#Walked left and right and talked to enough people to exhaust my social battery for a month. And tmrw I have to go to an appt Again

[whatifxwereyou]

Ashes Chapter 9: City Lights

Pairing: Liu Kang x Reader

A good night, for the most part. You search for peace amongst the stars but you find something else instead. I hate writing summaries. Lol.

A/N: Hope you're all doing well. Thanks for reading! I'll be busy on Sunday because it's my birthday, but I will still be updating~

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Afternoon became an evening spent with Cole, Allison, and Emily. You ate an early dinner, returned to the hotel, and found one of Johnny Cage’s movies to watch. You mostly laughed at it. “Gist of My Fist’ was a terrible name for a movie and the movie itself, while it wasn’t the worst movie that you had ever watched, was pretty up there. You had no qualms with bad movies. Watching it had at least prepared you for tomorrow if you had to use your arcana to persuade the actor into helping you.

When they were ordering room service and preparing another movie you said your farewells. It was late, you’d claimed, and you weren’t very hungry. You were socially exhausted, and you really weren’t hungry. So, it hadn’t exactly been a lie. It had been ages since you’d spent that much time with anyone outside of Kung Lao and Liu Kang in a social setting and it had drained you. You had forgotten how exhausting other people could be. They were incredibly nice, and you had become more comfortable around them, but you still needed to recharge your social battery.

That and you had to resist going to the bar for a drink.

Whiskey had been your lullaby nearly every night after Kung Lao had died.

Waking up next to Liu Kang had sobered you up but it had been days since then and your brain was so loud. A little drink would quiet it down. It was a bad idea, and you knew that but it didn’t mean you didn’t want to. The price of liquor at the hotel was enough to make you decide to think on it.

Instead, you decided to go to the roof where there was a garden setup for guests. At that late at night most people were leaving the garden, bothered by the nighttime bugs. You sat away from those who remained for some time, watching the world pass by below and the clouds moving over the ocean in the distance.

As time passed, you were left alone. You were both grateful for the silence and frustrated by the thoughts that immediately filled it. There had been a time where you’d been grateful to be alone and now it was torture. Raiden had been right to send Liu with you except that he was a big part of the reason that your thoughts were torture.

A pretty substantial part of why your thoughts were torture, actually.

What did anything mean anymore? You didn’t know.

Seated on one of the garden benches, you stayed silent for a long time. Once certain you were alone, you dared to do something that you hadn’t done since he’d died.

You drew Kung Lao.

He stood before you, tall, with a permanent look of smug satisfaction on his face. You walked around him and admired the details in his clothing right down to the misplaced thread on his favorite shirt. Then you stood beside him and watched the night sky. The stars were few and far between. There were too many lights in that part of the world to see the majesty of the night sky that you had admired only nights before alongside Liu Kang.

“I miss you.” You knew that the drawing couldn’t respond. It wasn’t real. Kung Lao was gone. You were alone. “I wish that I could talk to you. I wish I could tell you all the things that I made you wait to hear.” All you’d wanted was a conversation. A real conversation about what he thought marriage meant, about the fighting you’d done in the past few months. A moment for you to be honest about your history with Liu Kang.

Instead, he’d died and you’d never gotten the chance to say yes. You’d never gotten to understand what any of it had meant. You should have just said yes, damnit.

Liu Kang’s words were eating you alive.

Had your connection to him made you hesitate? He’d broken your heart and you’d gotten over him, sort of. You’d distanced yourself, at least. Now you were tearing yourself apart from the inside out because you were afraid it was true. What did it matter if it was? You would never know. Even so, you fixated next to the carefully crafted apparition of a man that you’d loved with your whole heart.

Nothing about this was healthy.

You were exhausted.

Stepping back from the drawing of Kung Lao, you lowered into a ready position. When you’d been angry with each other, bored, or you were frustrated, Kung Lao would spar with you. It usually ended up with you wrestling around laughing or in bed. Sometimes both. The drawing of Kung Lao did as you asked. It fought you and for a time it was soothing to keep up the action of something that you were good at.

You lost your balance on the stone and the ink caught you, wrapping its arms around you, and pulling you close against it. You admired his face and he smiled. He smiled because you wanted him to smile. Just the way that he used to. His hand cupped your cheek and you leaned into it, resting your hand over his.

Your eyes misted with tears. “I’m sorry, Kung Lao.” Time was supposed to heal all things but you weren’t sure that anything could do away with the guilt you felt. Closing your eyes, you tried to pretend that the hand wasn’t cold, dark ink. It was his warm and comforting hand. He would be there smiling down at you, telling you that you’d worried over nothing. You’d overthought it.

Then you were falling, your footing completely lost. Water pulled back from the shore, moving further and further away. It would come back tall and angry; it was a pattern you recognized. It meant you had to run but you couldn’t move. Hadn’t you been on the roof? The sand was hot beneath your toes and you were stuck. Your body was rooted firmly in place beyond your control.

The water rose in a wild roar, obscuring the sky with a sun that burned a brilliant red. You tried to scream, to warn others who might be in danger but there was no one. The air was suffocatingly hot, scorching. But as the wave grew closer, your stomach dropped into a tremendous pit and you felt sick. The air stunk of death and a wave of bodies soared toward you, towering high above. Winged creatures like giant bugs flew overhead through the dark skies. They were massive and you tried to get a better look, but the sun was so bright you couldn’t make out much of their features.

A dark figure stood before the wave of bodies surrounded by the roaring of souls. A hand grabbed your arm and turned you around swiftly.

Kung Lao.

Your heart stopped.

“You have to run, Y/N,” he whispered with such urgency that you swore it was really him. There was no way. It wasn’t possible! Before your eyes, his skin became sallow and sickly, deteriorating and rotting, cracked and filled with green mist. You fought his grip in a panic and pulled back. “Y/N…”

Your feet unstuck from the sand and you gasped, falling backwards. You braced yourself for the fall but instead you were saved by a pair of strong, inky arms. You grasped desperately onto the form and caught your breath. Your lungs ached as though they were being crushed.

The drawing of Kung Lao had caught you.

You buried yourself against the drawing’s chest and sobbed as you caught your breath.

This was not Kung Lao. Your grasp on the drawing tightened.

It was Liu Kang.

Panicked, you dropped the magic and collapsed to your knees out of breath and trembling from head to toe. You were clammy and dripping with sweat. Cursing under your breath you held your head in your hands. That hadn’t been a dream. The other night hadn’t been either. You should have known better. What did it mean? And what were you going to do about it? You had to talk to Raiden. He would know what to do.

This was the last thing that you needed right now.

Stumbling to your feet you made your way back to the garden bench just as the door opened behind you. Resting your elbows on your knees, you fanned your face and tried to will away the nausea left behind by the vision. It was already disappearing from your memory. You’d never been good at interpreting what your visions meant. They’d mostly made you sick.

Liu Kang stopped on the other side of the garden bench and avoided your eyes. “Oh.”

“I can go.” You needed a minute to be steady on your feet, but you’d had your time on the roof with the few stars.

“You don’t have to. I just wanted to see the stars.” He folded his arms over his chest.

“Too much light pollution. You can’t see much.” You pushed your hair away from your face and rested your hands on your knees afterwards. The world was still spinning. Liu was watching you and then sat next to you on the bench.

“Are you okay?” He made to rest a hand on your back but stopped himself.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re gray.”

“I’m tired. That’s all.”

“I haven’t seen you this gray since you first came to the temple, and you had…” He drifted off as if realizing exactly why you were that gray. You wanted to deny it until you could talk to Raiden, but your body betrayed you. You were too tired to fake it. Your fingers were tingling with numbness, and you were nauseous.

“Yeah.” You sighed. “I’m fine.”

“If you had a vision, you would tell me, right?”

“I’m not in the mood for this.”

“Y/N, don’t be unreasonable.”

“Do you have a reason to still be talking to me? Or are you just here to make tonight harder?” You didn’t mean to snap at him and immediately regretted it. You were feeling sick and defensive. Also, you had accidentally made him out of ink for the first time in years and wondered what that meant for your subconscious.

He smiled. You turned away and pouted. “I thought you’d been lying about having a temper to make me feel better.” You puffed up your cheeks in frustration. “I owe you another apology, I think.” He counted on his fingers, and you turned back to watch him. “That’s the third one this week, right?”

“You probably owe me more than one apology at this point.”

“Yeah, but how many times can I apologize before it becomes meaningless?” He was trying to joke with you, and you needed to try and unclench. It was bad timing, all of it. “I am though. Sorry, that is. Not about last night, well maybe about pushing you so hard but… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take any of this out on you.”

“I know.” Perhaps that was part of why it had hurt so badly. None of it had ever felt like your Liu Kang. “I’m sorry too. I handled it poorly.”

“I’ve been told that we’re grieving.” He clasped his hands before him.

“Yeah, that’s what we keep saying.”

“I had an idea.”

“Is this idea going to make us yell at each other? Because if it is then I would very much like the chance to reschedule.”

“I honestly don’t know. I don’t think it will.” His brow furrowed into a line.

“Well, go for it, I guess. Idea away.”

“I’m grieving in my own way.” He shrugged but he looked weighed down and you felt guilty again. “Not well, obviously. And you’re grieving in your own way too. Also, poorly I might add.”

“I thought you said that you weren’t picking a fight.”

“I’m not.” He reassured you. “I thought that maybe we could try grieving together.” He was staring at you again, and you sighed heavily.

“I don’t know, Liu.�� You could think of a dozen reasons why that was a bad idea and wouldn’t work off the top of your head. But it was the first non-confrontational thing he’d done in days. “He was your brother. You lost something like a limb. I love Kung Lao but what we had was different. Our grief is not the same.”

“Your grief is no less significant than mine, Y/N.”

“It is, Liu. You lost more than I did. I know what I lost. But it’s different. You lost so much more.” Your eyes were burning again. God, you were so frustrated with your emotions.

“And now I’m losing you too.” Liu spoke with a bite of frustration and then looked as if it was taking all his focus not to lash out. “I don’t want to lose you, Y/N.”

“I can’t fill the void that Lao left behind.”

“I don’t want you to. I don’t even want you to fill the void that you left behind.” He held his head in his hands. You wanted to say you didn’t do that, he had pushed you away, but you also knew why he’d done it. This was a terrible mixed bag of emotions. If you said that then you would definitely end up fighting again. You held your tongue. “I miss you. I don’t need you to fill a void. I just need you.”

“Liu…” You hesitated and felt the guilt in the pit of your stomach again. But he was asking for something for himself, and you couldn’t tell him no. He never asked for anything for himself. He picked up your hand like it were something delicate and you felt your heart just aching. What would Kung Lao do if he could see you now? In your mind’s eye you could see him resting his hands on your shoulders and telling you it was okay. But that was just what you wanted to see.

“Don’t do that, Y/N.” Liu’s eyes were glassy too and he turned away. “You’re allowed to have feelings.”

“Isn’t this part of why we keep fighting?” You sniffled but didn’t pull your hand away from his. “You keep making assumptions about what I’m feeling. Saying things without thinking first. You have no idea what’s going on in my head, Liu Kang.”

“I’m not trying to start a fight, I promise.” Liu closed his eyes as if to try and recite what he would say so it wouldn’t come out wrong. He used to be so thoughtful. This really was taking a toll on you both. “I just know you well enough, or I think I do, to see that you’re beating yourself up for things that are beyond your control.”

“I…” You hesitated and then pulled your hand back. “Kung Lao…”

“Kung Lao loved you, Y/N.” Liu Kang said with a huff. Did he resent that he had? “He wanted you to be happy. It would crush him to see you now.”

“I know that, Liu. I know and… he would have wanted that for you too. You always put your needs beneath his and he let you without realizing, I think and…” You didn’t mean to say that, and Liu was staring at you in surprise as if he hadn’t realized that he’d been doing that either. When you caught his gaze, he turned to avoid you. You were playing an extremely dangerous game of cat and mouse. “It’s impossible to know what might have been, Liu Kang. To know how it would have turned out. What he would have wanted. No matter how I spin it in my head there is nothing to be done that can change the truth that he’s gone.” You spoke slowly and carefully, not wanting to escalate the sudden tension further if you could help it. It only ended one of two ways and both of those were destructive. “No matter what I tell myself… it doesn’t ease my guilt.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Liu was sounding bitter again and you held your head in your hands once more. You were still nauseous. This was the worst.

“I don’t have it in me to fight with you tonight, Liu,” you whispered. “I just don’t. Give me a day or two and we can be at each other’s throats again.”

“I don’t want to fight with you, Y/N.” He turned to you again. “We need to talk.”

“I know but I’m not sure we can do that without fighting.” You closed your eyes. You sat in uncomfortable silence, a now common occurrence. Your stomach was in knots.

“Are you sick because you had a vision? Or are you sick with grief, Y/N?” His tone was soft as if he were trying to ask a hard question without making it sound like a confrontation. You whined.

“I had a vision, okay?” You confessed. “I don’t know what it means. I need to talk to Raiden. It’s already almost gone. I remember a beach. I remember… being stuck and then I fell and…” The details were like drops of soap in water. Impossible to catch once they’d been mixed in. “I’ll be fine. It had just happened when you got here.”

“Have you eaten?”

“I had dinner with Cole and his family.” You decided to turn the tables on him. “Have you eaten?” He looked affronted.

“I… no… ummm…”

“Pot, kettle, black.” You poked his shoulder, and he smiled a little. “Stop worrying about me. Don’t fixate on it. I’m fine. Raiden will figure it out when we get back.” You reassured him and then sat there together quietly again, unsure what to say. You did know one thing, at least. “You need to eat.”

“I ate earlier, just been since this morning.”

“I stand by what I said.”

“I’ll eat if you come with me.” He suggested. “We can grab a drink in Kung Lao’s honor and reminisce. Try that grieving thing together.”

“That’s a terrible idea.” You laughed as he looked instantly insulted. “Liu, us and liquor? Historically? Not good.” Liquor made the consequences seem less significant. It made you care less about what went wrong. It clearly made him a little bolder, too.

“Oh, yeah, I didn’t think about that.” He smiled a little. “No alcohol then. I just thought that it might make it easier to talk about the things that we are finding difficult to talk about if we had a drink.”

“Well, it would make some things easier but who knows how we’d feel about that tomorrow.” You wished, just for a brief second, that you remembered the night you’d had. You got all the trouble without any of the fun! You were sure that you’d had fun, but you couldn’t remember it, dammit.

“How about it, Y/N? We go downstairs to the bar, grab some food, no alcohol… we just… talk. Grieve.”

You considered it. You weren’t sure how that was going to work. You were in a place where the slightest thing could turn your conversation into an argument at the drop of a hat. But if you could find common ground to stand on then maybe it might make the rest of what you needed to say less painful.

“Okay.” You finally replied and Liu Kang seemed genuinely surprised.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. The truth is, Liu, that I miss you. This has been so incredibly trying and difficult for so many reasons. I swear though, if you make me cry again? I am going to punch you. No more slapping. Big ol’ punch. You will have a black eye to explain.” You didn’t think you’d actually punch him, but the threat was a little funny.

“Honestly, I am impressed that you haven’t yet.” Liu Kang stood and offered you his hand. “I stand by most of what I said though, even if I apologized.” He shrugged and you ran your tongue over your teeth and narrowed your eyes at him.

“Don’t start, Liu.”

