang (Russia/China)

In Progress – Six Chapters

‘Jealousy’ is a little different to the other stories in this series. It is about control, madness, and how love has the power to destroy as well as to save.

Something to Remember You By Sadik Adnan/Gupta Muhammad Hassan (Turkey/Egypt)

In Progress – Three Chapters

‘Something to Remember You By’ is about losing love, and yourself with it.

UPCOMING VERAVERSE FICS

Somewhere in France With You Francis Bonnefoy/Matthew Williams (France/Canada)

Darling, where better to meet again than the most beautiful city in the world?

It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow

Toris Laurinaitis/Feliks Łukasiewicz (Lithuania/Poland)

Art. Music. Passion. Destruction. Young, wild love, in the streets of Berlin, on the eve of war.

When I Grow Too Old to Dream Berwald Oxenstierna/Tino Väinämöinen (Sweden/Finland)

“What would you do if I just… took this tree? Claimed it for Finland?”

“I’d let ye take it.”

“This lake?”

“Ye can have it.”

“This entire forest?”

“’t’s yours.”

“Would you let me take your whole country, Berwald?”

“Yes. And you? What’f I just… took this rock?”

“You can’t have that rock. That’s a Finnish rock.”

You’ll Never Know

Elizaveta Héderváry/ Lili Zwingli (Hungary/Liechtenstein)

“But who knows? Maybe you'll meet a charming little Swiss girl with plaits and a basket who likes to yodel on mountaintops."

Elizaveta always hated it when Gilbert was right.

When the Lights go on Again

Eduard Von Bock/Raivis Galante (Estonia/Latvia)

"I will stay with him through this darkness. I will give my soul to keep it from him. And I swear, whatever I must do, that Raivis Galante will live to see the lights go on again.”

Room Five-Hundred-and-Four

Herakles Karpusi/Kiku Honda (Greece/Japan)

“Life's most important conversations take place in bars. Perhaps in places not too dissimilar from this - perhaps between people not so different from ourselves. Bars, after all, are where people meet, and where they rejoice; where they forget, and where they say goodbye. They are the crossroads of life."

"You sound like a philosopher. Though your name suggests a hero."

Faraway Places

Bad Friends Trio (France, Prussia, and Spain)

“Ah, those were the days, huh, Gil? Remember the time you tried to take on the entire Parisian police force?”

“Or the time you knocked yourself out running from that bull in Pamplona?”

“Or that time Francis tried to seduce your grandfather?!”

“Francis what?”

“Oh, look at that, I’ve finished my drink.”

Autumn Leaves

Augustus Roma Vargas (Ancient Rome)

But I miss you most of all, my darling, when autumn leaves start to fall.

OTHER FICS

THE MAPLEVERSE

This is a currently small modern AU, set in modern day Canada.

La Patisserie de la Rose Francis Bonnefoy/Matthew Williams (France/Canada)

Complete – Six Chapters

A birthday present for Claudia, aka ThisCouldTheoreticallyBeSparta

An essentially fluffy Franada with lots of cameos and cake and general silliness. I like to think this story is about friendship as much as it is about love. It's also about seeing something in someone that no one else can - not even themselves.

Libelle Hall Gilbert Beilschmidt/Roderich Edelstein (Prussia/Austria)

In Progress – Three Chapters

A Gift for Kay, aka Kay the Beta

‘Libelle Hall’ is about change, and about love growing from self-realisation. It’s also an examination of Gilbert and Roderich’s characters, and how they aren’t that different from each other, after all. And it’s a gift for my beta Kay, because she loves PruAus, and she’s awesome.

Of Ponies and Edelweiss Gilbert Beilschmidt/Roderich Edelstein (Prussia/Austria)

Complete – One Shot

A Valentines’ Day present for Claudia

Just a fluffy, romantic little fic for Valentines’ Day. Well, as romantic as Gilbert gets, anyway.

ONGOING MULTI-CHAPTERS

Catch Perfect Berwald Oxenstierna/Tino Väinämöinen (Sweden/Finland)

In Progress – Twelve Chapters

‘Catch Perfect’ is basically proof that I can’t even write crack without some semblance of plot and angst. I am still writing this, just ever so slowly.

The Tiger and the Dragon Ivan Braginski/Yao Wang (Russia/China)

In Progress – Seventeen Chapters

I first posted this story almost three years ago. Last year I started re-publishing it, mainly to fix up the writing quality and some plot points. Yes, it’s melodramatic; yes, it’s a bit cliché. Basically, if this were a published novel, it would be the type to have GAY EROTIC ROMANCE in tacky writing across the cover. But really, what the hell, it’s fun. :-D

COMPLETED ONE SHOTS

Stay With You Germany/Italy

A rare story with the characters as nations, and my very first posted fanfiction. I had just discovered Hetalia when I wrote this, and loved the random humour of it, but also wondered what it could be like if it was a more serious take on the Second World War. Also, it has always been blatantly obvious to me that Germany and Italy are in love with each other. Like, duh.

Gallipoli Australia and New Zealand

Another nation story from me, about a conflict embedded in the consciousness of every Australian. We haven’t been given much to go on with Australia’s characterisation, so I went with my gut instinct – he’s anti-authority, he’s an easily broken optimist, and he cares deeply about his men. Gallipoli shattered the romantic idea of war for this country. I think it would have shattered Australia, too.

Sleep, Little Bird Berwald Oxenstierna/Tino Väinämöinen (Sweden/Finland) and Peter (Sealand)

There is not much I can really say about this one, except sorry. Oh, and that it’s not in the same universe as ‘Catch Perfect.’ I wouldn’t do that. ;-)

LINKS!

http://george-de-valier.deviantart.com (deactivated account) - Where I fave and comment on the wonderful artwork that people have drawn for my stories. I adore fan art, so please tell me if you have drawn any! If I happen to come across art for my stories that I haven’t been told about, be warned, I WILL proceed to fave and comment on it anyway. :-)

www.youtube.com/user/ykwyh26 - My lovely and talented beta Kay’s YouTube site, where you can hear all the songs from my Veraverse stories.

VIDEOS

I am incredibly flattered that the amazingly talented Alyss Lane has written a gorgeous song based on ‘Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart.’ It is called ‘Auf Wiedersehen,’ performed by Willow, and you can hear this beautiful song here – www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8T4oIppS0

The following are awesome AMVs for my fics, made by some very talented artists.

