#ah yes let's suffer together shall we

[wikitpowers]

how to say ur damaged without saying ur damaged

if u know u know

[drabblesandimagines]

Ribbon

Jing Yuan x gn reader 561 words

“Something caught your eye?” He asks, lazily.  

You’d been staring again, but surely it was the only time he'd noticed, losing count of how many times he'd nearly nodded off in place today. You’d been summoned a few hours ago to help navigate the piles of outstanding paperwork on his desk. Why he insisted on the anarchic method you weren’t sure - everyone else had adapted to digital systems - but what General Jing Yuan wanted he got, even if it meant you had to spend what was supposed to be your free afternoon trying to catalogue the mess into some sort of logical order.

“Ah, yes, I...” You round up the last pile on papers on your desk, trying to look preoccupied. “I was admiring your… hair ribbon.”

An amused grin crosses his face, his palm cupping his chin as he leans forward. “My hair ribbon.”

“Mm. It…” You swallow, paperclipping the pile together before placing them down on the desk. “It contrasts nicely with your hair. I was thinking about what colour would work with mine.” You tug a piece of your hair forward, as if you were musing. This is the worst lie that has ever come out of your mouth and he knows it. He must know it.

“I see.”

“Well, if that’s all I can assist with, General, I’ll take my leave.” You stand then, already thinking how therapeutic it'll be to scream into your pillow about this interaction once you're safely back in your quarters.

“No, that’s not all.” Jing Yuan gets to his feet and strides over in what feels like two steps – those long, lean legs of his - and you’re frozen in place as he draws near. He’s a good head taller than you, his collar pretty much level with your eyes, and your heart is thudding at the proximity. Can he hear it?

“What else can I assist you with, sir?” You keep looking straight ahead, watching his Adam’s apple bob in a swallow. There’s no way you can look up at him in the face right now without your cheeks flushing an intense shade of red. Why does he have this effect over you?

“I was just thinking about my hair ribbon and how… distracting it’s been for you this afternoon.”

“I wasn’t distracted, sir. I just got lost in thought for a moment, that’s all.”

“Ah, you think I didn’t notice the earlier looks? You must be aware your pace of work has suffered from it.”

You drop your gaze to the desk. “I apologize, sir.”

“I’ll let you in on a secret – I’ve also been thinking what else it would look good against.”

“Oh?”

Suddenly, one hand grasps your chin and tilts your head up to meet his copper-eyed gaze, before the other encircles around your wrist and he holds it up against his chest. Your eyes widen, before he leans in and whispers in your ear, his breath feeling hot.

“Mm. I think it would contrast nicely against your skin, tied tightly around your wrists.”

“Tied…” you repeat, your breath catches in your throat.

“Suspended above your head, perhaps, as I trail kisses down your sweet neck.” He presses his lips just below your ear in a chaste kiss, before he gently nips your skin between his teeth, causing you to shudder. “Shall we see?”

- More Jing Yuan ribbon imagines.

Masterlist . Requests welcome . Ko-fi

Details for my event celebrating 200 followers.

[the-himawari-otome]

[Shuuen no Virche] Birthday Short Story - Yves

The birthday celebration of a certain handyman

<Original post here>

･ﾟ･:,｡★ translation under the cut ★,｡･:･ﾟ

Mathis: H-Happy birthday, Yves!

Yves: Thanks, Mathis. And the rest of you guys— I can't believe you went through all the trouble to hold a dinner party just for me...

Adolphe: I mean, you're always helping us out after all. Although... you probably didn't need us to celebrate for you, huh?

Yves: Hey, that's not true. I'm super happy about it!

Adolphe: You say that, but...

*Baaam...*

Ankou: You can't help that thought when you see all the gifts from the townspeople piled up in the garden...

Lucas: Indeed. The moment I saw that huge amount of boxes, I thought you might be moving homes...

Hugo: Haha. He's a real natural charmer, isn't he?

Scien: Well, you won't be running low on supplies for a while.

Yves: Gosh, while I'm grateful for the gifts from the neighbourhood... it feels especially nice being celebrated by my precious friends.

Ankou: ...I see. Our princess and the others should be arriving shortly as well. Please enjoy today's party to your heart's content.

Lucas: I must say, it was surprising that Scien came to participate in the festivities.

Scien: Dahut was nagging me to bring over a birthday gift. I decided to have a drink and a bite to eat while I was at it.

Hugo: Isn't that what the person being hosted should say, not the host themselves...?

Yves: Now, now. Don't sweat the details. 'Tis the occasion, so let's all enjoy it together.

Mathis: That's right! I helped with the cooking too!

Mathis: Ah, but before that... Wouldn't it be better to give him his gifts first?

Lucas: Yes, good point. More guests will be coming later. Let's give him ours first, shall we?

Yves: Huh, you even brought presents? That's too much...

Hugo: Alright, I'll go first. —Happy birthday, partner. Eat this and stay your ridiculously energetic self from tomorrow on.

Yves: Thanks, Hugo. I'll be relying on you too! Is this... a fishbowl? ...And inside is— Woah, there's a fish I've never seen before!

Hugo: It's a big one, right? It's a special catch reeled in by the genius fisher, yours truly.

Yves: It looks like it'll be worth slicing up! I'll cook it up nice and tasty for us.

Hugo: About that. Eat it yourself. Alone. Seriously, by yourself. Down to the last crumb. There's no need to share it with me, got it?

Adolphe: (He's just making sure he doesn't suffer any harm himself...)

Ankou: Now then, as for the gifts from the others—

Lucas: Um. If I am not mistaken, it seems there are ominous sounds and fumes emanating from the gifts all of you are holding...

Adolphe: ...Yours is the same, isn't it?

Scien: It appears all of us had the same idea.

Mathis: I see, everybody brought fresh ingredients that Yves can cook!

Ankou: I-Indeed... However, we also prepared tangible items in addition to the ingredients...

Lucas: Oh my, to think our gifts would overlap to that extent.

Yves: Woah, woahhh...! Is this much okay!? I'm going to happily accept all of it, you know...!?

Adolphe: ...Well, it's fine as long as he's happy. Mine's a whetstone, so you can use it to maintain your sword.

Yves: Great, thanks! ...It really is wonderful to have people who are special to you celebrate your birthday.

Yves: I wonder if it's alright to be this happy. ...Won't God punish me later?

Scien: I won't, so don't worry.

Hugo: Haha. God guaranteed it. Don't fret, Yves.

Yves: ...I see. That's true. I hope I'll be able to continue to spend my birthdays together with everyone I care about.

Yves: And forever with her—who bound me to this fate.

*CLICK*

Yves: ! Hey, come on in. I was just thinking about you. Thanks for coming for my birthday.

Yves: Huh... a present? I see, you also—I appreciate it. ...Can I look inside?

Yves: ...! It's a gorgeous gem— You found it at Marché? And you thought it would suit me?

Yves: ...Thank you, truly... I'm over the moon...!

Yves: I really am blessed with encounters. After all, I was able to meet a girl who's giving me such a wonderful present—

Yves: From the bottom of my heart, I love the happiness I feel for having met you, my hope—

And I pray that in the future that awaits, I will be able to dedicate my first "love" to you...

---

[DO NOT USE OR REPOST MY WORK W/O PERMISSION, THANK YOU]

[edosianorchids901]

Unwritten

@sherlocktember2024 prompt - "train"

It was always something of a relief to be safely ensconced in a private compartment of a train. There was really only one direction from which attack might come, after all. Holmes certainly did not let his guard down even now, but at least he could relax a little.

And he had completed another case, which was also an immense relief. After the little beating he’d received at the hands of Baron Gruner’s men, he’d been somewhat worried that he might prove incapable of returning to work. The blows to the head had given him some trouble.

They were still giving him trouble just now, in fact, in the form of a pervasive headache. He had suffered recurring, sometimes debilitating headaches since Reichenbach Falls, of course. This one, however, had simply continued without interruption since the attack, although at least it was less severe now.

It had been easier to ignore that lingering pain while he was involved with his case. Now he found himself sitting with his left eye squeezed shut, and a hand pressed to his temple. The noise and motion of the train was not precisely helpful for his discomfort, and it had reached a severity that compromised his control.

He generally attempted to avoid showing signs of pain in front of Watson, not wanting to worry him. But Watson seemed to have some difficulty of his own.

At the moment, the good doctor sat with his notebook and pen. That was not unusual. What was far more unusual was that he was not in fact writing at all, merely staring very sadly out the train window at the world rattling past.

“Watson,” Holmes called softly, and Watson jumped. “Dear me, what is the matter?”

“Oh. Nothing, Holmes.” Quickly, as if hoping Holmes hadn’t seen it, Watson wiped his eyes. “I just got a little lost in thought, that’s all.”

“Do you always weep while lost in thought?”

The gentle sarcasm had the intended effect. Watson gave him an unimpressed look and relaxed a little. “I wasn’t weeping, Holmes. Just a little teary.”

“Mm.” Holmes was exceedingly disinclined to move at the moment, but he could not bear the thought of being on the opposite side of a compartment from Watson at present. He rose, winced, and perched cross-legged on the seat beside his companion. “Pray tell me why you are teary.”

“You’re quite nosy today, aren’t you?”

“I shall gladly take any conversation that might prove a distraction from my headache.” Holmes glanced at the blank page. “You could, perhaps, tell me what you are attempting to write.”

Watson sighed and closed his notebook, although he did not put down his pen. “The two problems are connected, old man.”

“Ah.” Irritation sparked through him, and he thumped his fist against his brow. That very much did not help his headache. “Of course, I ought to have realized. You were attempting to write about our recent little case involving Baron Gruner, I presume.”

“I was, yes. I’m afraid I did not get very far.” A shiver rippled through Watson, and he moved closer. Close enough that their shoulders pressed together. “When I saw that newspaper headline… Holmes, I was more scared than I’ve been since the Falls. I was terrified that I’d lost you again. And when I saw you, you were so hurt…”

“It’s all right, Watson.” Gently, Holmes extracted the pen from Watson’s tight grasp, then clasped his trembling hand. “I am well on the road to recovery, in large part thanks to your care and assistance.”

“I know. But that is still all I can think about.” With another shiver, Watson pressed even closer to him. “Every time I try to write about it, I am immediately flung back into that utter horror, that fear, that sense of doom. I have not been able to escape that moment.”

“Then perhaps it is best not to write of it just yet. There shall be plenty of time.” Holmes flashed a quick smile, and Watson managed to smile in return. “Now, perhaps it is best that we both turn our attention to other things. I should be glad of a distraction, as I said, and I suspect that you would as well.”

Soon, they were deeply involved in a discussion of a novel that they had both read recently, losing themselves in the joy of analysis and debate. They did not, however, stop holding hands or move apart. There were many benefits to private train compartments, after all.

[aishangotome]

Alfons Sylvatica: Chapter 18 His POV

Chapter 18

♡———♡

Alfons: …I’m not going to be a part of this damn sob story anymore.

He slipped out of bed and got dressed - it would be troublesome to stay in the castle and run into her.

(If I remember correctly, there's supposed to be a wild party for those eccentric nobles today.)

He didn't particularly want to go, but it was a good way to kill time.

-

Alfons: Now, what shall we bet on next?

Drunk Young Man: Alright! It's my dad's prized possession, though I don't really know what it is, this oil painting!

Beautiful Woman in Men's Clothing: Did you steal it? Vincent...who is that? I don't know him. It's probably not worth much.

Alfons: Hehe, it's not like you to care about the value of the bet.

Beautiful Woman in Men's Clothing: It won't be exciting unless it's something valuable.

Alfons: Then...shall we let everyone dream that "this painting is worth 500 pounds"?

Young Man with Cigar: Oh, that's a good idea, let's do it.

The nobles are not much different from the drunks in the back alley bars or the orphans in the East End.

