#a song per day

[asongperday]

Song of the Day — “Bed Chem” by Sabrina Carpenter

I was in a sheer dress the day that we met We were both in a rush, we talked for a sec

[nangongpuye]

i did a thing

MDZS (novel) :

72 named characters

50 dead (including wen ning, song lan, and wei wuxian)

conclusion: 69% chance of death, with a 4.2% chance of conscious return to life.

MDZS (any and all media) :

77 named characters

55 dead

conclusion: 72% chance of death anywhere in the mdzs-verse.

TGCF:

44 named characters (clones and alter egoes not counted)

16 permanently dead

14 ghosts

16 gods

conclusion: 36% chance of permanent death, 32% chance of dying and becoming a ghost, 36% chance in ascending.

here's the percentage, but skewed with the ghost deaths: 73%

SVSSS (svsss only, no pidw):

41 named characters

12 dead, + 1 linguang-jun missing +1 shen yuan +1 shang qinghua

conclusion: 37% chance of death/missing, 4.9% chance of returning via transmigration

conclusion of conclusions: great mxtx, why did you have to do that to mdzs????? they're all dead......

[melit0n]

Somewhat of a random thought, but I've always been interested in the slightly distorted voice in Decending.

We've had talks about how some songs are response to others, from Vessel to Sleep or Sleep to Vessel, such as Sugar being a response to The Offering, but I don't think it's been talked about much with the two responding to eachother in one song.

This leads me to Decending, particularly, the main chorus. It's the only part of that song which has some sort of vocal distortion: a reply of sorts.

The lyrics begin to take a bit of a different shape: "You come crawling back to me, but I'm already on the ground", sounds like someone's being brought down to their level. Vessel is just as close to being a forgotten corpse as Sleep is.

Then, we have more of a response in, "And we all know that talk is cheap." to "So come on and save me now". Obviously, this one can go both ways. Both are in need of saving, and the 'response' begins to sound a bit more desperate.

Next, we have, "And you wonder what I believe." to "But you don't wanna be around". This can be joined into one, but I like it better as a two part response.

Finally, "So, what would you do for me?" and "Yeah, what would you do for me?" It's a clear-cut deal. Both know what they have to lose and both are very ready to risk it.

When put into context, it feels like a somewhat desperate, forcefully playful back and forth. Depending on your viewpoint, you could swap who's speaking when quite easily too, and still arrive at a similar conclusion.

Either Vessel is feeling somewhat confident and joking around with Sleep for the sake of a gain, or he's watching a dead and dying God of old tongues realising he's the perfect host.

Just a little thought.

P.S: I am very, very aware that this is half baked-thought and this could easily just be a production choice made for funsies. Hence why it is just 'a thought', lol.

[damngoodbabysiitter]

Tagged by: @jennathearcher sorry it took so long, but thanks for this! <3

Rules: Pick a song for every letter of your url and tag that many people

Daffodil - Florence + the Machine

Again&again - Against The Current feat. guardin

Monster In Me - Little Mix

No Complaints - Noah Kahan

Go For It - Djo

Oblivion - Bastille

On The Page - Maggie Rogers

Darkest Hour - Andrea Russett

Better Days - Dermot Kennedy

Always Get This Way - The Aces

Bad Life - Sigrid & Bring Me The Horizon

Youth - Daughter

Soft to Be Strong - Marina

Is It Really Me You're Missing - Nina Nesbitt

Into The Walls - Griff

Thick Skull - Paramore

There Til The End - JERUB

Evermore - Taylor Swift feat. Bon Iver

Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush

Tagging: @userdebora @thescoopstroopers @lynchemon @paqerings @kingofokay @triciaisonline @sircolinmorgan @heatherfield and/or anyone who wants to do it because I panicked lmao

[gayofthefae]

Found a new, concise way of putting it that I'm gonna try and remember so I can reuse it:

To say, as a straight person, that a queer character's queerness is out of the blue or unrealistic is to claim that they understand the queer experience to be able to identify inaccurate representation of it.