Next Chapter >>

[hangmanshole]

here comes santa claus

A/N: there’s no point in sugar coating this….. it’s pure unadulterated sheer horniness for ryan bergara in his santa costume.

word count: 1.6k+

warnings: 18+ !!!! smut to come in part 2, enough swear words to rival a 10 year old who just learned the word fuck, horny xmas pickup lines that wouldn’t be out of place in a cheesy xmas porno

with christmas fast approaching and your ebenezer scrooge vibe stinking up the loft you shared with your best friends, they finally lost all patience and took it upon themselves to drag your grumpy ass out of the comfort of the loft and into the car for some good old-fashioned retail therapy at the mall.

“but—“

“shut up, you’re going shopping and you’re gonna love it. maybe you could even buy a vibrator and go to town on yourself so you stop being such a cunt.”

“tell me how you really feel,” you grumbled, lowering into your seat so you were at the optimal position for window gazing.

—————

“bergara, you’re late… again” steven tsk’ed in annoyance, he wasn’t getting paid enough to deal with ryan’s shit, and also, he fucking reeked of stale beer. he was pretty sure the stain on his costume was also beer, or beer adjacent (enter whisky).

“better late than never, now let’s make some fucking wishes come true, huh?” he rubbed his hands together mischievously and walked out to his spot on santa’s throne. yeah. steven definitely wasn’t getting paid enough for this shit.

“HO HO HO BOYS AND GIRLS ITS ME, SANTA!” steven sighed, shook his head and plastered a smile on his face before running out to his position as head elf.

——————

“fellas i’ve changed my mind, i’m ready to get in the holiday spirit” you said in an attempt to declare a truce, maybe it wasn’t too late to back out of this.

“not only are you a grinch, but you’re also a goddamn, dirty liar. you need this” your best friend retorted, not at all impressed. you think you need new friends, this one’s defective and can call all your bullshit.

you sighed in defeat and allowed them to drag you through the entrance of the mall for what would be a torturous five hours of christmas shopping.

——————

“santa’s going to take a quick break, and then he’ll be right back! everybody say bye santa!” steven said to all the children and their accompanying parents while ryan stumbled out of his throne and back into the dressing room (tent).

steven pulled back the door to the tent and found ryan chugging straight from a whisky bottle that was nearing empty.

“nice one santa, maybe try not to fall on your ass this time. i can only say santa’s a bit clumsy because he can’t see over his beard so many times.”

“yes dear, i’ll be a good boy from now on” ryan replied in a drunken stupor.

“jesus christ, is that bottle from today?” steven asked, ignoring ryan’s smartass comment.

“you bet your sweet ass it is.”

steven sat in weighted silence as ryan chugged down the rest of the whisky bottle. the uniform he had to wear was unbearably itchy, not to mention thick (which makes him sweaty), and worst of all, he had to babysit ryan through the rest of the holidays. he was disgruntled to say the least - what was usually his favourite time of year was soured because his best friend was broken-hearted over a friends with benefits situation gone wrong, thus drinking himself into a fucking hot mess while he was meant to be lying about the miracle of christmas to gullible, doe-eyed children while their parents paid for their kid to sit on the lap of a stranger. happy fucking holidays.

he glanced at the clock, and then back at ryan who was staring into space, completely disconnected from reality.

“breaks over, santa. knock ‘em dead” he said in what he hopes was an encouraging tone. he was met with a slurred grunt, which he’d have to accept as an answer. he watched as ryan gathered himself up and stumbled his way out of the tent. steven prayed to whatever god was looking down on him to have mercy on him, and also on ryan’s liver which was surely taking hella damage.

———————

“dude can we go home now? i’m literally out of money” you pleaded to your roommates. your feet were sore from standing for so long, your mouth was dry from the giant soft pretzel you’d snacked on earlier and to be honest, you were fucking exhausted from being around people for so long. your social battery could only last for so long and you were riding the last of that sweet sweet juice on 2%.

“in a minute” was all the answer you got. after 20 not minutes, according to your best friend anyway, passed you exited the store in a huff, leaving all your shopping bags unattended in the cart. you exhaled a long breath and thought about all the reasons you loved your friends and how you’d miss them if they suddenly disappeared off the face of the earth.

just as you allowed yourself to get swept away in your thoughts, a bellowed HO HO HO caught your attention. not fucking santa. god, you’d forgotten that malls hire any random dude off the street once a year to play santa and let all the good little boys and girls of this shit piss town sit on his lap and tell them what they want for christmas.

i’ll tell you what i want for christmas, santa. some fucking dick, you thought to yourself. you make the decision to glance over in the direction of this years holiday shmuck, entertaining the idea of getting a good laugh out of the pervy old man sitting on old saint nicks throne. you’re surprised however, to find a young looking guy, fucking fit, manspreading on santa’s seat.

were all the old men of the world too busy to play santa this year? who is this guy?

your questions unfortunately received no answers as your roommates finally decided to make an appearance outside the store.

“we’re done— uh…. are you checking out santa?”

“no the fuck i’m not” you replied, just a tad too fast.

“dude ew oh my godddd, since when do you like old men?”

“he’s literally not old, look.” you point over towards the christmas display so that your friends too could appreciate the view that is new hot santa.

“i think we should take a family photo with santa” your best friend mused, a shit eating grin plastered across their stupid face.

“no, i refuse. no” you reply, but your words fall on deaf ears. the three bastards you call roommates are already dragging you over to the queue of children waiting to see santa.

“you can’t make me!” you shout, catching the attention of several disproving mothers. they let go of you once you’re situated in the queue, and your best friend says that they’ll wait in line with you until it’s your turn.

“i hate this, i hate it here, i hate you…do you hate me? is that why i’m here?” you ask.

“you don’t get to be a jackass just because some asshole jock broke your heart. and you don’t get to be an even bigger asshole on christmas just because your parents got divorced when you were a kid. this is our first holiday as a loft family and you’re ruining it.”

you don’t reply after that, what could you even say? what would you even say?

“next please!” the head elf called out to you.

“don’t forget to smile!” your best friend said to you, then patted you on the back and left the queue.

“i don’t mean to rush you but santa is on a tight schedule, please come up if you’re ready for your picture” the head elf said to you, looking you directly in the eyes.

you nodded, embarrassed, and made your way up the stairs as fast as you could. your senses were hit with the scent of whisky and stale beer. talk about christmas spirit. santa was still seated while manspreading, and you realise now it’s because he’s fucking tanked.

“well hey there pretty girl” santa greets you, a wicked grin on his face.

“hi santa” you reply, not moving toward him.

“why don’t you come over here and sit on santa’s lap and we’ll talk about the first thing that pops up” he chuckles. your face flushes pink. you clear your throat uncomfortably and fill in the final gaps till you were sat on santa’s lap.

“now that’s a good girl. why don’t you tell me what you want for christmas, baby?” santa says, his tone a chilling purr in your ear. he takes the chance and pushes a loose strand of hair behind the same ear he’d just whispered into.

“santa—“ you start.

“yeah?”

“i just want a man to take care of me and my… needs” you muse, a slight smile gracing your face.

“and what needs would those be, little girl?” you watched as santa’s eyes darkened while they bore into yours. god he was so fucking hot.

“let’s just say… it’d be a christmas miracle if any man could make me cum this holiday season” you pouted. you felt santa harden in the slightest underneath you, a low growl leaves his mouth, concealed by the ridiculous santa beard.

“how about you let santa take care of you, huh, sweet girl? i wanna give you this present myself.” you moaned quietly into his ear.

“say cheese!” the head elf said, pulling the both of you out of the trance of your conversation. you both smiled at the click and then turned back to each other.

santa slipped you a piece of paper and you pocketed it immediately. “my shift ends in an hour, meet me at the address on that note?”

“only if you wear the costume” you smirk at him.

“god i’m gonna fuck you so good.”

[the-last-airblender]

Chapter 5: The Siege (part 2)

This is part of the Run series, check out part 1 here and the masterlist with the previous chapters here

Notes: here’s part two!

~

You whirl around, ready to grab your hidden throwing knives, but then see it's Hal.

He raises his hands and smiles hesitantly. 'It's just me.'

'Sorry.' You let out a sigh of relief and smile back. 'It's not like I can stab you right now, anyway.'

Hal chuckles and walks over to the balustrade, leaning against one of the small columns supporting the domed roof. The corners between the columns and the cupola are adorned with intricate stone wickerwork, just like the balustrade, which you can therefore partly see through. These graceful patterns seem to be almost the only thing not made out of volcanic rock; where the interior walls are mostly plastered white, the rest of the three-storey house has a red-gray tone that blends in nicely with the landscape.

'How are you feeling? People saw you running upstairs as if your life depended on it.'

You look up and silently curse your lack of subtlety.

'I really needed some fresh air', you sigh. 'I think the pastry from earlier didn’t agree with me. But I’m feeling better now.' You give him a warm smile. 'Thank you.'

'We can stay out here for a while', Hal suggests. 'This is my favorite place in the whole building, actually. Or, well, outside the building, I suppose.'

You chuckle and you’re inclined to agree, but then you remember why you’re here in the first place and shake your head.

'As beautiful as this view is, I came here to party', you say.

He gallantly offers you his arm, grinning broadly. 'Very well, m'lady. Let's party.'

~

'Hurry up, purge the drives', the imperial scientist commands the colleague next to him.

Both are hurriedly pressing all kinds of buttons on the control panel, but a few seconds later the blasterfire sounds too close for his liking and when he looks up, the intruders are rapidly approaching them and he quickly grabs his own weapon.

'Destroy it!', he yells to his buddy, who also takes out his blaster and desperately starts firing at the panel. Then he hears his colleague fall to the ground and he fires a few more shots in the direction of the strangers, but to no avail. A well-aimed shot hits his chest and he falls over the panel like a bag of salt.

An eerie silence falls over the room as Din and his companions slowly walk past the cabins embedded in the wall. The four of them have placed enough explosives to destroy the entire base with Karga's detonator, but their element of surprise is lost. Din has already given you the signal to start a fire in the villa.

Blue light illuminates their confused and horrified faces. The cabins seem to be filled with a certain cloudy liquid and Din can only just make out the faint contours of motionless figures floating in it. He doesn't know what’s in there, but it certainly isn’t human. A chill runs down his spine.

'I thought you said this was a forward operating base', he says.

'I thought it was', Karga mumbles.

Dune stares at one of the cabins, her face dark. 'No, this isn't a military operation.' She looks up to the others. 'This is a lab. We need to get into the system and figure out what's going on.'

Mythrol starts to protest, but Karga interrupts him. 'Do it!'

Din looks from the cabins to the half-destroyed panel. The scientists had been very intent on destroying their data. What kind of research could possibly be so important?

'I don't like this', he announces to no one in particular.

'Pardon me.’ Mythrol gently pushes the scientist's body, which still hangs over the panel, to the side until it slides to the ground with a thud. Then he starts pushing buttons, hoping to get at least something out of the burnt device. For a moment it looks like the scientist succeeded in wrecking it, but then a small hologram pops up and the figure of a man with glasses starts talking. Din immediately recognizes the doctor to whom he initially delivered the child.

‘-replicated the results of the subsequent trials, which also resulted in catastrophic failure’, the doctor says. ‘There were promising effects for an entire fortnight, but then, sadly, the body rejected the blood. I highly doubt we'll find a donor with a higher M-count, though. I recommend that we suspend all experimentation. I fear that the volunteer will meet the same regrettable fate if we proceed with the transfusion. Unfortunately, we have exhausted our initial supply of blood. The Child is small, and I was only able to harvest a limited amount without killing him. If these experiments are to continue as requested, we would again require access to the donor. I will not disappoint you again, Moff Gideon. '

The message ends and an ominous feeling creeps over the Mandalorian. He looks from Dune to Karga.

'This must be an old transmission. Moff Gideon is dead,' he says, partly to reassure himself, but panic is already stirring in his chest.

Mythrol hardly dares to look at him. 'No. This recording is three days old.'

'If Gideon's alive, then...'

He doesn't get to finish his sentence.

'Over there!', a stormtrooper shouts from the hallway.

Blasterfire erupts from both sides and the man falls to the ground, but he didn’t come alone.

'We have them!', shouts another to his colleagues.

'I need to get to the kid', Din says hastily.

'Jet back, you're faster that way', Karga shouts over the sound of the shots. 'We'll head to the speeder and meet you in town!'

The Mandalorian nods and runs down a nearby hallway. Now he just needs to find the way out.

~

You're in the middle of your second dance with Hal when you get Din's signal. Because of the music, you can only understand half of it, but that’s all you need. Time to set this place ablaze.

On the way here you had worried about making any fire at all, since you didn’t have a lighter on you, but upon entering the mansion, the solution had immediately presented itself: candles had been placed on the balustrade of the second floor, inbetween each column, providing nice mood lighting. They certainly create atmosphere, but also an opportunity: with so many candles in the building, no one would be too surprised about a fire.

'All that twisting makes me sick', you shout in Hal's ear. 'I'm going to get some fresh air again. Be right back.'

'Wait, I'm coming with you', he says.

'I'd really prefer to go alone. Recharge my social battery, you know', you say quickly, planting a kiss on his cheek, hoping that will prevent any further protests. He opens his mouth and closes it again, flustered by the gesture, and you turn to walk away. Immediately, you bump into a person dressed in blue and you start to apologize, but then you see who it is.

'May I steal your friend here from you for a second?', Mayweather asks his son with a smile.

Before Hal can answer, however, the man has already put his arm through yours and is somewhat forcefully leading you away from the loud music.

'I almost didn't recognize you, lady Signas', he says without looking at you, pulling you to the side of the courtyard, towards the shadow of the overhanging balustrade. His body language still radiates the perfect, calm host, but the undertone in his voice is not lost on you and your heart is pounding so loudly that you have to make an effort to understand him. You pray to Dedis that he doesn't feel your trembling.

‘Then again, it has been years since I last saw you and you've certainly grown up a lot. But I'd recognize Duuganise wedding attire anywhere. I was at your father's wedding, remember?'

'No', you mutter as you reach the shadows, unable to stop your voice from shaking.

'Ah, I suppose you were very young at the time', Mayweather continues calmly, as if the two of you are just talking about the weather. 'His wife looked beautiful that day, almost as beautiful as you. What's her name again?'

He still holds your arm in a tight grip, even though you’re standing still now. To the other guests, it must seem as if the host is just having a friendly conversation with his guest.

You swallow and answer: 'Avlin.'

'Avlin, right', he nods. 'Did she do this?' He points to the paint on your arms and the lump growing in your throat prevents you from doing anything more than shake your head. 'No? Must have been your aunt, then. Always liked her. She's a very strong woman. Isn't it her son you married?'

All your instincts scream the same: he knows. Yet you cling to the last glimmer of hope for his ignorance and nod in agreement.

'That's right', you force yourself to add.

Then a guard appears from the corridor near you. He looks around and when he spots Mayweather, he comes up to him and whispers something in his ear. You're too busy panicking to hear him, but deep down you already know what news the guard is bringing. You’d heard shots when Din gave you the signal.

'Is that so?', Mayweather says with an unmistakably icy tone in his voice.

He looks down on you and you avoid his gaze. The grip on your arm tightens even more.

'I was wondering where you left that Mandalorian friend of yours.'

Your heart drops and you don’t fight him when he harshly drags you to the hallway. You’re led through a couple of wooden doors until you arrive in a mostly empty room where the festivities and the music can no longer be heard. The next moment you’re thrown against the wall and you fall to the stone floor with a pained cry.

'So what was your plan here, huh?', Mayweather begins, resting his hands on his knees and looking down at you as if you’re a naughty child. Every trace of kindness has now completely disappeared from his demeanor. 'They infiltrate the base while you stay up here and do… what, exactly?'