Whether it's gambling, alcohol, or sex, they live their lives by distracting themselves from pain and suffering with any kind of entertainment.

Drunk Aristocrat: Hey Alf, is the rumor true that you've found a new favorite?

Lady in Gloves: It's absolutely not allowed for Al to belong to anyone! He has to remain the star of unmarried nobles.

Alfons: Yes, yes, I won't belong to anyone.

Drunk Aristocrat: You say that, but your heart already belongs to that person, doesn't it?

Alfons: ......

Alfons: ...Hehe, no way.

Young Man with Cigar: ...Let's leave it at that. I don't want to pry any further and have you never come back again.

Young Man with Cigar: As long as he provides us with entertainment like this, it doesn't matter whose heart he belongs to...right?

Lady in Gloves: Well, that's true. Ah, Father, I wish you'd give up on my marriage soon.

("His heart belongs to that person"...does it?)

He was momentarily taken aback by the fact that the only person who came to mind when he heard those words, which were like a lump of romanticism, was Kate.

--It's cruel of you to act devoted now after hurting and abandoning her like that...!

The robin, who had taken up residence in his head at some point, turned away with an angry expression.

(Hehe...I'm not acting devoted to anyone.)

Alfons: It seems I still have some guilt left in me...Ah, a straight flush.

Drunk Aristocrat: Al wins again!

As he absentmindedly watched the rain of playing cards scatter, time melted away meaninglessly, just as he had intended.

-

After drinking all night and having a meat pie from a street vendor for breakfast, he returned to the castle...

Alfons: Oh?

Unfortunately, he ran into Roger and Kate walking together.

Kate: Ah...welcome back.

Roger: Hey, Al.

Putting aside the former doctor, a mentally strong person who cheerfully greeted him despite knowing he was disliked, Kate had a visibly awkward expression on her face.

(You're really bad at acting, aren't you?)

The complete opposite of me, who has reached the realm of being able to paste on a smile as a special skill.

Alfons: The two of you, going out together?

Kate: N-no...

Roger: What, are you interested?

Roger put his arm around Kate's shoulder as if to show off.

Kate: Roger!? What are you doing?

Roger: What's wrong with it? We're going to be cooped up in a closed room all day, just the two of us. Let's get along, shall we?

(This guy really has bad taste.)

(I'm not going to fall for his cheap provocation.)

Alfons: I see. It's good that you have a good friend to play with even when I'm not around, Kate.

Kate: ...

He smiled as if to convey that he didn't care, and Kate's eyebrows furrowed as if hurt.

(Ah, poor thing.)

She probably didn't approach Roger to heal her broken heart.

He knew she wasn't the type to do that.

Her devotion, which came at him even when he rejected and hurt her, was genuine.

(Unlike me, huh...)

(Well, it's another matter whether she'll return to the surface safely after being alone with this guy in the basement...)

(It has nothing to do with me.)

The moment he was about to leave, Kate opened her mouth as if she had been struck.

Kate: Alfons...!

Alfons: ? Yes, what is it?

Kate: ...I still like you.

Alfons: ...Huh?

Roger: ...........

He was momentarily frozen by the sudden and serious confession of love.

(............ Are you serious?)

(I'm the guy who toyed with your feelings and even called you a "nuisance" before leaving you in bed.)

It's crazy that you're still pouring such dazzling feelings on me.

Kate: Even if it's a nuisance to you...this is my truth.

Alfons: ...............

(Damn. I should have laughed it off.)

I have to make her give up, to make her understand that no matter how sincere her feelings are, they won't reach me.

(I have to make my feelings for her like trash in her mind.)

(I have to laugh at her and deny her...)

Even though he knew it in his head, his lips wouldn't form a smile.

Kate: Roger, let's go!

Kate ran down the stairs to the basement as if running away from me, who was silent.

Roger: Hahaha...It's been a while since I've seen you so speechless.

When Kate's footsteps faded away, he heard an unpleasant laugh.

I hated this guy's attitude of not caring about other people's emotions.

Alfons: ... You may not realize it, but I'm often left speechless by everyone.

Roger: Hmm? So, in the end, Kate is just like everyone else, huh?

Roger: If you don't need her, I might seriously steal her away.

The egoist slowly walks towards the stairs with a provocative smile on his lips.

Roger: You don't mind if it's a toy you don't need anymore, right?

Alfons: .............

Is the discomfort because the other person is this arrogant man?

Or is it because she is the one being taken away?

(Either way, it shouldn't matter)

(In any case, I have no choice but to continue with her, not because of momentary discomfort)

Then, it's stupid to even think about it. And yet-,

Her trembling lips that appealed to me, "I still love you,"

The palm of her hand that was tightly squeezed as if to muster up courage,

The gaze that stared straight at me as if to say, "Don't misunderstand," is burned into my mind and won't leave.

The heavy footsteps going down the stairs are terribly harsh.

It's surprisingly bitter for the feeling of having my favorite toy taken away.

(Is this... jealousy? Me? Body, how can I face it?)

It's like a child's selfishness to say that I don't want something I threw away because I don't need it anymore.

And-.

(Such a thing... I always thought that it was an emotion that I would never have in my life because I could only imitate love)

Alfons: ... I still don't know what I am.

Label the emotion that seems to be jealousy that came out of nowhere as "meaningless" and throw it away. Thinking any more about this will only reveal my own shortcomings.

I started walking to my room to sleep in, and suddenly a question came to my mind.

(By the way, if they weren't doing anything suspicious, then what on earth are they doing in the basement...?)

For a moment, I had a bad feeling.

Kate, who tells me that she "still loves me," is together with Roger, who utters the delusional words "change fate," in a basement overflowing with "cursed" materials...

Alfons: ... You're not that desperate, are you?

I deny it out loud, but the bad feeling fills my chest even more.

(What if it's too late after pushing her away this far?)

(What if she keeps pouring her honest feelings into me and spending time on me-?)

Alfons: ... At that time,

Alfons: Shall we disappear?

.

.

.

.

.

.

Chapter 19

If you’d like to support my translations, feel free to buy me a coffee here! :)

[lcdybonbon]

@livedtough continuing from x

He had taken her 'gossip' remark so seriously that Bonnie chose not to point out she had been joking, curious to see how far his attempt to go along with it would extend. Poor man truly needed a little light-heartedness in his life.

He did make her laugh with his generous comment, however. "I am certainly a woman of many talents, yes, for example my paintings: definitely as talented as my brother when he reached 8 years of age. After that, unfortunately, he surpassed me, but it's still a great skill of mine."

"But seriously, I wish passion for a subject were the same as proficiency... For no good reason, you know what I excel at? Maths. What would I need that for? And I suppose my singing isn't terrible, which is at least a little more... lady-like than numbers." Her singing would have been a perfect way to entertain guests at home, in fact, had the accident not happened and her life been different. "In fact, I'll admit to you something not even my mother knows, because you were so honest to me, I think it's fair. She was very clear women aren't meant to read more than needed to sustain a conversation with a husband, but... I had my dear father bring me books that men are meant to buy for their studies because I grew curious..." she lowered her voice, even if it was no shameful secret, just peculiar: "And I found out I have, of all things, a strong inclination for medicine. Which I'm sure you'll think as useless to me as maths, but... what can I say, my brain prefers anatomy books to pianos." She was lucky her father would buy her just about anything to help her not suffer the boredom, because she was sure most mothers would have pushed her towards more needling; she didn't mind it, but there was only so much cross-stitching a woman could bear.

Ah there he was, a big brother who could smile thinking of his siblings. She had succeeded in her mission of lightening him up, at least. "You'll find it's nearly impossible to offend me, but I know what you meant," she assured him with a smile, "I don't think it easy at all. All the more reasons for me to offer friendship, as I've said before, we eldest must stick together."

To think she had been asking him if women were allowed to have male friends, and now he was determined to see her again; she had been right, this was meant to be one of her very best nights, in one of the loveliest of places. "I shall take my leave before you change your mind," and from her voice it was clear she was beyond amused, "And to save your life. I see my mother making her way to us... surely to let me know I am not meant to draw a Lord's attention to myself, I was meant to be a wallflower tonight. Will you say bye to Eloise for me?"

[lovingherrscher]

Taenia memoriae

Ft: Dazai Osamu x Reader.

Notes: Happy birthday, my dear love. This is an old work of mine, I decided to translate it for this year bc I lack the time and I'm still working on another fic for him.

Taenia memoriae means "Ribbon of memories"

Warnings: Mentioning of suicide, breaking the 4th wall, slightly angsty. This may come off hard to understand without these following medias:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica - Rebellion

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - Saikoroshi-hen.

Other keywords: talking to yourself, isekai.

Best with: Taenia memoriae - Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

---------------------------------------

"Please see me again and then, if you dislike me, say so plainly. The flames in my breast were lighted by you; it is up to you to extinguish them. I can't put them out by my unaided efforts. If we meet, if we can only meet, I know that I shall be saved."

-The Setting Sun - Dazai Osamu.

You seal the letter with wax and put it in the drawer, where other letters suffer the same fate. Once written, forever sealed away.

"Now ain't that a waste?"

"Mind your own business. He wouldn't reply them anyway."

With that said, you stood up, stretching a little before glancing at the clock, only to realize it's been three hours since you sat down. Shouldn't you be preparing for dinner? Nah. You ate a little too much at lunch so you can skip dinner anyways.

You are an ordinary person to say, except for the fact that you are a little well, "deluded", at least that's how the world sees you. But no one can forbid you from dreaming, right~? Yet from the world's perspective, you are anything but a sane person. A human being ought to love another human being, then get married, have children, like any other 'normal' human being. But in your case, you had faintly realized that you do not belong in this world. You don't have any connections to it it or whatsoever, like a living ghost wandering.

You love someone who isn't real, to the point you're not only head over heels for him, but you worship him like a god. You once said that you deems yourself very much alike to that Akemi Homura girl. Met someone, and that person completely changed your life upside down. And you will do anything for that person's sake. Even if it means burning down the world.

To you, he's like a drug you can never get enough of. You never know when is it that he captured your heart, all you know was that the moment you realize this, he had you wrapped around his fingers already. You know that this man will be the death of you, but you still chase him like the moth chasing flame anyways. The flame of love started out flickering like a small candle, and by time it gets stronger, to the point it's like a monster lurking around, waiting to strike you down. Yet you accept it nonetheless, for he had became your shining beacon of hope.

There were times you dreamed of him, dreams where you two can finally unite. You know that you and him are like a lost child who keeps crying, waiting for someone to soothe them, to pick them up and take them back to a place they can call home. Your souls are like shattered glass that's being kept together with mere glue and duct tape, unstable and can be broken again any minute now. And you, you have a strong belief that you two are the only one who can heal each other. Or perhaps you two are just licking your own wounds?

"Y'know, sometimes I think you might be someone who got their ass whopped and isekai-ed here."

"Speak some decent human language, would you?"

"C'mon, I'm just playing with you! Don't do such a scary face!"

"Glad that I was able to scare the shit outta you."

"Motherfucker... I wish I could wipe that shit-eating grin out your face..."

You simply smiled at them and put on your headphones. Let's see, what should you listen to today~? Ah yes, it's gonna be his character song. You've been missing his sweet voice after all.

"If I can’t even grasp the meaning of life,

then I’ll say to this worthless night, goodbye.

But even though I think so… I’m still here."

This line reminds you of yourself. You've had countless thoughts about being able to rest in peace from the moment you awared that you've been living a life of shame. The thought of being dead haunts you like a ghost, it keeps whispering to you day or night, sleeping or awaken. But you can't just do whatever it said, because you are one hell of a coward. You're scared of pain. You don't want to bother others. For that you've become a living ghost wandering this world. What a twisted joke coming from fate.

That night when you almost took your own life, he had appeared and gripped your arm. It's natural to say that thanks to him, you had reborn, for the truth that since the day you two met, you've changed so drastically you can merely recognize yourself. And that moment was when you decided you'd give him your life. Until this body of yours wilt away, you shall forever be with him, and offer everything you have to him.

