#While his mouth is clearly full of deadly mushrooms

[honesttoglob]

I feel like Steve and Frances would be friends. Just like,,,, buds. Pals. They meet to play chess out in Central Park every weekend and Steve wins most of the time but it's only because he eats Frances' pieces when she isn't looking and she's way too high to keep track of his strategy.

[haqita-kimoji]

Darts of Pleasure - Chapter 2 - Reel Her In

Pairing: Levi Ackerman x Original Character (Sophie Poulain)

Genre: Romance, light fluff

Warnings: Manga spoilers, s4 spoilers, don’t read when you’re not updated with the latest anime episode

Word count: 1.8k words

a/n: I feel my writing is amateur-ish at best hence any feedback is very much welcomed. Posted on wattpad and AO3 as well.

Chapter 2: Reel Her In

Dinner in the mess hall was meatloaf, a gravy-soaked concoction that did not taste like meat or resemble a loaf, a bowl of mushroom soup, and garlic bread. Levi had speared a slice of meat with his fork and raised them to just below his chin, but then seemed to forget about them as his gaze fell to Sophie. He'd forgotten he was eating, he had yet taken a single bite of his dinner until the meatloaf nearly slides off the fork. Listening to Hange talk on and on while stealing glances to Sophie, he'd watched full of curiously at her interacting with the other Marleyan soldiers.

When Hange would pause in her monologue, she would raise her eyebrows at his fork and lifted her chin suggesting him to take a bite. Levi would merely sigh, rolled his eyes, shoveled them in his mouth and chewed with an expression asking: Why do humans go through the dreary process of digesting food? Hange knew her friend well, she noticed his poor attempt of concealing his glances at the Marleyan table. She crossed her arms beneath her chest and kicked at his shin playfully to get his attention.

"What?" Levi asked.

"You got to reel her in you know, be subtle about it." Hange suddenly said to encourage him, her lips curved into a smile. "It's that bit of nuance you know." Hange began to share her input on the matters of love with a monotonous Levi who stayed silent throughout. Hange insisted that he should strike a conversation with her but talk only about the most mundane things, the weather, the local Marleyan cuisine and culture, anything that would give him an opportunity to communicate while utilizing the silent but deadly language of eye contact.

Levi's face stayed stoic. The truth was, other boys were not as powerful as Levi when it comes down to fighting titans with the ODM gears and hand-on-hand combat, but they were more skillful at asking girls out because what they lacked had taught them persistence. Whereas Levi had never even entertained the infatuation from any pursuer. Levi's skills with the ODM gears had left him dry on tricks, and in misery, he merely sighed at Hange and her advice.

"Levi!" Hange shrieked, awakening him to his senses.

"Yes," Levi replied, swirling the mushroom soup with the garlic bread.

"Wow, you must really like her huh? She got you all tongue-tied," Hange moved her eyebrows playfully, then made a quick glance to Sophie. Oh fuck, Levi thought to himself, even Hange has started to notice how wary he is around the mess halls.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Levi announced, hissing almost.

"Levi, if you want to befriend her, you've got to start by actually talking to her. I think you know what you've got to do," Hange ventured, teasingly taking a slice of his garlic bread she'd hope he won't notice.

"Yeah," Levi looked down to his bowl of mushroom soup, his lips pursed. Hange merely looked to his friend, speechless, indeed Levi was a man of few words. Most people would not know but Levi was a shy person. To even talk to someone he was mildly attracted to would require a lot of courage and planning on his part.

Somehow the stars aligned for Levi that night and the opportunity arose, both Eren and Jean started to shout and wrestle each other in the middle of the mess hall. Jean aimed for a body slam in the midsection whereas Eren went for the crazed punch to the head. At the last moment, Jean reached one hand out and hit Eren by the jaw. Eren spit out the blood and with his leg, swept Jean's feet out from under him. As expected of the other soldiers, both Paradis and Marleyan started to form a circle between the two and cheered them on.

