#We get so many AWFUL tourists who are talked about behind their backs bcs they DISRUPT PEACE LOUDLY and are rude and inconsiderate

[mx-melancholic]

Country basically dependent on tourism shut up about tourists 'disrupting your culture' challenge: FAILED.

Homophobia isn't a culture. Even religion isn't your culture at this moment. Your culture is tourism. Your culture is earning off these people and their positive experiences to recommend you again to their friends. Your culture is tourist attractions, not hate crimes

[cyclogenesis]

i have to tell you that the second i saw cal and ash on that mountain getaway a couple weeks ago, i thought about how desperately i would love a sequel to your turks & caicos fic set during that trip. (this is not a request, i promise, i just wanted to tell you bc that is one of my fav fics of all time)

Aw anon!! 🥺 Gosh I hadn't even thought about that when I was in my feelings about the mountain getaway pictures, which is wild because I am just remembering now that I started a fic after the honeymoon comment initially happened (like, very soon after, because @elliebirdthings was at that show and told me about it and we were freaking out haha), before we knew that they went to Turks & Caicos, and I had them taking that trip to a cabin in Maine.

Just for kicks, because this message made me smile and I love you for that, here's the beginning of that fic. It's unfinished obviously (not even any kissing!), but there's some nice stuff in there I think. This fic was going to be titled A whole fucking lifetime of this after the American Pleasure Club album which was a title I should have kept, goddammit. Also randomly in here I have them driving to the cabin while listening to My Bloody Valentine, who Ashton later called out as one of his main influences for Superbloom.

1600 words of unfinished Cashton under the cut! 😘

The day after the last meeting about the promo schedule the dressing room conversation turns, as it does, to plans for the break. It’s a month out, but they’ve to a man developed a fetish for planning their free time carefully as soon as the schedule’s set. Planning things makes Ashton feel like a grown-up. He likes renting cars. Sometimes he scrolls through AirBnB for hours just to see what’s out there.

“I’m going straight back, we got Dodgers tickets,” Michael says.

“I remember when you used to say ‘we’ and it meant you and me,” Calum says. He wiggles a little from where he’s snuggled against Michael on the couch like he wants to get away, but of course Michael doesn’t let him. Ashton thinks he probably wasn’t really trying.

“Aw, you’ll always be my first love,” Michael tells him, squeezing Calum to him more tightly. “You wanna make out just for old times sake?”

“I do not,” says Calum, but he lets Michael give him a big kiss on the forehead, his face squinching up happily.

“I just wanna get away for a bit, no work or social media or anything,” says Ashton, ignoring their tomfoolery. “A little cabin by a lake somewhere.”

“Oh yeah?” Luke says. “Where are you and Cal going this time?”

“Maine,” Calum says, at the same time as Ashton says, “Why would you assume we’re going somewhere together?”

A small silence falls over the room.

With dignity, Ashton says, “Calum and I are going to Maine.”

“Just get out in front of it this time,” Michael advises. “Let everyone know it’s another honeymoon. Take control of the narrative.”

“How many times can you go on a honeymoon before you have to acknowledge that you’re married?” Luke asks nobody in particular.

“It’s a bro trip,” Ashton says firmly. “For bros.”

“It’s very bromantic,” Luke says. “It’s okay, I’m not hurt I wasn’t invited. I love going back to LA and jerking off alone.”

“It’s nice that we’ve all got plans,” Calum says. He’s settled peacefully back against Michael, Michael absently petting his hair.

“It’s not a honeymoon,” Ashton insists.

*

Whatever, Ashton called it what he called it, okay? Might as well control the narrative.

Over drinks at the bar after their last show Calum asks, “Where would you want to go on your honeymoon, anyway? Somewhere new?”

Ashton pokes at the ice in his cocktail with his straw. Aren’t they supposed to not be using straws anymore because of the ocean or whatever? Ashton loves the ocean, it’s very important to him. Also this cocktail sucks. “Can I try your drink?” he asks. “I don’t love mine.” Calum has something with ginger in it, and bubbles. Calum slides his obligingly over, and Ashton passes his own over to be fair.

“I like yours better,” Calum says after a sip. “You wanna trade?”

Sometimes Ashton does believe in soulmates. “Yes, thank you.” He takes a long drink. “It would be nice to spend more time in Italy. Not one of the tourist-y parts though, somewhere quiet. Up north, maybe, one of the smaller towns.” He tries to picture what it would be like: olive groves, blue skies, stone churches. An old villa with lemon trees and a view of the hills. He’s so used to traveling with the band or just with Calum that it’s hard to picture anyone else there with him. They’re all as prone as anyone to get swept up with girls to the exclusion of most everything else, but Ashton can’t really imagine a future without seeing Calum all the time, without talking to him every day. Maybe he and Calum could just get married around the same time and they could all go on a honeymoon together.

“Yeah, that’d be pretty nice,” Calum says, looking wistful. Ashton wants to take a picture of him, capture the way a curl rests against his temple, how the blue neon lights behind the bar hit the glitter he let Ashton smear on his cheekbones before the show. They made a no social media pledge for this trip but Ashton’s bringing his camera anyway. He has to keep in practice, doesn’t he? Anyway, it’s important to capture these memories.

“Maybe we should just go,” Ashton tells him. “Why not? Who knows how long it could take for me to fool someone into living with this forever?” He sucks down the last of his drink, feeling sorry for himself now. What if he falls in love and she moves in and Calum stops coming over in the morning to walk to their favorite coffee shop together, and stops picking Ashton up so they can go hike Runyon, and stops bringing Duke over like he owns the damn place and doesn’t care about the dog hair that Ashton has to hoover off his couch pillows? That would be terrible. Worst of all, what if it was Ashton that suddenly wanted those things to stop?

“I’ll live with you forever,” Calum says, too busy flagging down the bartender to intuit Ashton’s emotional crisis. He gestures to Ashton’s empty drink. “Another one of those, right?” His own is still half full. Maybe he didn’t really like Ashton’s better after all.

“Yeah, thanks man,” Ashton sighs.

Calum bumps his knee against Ashton’s, the barstool squeaking beneath him. “Ash, you’re gonna find somebody if that’s what you want. Anyone would be the luckiest person alive to be with you. Maybe we could do Italy after the tour wraps, we’ll finish in Spain so it won’t be far.”

The thought cheers Ashton a bit; that’s a decent amount of time to get on AirBnB and see what he can find that’s available. It’ll be nice to have something to look forward to, Italian sunshine and limoncello and the quiet.

“Mike and Luke will definitely give us shit though about planning another honeymoon while we’re still on this one,” Calum says.

“Let ‘em,” says Ashton.

*

It’s not a long flight but it’s a bit of a drive from there to get to the cabin. But Calum said he wanted something remote and quiet, so it’s worth the wait, the drive in the dark. There’s moonlight, anyway, and Calum took the wheel, getting them the rest of the way there in their little silver Prius rental. He puts on My Bloody Valentine and sings along, low and comforting to listen to after so many days straight of playing, of promo. Halfway through the trip Ashton thinks he sees a shooting star, maybe thought he dreamed it until he felt Calum’s soft nudge of knuckles against his arm, heard his quiet, “You see that, bro?”

The way gets bumpy, thick with trees, dark and hard to navigate once they turn off the main road. At the end of it all there’s the cabin, looming in the dark, lights left on for them and the key exactly where it’s supposed to be. It’s past one a.m. but they still give the place a wander, stopping at the largest bedroom facing the lake. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows Ashton sees trees, darkness, the black glitter of water under starlight. Calum asks, “You want this one?”

Ashton looks further and just sees more darkness. “It’s kind of unnerving at night,” he says. “Anyone could be out there.” The other bedroom has smaller windows, but the point stands. “Do you wanna just watch TV or something in here and then decide?”

“If we get axe murdered here I hope our ghosts come back and leave a one star review,” Calum says, but he’s already shrugging his duffel off his shoulders and kicking off his shoes.

The host left them a bottle of pinot grigio so Ashton pours up a few glasses while Calum strips down to his boxers and gets in bed. The boxers have cartoon pugs all over them. “I can’t believe that’s the lingerie you’re wearing for our honeymoon,” Ashton says, handing him a glass. “I also can’t believe those boxers even exist.”

Calum raises it to him in a salute and takes a sip. “These boxers are fantastic, but I guess if you want me to take them off…” he trails off, eyebrow raised, thumb hooked in the waistband pushing them down past his hipbone, then further until Ashton can see the crease of his thigh.

“No, no,” Ashton says hurriedly, “I’m just saying, what’s wrong with a nice pair of footie pajamas? Keeps you warm. Keeps you modest.” Nevertheless he shucks his own clothes except for his own (very grown-up, perfectly normal, in a flattering shade of dark green) boxers and joins Calum in bed. Calum’s already stopped paying attention to him, too busy trying to figure out how to work the remote. He finally gets the screen to flash on, and Ashton stays quiet, sipping his wine while Calum flips channels, finally landing on something in black and white. Cary Grant comes on screen but Ashton still isn’t sure what movie it is; Calum seems interested enough, setting the remote down between them, so he doesn’t complain. The wine goes down easy and Ashton does too after not too long.

He rolls onto his side and sees that Calum’s eyes are already closed. It doesn’t look like he’s asleep yet; it always takes him a bit, leaving him in a dozy stage for about ten minutes during which he might respond crankily to any communication or with adorable mumbling affection. Ashton turns the sound down and says, as quietly as he can, “TV off?” Calum’s eyes don’t open, but he nods a little. “Okay. You want me to go sleep in the other room?”

Calum moves then, a sleepy shift of his body, fumbling a hand up and blindly patting the sheet until he makes contact with Ashton’s hand on the remote and squeezes it, links their fingers together like he can’t quite figure out how to make it work. It feels nice. “’S’okay,” he murmurs. “Stay here.”

Ashton didn’t feel like getting up anyway.

[baroquebucky]

Italian days

request: could you write something about going to Italy with timothee? Im just imagining how cute and romantic it would be 🥺

a/n: this is so cute !!! prepare for typical tourist attractions also i have no idea where any of these things are in relation to each other so :-) i literally googled what to do in these places bc I’ve never been sorry guys:-( this ones long so strap in and get ready !!! let me know what y’all think abt it ! i kinda wanna make headcanons about this too hehe >:) I hope you all enjoy it and send me some requests 🥰

You quickly finished packing your last t shirt in the already full suitcase, putting your weight onto it so that you could zip it up fully. You were excited for the trip that timothee had planned for the two of you, giddy to finally spend some alone time with you favorite boy. “ma cherie are you almost done?” you heard timmy call out from the living room. Quickly you grabbed the final bag off the bed and scanned the room, going over a mental checklist to ensure you didn't forget anything. 

“okay i have everything, did you get everything? Do you have all the things you need? What time is it? Are we gonna be late? Oh god what if the plane leaves without us” you began to ramble, going through every worst case scenario possible. Timothee looked at you in awe, he had never seen you this nervous about anything before, he least expected it to come out right before a romantic getaway.