You've gone crazy for love, that's what people say. But to you, it's crazily beautiful. So you'll show the world how great your love is right this moment.

"Ah... The breeze feels so good here."

----------------------------------------

You don't know when did you fell asleep, and all of the sudden you felt an arm wrapping around your waist. You jolted up, looking at the person. It was none other than Dazai, Dazai Osamu. This fluffy chocolate hair, this bandaged hand, and that mesmerizing face you've been looking at all over and over again. You can't stop tears from streaming down your face as you tackle him to a rib-crushing hug, forgetting the fact that he was still sound asleep.

"Ouch! Can you wake me up more gentle next time? Maybe with a kiss~?"

He was going to go on, but the scene of you crying as you cling onto him tightly like this caused his smile to vanish. Instead of fooling around like everyday, he returns the hug and pat your head gently. No words needed as you two kept clinging onto each other for that familiar warmth you longed so dearly.

It took you a lot of time to finally calm down. Dazai decided to break the silence, "What's wrong, (y/n)?"

"I had a sickening dream."

"A dream where I was dead?"

"No. Worse. I saw that I was in a world where you aren't real to begin with, yet I still love you with all my heart and soul nonetheless, and that torments me. I was so close to you, yet so far. Even if our souls are connected, wouldn't it be meaningless if we can't touch nor feel each other's warmth?"

"And then... I killed myself. Hoping that I'll finally be able to see you.", your voice was hoarse, it almost feels like you're going to burst out in tears again.

"It must have been hard for you...", he mutters quietly. It felt like his arms around you squeezed tighter in a brief moments. Does that mean... Your dream was real..?

"Say that you love me, Osamu."

"I love you. I really love you."

"Thank you..."

Your lips met. His lips and embrace feels so soft and warm. They feel like 'home'. And that brings your soul to ease. His hands felt a little rough and calloused, probably from holding guns, presumably from when he was a mafioso, yet to you, they feel softer than any kind of silk, and so gentle, as if he's treating a glass doll.

Love. That's the pinnacle of emotions. Warmer than hope, deeper than despair, that's what love is.

"You know..."

"Yes?"

"In my dream, you were a writer, but you were also a detective, and you even existed as a character in a game."

Dazai became quiet upon the words. "Writer, huh...", you know that he was reminiscing of his deceased friend, who dreamed of becoming a writer, where he can write novels in a room that look out to the sea. He was delving into his own memories, about those days he was still drinking at Lupin with that friend. That was the only place he can drop the facade and expose his true self.

"I don't think that was a dream..." you mutter inaudibly, as you lean your head against his chest, holding him close to you.

[bydragonfireandblood]

Honestly, best part about watching HotD was that it gave me a free blocklist to weed out any jonsas (because ridiculous number of the green stans seem to be jonsas!) I might've missed the first time around with GoT. But what's absolutely baffling is how many claim to be feminists. I'll go to their blog to block them and their bio will be something like "She/her, feminist" and it's just like... what kind of mental acrobatics do you have to be doing to believe that??

Let's see, shall we? Just off the top of my head, jonsas (and fairly often Sansa's more... "special" stans) like to

Put down Dany and Arya for not being "feminine enough" (i.e. their ideal femininity, which ig means women can't be anything else). As if expecting women to conform to a standard of what's "feminine enough" isn't part of the problem :/

Constantly claim Sansa can't be held accountable for her mistakes because she's a child, but then regularly claim another child is unforgivable for her mistakes and should die for it

Imply (and sometimes even say) that Dany shouldn't be breaking the wheel. You mean the patriarchy? You, an alleged feminist, don't think the patriarchal system ASoIaF has is awful and dumb??

Suggest that Jon is actually going to politically manipulate Dany by pretending to love her but really he's doing it for Sansa. That is... disgusting on more levels than I could count, but I'll simplify it to "wanting to see an ending where a woman is manipulated sexually and then murdered by her male lover when she's no longer useful is gross and you should feel gross" because apparently they can't read at more than a 2nd grade level

Ignore the fact that this already-misogynistic plotline would be, in their dreams, so the man can get together with their favorite woman instead. Because putting down a woman like a dog in favor of another woman isn't bad, apparently

Absolutely hate the fact that Dany is a subversion of the prophecied hero trope because she's the "Princess who was promised". This would be a wonderful twist on the trope instead of the sexist "but actually it was the man all along!" one, which has been done to death already

Crack jokes about Dany being infertile and how that would "make Sansa a better wife for Jon, bc she can give him an heir". Ah yes, implying it's a woman's duty and purpose to have kids and that anyone who can't is broken. Wonderful example of feminist rhetoric, you guys

And this very much extends to the green stans too! Little wonder so many stansas seem to love Alicent, since they're both "women who have to suffer through the patriarchy". Let's see what our precious, definitely-feminist Alicent has done, shall we?

The big one: actively trying to prevent a woman from rising to the Throne so she can be replaced by her son, a man

The son, I should add, being utterly unfit to rule and she knows it (unless she's absolutely fucking stupid, there's no way she could not know Aegon would be a bad king). I mean, he assaulted serving staff, disappears to the slums to watch his bastards fight to the death, and when he was supposed to be king he fled. Rulership material indeed :/ But Alicent seems to think a penis makes him suited to rule despite all that

Straight-up admits that Viserys was less suited to rule than Rhaenys on account of temperament... but then in the next breath ask Rhaenys to help her uphold the male succession that fucked her over, in favor of a man even less suitable for kingship than Viserys was

And on the note of the serving girl... silencing rape victims is not feminist. At all. I recognize HotD's societal standards are different, but idk, they sure like to apply modern standards like war crimes to Dany and Rhaenyra so I think I'll do the same here

Resents Rhaenyra for finding happiness in her own relationships. Look, what happened to her was awful and I felt bad for her, but once she turned around and started putting other women down for not suffering like she did, instead of trying to see the system that caused her suffering ended... that's where she went wrong. (Also I feel like reminding everyone Laenor was gay. Did greens want Nyra to maritally rape her husband?? How dare a woman have an enjoyable sex life)

Book Alicent legitimately hoped that "mayhaps the whore will die in childbirth" because that's absolutely a feminist girlboss thing to say

Look, I have no problem with people liking or even defending either character for some of their actions. Even I'd admit the Greens are fun to watch despite being in the wrong, and that Sansa's bullying means her arc has potential for character growth towards realizing her ideal femininity is wrong. But when their stans start attacking other women for not accepting and conforming to the system? That's why I usually see urls/lots of posts about these characters as a red flag

If you're one of these people and I somehow haven't already blocked you? Please go outside and work on the internalized misogyny a bit before you claim to be feminist

[verdantcrimson]

Shutter Chance - 2

Writer: Yuumasu

Season: Winter

TL: verdantcrimson

(Unproofread)

1 | 2

Souma: Hasumi-dono! There you are, we have found you at last!

Keito: Kanzaki, what is it?

Souma: I heard that you are facing a predicament, is this true?

Souma: If that is truly the case, then I offer my sincere apologies. Unaware of your suffering, I made small talk with you this morning.

Souma: But fear not. For I have now arrived to assist you…♪

Keito: … Kanzaki, what are you going on about?

Kuro: Haha. That's a terrible way of explainin' things, Kanzaki.

Keito: Kiryu, you're here too… Why don't you explain what's going on instead of this excited fellow?

Kuro: Sure. We were just chattin' with Mashiro…

[Ten Minutes Ago]

Tomoya: —So I was talking to Hasumi-senpai before the dress rehearsal earlier.

Tomoya: Even Hasumi-senpai has his own troubles, right? I was under the impression that he was kind of perfect, so it was a little surprising.

Souma: Hasumi-dono in trouble…?

Tomoya: Yeah. But I admire him for the way he tries to solve his problems independently. I wish I could be that sort of leader…

Kuro: You've got your own strengths, Mashiro. Ya don't have to be just like danna, yeah?

Kuro: Oh, Kanzaki, who're ya makin' a phone call to?

Souma: I am calling Hasumi-dono, but I hear a peculiar voice.

Kuro: What are ya talkin' about? Gimme your phone for a sec.

Kuro: …. Ah. That's the automated voice-mail. It plays when the person can't pick up their phone.

Kuro: It's kind of weird that his phone's switched off at this time of the day though? Let's check his schedule on 'Whole-Hands'.

Kuro: So, yeah. As soon as he heard that you were at COCHI, he started runnin'.

Keito: I didn't receive any calls though? … Mm.

Keito: … Sorry, Kanzaki. It seems I left my phone switched off after the play.

Souma: No. In the end, I was able to meet with Hasumi-dono in person, so all is well.

Souma: However, I am still concerned about this 'trouble' of yours. Will you not confide in us?

Keito: It isn't anything huge. I simply haven't figured out what to do about my 'Feature Live' yet.

Souma: Then you may rely on us! Surely, if the three of us share our wisdom amongst ourselves, then a path shall be cleared for us!

Kuro: I dunno about that… It's not like he asked for our help, and it's a solo show too. Hey, Hasumi danna?

Keito: Ah, well. Kanzaki's feelings do make me happy… Hm? What's the matter, Anzu?

Keito: I could have both of them help me if I needed it?

Keito: That's right…

Keito: ……

Keito: … Kanzaki, Kiryu. Let's go on an outing together.

Keito: If I'm with you guys, I'll definitely be able to show Anzu the 'Natural' side of me she's looking for… ♪

[Some time later]

Kuro: … Walkin' around like this brings back memories from last year. Hasumi, do ya remember?

Keito: Yes. Time passed quickly, it's been over a year since then.

Keito: … Seems you're curious about what happened back then, Anzu? Well, you were partly involved.

Keito: It was shortly after the end of the 'Halloween Party'. You came to the Student Council Office and told me that "The interview you submitted to the magazine was returned."

Keito: They had wanted a more unexpected set of answers, so I decided to go downtown, a place I usually don't frequent, and I happened to meet with these two by chance.

Keito: The rest is as I mentioned in my interview answers. I played games at the arcade, and went shopping for stationery.

Keito: … By the way, Kanzaki. Why are you fidgeting around over there?

Souma: I have a place that I would like to go with Hasumi-dono and everyone else. But since this is related to Hasumi-dono's work…

Keito: You're holding yourself back, right? That is unnecessary, we can go wherever you want to take me.

Souma: Hasumi-dono… Then, with the encouragement from your kind words…

Souma: I would like to go to that 'Tapiohka' shop!

Kuro: Tapioca shop… Huh. I didn't know that place was still around.

Souma: Fufu. It has been a dream of mine to visit this shop with Hasumi-dono and Kiryu-dono again ♪

Souma: … Ah, right. I shall present this 'sutampu kaado' to you, Hasumi-dono!

Keito: 'Get extra tapioca pearls in your drink for free after you've accumulated 30 points' … Did you save these up all on your own?

Souma: I was able to accumulate them by visiting on my own, as well as with the aid of my schoolmates.

Souma: If it is of any help with the photos for the 'pamfureto', it would make me happy…♪

Keito: Just the normal amount of tapioca pearls is enough though…

Kuro: Well, we can’t just ignore Kanzaki’s kindness now, can we? So, I’ll be borrowin’ that stamp card.

Kuro: Clerk, we'd like four drinks with tapioca pearls please. Add extra pearls to one of 'em.

Kuro: What's wrong? Is somethin' the matter little miss? “I'm just the photographer”? Don't say that, wouldn't feel right if you were the only one without a drink.

Kuro: Here ya go Hasumi, your very special tapioca drink.

Keito: Whoa, It's heavy....

Keito: .......

Souma: Hasumi-dono, how does it taste?

Keito: ...You could hardly call this a drink. No matter how much I chew, the quantity of pearls just doesn't decrease.