To call a character's queerness out of the blue as a straight person is to claim full understanding of the queer experience.

[xxri]

tell us abt ur prsk unit....

it seems i ahve been found by prsk oc tumblr helloo. girl band with something very wrong. more under the cut i guess

helloo.... garden of eden posting.... vkei band that mostly plays vocarock and metal (i dont really know specific genres Heart emoji.) very much inspired by leia by yuyoyuppe I LOVE LEIA.

they don't really shoot for a huge goal like the other units they are all learning to love playing music for themselves and not for fame or whatever. they play together just for the sake of it ^_^ ive posted everyones profiles but here are their ref sheets

they have a cover song list here ^_^ (many of these would be rearranged but do u see my vision....)

and voice claims . i kind of designed all four of them with the singers in mind i am a #Big fan of all of them. ruri, tsubaki, kanna, sumire

also vaguely inspired by musicians i like ... i wanted there to be more obvious references in their unit outfits but i guess i can do that for card sets (if i ever design any)

as for story ......... idrk how to summarize their story on a surface level WHAHA . ruri is a vocaP and recruits the others to form a band for fun. tsubaki is her childhood friend, sumire is a huge fan of her music and brings kanna along (BAD IDEA) 99% of the problems in the band are caused by kanna arguing with everyone over nothing

at first the focus is on tsubaki and the others helping her search for her true passion before she graduates. she joins the band to spend time with ruri, she doesn't actually gaf about music (she doesnt gaf about anything) but slowly learns to love it and enjoy being in the band.

everyone else has their arcs, kanna is very annoying and pretentious and wants to be popular while the other three are like "hey man. maybe being in a band isnt all about fame ^_^;;" sumire is a total beginner at music and is seen as "weird" but finds friends who accept her, ruri arc happens much later cuz everyone else is just learning things she already knew. but she learns to be more honest with everyone.

basically they all join for superficial reasons and eventually learn to really truly love music ^_^ also the sekai is haunted mansion ish and the vocaloids are all ghosts Here is miku and flower probably. i am very indecisive on how they will look

ermmmm Idk what else to post. relationship chart and ruri and sumire instrument models (Ruri stolen from toko kirigaya #I LOVE MORFONICA!!!!!!) idk anything about drums or violin models so they just get whatever. their main motif is flowers i guess but they're not very flowery that's mostly just ruri's influence being a big flower fan. ok i will not make this post longer than it needs to be Thank you for asking i love my daughters ^_^

[alphabetcompletionist]

18/27+

[ambivartence]

My top songs (of the first half) of 2023 ✦ Boys Planet edition ✦

tagged by @lunetual @jikyu @leewonseo @lee-minhoe ty 💕

I've listened to over 300 new releases from over 100 different kpop artists this year so picking my top songs felt like an mnet-level survival show 😭 the irony that i never watched Boys Planet AND one of the songs is literally a Peak Time song is not lost on me ! 🙃 but i wanted to pick a trendy format so here we are 😈 anyways i included albums instead of songs that didn't make the cut since there's too many honorable mention songs that i have had on repeat this year 😭 but most of them are in these 22 albums (oo-li is on here twice and istj isn't out yet !)

if u like my gif template, here's the link ! pls credit me ty <3

tagging (no obligation ofc and if you've already posted will u tag/send me so i can see 🥺): @bahngentertainment @chrisbangs @coupsnim @dakbees @dive-in-the-blue @hannahbahng @hyunfelix @ingblr-s @jinniebit @kyubins @losergirlz @quokki @shorelinnes @starcatching @userjiung @userwoodz @wabisaba @woodziecup @yohanblr + anyone else who wants to share just say that i tagged u <3

[cfrog]