The Veraverse

Sanctuary, by Insomniac3Ltd

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfvTV5b9Zwk (unavailable)

We'll Meet Again

We’ll Meet Again, by Shokora15

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4COUwq9yzA

Wild Horses, by SirenShadow95

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaiMnawL3hM

Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart

Stereo Love, by snobo52

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH8-zY-3qiI

If I Die Young, by NightmareCCL

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkoVnwzwLlU

Stay, by PastaWithWurst

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i61AAOfNm4 (unavailable)

Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart, by Sydney Amber

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM9anzT81tM

Home, by Sanity4Fire

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjPTML1vjXA (unavailable)

Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart, by ShiroBaraLuv123

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qltINwf-ZkU (unavailable)

Bésame Mucho

Fear, by ykwyh26

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua5Ak4O9P88

Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, by Kayleigh Turgeon

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pDaLTw5wIs (unavailable)

The Only Exception, by InuLoverNr1Hitomi

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pt_sHtZfIw

Don’t Tell Me You Love Me If You Don’t Mean It, by AnnoyingGirl1234

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkcTKOAN8Y8 (unavailable)

Lily of the Lamplight

Lili Marlene, by xxEmoxxChibixx

www.youtube.com/watch?v=otYq31Qnct8

Sleep, Little Bird

Sleep, by Hetaliagirl96

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tOCsWjpNsk (unavailable)

La Patisserie de la Rose

Take Me Home, by Ahogemako

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwsX1rJ2CDo

Something to Remember You By

Lullabies, by Lanie P

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnRXhe2cdZw

STORIES WRITTEN FOR ME

These are all fantastic. Please check them out, you won’t be disappointed!

Mi Piachi perché Mi Piaci, by ThisCouldTheoreticallyBeSparta

(GerIta, Spamano, PruAus, BelgHun and teeny mentions of Franada, Netherlands/Australia, UsUk)

A wonderful birthday present of fluffy GerIta goodness from my wonderful friend Claudia.

www.fanfiction.net/s/7601790/1/Mi_Piaci_perche_Mi_Piaci

Maple Street, by fubibliophile

(Canada and America)

A really cool, atmospheric one shot from the very sweet fubibliophile.

www.fanfiction.net/s/7796628/1/Maple_Street

Chapter Four of Hetalia Fairy Tales, by Kitty-Kat Allie

(GiriPan)

An incredibly sweet GiriPan fairy tale from a wonderful author and a lovely person.

www.fanfiction.net/s/7730679/4/Hetalia_Fairy_Tales

1. Something To Remember You By » reviews

VV AU. 1914. Constantinople, Turkey. On the eve of war, street dweller Sadik Adnan's way of life and existence is called into question by the strange, beautiful Egyptian imam, Gupta Muhammad Hassan.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Romance/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 4,732 - Reviews: 73 - Published: 5-30-13 - Turkey & Egypt

2. Lily of the Lamplight » reviews

WW2 AU. Austrian musician Roderich and German soldier Gilbert are forced into an army prison unit and a fight for survival on the Russian Front. But in the midst of blood and death and hell on earth, how long can they fight their desire for each other?

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 4 - Words: 27,329 - Reviews: 557 - Updated: 5-21-13 - Published: 11-20-11 - Prussia & Austria

3. Libelle Hall » reviews

Modern AU. When Roderich Edelstein – student, musician, and reluctant activist – attempts to save a local music hall from destruction, he is not prepared for the conflicting emotions evoked in him by arrogant demolition worker Gilbert Beilschmidt. Gift fic for Kay the Beta.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: T - English - Romance/Friendship - Chapters: 2 - Words: 8,900 - Reviews: 174 - Updated: 5-6-13 - Published: 2-20-13 - Prussia & Austria

4. Jealousy » reviews

WW2 AU. Insane Russian Commander Ivan Braginski is the terror of his battalion and his enemies alike. He controls the lives of thousands - but it is the memory of one that controls his own. Tie-in to 'Lily of the Lamplight.'

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Romance/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 3,077 - Reviews: 80 - Published: 11-29-12 - Russia & China

5. The Tiger and the Dragon » reviews

Human AU. Awkward, average chef Yao Wang is sick of being thought of as boring and predictable. When he meets the enigmatic and slightly unnerving Ivan Braginski, Yao is immediately captivated. As he falls deeper it becomes apparent just how dangerous Ivan really is… but Ivan is just as smitten, and Yao may be too in love to care about the consequences…

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Romance/Drama - Chapters: 4 - Words: 12,967 - Reviews: 155 - Updated: 11-15-12 - Published: 8-25-12 - Russia & China

6. My Echo » reviews

WW2 AU. Captain Vash Zwingli is a soldier in someone else's war; a man mad enough to lead where others will not. He treads a fine line between life and death, between sanity and madness, in a constant battle to forget. But when Vash's past confronts him in the worst place on earth, will it finally tip him over the edge – or give him a chance for redemption? Unrequited SwissAus.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Angst/Drama - Chapters: 1 - Words: 2,378 - Reviews: 73 - Published: 11-15-12 - Switzerland

7. La Patisserie de la Rose » reviews

AU. Accountant Matthew Williams is used to being unnoticed, ignored, and forgotten. That is until pastry chef Francis Bonnefoy appears like a burst of colour in his dull, grey life. Gift fic for TCTBS.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Romance - Chapters: 6 - Words: 35,111 - Reviews: 573 - Updated: 10-10-12 - Published: 12-9-11 - France & Canada - Complete

8. Catch Perfect » reviews

AU. When Berwald loses everything he is forced to move into a share house with an insane Dane, a sociopathic Norwegian, an unfathomable Icelander and a perfect Finn who makes it all worth putting up with.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: T - English - Romance/Friendship - Chapters: 8 - Words: 36,538 - Reviews: 582 - Updated: 9-22-12 - Published: 10-10-10 - Sweden & Finland

9. Blue, White, Red » reviews

Human AU. 1777; The American Revolutionary War. Three times, American rebel Alfred Jones meets British soldier Arthur Kirkland. One blue; one white; one red.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Angst/Romance - Chapters: 3 - Words: 5,981 - Reviews: 369 - Updated: 9-20-12 - Published: 8-26-12 - America & England/Britain - Complete

10. Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart » reviews

WW2 AU. Feliciano Vargas is a passionate, if slightly scared, Italian resistance member. Falling in love with a German fighter pilot was the last thing he expected... and it will test his national loyalty, and his heart, to their limits.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 18 - Words: 104,322 - Reviews: 3246 - Updated: 8-11-12 - Published: 12-18-10 - Germany & N. Italy - Complete

11. Keep Smiling Through » reviews

'We'll Meet Again' mini-sequel. Keep smiling through, just like you always do; 'til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away! USUK

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: K - English - Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 2,376 - Reviews: 172 - Published: 6-28-12 - America & England/Britain - Complete

12. Bésame Mucho » reviews

WW2 AU. Lovino Vargas only ever wanted something exciting to happen in his boring, everyday Italian village existence. He never expected war, Resistance, love, passion, treason, or a cheerful, confusing, irritatingly attractive Spanish freedom fighter.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 5 - Words: 39,037 - Reviews: 817 - Updated: 5-30-12 - Published: 8-1-11 - Spain & S. Italy/Romano

13. Of Ponies and Edelweiss » reviews

Gilbert Beilschmidt is not, generally speaking, a romantic man. Which makes his behaviour this particular Valentine's Day a little odd for Roderich to understand… Gift fic for TCTBS; spin-off of 'La Patisserie de la Rose.'