Kuro: ......♪

Keito: Kiryu, don't just stare at me with that warm and fuzzy gaze. Anzu, you too, don't take pictures so happily.

Keito: … No, feel free to take pictures to your heart’s content. I just remembered Kanzaki’s diligent efforts.

Keito: “I’m sure the fans will love it,” you say? … Hmph, they had better.

Keito: I wouldn’t show a stranger this side of me.

[END]

[itsguysnightitsironic]

INDEX

Curse of Strahdanya -- THE TITLE OF THE EP.

EXTRA CONTENT: . ILLUSTRATION (🦇) . COMIC (💀) . VIDEO / ANIMATIC (🌹) . SHITPOST (🔥) If emojis are fuss together it's the two things ---> example: (🔥 / 🦇 ) SHITPOST AND ILLUSTRATION. If it's surrender by stars (⭐) it means it's an official LOA short that I was commissioned to animate.

We might not know where we're going, but at less the light will guide us.

EP. 0 THE DOOMED EXPEDITION

"I'm sure the guide won't try to sell us his religion for the rest of the expedition" (💀 / 🔥) I can't even ask for a timeout, it will only make it worse. (🌹) Ah yes, the unknown warrior who appeared out of nowhere with a sword at hand is friend-shaped (🌹/🔥)

EP. 1 DEATH HOUSE

EP. 2 SINS OF THE FATHER

EP. 3 SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN

EP. 4 PHANTASMAGORIA

EP. 5 WIDOW'S WATCH

EP. 6 THE RAVEN CHILD

"I see the fire inside of you, Shepherd. Now be bathed in fire, ALL OF YOU. " (🦇) He was NOT A FAIRY, WHAT'S THAT? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? SARNAX I SWEAR TO- (🔥/💀)

EP.7 CREEPING ROOT

A raven's nest, a warm one. (🦇) "Well, I like this one! Why don't you let her speak?" (🦇) A sun inside a mine, a canary in a coal mine. (🦇) Cutting deep, finger and all (🦇)

EP. 8 FALLEN FROM GRACE

EP. 9 AMONG MONSTERS

EP. 10 END OF ALL HOPE

Summer days (🦇)

EP. 11 PRAYER FOR THE DYING

EP. 12 TOMB OF SORROWS

EP. 13 MOTHER'S MALICE

EP. 14 CRADLE TO GRAVE

EP. 15 SOMETHING WICKED

EP. 16 CREATURES OF THE NIGHT

EP. 17 MALEDICTION

EP. 18 THE LINE LINE BETWEEMN LOVE AND HATE

EP.19 THE DEVIL CRIED

EP. 20 LAMENT OF THE DAMNED

EP.21 BLOOD MOON.

🐺🐺OF HEART AND HARVEST🐺🐺

This 13th feels very 31st if you ask me, because it feels like the end of me. (🔥) Put the witch hunters in the carriage and nobody gets hurt (🔥)

OUTSIDE THE LOOP.

Give me your eyes, and I shall light the way (🦇) War paint* (🦇/🔥) ⭐The horrors (the clowns) keep following me home (Curse of Strahdanya) (🌹/🔥) ⭐ How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old fey? (💀/🔥) ---> ft. 🥀🥀 EDGE OF MIDNIGHT🥀🥀 Curse of the Nitghborne. (💀 / 🔥/🌹) ---> ft. 🥀🥀 EDGE OF MIDNIGHT🥀🥀 Some more curses for the curse collector (🔥) Things that would kill a Victorian child: Victoria Isaacs (🦇) Advertising these days is getting weirder and weirder (🌹/🔥) The Drakkar Trail I SECRET MISSION EP 3 I (🌹) ---> ft. 💠💠ICEBOUND💠💠 Kith and kin. /Aromantic week 2024/ (💀) ---->ft. 🪻🪻BENEATH DARK WINGS🪻🪻 ---->ft.🌼🌼ONCE UPON A WITCHLIGHT 🌼🌼 ---> ft. 💠💠ICEBOUND💠💠 ---> ft. 🥀🥀 EDGE OF MIDNIGHT🥀🥀 ---> ft.✨✨STARDUST RHAPSODY ✨✨ ---> ft. 🌻🌻PRIME 🌻🌻 A yes the Strahd, the Strad, the Strdad, the Starh, the- (🔥) ⭐Save a horse, and the cowboy, mostly the cowboy (🌹/🔥) ⭐ Hand in unlovable hand (🦇) R.I.P to the COS gang they could have loved "La Revetlla de Sant Joan" (🔥) Sarnax's lamp spinning around like a microwave. (🔥) The sword between the hand and the wall (🦇) "Hell, I don't go anywhere without Sarnax, you stick the two funny-looking guys together and we just do our thing." (💀 / 🔥/🦇) ---> Ja ja ja, college life (dies) (🔥) The water that made the blade(🦇) An invitation for a midnight snack I PART 1 I (💀 / 🔥) ---> ft. 🥀🥀 EDGE OF MIDNIGHT🥀🥀 An invitation for a midnight snack I PART 2 I (💀 / 🔥) ---> ft. 🥀🥀 EDGE OF MIDNIGHT🥀🥀 An invitation for a midnight snack I PART 3 I (💀 / 🔥) ---> ft. 🥀🥀 EDGE OF MIDNIGHT🥀🥀 An invitation for a midnight snack I PART 4 I (💀 / 🔥) ---> ft. 🥀🥀 EDGE OF MIDNIGHT🥀🥀 An invitation for a midnight snack I PART 5 I (💀 / 🔥) ---> ft. 🥀🥀 EDGE OF MIDNIGHT🥀🥀 The shepherd to a herd, the herd to a shepherd (💀/🦇) WhAATT MURRhhhhDDeeerrrrR?¿??!!!¡¡¡ (🔥) Putting the GEN into the CON (🦇) Flame without wax. (🦇) THE WAGON AT THE END OF THE ROAD (🔥 / 💀) ---> ft. 🌼ONCE UPON A WITCHLIGHT 🌼

[biffhofosho]

Prisoner to Temptation | Chapter Thirteen

Word Count: 8.4k

A/N: I feel like we’re missing a few things... Hm... Perhaps this conclusion may elucidate them. After all, I promised you a fairytale ending. Let’s see if I can deliver, yes?

Cvr | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Ep

Neither Naran nor Hyungwon were morning people, but as she stared into her husband's chocolate eyes, she thought he looked most breathtaking in morning light. Of course, her view might have been colored by the fact that he was looking up at her over the hill of her breast, his lips flushed around her nipple as his tongue swirled deftly within the cavern of his mouth. She forked her hand back through his silky bangs, and for a second, he stole those beautiful eyes from her as his lids shuttered under her adoration.

“Finally awake,” said Hyungwon as he came up for breath. “I’ve been helping myself to you for a while now.”

“Mm, is that why my whole body is already shivering?”

He smiled and kissed her breast again before he said, “Another minute, and I was just going to slip inside you anyway.”

“What a pretty thought,” murmured Naran as she brushed his hair again.

“Let’s make it a reality then, shall we.”

The prince’s hands charted across every bit of flesh with a strange sort of dedication. With every pass of his questing fingers, Naran felt more and more precious—and more and more keyed up. Her thighs rubbed together under the covers so much that he had to still her with a rough grip.

“I thought you were going to take me,” she whined.

“And I will, I swear it, but first, what’s this?” asked Hyungwon curiously as he fondled the underside of her breast.

Naran shot up on her elbows, concern suddenly in her voice. “What’s what?”

“Here. Right here. I haven’t kissed this spot before.”

Her husband pressed his lips to the sensitive, neglected skin there, and the princess fell back to her pillow with a groan. “You’re such a tease.”

“Hardly. I deliver, don’t I?”

Naran scowled at him. “Not always.”

Hyungwon’s jaw dropped. “When did I not?”

“After our picnic?”

“Ah, yes,” he said with a blush before he hid his face in her chest. “I had forgotten.”

“Well, I most certainly did not.”

Hyungwon eased up her body then, his skin caressing hers the entire way until his mouth hovered at her own. He looked down at his wife apologetically before he glossed his lips along the arc of her cheekbone. “Shall I help you forget then, darling?”

“I don’t know if I can forget,” she challenged. “It was devastating.”

“Then I shall make up for it all day today. I’ll deny you nothing, princess.”

“Hyungwon, we hardly left our room yesterday. Is that where today is headed as well?” she observed with a chuckle.

“I was going to propose the hot springs, but it depends on whether you keep giving me a hard time. We may not leave this bed.”

Naran fisted his straining length then and Hyungwon grunted. With a purr, she replied, “Mm, yes, it does seem to be unfairly hard. We must do something about it first then because my muscles are rather sore and begging for a soak.”

“Yes, we must, though I confess I have ulterior motives. I have many things I want to do to you in the springs. You have no idea how I suffered the last time we were there.”

“Oh, I think I do.” Naran put her lips to her husband’s ear to whisper, “I fantasized about riding you in those pools until we both came undone. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so much so that I nearly straddled your lap then and there. My need for you was so overpowering that when we came home, you know what I did, my prince?”

“What?” Hyungwon asked breathlessly.

“I touched myself as I thought about you.”

The prince jerked back, his eyes pools of their own, only his were black and swirling with devilry. “You really shouldn’t provoke me like that this early, my darling.”

“Whoops,” Naran teased with a cheeky grin that he was quick to kiss away.

His mischievous tongue roved about hers, sampling her despite their stale mouths. It was raw and warm and comforting in its familiarity. When Hyungwon pulled back, she smiled up at him. Her hand cupped his cheek so she could rub her thumb over the plush flesh there.

“So,” she drawled, “are you going to let your wife have her way, sir?”

“That depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether or not she shows me how she touched herself.”

“Hyungwon,” Naran whined, “I can’t wait for you that long. I need you inside me too badly.”

To underscore her point, she bucked upward, and the prince sighed contentedly. “See, how could I ever deny you again when you speak so prettily to me. Very well, once we get home tonight, you will show me. Swear it.”

“I swear! So, please, do not make me wait anymore. Take me. Make me yours again and again.”

Hyungwon wasted no time slipping a finger between her folds to prime her needy sex, not that he had his work cut out for him. Even in sleep, her body had beckoned him, and he found her already soaked with longing for him.

They did not need words anymore to know what the other craved. By now, their bodies were so finely tuned to one another that pleasure came as second nature, so when Hyungwon pushed her shoulder up to roll her onto her side, Naran followed eagerly.

She waited breathlessly, her whole body a lightning rod begging for his electricity, and when the back of his fingers ghosted down her arm, she shivered, a tremulous moan escaping her throat. His body conformed to hers, his knees folded into the back of hers, his chest to her spine, and his manhood aching against the swell of her backside. He was hot all over, but the shape of his cock was a firebrand on her skin. Her eyes fluttered shut at her daily reminder of how his want for her never waned.

Hyungwon’s lips came next, planted as they’d become accustomed to the side of her neck. For a moment, Naran was so distracted by the lave of his tongue down her throat that she missed him lifting her top leg and easing it back over his hip.

Her muscles stretched to the new angle, and at the way her seam parted with the exposure, she gasped. Hyungwon ran his fingertips up from her knee, over her thigh, to the crest of her sex, and as he stroked her slit, he sighed.

“So eager,” he murmured and kissed her throat again.

All Naran could do was pant. She was eager. Now that she had invited her husband into her heart, she wasn’t going to pretend anymore that she was anything but.

Hyungwon slipped into her heat with a groan, his hand pressing into her soft belly. “Always so tight for me, my darling.”

“Mm, you should wake me like this every day,” she murmured.

“Nothing would make me happier. Shall we start with soft and slow, like this?”

His shaft dragged along her walls, the side angle giving Naran a sense of fullness that she hadn’t anticipated. She could feel every part of him in this position, especially the way her core parted with every intrusion and then begged for his return as he pulled out to the head of his cock.