Another set of Art Fight attacks!! Credits for characters under the cut again 👍

Beloved bnnuy - charliechela

Snuggled bug - WhimsyWillikers

Cool computer - @ashyslashyy

Little angel - B1LLC1PHER

Sport panda - @lostrhythm42

Pair of hands (and train guy) - @scribblue

[asongperday]

Song of the Day — “Too Much To Ask” by Niall Horan

Waitin' here for someone Only yesterday, we were on the run You smile back at me and your face lit up the sun Now I'm waitin' here for someone

[clovermusic]

16. Overgrown

Something simple I made a bit ago. I made this song specifically because it could have worked for the last 2 days' prompts as well (in case I couldn't think of something for one of the days)

[seventh-district]

Could've left me just the way you found me, but you came and put your wings around me. You went out of your way, to fix what you didn't break.

This song is so incredibly Sam & Darlin' coded and no one can tell me otherwise.

[lots of lyrical analysis below the cut] [there's also a short little fanfic blurb of them stargazing down there too (this post got really out of hand lmao)]

For those not fully caught up, note that the following commentary contains various spoilers for Sam and Darlin's stories.

Note: Unfortunately this song is gendered, using the word 'girl' several times. Which sucks a little bit for immersion purposes, not only for keeping Darlin' gender-neutral, but also because I see this song as a duet between them, and Darlin' obviously wouldn't be addressing Sam with the word 'girl' either. So! As with most songs on their playlist, we're just gonna mentally omit any gendered terms we come across.

Side note: Frustratingly, this is one of those songs that didn't really even need to gender the subject in the first place. No part of the story or message is lost without it. But alas, many songs are like that, and so the playlist-makers of the world shall continue to suffer. [/lh]

Anyways, preamble's over. It's lyric time now yay!

Sam's Part

I was a ten-year train wreck

Technically for Sam I suppose it was 13 years, but ten is close enough (and 'ten' admittedly flows a lot better in the rhythm of the song than 'thirteen' would.) Anyways, we're not here to split hairs, (I have to remind myself), we're just here to point out similarities.

In Sam's Dec. '22 HBW, he says "For the last 13 years or so I haven't had to care too much about how I look. Seemed a little redundant after turnin', considerin' I didn't wanna be around much'a anybody anyway."

I think he's mentioned or alluded to that roughly 13 year period of time more than once, but that's the one I remember best so it's the example I'm using. There's still about 4 Sam audios I've yet to listen to as of making this post, so if I'm missing some Key Lore I'll edit this later. But for now, I don't think Sam has given many specifics on exactly how bad things got during that time. Luckily, 'train wreck' is a pretty broad and subjective term, so it easily covers any degree to which he may have fallen apart during those years.

It also feels like a very 'him' way of quickly brushing over the details of his past/his hurt, as he seems to tend to do with Darlin', (not all the time ofc but it's still something I've noticed) putting his own hurt on the backburner to prioritize and attend to theirs. Even outside of his dynamic with them, I think as a healer, it's something he learned to do. And now he does it with everyone. Put on a brave face, compartmentalize things and unpack them later, etc. I could go on and on but there'll be time for that in other posts I'm sure. For now, lets get back to the song at hand.

With a last-call longneck

Due to personal reasons, I've yet to decide if I want to HC him as having used alcohol as a coping mechanism during that time. I don't recall him having mentioned alcohol much, if at all, (maybe one mention of whiskey that I don't have time to find right now) so I don't think it's necessarily canon that he did, but it's certainly possible. My personal preferences aside, I'll admit it makes for some good additional angst. (And- self-indulgently- it makes some other songs on my playlist for them more fitting.) So, for the sake of this song, let's imagine that he did.

I was searchin', I'd been hurt real bad

This one feels pretty self-explanatory given what Alexis did, (and, if you wanna get even angstier with it, whatever his family did earlier on in his life) so there isn't much commentary to add on my end.