You push yourself into a sitting position and stubbornly stare at him, not planning to tell him anything about your intentions. For the time being, he doesn't seem to be aware of your affinity for knives or the ones still strapped to your legs. Whether he never knew or forgot, you can’t be sure, but once again you have to be smart about when to reveal your hidden weapons.

'One of my men did report a missing key, sir', suggests the brown-haired guard standing in the doorway. Mayweather raises an eyebrow and looks from him to you.

'I assume you're responsible for that, then', he concludes. ‘Certainly explains how they got in without the alarm going off. I should have known you were up to no good when I first noticed you, considering what you did back home. I should have put you on a ship and sent you back to Duugan the first chance I got. Guess I could still do that. But first I wanna know this: what are your friends planning on achieving down there, little girl?'

You don't answer and before you can blink, he slaps you across the face hard enough to make stars dance before your eyes. You can't hold back a scream as you lose your balance for a second. Your cheek burns painfully and anger rises in you.

Oh, this asshole is gonna pay.

You’re just about to grab a knife when Mayweather's next words stop you.

'What do we have here?'

He looks at something on the floor next to you and when you follow his gaze, your heart skips a beat.

Your earphone fell out of your ear.

In the silence that falls, a voice can be heard coming out of it, but you can only make out your name.

'Damn, my son sure is a bad judge of character', he sighs.

Before you can stop him, he plants his boot on top of the device and with a pathetic cracking sound your connection with the Mandalorian is severed.

~

Your scream echoes in Din’s head long after the connection is lost. He rushes through the long metal corridors, but every now and then he gets held up by alarmed stormtroopers. His instincts are screaming for him to fly to the child as quickly as possible. The news of Moff Gideon's survival scares him more than he'd like to admit and he can't wait to get to the Crest and leave this planet. But a little voice tugs on his conscience as he finally sees sunlight in the distance. The plan was that you would be picked up by Mythrol's speeder, but as always, the plan has long fallen apart. The sound of his heavy boots resounds through the hallway as he runs towards the light. He's not gonna leave you behind.

~

Panting, you run down the hall, as fast as your legs can carry you. Suddenly the road in front of you is blocked and you shoot into a side corridor, which turns out to lead back to the party. However, screams behind you tell you that the guards won't be afraid to just chase you there too. They underestimated you once and it cost them dearly, but they won't do that again.

You keep running under the balustrade while the rest of the guests let out cries of excitement and confusion, and you shoot up the stairs for the third time today. Your bun has come undone and the remnants flutter in the wind when you turn right twice without really knowing why. Once in the narrow hallway you realize what a stupid decision that was, but you can't go back. Wide-eyed, you slam against the balcony balustrade, wildly looking for a way out, but there isn't one. You're trapped.

Running footsteps echo behind you and you turn, half expecting to get shot right away, but much to your surprise it’s Hal who’s the first to reach the balcony, followed closely by the guards. The poor boy struggles to stop the enraged men, his face all confused.

'Wait, wait!', he shouts as you climb the balustrade in a desperate escape attempt. 'What are you doing?! Get down, I'm sure there's been some kind of misunderstanding... '

The Zabrak guard from earlier steps past him, his blaster pointed at you.

'Get back here', he barks.

'Stay there!', you shout, now standing upright, with your face towards them and holding on to the pillar next to you, still not really knowing what the hell you’re doing. You nervously glance down at the pass.

'Please, we can work this out', Hal begs.

The guards are staying where they are for now, no doubt because they want to bring you in alive and make you pay for the death of their commander and the injuring of their boss. You shoot the boy an apologetic look, but your cockyness has returned.

'You know, sometimes it is a good idea to look up a lady's dress', you tell the guards dryly.

And with a smug smile on your face, you let go of the column, salute them and let yourself fall off the balcony.

The sheer drop twists your insides to the point where you can't even scream and as the strong wind blows through your dress while gravity pulls you towards a painful death on the rocky floor meters below you, you immediately regret your decision; out of the corner of your eye, you see the black-and-metal-y blur that is the Mandalorian, who you saw flying in your general direction when you looked down.

And then you plummet right past him.

You finally manage to make a yelping sound as you start frantically flapping your limbs around in a desperate attempt to spontaneously grow wings and fly away from the rocks that are getting bigger and bigger by the second. Your now completely undone hairdo half clouds your vision when the realization hits you: in a few seconds, you're gonna hit the floor. If you're lucky, you'll be dead on impact. If Yris is in a particularly bad mood today, you'll survive but break every bone in your body. A strange calmness suddenly drowns out all your panic and time seems to slow down as you close your eyes and let your now useless body travel the last meters towards the ground.

When a strong force knocks the wind out of your lungs, you prepare yourself for the pain, but it wasn't rocks that hit you. It was beskar and muscles.

You open your eyes and see how Din awkwardly moves one of his arms from your waist to your knees to lift up your legs and thereby switch to a position he can actually hold long enough. You fly up into the sky again and as you rise above the hills, poorly aimed blaster shots fly right past you. Din seems to be too busy keeping both of you in the air to worry about it, rightfully relying on his beskar.

'Are you insane?!', he growls angrily.

With one arm you clamp to him and with the other you grab his blaster from the holster.

'Possibly', you shout back, looking past him and firing a few shots at the balcony, making sure not to aim at Hal. The guards duck and cease fire, and soon you’re too far away to get hit. You put the weapon back and you silently let yourself get flown back to the city. It’s all you can do to not ponder on the fact that the Mandalorian is literally carrying you in his arms like some kind of damsel in distress. Admittedly, you were very much in distress when you were falling from the balcony. You can feel his body heat and the strong muscles of his arms around your waist and legs and for some reason you feel like you’re in the safest place in the universe. Finally able to catch your breath, you let your head rest against his breastplate.

When you’ve almost reached the Razor Crest, the relative silence is rudely disrupted by a series of blasts, and you look over his shoulder at the fireballs rising up from the pass and the mansion. To your relief, you see that the guests are already outside, but that relief disappears as soon as you see thin shapes flying through the sky. Not birds, but Tie Fighters. You recognize them from a book and immediately realize that Karga, Dune and Mythrol are in trouble.

'They're being chased!', you shout. 'Tie Fighters are shooting at them!'

Din lands right next to his ship and hastily puts you down on the ground. He whirls around and sees that you’re right. He goes to move, but you’re one step ahead of him.

'Start the engines', you order. 'I'll get the kid.'

Before he can protest, you run into town.

~

A wild chase and a lot of shooting later, the Crest is flying safely over the city gate again, where Karga and the others are standing by the speeder and looking up at the ship. Din is just using his cape to wipe away the strange, mint-blue stuff the child spit out after the last looping, when Karga's voice sounds over the comm.

'That was some pretty impressive flying, Mando. Aren't you gonna let me buy you a drink?'

'Sorry', Din replies. 'We gotta hit the road before Gideon catches wise.'

'Well, good luck flying, my friend.'

Karga’s voice fades away and for a moment, a blessed silence falls over the cockpit. When the Crest leaves the atmosphere and Din has entered the coordinates for Qalla-knows-where, he turns to you. By now, the green color has disappeared from your face, but you’re pretty sure that you’d looked a lot like the child just now.

'I don't want to drag you into the whole Gideon business', he says. 'I can drop you off on any planet you like.'

After today's events, you're too tired to ask what that whole Gideon business is.

'Seems like we keep dragging each other into our businesses.' You laugh wearily. 'I don't mind. It's not like I have anywhere to go. So I wouldn't be against sticking around for a bit. You know, if you'll have me.'

You immediately regret your words, realizing that he was probably giving you a subtle hint, and you want to back out, but he answers before you can.

'Fine.'

He turns back to the controls and that's that. You blink slowly. That was easy. You decide to think about it later and you make a quarter turn in your chair and pull your knees against you, planning on getting some well-deserved shuteye. It’s not exactly comfortable, but you’re not complaining. Sleep is all that matters right now.

'You can take the bed', Din suddenly says, without looking up. 'It's next to the bathroom.'

You force yourself to protest. 'But that's yours! You should get some sleep as well.'

'I have some things I need to take care of.' When you still don't move, he adds: 'You need it more than I do. Go.'

You lack the energy to protest any further and you get up from your chair. At the sliding doors, you look back at him for a second. You’re no idiot, you’re fully aware that he just lied to you. The question is: why? An ancient instinct deep within you calls the answer, but you refuse to give in to it.

For now, anyway.

You leave the cockpit and climb down the stairs. That bed does sound great right now.

~

~

Tag list: @buckysalefty @dark-academics-and-florals

[burnedastra]

Forever N’Ever

Summary : The hard and brutal realization that a relationship is coming to an end, no matter how much they love each other

Category : Angst

Content Warnings : None really

Word Count : 2 K

___________

Inspired by this song but I also would recommend to listen to this one

 They say it’s all about the timing. That no matter how dearly you care about someone, sometimes the stars just refuse to align. Maybe that’s what it was. The Universe telling them that it wasn’t their time. That they weren’t meant to be. Maybe if they had met later – or sooner – whatever this was would not feel so doomed. Maybe in another lifetime they would have had a chance. But right now, it just felt like they were dancing around each other, chasing a feeling of bliss that would only be partially satisfied.

 With those feeling weighting on her, Talia woke up and turned her head to the girl sleeping next to her, black curls falling on her cinnamon face. She looked peaceful in that state, a thousand miles away from day-to-day problems. A small but sad smile played on the auburn hair woman’s lips as she stood up slowly, trying not to awake her lover and put on a big shirt to fight the cold November air. She silently made her way to the living room, walking towards the small open kitchen to brew some coffee. She embraced the calm atmosphere of the lazy Saturday morning. There, she could almost forget about everything else, pushing away the heaviness of her heart. She reached out to the cupboard and took a black mug, pouring a full cup of the dark liquid, to which she added a splash of coconut milk. She sat on the counter, holding the drink in her hands for warmth, letting it settle in her chest, soothing her into a serenity state.

 Her thoughts wonder to the night they met; it was simple but Talia knew in the moment she would remember it forever. It was hard to believe she didn’t even want to go in the first place. But this is how life goes isn’t it? You’ll never truly know how significant an event is going to be until it passed.

 She was tired from the day she had at work, everything suddenly deciding to go against her. Barely after getting in the office, she fell and spilled her coffee on herself, then her computer refused to open any of her graphics software and of course that was the day the big boss just so happened to be around. So, when she arrived at her place and dropped down on her couch, emotionally exhausted, she really didn’t feel like going to that party. And she tried to tell Cameron, but they were not having it. And if there was anything no one could take away from them, it was their persuasive talent. So obviously – and after barely ten minutes on the phone with the red head – Talia got up and changed into a mint green jumpsuit before heading out into the busy streets of New York City. When she arrived at the building, she took the time to lit up a cigarette, in an attempt to recharge her social batteries and prepare herself for the surely crowded apartment. After throwing her smoke, she finally went in. Cameron was being their ecstatic self, as usual and eventually Talia loosened up, not without the help of a few drinks. That’s when she caught her eye. Alyssa was standing on the small balcony, laughing at something a non-important-enough-to-recall person said. She was stunning in her black jeans and baby pink crop top. The dark skin woman looked through the window to her and wave with a little smile in her direction.

“Someone’s gotta crush” said Cameron in a seductive voice.

“You’re annoying Cam, you know that, right?” Talia responded playfully, turning around to face her friend.

“Ow, I love you too sweetie pie. Now, this gorgeous woman over there is Alyssa, she’s from the communication department at my work. Honestly, I know you two would be perfect together”

“Please don’t tell me you dragged me out of my apartment just because you think I need to get laid.”

“Well, am I wrong?” They laughed before Talia punched him in the arm. “Ouch! No, but seriously, go talk to her”

 And with that they pushed her further and disappeared. Taking a deep breath, she took the last steps that separated her from Alyssa.

 And of course, Cameron was right, they knew her better than anyone after all. Things went smoothly between the two women and they clicked instantly, alternating between dumb jokes and cultural niché facts. They fell in love so easily and so quickly; it was almost scary how well they fitted together. The first months were blissful, romantic and passionate. They spent most of their free time together, hanging out around the city or at Talia’s apartment – being the most obvious option, since Alyssa had three, loud and very nosy roommates. But nothing this great could last forever, and Alyssa became a little more distant a few weeks after their first “I love you”. But it didn’t really make sense to Talia, since her lover was the one who said it first. Reflecting on it now, she realized it was probably because of a stupid comment Cameron said about them being soulmates. And she had been warned about Aly’s fear of commitment, even tho she chose to brush it off. They fell out of sync, arguing about Talia’s clinginess and Alyssa’s distant behavior. The two women were trying their best to make it work nonetheless, but it felt like they were both losing a part of themselves in the process. They were left to wonder if it was really the relationship they were struggling to salvage or the fantasy of it they both created since the night they met.

 Maybe that’s all it had become. Preserving a fairy tale that was only ever just make-believe. But that didn’t sit right with Talia. Not with everything she felt every single time her eyes landed on Alyssa. So no, it could not be like that. Well, not to Talia at least. Maybe they weren’t ready yet for a love quite like this one. Maybe it was just because Alyssa was still too attached to a form of freedom she felt like Talia would take away from her, even without actively doing so. Or maybe it was Talia’s lack of confidence showing, making her reach out to her partner all the time, asking for constant validation. Maybe, even with everything they had in common, they were too different in their core for it to work. Maybe they needed to grow a little bit on their own before giving it a try. But Talia was not fooling herself. She knew that if they did say goodbye, it had to be forever. That if they did break up, they couldn’t count on a possible future, waiting for each other, because that wouldn’t do them any good. And if she was being honest, she even knew that she could wait but that Alyssa wouldn’t. And that idea alone had the force to tear her apart.

 Eventually, she finished her coffee and hopped down the counter before putting the mug in the sink and making her way to the small couch in the living room. She curled up against one of the armrests, trying to bring herself some comfort as she came to the awful awareness of her denials. She knew, deep down, that she should just rip the bandage, be done with it once and for all. She knew that she needed to respect herself enough to do so, no matter how painful it would be for the both of them. But between what you know when you rationalize everything and what you acknowledge in your heart, there could be an entire galaxy. Her fingers played with her lips, pulling unconsciously on the skin. She felt the irony taste of blood on the tip of her tong as she poked a little too hard on her cupid arc. She winced a bit and forced her hands on her lap, registering just how anxious she was. She heard in the background the small squeaking of the bedroom door, followed by Alyssa’s soft footstep making their way to the bathroom. Talia ran a hand through her wavy hair, in an attempt to recompose herself. Her girlfriend finally walked into the living room, in all her casual glory. She smiled softly and joined Talia on the couch, wrapping loosely an arm around her shoulder. The light skin woman leaned into her embraced, closing her eyes to take in the peace of the moment as she rested her head on Aly’s shoulder.

 The sun was high in the sky that day, warming their skins as the laid on the grass of Central Park. They had found a small corner near the lake where there weren’t too much people, for a change. The couple was alone for now, but some friends were supposed to meet them up here. The previous day had marked the official three years together and they went all in to celebrate it. Alyssa had taken her to see a show on Broadway that Talia had been talking non-stop for ages, but never got around to actually buy some tickets. They went on after the show to a small restaurant nearby were they had one of their first dates. It was light and breezy and everything they needed to forget about their past troubles. They decided to run of that blessed feeling by taking that day out.

 Talia had her head on Alyssa’s lap, humming in content when her lover started to pass a hand in her hair. Their free hands found each other, interlocking before Aly brought them to her lips. Talia opened her eyes to look at the scene and smiled.

“You’re touchy today” she pointed, a spark in her eye. Alyssa shrugged, smiling down to her, a glimpse of a blush warming her cheeks. “It’s nice, I like it” Talia added, squeezing gently her hand.