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: T - English - Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 4,143 - Reviews: 130 - Published: 2-14-12 - Prussia & Austria - Complete

14. Sleep, Little Bird » reviews

Human AU. Tino, Berwald and Peter are the perfect family. Things like this don't happen to people like them. But when they do, how are they supposed to accept it?

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: T - English - Family/Tragedy - Chapters: 1 - Words: 4,169 - Reviews: 294 - Published: 9-26-11 - Finland & Sweden - Complete

15. Gallipoli » reviews

Gallipoli, April 25, 1915. Australia is a young nation with plenty to prove. And war is where nations prove themselves.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: T - English - Drama/Angst - Chapters: 1 - Words: 4,966 - Reviews: 48 - Published: 4-28-11 - Australia - Complete

16. We'll Meet Again » reviews

WW2 AU. London pub owner Arthur Kirkland is driven to distraction by loud, brash American fighter pilot Alfred Jones. Unable to stop it, Arthur finds himself falling for Alfred's charms... just as the pilot is preparing to leave for war.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: M - English - Romance/Angst - Chapters: 13 - Words: 43,415 - Reviews: 1376 - Updated: 1-20-11 - Published: 7-18-10 - America & England/Britain - Complete

17. Stay With You » reviews

Germany lies defeated and alone in the aftermath of the Battle of Berlin... but not everyone has abandoned him.

Hetalia - Axis Powers - Rated: T - English - Angst/Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 1,325 - Reviews: 66 - Published: 5-4-10 - Germany & N. Italy - Complete

THANK YOU MARVINHERE FOR FINDING THIS!

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bus-stop-to-kpop · 6 years ago

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College!au (Bang Chan x Reader)

Pairing: Bang Chan x Reader

Genre: fluff

Summary: Chan is a college student, you are a college student and he two of you meet.

Word Count: 2,203

A/N: English is not my first language, so if there are mistakes please don’t be afraid to tell me. The writing style will probably change a little bit in the future. Have fun reading!

~Admin J

· major: marine biology

· minor: music

He decided on his major because he grew up in Australia, so he was always close to the sea, also because they did exchanges to Australia and so he’d be able to see his parents.

His minor is music, simply because he produces music to relieve his stress.

People often ask him why he chose two things that were so different, but his answer is simple, that’s what he enjoys the most. He is also part of the rap group 3RACHA in which he is called CB97. 3RACHA is made out of him, his friend from the same university Changbin and their younger friend Han Jisung, who’s still in High school. They sometimes presented their music in clubs close to the campus, but most of the time they just uploaded on soundcloud. Everyone on campus knows at least one of their songs, so basically everyone on campus wanted to be friends with Chan, but he only had a small group of close friends, which he likes to call his team. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the others; it’s just that he’d rather hang out with those, who aren’t after him because of his fame. Actually he’s still very friendly and helpful, so others can’t be mad at him either. He also tutors his friend Felix in Korean and some of his other friends in English. Whenever he’s asked how he manages all this, he’s always questioning if they don’t see the bags under his eyes. If he actually does have some free time, he enjoys just sitting around with his friends playing his guitar.

Now let’s get to the story how you and Chan met.

You’re a film &movie major and your minor is English. You basically would have no interactions with Chan at all because your subjects were so different. But your roommate is Changbin’s girlfriend and she often takes you to 3RACHAs performances with her. You enjoy their music, but never actually tried to become closer to them on campus, you’re good with just listening. Then one day you get the assignment for your film class to make a video of your choice and it will be graded so you didn’t want to fail it, but you literally had no idea what do for your video. So you were just sitting at your desk in the dorm looking at the post-it notes, that you had scribbled some ideas on, but you liked none of them. At that moment your roommate came in and told you, that 3RACHA were producing a new song so Changbin didn’t have a lot of time for her and that’s when an idea popped into your head. Your roommate was a bit sceptical when you asked for her boyfriend’s number, but you explained that you wanted to film a music video for your major and after that she gave you Changbin’s number, trusting you to not try anything on her boyfriend. You texted him to ask if they were up to it, just shortly afterwards you got a text, that they wouldn’t mind helping you, so you made out a time and place to meet up and plan everything. Three days later you were supposed to meet at a small café in the city, because it was closer to Jisung’s high school. The first one to come was Changbin, even though he was 20 minutes late, but you were used to it, it was something his girlfriend always complained about. The second to come was Jisung, he was 25 minutes late, but he had some trouble with the bus connection as his excuse, because he wasn’t allowed to drive yet. One hour after the time you had actually planned to meet Chan still hadn’t shown up, so Changbin and Jisung decided you should just start without him and half an hour later Chan finally showed up, explaining that he totally forgot about the meeting, because he was tutoring someone. You noticed that he looked extremely exhausted, but you didn’t want to invade his privacy so you kept quiet about it. So the four of you continued planning and Chan was amazed at how far you had already come without him. One hour and some drinks later you were finished and had planned when you would be shooting the music video and what song they would perform, you quickly thanked them and left. Back at your dorm you were thinking about how exhausted and tired Chan had looked, his lifestyle couldn’t be healthy for him and for some reason you thought about ways to make Chan sleep, but at the same time you were confused about those thoughts because you just met this boy today, you weren’t even friends, right?

A few days later Changbin, after finishing recording his lines, came over to your dorm because he wanted to spent some time with his girlfriend and your roommate had begged you to leave for the night and actually you didn’t want to stay, you knew why they wanted to be alone. You told them you would love to leave but had no place, where you could sleep, so Changbin’s last resort was to give you the key and the address of 3RACHAs studio, apparently they had a mattress lying in there, where you could stay the night. That’s how you ended up in the subway, which took you to the studio. When you opened the door to the studio, Chan was looking at you with a shocked expression, as he didn’t know how you got the key to the studio. You were also quite surprised, because Changbin had told you the studio would be empty. You explained your circumstances to Chan and he was very understanding of the situation you were in. He offered you the mattress, if you didn’t mind that he had slept there for the last two nights. You didn’t. To be honest you liked that the bed sheets smelled like him. It made you feel somewhat comfortable and you were able to fall asleep quickly. When Chan had offered you the mattress, you were thinking he’d just go home to sleep, However when you woke up in the morning, you found him asleep in his chair, his head laying on the table in front of him. It really didn’t look comfortable at all. You took a pillow to lay it under his head and wrapped a blanket around him. While doing that you were able to see his schedule, which was stuck to the computer with tape. It said, that he was supposed to tutor Hyunjin in English, but Chan was fast asleep. So you decided to help him out and went to the library to tutor Hyunjin. When Hyunjin came to the library and saw you sitting there instead of Chan he was confused. You explained, or well rather lied, that Chan had sent you because he was busy with some 3RACHA stuff. “He must be really busy, he has never sent his girlfriend before.”, Hyunjin said. You could feel blush creep onto your cheeks and stuttered out, that yes Chan was extremely busy, simply ignoring that he had called you Chan’s girlfriend. So you started tutoring Hyunjin. The hour went by smoothly, Hyunjin was smart, but he also had made it his mission to learn more about you, so you had to endure some of his question, like what your major was and why you chose it. After you were finished, you quickly left to go back to the Studio and see if Chan woke up. What you didn’t see was how Chan came stormed into the library shortly after you left. His hair was a mess, as he came to halt in front of Hyunjin, apologizing about having slept through the whole tutoring lesson. Hyunjin only looked at him questioningly. “What are you talking about? Your girlfriend literally just left.” And Chan was like: “What? My girlfriend?” Now both of them were confused. “The girl you couldn’t stop talking about, the one filming your music video, who you found so pretty. Isn’t she your girlfriend? She didn’t deny it when I asked her.”, Hyunjin explained. This shocked Chan, you, the girl he had a crush on ever since he saw you in the café, didn’t deny being his girlfriend? He apologized to Hyunjin once again and ran out of the library to find you. He went to your dorm first, expecting you had gone there to change clothes. But when Changbin opened the door and told him you hadn’t come back, he ran back to the studio. He found you there. When he bursted through the door you looked at him in a confusing way. He was panting and his cheeks were red from all the running. “Do you want to go out with me?”, he managed to get out between pants. “What?” You were confused by his question. “Will you go on a date with me?”, he asked, after he had his breath back. “Why?” You didn’t want to hurt his feelings, you just didn’t understand why he wanted to go on a date with you. “I’m sorry, it’s just that Hyunjin said you had told him you are my girlfriend, so I thought I had a chance, but I guess not. Sorry.”, Chan explained looking down with a sad look on his face. “First of all, I never said I was your girlfriend. The only thing I did was simply ignoring him calling me your girlfriend”, you told Chan “Oh.” Chan’s mood seemed to drop even more after you had said that. “However, I would love to go on that date with you and if you do well, who knows, I might become your girlfriend.”, you quickly added and Chan looked up in surprise. “Really?” “Really.”