I HC that in spite of 'not wanting to be around anybody', he- like Darlin- still had a tiny part of himself buried deep down that was, in a way, 'searching' for someone to find solace in. (No this isn't me projecting onto them both haha what are you talking about-)

Movin' on, gettin' sidetracked One step forward and five back

This is generally applicable enough that I don't feel the need to give too much of a specific example. Anyone who's recovered or is recovering from trauma knows this non-linear, back-and-forth struggle well already, and I'm sure he was no stranger to it.

If I were to give some examples though, I could point to Darlin's (and subsequently, Sam's) encounter with Alexis at the summit, or the shit that Quinn dredged up about Fredrick and threw at Sam in the interrogation room. Those are both more recent examples and I imagine these lines of the song to be coming from a place of him prior to meeting Darlin', but still, they're some instances where I'm sure he felt like the past was pulling him back in. I'm sure that there's been many throughout those 13 years that we were never witness to.

Not your fault, I was scared to fall

This line reminds me of their 'Cuddles and Confessions' audio. I don't think he ever explicitly said he was 'scared' per se, so afaik there's no specific line I can quote, but in that and every audio prior, he was obviously hesitant to admit, perhaps even to himself, that he was gradually falling for them. Even after the initial confession, there's certain limits of his (e.g. biting) that he carries for far longer, and some that I (and others) HC that he'll carry forever. So this line feels to me like him reassuring Darlin' that his reluctance isn't the fault of them, but his past.

Darlin's Part

You were the star in the pitch black Shine the way on the way back

We don't have any canon instances of them comparing Sam to a star, but I can see it being something they'd say (perhaps less poetically, but the sentiment would be there) one night while laying up on their roof watching the stars with him. Maybe they're dead-tired, talking nonsense with lidded eyes at the end of a long day, fighting sleep in favor of more time spent with him.

"What- what're you pointin' at Darlin'?"

Their hazy focus is trained on the brightest star visible in their line of sight, arm stretched out to the sky above them. "That really bright one, to the... to the left."

Sam does his best to follow their less-than-specific directions of 'to the left', their pointed finger doing little to help given the difference in perspective. Luckily, after all these years, he knows this stretch of night sky like the back of his hand, so it isn't hard to locate the brightest one. Ghosting his fingers up along their arm, he takes their hand in his and brings it back down to earth. "Okay, yeah, I see it now. What about it though?"

"That's you." They say, matter-of-factly.

"That's me?" He questions, humor in his tone.

"Mhm." They nod with finality, blinking slow.

Sam considers the odd statement for a moment before gently correcting them. "I'm uh, I'm pretty sure that's Sirius, actually."

They scoff. "I am being serious."

Sam stifles a laugh into their hair. "No- no I mean- like... what's another name for it... Oh! It's also called the Dog Star."

"C'mon Sam, at least call it the Wolf Star if you're trying to turn this around on me..."

He shakes his head and readies himself to explain further, but they cut him off before he can start. "But no- no, this one isn't about me. That's you."

He decides to play along, finding something endearing in their overtired nonsense. "Okay... then would'ja be so kind as to explain to this confused old man just how, or why that star is me?"

Their frown is audible in their voice as they latch onto the wrong part of his sentence. "You're not old, Sam. ...Do I need to tell Asher to kick the jokes down a notch?"

He smiles at their over-protectivity. "There'll be no need for that, now. Was just a joke, darlin', I promise."

They huff, but thankfully shift focus back to the prior topic. "It's... I dunno. It's just you, Sam. It's... bright. Light. Something warm, out there in the cold dark. Standing out amongst all the rest. Calling to me, stealing my attention. I... I didn't come out here looking for it, but there it is. ...There you were. In the dark. The only bright thing I'd seen in... fuck, in years. Years of chasing fleeting warmth, tripping over myself in the pitch black, falling into... places 'n people I shouldn't have. You were the light in that darkness. Even there, surrounded by the ghost of him. You outshone it. Your warmth didn't hurt. I didn't have to squint when I looked at you. You weren't the blinding sun. You were the brightest star I'd ever seen. You guided me back home."