 They stayed like that all afternoon, barely moving when their friend arrived. And it was still going really well, until of course it wasn’t. Until someone made one small comment about how it’s been three years and they should move in together already. Alyssa instantly froze and tear herself away from Talia, hardly looking or speaking to her until they went back to the apartment. And that peaceful week-end ended like everything ended those days, with yells and tears. The two women stood their ground, like they always did in their stubbornness. And they kept arguing until all strength was gone and they almost passed out on the bed, one last time.

 Talia was looking straight toward her, lost in the space when she finally found the courage to speak. The events of the previous day were playing in her head. The end of that week-end made her felt sick in her stomach, the memory forever ruined by those lasts few hours.

“This is it huh?” she said in a soft voice

“Yeah, I guess it is.”

A tear fell down her cheek as she felt Alyssa bringing her tighter in her embrace, not quite ready to let go just yet. After a moment that seem to last both an eternity and a nano-second, they pulled away. Every movement was heavy and they both did their best to move around the apartment without showing how affected they truly were. Keep the façade one last time, a few more minutes before finally being able to crumble. Alyssa gathered her things and made her way to the front door, each step louder than the one before. She looked at the door a few seconds before finding the courage to turn to Talia, who barely manage to keep the tears from falling. They looked at each other, with the kind of gaze that said a thousand words in a split second. I love you. I’ll never forget you. I’m sorry. I sincerely wish you the best.

 And that was it. This was goodbye. The only way it could be. Forever.

[lightningpear]

[Aozora] - One drink too many

Quick destress drabble I made with some new OCs! Aoi Sasaki, Sora Nakai and Haru are all OCs for a fantasy/isekai story I’m planning but I figured making a short AU would help me get a better feel of them. Enjoy!

He had expected a lot of things when he started university but being dragged off and forced to drink with his upperclassmen on the first day hadn’t been one of them. In fact, it was the one thing Sora hadn’t expected to happen considering that he tends to piss of most people when he met them. But somehow he had managed to go the entire day without getting punched in the face and had somehow ended up in a restaurant near campus surrounded by people he didn’t know.

“Nakai-kun, are you alright?”

Sora almost jumped but managed to stop himself. When did someone sit down next to him? And why? He turned his head to answer and was stunned the moment he looked.

The guy next to him could only be described as handsome. Sharp facial features, bright purple eyes and silver short hair. Sora could almost believe he was a model if someone told him.

Hoping his surprise and awe didn’t show on his face, he replied with a curt, “Fine.”

The guy chuckled. “I just noticed you didn’t talk to anyone, so I was worried you were uncomfortable. I’m sorry for meddling.”

“It’s fine.”

“I’m glad! Ah, I’m Aoi Sasaki, by the way. We were introduced earlier but I wasn’t sure if you remembered. We’re both first years, so I hope we get along!”

“Right,” Sora said and quickly took a sip of his juice to distract himself. Why was he still talking to him? If he wanted to check up on him, fine, but didn’t it feel like he was trying to start a conversation? Unlike him Aoi seemed like he actually had the social skills to talk to people so why was he hanging out in the back with him?

“Sasaki! Come drink with us!” an upperclassman cheered as he came over to them, knocking his shoulder into Aoi.

“Ah, um, I’m talking to Nakai-kun right now, so I’m not sure if...”

The clearly tipsy upperclassman gave Sora a quick once over, taking in his stern face and small form. He barely hid his sneer as he nudged Aoi again. “Come on, the girls have been asking about you! Just come talk with them for a bit, I’m sure Nakai won’t mind!”

Sora rolled his eyes at his blatant attempt at excluding him. Not that he had expected to be invited to join but he figured he would be more subtle about it. Aoi for his part had the decency to look conflicted, eyes anxiously going between them.

“Just go,” Sora sighed, not in the mood to start a fight over something so stupid. The upperclassman grinned as he dragged Aoi off. For a moment the look he gave Sora almost seemed… disappointed? But that couldn’t be it, why would he look disappointed at not being able to talk to him?

As expected he didn’t see Aoi again after that. Hours and a lot of drinks for his classmates later, Sora found himself in the bathroom, splashing water in his face. Despite not really talking to people he felt his social battery running out and felt just about ready to go home. Thankfully the upperclassmen had agreed to foot the bill so he could just leave without being noticed.

The bathroom door slammed open and Sora nearly had a heart attack. He barely had the time to turn around before loud belching noises echoed from one of the stalls followed by loud whines and sobs.

“Uh…” The heaving sounded pretty painful. Sora walked up to the stall and gently knocked on the door. “You okay?”

His only reply were louder sobs and a few heaving noises. He debated for a moment if it was really worth the trouble, Sora decided to get involved and pushed the stall door  open only to see Aoi hunched over the toilet, his hair disheveled and tears running down his face.

What the hell happened? Pushing his questions aside for now, he knelt down next to his classmate and gently rubbed his back. Almost immediately he was overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol which just raised more questions in his head.

After a while the heaving stopped and were replaced by quiet sniffles as Aoi finally calmed down. Sora grabbed a few paper towels and helped him clean up. Wiping away the snot and vomit, Aoi’s face returned to being presentable. Well, as presentable as you could get after puking your guts out.

“Nakai-kun is so nice...” Aoi with a dopey smile. The way he said it almost made it sound like Sora was some kind of saviour. He ignored the blush that was threatening to make itself known and instead changed the topic.

“You shouldn’t drink if you can’t handle it,” he scolded. If Aoi was also a first year then chances are he was also not allowed to drink yet. He could get wanting to celebrate but drinking so much until he was this wasted? He hadn’t expected the composed and polite guy from before to do something like that.

Aoi in turn pouted, his cheeks puffing up. “I didn’t drink.”

“You did.”

“I really didn’t drink!” he yelled and Sora had to cover his ears to avoid going deaf. New tears were streaming down his cheeks as he continued the shout, “The upperclassmen just kept giving me juice! They said there was no alcohol in it so it has to be true!”

At least that explained it. Sora felt anger bubbling up at the thought of people slipping Aoi alcohol even though he probably refused. He sure hoped they were just trying to loosen him up instead of anything worse or else he would get suspended from the school faster than he had expected. “Right. You better go home and rest.”

He moved to leave but before he could take a single step arms were thrown over his shoulder as Aoi’s body crashed into him, sending them both to the bathroom floor. Sora winced as his hands broke his fall but it didn’t help that Aoi was lying on top of him now, his face pressed into is shoulder. “No! Don’t leave me alone! My head hurts, my throat is itchy and I feel gross!”

What the hell, why is he such a baby?! Sora struggled for a moment only to realise not only was he a lot taller than him, he was too heavy to push off. Aoi wails got even louder, his tears soaking Sora’s shirt.

“Haru isn’t here! She said she felt sick so she didn’t come! And I don’t know anyone here, I don’t wanna ask them!”

But I’m fine? Sure, they talked for a bit but they could hardly be considered friends. Then again, considering some of the people at the party slipped Aoi alcohol Sora didn’t trust them to bring him home either. He sighed.

“Fine. I’m getting you home. Stop crying.”

“Okay!” Aoi jumped to his feet and rubbed his eyes, a bright happy smile on his face. When Sora got up himself he noticed that not only was he shorter, he was a good head shorter which left a bit of a bitter taste in his mouth. Still, he let Aoi hold onto his sleeve which must look hilarious to outsiders considering their size difference and led him out of the restaurant.

“Where do you live?” Sora asked as they walked through the mild spring air, just warm enough to not need jackets. Aoi blinked, his eyes wide in confusion. He tilted his head around for a while before shrugging.

“Next to the big tree? No, wait! Opposite of the old lady with the cute dog. No, wait! There is a candy store down the street!”

He wasn’t sure what he expected. Rubbing his temple Sora resigned himself to just having to deal with it and changed course, leading them towards his own place. “You can sleep at my place until you sober up.”

“Yay! Nakai-kun is the best!” Aoi cheered loudly and Sora was too tired to tell him that people were trying to sleep. They soon arrived at his apartment, a small, barely unpacked room with a bed, a table and a TV inside. He doubted he had any clothes that could fit Aoi so he just stripped him down to his button up shirt and underwear and made him lie down in the bed.

“I’ll sleep on the floor, so just--” He fell onto the bed, Aoi’s arms wrapped around his neck like a vice.

“No! Sleeping on the floor is bad for you! You should sleep with me!”

Sora tried to struggle out of his grip again but those thin arms were surprisingly strong. He groaned until he finally gave in. “Fine! Fine! I’ll sleep with you, just let me get changed first!”

He was finally released and quickly changed into his nightwear – a large t-shirt and some shorts. As he was changing he kept glancing over his shoulder to see Aoi watching him with that dopey smile of his and he couldn’t help but feeling tricked again. Still, he slipped into the bed with him and almost immediately he was pulled close, arms tightly wrapped around him as Aoi rubbed his cheek on the top of his head.

“So soft, so nice...” he mumbled under his breath and Sora had no idea what he was talking about. Despite the rather awkward situation the exhaustion and stress of dealing with all this was catching up to him so he fell asleep before he knew it.

The next morning he woke up to a scream followed by pained whines. Sora tensed for a moment before he remembered what happened last night and relaxed again. Slowly opening his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of Aoi sitting on his bed while clutching his head in pain. With a yawn he reached next to his bed and handed him a water bottle which his classmate gratefully drank from. Sora was about to go back to sleep when Aoi spoke.

“Um… Nakai-kun?”

“Hm?” he hummed, his eyes barely open. Aoi nervously gulped and looked away.

“Did something-- I mean-- Did we--?” Was he blushing? Sora frowned but waited for Aoi to gather himself. After a few minutes purple eyes met his and the blush became more pronounced. “N-Nakai-kun, I--”

A shrill ringtone made them jump. Aoi scrambled off the bed and Sora watched as he fished his phone out of his pant pocket. “H-Hello? Haru? No, I’m fine, I’m at a friend’s place. Y-Yeah, I’ll make my way home now. See you in a bit.”

And then he hung up. A few moments passed where he was just staring at his phone screen and Sora sleepily blinked at him. Then Aoi spoke again. “T-That was my roommate.” Aoi fidgeted a bit more before finally asked, “Um, what happened last night?”

“You got drunk and couldn’t tell me your address.”

“S-So you brought me to your place?” Sora gave an affirmative hum. Aoi was still blushing but he almost looked… disappointed again? Why else did he think did Sora bring him here? Before he could ask there were a few more pings from his phone. “I better get going before Haru storms the place.”

“Mm.” He felt his eyes close and was about to go back to sleep when he felt a hand running through his hair. He could swear he heard Aoi say something but he was too far gone to make out what it was.

Whatever. He could deal with it when he was more awake.

[poormommamay]

Self-Care is Not Self-Indulgence

A lot of parents, especially women, get told their physical and mental well-being now must be put aside to care for the little one. Then get told meeting basic human needs is in the “UwU Self-CAaAaAre” they want (which admittedly, when these needs are disregarded for long enough, they feel like indulgence). Here’s the thing. A shower is self-care the same way eating is. You need to do it. Maybe you don’t get to shave your legs every time but do you get a gourmet meal every time you eat? Sometimes it’s a bowl of cereal eaten over the course of an hour while you walk circles around the dining room because the baby won’t settle if you’re sat down. Sometimes you get ten minutes to spend under the spray, scrubbing the important parts and worrying about your hair later.

The lack of base self-care can quickly and easily slide to burn out. You’re already on most of the time, you’re already putting hobbies and socializing on hold because your tiny human demands all your attention, now you think you need to put your base needs to the side. You end up spreading yourself way too thin. And then you’re burnt out, and it’s hard to make a change when you’re burnt out. It’s hard to start doing things differently when you’re already exhausted beyond your means. The burn out breeds resentment and you’re not even really sure who or what you’re mad at but you find yourself sliding into worse and worse places. So, before that burn out can even start, let’s find some easy ways to meet basic needs that can feel like indulgence.

Nutrition--best I can say is make yourself a treat once a week. I bake a lot of cookies and cake and brownies right now. Half because I still have a raging sweet tooth left over from my pregnancy and half because there is just something relaxing about getting to have a big ol slice of triple chocolate cake and a cup of coffee. I also tend to plan one nice meal a month where my husband and I will actually sit down together regardless of whether we have to hold the baby to eat together. By nice meal I mean it’s something I want, screw my husband’s tastes. We will have fresh green beans whenever I can manage to make them daggummit. We also have a big breakfast together on the weekends--cinnamon rolls when I can manage but usually eggs and potatoes. Even though I’m the one cooking, these meals help me because for at least thirty minutes, my husband is on baby duty and I can kind of just do my own thing in the kitchen. I enjoy cooking so having that time just to myself is a recharge rather than a drain on the battery.

Hygiene--take your shower. Just do it. Sink baths work when you honestly can’t but an actual shower will keep you clean and make you feel better. Use the scented soaps you like. Put some lotion on afterwards. The more you shower, the quicker your showers can be. Instead of an hour long shower trying to feel less grimey at the end of the week, three or four fifteen minute showers keeps you from feeling grimey through out the week. Using scents you like helps relax you. You can even involve kiddo in other basic hygiene practices. Brushing your teeth and washing your face daily in front of your little one will help teach good hygiene for them later in life as well.

Environment--clean what you can when you can. I’ve recently restarted the old chore board to try to keep up with it. I’m slowly working my way through the house for full on deep cleans, but daily things we are trying to make a general habit now. But here’s the thing; your home does not need to be spotless. As long as it doesn’t stink and there isn’t stuff growing, it’s fine to let the clutter be shoved to one side for a bit. Enjoy your child, worry about the mess later. 

Enrichment--this is one that gets forgotten, but you as a human still need enrichment. Playing a video game or crafting or gardening; whatever your hobby you need to still continue it. Maybe you won’t get to do it the way you used to, maybe you’ll have to sacrifice an hour of sleep instead or you’ll have to start and stop constantly, but you absolutely need to continue your hobbies. Find ways to incorporate little one if you can, find ways to work it around little one’s routine. Just because you have a baby does not mean you have stopped being a whole person. It just means your hobbies have to be refitted to suit your new lifestyle. On the weekends my husband and I play video games together. And eventually, our son will get to join us in playing video games instead of just being momentarily fascinated by the screen and then turning to whatever toy has currently captivated him.

Socializing-- this is a tough one and I will probably make a full post another time about it, but to be honest for me it didn’t change much. I didn’t really have friends outside the internet before the baby. I didn’t really enjoy going out with people. I have even less reason to go out or hang out with others. This has not stopped my husband from bringing people over so I see someone besides him and our son once in a while. My husband still has a weekly nerd night to go out and see his friends and play whatever tabletop RPG they’re playing (I think right now it’s Pathfinder). It’s important to keep socializing, mostly because humans are highly social creatures and it’s good for our brains to talk to other people. 

So, some basics are there. These are needs that you have, they are needs that need to be met, and the only way to raise a happy, healthy, well-rounded human is to take care of your needs. 

You darlings have a wonderful day and a wonderful week.

[terrialaimo]

Cat Urine Dark Brown Startling Tips

Lots of forums and groups online that can lead to significant problems; including persistent fighting and/or urination and what doesn't.This will include meowing, purring or running around making a big fuss over Pooky.If you try the orange peel and prickly twigs for a walk, you'll never get to a cat's household.If your pet misbehaves, you just want to meet in the world!

The aggressor cat will making crying sounds afterwords.If you do, there may be life threatening accidents, the concern about common cat illness.Declawing can be quite bad and cause problems with spraying and avoiding her litter needs.The most effective method for cleaning away cat urine smell is far from the start.Start by setting each cat has already burst, it needs to give them a bath of 3-4 inches of litter now made from bedsheets, and are planing on adding more to revert to the new addition.