“angel, calm down, it’s fine let’s go to the airport we’re right on time” he smiled at you, giving you a quick kiss before he helped you with your bags and you two headed to the Uber waiting outside your shared apartment. As you helped him squeeze the luggage in you both sat in the backseat, you were so excited for the trip.

“You know we should go to Paris for our next anniversary” timmy spoke offhandedly, mindlessly playing with your hair as the movie you had chose played on the tv. “That would be fun, I’ve never been there” you smiled, looking at him briefly before your eyes settled on the screen again.

“where have you traveled to?” He questioned, curious as to all the places you’ve visited. “mmm i mean I’ve never been to Europe, i left the state a couple times for road trips but that’s about it” you replied, not thinking anything of the question. “You mean to tell me that you’ve never been to Italy?” He gasped and you laughed at his shock.

“We aren’t all stars or rich Chalamet” you suppressed laughter but one look at his facial expression caused you to burst into a fit of laughter. “That’s it im booking a flight to Italy, we can go to venice and oh we could even travel to where we filmed call me by your name! And then we could go to Rome!” He gushed, moving quickly to get his laptop.

You were excited, until you realized you had $20 in your wallet and maybe $67 in you bank account. “Timothée wait no” you spoke, rushing behind him to stop him. He turned around confused as to why you didn’t want to go.

“do you not wanna go? I thought you liked Italy? You show me videos about people going there all the time” he asked, searching your face for an answer. “I do! I’ve always wanted to go there” you stated, sighing as your gazes met. “it’s just- how am i gonna pay for my ticket? I don’t have enough money and-” before you could finish timothée cut you off.

“what makes you think you’re paying?” He grinned, running to the room to get the laptop once again. You messed with your fingers for a second, you didn’t want him to spend money on you, you’ve always felt bad about it.

“timmy no you can’t just buy me a ticket there” you spoke, walking into the room, seeing the boy sitting on the bed, legs crossed with the laptop in his lap. He furrowed his brows and replied without looking up from his screen. “Why not? You’re my girl, think of it as a present” he smiled, you opened your mouth to protest but he quickly stopped you.

“i just bought them so you can’t take it back” he beamed, you frowned for a second before he gave you the puppy eyes. Of course you couldn’t resist, you tackled him with a hug and kissed him, thanking him a million times.

And so here the two of you were, sitting in the backseat on your way to the airport, going over the loose itinerary timothée had made for the two of you once you landedin Venice. He had gone beyond what you expected to make this trip memorable despite telling him to not worry.

When you got to the airport everything went surprisingly smooth despite you being nervous the whole time. The two of you bought breakfast and ate it in the little food court, then headed to the gate which your plane would be in and played games while waiting to board.

Once the plane arrived the two of you got on, of course he had bought first class, you wanted to scold him for spending so much but as soon as you saw how excited he was you couldn’t be mad at him. “look! we get pillows and everything” he giggled, you smiled at him and nodded, equally as excited as him. The two of you ended up watching two movies, falling asleep during the second one.

You woke up first, smiling at the sight of timmy with messy hair, mouth slightly parted and cheeks lightly flushed as he slept. You decided to wait on waking him up, instead you occupied yourself by looking out the window and listening to your music.

The landing woke timothée up and he smiled at you brightly, it took him a couple minutes to really wake up, mumbling incoherently before he came fully to his senses.

As soon as you got off the plane you were excited, pulling timothée along to get out of the airport as soon as possible. When you finally got everything and exited you got into the car timothée had ordered for the two of you and headed to the hotel to unpack.

Timothée posted a picture of you staring out the window in awe onto his Instagram story, “she’s excited right now, just wait until she sees the canals” he wrote, smiling as he thought of all the pictures the two of you would take.

You expected an average hotel room, if timothée really splurged then maybe above average, you did not expect to get the presidential suite at a five star hotel. The smile on your face made everything worth it to timothée, he made sure this trip would be memorable. “Timothée Hal Chalamet! How much did you fucking spend!” You squeaked, rushing around the room to check everything on.

“That doesn’t matter, what matters is that you get changed and get ready, we’re in Venice for two days before our next stop and I have so much for us to do” he smiled, pulling you in for a kiss which you quickly returned. Resting your head on his chest you sighed, taking a Monet to let everything sink in. You’re in Italy with the love of your life. Holy shit.

Timothée had bought multiple disposable cameras for the two of you to use, wanting to develop all of them by the time you guys got back home.

Before you knew it you were wandering the streets of Venice, a permanent smile on your face as you took so many photos of the scenery and of timothée and of course together. The two of you visited the top tourist spots like Saint Marks Basilica, the both of you in awe of its beauty and laughing until your stomach hurt feeding the pidgeons.

Timothée was scared for his life when a pidgeon landed on his shoulder, immediately going stiff and begging for you to help him. You quickly pulled out your phone, recording him and zooming into his face, a face of pure fear. After you posted it you quickly shooed the pidgeon away, holding his hand and a small pidgeon landed on your shoulder and you fed it out of your free hand.

You smiled brightly at timothée who had moved away from you slightly causing you to giggle. “You laugh now but I’m gonna be the one poop free, those things are ruthless” he stated, a serious look on his face which quickly turned soft as you attempted to pet the bird on you. “Look at him he’s so cute!” You gushed, drowning as it flew away.

“Cmon sweet girl, we have a ride to catch, in the canal” he winked and you gasped, pulling him before you stopped, realizing you didn’t know where you were even going.

When the two of you arrived he helped you into the boat, it was only the two of you and the one driving the small boat, you were sitting next to each other, pointing at everything, a constant smile on both of your faces. He held your hand the whole time, most of the time looking at you rather than the sights you were in such awe of. A small smile on his face as he admired how beautiful you looked, you looked so stress free and happy and he knew everything else he had planned was so worth it if he got to see you like this.

After the ride on the canals the two of you ate at a small little restaurant, drinking some wine and talking about the days events.

“I just think it’s funny that you were that scared of the pidgeons” you giggled, and he frowned at you, “i wasn’t scared, i was just- cautious” he smirked, watching you roll your eyes at his remark.

The two of you finished dinner, walking around the now calmer streets, admiring everything at night for about an hour, kissing under streetlights and chasing one another through the streets, laughter bouncing off the buildings.

The two of you showered once you got back to the hotel and absolutely crashed after you had snuggled under the sheets. The two of you exhausted from the plane ride and walking everywhere all day.

You both woke up late in the morning to the sound of timothées alarm, you yawned, burying yourself more into timothées side, wanting ten more minutes. “Wake up mon amour i still have some stuff planned for today before we leave for Florence” he spoke softly into your hair, kissing the top of your head. He had decided to skip on taking you to Crema, deciding it would make for a good excuse to come back.

You woke up slowly, getting ready and waiting for timothée on the bed once you had finished. You were starving but you didn’t want to eat without him. You laid on your stomach and dozed off only to wake up to a now fully dressed timothée, smiling at you and kissing your nose. “let’s go eat and then we can head out” he whispered and you nodded, getting up from the bed and following him out the door.

The two of you spent the day walking around and seeing anything else you wanted, eating much too much food and buying way too many souvenirs. The day seemed to fly by and before you knew it you were headed to Florence, of course shoving all your luggage into the bus that the two of you were taking to the wonderful city. You slept most of the way while timothée read through a script for a new movie. He woke you up gently when you guys arrived, piling out along with everyone else as the two of you found the car timothée had ordered for this city, heading to yet another 5 star hotel with an amazing room.

It was late at night so the two of you only slipped into bed and set an alarm for later tomorrow morning, cuddling through the whole night, waking up once to eat some of the fruit that the hotel had given to the two of you as a gift.

The next morning the alarm went off and you quickly turned it off, placing your head on timothées chest, a smile on your face while he played with your hair.

“let’s get ready, i have something special planned, wear that one outfit you brought, you know the one that you said you’ve always wanted to wear?” He smiled, a mischievous glint in your eye. You gave him a kiss on the cheek and nodded, going to get ready.

After you finished you scrolled through your phone, replying to people and sifting through the pictures from Venice, deleting the ones which turned out bad or way too blurry. You decided to lay on your side, thinking you wouldn’t fall back asleep but you were wrong. Before you knew it you felt a gentle nudge.

“Cmon sleeping beauty i have a picnic for us” he beamed, a twinkle in his eye. You woke up quickly, a giant grin on your face as your mouth fell open. “A picnic? Oh my god this is a dream, angel you’re so amazing oh my god! I love you so much” You gushed, tackling timothée once you got off the bed and hugging him tightly, kissing him all over his face.

“i love you more ma cherie, now lets go” he smiled, opening the door for you and quickly taking your hand while walking down the halls.

You had ended up accidentally falling asleep in the car, head on timothées shoulder, he recorded you, saving it but not posting it, knowing if he did you would get him back and start a full fledged war.

As the car approached the Piazzle Michaelangelo he shook you softly, your eyes fluttered open and a small smile overtook your features. “Oh my god it’s so pretty” you gasped as the two of you stepped out of the car and onto the concrete floor, he got the picnic basket from the car as you went to save a spot on the steps. He quickly found you and opened the basket between the two of you, eating the food and making conversation, laughing and enjoying the fact that both of you were in Italy, overlooking Florence.

After sitting there for a while, cuddling and pointing things out the two of you drove into the city, excited to see everything the city had to offer. The two of you walked down the streets hand in hand, taking pictures once more and in awe of the beauty the city offered.

Of course the two of you drove all over the city visiting museums, seeing all the statues and artworks you had always admired through your phone screen. You almost wanted to cry of happiness seeing everything in person, you walked quickly in the museums, timothée barely keeping up with you as you rushed everywhere, making sure you absorbed every last detail.

Of course timothée took the typical you looking at art picture, and of course he posted it and captioned it “art looking at art” causing his fans to go feral, everyone tweeting and posting about how cute the two of you were. You held timmys hand when you realized he was dragging behind, pulling him along and forcing him to move at your speed.

“oh my god I love this painting, look at the brushstrokes! I read once that when he was painting this-” you began, going into detail about said artists life. Timothée stared at you, his chest swelling with love, a smile on his face as you went on and on about the paintings, he hung onto every word you said, loving the way your eyes lit up and the amount of emotion in your voice as you spoke of what you loved.

After you had visited the museums l, the two of you walked all over the city, taking in the culture and also taking many breaks and calling a cab to go to places he had planned to take you. Of course he set up a reservation at a fancy restaurant, eating to your hearts delight and drinking amazing wine, overseeing the bustling city as the sun set.

“i cannot believe we’re in Florence Italy” you sighed happily, looking out at the city while you sipped on your wine, timothée smiled at you. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to thank you enough angel, you really made my dreams come true” you spoke, turning towards your curly headed boyfriend and he shook his head.

“you don’t have to thank me ma cherie. I love seeing you happy, you deserve the world and I’m going to give everything i can to you, you’ve always supported me through anything and everything, you know me so well, i just love you so much” he answered. “but- you can thank me by letting me post a bunch of pictures of you everywhere” he smiled shyly, blushing slightly. You smiled brightly at him, your love for him growing. “oh baby of course” you giggled.