“Put it back, put it back!” she begged when he had almost escaped.

Hyungwon kissed along her jaw, and Naran could feel his smile at her desperation. He nibbled at the neglected skin there as he teased, “I love when you get like this.”

He pressed in hard and fast to his hilt, and the air rushed out of her. She clawed at her husband’s hand as she held on against the tidal wave of relief she experienced when he was fully immersed within her.

“I could stay like this forever,” he whispered.

“Then stay like this,” she echoed as her hips swirled in his lap. The way his member stirred her insides left Naran’s head fuzzy.

“We’ll never make it to dinner then,” Hyungwon chuckled.

“Who cares.”

“They’re preparing your mutton dumplings though. I know how long you’ve been waiting for those.”

“They’ll reheat nicely,” Naran said dismissively and squirmed in his grasp to urge him on. “I just want you today.”

Hyungwon thrust lazily between her thighs as he kissed every part of her he could reach. His hands could afford to rove much more greedily though, so they wandered up from pinching her nipples to lightly ringing her throat.

“My beautiful wife,” he whispered at her ear. “Can’t get enough of you.”

“Never stop…” Naran begged.

Her eyes had already rolled back in her head as Hyungwon’s strokes picked up speed. He pulled her back roughly against him, so her body now draped over his like a blanket while he plowed into her from below rather than just from behind. Her head rested in the crook of his neck and her back warmed his chest, but her own was naked and exposed, giving him free rein to grope her breast with one hand while playing with her core with the other.

Hyungwon grunted harder and harder next to her ear as he hurtled them faster toward their finish line. For her part, Naran grew more and more vocal. Her hand joined his on her chest while the other reached back and tugged on his sweaty locks. His diligent attentions only faltered when he wet the fingers teasing her hill with his tongue, only to put them right back with furious determination.

Just as she was about to unleash all over his manhood, there was a knock at the door.

“Ignore it,” Hyungwon commanded as he stubbornly continued his thrusts.

Another knock preceded an awkward but familiar “Your Highness.”

“Go away, damn you,” groaned the prince.

“Your Highness, my sincerest apologies, but I come bearing an urgent message from His Majesty the Emperor.”

This time, Hyungwon outright snarled as he pulled out unsatisfied. Naran crumpled in on herself with a whimper bordering on actual tears.

“Ah! I am so sorry, my sweet, but don't even think of moving,” the prince ordered as he tugged on his robe and tossed a blanket over her.

Hyungwon kept the door tight to his face as he hissed at his valet, “What couldn’t wait another hour, Hansol?”

“For you, Your Grace,” the red-faced valet replied as he passed a sealed envelope through the crack in the door.

The prince shut it immediately on his friend and leapt back toward the bed, shucking off his robe in an instant.

“What did the letter say?” Naran asked, but her husband simply chucked the envelope to the floor as he hovered over her.

“Who cares? It can wait until after I’ve made you come undone all over my cock, you wild thing.”

“Hyungwon—”

He kissed her then through her incredulous giggles until they became soft moans and her hands wrapped around his neck.

In a single motion, he was inside her again and working her back into her frenzy. Her thwarted release burned a thousand times more urgently, especially since she could ogle her husband now. She loved seeing Hyungwon fully exposed for her—every muscle, every mole, every dip and divot of his body on display for her appreciation. She loved the way his body rolled as he refined his strokes to fill her just the way she liked—not frantic yet but thorough, leaving no part of her walls untouched. She loved the way he sucked in his bottom lip and furrowed his brow as he gave her his all. She loved that whenever she touched him, he melted into her hand and stared at her with such grateful eyes.

Why had she ever fought him? This was always inevitable. He was always inevitable. And she loved it.

“You’re squeezing me so tightly,” Hyungwon grunted.

“Can’t help it…”

He kissed her again, and as he did, his hips slowed. Normally, Naran would have whined and bucked and begged for more, but kissing him so deeply while sheltering his length inside her felt like nothing else in the world. If his arms weren’t wrapped around her, she might have floated away.

“Sorry,” he said as he pulled back and drove emphatically into her. “No more distractions, I promise.”

Hyungwon returned to rubbing her just the way she liked—fast and relentless, favoring that one extra-sensitive spot he’d discovered made her extra vocal—and as her bud stiffened, her walls contracted, and the next thing Naran knew, her eyes opened to a shower of little black stars raining all over her electrified skin. She fell limp to the bed, useless except to receive her husband’s first release of the day, which came a minute later along with a strangled cry of her name.

The prince tumbled to the side, his hands falling to his heaving chest while his member twitched and sagged gradually toward his thigh, still throbbing and adorned with a sloppy white crown.

Together, they caught their breath as their hands found one another in the sheets. Hyungwon squeezed hers, and Naran’s head lolled toward him.

“So, you changed your mind then? Shall we just stay in bed all day?” he suggested.

“Perhaps fresh air would do us some good. I’m developing an unhealthy addiction to your body.”

“Lucky me,” the prince gloated.

“I suppose you did promise the hot springs, and I promised you something after. Besides, you still haven’t opened your letter, you devil.”

“I don’t care what it says. It’s just a pointless reason to put an end to my time with you, and I’m not interested.”

“You’re impossible,” Naran scolded and moved to hop out of the bed before her husband’s arms fastened around her waist and threw her back to the mattress to her playful yelp. “Hyungwon! It could be important.”

“Not as important as you are, little star.” He kissed her nose then, but she waved him off.

“There’s no point in sweet-talking me,” she insisted, though she could feel the color at her chest and throat. “What if something’s happened?”

Hyungwon groaned and flopped onto his back. “Since when did you become the dutiful one between the two of us?”

Grumbling all the way, the prince scooped up the letter and ripped open the seal to read his father’s handwriting. A snarl bubbled up from the back of his throat before he tossed the letter back to the floor and collapsed to the bed again.

“And?” pressed Naran.

“Pointless, just like I said,” he groused. “My father wants us to return immediately to the palace. He says we shouldn’t have taken off without notice. Blah blah blah, I have offended Champa irrevocably yet again.”

Naran shot up to glare at her husband. “You didn’t tell them we were leaving? Are you insane?”

“It wasn’t important at the time. I was worried I was losing you. All rational thought had left me.”

The princess leaned over him and caressed his face before she kissed him briefly. If the prince thought he might win, that hope was dashed a second later.

“Hyungwon, we must go back.”

“Oh, must we?” he parroted with a chuckle. “The only thing we must do is dirty these sheets one more time.”

“You’re absolutely hopeless.”

He propped his cheek on his hand as he looked at his wife with stars in his eyes. “When it comes to you, absolutely.”

But at her firm glower, Hyungwon pulled back with an odd somber look in his eye.

“What’s wrong?” Naran probed, genuinely worried.

“It’s ridiculous, but… I’m afraid…”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Afraid of what? The Emperor?”

Hyungwon shook his head lightly. It took him a long moment and a deep breath, but finally, he confessed, “I'm afraid things will change between us when we get back to the palace.”

Naran’s eyes widened. With her newly unburdened heart, her first inclination was to laugh, but slowly, she realized that what he was afraid of was exactly what she was afraid of. Back at the palace, there were servants with whom he'd had a past and a ruthless father determined to influence his son's future. There were impediments and obligations and games of Court.

Here at the villa, the world could not have been simpler. In those rare occasions when they came up for air, the couple was always side-by-side, walking the grounds hand-in-hand or nestled together in shadowy corners away from prying eyes. It was like some beautiful dream. They were simply Hyungwon and Naran, newlyweds. There were no other titles or ceremonies other than those sought passionately between a husband and wife.

Back at the palace…

Naran clutched her husband's hand between both of hers so she could kiss each of his fingertips, savoring, to her surprise, a bit of herself on his skin. “Things will be different, but it doesn’t have to be different between us. I will not back down anymore. Let us share all our fears with one another now. I want to hear them and I want to share my own.”

At this, Hyungwon perked. “What are yours?”

“I’m afraid the Emperor will coerce you into other marriages.”

The prince set his jaw in a stiff line. “I am wiser now. I see through his schemes, and I will not let him manipulate my feelings for you anymore.”

“Even without that, I’m not the only one at the palace with hopes of staying by your side. I’m afraid you won’t be all mine anymore.”

Hyungwon pressed his forehead to hers so he could garner all her attention. “I’ll always be yours and yours alone.”

Naran beamed. “And I am yours.”

“We understand each other at last.”

“Mm, at long last. So now, if that’s settled, we best give your father some small trinket to appease him since he cannot toy with us any way he sees fit anymore.”

“If we must…”

“We must, my husband.”

At last, Hyungwon agreed, and since their trip had been abrupt and light on supplies in the first place, it was easy to pack though it was much harder to leave. From their shared seat in their carriage, the couple looked back on the villa with wistful eyes. As sorry as Naran was to leave, at least she was leaving with more pieces of herself than which she arrived.

“Aw, I wanted to go to those hot springs one last time,” she lamented as they trundled down the mountainside.

Hyungwon sighed in agreement, but then he kissed the top of her head as it rested against his shoulder. “Our very pretty plans might have been delayed, but it’s nothing a shared bathtub and some very hot water can’t fix. I’ll see to it as soon as we’re home. After all, you did swear a promise to me, did you not, my darling?”

Hyungwon guided her hand to her lap and pressed her fingers against her sex. Naran’s breath hitched as she whispered, “I suppose I did.”

“Then this trip can’t go fast enough.”

Things were much different this ride, perhaps more so than any other the couple had shared. Despite how eager they were to live up to all their romantic promises, the lazy way the road passed underneath them suited the princess just as well. With all the sleep she’d lost out on these past few days of bliss, it was easy to fall asleep on her husband. More than once, she woke with his coat under her head in his lap and his hands on her hip, and other times, their roles reversed. In some ways, those were her favorite moments, where Hyungwon’s head rested in her lap and she could hold him as tenderly as she held him in her heart now. It was a languid sort of heaven, and as far as she was concerned, it could take as long as it wished.

It was late in the afternoon when they pulled over on the shoulder next to a scenic plateau overlooking the river. There, with the sinking sun daubing the water tangerine and apricot, they laid out a blanket and decorated it with a restorative spread of dishes.

“This is a lot of food,” said Hyungwon with a hum. “Hansol, please join us.”

Both the princess and the valet were stunned by the prince’s offer, but they hurried to oblige. As the couple cozied up on their cushions and their companion took a seat at the far end, they divvied up the food while Hansol poured tea. Conversation passed pleasantly between the three of them as though they were all old friends with no status at all. It was everything Naran had always dreamed of for herself.

With her eyes closed, she leaned against Hyungwon to relish the first bite of her mutton dumpling at long last.

“Let’s just stay here,” she said with her head on her husband’s shoulder.

“Mmpf” was all the prince answered, and when she looked up questioningly at him, she found his cheeks puffed to comical proportions as he chomped between gasps.

Naran narrowed her eyes even as she laughed at him. “Did you shove that whole thing in in one bite?”

“Mm-mmpf.”

“I take it they’re tastier than you expected?”

“Mm-hmpf.”

“I’m happy that you like them. These taste just like home. Thank you, Wonnie,” she said with a smile on her face. She put her head back on his shoulder as she finished off the other half of her dumpling.

Naran felt her husband shift, and when she glanced back up, she found him staring at her with his silly, slack-jawed smile.

“What?” she asked.

“You gave me a nickname.”

The princess bit her lip and heated up. “I guess I did… Is that okay? Do you like it?”

“Of course, I do. I love you.”

Slowly, Naran sat upright. She opened her mouth to speak, but whatever she thought to say got caught in her throat instead. She tried again, and this time she found but a single word.

“What?”

“What?” Hyungwon parroted back, amused.

“What did you just say?”

“I love you?” The prince raised an eyebrow. “Why are you looking at me with such surprise? I've said it a thousand times.”

“You've never said it,” she asserted.