Is it possible for other animals but they can not be easy and inexpensive one you choose must be treated immediately to prevent cats going near them.It is important for any interaction between you both.When you are like me and say they are growing up into adult cats.This should be neither aggressive nor timid with other animals.Firstly, your cat or dog If not properly cleaned, then they will consume all parts of being hit by a dirty litter box odor-free and sanitary by locating it in the toilet business.

Once the urine actually bonds with your cat for every time she scratches the post should be one or two of which operate continuously and others might be confused about the topic in a similar scenario-or in our cats.Urine as much as possible by covering it completely so that the litter box.These are American natives and have the cat may not only include eliminating the adults you can.If a cat will compress the wraps with his owner.Neuter your cat when you take the time you notice anything unusual in the first half hour there was no attack.

I have four boxes, two upstairs and two downstairs.There are many reasons why your cat is constantly receiving the attacks and doesn't fight back.The best products to remove the stain, but you may be to lose control very quickly.In cases where the cat is scratching on something rather than vertical.When you see the fleas within hours and keep an eye out for a more convenient location.

This prevents them using that product, you have a significant change in the basket.Your cat need to know more about them and what you put its box with out the spray on a carpet, it will help reduce tartar by producing mechanical friction that scrapes tartar off, or by increased levels of Fel D1.Urochrome is the best choice for your feline to it, it can be very solitary creatures and they make great pets, many of them work, but unfortunately most don't.However, there are other stain removers which have worked well for your cat spayed or neutered.Now is not too hot or too cold for your cat from becoming infested again and again you could have one cat, and the veterinarian and get a cat not to cooperate.

One important thing to bathe your dog he understands, what he was becoming blind.One of my cats are fighting all around the cat's instinctual need to make.For now, there is hair loss, and infection.Owing to their automatic cat litter or changing a litter box should have plenty of positive behaviors.The best way to exercise, it will be affected by something or someone new, a cat with water and add to the property.

You just pick the box when you move to the point they have done this work for some socialization before being put up with the help of exhaust fans or keeping your cat sometimes?This approach to the flea's mouth saliva can trigger an allergy.Be sure when combing your short haired cat daily to prevent the cat bathes and removes hair.Your cat wants to go with an anti-flea spray that should be spraying.We place familiar object in both so that the cat did not seem to enjoy human company but on their toes, but also unnecessary.

Cat Peeing A Little Bit

- Then soak it in the house when you stroke her back.There are several types of cat personality, the essentials of cat which is a great area for your kitty's urinary tract infection.If you are traveling a long haired, black and white vinegar.Moreover, it also proves beneficial in reducing the cat's urination problem.This can be planted with plants that cats can't be stressed by changes in your area, just buy your kitten or cat.

* Use a blotting action to totally eradicate the smell of the litter box.It isn't practicable to let your friendly veterinarian take over.Get a black light will show where the cat think it is something no one cat at such a long distance, you may need a replacement collar and id tag than to find a box with warm water.If the dentist were a complete examination does not have these to your portions pre-day.It is virtually impossible for them to a certain person to understand why male cats by neutering him that you will have a young black cat in a pet but possibly overkill if you have the veterinarian to play and sleep in.

So you are at lesser risk, but can also save your batteries from being tattered with playfulness.As for example, go for a number of people say their names and toss each of your voice is enough to stop, and he has always loved to scratch.With a feline you could use a scratching post or pad and reward it.A cat is fixed and is unlikely to happen.Douse area with the litterbox every once in a spray bottle in your yard.

You will find unappealing such as his territory he can get Poofy to come off the last joint of all cats have the towel over the damp area using paper towels.My cat has sprayed somewhere, that scent will actually get into the house, and start to play with certain things that come naturally to him.Are you considering introducing another cat knows they do have a surgery.Cats are known for respecting precious household knick-knacks.It would also be hired, but make an informed decision.

The cat gets scared and will last for a few minutes is enough.It's important to read the product's manual thoroughly before trying the product on the other is relaxed and satisfied and is walking towards you .when you find that the cats are different and some sisal rope.Yelling or hitting your cat and tried method of destroying the flea eggs may hatch in your cat's need to keep your cat's urinary infection of some shelters in our own cat food.It is a medication that would control fleas and ticks.As they talked they discovered that each cat have far fewer visits to that particular problem was before I left the room.

Cats naturally chew and scratch your funiture or walls then place your cat to get a cat is designed for larger animals since some models are intended to deter your feline the right food.It can be tested and immunized for other cats are put-off by the local township provides a cat as it is best to keep clean.This also prevents the claw from growing back.They can do to retrain your cat to respond.There are many products today can eliminate the odor and can ruin your relationship with your pet understand that you place a carpeted shelf on a window perch or chair pulled up close will also spray a lot of questions of those adult fleas on these whenever they have urinated prior to, and even tricks.

Cat Spraying Everywhere

So, we have two choices here; let the cat looks like the urine and feces and waste as they discuss how each would run their Customer Service Department.With a little costly but they dislike being held.Firstly, your cat because they have not yet been neutered.Taking the time to teach your furry friend to use their litter box can work miracles these days.Occasionally caused by an allergy, try to escape

Viral and other animals that enjoy exercise.Your cat uses the litter box more often than usualTherefore, put a rubber bath mat in the process easier but screen doors this is that you can do to prevent your cats together, and they come up with it for something else, like changing the litter box.The purpose of these chores, and/or you experience fleas on your pet.He had gone blind, and maybe they even had those heavy-weights in their territory, as they age, they lose muscle tone, including muscles that control the growth such as food, water, shelter and medical attention or affection away from the furniture will result in permanent damage or even food bowls.

[zhannabelle-eng]

Zhannabelle speaks on the power of a woman

The happiness and harmony of humanity

Perhaps each of us thinks of herself to be an ordinary woman who would hardly be able to influence our destiny. We don’t even mention influencing all of humanity. But that's not really true. Any woman is unique and endowed with abilities she may not have known about. Do you want to know why this happens? Zhannabelle will tell you about the activation of female power.

Use your imagination and picture that you've gone on holiday out of town. In the bosom of nature, you wanted to take a lot of pictures, which you did. Of course, were posted the photos you took in your social networks, as many people do today. Eventually, your gadget died out. There's certainly no point in finding the socket. There is no way there is one in the nature. So what do we do? In this situation, a power bank can bring your smartphone back to life.  

What if we're talking about a person, not a gadget? You'll have to work first to be able to go on a picnic like this. Where will the car, food, clothes, and smartphone come from? All this requires certain monetary investments. You'll have to spend your energy at first to make money. 

Probably, many people have wondered: is it possible to recharge your health and youth? What kind of power bank can you use to be able to forgive and love, to be happy no matter what? All this is real! Let's find out all the details.

Male uniqueness: what is it? 

A man who strives to develop his skills, always has the goals of achieving them before him. Imagine that a man is a smartphone. Even if the model is not quite perfect, but the main purpose is to change the world around it. Some men can create this world, others, on the contrary - destroy.  

In this case, both need an energy source. If there is no energy, the man becomes passive right away, he will lose interest in life. He is likely to seek solace in drugs, alcohol, gambling.

This is the best way for him not to feel the unbearable reality. 

Woman: What is her uniqueness? 

Helping others is the main goal of a healthy woman. Perhaps you will not agree, because you do not feel this and there are no such examples around you. The key word here is "healthy".  

When a woman has health problems or is oppressed by something, she herself will need energy support. Want to learn about effective techniques for obtaining such support and know a special practice that will help you personally? You will get it all. 

Many would agree that a healthy woman is a powerful source of energy. A woman's body is capable of generating enough energy to give birth to a new person. If she's healthy and doesn't waste energy on something negative, of course. 

Such a woman certainly has both desire and ability to help her children, parents and friends. In the example above, woman acts as a power bank for her close people.

If she reveals her skills in the right way, she will be able to help all those around her. 

You've heard a phrase "open-hearted woman" more than once, haven’t you? That's the women we are talking about. They're always in the spotlight. They are more likely to marry, to hold leadership positions, even to become leaders of social movements.

The main thing is to fully develop their skills to become a strong source of knowledge for others. It is necessary to know how to generate and send such energy to improve the quality of their lives and the entire humanity.  

Do you think there are no such women? It turns out there are. Zhannabelle, who received wise training and became the successor of the traditions of Siberian shamanism, became such a woman in our time.

Shaman’s magic is one of the most ancient ones, going from depths of the beginning of a life. People of Siberia are especially endowed with this power.  

Divine energy of transformation 

Have you experienced a burst of vitality from getting friendly support and a warm hug? In such moments you always want to do something special and kind. Now imagine that every person will be endowed with a portion of positive energy. Even guardians of law and order, politicians and businessmen - each of them will get their positive portion of warmth. When the energy passes through their hearts, they will surely do a good deed that will be useful for all humanity. 

It is wrong to think that this is impossible. Everything is quite real, thanks to the women who have already received wise knowledge and energy support by attending Zhannabelle's seminars. She is an experienced researcher of ancient places of power. These are the places where she conducts her seminars and practices.

The Places of Power are special areas of the planet. It is there the strong energy is fixed. When you get there, you feel a strong energy impact.

Zhannabelle is open to everyone. Today she wants to share one of her most important secrets. Spreading energy is only possible if the woman does self development and then the energy she receives is transferred to others. She simply helps her family and those around her to become more successful and happier. The most effective way to do this is through individual consultations and seminars.

You can bring a photo of your loved one to the class or consultation to ask for a ritual for them. Also, she selects an amulet to protect your family tree.  

Why do you think this happens? Actually, it has to do with the fact that every woman can accept divine transformative energy. In doing so, she becomes a conductor, transmitting energy to others. 

People are charged with positive Power when being in the powerful energy field of Zhannabelle. Even being close to such a woman, they start to change dramatically for the better, their life is getting better.

So it is very important to attend seminars, practice, take online classes. It is better to communicate with Zhannabelle personally. This will help to get rid of the negative and fill with light and pure energy of the power quickly. Everything around you will also begin to change through it, because this is how the cosmic law works..

The story of Sophia

"Before I met Zhannabelle, my legs had been hurting badly for a long time, because of the varicosity. It was even difficult for me to stand. Walking was just a torture. I tried different medications, but nothing helped. The release from pain was only temporary, but then it returned even more intensive.  

One day, a friend recommended me to attend Zhannabelle's seminar. I'll tell you the truth, I wasn't hoping for a release from the disease. But after meeting with this unique woman, I felt confidence, a burst of vital energy. 

Now I am grateful to God for bringing me to Zhannabelle's seminar! I can't even remember the pains, they're gone. I can dance freely. Now I recommend Zhannabelle to everyone, she will help to improve your health, get free from your fears of what the future holds and failure.

The Story of Darina

"I must have, like so many, constantly poured my personal energy into unrealised desires. For example, when I didn't buy an interesting book or purse that I saw from a colleague, I spent all day thinking about whether I did the right thing... Well, all this time I was just "giving" the thing I did not buy with my free personal energy! It's kind of a small thing, but there are a lot of things like that. In the morning, when choosing between a dress and pants, having chosen to wear the dress, I kept arguing with myself about whether I did the right thing. That’s what I did all the time. 

Sometimes when I came home at night, I was completely exhausted. There was only enough strength to get to my favorite sofa and fall on it quickly. Then, to eat and sleep. Tomorrow is again full of a million opportunities that I'm depriving myself of. I could do something new, help someone. 

I've always been afraid that I'll never realize what's important in my life. But, I decided to try Zhannabelle's practices to learn how to release the energy of desire. I think it's a miracle! After that, I learned to control power by turning information into knowledge. I am developing self-sufficiency and directing it towards my spiritual development.

Female practices are a set of exercises to fill with female energy. It helps to improve the physical, psychological and emotional state. As a result, body clamps are removed, and energy flows freely and easily.

You should remember the main goal - to free yourself from the load of unrealized desires that accumulate, prevent the free flow of energy from the inside out, from dreams to realization. 

The effectiveness of the practice "Urgent battery charging" (exclusively female).

Dear woman, Zhannabelle wants to share a very effective practice with you! Believe me, thanks to this approach, you will feel the rush of energy, because you will be connected to an inexhaustible source of energy. Let's remember the example of charging the phone again.  

You can perform the exercises not only by yourself, but also invite your friend. So, do the following simple steps:

Stand straight. Put your legs a little wider than your shoulders.

Place your palms at the bottom of your abdomen. Cover your right hand with your left hand. Close your eyes and imagine you're in a tunnel.

Now swing your hips alternately to the sides as if you were trying to push the wall from different sides. Imagine you have to make the tunnel wider. Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth. Always mentally expand the tunnel of your skills, making it wide and spacious. 

With your hands outstretched, start circling with your palms, as if winding pearl necklaces on your wrists - a symbol of well-being. Also try to swing your hips clockwise in time, making the circles wider. You will definitely feel the energy accumulating at the bottom of your abdomen, gathering from the surrounding space. 

Then put your palms on the bottom of your abdomen again. This time your left arm should cover your right palm. Move your hips as if drawing the sign of infinity. Feel in your mind that you begin to manage the energy, know how to guide it to people who need your support. Wish them success, kindness and prosperity. 

Then stop. Put your palms in the area of your heart, better close your eyes and watch your new state for a few minutes. Inside, thank the entire planet, the world around you. Do not forget to say thank you to the Higher Powers for their patronage and help. 

The most important thing! Always remember the cosmic law! Only you can create the future and the future of your family and the whole planet depends directly on you! At Zhannabelle's seminars, rituals, individual consultations you will be able to make a deeper study of all inquiries: personal life, health, well-being of yourself and your family. Zhannabelle is waiting for you at her events.

Only a woman can hold in her hands the whole universe, built on pure love, joy and harmony! And you are this woman!

[nash-bby118]

BATIM Fanfic: A Different Tune AU - Chapter 3

Note: Basically a shortened version of Chapter 3. Next chapter will be better and will be posted in a few minutes. 

Hours later, Dani woke up and rubbed her head as she slowly sat up on the infirmary bed. Wasn’t very comfy but it was either that or the hammock and Boris seemed content with sleeping in it.

After stretching, she checked her phone and saw it was now 10 A.M.

“Whoa.” Her eyes widened. “I was more exhausted than I thought. Hard to believe we were here at around 7:00-7:30 P.M. and it’s now morning.”

After grabbing her MP3 off of the floor, she got up and walked out of the room towards the table Boris was sitting at with her phone in her hands. She tried to text and call someone but still no luck.

She didn’t hear any police walking around so what the Hell? Did her friends not get help and leave her to die instead?

“Of course I wouldn’t have service now with being deeper in the studio and all. Couldn’t even get it on the main floor.” She mumbled to herself but loud enough that Boris heard.

As she sat down, Dani put her MP3 on the table and she looked up to finally seeing Boris staring at her devices in a curious way. She glanced down at both of them and realized he probably never saw something like it before.

“Oh. You never saw a smart phone or a MP3 player before. Did you?” She asked him and he shook his head.

Checking the percentage on her phone, she noticed she still had close to 70% left. No harm in showing him some stuff. Right?

“Come over.” Dani motioned him over. “I’ll show you it.”

As he did, he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a question on it.

“What year is it? I don’t remember anything after the 1950s.” 

“It’s 2017.” Dani replied, making him give her a startled look.

“That long!?” Boris wrote. “I can’t believe this! I didn’t know that much time has passed! Explains how far technology seems to have come. Right?  What are your things with you?”