That’s the story how Chan and you went on your first date and it became many more dates. And it turned into a relationship. Chan was a perfectionist, you had learned that, while filming the music video, he always wanted to repeat his scenes, so they would be perfect. In the end you got an A for your video and Chan and you celebrated in a special way. Ever since you started dating Chan, you realised that more people wanted to be friends with you, but you knew they just wanted to get closer to Chan through you, so you always declined their question to become friends. Whenever Chan was working on some songs, you knew he wouldn’t be able to stop from his own will, he would always push himself to do one more song, or one more back up vocal recording and every time this happened, Changbin would come over to your dorm an ask you to stop Chan from overworking himself. That’s how you ended up in the studio almost every third day. You didn’t complain it was nice seeing how passionate Chan was with music, but when you thought he had worked enough for the day, you made him stop working and lay onto the mattress, cuddling with you. Then it was time for deep conversations with Chan, you were talking about stuff like meeting each other’s parents or just your childhood memories, maybe even stupid things like weird conspiracy theories. Another thing you had quickly realised was that Chan liked to sleep long in the morning, so you had decided to take on Hyunjins tutoring lessons, to make Chan less stressed. And you knew that it worked, Chan’s dark circles went away and you were able to stop worrying about him falling asleep at literally any given time. You swore you once saw him fall asleep while walking to the cinema with you for a date, he denied it and had protested, that he wasn’t sleepy at all. However as soon as he had sat down in one of the seats, he was in dreamland, but again he had denied being sleepy. Most of his friends agreed and told you, they had also seen him sleeping at times and in weird positions. Talking about Chan’s friends, you had realised, that they took you in fast, as some of them came to talk to you when Chan wasn’t around and you loved, especially when they told you embarrassing stories about him. You kinda liked teasing him because it always turned into tickle fights and those turned into cuddling when both of you were exhausted. Dating Chan meant that you were never alone. He always waited for you after classes, so he could take you to the studio with him. Most of the times Chan was writing lyrics, while you did your homework. However Chan always turned to you after every line he wrote asking if you liked it and if you said no the line would be scratched. You had realised that since you started dating Chan random sentences started coming to your mind and you started to write them down. And for sure you would be able to hear some of those lines in the next 3RACHA songs. Chan also loved to give shout outs to you on 3RACHA concerts, because he loved showing everyone you were his.

#bang chan #stray kids #bang chan x reader #fluff #bang chan fluff #stray kids fluff #college au #kpop fluff #kpop fanfiction #kpop #admin j

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frangipanidownunder · 8 years ago

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Under a wide sky: Chapter 7

Final part of my AU set in 1950s Australia for @leiascully‘s XFWriting Challenge prompt International. Chapter Seven: End and Beginning

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three

Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six

When Mulder was a boy and Samantha just an annoying toddler, he would love to ignore his sister, playing with his tin soldiers and creating heroes in his mind. She would sit on the floor of the small living room whilst their mother dusted or baked and suck her thumb, staring at him. She was a placid child, wide-eyed and shy. But she loved to watch him; he could feel her eyes boring into him. Sometimes he felt that she was trying to read his mind. When she was old enough for school, she was a bright learner, just like him, but again, she would sit next to him at the oak table in the draughty kitchen and watch him as he did his sums or wrote his English story. When she went missing, he was sure that her mind would reach out to his. He searched the skies, mentally calling out for her. She never did come home. And now there were so many years between them, he wondered if his mind had closed off.

But when he saw his son sitting at the cracked, lop-sided table Mulder saw those same serious eyes and instantly felt that same deep connection. He heard Scully gasp and saw her pained expression and realised that she felt it too.

“William?” Mulder stepped forward, closing the physical distance between himself and his son. He could see the dryness on his son’s lips, the fair stubble that dotted his upper lip and chin, the gold flecks in his blue eyes. Yet, the truth was that there were years between them. Mulder could only hope that he could open his mind to his child.

“Yes, it’s me.”

Skinner clasped his hands in front of him, wringing his fingers. Scully stood close to Mulder, her hands resting over her abdomen.

“Why are you here?” Mulder tried to keep his voice even, despite his urge to take the boy in his arms and hug him close. “How are you here?”

“I have a story to tell you. And a plan.”

William stood up and looked at his parents. His brow quirked, just like Scully and she began to sob at the expression. Skinner pulled out another chair and Mulder helped her sit down.

The young man shook his head. “I’m sorry. But I had to come. Despite the risks.”

Mulder had read his fair share of science fiction comics. What he understood about time travel, he’d gleaned from those magazines. How would their son’s appearance in this dimension, before he’d even been born, impact the rest of their lives? His own life? The ripples of this kind of interference could, theoretically, travel forever.

“Can we go somewhere else? The smell of this place is making me nauseous.”

Scully rested her head in her hands and breathed deeply. Mulder rubbed her back.

“Where’s a safe place, William? For you and for us?”

Skinner cleared his throat. “You can come to mine.”

Skinner’s apartment was plush and spacious. Mulder felt the same wonder that struck with every new discovery in this decade. Living conditions were comfortable beyond measure. When he thought back to his digs on the Skinner station he nearly laughed out loud. If only he could tell this Skinner that he really needed to work on his worker’s accommodation. But, here, he simply sank into the leather sofa with Scully and waited for their son to gather his thoughts.