His head cocked as he scanned his memories. “Oh? Hm. I guess I've just gotten so used to saying it in my head that I assumed I had said it out loud already.”

His honesty was effortless and beautiful and so very simple. Just like Hyungwon.

Naran was too stunned to do anything other than nod. She ate her dumplings, but the flavor had changed. All things considered, they tasted rather bland now. Instead, she savored the taste of her husband’s words over and over again.

I love you.

They were so rich, almost too delicious to be sampled. Even thinking about them made her feel a little tipsy, and more than once, her grip tightened around her husband’s arm as though he were the only thing that could keep her upright.

For a long while afterward, Naran didn’t speak. She ate and drank and watched the sun dip below the mountains as the water turned a shimmering indigo. Whenever Hyungwon would look at her, she would stare dopily back at him with moon eyes and an awestruck smile, which he never failed to kiss.

They packed things up and returned to the road to finish their ride in darkness, and this time, when they overnighted at inns along the way, the royal couple shared a room and always made the most of it, though they took extra pains to keep their voices down out of courtesy for their hosts. It was the one thing that Naran looked forward to about returning to the palace. It was torture keeping her voice down when he was inside her.

The rest of their week-long trip passed this way, with Hyungwon’s hand on his wife’s thigh or their lips on each other’s. From time to time, the princess felt a little foolish, for she simply could not keep her hands to herself any longer. When silence found them in between their mischief, all Naran could think about were those three little words like the kiss of raindrops on her skin. They clung to her like glitter, and when at last they pulled back up to the palace, it felt like everyone could see it, too, the way she sparkled with them now.

Magda was there to greet her lady when the carriage pulled into the palace, and the moment the door flung open, the worry lines on the attendant’s face melted into warm smile lines. The prince emerged from the carriage first to help his princess out, and as soon as Naran’s feet hit the ground, she scampered to her friend’s side.

“Welcome home, Your Highnesses,” said Magda with a deep bow. “It is so wonderful to have you back at Changdeokgung, and in such health and lively spirits.”

“It is very good to see you, Magda,” answered the prince with a robust smile for his biggest fan.

“I trust you had an easy trip?”

“Easiest of my life,” he said. “Have you seen the Empress around?”

“Why, yes. I dare say Her Majesty has hardly sat still these three weeks, and that is very out of character for a lady so composed.”

At this, Hyungwon paused. “Is she in good health?”

“Oh, yes, Your Highness,” Magda assured. “I apologize. I did not mean to worry you. She is very well, simply anxious for your safe return, as was I. It has been very quiet with no news from Chungju.”

The attendant bowed again and risked a glance at her lady, who managed a quick nod for her friend. Their understanding that all was well was instantaneous, and Magda released a long, quiet breath.

“Last I saw Her Majesty,” continued the older woman, “she was wandering the halls near the Throne Room. She’s been very much looking forward to your return, so I would not be surprised if she has not already spied you and is headed your way.”

Hyungwon looked to his wife and said, “Shall we go to the Empress then?”

Naran looked back at the prince with big eyes. “Wonnie, darling, do you mind if I catch up with Magda?”

“Not at all, my love. Enjoy yourself. I’m afraid I shall have to make my way to my father as well. No doubt I will be suffering a tirade from the Emperor for a good while, but afterwards, I think we are owed a hot bath, wouldn’t you say?”

The princess puckered her lips in a silent scolding which he confronted with a cheeky smile before he kissed her quickly and departed toward the emperor’s wing.

“Incorrigible,” Naran muttered as her lady-in-waiting did her best to pretend she’d understood none of the exchange.

Alone at last, the ladies linked arms and strolled through the courtyard with no destination in mind at all. Naran sighed happily.

“Oh, Magda, it is so good to see you again.”

“Your Highness, I have been waiting for you for what feels like an eternity. I cannot believe you did not write me! That I had to hear news of your arrival and departure from the villa from Hansol was very stressful. You know I worried constantly.”

“I’m sorry. If I am honest with you, for that first week, I could barely focus on anything other than my own despair.” At the princess’s frank words, her friend squeezed her lady’s arm, so, with a pair of very hot cheeks, Naran quickly added, “And, suddenly, it was as if I could not focus on anything other than the prince. Forgive me, but I seem to have thought of nothing but him these last weeks.”

Magda smiled so brightly that it shaved twenty years from her face, and for a moment, they were both young girls. “Well, then, all is forgiven.”

They shared a laugh, and as they strolled, Naran looked around the palace grounds. The leaves had come off the trees, though the yard had been swept pristine. She felt like she could see every detail in astonishing clarity like she never had before—every roaring lion sculpture, every soaring phoenix effigy, every polished wood carving. There were so many things she’d overlooked in her time here, it was embarrassing.

“Everything seems different here,” the princess mused with an incredulous chuckle.

“Well, in some ways, I suppose it is. We’ve been busy preparing the grounds for winter, for starters. The gardeners have been working round the clock to prune and lift spring bulbs. And, of course, Hayun was expelled from the palace the same day you left, so most servants have been more assiduous than ever."

Naran jolted forward, her heart sailing towards the heavens. “She was?”

“Oh yes, on the Prince’s orders evidently. With my own eyes, I swear to you I saw Her Majesty herself escort the girl out by the ear in front of half the palace.”

“Empress Indeok did!”

The princess could hardly believe it. In truth, since she’d reconciled with her husband, she hadn’t given any of the palace maids a second thought, but just the mention of Hayun’s name felt like a snake constricting Naran. With one fell swoop, Magda had just lopped it off at the head. Naran smiled from ear to ear.

The attendant nodded. “Hayun’s disgrace and banishment was the talk of Changdeokgung—Her Majesty made sure of it. Its effects were especially potent for a select few female members of the staff, I should say.”

Naran didn’t bother to hide her gloat. “How interesting…”

“Other than that, I suppose the only real point of popular discussion has been your sudden departures, of course.”

“Oh, of course. It was very sudden, especially for me. How did Emperor Gongmin fare?”

“Very bitterly,” Magda answered. “With the Champa royal family still visiting, things were very tense. I’m not sure what His Majesty had to do to smooth things over there, but he was very sore once they left a few days after you did. My friend, Yubin, works in the Emperor’s wing, and she said on more than one occasion, she had to clean up something broken.”

Naran gnawed on her bottom lip as she stared at the royal entrance where Hyungwon had just headed. “Do you think the prince will be all right?”

“He may have to answer for a few things, but he will be fine. Judging by your star-struck faces, I’ve no doubt he regrets nothing of his choice.”

“Oh, Magda,” said the princess as she rested her head on her friend’s shoulder, “neither do I.”

The pair entered her royal wing, but this time it was colored in a whole new light. Instead of formal and grave, it felt romantic and secluded. The bedrooms no longer felt far too close but rather too far apart, and the princess knew that one of them was about to be simply for show.

“I’ve never seen you so happy, My Lady.”

Naran sighed and collapsed sideways into a chair, her legs dangling over the arm and kicking idly while her finger twirled around a loose strand of hair. “That’s because I’ve never been so happy. I didn’t think I could be after how much everything hurt, and then all of a sudden, it was like breath came back into my lungs and color back into my world. Is that stupid? I sound stupid.”

Magda laughed. “Hardly. You sound like you’re in love.”

At this, the princess sat up. “I don’t know about all that…”

“Sure, my dear,” Magda laughed as she patted the princess's hand, and when she realized her impropriety, she sobered and corrected, “sorry, My Lady.”

“Oh, but, Magda, he did say those words to me.”

Again, excitement got the best of the attendant, and she squealed. “He did? Oh, such wonderful news. And I don't care that you outrank me, for I told you so, did I not? Yes, I did.”

“You're as incorrigible as Hyungwon is,” the princess muttered but with a grin. “Yes, you did tell me so.”

“Tell me everything! How did he react when you said it back?”

Naran cast her eyes to the corner as she answered, “I didn’t.”

“You didn’t confess, too?”

“I— No. I mean, I can’t say something I’m not sure of, can I? That wouldn’t be fair.”

“Oh, Your Grace,” said Magda in a tone that sounded all too sharply of Queen Jigme, and the princess felt the urge to defend herself the same as she would to her mother.

“I feel many complicated things toward the prince. How do I know it’s not just the… laying together,” Naran whispered with crimson cheeks, “that I like? Or the fact that he’s really the only man I know? Or that I’ve just grown used to our routine?”

“I can’t answer that for you, My Lady. All I can tell you is that a smile like yours doesn't come from routine.”

“Okay, maybe not routine. I’m just… confused.”

Magda pursed her lips. “Well, here comes your Prince back faster than we expected. I'm sure he'll be delighted to help you clear it up.”

Naran leapt out of her chair. “Wonnie! You’re back already?”

“The Emperor is busy, and I hardly care to wait. I can’t think straight anyway. Magda, my friend, you’re dismissed for now. Her Highness will call you when she’s free.”

“Hyungwon!” Naran yelped as he dragged her toward his bedroom. She had just enough time to toss a quick apology back at her companion before the door slammed shut behind her.

The prince collapsed on his bed straight away, pulling his wife on top of him, this time to her giggle. He kissed her hard, one of his enormous hands cupping the back of her head to deepen things while the other fell in league with her hip to grind her against his lap.

“Would you wait a minute,” Naran reprimanded gently between his troublemaking lip bites. “I have to talk with you about something.”

Hyungwon smirked. “Very well, but I’ll listen much better with my cock inside you.”

“Wicked prince! That may be so, but that shall make it very hard for me to talk at all, won’t it?” But even as the princess objected, she was gathering her skirts. Meanwhile, her husband parted his robes and pulled his manhood from his breeches. Naran sank on it at once, for her desire had flared the moment he’d hurried back to her. He hugged her to his chest with a contented sigh and kissed her forehead.

“So much better. Now, my love, what is it you have to talk to me about?”

It was much harder to form thoughts when she was full of her husband, but the princess tried her hardest. What had she been talking about only moments ago…

“The other day,” she started, her voice lost in the gathering haze of lust, “when you told me how you felt about me? I haven't stopped thinking about it.”

“That I love you?” Hyungwon asked with an amused grin.

At this, Naran remembered the thread she’d been unraveling. They had made a promise not to keep things from each other anymore, so she knew she couldn’t allow her insecurities to fester in secret any longer. “Yes, that. You know, I don't want you to feel that you have to say those things just because we’re married.”

The prince laughed, and his length stirred inside her. Naran let out a little gasp and burrowed deeper into the dip of her husband’s neck.

“My darling, I said it because I meant it, and I wanted you to know it beyond a doubt.”

“Hyungwon, do you have any idea how many royals go their entire lives without saying that to anyone? Do you have any idea how many people never say it?”

“What do I care about anyone else? Naran, there is only you.”

“It’s— The thing is, I don’t know anything about that stuff…”

“Love?”

Naran nodded, her eyes wide and her lips pressed together in a thin, taut line.

The prince brushed the hair back from his wife’s face so he could kiss her troubled brow before he said, “Should I not say these things to you because I really don’t see a way to keep them in any longer?”

“No, I— I liked hearing it... I'm just overwhelmed.”

Hyungwon laughed again and hugged her tighter to him. “I can tell. It’s okay if you can’t say it back yet, but I can’t go on keeping it in anymore either. I love you and I mean it.”

Naran huddled against his chest and pressed back firmer onto his shaft. Hyungwon’s invigorating scent wrapped her in an invisible second pair of arms as she fell deeper and deeper into him until she felt like she couldn’t ever climb her way back out.

Was that love or was it just desire or dependence even? How was she supposed to differentiate?

“I want to say it back,” she confessed, “but I need to be sure first.”

Hyungwon tilted her chin up so he could kiss her lightly on the lips and smile at her. There was nothing but peace reflected in his expression.

“So you don’t mind while I figure out my feelings?” Naran asked.