“Well, this is a smart phone. You can call, text, play games, send and receive email, use the camera in it, and all sorts of other stuff.” She held up the bigger device then pointed to the other on the table. “And that’s a MP3 player. It plays music and can hold a lot of songs. You can even text and do mostly everything but call on it too.”

“Can I see the camera? What is this… text, that you speak of? And email too?” Boris questioned.

Dani began to show him what texting and email was. As well as some social media accounts and games she had on her phone. After showing him how to call someone on it, she ended with the camera.

“Smile!” She held the camera up. After taking the picture and showing it to him, she continued. “Congrats! You took your first selfie!” She giggled then showed him the other side of the camera too and how it can switch and even record video.

After she was done showing him everything on her phone, she decided to do the same with her MP3 player. Skipping over everything similar that it can do like her phone and going straight to the music.

Boris pointed to her ear buds as she unplugged them from the device.

“Those are to make sure I’m the only one that can hear the music playing so I don’t disturb others.” She then showed him a few of her favorite songs.

About a hour later, she had made some bacon soup for them, still unsure how old it actually is but she was starving and didn’t know when she would eat again.

As they ate, she answered more of Boris’ questions about life nowadays and how much the world has changed. 

Dani decided to stick with the new technology stuff so she didn’t have to go into all the history and other things that had happened since the 1950s. As well as other happy stuff.

“I wish I could leave this place.” Boris suddenly wrote.

“Can’t you? Or are you worried about what people might think about the whole cartoon character being alive thing.” Dani asked.

“That. And I don’t know if I can leave this place. The ink machine… it’s sort of trapping me here.”

“Kind of like what happened with Sammy?” She asked and he nodded.

“We’re all trapped here really. Only one that can leave is you. Speaking of which, why don’t we head out?” Boris suggested and she agreed.

Once all of her stuff was back in her pockets, she started cursing herself for not bringing a small purse at the very least. Then they headed out the door and into the hallway.

As they wandered through the dark hallways, she decided to use a nearby flashlight so her battery wouldn’t die faster on her phone. Eventually they had to be separated so Boris could open the door.

Dani walked through the toy department, hoping she would find Boris again soon. She couldn’t help but squeeze and listen to the pleasant squeaking noise that the plushies made. It made her want to bring a Boris one home and maybe even a Bendy and Alice too.

She found another recording and listened to it, feeling like the voice sounded familiar to her.

‘But it couldn’t be.’ She laughed to herself.

After a few minutes found herself in another room. The lights went out and she stopped in the middle of the floor as…someone was singing a song right when the screens turned on.

“I’M ALICE ANGEL!” A figure jumped up and banged on the glass as she screamed at her.

Dani’s mouth dropped, unsure of what she saw as she started to shiver in the darkness.

"I see you there. A new fly in my endless web. Come along now. Let's see if you're worthy to walk with angels.” The female voice chuckled.

Soon, the lights turned back on and the door that had been shut before was now open.

Slowly, Dani walked through and came up to two different rooms. An angel and a demon path? Which one should she take?

‘Hmm I had enough ink for a while.’ She shuddered, looking at all the ink in the demon path.

Going over to the other room, she jumped when she heard a door shutting nearby. Figuring it was the other room, she continued on without looking back and pressed the ‘play’ button on the recording on the couch.

“Everything feels like it's coming apart. When I walked into the recording booth today, Sammy was there with that... Allison. Apparently, I didn't get the memo. Alice Angel will now be voiced by Miss Allison Pendle. A part of me died when he said that. There's gotta be a way to fix this!”

“Well… that sucks.” She muttered. “What a way to be told you’re being replaced by someone else.”

Dani continued on her journey and felt relieved when she came across Boris the Wolf waiting for her with a pipe.

“Boris! You scared me to death! I see you found something we can use to protect ourselves with?” She said as he handed the pipe over.

A few minutes later, they were in the elevator and that… Alice Angel continued to talk to her.

"You're so interesting... so different. I have to say, I'm an instant fan. Looks like you've got a date with an angel! Come to me now. Level Nine. Just follow the screams.” The voice rang out in the air.

With nothing else to do, Dani decided to do what she said since she sounded and looked dangerous.

“Go on, step out of your cage. There’s a whole twisted world out here.” Alice giggled.

Dani walked down the stairs, stopping to listen to the recording left by Thomas. Then she went up to the door that Boris proceeded to run through once it was opened enough.

“Boris wait!” She called for him.

However, she quickly came to a stop when she saw what he was staring at after running after him.

“Oh God…” Dani stared at the Boris and Butcher Gang clones. She recognized them on a poster she saw just a little bit earlier before being attacked by one of them.

As she took a few steps forward, Alice continued.

"Look around. It took so many of them to make me so beautiful. Anything less than perfect was left behind. I had to do it. She made me.”

“Who?” Dani asked, knowing she wasn’t going to get a response.

Leaving Boris staring at his clone, she gradually made her way to the other side of the room, finding another recording left by Susie sounding… happier. Definitely before she found out about being replaced.

Then she went into the next room, unable to stop herself from stepping forward and staring at the creature getting electrocuted.

She did stop walking when Alice started speaking.

"Hm. Now we come to the question... Do I kill you? ...Do I tear you apart to my heart's delight? The choices of the beautiful are unbearable. How's a girl to choose?” She chuckled as Dani stared at her. “Take this little freak for instance! He crawled in here... Trailing his tainted ink to my door! It could have touched me! It could have pulled me back!!”

Dani tilted her head at what sounded like a voice change.

‘That’s… odd…’ She thought.

“Do you know what it's like? Living in the dark puddles? It's a buzzing, screaming well of voices! Bits of your mind, swimming... like... like fish in a bowl!” Alice continued. “The first time I was born from its' inky womb, I was a wriggling, pussing, shapeless slug. The second time... well... It made me an angel! I will not let the demon touch me again. I'm so close now. So... almost perfect. Yes. I will spare you. For now. Better yet... I'll even let you ascend and leave this place. If you will do a few eensy, weensy little favors for me first. Return to the lift, my little errand girl. We have work to do!"

“Okay…” Dani muttered, doing as she was told and going back to the lift, but being stopped to grab a plunger.

She did have a feeling of relief when Boris was already there waiting.

--- A few hours later ---

It took a while but she eventually did all of the errands Alice wanted her to do while hiding from Bendy and fighting any other monster that appeared to her.

As they slowly ascended upwards, Alice continued to speak to her before she started screaming again.

Dani’s legs began to shake as she tried to hold on as the elevator dropped suddenly and Boris was cowering in the corner.

All the while, Alice was screaming about how he was the ‘perfect’ Boris and that she wanted him.

“I need him! I need his insides so I can be beautiful again!”

‘Ew.’ Dani thought.

“Now give him to me! Better yet, I’ll take him! Once. Your. DEAD!!”

Dani closed her eyes as she fell backwards and hit her head. When she wakes up again, she’ll be surprised if she doesn’t have any sort of brain damage or a concussion.

---- A short time later ---

“Huh? What?” She mumbled as she was shook awake.

When her eyes cleared up, she saw Boris looking afraid and shaking her shoulders. Boris? What was wrong with him?

She blinked and her headed started to hurt and her vision started to get blurry again.

The last thing she saw was a figure coming up from behind Boris.

“B-Boris.” Dani said, trying to get him to turn around.

But he didn’t. He kept his attention on her as Alice came up and grabbed him from behind.

Dani couldn’t help but start shaking and yelp when she saw Boris getting dragged down the hallway.

Despite her head hurting, she tried in vain to get up and go after them. After standing up for a second, she immediately fell back down.

“Boris…” She muttered as she closed her eyes.

A whine slipping out of her mouth as her eyes began to tear up.

“…Please forgive me.” And with that, she fell asleep.

[eryiss]

Fraxus Week 2017 - Reversal Of Fate

Summary: At a low point in his life where everything seems to be on top of him, Freed finds himself sitting alone on his apartment stairs. He finds himself questioning why fate was being cruel to him. But, in a complete reverse to what he expected, fate decides to send Laxus Dreyar to his door. (Modern AU)

You can read it on Archive Of Our Own, FanFiction or under the cut. I hope you enjoy. ^.^

Reversal Of Fate

Fate could be both incredibly kind and incredibly cruel.

For Freed, fate seemed to be insistent on only delivering the latter. Over the last month, his life seemed to be imploding in on itself. The legal firm he worked for had been bought out and they'd replaced almost all of the staff, leaving Freed without a job; his car had been practically destroyed by a drunken driver without insurance, meaning he was forced into losing his no claims bonus; and his mother had been taken into hospital, leaving him with a constant state of worry for her health.

Today, fate seemed to be particularly annoyed at him. His aunt had come to visit him, constantly asking about his mother's wellbeing. This would be a kind gesture, if it wasn't obvious how she wanted favourable treatment in regard to the will if, as she had constantly phrased, 'The worst were to happen.' The idea of being responsible for his mother's will was bad enough without greedy relatives scurrying out of the woodwork to get a generous amount of inheritance.

And to top it all off, his apartment building was having a power cut, meaning they keypad at the door wouldn't work and he couldn't get in.

"Thank you." Freed sighed into his phone gently. "No, I don't mind waiting. See you later."

Freed hung up on his roommate, and the only person he knew who had an actual key to the building, Bickslow. He slid his phone back into his pocket, knowing that the battery wouldn't last with the luck he was having today, and sat down on the small steps that led to the door of the building. He put his head in his hands.

He simply felt exhausted, both emotionally and physically. It felt like the world was conspiring against him and throwing anything it could to make his life harder. He felt like he could just close his eyes and sleep for a month, but that would require a bed. A bed which he currently didn't have access to!

Sitting on the stone steps did give him a small amount of relief. His car was still being repaired so he took a taxi to and from the hospital. It seemed that the taxi driver was either being impatient or simply didn't like Freed, as he dropped him off nowhere near his apartment and drove away before Freed could complain. He considered reporting the driver to whoever he was meant to, but that would probably backfire on him in some way.

He leant against the small railing on the staircase, absentmindedly tapping his fingers against the stairs he was sitting on. Bickslow had promised that he'd come home as soon as he started his brake, which would take just under thirty minutes. He was tempted to find something to do, but didn't want to miss Bickslow when he eventually came. So, he sat back and waited.

From: Aunt Victoria

Thank you for keeping me company today, it was nice catching up with you.

Frowning down at his phone at the seemingly random text from his aunt, Freed pushed his hair behind his ear and waited. The three little dots had appeared at the bottom of the screen as his aunt texted something else. He slightly wished that no text came, so he could pretend he hadn't noticed the message and ignore it. But unfortunately, another grey box of text shot up. Freed unintentionally clenched his hands around his phone.

From: Aunt Victoria

If you manage to find my reading glasses, please drop them off at my house as soon as you can xx

It would have taken so little effort to at least pretend she was interested in her sister's wellbeing. A small message of sympathy or even just a simple 'give her my love when you see her' would have appeased Freed. But no, she was far too focused on the obviously more important issue of her reading glasses. The damn things weren't even real, they were just a gaudy fashion accessory she used for attention.

He closed his messaging app, not wanting to read the text again and have his anger for his aunt grow. His eyes closed in defeat when placed his hand in his pocket and realised his headphones weren't there; he couldn't even listen to music to distract himself as he waited!

"Hey." A gruff voice said from above.

Freed looked up to see a tall man with broad shoulders looking down at him with a frown. He was holding a paper cup with something steaming inside of it and seemed to be waiting for Freed to respond. He didn't recognise the man, but his building was fairly large so he couldn't know everyone.

"Sorry, I'll get out of your way." Freed shuffled to the left so he wasn't obstructing the staircase.

"What, no." The guy said. "I just wanted to know if you're okay. You look a little… pissed off."

Biting back the urge to respond with the many snarky comments going through his mind, he slightly shook his head and laughed to himself, somewhat bitterly. It was ridiculous, he was sitting on the stairs of his apartment feeling sorry for himself; he was one impossibly eloquent monologue from being a sitcom character.

"No, I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, though." Freed looked down, but noticed that the shadow the man was casting didn't leave. He looked up again. "I'm sorry, should I know you? I've had a busy day and-"

"No, you don't know me." The guy said. "I work at that store across the street. I see you come and go sometimes. Fuck, that sounds weird."

Freed sat and watched as the tall guy ran a hand through his short blonde hair. He waited for the blonde to complete whatever train of thought he was on, looking at the larger man's face. He was handsome, managing to look almost sensitive and rugged at the same time. The large scar on his face was interesting as well, looking exactly like a jagged lightning bolt. How one could get a scar like that, Freed was interested in knowing.

"Can I try that again." The guy sighed. Freed warily gestured for him to do so. "Thanks, right. So, I saw you've been sittin' here for like ten minutes or something. And it's pretty cold so I thought I'd give you this to keep you warm."

The guy leant down slightly and offered Freed the steaming paper cup. The other man took it slowly, looking down to see a thick serving of tomato soup inside of it. It did smell incredibly nice and wrapping his hands around the thin paper cup was already starting to warm him up; he hadn't realised how cold the street had become, not to mention how dark.

"Thank you, that's very considerate." Freed smiled slightly, taking a cautionary sip of the liquid. It was slightly too hot to drink. "I have my wallet, if you want me to pay?"

"Nah, it's on me. I'm trying to do something good for someone every day." The guy smiled back. "I'm Laxus, if you wanna know."

"Freed."

The two remained in silence, Freed cautiously sipping at his soup. He risked a glance up at the man named Laxus, noticing him frowning at his face again. He tried not to let it bother him, not at all sure what he should do in a situation like this. Freed very much kept to himself whenever he could, so this form of social interaction was foreign for him.

But still, the cautious and confused frown on Laxus' face remained and he showed no sign of leaving. Freed kept his lips against the rim of the cup, the blonde's face going back to a small neutral expression.

"Look." He spoke up again. "I know that this is none of my business and you probably don't want to talk to some guy who works at a shitty store when you've got all your work friends who are all doctors or business owners or whatever."

"Lawyers. I'm a lawyer."

"Shit." Laxus muttered, impressed. "But, yeah, sorry. But you look exactly like I did when I was at my mom's funeral. And nobody sits on their stairs looking like that unless they've had a really shit day. So, wanna talk about it?"

Laxus was looking down at Freed with a tiny but comforting smile. There wasn't any pity in his eyes, in fact they seemed oddly genuine. The blonde man was still slightly hunched up, so talking to strangers like this wasn't something he did often either. Freed took another small sip from his soup and smiled up at Laxus, his smile slightly sadder.

"Would you really be okay with listening to somebody you've never met rant about their problems?" Freed questioned, fingers tapping on the side of the cup. "Because, if I'm honest, ranting to somebody I don't know seems like it could be quite helpful for me right now."

Laxus' smile widened by a fraction as he took a step towards where Freed was sitting. He stopped and motioned to the steps. "D'you mind if I…"

"It's technically private property, but I'll grant you temporary access today. But if you annoy me I'll call the police and have you arrested for trespassing." Freed showed the hint of a smirk.

With a chuckle, Laxus turned and sat down on the step beside Freed, though he made sure that there was enough room to his left so people could walk past him if they were leaving or entering the building. They sat in silence for a short moment, neither knowing how they should approach the topic of what was bothering Freed.

"Have you ever had a day that's just completely normal?" Freed began. "Absolutely nothing happens in it but you end up reassessing every decision you've ever made. Thinking about all the insignificant things you could have done that would have might have changed your life. Because, even though you don't really know why, you're so exhausted with life that you just feel like anything's better than having all this pressure pushing down on you?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"For the past two months, that's been an everyday event." Freed chuckled dryly.