In the back of their mind, they recall something they once heard, something about light, and time, and distance. Space. Something about... how you can see a star that's already burnt out, because it's light hasn't reached earth yet. The ghost of a star that's already died. Only still perceptible thanks to time, and distance.

They remember Sam's words, once whispered to them on this very roof.

"Whatever your choice is... I'm not gonna live forever. I made that decision a long time ago."

They think about dead stars.

They think about time.

"...-lin'? Darlin'?" Sam's calloused hand slides up their forearm, pulling them out of their thoughts. "There you are. Think I lost ya' for a minute there... you good?"

They look up at Sam, concern creasing his features, shadows cast across his face from the light of the dying stars above him.

They reach out, pulling him down into them. Burying their face into his collar, Sam's concern grows when he feels it saturate with tears. A human might struggle to hear their words, muffled against the thick fabric, but his hearing catches it just fine.

"Don't burn out too quick. Please. I still need you here. I don't- I don't wanna be left in the dark again. Please, please Sam. Don't leave me here. I'm not selfish enough to ask you for forever, but please. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet."

.......Whoopsies! Really, genuinely didn't mean to improv an entire scene there, good god. Also didn't mean to swerve hard into angst at the end but uh. that's what came out! so I'm rolling with it lmao. Aaanyways let's move on, it's getting late and this is a song analysis post, not a fic.

Out of nowhere, answered all my prayers

'Out of nowhere' reminds me of Sam's words from the same HBW video I referenced earlier. "You came into my life like a damn wreckin' ball. There was no preparing for that, clothing or otherwise." While those were Sam's words, not Darlin's, I still feel like they feel similarly to how suddenly Sam came into their life as well. (Not in a bad way, mind you!)

[the significance of 'answered all my prayers' edges into my own personal more headcanon-y/personal/OC-ified Darlin' territory, so we can just gloss over this one for the sake of at least attempting to keep this more universally applicable]

Picked up the towel that I threw in Took in a heart that was ruined

Again, largely self-explanatory I feel. (*proceeds to explain anyways*) I imagine that Darlin' was at the point of throwing in the towel, hellbent on a solo-mission to find Quinn regardless of the danger it posed to them. I doubt they were looking toward the future anymore, (to reference Sam,) fully willing to throw themself at their problems until they really did break.

The specific use of 'ruined' hits hard here, because after everything they went through with Quinn, and especially after he recounted it all to Sam in that interrogation room, I imagine that they really, truly did feel ruined.

Showed me the past ain't a tattoo Loved me even when you didn't have to

These lines in particular make me sick with emotion every time I hear this song, because I feel like they hit the nail on the head for how Darlin' feels.

I'll be here citing various quotes all night that I feel showcase that sentiment, but we don't have time for that! So instead I'm just pointing to the entirety of 'Quinn's Aftermath' video, and leaving you with this single quote from it.

"Everything that he said reflects nothin' on you, and everything on him."

Equally Applicable Lines

And I don't know why Why you saw something in me, baby But you saw right through All the pain, and you came and saved me Yeah, I know you didn't leave me lonely Weren't the one that put the heartbreak on me Picked up the pieces It wasn't the mess that you made Could've left me just the way you found me But you came and put your wings around me You went out of your way To fix what you didn't break

Again, I think these lines are all pretty self-explanatory, and are just as accurate coming from either one of them. To me, at least, their entire dynamic is that they saved each other, in their own ways.

(But I will admit, the final verses about 'going out of your way to fix what you didn't break' are definitely conjuring up memories of Sam in the early days, literally going out of his way to visit and heal Darlin' after their fight with the two vamps. In general, his continued/repeated healing of them after they once again hurt themselves is the very literal definition of fixing what he didn't break.

But! While we may have more blatant examples of Sam being 'the fixer' so to speak, I think he'd argue that Darlin' has done plenty fixing of their own. Physical wounds aren't the only things that need healing, after all.)