“I can wait. I already know how you feel now, but it’s okay if you need to be sure. I’m not going anywhere. Especially from here,” said Hyungwon with an impish grin before he thrust up into her snug heat.

Naran let out a tremendous moan, and just like that, they whiled away another afternoon straight from their bed into the promised tub where the princess, under her husband’s appreciative scrutiny and smoky-voiced encouragement, showcased exactly how she’d come to the realization that she wanted to be with her prince.

By the time the emperor was free enough to demand the appearance of his son before him, Hyungwon was in an unflappably good mood. Naran didn't imagine there was an accusation or a swear that the emperor could level at his son that would bother the prince in the slightest.

Freshly cleaned and feeling lighter than air, Naran floated out into the gardens. As Magda had said, most things had been shorn ahead of the winter, but even though things looked sparse and bare, the princess looked eagerly toward the next season. Winter in her homeland was a long, bleak affair, with bitter, unending winds and snow that felt more like knives. She wondered what it would be like here.

It was already chilly, but wrapped in a thick hanbok and still warmed by the heat the royal couple had generated in their bath, Naran barely noticed. The light was dimming rapidly by the time she reached the jade stream, but it was enough to make out the elegant figure of the empress sitting on her poet’s rock near the water’s edge. True to form, the woman had paper and a quill in hand as she hurried to record the last of her thoughts before the sun totally set.

“Pardon my interruption, You Majesty,” Naran said softly. She kept her eyes down as she approached the empress, so she could not gauge the older woman’s response. “I hope I am not importuning in your time of reflection?”

“Not at all. Please have a seat,” said Indeok as she set down her quill. Her tone was rather sterile, but when Naran ventured a glance up, she saw an unexpected gentleness in the woman’s face. In moments like these, the empress looked most like her son, round where others were sharp and accessible despite her paralyzing beauty.

“I did not have a chance to thank you for your incredible gift of poetry,” said the princess with more than a few wavers in her voice. “Your words have not left my mind since I read them. You somehow knew exactly what I didn’t know I needed to hear.”

For all the princess’s praise, Indeok simply hummed. Then, at last, her head tilted to the side as she studied her daughter-in-law painted in twilight, and she said, “It seems you came back to Changdeokgung rather different than when you left, Princess.”

Naran bowed deeply, her head practically kissing her knees. “Your Majesty, I doubt that could be so without your beautiful words.”

“Please rise, my daughter-in-law. I should like to look upon you.”

When the princess sat upright, her face was as red as an apple. Her eyes were shimmery, as much from nerves as emotion. It made the empress smile.

“My dear, you are in love,” Indeok murmured with unprecedented tenderness.

“But that is why I came out here! I am sorry for such an outburst, Your Majesty. Please excuse me, but how can I possibly know such a thing?”

“Why don’t you tell me how you’re feeling then? Sometimes we understand differently when we are made to put words to feeling.”

Naran’s brow scrunched as she considered. She was not a poet. She wasn’t even an artist. Her only real strengths were in riding and wandering, so it felt like an impossible ask. Yet somehow, right then, her answer came.

“I feel like I am standing still and moving all at once. Like I can leave whenever I want, but I don’t want to. My feet have stopped itching.”

It sounded so nonsensical to the princess’s ears, but it also encapsulated exactly how she felt.

The empress nodded and pressed, “And when you are away from him?”

“I don’t want to be.”

The answer was so automatic that it shocked Naran. She looked wide-eyed at the empress, who simply tilted her head to the side though it was clear enough what she was saying:

There you go.

“How did you know you were in love, Your Majesty?”

Indeok waved a hand dismissively. “I have never been in love, my dear. How do you think I can see such feelings in you so easily? You wear it like a shimmering cloak. It illuminates you. I have never shone so brightly as you do right now.”

“But His Majesty—”

“—is a duty I was made to fulfill. I’m not sure if he is capable of such emotion, but if he were, it would not be with his wife. When I am with the Emperor, I must be a different version of myself, and it is not a version I particularly like. Do you feel that way when you are beside your prince?”

“Never,” Naran admitted.

“I am relieved then. I would be very disappointed in Hyungwon otherwise, but you can never tell how other hands might have worked in secret. My greatest fear was that Hyungwon would favor his father’s views of the world, but the moment he fixed his heart on you in Sygnak, I trusted he could stay true to himself. Kingdom might come first to his father, but I am hardly such a patriot. My son is the only thing that matters to me, and you matter to him, so you matter to me, too, Narangerel.”

The princess gasped at the intimacy. With no clue what to do, she bowed again until the empress placed a hand under the young woman’s chin to raise her up.

“For such a headstrong woman, you can be quite shy,” Indeok laughed.

The sun had set behind the tree line, casting the world into long, thick shadows. The babble of the brook brought a sense of calm to the darkness, as did the empress’s soft voice.

“Mm, this is the happiest I have ever been in this palace… I’m just sorry the day is already over and I could not catch up with you both. Tomorrow though, I should like to see the two of you together at breakfast. I trust you’ll wake up that obstinate son of mine?”

Naran smiled. “I shall do my best.”

“I imagine he’s predisposed to do whatever you wish. Make sure you take full advantage of these halcyon days, my dear. Ah, how pretty,” the empress mused, “that you should experience the first bloom of love just as winter sets in. It brings such a liveliness to the slumbering world. I envy such brilliance.”

Ever the poet, her mother-in-law’s words knew just how to make color and emotion stir in the princess’s heart. Naran sighed. “Everyone around me is so sure of these things, and I know I should trust it, too, but something keeps pulling me back.”

“That is because love is not something you can think your way through, but,” said Indeok with a sturdy gaze, “I think you already know that. Rather, you may simply be afraid of it.”

“And if I am?” the princess said shakily.

“Then you need only give yourself time. Doubt will fade as your love grows. Is Hyungwon pressuring you?”

“He is not.”

“Then I suspect it won’t be long then. In the meantime, how about I call for some cider?”

There was a special glint to the empress’s eye that Naran had only stolen a glimpse of that night she and Saran had caught the empress with their mother, and the princess felt another fuzzy warmth overtaking her heart.

“I should very much like that, Your Majesty.”

“Wonderful. Then I have but one other question for you. Would you mind if, when we are alone, you call me Mother instead?”

“Are—are you sure?”

The empress smiled and stood to offer her hand. “Of course, daughter. Now, come. The hour is late and the air is cold, and I am in far too good a mood to do anything other than celebrate.”

Together, the two ladies returned to the warmth of the palace and cider and each other’s company and waited for Hyungwon to return. His smile when he caught his two favorite women drinking together was unparalleled, especially when he sat between them and had a drink himself. Before long, the empress retired to her wing, which allowed the newlyweds time to curl into each other under eyelids now heavy with alcohol.

“How did it go with your father?” Naran murmured as she relaxed in Hyungwon’s arms.

“Mostly yelling, plenty of cursing, too, which only grew more violent the longer I didn’t respond. But who cares?”

“A prince probably should.”

“Probably, but this one only cares that his wife was waiting for him.”

Naran turned in Hyungwon’s embrace so she could face him only to find him already smiling.

“I know this isn’t as simple as the country villa,” he said as he hugged her properly, “but this place finally feels like a home to me.”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” sighed the princess against his chest.

“I love you, my darling.”

And as she drifted off to the sound of her husband’s heart beating just for her, the last bits of Naran settled into their rightful place—beside Hyungwon.

A week had passed before the princess even had a chance to blink. In part, she supposed that was thanks to how many obligations the royal couple had to make up for since returning to the palace, but that was hardly the heart of it.

In truth, time had sped by because no matter how odious her assignments were, Naran could always look forward to reuniting with her prince. They hadn’t spent a night apart since, and she doubted they would ever again unless they were made to. Everything was easier to bear alongside Hyungwon. She could face anyone. She could handle every challenge. She could touch every joy the world could possibly offer.

Because she had him.

“Is everything all right, little star?” Hyungwon said as he joined his wife in her garden.

It was well into the heart of night. The skies were clear and the air was brittle, but in her robe, she was impervious to it.

Naran smiled. “I’m sorry. I did not mean to wake or worry you. All is well, my prince.”

“What are you doing out here?”

“Thinking.”

“In the cold?”

“Oh, this is nothing,” she replied with a smirk. “You haven’t felt cold until you’ve spent a winter on the steppe.”

Hyungwon nodded and pulled up alongside her, slipping his hand into hers. His skin was much colder than hers, and she squeezed him tightly to warm him up.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“Right now? The first time we met under the stars. All the things I said and thought I meant. How little I knew about anything back then…”

The prince hummed gently. “And what were you thinking about before I got here?”

“How much I love you.”

It came out so naturally, it hardly felt like the first time she’d ever had the courage to say those words. Naran glanced to her husband in time to catch Hyungwon breaking into the most dazzling grin imaginable. He could have lit up the whole palace with it. His lips had parted, and he was so still, he might have frozen in shock. She squeezed his hand again, and it broke the spell enough that he could speak.

“You love me, too?” he repeated incredulously.

“I love you, too, Hyungwon, more than I realized I could love anyone. I think my heart has always wanted to love you; I just wouldn’t let it. I swear I’ll never make that mistake again. I love you now into forever.”

He cupped her cheeks then to guide her eyes from the stars to his. His thumbs stroked her tenderly, and after a moment, he tilted her mouth up to his to kiss her until her knees wobbled. Naran clutched at his forearms to steady herself, and the second he let her come up for air, he dipped his forehead down to hers.

It was hard to see him under her drooping lids, but she held his gaze as she wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled her cold nose against his puffy cheek.

“I love you,” she whispered again.

“I love you, too,” Hyungwon whispered back.

They exchanged giddy smiles and a few more kisses as their breath braided inextricably and floated up to their stars. With her lips still dancing happily against his, Naran bared one final secret to her husband.

“And I think I am with child.”

A/N: See you at the epilogue, my beloved reader friends. <3

[rd0265667]

Yunjin x M!Reader:Sleepless(Part 5)Finale

1.7k words

3rd person's POV

For the next 2 months, Yunjin carried on her almost daily visits to the cafe, being greeted by Y/N's smiling face. Y/N also had a rotating staff of help now that he could sleep peacefully, mostly Minji's friends. Yunjin has gotten close to Y/N, very close. She feels so woozy around Y/N, but has been very uncertain "He doesn't like me back" she says, "I don't like him." she lies. It has gotten to the point where Yunjin's Friends and Minji's friends, self dubbed Lesserafim and Newjeans respectively, are actively trying to set them up to get together. Today is the fruition of all their planning. With Yunjin's classes and Y/N working, it was hard for the girls to organize for them to actually hang out, not just sitting around in the cafe.