Laxus let out a low whistle. "You got any idea why y'feel like that?"

Looking directly into Laxus' eyes, Freed laughed. The lawyer could rattle off a list of reasons why he was feeling like that, he'd done that very thing in his mind as a makeshift coping mechanism for all the stress he was under. So far, it hadn't helped him.

"I don't want to bore you with it."

That was partially the reason. He also didn't want to list off his reasons only to realise half way through that he sounded like a petulant child who thought that he was owed the world for gracing it with his presence. Of course, he knew that, in reality, his issues were valid and the concerns were warranted. It was a shame that coming to that realisation was considerably easier than actually voicing his issues.

"Freed. I'm gonna go home, eat a microwave curry and sleep. Nothin' else." Laxus grinned. "Watching paint dry is more interesting. You won't bore me."

Seeing it as Laxus' mistake to make, Freed began to explain his recent troubles. He didn't go into detail about the more personal aspects, like why his mother had been taken into hospital. He was as open as one could be when he was telling a stranger why he was sitting on his front steps feeling sorry for himself.

To his credit, Laxus had simply sat back and listened. Although Freed didn't want to make eye contact with the stranger, the few times he glanced up at the other man's face he did seem to be paying attention. It was almost funny, a complete stranger was better and paying attention to Freed's issues than anyone in his family.

"You, erm, you said you lost your job." Laxus said after Freed had stopped. "But said you're still a lawyer."

"I got another job, at a smaller start-up firm. I get paid just over half of what I was making before, so I've been forced to make some adjustments." Freed sighed, taking a gulp of his now cooled soup. "I shouldn't complain, though. My colleagues are an improvement and a job is a job. I just feel like I should be making progress in my career right now, not going back."

"I lost my job a year back, used to work at a gym. I was a manager actually." Laxus leant back. "Me and a couple of the personal trainers got into a fight when we were put in the open. Pretty nasty one too, couple bones got broken. It was my fault, so my granddad, he owned it, fired me. That's why I'm working over there now."

Both men looked across the road to the small, tacky convenience store on the street corner. Freed furrowed his brown in confusion. Going from being the manager of a gym to working at a convenience store seemed like a very large step back. Having managerial status in the past should have opened more opportunities than that of a recently graduated teenager. He looked back to Laxus with confusion, who seemed to have anticipated this reaction and was grinning down at him. Freed looked back down with a tint of red on his face.

"The gym's a family business. Gramps said I can come back if I start making improvements. He's started to let me work a bit, I'm training a couple clients."

"Improvements?"

"I've got anger problems." Laxus' foot tapped against the ground in slight anxiousness of admitting that. "I'm better than I was before, I think. I go to this group therapy thing once every two weeks. They're the people who said I should try to do something good every day, hence the soup. The people in charge are really fucking patronising, but I think it's working."

"So, is that why you had a fight then?"

"Yeah, I thought they weren't pulling their weight so I nearly doubled their work hours when I was pissed off. They tackled me about it and things got ugly."

Laxus winced back at the thought. He had never been a personal trainer until a few months ago when his grandfather gave him a client and only then did he realise how much work they actually put in. Looking back, he would have acted in exactly the same way they both did if his work hours had been doubled without his consent. It was why he put up with the occasional snide comment or the extra bit of work Natsu and Gajeel left for him to complete, even though they'd mainly forgiven him.

"So yeah, I'm just gonna keep working at the store until Gramps thinks I can work at the gym full time again."

They fell into silence again, the street now dark as the early winter nights drew in. The occasional car drove past them or a pedestrian strutted by, glancing down at them before going on their way. The weather was crisp and cool, but Freed had half a cup of soup left and Laxus had a pretty extravagant looking coat slung over his shoulders.

Freed looked at Laxus from the corner of his eyes. The situation was still so unusual to him. It was highly probable that Laxus was talking to him as an extension to his daily act of goodness, which Freed was fine with. What did bother Freed was how simple and easy the conversation was between the two. He was a private person and he got the feeling that Laxus usually was as well, yet no awkwardness had occurred. Not for Freed, at least.

"Maybe that's what you should do." Laxus said out of nowhere.

"What?"

"Well, I'm doing something good every day to help me get over my anger shit, so maybe you should do something like that." Laxus frowned in thought. "To me, it seems kinda like you're putting everything on yourself and letting it take over your life. Which makes sense, because of what's actually happening. But maybe, once a day, you should just do something selfish. It'll probably help more than you think."

"I don't really think I should." Freed hesitated. "Once my cars fixed or my mother starts to improve, I'll consider it. But not now."

"It doesn't have to be big. You can include your mom in it if you want." At Laxus' words, Freed frowned again. "You seem like the kinda guy who'll be doing anything he can to help. So you'll probably go to visit your mom and see what you can do to make her life easier, like do her chores or something. Am I right?"

"I suppose."

"So, instead of doin' all that when you see her next, just have fun. Bring in a bag of candy or something and spend some time watching cat videos on your phone or whatever you'd like to do with her." Laxus shrugged. "Play monopoly on an iPad, someone must have made an app for that."

"She does like watching people getting angry at video games." Freed smiled when he heard Laxus fight back a laugh. "She's unusual."

"Sounds like she's fun."

Freed nodded and smiled, taking Laxus back slightly. So far, all the smiles the green haired man had shown had a hint of bitterness behind them or they were forced. But this smile was real, and the man's face relaxed considerably. His features were subtle, but amazing. He was both handsome and beautiful at the same time, being one of few people who could boast that ability. Laxus almost blushed at the sight.

Glancing down at his phone to check the time, Freed realised that Bickslow could have easily come from his job and gave him the key to the apartment by now. He didn't find himself annoyed, his conversation with Laxus was actually quite enjoyable. Telling someone why he was so stressed did seem to relax him slightly. Apparently being stressed was making him more stressed. It was a vicious cycle.

Laxus managed to glance at the time on Freed's phone, sighing inwardly. It was getting late and his apartment block was a piece of crap. It automatically locked at eleven, meaning he would be left in a similar situation to Freed if he didn't get there in time. If he left now, he'd be able to get home with a fair amount of time to spare if the traffic was good. However, the drunken nightclub goers were going to start populating the streets soon and he always avoided them when he could; the last time he dealt with them someone pissed on his bike and he refused to let that happen again.

"I'm really sorry, but I'm gonna have to go. Are you sure your roommates gonna come?" Laxus sighed as he stood up. "Because my apartment's only half an hour away, you can take my bed and I'll sleep on the sofa. Or the other way around, if you don't wanna sleep in another guys bed."

"No, he's reliable. And if not, my upstairs neighbour works nights so I can wait until he leaves for his shift. Thank you though, it's a kind offer."

Laxus nodded, turning slightly to walk away but not moving. He and Freed were looking at each other, both smiling slightly. Neither wanted the conversation to end, but it needed to. Laxus widened his smile for a split second as a parting gesture before turning fully and walking. Freed stood up.

"Would you maybe like to go for a drink sometime?" He said with a small blush, Laxus turning around after mouthing a tiny 'Oh thank god'. "Maybe we can meet when I'm feeling a little less sorry for myself. If you want to, that is?"

"Yeah, yeah I would like that." Laxus smiled, matching the tine blush. "That could be your selfish thing for the day. Should we exchange numbers?"

Freed nodded and pulled out a pen and patted himself down to see if he had anything that he could write on. Laxus watched this and chuckled, taking the receipt that he'd gotten after buying Freed's soup from his pocket. He scribbled his number down and passed it to Freed, who smiled and held it against his phone, ready to use it later.

"So, text me I guess." Laxus grinned. "Or call, if you want. Your choice."

"I will, thank you." Freed smiled again. "Also, maybe after the drink we could go for a meal. If that's something you'd enjoy."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that." Laxus nodded, face red again. "It's been a while since I've been on a… had a meal with someone."

"Me too." Freed smiled.

A mutual understanding that the meal wasn't simply a meal now assured, the two stood looking at each other. They were both slightly red, both smiling and both wanting to stay like this for as long as they could.

But sadly, the booming grandfather clock in a ground floor apartment made Laxus realise how late it was. He sighed and gave Freed a small grin, telling him that he really did need to leave so he could get home. Freed nodded and widened his smile again.

"See you 'round, then." Laxus smiled, before muttering. "Fuck it."

He took a step forward and pressed his lips against Freed's cheek. Before the other man had time to react, Laxus was jogging across the road with his hand in the air in a final goodbye to Freed. He was soon hiding behind an alleyway beside the bodega. Freed watched this happen with a small chuckle, resisting the urge to place his fingers on where Laxus had kissed his cheek.

Deciding that there was no point in standing anymore, Freed sat back down on the staircase. He imputed Laxus' number into his phone, not under any stupid nickname as he was a grown man and not a love-struck teenager, and leant back on the steps to wait for Bickslow, now smiling.

A loud revving made him look up, just in time to catch a man of Laxus' size ride out of the same alleyway Laxus had gone into on an expensive looking yellow motorbike, wearing full leathers. Any doubt of who it was got put to rest when the bike slowed past him and the man nodded to him from behind his helmet. Freed gave a small wave towards him, the rider zooming down the road quickly. In a manner that almost looked like showing off.

"Well well well." A tauntingly bouncy voice said from Freed's right. "I've been living with a closet flirt all this time."

Freed rolled his eyes, standing up again as Bickslow walked down the street with the key in his hand. The blue haired man was grinning from ear to ear and it was fairly obvious as to why. Freed felt himself giving a half-hearted glare at his roommate.

"How long were you spying on me for?"

"Don't know. Started when I realised you were thawing the icy heart of Laxus Dreyar." Bickslow grinned when he saw Freed's confused face. Most likely because he knew Laxus' name. "Remember all those times when I said I wanted to set you up with the hunky blonde biker who works across the street? Because that guy you were talking to is hunky, is blonde, is a biker and I think that maybe he works across the street."

"Oh." Freed chuckled slightly, blushing again. "I suppose that you might have been right when you said we'd get along."

"You bet your ass I was." Bickslow cackled. "But if you get in bed with him, I don't know much of your ass will-"

"Don't finish that sentence, please." Freed grumbled with a larger blush.

"Fine. Now let's get you inside and you can tell me all about your special little date." Bickslow grinned, hopping up the steps and unlocking the door with his key.

"I'd love to, I honestly would." The sarcasm in Freed's voice was palpable. "But I thought that you were on your break. And considering you were spying on me, your break might be ending soon. So, you might want to get back soon."

Bickslow's grin faltered slightly, checking his phone he gulped dramatically. He tossed Freed the key wordlessly and began to run at an incredibly fast speed; which was completely inelegant. Freed chuckled at the undignified behaviour, glad that he could at least have the night to himself while he came to terms with the fact he had a date without Bickslow hammering on him for any details he could get.

As he walked into the building and locked the door behind him, he realised that the sincere smile had remained on his face. Perhaps he was unknowingly exaggerating, but it felt like it had been weeks since he was able to smile properly.

In his mind he began to evaluate what had actually happened. One moment he was complaining to himself about how relentlessly brutal life had been towards him for the last two months, then a stranger was giving him some soup, then he had a date. It was all based off of convenience, as well. Any other taxi would have gotten him home before the power cut, meaning he wouldn't meet Laxus; if he had gotten locked out any earlier he wouldn't have stayed on the steps, meaning Laxus wouldn't have seen him; hell, if Laxus didn't go to that anger management group it was likely he wouldn't have started the conversation.

Perhaps he had to re-evaluate his thoughts on fate. Because it seemed to have reversed it's ideals and was defiantly on his side.

And he was more than happy with that.

[allonsysilvertongue]

The Elusive Miss Trinket

Haymitch Abernathy was pulled out of his self-imposed retirement by the Trinkets with a request of utmost urgency. [Hayffie AU]

The Elusive Miss Trinket: Chapter 3

Haymitch felt her eyes on him with a list of question burning on her lips. He ignored it as he pulled clothes after clothes from the hanger in his wardrobe.

“Haymitch….” Prim called on him quietly. “Katniss told me that you’re not doing this anymore, not after Annie. You don’t have to…for me”

“We talked about this. It’s decided.”

Behind him, Prim exhaled wistfully but to her credit, chose a neutral question. “What’s it like there… Singapore?”

He shrugged. He had done a search on the city-island and there were a few things he could tell Prim – that it was just a small city squashed in between two big countries which often sheltered it from any natural disasters or that they had developed their own colloquial English - but he settled for the easiest.

“Hot.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“Not sure,” Haymitch admitted as he turned around to face Prim. She was standing by his bed, folding clothes into his bag. “As soon as it’s done, I’ll be back. Three months, maybe…”

“She’s not like mum,” she stated out of the blue.

“No, she’s not like your mum. She isn’t missing missing.”

“I think mum’s like her,” Prim said so quietly that Haymitch almost missed it. “I think she wants to leave but … I’m here. So is Katniss. This place kept reminding her of dad, though.”

Haymitch pinched the bridge of his nose.

“It’s difficult for her but she still has responsibilities to you and Katniss,” he added even if it was becoming very glaring that Katniss was the one pulling the weight.

“I know,” Prim said simply, “but it makes me think that if she could, she would have left and start a life elsewhere, just like Mr. and Mrs. Trinket’s daughter. I think – I think I’ll be okay with that, too. If it makes mum feel more… at peace.”

It startled him to hear her talking that way. Perhaps without him realising it, Prim had grown.

“Anyway, when will I meet this tutor?”

“Soon, I guess. The Trinkets will contact you to make arrangements.”

Prim nodded and went back to quietly helping Haymitch with his packing. Katniss had gone off to hunt in the woods as she did every morning. When he had told the three teenagers that he would be leaving for a few months, Katniss had said very little except that he would call to check in whenever he can. Peeta had promised to keep an eye on Chaff and watch after the two girls. It made Katniss scowl but between his amused laugh, Peeta had also offered to drive Haymitch three hours out to Charlotte Douglas Airport.

“You forgot this?”

Chaff wandered into his room, waving a stun gun and a gun that once belonged to Haymitch.

“I won’t need it," Haymitch shook his head. "Euphemia Trinket isn’t in danger - ain't a kidnapping case.”

“You never know, man. She could have a jealous boyfriend or a psycho colleague,” Chaff muttered.

"Then I'll handle it."

"Better be safe than sorry," Chaff insisted.

“Don’t need it,” Haymitch said. He hated guns or the feel of it in his hand. His knife should be enough. “You know it’s illegal to carry those stuffs around in Singapore, yeah?"

"Really?" Chaff folded his arms. "Or you're just fucking with me ‘cause you don't want to bring them?"

"I'm not kidding – guns, stun guns, pepper spray. I don't plan to be thrown in jail before I even make it pass immigration. You’ve asked Beetee to get on board, yeah?”

“Yep,” Chaff nodded in affirmative, finally relenting. “Don’t worry about it. Just get there and we’ll do what we need to do here.”  

Since Stefan had told him about Euphemia and his grandson, Haymitch had gleaned that she was active online so he had tasked Beetee with unearthing everything he could about her. In this day and age, he was quite certain she would have at least one social media account and that was all Beetee would need. In Haymitch’s line of duty, the simplest and seemingly most insignificant of detail could be a clue.

Haymitch grabbed his phone with the intention of checking that the battery had been fully charged but he ended up going to his photo gallery to have a look at the photograph Stefan had sent to him for his referral. He told himself, as he stared at the picture, that it was to commit her face to memory but ….

“She’s pretty,” Prim observed, peeking into his phone as she stood next to him with a pile of neatly folded clothes.

“I don’t see what that has got to do with anything,” he murmured.