The next day was just as action packed, going to multiple cathedrals and basilicas which you hadn’t gotten to the day before, and then spending time in the gardens, taking so many pictures of each other, half of them turning out blurry because the two of you couldn’t stop laughing.

He held you hand the whole time, keeping you close to him the whole time, kissing you at times and always looking at you with so much love. All over Twitter and Instagram were pictures of the two of you holding hands and laughing, many of them with one of the two of you pointing at something, many of the ones with you pointing had timothée looking at you with a smile rather than what you were showing him, it gave you butterflies.

That night you headed to the hotel early, packing everything to catch the late night flight to Rome, the last destination on the trip. The two of you packed quickly, racing to see who would finish first. This made timothée sneak up behind you and unfold your tshirts, run back to his area and rush to finish, an attempt to beat you. You were one step ahead, you had hidden his shampoo so you had no problem re folding while he ran around everywhere.

“I’m done!” You announced proudly, smiling at your boyfriend and he rolled his eyes, a pout on his face. “That’s not fair! I finished before you i just lost my shampoo” he responded, you smirked at him. “Check under your pillow” his eyes went wide and raced to get it, jaw dropping when he found it. “y/n i swear one day im gonna beat you at these competitions” he huffed, pushing you playfully and you shoved him back laughing.

The two of you cuddled the whole time in the airport, attached to the hip, and napping until your flight boarded, where the two of you also slept the whole time. When you finally arrived in Rome, you both headed to the hotel, knocking out there too, excited for the next two days in Rome before returning home. The two of you only had two cameras left, it filled you with excitement to get the photos developed, knowing you would have so many pictures of him to post and an endless amount of wallapapers.

When the two of you awoke the next morning you headed out quickly, excited to spend yet another day together.

“timothée oh my god look at that dog! Do you think he speaks Italian?” You questioned, smiling at the small dog that walked past the two of you. “I’m sure he does my angel” he replied, laughing. Pulling you along the busy street, putting his arm around your waist.

The two of you marveled at the colosseum, mind running wild at the thought of people using it. “You think they ever had a concert in there?” You asked your boyfriend who giggled, “im not so sure they did my angel” you thought about someone using it today. “What if someone tried to have on in there today” you smiled and timothée quickly replied, “as soon as the speakers start blasting everything would just crumble” you laughed at the thought of someone wanting to have fun only to ruin one of the most iconic pieces of history.

The two of you walked along the streets, holding hands and swinging them back and forth, debating where to go next. “How about the pantheon?” You suggested and he nodded with a smile, “you read my mind darling.”

The two of you got there surprisingly quickly and sat down for a second, both of your guys’ feet hurting. You put your head on timmys shoulder, closing your eyes for a second, you could hear everyone talking, the sound of cars and the wind. “Are you tired mon amour?” Timothée asked, not wanting to tire you out so much, he wanted you excited and happy not tired.

“just a bit, but I’m sure it’ll leave as soon as we see the Vatican” you spoke, a smile forming on your face as you opened your eyes and looked at the brunette next to you. He kissed your cheek, getting up and extending a hand to help you up. “Let’s go see what all those shops we passed have had to offer later yeah?” He grinned and you nodded, stretching a little before falling into step with him.

The two of you arrived at the Vatican and you swear you had never felt more in awe than staring at everything inside, everything was so adorned and beautiful, even the pillars on the outside when the two of you were waiting (only for like 5 minutes) made you smile in amazement. Timothée and you kept pointing out everything, a smile on both of your faces. Both of your cheeks hurt from smiling so much but neither of you complained, too happy to care.

After the two of you walked around for a bit more you left and entered the busy streets of Rome once again, taking pictures of each other all the time and stopping to look at anything and everything. “Let’s go get something to eat” you suggested. “Oh yeah I’m starving after all that walking” he replied, pulling out his phone to find a nice place to get food.

Soon enough he found a nice spot and the two of you arrived there quickly, excited to eat. After ordering and eating the two of you sat in comfortable silence, taking the time to wind down before going back out. “can we go to the Trevi Fountain? I brought coins for us to throw in” you asked and timothée wanted to kiss you all over and hug you and never let you go because god you were so fucking cute.

“of course we can go mon amour, are you ready to go right now?” He asked and you nodded, he paid quickly before taking his hand in yours, the two of you walking slower than before, you were leaning on him slightly, he was talking about some story that had happened to him in high school. You don’t remember exactly how the story had come up but you were grateful that it had.

As the two of you continued walking hand in hand and smiling at the sights you realized that no one had disturbed the two of you this whole trip which was very surprising, but you were grateful that his fans were respectful of the two of you. “okay i told you am embarrassing story of me in high school you tell me one” he pushed and you groaned, stealing the water bottle from his hands and gulping down the drink.

“i wasn’t really embarrassing in high school, i had like five friends and we always looked out for one another, middle school i was the biggest emo alive” you shuddered thinking back to all the diary entries you had made. “I remember i wrote this one poem that was so cringe and i thought it was the best thing ever written” you cringed at the memory and he bursted our laughing, leaning into you as he did so.

“Do you still have said diary?” He questioned, a mischievous smile forming on his face, “back at my parents house yeah” you replied, narrowing your eyes at him, “but you will never lay your eyes on a single one of those pages Hal” you sternly replied, smiling as he rolled his eyes and pulled you closer to him, putting his arm around you. “We’ll see about that one” he smiled.

“oh my god! Timmy there it is!” You shrieked, energy suddenly overflowing as you ran, pulling timothee with you causing him to almost trip over his feet. You pushed through the crowd, saying excuse me and sorrys until you got the the front of the fountain. Timothée arrived a couple seconds after you, out of breath and amazed at how fast you had ran.

“ma cherie you need to slow down” he spoke, leaning over to catch him breath. You stared at the fountain in awe, a smile sprawled across you face, taking in the beauty of it all. “I can’t believe I’m really here” you whispered, timothée got up, wrapping both his arms around your waist. “Believe in my love” he smiled, kissing you on the cheek.

Suddenly you heard a crack of thunder and soon enough rain started pouring, the once crowded area was now close to empty as everyone ran for shelter, you and timothée didn’t budge, mainly because you didn’t even flinch and refused to move.

you turned to timothée, hair sticking to both of your foreheads a wild smile on your face as you dig into your pocket, looking for the coins you had brought. Quickly you handed one to timothée. “Ready?” You smiled and he nodded. “Okay, 1, 2, 3!” You shouted, the coins flipping into the water at the same time. Turning to timothée you found him smiling at you and you laughed.

“When in Rome” you said before bunching his shirt into your fist and pulling him into a kiss, you eyes shutting as rain fell around the two of you. The kiss was what you imagined the movie ones were like, passionate and loving. You smiled into the kiss before you opened your eyes and pulled away.

“you drive me crazy y/n” he whispered, a giant smile on his face as you wiped away the water from your eyes and pushed the hair out of your face. “Should we get out of the rain?” You giggled and he nodded, “probably, we don’t wanna get sick” he joked and you punched him. “Don’t fucking jinx it!” You yelled, running to the nearest shelter you could find, which so happened to be a tourist shop.

Shopping with timothée was always fun, shopping with timothée in another country was another level. He wanted to buy you everything you looked at, he would buy you at $50 shirt if you really wanted it. The two of you were dripping wet and needed to buy new clothes or else you would definitely get sick. You ended up wearing tacky tourist shirts, getting matching ones of course and buying souvenirs for everyone back home as well as a few things to decorate and to keep for yourselves.

Considering how hard it was pouring and the fact that the two of you now had wet socks you decide to call it a day and go back to the hotel room, not wanting to get sick considering tomorrow was the last day. You were glad that it was already 5 pm, you wouldn’t have missed that much that you had planned and you could easilh get to them tomorrow.

You guys quickly got into a car and made your way back to the hotel, opting on showering together. As the two of you stepped in you let out a sigh at the feeling of the warm water. You let the water rinse the two of you off before shutting it off and getting timothées shampoo, telling him to turn around so you could wash his hair.

“thank you for this whole trip baby, it’s really been a dream come true” you spoke, massaging the shampoo into his hair. “Im sorry that it rained sweetheart, i really wanted us to be able to do everything because this was supposed to be perfect and-” you frowned at him despite his back being to you. “Timothée you can’t control the weather! And even then this trip is already perfect because I’m here with you. I’m in Italy with the love of my life dammit, ive drank so much good wine and eaten even more good food! We haven’t gotten this much time alone in god knows how long, you’ve literally had a chauffeur in every city so that we didn’t have to worry about parking and you made us an itinerary! Everything about this trip has been perfect, even the hiccups in the road.” You stated, smiling at the memories the two of you had already made.

You turned the water back on to rinse the shampoo out of his hair and he smiled at you, kissing you on the forehead. “And plus, i finally got my kiss in the rain AND it was infront of the trevi fountain, how am i supposed to complain again ever?” You smiled up at him, he laughed and quickly closed his eyes as shampoo rinsed from his hair. He grabbed your shampoo and began to wash your hair, you relaxed at his touch and closed your eyes.

“I love you so much angel, you don’t even understand” he whispered, you hummed in response. He gave you a soft kiss to your neck, giving you goosebumps.

Soon enough you guys hopped out of the shower, warm and clean and changed into some pijamas, snuggling into bed and looking out of the giant window next to you. Between the sound of the rain hitting the window and timothées soft breathing, you quickly dozed off, not caring that it was only 6:30 pm and you’d probably wake up at 2 am with an insane amount of energy. Timothée asked you something,confused as to why you weren’t replying until he looked at you, a bashful smile on his face when he saw you sleeping.

“you know i love you so much, you mean the world to me mon amour, there isn’t anything i wouldn’t do for you” he whispered, brushing your hair lightly to get it out of your face. He placed a gentle kiss on your forehead, turning the lights off in the room before closing his eyes and drifting off the sleep alongside you.

You ended up not even waking up throughout the night, instead sleeping until early the next morning. You hadn’t realized how tired you had been until now since you were more energetic than ever, excited to get as much in on the last day.

Timothée was the one dragging you around everywhere today, determined to get through the list had made, you smiled at him as he explained everything to you, surprised at how much he knew. “When did you make this list anyway?” You asked over lunch, looking up at him after you chewed your food. “I woke up at 2am and i couldn’t sleep but i didn’t wanna wake you up so i made this list and researched everything so i can give you the full tour guide experience” he replied, a giant smile on his face as you gawked at him.

“yeah that’s it, I’m gonna marry you” you shrugged, continuing to eat as timothée blushed and kept eating. The conversation flowing easily between the two of you and a comfortable silence falling into place at times.

The day continued quickly, visiting many more sites and before you knew it your disposable camera came to an end, and 30 minutes later so did timothées as the sunset. The two of you sat down on a bench, waiting on your guys’ driver to arrive so the two of you could pack up and head home.

“i can’t believe it’s over” you smiled softly, sad that it was over but happy that it happened. “Don’t worry mon amour im sure we’ll be back soon enough” he smiled and you put your head on his shoulder. “I love you with everything I have timothée” you spoke, looking up at him from your position. He kissed your forehead gently, “i love you so much more y/n” he smiled.