William paced, hands on his hips. He flexed his jaw. It was a little disconcerting for Mulder to witness these mannerisms, his own. He caught Scully’s gaze and she pushed her lips together, offering him a tiny nod of acknowledgement.

“I’ve travelled here to help you stop what’s about to happen. The man you know as Spender or Old Smokey or Cigarette Smoking Man has been using technology from a crashed space craft for more than 60 years,” his voice stilled and he looked directly at Mulder with wet eyes. “Sorry, it’s just so weird to finally meet you.”

“Same here, buddy,” Mulder said, his throat constricting.

William chuffed out a laugh. “In 1950, in country Victoria in Australia a craft crashed and Spender, then mayor of a small town called…”

“Tarra Warra,” Mulder said simultaneously.

“Yes,” William said.

“I was there with Scully when the craft came to life,” Mulder looked from William to Scully to Skinner.

Skinner frowned. “What are you saying, Mulder? That you’ve travelled too?”

Mulder nodded. “I’m Fox Mulder, born 1920. I was trapped with Scully at Spender’s property in Tarra Warra when the craft sparked into life. There was a bright light and then I woke up here in hospital.”

“Mulder had been missing for months, abducted,” Skinner said to William. “He was found dead, tortured. We buried him.”

“Back from the dead. And now back from the past,” William replied.

Scully pinched the bridge of her nose. Mulder noticed the tremble in her hands.

“The craft…but why didn’t Scully and the others travel with me?”

William shrugged. “The technology was still new then. I would suggest you are the first human to have survived the experiment.”

“Spender was planning to send Scully and I together. To retrieve something important to his plan. I suspect that something was you. We were to find you and take you back.”

Nodding, William replied. “We know that he developed the technology using that original craft. He spent time perfecting his experiments.”

Scully held her forehead with her hand. “Animals, sheep, cows, they disappeared. Then came back. But they always came back dead,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut, whispering. “I don’t know why I know that, but I do.”

“It’s like a memory, Scully,” Mulder said, his arm around her shoulder.

“He then shipped the technology around the world. People disappeared without a trace.”

“How do you fit in, William?” Skinner stared hard at the young man.

One of Mulder’s visions, when he woke last week in the hospital, was of him and Scully cradling a newborn between them. It didn’t seem to matter what era it was, but their child was always desperately wanted, desperately loved and desperately beautiful. He suffered crushing pangs of guilt about how his parents must have felt when Samantha disappeared. A child is so protected from the cruel realities of the adult world, no matter how intelligent or precocious. He had been sad, lost and confused, but he didn’t feel the burden of loss that his parents would have endured. When he cared for Emmanuelle, back in the French village, he knew he was doing so as a way of processing what had happened to Samantha. But even then, he knew that what he felt was nowhere near as strong as the pull a parent would feel.

Seeing William pacing in front of him, his heart was shredded. If he was here, alone, that meant something had prevented he and Scully from protecting him, from doing their duty, from being his parents. What had happened? He wasn’t sure he could cope with the knowledge.

William sucked in a deep breath. “When I was not quite a year old you gave me up for adoption, out of fears for my safety.”

Scully clutched at her stomach and doubled over, moaning deeply. Mulder placed an arm over her waist and laid his head down on her back, riding her shuddering sobs.

“It’s okay, Mum. Really, it’s okay. I’m fine. I’ve done fine. My parents are wonderful people. I was safe. I was loved. You did the right thing. And I always knew I’d meet you again. I can’t explain it, I just knew.”

Mulder lifted himself up and clutched at Scully’s shoulders, pulling her up against him. She turned her face to his shoulder and sobbed quietly.

“When I was about 15, I started to get these strange sensations, a pulling, a kind of a need to be somewhere. One time, my adoptive parents found me ten miles away from our home, walking in my nightclothes, no shoes on. I was completely unaware of what was happening to me. One night, I went out on our back deck and looked up at the skies and everything fell into place.” “What did, William?” Mulder asked.

“I left the next day. I didn’t have a clue where I was headed but I knew where I was going. It’s hard to explain. I ended up in Virginia. At CGB Spender’s property. Where he stored a craft – a UFO.”

“He was expecting me. He had this arrogant grin on his face. He told me that he knew I was coming.” William stopped and smiled. A real Mulder smile. “So I told him that I knew I was coming too because my future self told me.”

Skinner’s throat rumbled with a low chuckle. “This kid is definitely yours, Mulder.”

William grinned briefly. “I stayed there learning all I could. From the original crashed craft Spender managed to develop technology so refined that we travel using chips under the skin.” He looked at Scully.

She shifted towards Mulder, rubbing at her nape.

“It’s not the same as yours, Mum. Yours was an earlier model, cruder. Mine is made from the same material as the craft. That’s the work I learned. How to program it, how to control it. And throughout this time, Spender thought he was brainwashing me, but I trained myself to block him out.”

“How did you do that?” Mulder asked.

“I looked at the skies, studied the stars. They grounded me.” William chuffed out a laugh. “I know that sounds strange, but it’s the only way I can explain it. The night sky draws me in and clears my mind.”

Mulder looked up at his son and nodded. “I understand more than you think, William.”

“He travels often, forward and back. He has picked off many of his enemies, disappeared them. But I escaped and I have the technology up here. I can create the chips but I can also destroy the craft,” he tapped his head. “I am now his greatest enemy.”

“And we were supposed to bring you back to where it all began. So that he could eliminate you.”

Scully paled and her hands trembled in her lap. “That’s not going to happen.”

Skinner rubbed his chin. “You said you had a plan, William. What is it?”

“To go back. To Tarra Warra. To where it all began.”

“No,” Scully repeated. “You can’t.” Her voice waned to a whisper.

“It’s the only way, Mum.”

Skinner paced the kitchen, Scully stood at the sink and stared at the leaves of the maidenhair fern that tumbled out of a pot on the kitchen counter. Mulder chewed on the inside of his cheek, waiting for the right moment. He stood long enough for his knees to lock up. He thought about Samantha and how he had changed direction after her disappearance. What would he have done with his life if she’d still been with him? He thought about Emmanuelle and how, in the end, he couldn’t save her. He thought about the Scully he’d left behind, in Tarra Warra, at the mercy of Spender. He didn’t have a choice. He had to go back with William. But he had to tell Scully first.

“I know you’re going, Mulder. I can hear you thinking.”

“Then you’ll know I have no choice.”

She turned towards him with wet eyes. “I know you’d do anything to protect our child. Even if this isn’t, strictly speaking, your child.”

Touching her, feeling the warm tightness of her abdomen, he swallowed back his own tears. “You’re protecting him now. Nurturing him. And look what a great job you did, Scully. You did this.” He turned to William, who was standing in the doorway.

“Mulder…” she sobbed.

William moved forward. “We go together, tonight. We find Spender, I disable the craft and we…”

“Eliminate him?” Scully offered, rubbing the sides of her baby bump.

William said nothing.