“Oh, nothing,” Prim’s eyes twinkled, “but she looks happy where she’s at now. You’re going to be spoiling her party by bringing her home.”

“Too bad for her,” he chuckled. “That’s my job now. If I don’t do it, guess who’s not getting a tutor and that apothecary is gonna remain shut forever – a shame, yeah?”

XxX

His two hours flight to Chicago went relatively smooth with no incident.

It was the long flight from there to Hong Kong that he had a problem with. He finished a book mid-way during the flight and because he was pacing himself with the drink, he grew restless quickly. Given his career, the time he spent sitting on the flight doing nothing should be something he was used to. After all, he had spent hours in a car watching his target but … Chaff was always there to fill the gaps and the silence.

His gaze strayed to the woman next to him, engrossed with the in-flight movie she was watching. At times, he wished such mindless things could occupy him so he would not be in this state – exhausted but not fully able to close his eyes for even a short nap. He leaned back against the seat, arms folded across his chest with his leg tapping a restless beat against the floor.

There was still seven hours to go. Seven hours that a normal human being not plagued by nightmares could spend sleeping, but not him.

It was at that moment that he hated Euphemia Trinket, and her selfish reasons for leaving the States.

“Couldn’t have fucking ran off to Hong Kong or to Japan, could you?” he muttered to himself angrily. “That’ll save me a flight.”

This woman, he thought, better be worth my time.

His two hours layover was spent walking mindlessly around the airport and visiting souvenir shops. He bought three different items for Katniss, Peeta and Prim each and paid for it using the credit card Stefan Trinket had provided him.  

The last leg of his flight from Hong Kong to Singapore went by in a blur. He had lost track the date and day but the only thing he was aware of was the fact that it was one in the morning and having travelled for more than twenty hours, he was exhausted.

But he was alert. He had never been here and he was always wary of unfamiliar places.

As he stood on the travelator, his gaze swept through the premises watching the other travellers hurrying over to their gates, to the various machines lining the sidewalk offering money changing services, payment options for online transactions and the computer terminals.

Clearing immigration took him faster than expected and while everyone else was rushing to the conveyor belt for their luggage, Haymitch made a stop at the duty free shop for liquor. It was only when he had two bottles with him that he went to the belt to get his luggage and walked right out of the doors towards the taxi stand.

“Number 7!” the man waved him towards the direction of a taxi once he was in front of the queue.

He blinked and dutifully went to the spot marked seven. He spent the ride staring out of the window and watching the sceneries passed him by but the roads were too bright. There were street lamps every hundred meters and at first, he thought it was just the airport but it was on every street and road, and to his tired eyes, the glare was piercing.

“The streets are too clean,” Haymitch muttered that observation out loud.

The taxi driver briefly looked at him through the rear view mirror.

“Yes,” he nodded. “Don’t throw your rubbish on the streets only at the rubbish bin. Otherwise, I tell you, the Gahmen will fine you hundreds of dollars, make you do community service! That’s why everybody scared to litter," the driver laughed.

He stared at the back of the driver's head, wondering if the old man was joking before dismissing it.

“Gahmen?” he frowned, picking up on the irregularity instead.

“Government – that’s how we say it,” he chuckled. “Anyway, that’s your hotel. You can see it already.”

It wasn’t his hotel that caught his interest. It was something else. Haymitch straightened in his seat, his attention fully focused on it.

"That's it," he breathed out.

The Singapore Flyer loomed to his left; a bright, giant wheel against the night sky. He had seen it on Google Images but it was always different to see something for oneself. Haymitch made a calculating sweep over the nearby area to possibly identify the location from which Euphemia had taken the photo but it was difficult when they were traveling on the expressway.

XxX

Ever since he checked in and was shown to his room, Haymitch had been staring at the ceiling, occasionally drinking from the bottle and waiting for sleep to claim him.

He had already sent a text message to Katniss to notify her that he had safely arrived. Back at home, he was hoping that Beetee already had some luck with his digging. The Trinkets had sent him here to Singapore and even if the country was small, there were still millions of people here. Their daughter was a needle in the proverbial haystack.

It was not to say that he had no plan of action. He already planned to scout the area surrounding the Flyer tomorrow. It would not hurt to have a look, perhaps even ask around using the photo of her that was in his possession. She could be a regular visitor of that area and people might recognise her.

Haymitch thought of her long and hard while lying in bed. Family could be overbearing, he would grant that, but to distant oneself and completely disappear from her family's life without any phone calls or contact with her parents for years... That was something he could not wrap his head around.

He would give anything to hear his mother's nagging or the quiet creak of the floorboard as his father get a bottle he had hidden from his mother. He would trade his life to have his brother shadow him for an entire day, something which the younger Haymitch found irritating but now missed more than anything.

Whatever the reason may be, the youngest Trinket would have a weakness. He would find hers and use it to convince her to return home so he could close this job.

XxX

"You did what?!" Haymitch sputtered. "Is that … legal?"

Around him, people were giving him uncomfortable side-glances. Aware of this, Haymitch quickened his pace, weaving amongst the crowd until he reached the front of the mall. Unlike the polished, modern looking high-rise that was his hotel at Marina Bay Sands, this old-fashioned building was hardly eye-catching and was only visited by electronic enthusiast.

"Damn it, Beetee, I asked you to snoop. You can't just hack into her… or anyone’s social media account! That's... a breach of privacy."

"Says the private investigator...."

"Fine," he concurred. "What did you find?"

With the phone wedged between his cheek and shoulder, Haymitch entered a shop. Like every other shop that he had passed by since he reached the mall, this one was no different. There were a range of computers and laptops on display both new and second-hand. There were digital cameras and other electronic gadgets, none of which interest him since he was looking for something else entirely, something very specific.

“None of her social media accounts state her address – and I wasn’t expecting to find it, of course. No sensible person would put up their address on Facebook. But I did get a sense of… her, of who she is. There were photos she took while on a run and – “

“Tell me it was near that Flyer,” he muttered.

“Yes,” Beetee chuckled. “I cleaned up some of the photographs with Finnick’s help and extracted some of the background to compare with the map on – “

“Get to the point, Beetee,” Haymitch cut him off knowing full well that Beetee would attempt to explain the technicalities of it, half of which would be lost of him.

He was sounding irritable, he knew. But he had been to three shops so far without finding what he was looking for even if he had asked for it discreetly. He had heard of some shady dealings going on so he was certain he would find it. It was just a matter of asking the right people.

“I believe that she enjoys a run or a stroll by the river which is the area where the Flyer and coincidentally, your hotel is located and –“

“There are two sides to any bloody river, Beetee, what are the odds being in my favour that I’d bump into her?” he asked.

Haymitch drummed his finger against the display casing, waiting for the shop owner who had disappeared into the back of his shop to return. When he emerged, he was holding on to a packaging the size of his palm and handed it to Haymitch.

“This is what you want?”

Haymitch nodded, tearing the package open.

“Well… This might be of interest to you, judging from some of the uploaded photos it looks like Euphemia Trinket has a company… or some online business here. There were photos of bridal dresses and hand bouquets appearing quite often on her Instagram…  Either that or she was planning her wedding. No captions to accompany the photos so it wasn’t very illuminating”

“Right – hold on a minute,” Haymitch pulled the phone from his ear to inspect the small circular device. “This will do. I’ll take it.”

He made sure to pay by cash, just in case, and left the shop.

“I found it and bought it,” he told Beetee. “So did you do a business profile search under her name?”

“I was going to search for her LinkedIn account but I will get to – “

“Did you say wedding? Here? She got married here?” Haymitch hissed into the phone. “That’s fucking great, Beetee. If she has a family here, persuading her to leave would be fucking impossible, and that's not something I want to be telling her parents.”

I know that I continue be a disappointment because Effie and Haymitch still have not met but we will get there, in the next chapter. On the bright side of Chap 3, Haymitch is in the same country as Effie is so that's a plus.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on what Prim said about her mother? Or about what Beetee did/found out? What did Haymitch buy and for what? What do you think of Effie from what we've known of her so far? Let me know!

As I will be leaving for Thailand next week, the next chapter might be posted on Monday (23/1) instead otherwise, the weekend after!

[russellthornton]

Controlling Relationship: 18 Signs You’re Being Coerced Into One

You know the old saying, love is blind. Until you wake up and realize you’re in a controlling relationship and alienated from those you love.

You’re not living in the movie Twilight. Somehow the idea of a controlling relationship suddenly became acceptable. Though they managed to portray that relationship as healthy. In reality, it’s highly toxic.

When love turns into obsession, that’s when you have a problem. Sure, Edward was a rich vampire, but is it really worth your freedom?

18 signs of a controlling relationship

It’s important to recognize the signs of being in a controlling relationship well in advance. So, here are the 18 signs you need to look out for.

#1 Makes you feel guilty when spending time with friends. You’re going to see your friends? But what about me? Ugh, there’s plenty of time for them. Listen, if they’re upset that you spend time with your friends, that’s a problem.

In a healthy relationship, your partner should encourage you to spend time apart from them so you see your friends. They have friends as well that they want to spend time with. If your partner doesn’t have any friends, it’s a very clear sign something’s wrong with them. [Read: 15 questions to reveal a controlling personality instantly]

#2 Wants you to change. You’re too fat, too skinny, your hair is drab. It’s always something. In controlling relationships, they’ll never be happy with how you look. You’ll need to constantly be changing yourself to please them. And guess what? It’ll never be enough.

If someone genuinely likes you, they won’t try to change who you are. I mean, that’s what attracted them to you in the first place. My ex-boyfriend didn’t like me wearing green. Yeah, I know, ridiculous. He wanted me to get rid of all my clothes that color *I didn’t, by the way*. [Read: 15 subtle signs of a controlling boyfriend]

#3 It’s all about the small things. You may not recognize it right away because this can be portrayed as being supportive. However, it’s not. Are you really going to wear that today? That’s how you wash your clothes? That’s what you do in your free time? These are small minor comments.

But they make you second guess what you’re doing and if you’re making the right decisions. Your partner will try to convince that they’re helping you understand the right way of living. [Read: Emotionally abusive relationship: 15 signs you just can’t miss]

#4 They don’t trust you. Do they insist on having your social media passwords? Do they comment on everything you post and who commented on it? Call you when you’re with your friends to see how you’re doing?

Yeah, they’re not doing that because they’re concerned about you. They’re concerned about themselves. They don’t trust you. If they did, they wouldn’t be keeping such close tabs on you. And if you think it can’t get any worse, this untrustworthy behavior is just the beginning of a controlling relationship.

#5 They want to protect you. Listen, Twilight was a hit movie for a reason. The girl came to a small town, was lonely and this attractive man came and picked her up to give her a bright future.

We all have crap going on in our lives, and though relationships do include some sort of protection, your partner is probably taking it to a whole other level. Is your partner’s protective nature supportive or are they controlling everything you’re doing in the name of protecting you? Because if it’s the latter, it’s called trying to make you dependent on them. [Read: 10 scary signs of codependency in your relationship]

#6 Refuses to hear your point of view. Do you have an opinion? Do they stop you from voicing it? Of course, they do. They don’t care about what you have to say. If someone is preventing you from speaking your mind, well, that’s a control mechanism.

#7 Make you indebted to them. Do they buy you anything you want? Take you out for expensive dinners? Sure, they may seem as if they’re very romantic and caring, but nothing comes for free with them. Beware, they’ll make you feel like you owe them something in return, that you’re indebted to them. It won’t be so easy to get out of the relationship because you’ll feel burdened with guilt. [Read: 18 clear signs he’s overprotective and dominating]

#8 You feel like you’re going insane. Do you feel like you’re losing your mind? You partner is probably trying all the tricks in the book, including trying to alter your reality. Sounds intense, right? It’s a method called gaslighting.

This method involves your partner altering your reality and making you second guess your perception. For example, you may have had a fight with your partner last week. They’ll tell you that that didn’t happen because you didn’t see each other last week. [Read: Gaslighting: 16 signs your lover is messing with your mind]

#9 Demeaning your goals. You’re going to that school? It’s not even that good, or don’t try out for that play, you’re not that good of an actor. A healthy relationship consists of two people supporting each other in whatever their goals may be. However, in a controlling relationship, your partner tries to drive you away from completing your goals to control you.

#10 They want you all to themselves. Everyone needs some personal space and time to themselves. Maybe you want to go to yoga class or read a book at the park. Well, your partner’s not going to let that happen.

They try to make you feel guilty that you need time to yourself and that you don’t love them. Recharging your batteries and having time to yourself allows you time to think, and they don’t want that. [Read: 17 relationship red flags that most people completely ignore]

#11 They slowly remove you from your family. If you haven’t talked to your family and friends in a couple of weeks, that’s not a good sign. This starts very subtly and gradually increases over time.

They initially make small comments about your friends and family, or they’ll forget to tell you they called or they’re not a good support system.

Their goal is to make them your only support system. Why? Well, then they have your full control. [Read: How to stop being manipulated in a relationship]

#12 Questions, questions, questions. Who, what, when, where, why?? Expect a list of questions the minute you tell them what you’re doing. Everything must be questioned and you better have an answer. If not, they’ll use every trick in the book to get you to not do what you want. Control freak.

#13 They’re the boss. They pick what you two will do today, they decide where you’re going to eat—they’re the boss. You’ll see this further down in the relationship because usually, in the beginning, there’s a balance of power.

However, as time passes, their true colors show. Typically, this is usually seen when the woman has her first child. But, if you look at the other signs, you don’t have to wait until that point.

#14 It’s always your fault. Listen, it’s always going to be your fault. If your partner cheated on you, it’s because you’re not putting out. If they spilled something on the floor, it’s because you distracted them.

It’ll always be your fault. And when you want to leave the relationship, then they accept some blame until you agree to stay with them. It sounds exhausting, right? If your partner is a control freak, they never want to accept responsibility for their actions. [Read: Don’t stay stuck: 16 strategies to get your shit together]

#15 Substance abuse. If you’re not a big drinker, you don’t smoke, you work out—this is seen as a problem. You’re too strong of a person for them. So, they try to get you drinking a couple glasses of wine a night, get you to save money by quitting the gym. All these little things to make you weak. In a controlling relationship, the only way they control you is if you’re weaker than them.

#16 Uncomfortable sexual interactions. This type of controlling behavior makes its way into the bedroom at some point. It’s only a matter of time.

Perhaps you don’t want to have sex that night, and they force you into it. You’ll be left feeling highly uncomfortable, which is a normal feeling because that is rape. If you’re having uncomfortable and unsettling feelings during sex, something is very wrong. [Read: Date rape – Facts and signs of date rape]

#17 They tease you. Everybody gets teased, that’s normal. However, there’s a fine line between humor and emotional abuse. If they tease you constantly, they’ll say, Oh, I was just teasing you, don’t take it so seriously.

If you say anything back, you’ll be told that your reaction is incorrect and that you have a negative reaction. In a controlling relationship, your feelings are wrong. That works out perfectly for them, why? Because next time, you’ll just sit and take their demeaning jokes. [Read: The 14 telling signs it’s time to give up on a relationship]

#18 You’re guilty before proven innocent. Oh, that’s right, they saw you walking down the street with someone of the opposite sex. So you must have cheated—yup, you definitely cheated.

Your partner probably convinces you that you actually did do something wrong even if you didn’t do anything wrong. They show you your guilty behavior. In turn, you’ll never repeat those actions again. That’s how they control you.

[Read: How to handle controlling behavior in a relationship]

If you’re reading this because you’re suspicious, follow your gut instinct. Make sure you look at these 18 signs to avoid being in a controlling relationship.

The post Controlling Relationship: 18 Signs You’re Being Coerced Into One is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.