-------

[shameless self-promo of my Sam & Darlin' playlist for those few of u interested enough to make it to the very end of this wall of text. if u liked this then u might like some of the other songs on there soooo maybe go check it out and maybe perhaps give it a follow so i can get a little serotonin boost or dopamine or whatever the chemical is that's released when Number Go Up. ...okay that's it i hope u enjoyed my fixation-induced ramblings! thank u and goodnight]

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

I think vacation agencies should also help you bully your employer into giving you reasonable vacation time

[everydayfrimmel]

July 20, 2024

"The L Word (Love and/or Leaking Roofs and/or Late-Night Cable Television)" 1400 words, roommate au, part 14/15

Frieren isn’t reading as much these days.

Granted, there is still always a book on her nightstand, and it rotates out frequently enough that he knows she’s still going through them, even if at a less alarming rate. But he almost never actually sees her reading, when that used to be all he ever saw her do. Probably because there are other things on her mind when they cross paths these days.

Himmel used to think of himself as a pretty tactile person, someone whose need to give and receive affection was unextraordinary but a little higher than average. He would have categorized Frieren as someone who never thought about it at all. Now, he’s realized that his hunger for touch is more than a little above average, and Frieren—well. 

He almost can’t escape her. 

Take now, for instance: all he’s trying to do is heat up leftovers on the stove, and Frieren can’t even leave him in peace to do that. They aren’t even steaming yet when she knocks her forehead into his upper back to alert him of her presence and then slips her arms around his waist.

It’s sort of the best thing he’s ever felt.

“Hey, clingy,” he says fondly, squeezing her joined hands with his free one. 

Frieren lets out a soft, happy sigh and squeezes. 

“You getting hungry?”

“Mm.” 

“Oh, what am I talking about,” he mutters, “you’re always hungry.” 

She giggles. “Mmhm.”

“Where do you even keep it?” he teases her. “Where in your tiny little self does all of that food even go?” 

“I’m not that short.” 

“You know, whatever makes you feel better-“ 

“You’re just too tall,” she grumbles. She has to rise on the balls of her feet to put her chin on his shoulder, which only corroborates his point. “That’s not my fault.”

“Mmhm. Sure.” 

She makes a huffy noise of disagreement and lets go of him. Pity. 

“Oh, by the way,” he says. “You never did tell me if you were having any of this.” 

“Himmel.” Her head’s already in the fridge, so her voice is a little muffled. “It’s food that I didn’t make.”

He sighs. “Fair point.” 

“But it’s gonna take too long,” she explains, then emerges from the fridge with the plate that contains the remaining of the falling-apart cheesecake they made together last weekend. He watches her take a fork to it with slight concern and a little bit of awe. 

“So you’re pregaming with dessert,” he guesses.

“Mmhm.” 

“You really are somethin’, Frieren, you know that?” 

Cheeks full of cheesecake, she turns and smirks at him. 

“You’re never getting rid of me,” he says. “I hope you’re aware of that.” 

“Mmhm. 

Then he lets her eat her appetizer cheesecake in silence, unassaulted by his feelings, which he feels is quite a gallant thing to do. He’s spent too long shutting up and swallowing his words to want to do it very much now that Frieren is willing to indulge him, but now it seems like the right call. He quietly hums to the music from his speakers and watches the frozen leftovers steam in the skillet so he won’t look at her. 

“Turn that up,” she tells him after a few moments of this. 

“Hm?” 

“Your music.”

“Oh.” He hadn’t realized she was paying attention to it; probably, he would’ve chosen a different playlist if he had. Something cooler, less middle-aged. Definitely not the soft rock hits of a decade he wasn’t born in.  But she’s asked, so he has no choice but to reply, “of course.”