“And what happens here?” Skinner said.

“That’s the part I can’t answer,” William said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I lose Mulder,” Scully said, pressing the back of her hand to her lips. “Again.”

They travelled back to the warehouse in silence. Mulder stared out the rain-streaked windows, the night sky star-less and brooding. Scully sat rigid beside him. William, in the front seat, looked straight ahead and Skinner drove, punctuating the silence with the occasional crack of his neck.

William held the door open for his mother, and held her hand as she lifted herself out of the car. Mulder smiled at his courtesy.

“There’s no point in coming inside,” William told her.

“I want to say goodbye,” she whispered.

Mulder moved towards her. “This is not goodbye, Scully. There’s never a goodbye for us.”

He drew her into an embrace, the feel of their unborn son between them. He breathed her in, committing her scent to memory. This Scully, his 1950 Scully, all his Scullies, they all smelled the same. They smelled like the person he loved.

He stood with William. Skinner took a weeping Scully away.

William gathered a bag that he strapped over his shoulders. “Always travel well-prepared.”

“And after? What happens?”

“I return to the future and we destroy the technology. So that it can never be used again.”

“That might be harder than you think. The power you’ve got in that chip. It changes everything.”

William nodded and took Mulder’s hands and closed his eyes. Through Mulder’s tears their hands blurred and it was hard to see where he began and William ended.

“All great and honourable actions are undertaken with great difficulty.”

“What?” Mulder croaked.

William chuffed. “You’ll understand one day. It’s time, Dad.”

The light was intense, burning his eyes. He called out for Scully.

He felt numb. His ears seemed to be filled with cotton wool. His temples throbbed. His eyes were stuck together. His lips were raw. His lungs were on fire. He had no idea where he was. The hard ground pressed into his shoulder blades and hips. He lifted an arm over his face, bent a knee up, tried to get a purchase to roll onto his side, but flailed hopelessly.

The voice was distant at first. A dream voice. But it became more insistent.

“Mulder, can you hear me? Mulder, it’s me, Scully. Wake up.”

Her hands were tender over his face, his chest, his arms.

“The baby, the baby,” he said, unsticking his eyes.

She was hovering over him, her eyes wet and wide, frown lines deep between her brows. He looked at her, her face, her hair, her body.

“Are you okay, Scully? Is William okay?”

“William?” she pressed her hand to his forehead and sighed. “You’re running a fever, Mulder.”

He lifted his head and cried out in pain. “Where are we? Where’s William?”

“We’re in the bush, outside Spender’s property.”

Mulder heaved himself up, leaning on Scully. She felt so solid and comforting in his grasp. “What happened?”

“Skinner, Bill and the others have gone to get a car to take us back. You’ve been out for a while. They should be here soon.”

“Bill? You mean William?”

She tutted. “We haven’t called him that in years.”

Mulder rubbed his gritty eyes. He turned onto his knees and stood up, limbs heavy with fatigue. “We have to find William.”

“Bill is coming soon. With the others. I’m more worried about where Old Smokey and his crew are. They won’t have taken too kindly to us breaking out.”

“William will protect us. He knows what to do. We have to get to him.” He took her hand and looked at her for the first time.

This was his 1950 Scully. She wasn’t pregnant. She didn’t know who William was. He didn’t know how much time had passed since the bright white light exploded with the humming of the craft. But where was William?

“Mulder, I hear the car. We can go back to the farm. Work things out.”

The engine cut out and they staggered out to meet it, Scully doing her best to support his weight. He looked up when he heard angry voices, thuds and hisses and muffled scraping. Scully heaved him upright and his vision straightened. Before him stood Skinner and Bill holding William by an arm each and behind, jumping from the tray of the ute, Byers, Langly and Frohike.

William looked directly at Mulder. “Tell them who I am.”

Mulder swallowed. Scully sucked in a sharp breath. Skinner scowled, Bill yanked William’s arm behind his back. The other three looked at each other, perplexed.

“This is William. He’s my…son. He knows about the craft, about Spender.”

Scully quirked a brow and jutted out her jaw. “This…man is not that much younger than you, Mulder. How can he be your son?”

“It’s not quite what it seems. William is…not…from here.”

Bill Scully snarled. “You’re not from here, Yank. Now why don’t you tell us what the hell is really going on?”

“Settle down, Bill.” Skinner’s warning seemed to calm Bill Scully a little.

William struggled against his captor’s grips. “It’s the truth. But there’s no time for the full story. If we can find Spender and his craft I can destroy it. Then we can all go…home and live our lives.”

“What is he talking about, Mulder?” Skinner’s tone of authority cut through the chatter of the others.

Mulder looked at Scully and took her hand. He squeezed it, hoping to convey to her his genuine concern. “This is William. He is our son, Scully. But he is our son from another time, from the future.” He held up his hands against her imminent protest. “I know, I know. But it’s the truth. The strangest, most unbelievable of truths, but nevertheless the truth. He has the key to destroying Spender and the craft he has constructed using the alien technology. The craft that, years in the future, has become Spender’s greatest weapon. A tool for him to destroy his enemies in all lifetimes. But this time, this place, this universe, this is the one where it all started. If we stop him now we stop him forever.”

Missy rushed to the gate, tail wagging. When William bent to pat her head she licked his face and rolled over for a tummy rub. He looked at Scully.

“You’ve got a dog.”

Mulder frowned at him.

“You’ve had a few over the years. One was this fluffy little…never mind.”

Scully knelt down next to William and rubbed Missy behind the ears “She likes you. That’s a good sign.”

“I know this is hard for you. You’re naturally sceptical. But there is a small part

of you that is open to the magical and the mystical, the unexplained and the unfathomable. It doesn’t come to the surface often, but it exists.

She raised her eyebrows. “Really? I thought parents were supposed to recognise character traits in their offspring. Not the other way round.”

William smiled. “You also have a wicked sense of humour when you want to and you sound really funny with an Australian accent.”

Mulder laughed out loud.

She stood up. “Are you really who you say you are?”

William’s face straightened. “Yes. I promise you I am.”

She looked at Mulder and then to the others walking up the steps into the house. “Because if you’re not, you might find yourself up against people who don’t share my openness towards the magical. Or my sense of humour.”

She walked towards the verandah, Missy at her feet.

Mulder looked at William and smacked him on the back.

“She’s amazing in every universe.”

William nodded and grinned. “And she’s my Mum.”

Bill Scully was pacing the floor, sculling a shot of whiskey. Skinner was standing, arms crossed, face set. The other three were sitting at the kitchen table.

“William,” Byers said. “It’s good to meet you.” He offered the young man a hand.

“We’ve been aware of the craft and its ability for some time, but the experiments Spender has been conducting have been rudimentary in this lifetime. To meet someone who has a full understanding of this technology is an honour.”

“It’s an honour to meet the kind of people who keep a track on this sort of thing.

Without your…paranoia the rest of the world would just remain in the dark about the clandestine activities of the military, of the government, of men like Spender and their power.”