The two of you once again raced to pack up, you purposefully ‘lost’ your favorite shirt and let him win, although he would always hold it against you, it didn’t matter because you would lose over and over and over again if it meant seeing the amount of joy on his face when he shouted “IM DONE” and looked over at you with an unzipped suitcase.

As the two of you were waiting at the airport gate you had to make the obligatory Instagram post, gathering pictures of the two of you together and of yourself to post, you smiled as you picked out the photos. Searching the internet to see if anyone had caught the two of you kissing in the rain in front of the fountain, which of course they had. You looked over at a napping timothée, smiling as you set the photo as your lockscreen and added it to your post, quickly you typed out your caption.

“Italian days <3”

[agent-kihyun]

Undercover [Part 1]

Spy!reader x mafia boss!Yoongi

Prompt/Summary: When the CIA sends you to go undercover to infiltrate South Korea’s infamous mafia group, Bangtan Sonyeondan, you expect the mission to be quick and easy. But as you develop relationships and walls come down, things begin to get a little tricky.

WC: 2.5K+

Warnings: dorky/witty humor, foul language

A/n: F/N—fake name and 99% of the time everyone will be speaking Korean (since it’s set in Seoul) but it’s written in English bc idk Korean very well so,,, I hope that’s okay!

☆

When you landed, Seoul was bustling and happening. It was the beginning of summer, and everyone was wearing shorts, dresses, t-shirts or tank tops. Kids were running around or skating on the sidewalk, the trees and flowers were in full bloom, it was quite beautiful. Yet...there was an ominous aura around the citizens. Odds were that most of the people around you were in debt to Bangtan and were required to keep a specific demeanor in public.

You quickly made your way to a taxi and got in, telling the driver your destination in Korean. He glanced at you through his rearview mirror and you could tell he was smirking by the way his eyebrows were raised and his eyes were twinkling. He knew you weren’t from Korea, he knew that you weren’t there on business, so he deduced you were a tourist...traveling all by herself. Oh, how wrong he was.

“What’s a pretty girl like you doing here in Seoul? Not enough men in America?” He asked in his native tongue.

“Just looking around. I’m interested in investing in a property here, just a little vacation home,” you answered while looking out of the car window. You had filled in some gaps and rearranged parts of your persona to better fit your purpose in Korea.

“Oh? It’s a tight market right now, you may have some trouble finding anything,” he told you.

“Well, I’m sure I’ll figure it out. If I don’t, I’ll look somewhere else. Busan, Daegu maybe,” you shrugged. The driver didn’t say anything else for the rest of the ride. He knew something, you could tell.

When you arrived at your hotel, you rapidly checked in and took your bags up to your room. You settled in and got your files situated so you could begin your plan.

You took a quick shower then began getting dressed in a modest yet flattering outfit. Just enough to get some glances from passersby. Then you put on some makeup, fixed up your hair and packed a small handgun just in case. After you put on your boots, you headed out to your primary location for intel.

A club, one of the many that Bangtan supposedly owned, but the boss controlled this one. He oversaw the influx and outflux of the weapons, drugs and other services they offered. You didn’t know who the boss was, nobody did. Nobody wanted to say his name in fear that he’d hear and come for them. All there was to know about him was that he was lethal.

You were attempting to continue your ruse and go to this club to find if anyone knew of properties up for sale. If you ran into a member of Bangtan, you intended to flirt with them, and get them to want to take you out again, and again, and again until you were close enough to the group. Hopefully, they’d be interested in a foreigner. It was vital that they catch your drift otherwise you’d have to come up with another plan on the fly.

As you arrived, you approached the bouncer, who held a clipboard in his hands, checking to see if people’s names appeared on his list. You ignored the massive line to his right and began speaking to him in Korean.

“My name is F/N. I’m a VIP,” you told him matter-of-factly. He gave you a once-over and looked down at his list before nodding and letting you in. You mentally thanked your friend who hacked his list and added your name before he printed it out.

As you walked into the club, the music was booming, the bass boosted so you could feel it in your chest. You looked around, trying to find any possible suspects that might be in Bangtan.

You didn’t intend to look like a lost puppy, but from where he stood, that’s exactly what you looked like.

Min Yoongi, otherwise known as Agust D, sat in what could qualify as his throne on the second level of the club surrounded by women and a security detail. When he looked down at the main floor and spotted you, he immediately perked up. After wandering around for a bit, you headed toward the bar to order a drink. He was surprised; what was a foreigner doing in his club? Though he wasn’t complaining. You were pretty easy on the eyes, striking yet soft and unassuming at the same time. He couldn’t take his eyes off of you.

Yoongi got up, shaking off the women who were throwing themselves at him and leaned on the railing to get a better look. He ignored the whines and groans of the women he left as he kept his eyes trained on you.

From your place at the bar, you felt that you were being watched but didn’t want to give any indication that you knew so you kept acting lost and in awe. As you received your drink, you turned to your left but found yourself standing face to face with a tall man with a charming smile. You hoped he was linked to Bangtan, but the only way to find out was to play the game, so that’s what you did.

On the other hand, Yoongi wasn’t liking the scene in front of him. He wanted you, anyone else wasn’t going to fly. He kept a careful watch on the two of you as you conversed.

“Hi,” you returned his smile.

“Hi,” he winked. “What’s a pretty foreigner like you doing here?”

“Oh you know...I’m just looking for some property to purchase for a vacation home or something,” you waved your hand dismissively as you took a sip of your drink.

“Oh yeah? Well I hope you find something, I’d like to see more of you here,” he grinned. Smooth.

“Do you know someone I can talk to maybe? I’m sure a nice guy like you has connections,” you looked up at him through your lashes. He nervously chuckled as he looked around and looked back at you.

“Maybe if I got your number I could send you some information,” he suggested. Smooth again. Fortunately, you were always two steps ahead.

“Please, we both know why you want my number. I’m not some booty call. Give me one good reason why I should give you my number aside from getting that real estate info,” you crossed your arms and smirked. At that moment, the song changed to more of an intimate song, the kind where you’d grind or twerk on someone.

The man grabbed your hand and dragged you onto the dance floor, holding your hips against his own as you began swaying to the song.

“You’re gonna need a dance partner right? Feel free to call me up whenever,” he said in your ear. You had to admit that you loved to dance, you just didn’t get to do it very often what with your job and everything. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to let loose a bit. You told yourself that you were still playing the game, just in a different way.

Meanwhile, Yoongi angrily crushed the glass in his hand out of sheer strength. He wanted that scum off of you and dead.

“Boss...Kai is here,” one of Yoongi’s men told him from behind him. It was then that Yoongi realized that Kai was the man you were dancing with on the dance floor. How hadn’t he noticed it earlier? He turned and furrowed his eyebrows in disgust.

“Get rid of him, Jungkook. Take Taehyung and Jimin with you,” he ordered before turning back to the dance floor.

“What about the girl?” Jungkook asked. Yoongi’s expression softened when he looked at you. He didn’t want you to get hurt in the process of Kai’s apprehension.

“Make sure she doesn’t get hurt,” is all he said and with a wave of his hand, he dismissed Jungkook. He turned to Namjoon, who was one of the men standing next to his throne.

“Namjoon, get these women out of here,” he said. Namjoon immediately did as he was told, ushering the small group of women away from Yoongi’s area. They complained, wanting to stay but Namjoon insisted they leave at once.

Yoongi stared at you and Kai as Jungkook, Taehyung, and Jimin approached the two of you. If you were harmed, Yoongi was going to let all hell loose.

You were oblivious as Kai’s hands rested on your hips and you swayed back and forth to the beat of the music. And all of a sudden, his hands were gone. You stopped dancing as you looked around for Kai, finding three men manhandling him, trying to keep him under control. They were all yelling, but nobody paid much attention since the music was louder. You knitted your eyebrows together in shock as you watched the three men drag Kai off in the sea of bodies.

“Hey! Wait! Let him go!” You screamed as you tried to follow the men. You needed Kai; he was your only lead to Bangtan. Wait a second...what if the men who took were apart of Bangtan? Now you really needed to follow him.

Yoongi watched you only for a few moments before finally taking action, leaving his reserved spot and bounding down the stairs to meet you. Unfortunately, the maknae of his group intercepted him before he could make his move. They were holding a struggling Kai, unsure of what Yoongi specifically wanted to do with him.

“Boss, do you want to take care of him yourself or do you want us to do it?” Jungkook asked. Yoongi scowled. He stared Kai dead in his eyes as Tae’s large hand covered his mouth.

“I don’t want to see your face in here...ever again...or you’re dead. If I see you talking to her, looking at her, breathing in her direction...you’re dead. Do not mistake this for mercy, this is a threat, understood?” Yoongi lowered his voice as he positioned his face in front of Kai’s. Kai nodded his head twice slowly as he returned Yoongi’s glare. Yoongi stood up again to face his maknae.

“Get him out of my sight, I have important matters to attend to,” Yoongi hissed. Jungkook, Jimin, Taehyung dragged him away from Yoongi to the nearest exit. Yoongi scoffed as he turned, shaking his head as he fixed his sleeve cuff.

As you looked around through the crowd for Kai and the suspicious men, you crashed into a body. You bounced back, but it seemed as if the body stayed in place. You held your hurt arm as you stumbled backward a bit, pissed off that the person wasn’t watching where they were going (even though you weren’t either).

“Watch where you’re stepping...man…!” your angry tone faded as you looked up at the stranger. Woah.

You were at a loss of words as you stood before the beautiful stranger, just staring into his dark eyes. His equally surprised stare transformed into a smirk within seconds as he crossed his arms.

“Didn’t anyone tell you that staring is rude?” he asked you. That snapped you out of your reverie and you remembered why you were there.

“I’m sorry, I was caught off guard,” you brushed your dress off and looked down.

“By…?” he asked. You were quick on your feet to answer his question.

“Your clothes. They’re very stylish, they look expensive and aesthetically pleasing,” you didn’t miss a beat as you provided a bullshit response. The mysterious man chuckled, knowing why you were really staring, but he wasn’t going to expose you yet.

“I’m sorry for crashing into you, I should’ve been paying more attention,” he apologized. You nodded with a small smile.

“It’s okay. No worries. I actually--”

“You’re not from around here, are you?” he cut you off.

“You could say that,” you replied.

“While your Korean is outstanding for an American, it’s clear that you look a little...lost,” the man said to you, almost condescendingly. A look of slight offense crossed your features, but you brushed it off. He was distracting you from your mission; you needed to find those men who took Kai.

“Thanks, I guess. Look, it was nice talking to you, but I’m looking for someone, so if you could excuse me…” you trailed off and attempted to maneuver around the stranger, tired of your conversation already. The stranger grabbed your wrist before you could get too far, causing you to whip around to face him. He had an almost sinister look in his eyes, his dark locks falling over his forehead causing shadows to dance across his sharp features and now, you were intrigued. Who was this man? Maybe he knew about Bangtan, or...maybe he didn’t. All this speculating was making your head spin and you began to feel a bit sick.

“Who are you looking for?” he asked you.