Any other day, Levi would intervene and stop the fight. But that night, he noticed Sophie was away from her squad trying to catch a glimpse of the fight and he figured it was the best opportunity to approach her. Levi stood up and lingered nearby, planning meticulously in his head how to execute his plan. Taking a deep breath, he left his seat and walked to the cheering crowd. Three times his heart jumped at the decoys of other petite girls he walked past.

A few more stride and he saw Sophie on her tip-toes, her eyebrows furrowed curiously to view the fight. Levi found himself staring at her with a concentration so focused everyone else ceased to exist. A fuzzy aura surrounded her, probably due to so much blood draining out of Levi's head. He looked back to his table at Hange knowing she was observing his move, indeed Hange grinned at him while raising her cup of beer to wish him luck.

Levi took a deep breath and walked towards her, his pace slowing as he halted to a stop beside her. Sophie was unaware of Levi and was more enamored of the ongoing action, to her it was Eren, the founding and attack titan performing hand-on-hand combat hence it was a big deal even if everything was in good fun. Even though Levi avoided looking at her, it was no use, he felt Sophie beside him, registered her body temperature, heartbeat and respiration rate. He also noticed hay sticking by the bottom hem of her grey slack, she must have been to the stable that day.

Right then it happened, Jean tried to finish off with a body punch that entered cartoonishly far into Eren's gut. The room rippled louder with laughter and cheering. It was then that Sophie noticed the figure beside him, Levi Ackerman, with a stoic monotonous face, he looked clearly unamused with the ongoing commotion. She swallowed a lump on her throat, nervous at how she ended up bumping shoulders with the infamous Captain Levi.

He suddenly leaned into her and said, "They're both morons."

In response, she merely nodded her mouth agape. He is an Ackerman, the clan Zeke had warned about, and she was in awe. But Levi, who was very much curious leaned in and pointed to her slack, "You got hay on you."

"Hay? Oh, this?" Sophie nervously replied, looking down to her gray slack. "Oh yeah, I visited the stable earlier." The light from the lamps of the mess hall gathered in the dark waves of her loose hair, her cheeks were bright pink and Levi was transfixed.

Levi waited for the cheering to peak before he spoke again, "You like to visit the stables?" Realizing how stupid his attempt was at forming a basic sentence he quickly added, "I mean horses--- You like horses?"

"Yes," Sophie replied, nervously tucking her hair behind her ear. "The horses here in Paradis are super friendly, bitey though."

"Yeah our horses tend to bite," Levi smacked his lips nervously. "In the Marleyan military do you horse ride?" He noticed Sophie's cheeks were reddening, he could smell her next to him, her hair like lavender and the smell of her skin like grapefruit.

The crowd was getting louder and it was harder for them to listen to one another. Leaning in, closer than Levi would ever imagine, Sophie whispered to him her breath hitting his earlobes, "Unfortunately there's no horse riding in the Marleyan navy, but I use to back in my hometown. I live in the countryside back home."

"Oh wow, ok!" Levi blurted out, a little too eagerly. They both smiled nervously in that small amount of time, but nerves got the best of him and suddenly Levi turned around from Sophie and simply muttered, "Yeah well, see you around."

Confused at his sudden reaction, Sophie merely waved him goodbye and stood where she was, overthinking if she had caused Levi to leave. She had heard of Levi's infamous cleaning habits and hygiene standards, she figured maybe the hay on her slack was a turn-off to him.

As Levi walked away, Hange jumped from the side and grabbed him by his arm pulling him to the wall. "Levi, what are you doing?" Hange glided over and inquired to him in a hushed deep voice.

"I--- I got nervous...?" Levi answered, his heart was pounding. His eyes showed signs of regret and anxiety, then he continued, "She loves horses AND she smells great. She's the perfect woman!" Hange pinched the bridge of her nose, suppressing the incoming laughter from seeing a side of Levi she never witnessed before.

"My dear Levi. You must really like this girl for you to act like this," Hange replied calmly. "Listen, approach her again and invite her for tea, somewhere less noisy. In your office perhaps?"