“Tell me that in the future people actually listen to us, take note of those clandestine activities, open their eyes to the possibility that the government might not always act in the best interests of the people,” Frohike said.

William smiled. “You won’t believe what technology you’ll have access to in years to come. And you’re going to love the internet.”

“The what?” Langly asked.

Bill Scully slammed his glass down on the table. “Why don’t we cut the chit-chat and work on a plan? This kid reckons he’s a time-traveller but all I hear is fancy talk. If Spender really has been doing these experiments, causing trouble in this town, what are you going to do about it?”

William cleared his throat. “I need to go to his property. I can destroy the craft and I can eliminate this Spender so that his knowledge doesn’t go any further.”

Skinner stepped forward. “You can’t do it on your own. I’m coming.”

Mulder nodded. “I’m going too.”

Bill shook his head. “I can’t believe I have to go back to that place again. Dana, this is crazy.”

“I know, Bill. I’m still not sure I believe it all, but the animals, the lights…and the visions I’ve had, like distant memories, they’re too real to ignore. And I think it’s even more crazy to do nothing about it. I’ll get the shot guns. Wait here.” She went to the door.

All the men, in unison, said. “No!”

She pressed her lips into a thin white line and folded her arms across her. “I know the place. I need to come with you.”

“You’ll be better off staying here. With Tara and the kids.”

“Bill, I’m not a fragile little girl. I know what I can do. I’ve seen it.”

Mulder shook his head. “You’re right, Scully, you’re a strong woman. But Bill’s right too. You should stay here, stay safe. Spender is dangerous. If something were to go wrong over there tonight, at least you’ll be here as back up. These three will stay too.”

She relented with a long sigh. “But nothing will go wrong, will it, Mulder?”

He chuffed out a sigh and put his hands on her shoulders. “Not if I can help it.”

“You’ll come back?” she said, lying her head on his chest.

Bill growled and Mulder pushed her away. He looked at William.

“Let’s go.”

A hot, wind shrieked as they got out of the ute and headed for the perimeter fence. Mulder looked up to the skies. The stars of the Southern Cross shone out of the blackness and he thought about Scully.

They got through the fence and on to the property fast with William’s bag of tricks. They made their way to the shed that housed the craft.

“This feels too easy. There aren’t as many guards as before. And this place looks like a battleground,” Mulder said to William as they pressed against a wall of one of the corridors. The building was unlit now and where it had been cool before, the heat of day seemed to have been trapped inside. The air was stale, stifling.

“It smells like there’s been some kind of fire here, an explosion maybe.”

“It felt like that, before I jumped dimensions.”

“Where’s Spender?” Bill whispered.

“He’s around,” William responded. “I can sense him.”

Skinner grunted and motioned at two guards who were coming through the double doors. Behind them they saw the remnants of the craft, a wing torn, its nose sagging forward. The panels had lost their gloss and the cockpit looked burnt out.

“It looks too damaged to work. But I still need to access the control panel to release the virus that will destroy the operating program and down it for good.”

Skinner pounced and he and Bill took down both men in a short and fairly quiet struggle. Bill dragged their motionless bodies out of the way of the doors. Mulder edged open the door and checked the room. He pointed right twice and William followed, backed up by Skinner and Bill. They slipped in to the hangar and hid behind a pile of boxes. The cavernous room was a mess. Strewn across the floor were boxes and butcher’s paper, items of clothing, hats. There was a row of jerry cans against the far wall. Guards were groaning on the floor, some were holding their heads, propped against the walls. Others were limping.

“What happened here?” Mulder asked in a low voice as they took stock of the room.

Before anyone could answer, the doors on the other side of the room burst open and Spender walked in, holding a cigarette to his mouth. Without warning, Bill Scully rushed from their cover and ran towards him. Spender motioned to two guards and they grabbed at him, nearly halting his progress, but he pushed past them and got his hands on Spender.

“You told me you were doing the right thing for this town. That you were going to bring employment and opportunities that no other town in this area would get.” He grabbed Spender by the collars. “But you abducted my sister, you took our stock.”

Skinner got up to crouch on his feet. “Stupid bastard.”

William reached into his bag and pulled out a card, shining like the discs from the craft, and a small palm-sized device. “The Scully fiery streak in action.”

Mulder grimaced. “What now?”

“I need to get nearer to the craft. This is remote but I need to be closer. Cover me.”

With that he headed to where Bill was being manhandled away from Spender. “Leave him, Spender. It’s me you want.”

Spender dropped his cigarette and it rolled across the dusty floor. “Ah, the wunderkind arrives. If you’re here with your parents, this will be a real family reunion.”

“Let him go.”

“And then what? We go and have a cosy chat about life in the future? Or the past?” His laugh echoed around the hangar. “You can’t destroy me, William Mulder. And you can’t destroy this.” He swung his arm towards the craft. “You see, I’m like a boomerang. I just keep coming back.” He stepped forward and his face levelled with William’s.

Mulder edged forward, but Skinner put a hand on his shoulder. “Not yet.”

William held up the card and device. “You’re wrong, Spender.”

He slotted the card into the device. Spender stepped forward to grab it. William lifted it above his head. The guards dropped Bill and leapt towards William, grappling him to the ground. Mulder and Skinner launched themselves towards the group. Bill stood up and charged Spender, crashing into the jerry cans and pushing him to the ground, and laying a solid punch to his jaw in the process. The stench of petrol filled Mulder’s nostrils and he watched as a rainbow trail of liquid ran across the floor.

Out of the corner of his eye, William rolled over and hauled himself back up, clutching the device to his chest. One of the guards shoved him hard enough and he dropped it. Skinner bent to collect it but was caught by the other guard. Mulder changed direction to pick it up.

He held it in his hand, rushing to William’s side. “What do I do?”

A scorching gust of wind flew through the open doors and the still-lit cigarette rolled towards the cans. Flames erupted.

A guard landed on Mulder’s back and shoved him face-first into the ground. He lost his grip on the device. The fire was spreading and Mulder was grateful when Skinner pulled the guard off and laid him flat with a right hook. William lashed out at the other, but Spender swiped the device from the floor. He ran towards the far door and William followed, tailed by Mulder, Bill and Skinner.

In seconds, fire engulfed the hangar. Wounded guards limped away, covering their faces against the acrid smoke that billowed. Mulder watched as the flames licked at the wings of the craft before the heat built too high and he pulled the door shut. Spender had climbed into a car and was cutting across the yard towards the stand of pines at the edges of his property. Dust spewed behind him.

Behind them the noise of another car caught their attention.

“Get in!” Scully braked hard and leant to open the passenger door. Mulder grinned and hopped in beside her. The others piled in the back. She stamped on the accelerator and sped out of the yard just as the whole place boomed, orange fire sprays lighting up the sky.

“Shit,” William cried. “I didn’t activate the virus.”

Watching the steel structure melt and warp, Mulder shook his head. “Does it matter now?”

“If there’s any remaining cells left, it matters.”

“Then we need to find Spender,” Skinner yelled. “And fast. That fire is going to spread in a heartbeat.”