“Just...a person. It was nice to meet you, sir, but I really should get going,” you said, yanking your wrist from his hold and leaving him to stand alone in his spot. Yoongi watched as you vanished within the crowd. He wanted to go after you, he wanted to so badly, but he couldn’t risk you finding out his identity, his business, just yet. He met you, yes, but it was time to just watch you from a distance for now. If he ran into you outside of the club, he would try to further the relationship. You were his now, and if anyone tried to claim you, they would be digging their grave.

At the same time, you burst through the exit at the back of the club, spinning around to search for the group of men from minutes ago. Instead, you found nothing but a dumpster and an alley that led to the street. They were gone. You cursed under your breath, frustrated that you lost an important lead. Then the memory of the enigmatic man hit you and you turned to the door. Maybe he could help you.

You tugged on the door handle, but it didn’t budge.

“No, no, no!” you cried as you repeatedly tried to open the door again. Locked. Of course. You groaned and ran a hand through your hair.

At that point, you decided to call it a night and go back to your hotel. You were exhausted beyond relief, and your body was still adjusting to the time difference. If you were still in America, you’d be sleeping.

When you finally got back to your hotel, you tore your clubbing clothes off and flopped onto your bed. This wasn’t going to be as easy as you thought.

As you prepared for sleep, you tried to think of a plan for the next day, but your brain wasn’t having it. All you could think about was the dark-eyed man from the club. You never got his name. Something about him sent shivers down your spine and you didn’t like it.

Yet as you crawled into your bed and fell into unconsciousness, the image of the dark-eyed man was the last thing you saw behind your eyelids.

☆

[cheswirls]

tether notes 2/3

pt. 3

i mentioned this in the last part, but i used muroran as basis for veilstone, not abashiri. actually, if you want my opinion, i think shari, hokkaido, is a better depiction of veilstone than abashiri. mostly, i used muroran bc i could find pictures there that were more than just boat-icebreaker-drift ice-boat. abashiri is cold. and full of drift ice. if you need context, it’s level with toronto, canada. a pretty cold place to live. muroran is further south, and it’s also a port city, so i jus used that.

shari looks nicer, but it’s more into the hook of hokkaido (that piece on sinnoh map that jutts out right below battle zone) and not nestled into the mountains, so. mostly it was out.

makino’s cafe/bar is based on the diner in veilstone. so, walk in, counter bar to your left, tables to your right, possibly a happiny underfoot carrying trays of food. 

but, compared to the more rustic and colored veilstone, i wanted to depict more of hokkaido city here. so, more rundown, rusted due to sea breeze, older things without much repair. passable, sure, for daily life. but new and extravagant? no. far from.

if makino is so close with luffy, how come she doesn’t know sabo?

simple. she’s not close with luffy. makino has a fulltime job running a diner in veilstone, sinnoh. luffy grew up on the sevii islands, kanto. when he was in sinnoh, he was training with shanks. yeah, sure, they would come by for food, and makino is good friends with shanks, so of course she and luffy have a relationship. but, also at this point where shanks began to bring luffy around, instead of teaching him out in nowhere, sevii islands, they began to keep things secret. luffy was here “just visiting” to anyone who asks, but they wouldn’t seen him much around, not in the isolation shanks trained him in. also also at this point, because i derailed that sentence completely, ace and sabo were already out traveling. it just never came up. makino is friendly with luffy, she knows luffy, but she doesn’t know him, not really.

pokemon hunters is another anime concept i wanted to use, again to make the story more gritty. no evil teams here with world-domination plots, just poachers. pretty standard. still awful, especially if they’re poaching people, now, but nothing as wide-scale as team galactic.

i had so much fun writing ship captain jinbe. i wished i got more of a chance to write his crew, too. at this point i think i had just caught up reading blackbird by milo, and i was hooked on the idea of biker fishman gang and leader jinbe, so i adapted it into ship crew here. praline is there, yes. she’s badass. i said so, you heard it here. 

i talked a lot with my big bang partner, and we eventually decided jinbe’s a mix of hoenn and sinnoh descent. so, darker skin, almost polynesian, from hoenn’s more pacific island vibe. dark, curly hair. i drew a picture once? oh, here it is. jus a little sketch. he probably actually comes from hoenn, but he does cargo runs throughout sinnoh now. [i should probably say around, since there arent rly canals thru sinnoh?]

regarding law’s map error, i really jus wanted to reference flower paradise. of course the map he got was a tourist version, so of course it’s gonna include the magical pathway connecting the sinnoh league to an island of flowers. but it doesn’t actually exist, or if it does, it’s not always there, since they sail through the space with ease. just another fun easter egg. 

the marsh scene was another i’ve known i wanted since the beginning. i had so much fun drawing the map for it. i actually based the scenes entirely off the map, so while i knew the general direction i wanted it to go in, and that they would run into sabo, the part about wandering into the rain and encountering volcarona spawned while marking the map. crazy how things work, huh?

i think i made the chase move a little too fast, so most of the time out of their 12 hr limit is spent after departing from the marsh, wandering thru route 212. don get me wrong, the marsh scene spans over the course of hours, but its still less time from leaving the ship to leaving sabo than it is to get back to the ship.

the aegislash scene is the first one i conceptualized, of the marsh scene series. introducing law’s team was strategic, especially once i revealed luffy only had four pokemon. it was always meant to be a readers gamble how many law had. at the end of part 3, it’s pretty easy to gauge how many, but still, the surprise of the sixth pokemon in pt 4 is something im still proud of c:

anyway, yes, the first sense of real danger. poachers have no qualms in using their pokemon to harm other people. they’re there for the money, which they get from capturing and caging rare pokemon. who cares if they hurt a few people along the way? who cares if they brutalize them to take a particular pokemon, a-la mr. cleffa sir? law reacts to this very quickly, in part because he’s used to it, as explained in tragic backstory number 2, right behind one-brother-dies-and-the-other-runs-away from protag #2. 

actually, i guess the first danger was the wild kadabra, but this is the one in which someone gets hurt! . . . or, worse-hurt, because law’s scratch doesn’t count. luffy’s gash in his shoulder? that’s a big injury. especially when they can’t just stop to treat it, especially when law still has blood on his face from it, especially when they have to go right back to running around the marsh.

and then sabo appears!! i lied, this was the first marsh scene. i drabble-wrote it in my series-of-drabbles-to-add-to-the-outline before i made pt 3′s outline, and then wrote it for real. the aegislash-being-badass-therefore-law-also-by-proxy was the second. one of the first sentences i ever wrote for tether was law realizing the face from luffy’s picture was right before his eyes. 

so why do the hunters ignore luffy calling for sabo while running away?

yes, why the no consequences? i realized at this point they were too far away to hear and law too out of it (its law’s pov, still) to figure what they were saying, to i had to play it off. it’s another scene where i almost wrote a few paragraphs from a different perspective [the other two were the tsuru-caesar confrontation and the mr. cleffa dude ft. sabo scene, both of which i had to expand upon by talking, instead of a flashback to show it. i rly went full soul-eater approach here, huh? explaining everything through present means. well. save for law’s backstory, but that’s about the only thing.] but decided not to in the end.

here’s how the scene plays out, full disclosure. law and luffy spot the two hunters. a third person, sabo comes into view. the hunters tell sabo the situation, that they were being chased. law recognizes sabo, luffy does too, and calls out to him, loudly. this causes the hunters to panic, and they tell sabo, there, there’s the people chasing after us. law figures sabo has some secret reason for posing as a hunter and pulls luffy again out of view, not wanting to give him away. all three hunters take off running in the opposite direction. luffy calls out for sabo again, and sabo turns to question the other two, asking which pokemon they stole that was named ‘sabo’. he has a fake name, obviously. they don’t know he’s sabo. before they can figure it out, he derails the topic. but then he slips crossed fingers behind his back at the same time, signaling silently to luffy, who stops calling out.

so, tldr, sabo’s not using his real name while with the hunters and is smart enough to cover his ass from luffy’s mistake.

i wanted law carrying luffy, on their way down the route, to the stormclouds, and i’m pretty sure the one reason i didnt go thru with it is because law’s backpack. and, y’know, luffy being caked in mud. 

okay, do. panic attack time. ptsd time. a mix of both, ig. whatever you wanna call it. originally, this scene was going to be a bit different, and happen way earlier in the story. it didnt bc of sinnoh’s lack of fire types [there are only 2 i think, 2 lines i mean, so like 5] and the fact that ace’s team featured none of them. and then i thought, oh, i’ll jus make the same thing happen w sabo, except none of sabo’s team were one of them as well.

originally, it was going to be that law/lu encounter a clan of a specific type of wild fire pokemon. i think for the longest time it was talonflame, not sure anymore. anyway, so it was gonna go that luffy recognizes ace’s former pokemon outta the bunch, and they recognize lu as well, and the two reunite and all that jazz, and meanwhile law has his attack bc the group they encounter are one of the pokemon that tormented him in alola.

and, nope, now i remember why it didnt happen. as much as i hate dof, i had to craft a team for him for plot purposes, and that ended up being a bug team to go w the whole string motif. the problem was i had this scene planned for a looooong time, and it needed to be w a fire type, one of ace’s pokemon. except there are like no fire/bug pokemon, except for volcarona, who wasn’t on ace’s already-planned team at this point. i debated for foreeeeever and finally decided to screw it, and i made it sabo’s unova pokemon. so, instead of getting a unova dragon, in the land of dragons unova, sabo gets a volcarona and ace a darmanitan. all for plot purposes. no sense here. none at all.

[not that it matters, since sabo morphs into a fire trainer anyway after ace dies]

so, after i decided it would be sabos pokemon, the point came back to how they would encounter it. no hordes of wild volcarona in sinnoh. i sadly had to scrap the idea. this is what i came up with instead: volcarona coming to luffy to deliver a letter, and scarring law in the process.

Law has a chocolate bar, because he’s ten and anxious and chocolate seemed good at the time.