Both of them looked back to Sophie who was pouting and muttering to herself, looking confused. Hange assumed she was probably in distress figuring out what had happened, maybe they'd be perfect for each other in their own way, she thought. Placing her hand on Levi's shoulder Hange leaned down and whispered to his ear, "This is for you Levi."

Impulsively, Hange took a bowl of peanuts from the nearby table and started to throw it to a clueless Sophie, aiming for her back. A naïve Sophie slowly turned around to find Hange, the commander of Survey Corps, throwing peanuts to her back.

"Sorry! I was aiming for the---" Hange paused looking for an excuse but gave up halfway. "The--- Floor! Yes, I was aiming for the floor. But yeah, now that I have your full attention--- Levi." Hange nudged forward a nervous Levi to approach her, Sophie merely stared back at him concerned, her eyes widen. Sophie wondered if she was in trouble.

"Yeah Hange was--- She was trying to aim for the---" Levi tried to explain, English suddenly a second language for him. With one big breath he blurted out the words, "Would you like to go somewhere quiet and have tea?" Sophie looked to him, her face bright red, her wide round eyes flitted back and forth.

"Yes, I'd like that." she glanced to the floor then back to his gaze. Levi could smell the light-fruity sweetness of her breath. "But only if you let me make you Marleyan tea."

Levi nodded and stepped a few steps back, but before doing so leaned back to Sophie. "Sure, meet me at my office quarters. Second floor, turn left, first door to the right," he said and took off.

[colacatinthehat]

Breath of the Wild || One Year Anniversary Prompts

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Day 6 - Cooking

Rating: T (For…Angst?)

Words: 1,350*

Game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Pairing: Link/Zelda if you squint real hard kinda I guess

Summary: Link barters his cooking skills for a roof over his head and struggles with the weight of his quest. 

“Stay for the night?”

Link nodded, trying in vain to wipe the wet hair from his eyes. Rain poured down relentlessly and showed no sign of stopping. There was no way Link would be able to climb to the summit with the weather so bleak, far wiser to wait it out.

The two faces peering out of the tent exchanged a glance. He wouldn’t blame them for turning him down, he probably looked suspicious.

But to his surprise, after they had come to some sort of unspoken understanding, the woman smirked asked;

“Can you cook?”

Practical? Yes. Good first impression? Yes. Overkill? Maybe.

It wasn’t easy to fry eggs on a flameblade but Link had succeeded at it enough times now to consider himself an expert. (Not to mention the added benefit of not smoking out the whole tent with an open flame.) But, then again, Link thought that he was quite good at a lot of things. Things he wasn’t sure he’d tried before.

“I’m glad you showed up, Link! I’m starved!” Lorelle, the woman, was wittering the night away completely unburdened by her, more often than not, full mouth. 

“This is good meat, too!” she praised, proceeding to tear the last mushroom (from her second skewer, no less) with her teeth. Her eyes were a dark brown and in the dim glow of the lamp Link could make out a light dusting of freckles on her cheeks. Her travel companion was named Ruko, his beard was unkempt and he was quieter than his friend, but he seemed nice enough. An intelligent man who boasted a firm understanding of mathematics.

Link was almost convinced that they weren’t Yiga. (He’d been taught caution the hard way.) Their woeful tale of bokoblins stealing their food seemed too genuine to be fake, not to mention there wasn’t a single banana in sight - A comically deadly give-away.

“The last of a boar I caught near riverside stable,” Link answered as he mopped the egg yolk from his own plate with a slice of bread. “Traded the rest to a guy who could smell it in my pack from ten paces away.”

Ruko raised his brows quizically. “That’s quite the skill…”

“He ate it there and then.”

The man had used his bare hands too, it was a bit of a spectacle.

“A whole boar?”  Ruko scoffed.

Link hesitated, perplexed by the comment. He hadn’t really considered it strange before. Most of the things people did seemed strange. Tending flower gardens, wasting time in hot springs… Other people seemed to have wildly different priorities.

“I think he was just really hungry.”

Lorelle laughed at his comment a little more than he’d expected. Paying close attention to his hosts, Link had the feeling she quite liked him. Something about the colour her cheeks turned under her freckles, the way she tried to catch his eye when he looked her way. 