“And right towards our properties,” Bill said.

Scully maneouvered the vehicle through the trees, following the dust of Spender’s truck as he twisted and turned, trying to throw them off. The roar of the wind and the fire echoed through the valley and the wall of flame behind them grew. An explosion rocked the night and all but Scully turned to see a fountain of embers spew into the sky towards the town.

“Bentley’s property. Gas tanks have gone up.” Skinner grimaced at Bill. “The service station’ll be next.”

The vehicle’s tyres screeched as Scully braked hard to avoid Spender’s vehicle as it clipped a tree and spun onto the track in front of them before colliding with a solid gum tree trunk. Mulder saw her knuckles whiten as the ute lurched to a stop, a hair’s breadth from another gum. Her hair was stuck to her face and her arms were trembling.

“Good parking, Scully.” He grinned at her before opening the door. “Stay here.”

“In your dreams, Mulder.” She yanked open her door and joined him at Spender’s vehicle with Bill, Skinner and William.

Old Smokey was slumped over the steering wheel, his head twisted at an unnatural angle, blood gushing down from a deep cut on his hair line. The front of his truck had crumpled and his legs were stuck into the tangle of metal.

Scully pressed her fingers to his neck. She shook her head.

“Another job I didn’t get to finish,” William said, with a rueful smile. He reached into the passenger side and collected the device and card. “I can’t leave this here. Even if he is dead in this lifetime.”

“We have to get out of here,” Bill said. “That fire’s heading straight for the stations.”

By the time the reached the Skinner property his men had already started to hose the roofs and fill buckets and bins. The CFA truck, blue lights flashing, was parked up in front of the main house. Skinner jumped out.

“Let’s get home, Dana,” Bill said, as they turned onto the main road.

The fire front was building, rolling up the hills with deadly speed. The sky was a deep, rolling black. Ash fell in acrid drifts. The wind shrieked, sending gum branches flying like missiles. Bill unrolled the hoses and Mulder, Scully and William were tasked with filling buckets.

“I can just get us out of here,” William said, rubbing his neck. “Somewhere safe.”

“We can’t lose this place, William,” Scully replied, hefting a bucket of water and wetting along the fence line on the fire side.

The firestorm roared closer and Mulder could see flames shoot into the air, crackling and sparking, over at the Skinner boundary line. He ducked as a rain of hot ash fell over him.

“That’s one of Skinner’s sheds going up,” Bill yelled. “I don’t think we can fight this. We need to get inside. Into the bathroom. Dana, go and help Tara wet the towels. Get Matty.”

They huddled in the small room, sheltering under damp towels. Mulder had survived war, evil wreaked on humans by humans. But Mother Nature’s fury, fire in the dry Australian bush, was a whole new dimension of terror. The force of it, the noise of it, the ultimate futility of it, left him shaking with emotion. Scully was pressed against him, William at his other side. Matty whimpered as Bill held his family in his arms. A huge rush of wind rammed the house, rattling the windows, the eaves groaning. The fire bellowed above and around them.

Then silence.

They cleaned up what they could. They moved burnt sheep to a pile behind the bottom shed. They showered but Mulder couldn’t get the smell out from his nostrils or the sound out of his head. Even the meal Tara prepared tasted smoky.

“I’m sorry, Mrs Scully,” he said. “I’m just not hungry. I think it’s best if William and I head back to Skinners. See if we can help over there.”

Scully walked with them to the car. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

Mulder smiled. “Of course. I think your brother likes me now.”

“I think he tolerates you, Mulder.”

William shoved his hands in his pockets. “I think I need to go back now.”

Scully gasped. “Oh. So soon.”

“I’ve been here longer than I should have. I need to leave.”

“I feel like I’m always saying goodbye to my children,” Scully said, a single tear tracking down her cheek. “Please tell me there’s a future me who gets to be a mother.” Her voice was the merest of whispers.

Mulder swallowed back his own tears and looked to the stars above.

“Time will tell,” William said, touching her forearm gently.

She choked out a sob and dissolved into Mulder’s arms.

Mulder walked with William into the paddocks, burnt out and smoking still. “You’re convinced that you’ve ended Spender’s mission?”

William shrugged. “I couldn’t disable the craft with the virus, but the fire was so intense I’m hopeful there was nothing left. Spender is dead.”

“But from what I learned in the future, he’s come back from the dead before.”

William nodded. “He’s worse than a feral cat.”

“And you’re really going to destroy this technology? Is that really an option?”

“It’s agreed. It’s the only way.”

Mulder chewed on his lip. “And the Scully I met. What will happen to her? Will her Mulder come back?”

William frowned. “He does come back.”

“But?”

“I can’t do this, Dad. I can’t talk about what might happen.”

“Because it might change the events of the future?”

“And that would affect my life. As well as hers.”

“He’s going to leave her again, isn’t he? He leaves her and she has to give you up. That can’t happen. Not to her. Not to Scully. Please, we can stop this.”

William turned to walk away. “I’ve got to go.”

“Take me with you.”

“I can’t, Dad. You know that.” He started to walk down the slope away from Mulder. “I’ve got to go now.”

“Take me there and I can convince her not to let him go. Please.”

William ran further into the darkness. Mulder chased, stumbling down the scorched hill. As William turned to activate his device, Mulder launched himself towards his son. The night turned white and he heard himself calling for Scully.

His head throbbed, his throat scratched, his body trembled. He opened his eyes, looked at the stars above him, the Southern Cross blinking behind soft clouds. With a groan he realised he was still in Tarra Warra.

“Please forgive me, Scully. For whatever it is I do.”

“Hello? Mulder?”

“Scully?”

“Yes, I see you. Are you all right? I saw the lights.”

“He’s gone.”

She knelt by his side. “I know. I felt it.”

He pulled her closer, dropping a kiss on her head. “I asked him to take me back with him.”

“Why?” she gasped.

“To right some future wrongs.”

“Mulder, you said yourself that we are soul mates. Whatever it is you think you do, I forgive you. Now and in the future.”

He breathed her in. “How could I leave you? How could I ever leave you?” He kissed her, softly at first. She moved in towards him, opening her mouth, letting him in. Letting him love her.

William Charles Mulder was born on a starry night at the Scully property. Mulder sat next to Scully on the verandah as she nursed their son. Missy lay at her feet. William opened his eyes.

“He’s wise beyond his years,” she said, stroking his cheek with her thumb.

Mulder nodded, gazing at his cherubic face. “And we’ll keep him safe.”

“In this life, we will.”

“In all lives, Scully.”

“You sound so sure, Mulder. But that story he told us…about the adoption.”

Mulder crooked his finger under her chin and turned her face to him. “I went back with William.”

“What?”

“I went back and I convinced you to never let me leave you and William, whatever the circumstances.”

“You changed our future?”

“I hope so.”

She let the tears track down her face and lay her head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

He nodded, and looked up to the stars twinkling under a wide sky.

#xfwritingchallenge #xfwc prompt: international #txf fanfic #my fanfiction #australian au

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