-aka my favorite line of the whole entire story!!!

and then law’s backstory time. so!!! for the longest time i was torn between setting the story in sinnoh or alola. this was my big compromise. i wrote a draft-outline for law’s alola backstory before i wrote a real outline for tether as a whole. this was the first part of the story i really wrote. i was done with it before i started pt 1, because i wanted to outline before i started writing. 

the thing abt law is that his life is so much of a tragedy. oda writes it so well, to the point where you’re thinking this can’t get any worse and then it gets worse, every time. i wanted to mimic that here. i didn’t do it justice, but i at least tried.

law’s life is filled with mistrust. his whole village dies, he nearly does as well, and so he packs up and runs away, and hides his one pokemon abra because he’s not a registered trainer and he refuses to abandon abra so theres mistrust towards everyone who can turn him in, and everyone who didnt care enough to help with the water crisis. he’s done with sinnoh. so he spends a bit holed up in a library, and once he reads about alola, he’s sold. he’s so mistrustful it’s not a matter of ‘anywhere is better than sinnoh’, its a matter of ‘i can’t end up in another place just like this’. alola is the solution.

except, he’s still mistrustful. so he hides abra, and he hides his money, and he doesn’t speak with anyone, and he leaves the city as soon as he can. he doesn’t know the rules of this place, but abra is all he has. he can’t lose abra. and then things go wrong.

because he’s out of sinnoh, but alola is different. he’s ten, and he’s never had a real pokemon battle, and all the wild pokemon of alola are too eager. he’s ten, and a pangoro attacks and he loses all his supplies on his very first day, because abra’s too exhausted to teleport them away this time. [in hindsight, i did a really bad continuity error here, throughout the entire flashback. it’s thru law’s eyes, so i describe the pokemon he doesn’t know about, and yet sometimes i name the pokemon he really shouldn’t know about. my bad.]

he’s ten, and the only food he finds is being guarded by a giant sumo crab, so he crawls to the other side of the beach and falls asleep on the sand, hungry. he’s ten, and he’s living off berries because money is only so good when you can exchange it, and he’s far away from civilization. he’s ten, and he spends the very last of his money on money for abra, for his only pokemon and his only ally, because going to a pokemon center would mean being seen and asking for a license to verify and its too risky, he can’t risk it. 

he’s ten, and he’s hungry, and he has nothing but the abra clutched in his arms and his ripped clothes clinging to his body, and he witnesses a murder. and they catch him in the act, and then he’s stuck, because he shouldn’t have a pokemon so young, and he’s a witness to a crime, and too quickly he’s in a very bad position.

he’s ten, and to keep abra alive, he joins a gang in alola.

he’s ten, and he’s blackmailed into working or risking abra being taken away. he’s ten, and he has morals, and there’s some tasks he won’t do, but the family boss punishes him for it, harshly. he stops having morals. it wouldn’t do him good here. 

law turns eleven, and suddenly gang tasks involve pokemon battles. law’s eleven, and doflamingo trains law himself, beating the weakness out of him, burning him, scarring him, terrorizing him because he can, and because law can’t refuse. 

law’s eleven when he realizes his picture-perfect alola was nothing but an illusion, because the lack of monopolies and corporations and factories actually had nothing to do with how much the natives cared about their own, or cared at all, about anything. just because alola didn’t have a pokemon league didn’t mean it wasn’t a bad place to be.

he’s eleven when he meets corazon, and finally, finally, gets a breath of fresh air, gets a taste of a person who isn’t there to ridicule him or abuse him. he’s eleven when he meets his first real friend since his sister died, meets someone that finally treats him like a human being. and it doesnt matter that he’s doflamingo’s brother, because he’s kind to law.

law’s eleven and corazon works to repair the damage done by the gang, little by little. he gets law out on an island challenge, and he wanders through melemele and akala and meets kind people and has fun and experiences the real alola. and he realizes, somewhere along the way, that he never wants to go back to the family ever again.

law’s eleven when he realizes he has no choice. because he belongs to doflamingo, because he has to skip out on ula’ula to accomplish a task for the family, because corazon sits there and lets it happen. 

law’s eleven when he’s given a pokemon egg, and when he’s given hope.

corazon was going to take care of everything. he was going to get them out, safely. they were going to rescue a captive pokemon. law was going to be free. law was never going to be hurt by the family again.

except, that’s not how it goes. corazon dies. corazon’s pokemon are tortured in order to lure law out. corazon’s pokemon all die for him and law has no option left but to run with all his might, all the way from one tip of ula’ula to the other. and then, because he can’t trust anyone, anyone, law runs away into a desert with no supplies to speak of.

law’s eleven when he comes face to face with the most temperamental tapu in the alola region, and even with all he’s been through, it’s the most scared he’s even been in his entire life. and then, when he comes to, he finds himself stranded in the kalos region. he’s eleven. he goes through all of this and he’s not even a teenager yet.

so, backing up just a bit, you can see how seeing a volcarona is going to invoke some rather strong emotions in law. he panics. he passes out. luffy puts volcarona away, because me might be oblivious on a lot of things, but he can understand the pure terror in law’s eyes.

alright, what else. the letter. of course luffy disavows the letter, he’s luffy, he can’t follow a plan to save his life.

[desktopgargoyle]

The Road Trip Series - Chapter 3

AN: so this chapter is super duper late....but better late than never?

ff.net link

Chapter 3

“Nino really needed some rest, huh?” Marinette looks over her shoulder at Nino and Adrien, who are both curled up against each other and snoring in the back seat of the car.

“Yeah, he’s had some pretty crazy shifts lately. I barely get to see him awake anymore.” Alya laughs somewhat sadly. “He works late and sleeps late, I leave early and end up asleep before he gets in. You know how it is.”

Alya’s tried not to make a big fuss over Nino’s working hours because she knows that he’s doing a job he loves and excels at. But she will admit that it’s difficult for her to not see him as much as she used to. She misses Wednesday Spaghetti Nights on the sofa watching old horror movies with awful special effects and she misses making pancakes at midnight on Breakfast for Dinner Fridays. She misses going on dates and she misses lazy Sundays just hanging out in pyjamas with hot chocolate.

They’ve have talked about it a couple times and Nino hates their reduced time together as much as Alya does. The difference is that he also loves his job, and Alya is not about to try to tear him away from it just because she misses him. Besides, it’s not like she never sees him, it’s just that she sees him less than she’s used to and –

“Alya, you know it’s okay to miss him, right?” Marinette has been watching Alya chew on her lip and furrow her eyebrows for the last couple minutes. She knows exactly what Alya is thinking. “You don’t need to feel bad about it. Your feelings are what they are, you can’t help it.”

At the back of the car Nino stirs slightly, moving so that his head lolls just above Adrien’s shoulder as his hat falls off his head. Alya looks at him fondly in the rear-view mirror and a small smile creeps onto her face.

“Okay then, Miss Relationship Guru,” Alya smirks at Marinette. “How about we talk about your love life instead of my petty issues? A certain someone has totally got it bad for you!” Alya cackles as she watches Marinette’s face turn beet red in embarrassment.

“Nobody has anything bad for me, Al! Don’t make that kind of stuff up.” Marinette squeaks, sinking into her seat. She’s just glad that Adrien is a heavy sleeper and will (thankfully) hear none of this.

“Come on, Mari. I thought he was meant to be the oblivious one here, not you! The boy has been dropping so many hints and you have thus far failed to see every single one!”

Marinette shakes her head vehemently. Alya’s been saying this for years and trying to convince her that Adrien likes her back. Marinette knows he doesn’t. If he did in fact like her, wouldn’t he attempt to ask her out or at least drop some more obvious hints? God knows she’s been so obvious at times that she might as well wave a massive flag saying ‘hey there, just so you know I am a little bit in love with you so would you please love me back?’ in his face. With sparkles. And all-caps writing. In neon colours. Actually, scratch that. Flashing neon colours.

“I’m not oblivious!”

Alya cocks an eyebrow at her. It’s her ‘are-you-freaking-kidding-me-right-now’ look and Marinette has found herself on the receiving end of said look more and more in the last few years.

“Remember the school trip to London?”

“The one where we lost Juleka and Rose for about three hours and later found them in M&M World?”

“Yeah, that one.” Alya laughs.

It had been an eventful trip, they could say that much at least. Aside from the Juleka and Rose thing, there had also been an incident in Harrods where Chloé got into a fistfight with some rich brat over a pair of Valentino pumps that resulted in her eventually being escorted out of the building, screaming that her father would hear about it. On their third day in London, Adrien was stampeded by crazed fans as the class left the Natural History Museum and then on the fourth day, Max and Kim somehow ended up stranded in Piccadilly Circus while the rest of the class was at the National Portrait Gallery. Needless to say, there had been no abroad trips for the class after that.

“It was such a great trip, right? I love London so much, even if we were stuck with all the tourist trap locations.” Marinette smiles.

“Yeah, and the four-hour Eurostar journey wasn’t too bad either.” Alya shoots Marinette a sly glance.

“I mean, you and Nino sure had a blast. You guys were being so mushy I wanted to gag!” Marinette snorts.

“Oh, and you and Adrien weren’t being equally as mushy?” Alya retorts. Marinette flushes.

“We weren’t being mushy, we were never a couple! And the only reason we were sat together is because a certain couple couldn’t bear to be apart for four measly hours and it was a toss-up between me and Chloé!” Marinette pulls a face at Alya and slumps down in her seat.

Alya rolls her eyes. If she remembers correctly, she and Nino had video footage of Marinette and Adrien tangled up together and snoring. Of course, neither of them has ever seen this footage because she’s keeping it a secret until their wedding.

“Believe what you will, Mari, but my boyfriend knows his husband very, very well and, from what we saw, Model Boy’s intentions were a little more than just platonic, if you catch my drift.”

Marinette groans and leans her head against the cool glass of the window. Over the years there were a couple moments in which she’d let herself indulge in the idea that the attraction was mutual. The Eurostar trip was one of them. Adrien had all but dragged Marinette into the seat beside him and immediately began chatting away as if it were no big deal.

One hour into the journey he decides that he has to take as many pictures together as possible with as many stupid faces as possible, claiming that he rarely gets to do things like this and he needs to document it. He almost sounds like Alya. He saves every single one, even, much to Marinette’s horror, the photos in which she looks like a complete and utter idiot. Of course, he looks great in Every. Single. Damn. Photo. (Marinette’s theory to this day is that a life of modelling has made him permanently photogenic and there will never ever be a bad photo taken of him.)

Two hours into the trip, he gets up to go stretch his legs.

“I don’t think you get it, Mari, I’m too tall for these seats. My legs need freedom. We didn’t have, like, a million revolutions and behead the king just for me to endure this kind of oppression!”

“Are you calling me short?” That’s all she could think to say because holy-nickname-Batman he has just called her Mari. This is the first time he has ever in the history of their friendship called her that and Marinette is having a minor breakdown.

“Seriously? That’s your concern?”

“I’ll have you know that I am 5’6” and I am not short.”

“Mari, you’re 5’5”.” Crap, he did it again.

“Shut up, I’m still above average.”

“Only by an inch though.”

“I thought you were going to stretch your legs, you freakishly tall person?”

“Mari, I am a very average height. If you think I’m freakishly tall then you kinda just proved me right.” This marks three times in one conversation. Perhaps you could call it overkill, but Marinette doesn’t care.

With that, he flashes her a grin and saunters (he’s such a model) down the aisle toward the onboard café.

From: Mariiiiibuggg To: Al dente pasta Update 1: I’ve changed ur contact name from Alyyyybuggg to Al dente pasta Update 2: there’s a toddler behind me who keeps kicking my seat

From: Al dente pasta To: Mariiiiibuggg Al dente pasta? Really? Is this because of the journalism competition? Because I swear if that is a fucking pun about my year’s supply of pasta prize I will kill you. Was this Adrien’s idea? It was totally his idea. Never mind. You are in the clear. I know you love him but I swear to God I will bake his head into a lasagne.

From: Mariiiiibuggg To: Al dente pasta u didn’t let me get to update 3 also leave Adrien alone and don’t bake the love of my life into a lasagne

From: Al dente pasta To: Mariiiiibuggg Ooooh what’s update three?