He didn’t mind, truthfully he quite liked the attention.

Link was often alone on his travels and rarely knew what to say when he was not. “Handsome and stoic” he’d been called. People that told him that he was good-looking tended not to mind filling the gaps in conversations when Link’s words left him. A blessing he called upon more often than not.

“Well now, not that this isn’t fun… But it’s late and we really should save the candle,”  Ruko suggested, interrupting Link’s train of thought as he reached over to take the empty plate from his lap. “How about we get some sleep?”

Now that Link was more alert, he was pretty sure Ruko’s eyes caught his in the same way as his companion’s.

The two merchants didn’t snore in the classic sense of the word. However, they were no silent sleepers by any stretch of the imagination. That and the incessant patter of raindrops on the canopy of the tent, the murmur of a storm in the distance, it could almost drive him mad.

They were clearly content with each other’s company (obnoxious half-snores and all) in a way that Link was not, and the pair drifted off almost as soon as they bid the tent goodnight. 

It was uncomfortably humid and the space seemed cramped in a way it hadn’t over their meal. Close, loud and busy. 

Perhaps, Link thought, it was because of the tightness in his throat or the prickle down his spine. He’d known this feeling before, it taunted him on the edge of his memory. It seemed so close when he closed his eyes, but he couldn’t quite recall it. Guilt, perhaps? Fear? No, it was similar to how he felt in a crowded room, very aware, very awake.

For a long while he weighed up his chances in the rain, but a crack of thunder quashed the idea as soon as it subsided. Better to stay put.

Possessed by the need to work with his hands, Link pulled the slate from his travellers pack. For what seemed like the hundredth time, he began working through the pictures Impa had told him were left by Zelda all those years ago. Most of the locations were strange to him, limited to peaks in the distance he vaguely knew, but very few that he confidently recognised.

An open path in early dawn, Zelda striding forward, the weight of a sword on his back.

“Can you hear it yet, hero?” she’d asked, coldly.

In his sleep Ruko rolled onto his back, breathing loudly, dryly through his mouth.

The second was the place where she’d confronted him. It had been a shock to the system at first, quickly disproving the idea of the Princess he’d created in his head.

The only context Link had to work with were the words of Impa and the Old Man. They’d told him that he was a Knight of Hyrule. The appointed Knight. The chosen hero. That he’d died a noble death protecting Princess Zelda, heir to the throne and bearer of a sacred power. His partner in a prophecy that foretold the return of a great evil.

Regardless of what they’d said, to Link it seemed clear that his partner didn’t care for him very much at all.

The more he stared at the image on the screen, the more he tried to convince himself that he didn’t like Princess Zelda very much, either.

Why did he make such a habit of coming back to these pictures? They never calmed him as he hoped they would.

Why him? Link wondered, not for the first time. Why couldn’t he stop himself from moving on? Why had Zelda left him such an impossible task? Why was he acting upon it?

There were no answers.

Tomorrow he’d climb that mountain regardless. He was certain there was a shrine at the top. If he trained he could become stronger. If he became stronger he could free the Divine beasts. If he freed the beasts he could confront Ganon. If he confronted Ganon he could…

Link didn’t know.

He kept scrolling through the slate.

Another picture, and Link felt the damp of rain through his tunic. The hilt of a sword in his hand, the next step in his footwork clear in his mind. Front foot forward. Don’t lock your arm before the swing. The sword cut through the air in a clean arc. He began the forms again. Zelda spoke, voice far away and he stopped to listen.

She was clearly unhappy. She couldn’t do what was expected of her. She didn’t want to.

Link felt a little resentful towards the pang in his chest. Conflicted by the disjointed pity he felt for a girl he wasn’t sure he knew. Pity with no beginning and no end.

Lorelle stirred, her breath tickled the back of his neck.

“Link, could you turn that light out?” she muttered, voice cracking with sleep.

Immediately he switched off the slate and set it aside. The tent was very dark without it.

“Sorry.”

She didn’t answer, already asleep, but Link had to admit he was thankful for the company.