Frieren has never talked about music before—what she likes, what she doesn’t, if she even cares—so he’s always assumed it doesn’t interest her much. Maybe it doesn’t, but she bobs her head a little to the rhythm as she eats her cheesecake, walks to the fridge in step with it. Sort of like she wants to dance but isn’t sure how.

He’ll have to ask her someday—to dance, that is, maybe in the kitchen like this, maybe when she’s not carrying a now-empty plate of crumbs to the dishwasher. But he’ll have to figure out what she’d like to dance to first. She might not even know, but he’ll get to an answer.

It’s like a game, getting information about Frieren. It is one of the things he loves most about her—that he needs to puzzle her out. 

“Frieren.” 

She nudges him aside to make space for herself at the counter. “Himmel.” 

“You like this song?” 

“Mmhm.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you listen to music.” 

“I don’t, really.”

So she’s not going to end my career for having bad taste, good to know.

“Mm.” He lifts her chin, studies her pouting lips for a moment, then, without really knowing why, he takes off his glasses and sets them gently over her nose. “You’re missing out, you know that?” 

“I don’t care,” she replies. “Why’d you do that?” 

“Dunno, thought you’d look cute, I guess.” 

“Do I?” 

He kisses the tip of her nose. “Very.”

He lets go of her chin; the song changes; Frieren’s cheeks flush a little with pleasure. He loves the way they do that. Himmel turns back to his leftovers, stirs them so they won’t burn while he’s looking at Frieren instead. Her shoulders sway a little, as if she is trying on the music for size, and it feels like a sizeable risk indeed.

“I think I like this one more,” she says.

“Me, too.” 

That’s all she says. He isn’t expecting her to move or speak for a while after that, but when he sneaks a glance at her, she’s peering up at him through her lashes, evaluating something. 

“Hi,” he says, smiling back.

She tilts her head curiously. He’s learned not to ask what Frieren’s thinking faces mean. 

“Hi,” she replies, slowly, as if unsure that this is the right thing to say.

“What?”

And it takes a while to arrive there, but it happens quickly. 

Frieren pushes herself up onto her toes with more speed than balance, pulls him down to meet her, and ever-so-briefly brushes her lips against his.

Himmel makes a terribly undignified noise and she stumbles back, not yet having regained either her balance or her composure. He puts his fingers to his lips, briefly, and they part a little in disbelief, because he half-believes he’s seeing things, because he’s stunned she had it in her to do it first, and then. 

And then he comes to his senses, and remembers what the proper response is if the woman of one’s dreams gives one an unexpected kiss, and returns it with one that is a little longer and a little more careful but no less a surprise.

And—it thrills Himmel as much as it takes him by surprise—Frieren is an excellent kisser.

Not because she really knows how; of course she doesn’t—but because she’s a quick learner and unashamed, and because she has trained herself to keep doing anything that seems to be working until it is no longer necessary. She kisses, in an endearing way, as if for a grade, and it charms him, warms him to the bone that she cares so much if he’s happy with her efforts.  

Top marks, he decides. The very top. 

“Hi, pretty,” he murmurs, resting his forehead against hers, thumbs caressing both of her cheeks. 

“Hi.” 

He laughs, nudges one last brief, aching kiss against her lips before he makes himself stop. “Been waiting a long time to do that.”

“Then why didn’t you?” 

“Dunno,” he laughs. “Glad I waited, though.” 

“Mm.” 

“And I’m not gonna lie,” he says, because he thinks he deserves a break from being gallantly romantic every once in a while, “it’s kinda hot when you make the first move.” 

“Is it, now.” 

She looks like she’s really considering that, which usually means she’s going to have an itemized list of ways to do just that within a couple of hours. Frieren in love is no different than Frieren the engineer: a tactician, an analyst, and a student of what’s worked before and what hasn’t. It never fails to delight him to see how her brain makes sense of him. 

“So hot.” 

She giggles. “Noted.”

The food is going to burn. Himmel can’t keep himself from one last fleeting kiss. 

And, after: “Please do.”