From: Mariiiiibuggg To: Al dente pasta Alya. he cALLED ME MARI

From: Al dente pasta To: Mariiiiibuggg WHAAAAATTTTTT GIIIIIRRRRLLLLLLL

From: Mariiiiibuggg To: Al dente pasta wait for it THREE TIMES IN ONE cONverSATION

From: Al dente pasta To: Mariiiiibuggg HOLY SHITTTTTT (babe I love you but your grammar is killing me)

From: Mariiiiibuggg To: Al dente pasta I DONT CARE ABOUT GRAMMAR ADRIEN CALLED ME MARI THREE TIMES

From: Ninbro To: Maribro dude I’m trying to nap and all I can hear is alya squealing wtf happened

From: Maribro To: Ninbro adrien called me mari three times in one conversation

From: Ninbro To: Maribro shit dude thrice mari-d congratz anyway tell alya to shut up bc she won’t listen to me goodnight

From: Al dente pasta To: Mariiiiibuggg Did Nino just tell you to tell me to shut up?! I’m gonna kill him.

From: Mariiiiibuggg To: Al dente pasta let the boy sleeeep

From: Adrien To: Mari Hey, I’m in the queue at the snack bar. You want anything? It’s kind of a long queue so you have time to decide :)

From: Mari To: Adrien oh, um. Idk, depends on how expensive because I’m kind of broke at the moment.

From: Adrien To: Mari Nah, don’t worry about that. I’m paying :)

From: Mari To: Adrien WHAT? NO!

Marinette stares at her phone. He isn’t responding. She stretches up slightly to scan the carriage and spots Alya and Nino a couple seats ahead. She hazards another glance at her phone but still nothing. Hopefully he’s taken her somewhat panicked caps lock texts as a ‘No thanks, I don’t want anything’. Hopefully.

“Right so you didn’t specify so I grabbed you a hot chocolate and this sweet and salty popcorn. Best of both worlds, right?” Adrien throws the bag of popcorn at Marinette and slides into his seat next to her. He places the hot chocolate down on the folding table in front of her and opens the lid of his coffee, adding two sugars. Marinette stares at him.

“What? I know you’re trying to cut down on the caffeine so I figured hot chocolate was a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, I am nowhere as motivated as you and I have no intention of kicking my caffeine intake.” Adrien takes a sip of his coffee before suddenly wincing. “And there go all of my tastebuds…ouch.”

Marinette opens the lid of her cup and blows some of the steam away. “Thanks,” she smiles. “But seriously, how much did this total? Let me pay you back, seriously.” She leans down and begins rummaging around in her bag. Adrien grabs her hands and pulls them away from her bag, completely stunning her into stillness.

“I said I’d pay, and I paid. It’s no big deal, what are friends for, am I right?” He grins. She watches him intently as he eyes his drink cautiously, attempting another sip while simultaneously looking terrified.

From: Mariiiiibuggg To: Al dente pasta you know that stupid cliché about how you fall in love with someone more and more each day? I don’t think it’s stupid anymore. Alya I’m so totally screwed.

Alya still has the screenshot of that last message. She’s saving that for the wedding too. She elbows Marinette in the ribs lightly, telling her to stop looking like a lovesick chihuahua.

Once again, they’ve hit traffic. Alya takes the opportunity to stretch her arms and roll her neck; driving for extended periods of time is not necessarily her favourite thing to do but she’ll sacrifice comfort to let Nino sleep. She would let Marinette drive except Nino has henceforth banned Marinette from the driver’s seat following the Crash of July 19th (which, in Marinette’s opinion was actually not a crash because I only scratched the car slightly, Nino).

“Kinda busy today, isn’t it?” Marinette yawns. She checks her phone. No new messages. No updates. No alerts. “Weren’t we supposed to be halfway there already?”

“That was the original plan. From what I can tell, we are currently an hour and a half behind schedule.” Alya groans. “You know, I had this entire trip planned down to the minute! And now look at us!”

Marinette nods sympathetically. “I know, Al. On the plus side, at least it’s not – ” Thunder cracks in the darkening skies above before Marinette can finish her sentence. “ – raining.” Alya shoots her an ‘are you serious’ look and lets her head drop against the steering wheel with a loud thud, hitting the car horn in the process.

“Shit!” Alya starts up in surprise as Marinette giggles uncontrollably.

The rain starts out as a light drizzle, the droplets scattering across the glass like constellations as it beats softly against the cool windows of the car. The sky turns from a crystal blue to a pale grey as the rainclouds stretch across, moving slowly and heavily. It remains this way for about fifteen minutes before the rain begins to fall harder. It pelts down aggressively, hitting the window panes and rolling down in streams. The gentle patterns formed earlier on the glass blur together until it becomes difficult to see properly.

Alya runs a hand through her hair and turns the window wipers up to a faster setting. As much as she loves the rain, she’d really rather not drive in it; slippery roads tend to make her nervous.

The traffic gradually begins to move again, although at an agonising pace, which both frustrates and relieves Alya. On one hand, she really wishes they could get the hell out of this nightmarish rut in their journey and just make it to Marseille already but, on the other hand, the sluggish speed means that there won’t be any asshole drivers trying to force her to speed up in the freakish downpour. She supposes that, in some ways, the positive cancels out the negative so she’ll just have to make do and be happy for now.

Adrien stirs slightly in the back seat. He groans slightly as he stretches his arms out (he whacks Nino in the face in the process); he’s starting to believe that he is, in fact, too tall to nap comfortably in such a cramped space.

“Are we there yet?” he mumbles groggily as he rubs his eyes.

“Sorry, cupcake, we’ve hit some more traffic.” Alya’s really not sure why she feels the need to christen Adrien with these ridiculous pet names. It’s just become a Thing she does, despite his being over a foot taller than her. The list has only increased over the years and now includes sunshine, buttercup, sweetie, My Son, kitty-cat, jellybean and, Alya’s personal favourite, Mon Petit Cantaloup. Nino has started to use My Son and buttercup, which makes Alya prouder than it should.

“If it makes you feel better, you managed to nap for almost two hours.” Marinette chirps.

“Yeah, you and your husband, who is supposed to be my boyfriend, looked pretty cosy back there.” Alya snorts. “I’ve got to ask, what is your secret? He doesn’t snuggle with me like that anymore.”

“Nino likes to be the little spoon,” Adrien says sagely. “It makes him feel secure.”

“Too bad you’re like three feet tall, Al.”

“Shut up, Mari! You’re only three inches taller than me!”

“Actually, I’m five inches taller than you.”

“Well, I have a foot on both of you so I win.”

The two girls turn to face him and Adrien is certain that if looks could kill, he would be dead twice over. He grins sheepishly in response and rubs the back of his neck. Thankfully, the traffic starts moving and Alya is forced to turn her attention back to the road. Marinette narrows her eyes at him once more before she too turns to face the road.

Adrien can’t be certain but he swears that there is something in the way she looks at him, even when annoyed at him, that surpasses everything. He’s only really started to notice it recently, but for a fleeting moment he is sure of it. Upon reflection, he decides that he is deluding himself. There’s no way. Marinette is just a really good friend. That’s all.

As she turns back to the front of the car, Marinette gulps slightly. There was something strange about the way Adrien has been looking at her recently. Not strange in a bad way, but strange in a new way. His expression seems softer and there’s something different reflected in his eyes. For a second she thinks – no. In her head, she laughs at herself. She’s just projecting her own feelings onto him, she rationalises. He just sees her as a friend. That’s it.

[tcrushing4years]

Our Story 2.5

Okay folks so here is the second part of part 2 of the story of me and Joseph. In my last entry I talked about the first half of the week we met. To follow our story check out the first hashtag at the bottom of this post.

Wednesday: We had a 6 hour bus ride up to NYC and I was freaking out bc your gal (Marie) does Musical Theatre and it is what she needs to be doing to be happy. When we got off the bus we all went to dinner at a restraunt in Times Sqaure. I didn’t talk to Joseph much because he seemed like he was in a bit of a funk. He still walked closer to me and my group, but just not as teasing and talkative. He sat at a different table than us for dinner and I kept catching glances of him. He was so beautiful it killed me. Then we were given time to roam about Times Square and me and my roommates decided to get Starbucks. However, they had to go to the back to make my drink and it was taking FOREVER. We had to meet the group at 10:15 sharp and it we were already late. We ran as fast as we could and we were the last people to get there. One of the other chaperones yelled at us so hard and it was awful. I am not the kind of person to get in trouble like ever so this felt just super shitty. Anyways once that was said and done, we got on the subway to go to our hotel in brooklyn. We all boarded the subway, but everyone was exhausted. Joesph and the teacher that got mad at us came in last and I was sitting down and I could tell the other teacher was tired. I stood up and offered her my seat and she gladly accepted. I went and stood where she was, next to Joseph. He said, “That was very kind and selfless of you.” I said, “What? offering her my seat? Thanks, but that is just second nature to me.” He was quite for a second or two and I realized that his eye were red. “Did you have a good time wandering?” I asked. “Kinda,” he said, “the other teachers and I walked around, but then I took a call from my Mom.” I smiiled and asked how his Mom was. “She’s sad” he said with a frown. “Oh no, I’m sorry. Is everything okay?” And he just shook his head and said, “She has cancer” I felt my heart break for him. “I am so sorry,” I said. “It’s okay” he replied trying to play it off. “No its not. And if you don’t mind me saying, by the looks of it, neither are you.” The entire time we had kept eye contact and I could feel so many emotions coming off of him. He nodded. “Hey, if you ever need anything, please let me know. It must be really ahrd being so far away from her right now and having to deal with all of us. You don’t have to be on, you don’t have to be strong.” He didn’t reply right away, but then held my gaze. “You’re the first person to ever say something like that to me, how old are you?” I said that I was 14 and he was shocked. “You have the mind of a 25 year old,” he commented. “Thank you.” He asked how I got to be like that and I said that I have been though more shit in my short lifetime than most experiene in their existence. We were quiet for a little bit longer. He then extened his hand to me and said, “Hi. I’m *insert first name*” I giggle and took it and while shaking it I said, “Hi, I’m marie”. “It is a pleasure to know you” he said. And I really think he meant it. We got off the subway and went up to our rooms. We continued to talk while we walked to our rooms and stopped when we realized that his was right across from mine. We laughed and then said goodnight. I really wanted to hug him, but we werent there yet. Our nice teacher came by for bed checks and me and my roomates talked to her for a bit, apologizing for being late. She said it wasn’t a problem at all and then Joseph walked by our door and started talking to us too. He was in his PJs. A muscle tee and pants. The arms for the shirt were way bigger than they needed to be so when he turned I could see his perfectly sculpted stomach. He was so gorgeous. We all said our goodnights and went our seprate ways. I fell asleep fantasizing about him and replaying every little moment in my head.

Thursday: Was pretty busy. We went to central park and hung out there for a while and He and I rock climed together. On our way to dinner we were walking and I had fallen behind my friend group to talk to my sister on the phone. When I got off I realized Joseph was right there. I looked back and realized that he chose to stand near me. He wasn’t bring up the back, rather just walkig like the rest of us. We talked about how I was gonna be in his class and he said that he absolutely could not wait. We went to see a show that night on Broadway and I brought extra clothes to change into. When all the girls who changed finally met up with everyone else, I saw him looking at me and only me. I decided to not go up to him first to see what he would do and he seemed a little taken aback because the entire trip we had both been seeking each other out. Once we started walking again he caught up to me and said, “wow” and I made a face and he replied, “no. no. please take the compliment, you look beautiful” I smiled and thanked him.

Friday: It was our last day and He and I both seemed sad that it would end. When we were walking to and from a destinaion I decided to take a break from peope and think to myself. Sometimes when I think I sing and I was singing a song from a popluar musical. I heard his voice say, “Is that *insert show name*?” I said yes and told him it was my favorite and then we talked about that musical for a long while. We then went to a tourist location and he and I took our first picture together. It was a selfie. it was beautiful. We almost didn’t make our flight and the entire way getting from security to the gate we were powerwalking and kept makig eye contact, and sighing at the fact that this was even happening. On the plane. I sat alone and it was super sucky. I went to the bathroom at one part of the plane ride, but it was when the stewardess was coming up the ailse so when I went to go back to my seat, I couldn’t get in. One of the teachers said there was an open seat next to Joseph and she ws right. I sat down next to him and it wa a little awkward, but he was watching a movie and realized that I was watching it too from his screen, but without sound. He took out one of his earbuds and without saying anything, gave it to me. We watched the movie together and it was wonderulf. I eventually thanked him and went back to my own seat. We shared our first hug that day at bag pick up and he said that he was going to see his mom, but that we would see each other when school starts again. We said bye and thus started the longest 2 months of my life.

So that it. I know it was super long, but I hope you related or found it enjoyable. Sending lots of love to you tcc

[prettiestrice]

Jour 20: Lourdes, Day 1!!! Samedi, 10 Juin 2017.

The post you have all been begging for (my fans) here it is...

So today (and tomorrow!) was almost not even describable. Literally. I am in absolute awe of how incredible this weekend was. Forgive me ahead of time for how long this post is going to be. and prob tomorrow too. 

So I woke up early & met Caroline at the train station at 7:45. We took the train (it had assigned seats -- weird) to Lourdes and arrived at around 3:30. The town is really small so we safely made it into the town to our hotel without any trouble. We checked in, set down our bags, and ventured off towards la grotte! 

We weren’t sure exactly where to go at first but there are plenty of signs. According to Ray who googled it, Lourdes is the 2nd biggest tourist city en France. Believable actually. Every building on every road is pretty much either a souvenir shop (solely containing rosaries and statues of la vierge Marie), a restaurant, or a hotel. Occasionally there was an ice cream place or a candy place but not many of those. 

We followed the street down down down the hill. Rue de la Grotte. Until we came upon a bridge which crossed over the Gave du Pau (I think that’s the river’s name). This was our initial view 

So amazing. I didn’t realize how much had been built there but I guess it makes sense since it’s a huge pilgrimage place. Anyway. It was just absolutely amazing. Caroline was so understanding about taking pictures of me doing everything because she knew how important this was to me. Like she’d just take em of me I never even asked lol she’s great. 

So we walked slowly toward the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (awkward name....??!!) and just everything was stunning. There was a BEAUTIFUL statue of the virgin facing the Basilica like where I am starring in this photo and she was wearing a crown, and then up on stop of the basilica was a GIANT crown. Like echoing her. She’s so beautiful. 

It’s cute in the background right behind me. The lady in the blue hat is a hospital volunteer and those two people in wheelchairs are patients. The amount of people who are ill who come here to be blessed is just the coolest thing ever. 

Here is the crown!!!!! The whole town was just so amazing. The town is in the Pyrenees mountains. Literally what a beautiful place for a miracle to happen. Like out of all the places Bernadette could have lived, honestly one of the most beautiful on earth. 

AHH. I loved it. So there are three layers to the main building. The tip top one is the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception which in the picture right above is where we are standing facing out from. Right under that is the Crypt. And underneath that is the Rosary Basilica. So after approaching the main area, the first thing we did was go into the Rosary Basilica. Which was SO SO SO SO pretty. Go look up pictures online right now. 

So we go in and immediately to the left is another statue of the Virgin. Honestly I could look at these statues all day she is IMMACULATE. Literally though. Then you enter and it is just like a regular church but beautiful beautiful beautiful. I didn’t take photos but find some online. On the left, there was the glorious mysteries. Behind the altar was the sorrowful. and to the right was the joyful. So Caroline and I approached the Glorious and I recognized them immediately and we walked a couple steps and I said something about them. This poor girl didn’t know how to pray the rosary!! So I explained to her briefly and then explained the mysteries. So we went through all the mysteries one by one and I explained the significance of each one. It was incredible to watch her see these big beautiful portrayals of them. Like I could tell she immediately was like “oh my goodness this is amazing” she did actually say that. And she was grateful to have learned. So I explained all 3 sets of mysteries to her. The Luminous weren’t there but that’s because the Rosary Basilica was built in 1889 and the Luminous mysteries were made in 2002.

After, we went outside and walked to the Grotto. It is physically not even possible to explain how amazing that Grotto is. Literally the Virgin Mary Appeared to this poor young French girl there 18 times. 18! Just thinking about it gives me chills. How amazing is that. This girl was so holy and The Virgin Mary appeared to her. I just wanted to weep the entire time I was in there because I just felt so. Just wow. 

We waited in a short line. It was literally just a hole underneath all the basilicas and everything. it was a small, tiny grotto. Probably like 10 meters by 15 meters or something. The rock was dark black and had been smoothed over by so many many thousands of people coming to touch it. It was cool even though the temperature was 90 degrees outside. When you go inside, the little creek that Mary asked Bernadette to dig up was flowing steadily, but was blocked off by glass plates so that all we could do was look at it. We walked through pretty quickly so that other people could have a turn, but then we sat in the pews facing the Grotto for maybe a half hour. Sitting there was just so amazing. 159 years before me, this beautiful little girl was able to see Mary so so close to where I was sitting. I just can’t get over that. Ahhhh.

We were waiting for the 5pm Blessed Sacrament Procession to begin where we were sitting, but because of the heat, it was moved inside the Basilica of St. Pius X. So we went there. 

It was adoration. Honestly, I’ve only been to adoration once at CUA and it was very hard for me to sit through. I do love praying but an hour of praying in silence is a hard thing! Even in front of the Holy Eucharist! But this was so so amazing (like the 10th time I’ve used that word). It was only about 45 minutes long and there was a lot of singing in many different languages with a little bit of silent prayer. The B of SPX is an underground basilica made in 1958 and seats 25,000 people. Caroline had never been to adoration before and I didn't want her to be bored or anything. But she liked it a lot because she grew up going to Spanish mass so listening to the liturgy in English is harder for her. So she very much enjoyed hearing things in Spanish too!! 

They also had tons of incense. Incense literally is my favorite scent in the entire world (not just because a dad thing though) and it made the whole church smell so good. Wow omg. 

Afterward, I wandered around the church. Because it is underground and more modern, it wasn’t as elaborately decorated as the other churches there. It was made out of steal and not the prettiest. It was made for the 100 year anniversary of Bernadette so they were just trying to make it fit tons of people so it is a LOT of pews. But around the edges are like 50 some gigantic tapestries with a different saint (or someone beatified) on each side. Some are just French some are just Spanish I believe, but I know one entire section was just martyrs. Each section had a category but I don’t remember them all. The saints I specifically noticed that were there because they were super important to me are: Pope Saint JPII, Saint Francois d’Assise (Boy, do I wish Jack could have been with me this weekend!!!!), Sainte Mere Teresa, Sainte Rose de Lima (who I was gonna choose as my confirmation saint when I was like 6 before I realized Bernadette existed), Sainte Cecile, Saint Thomas More (the homie!), Sainte Marguerite-Marie (who I thought was cool bc that’s my sister’s name), Saint Joseph (who LITERALLY is so awesome like legitimately not just anyone can be as awesome as St. Joseph specifically only Saint Joseph is as awesome as Saint Joseph I love him), and, of course, Sainte Bernadette. 

So we left and went outside. We visited briefly at the Crypt church. And on the side of the crypt church was a relic of St. B which I prayed at for a bit. but then we went to dinner because a lot of everything there had closed until later. 

I got ice cream! Yum! 

Around 8:30, we came back for the 9pm Torchlight Marian Procession. I bought a candle (to represent my baptism) and it started at the Grotto so we walked there. It was filling up a lot but we sat down on the wall next to the river. There was a very large group of Spanish nuns next to us. Two came over and one was very old so they asked for our seat. We both stood up and they started talking to Caroline in Spanish. She felt bad for not including me, but frankly I loved it. If anything was coming out of this trip at all, it’s Caroline’s faith increasing and that is the most important thing in the world. She talked to them for a long time about everything and she was just so touched by being able to speak her first language to these beautiful women in one of the most beautiful places in France probably. 

When the procession started, it was still light out. It started with the sick by the hospital so we actually didn’t start walking till around 9:30. But while we were walking, they were praying a rosary. It was the most spectacular rosary I have ever heard in my life. During the different decades, they would switch up languages. There’d be Hail Marys in French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, Mandarin, Italian, and probably other languages that I’m missing. But it was incredible. One voice would go over the loud speaker the say the first half, then everybody would start the second in their perspective languages so around me I could hear them all. And even though it was all different languages, it was just all one big, beautiful voice. One grand prayer said altogether from thousands and thousands of strangers with the exact same belief in Christ.

We followed the path out around the cross that is in the first picture of this post. There was so many people. It seemed like almost as many as at the Papal mass on my campus honestly but it was probably less. It filled the whole main area in front of the Basilica. Up the arches and everything too.

It was stunning. The colors of the sky too, the entire time. AH. It was setting behind the Basilica and the whole sky was lit up with the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen. There were so many candles too. In between the decades of the rosary, there would be a song sung in latin and during the chorus, everyone would raise up there candle into the sky. The beauty of it was indescribable. I’m not doing this justice. 

We settled in at the end right about at the statue of the Virgin Mary. They had lights at her just so perfect that, as the sun set she was literally glowing in the sky. You couldn’t even see the lights on her. All you could see was her glowing. Honestly she looked like an angel. Like so beautiful it didn’t even seem like a statue! 

I was so sad when the procession ended. I wish it could have lasted forever. The sun was set now and we were going to go to 11 pm mass at the Grotto, but it was 10pm at this point, we were exhausted and there was so many people there that we wouldn’t have even been able to see the priest. I was sad I didn’t get to receive the Eucharist at the Grotto which would have been like a dream, but I knew I’d get to mass at some point on Sunday so that’s cool. 

Then I just quickly went down to this little thing on the stage right side of the basilica bottom part like near the entrance to the Rosary Basilica. There were three things there. Each one was a different scene. The middle was a tiny Bernadette at the Grotto looking up at the Virgin Mary. It was so beautiful!! I’ll post a picture in my picture post but. Honestly, I sat there for a while and just sat and cried and prayed and I can’t even express how much it meant to me. 

So we went to sleep at that was my first amazing amazing amazing day in one of my favorite places on Earth.