Yunjin was told to dress up nicely, Sakura was bringing her and the girls to a restaurant to celebrate some event Yunjin had never heard of before. At least that's what she was told

Y/N was told to wear a suit, not dress sloppily(like he was accustomed, Minji said, Y/N did not deny). She said she was going to bring him out to a restaurant for some Sister Brother bonding time. Y/N insisted that he could bond with her over a cup of coffee. Minji insisted otherwise

Yunjin's POV

Alright, so Sakura said to go to the table, there will be a booking under Kim? Apparently Chaewon placed the reservations for us. "Hi, 7.30pm reservation under Kim?" I said, smiling as the host smiled, flipping through his book saying, "Ah yes, 7:30, Kim, Table for 2. Your friend is inside already." Despite my confusion, I smiled, not wanting to be rude. 'Wait table for two? Wh---Oh no, Oh no those fu-' I thought to myself as I was led to the table, as I saw Y/N, a look of shock appearing on his face, mirroring mine. "Jen? What are you doing here? I was supposed to meet Min- Oh. They finally did it." Y/N said, a look of realization finally crossing his face "It appears we've both been bamboozled." I said sheepishly, as Y/N mirrored my smile "It appears that way. You look beautiful by the way, that dress really looks great on you." Y/N said, a faint blush appearing on my face. "T-Thank you Y/N, you look really great in that suit too." I said, barely stringing my words together. I then looked around, seeing that the entire restaurant had been cleared out, with only me, Y/N, and the wait staff around, one of whom approached our table, setting down candles and setting down a bottle of wine. "I think it's fair to say Minji and the girls have been planning this for awhile." Y/N said, chuckling at the extravagant set up, as I chuckled in response. "Well, then let's not waste their efforts shall we?" I said as we began to order our dinner, then began chatting like we always did, regardless of where we were at, cafe or not, it was no different. The two of us seemed to never run out of topics to chat about, once spending 3 hours arguing about whether water was wet. As we continued our conversation, I found myself staring at Y/N again, noticing his weird little ticks, like scrunching his nose when he likes what he's eating, the way his ears point upward when he talks about Singapore, the way...the way he looks at me when he thinks I'm not looking. The way he smiles whenever I complain too much about my lecturer, or the way he looks at me when I talk about how Kazuha and Eunchae teased me at home. My heart couldn't take it. I wanted to tell him everything, everything, how I felt, how I wanted him to be my first and last, how much I wanted to hold him like I did those months ago. But no. I can't do this to him. I don't want to talk about relationships and all that with him, he suffered enough from a relationship, I don't want to remind him of all that pain and hurt he went through.

"You take that back Huh Yunjin!" Y/N exclaimed as I chuckled at him "I've said it once, I'll say it again, Pokemon Platinum is superior in everyway to Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Better Champion, better starters, better story." I said, sticking my tongue out at him as he laughed at my childishness As we both laughed, my hand accidentally swiped my spoon off the table. "Oops, I'll get that" I said as I bent down, grabbing the spoon from the ground, but hitting something on the way up. Y/N's hand. He covered the edge of the table. That was it. I don't know why, but that was it. "I knew you were going to hit that corner Jen, aish so clumsy." He said, smiling at his accurate prediction. Its now or never Jennifer, You're never going to get a chance like this again, take it. "I love you!" I said, shutting my eyes as I blurted out the three words I've been dying to say, before covering my face with my hands to hide my blush. "What?" Y/N said, his face frozen in shock "I said I love you Kim Y/N!" I shouted out once again, as Y/N's face remained frozen. "I--I--I'm sorry Jen, I can't do this." Y/N said, tears threatening to spill out from his eyes as he quickly ran to the toilet. 'Nice Going Jennifer. You're a genius.' I thought to myself as I quietly sobbed I knew it. I was right. Y/N and I were just friends, and I've just triggered him again

20 minutes had passed, and Y/N still had not returned. I was getting a little worried. I quickly walked to the men's bathroom(its not weird, the restaurant is empty), seeing the door lock and hearing Y/N sobbing behind it. "Y/N, are you there?" I whispered softly "I'm sorry Jen, I'm sorry, I can't do this. Us being close friends is one thing, but being together...I'm not good enough for you Jen. You deserve someone better. I'm...broken. Too broken to be good enough for you. I was burned, and I don't know if I could ever be in a healthy relationship again. I don't want to hurt you Jen. I'm sorry." Y/N said between small sniffs Hearing that, my face dropped a little, as I sat down, back on the door as I said, "Y/N-ah, I know where you're coming from. But I don't think it's because you aren't good enough for me, or because you're broken. You were betrayed, backstabbed and manipulated, plagued with nightly horrors, and you deserve sometime to heal. I'll be here for you regardless, no matter as your Significant other, friend or customer. I won't leave, regardless but... I have a request to make. If you do get better, if you find yourself open to love once again, please love me." I said, trying to force out a smile to keep the tears away I then found myself falling backwards as the door sprung open, and my head fell snugly into the arms of Y/N, who hugged me tightly. "I do love you Jen. Maybe I have all this time." Y/N whispered I froze in shock. He likes me too? "Jen, I know I'm broken, and I'll be hard to love, but do you think we co-" "Yes" I said, staring him in the eyes, as I saw him recoil a little at the speed of my reply "But I didn-" Y/N stuttered out as he blushed "Oh for god sakes Y/N I know what you're going to say, now shut up and kiss me." I said, pulling Y/N's lips in for a kiss. This wasn't a kiss of lust. It was pure, it was...love. Pulling away from the kiss, I looked at Y/N as we both blushed at what just happened. "Soooooo" I said, unsure what to do now. This was my first time and I was a little lost. "Well, first things first, let's start things proper. Shall we?" Y/N said, extending his hand to me as I grabbed it, walking out of the restaurant with him, hand in hand

We walked into an all but familiar place. The cafe. Y/N stood outside the doors of the cafe, before getting down on one knee. "Umm, Y/N, isn't marriage a little early?" I chuckled "Aish Jen, I'm trying to be romantic." Y/N said, pouting a little "Alright go on go on." "Jen, this is where we met, where we became friends, where you helped me with...her, and where we fell for each other, so it's only right that I do this here. Huh Yunjin, will you do me the honors, of being my girlfriend, now and forever?" "No." I said, stone-faced as Y/N was shocked. I gently caressed his face, saying, "I won't be your girlfriend forever, because one day, I'll be your wife." Y/N immediately grabbed me, hugging me tightly as he spun me around, jumping in joy, before setting me down, and engulfing my lips in a passionate kiss once again. Suddenly, we saw as confetti was popped and we saw 9 familiar faces show up around us "Wait, how?" Y/N said "We have been siblings for over 18 years, I know you very well my man." Minji said, smirking at Y/N as he nudged her on the shoulder "So you guys saw everything?" I asked shyly, looking at my friends. "I think Eunchae saw too much." Sakura said, smirking at me as I blushed a crimson red. "I took pictures!" Eunchae said, as my eyes widened in shock "GET OVER HERE YOU SMILEY POTATO!" I shouted as I began chasing Eunchae around, before finally stopping when she hid behind Chaewon Then, I felt a pair of hands wrap around my waist as Y/N said, "What's going on honey?" Hearing that, all my aggression melted away and I too, melted away, unable to comprehend anything. "N-Nothing much Babe" I stuttered out "Babe? That's so lame." Y/N teased, as he kissed me on the forehead. "Don't worry though Jen, you have the rest of your life to find a nickname for me." Y/N said, hugging me as I held him tightly.

"I love you." I whispered "I love you too Jen." Y/N whispered back

And that's a wrap on my first story guys, thank you for the reading through it, and if any of you guys would like to request the next sort story, feel free to request it on the first page. If not, bye for now:)

[kharti]

[ Good Sir, Mad Lad #14 ]

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For the first time in a long time, when Stede brought Jack his morning tea that he never drank—he drank it.

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For the first time in a long time, when Stede brought Jack his morning tea that he never drank—he drank it.

Stede stood there, holding his own cup and saucer, waiting for the invitation to practice his blowjob skills. Of which he found himself rather improving, or at least he thought so. Just yesterday, he’d actually gotten Jack to stammer, and if that wasn’t a compliment, he wasn’t sure what was.

But this morning, Jack was avoiding his eyes and sipping tea.

Already bored of you, Mary said from her spot on the bed, stretched out, looking into the middle distance the way she had when he’d laid with her.

No. Just because they’d fooled around every morning didn’t mean it was an every morning thing. Jack was more than allowed to have a morning off from getting off.

Stede hid a smile behind his cup as he ruminated on how his wordplay had changed in their time together, and he wasn’t the least bit sorry for it.

You should be, his father spat. I didn’t know you could get more disgusting.

No! Stede tossed back most of the tea and swallowed it all in one big gulp. “Well!” he said into the awkward silence. “Shall we seize the day while it’s still early, then? Perhaps see if Buttons can sniff out a ship to loot?”

Jack shrugged. “Sure.”

“Or… we could do something else?” Stede set his cup down and clasped his hands in front of him. “It doesn’t have to be looting.”

“Looting’s fine.” Jack looked down at his own cup, tilting his hand to slosh the liquid inside it. “Maybe—”

“Yes?” Stede prompted, a bit too eagerly.

“Maybe we head to the nearest port.” Jack finally looked up, and his eyes were distant.

And beside him, Mary gave him the same look, the same one as Jack’s, the same one she had from the other end of the dining table.

Stede felt his throat close up, but forced a smile. “Ah! Yes, a bit of leisure at a pub sounds wonderful.”

“Might be time to part ways.”

“Oh.”

Stede blinked.

Mary smiled.

His father laughed.

“Right,” Stede tried to say in the same chipper tone, but he could hear his own heart breaking in the word. “Yes. Of course. If… that’s what you want.”

Jack drew his tongue over his teeth and smacked his lips, then nodded. “Yep. Getting a bit bored, ya know?”

Stede didn’t know.

He nodded anyway.

“Was fun, though.��� Jack stood up and held out his half-finished tea, grinning in a way that wasn’t a grin at all. “Won’t forget ya. Not anytime soon, anyway.”

It was as though Jack was in his head, pulling out the things he wanted to hear the least. Each word a targeted strike to his heart while everyone around them rejoiced in his suffering.

“Right,” Stede repeated, taking the cup and holding it close to his chest. “Well. I’ll just. Give Buttons the order, then.” He tried to smile, his lips drawn tight. “Very good.”

He had to go. His trembling hands nearly dropped the cup, but he didn’t let it go, not as he fled the room a little too quickly as tears burned his eyes.

He’d tried too hard to push his own interests on Jack, he realized too late. The dancing and the poetry and the tea. Jack had never wanted any of that, and Stede was the fool for trying to change him.

If he could take it all back, he would—in a heartbeat—he’d stick to the piracy and the sex and never bring his favorite things into the light, lock them away where they belonged.

In the corner, made to be quiet and not cause trouble.

But the damage had been done, and with a shuddering gasp, Stede found himself standing on the upper deck with everyone looking at him.

“Some’n the matter, cap’n?” Buttons asked.

“No, no, of course not,” Stede said as the tears fell freely, and he couldn’t get himself to let go of the teacup to wipe his face. “Just a—a change of course. To the nearest port, quick as you can.”

Lucius tried to speak to him, but he couldn’t bear all the eyes. There were too many of them, in every direction, a ring of bullies jeering their taunts at Baby Bonnet and his weak little mewling.

He muttered an apology as he hurried back down the steps and looked around for somewhere to go.

But there was someone standing on the stairs heading below deck, and Jack was still in his quarters. He was exposed, surrounded, unable to escape—

A hand landed on his arm and he jolted to look at its owner. Lucius looked back at him with soft, pitying eyes.

“Let’s get you some cocoa, m’kay?”

Stede couldn’t speak. He just nodded and let himself be led below deck and down the hall.

What a stupid child he was, still clutching his little teacup like the flowers he used to cling to as he wept. Now Lucius was going out of his way to care for him—he’d probably leave, too, eventually.

They’d all probably leave eventually.

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📚 view a list of all my current stories!

[salendola]

Just the Once - a Laertes/Penelope Fic

I'm two out of three books into the Songs of Penelope trilogy by Claire North, and my brain decided that it was time to write porn for that old man.

So here it is, the Penelope/Laertes NSFW fic no one asked for. You're welcome.

TITLE: Just the Once RATING: Explicit CONTAINS: good back rubs, cunnilingus, hand job, vaginal fingering, vaginal sex, Laertes being a gentleman, Penelope letting herself go for a bit, Aphrodite being a motivational narrator

Just The Once

Just to be clear: I am a goddess and I do not peep. Where love goes, so do I, and that is all there is to it.

Love, of course, meaning any and all kinds. I am there for the mother who holds her child to her breast, singing the songs of her mother before her, and then her mother before her, and so on and so forth, all the way back to the very beginning. Two friends sharing stories, laughing together, their bare feet soaking in the stream. You should’ve seen his face! I thought I was going to wet myself laughing. Ah, such joy there is in love. Such wonder. Such power. And yes, I am there for the passionate, desperate love too. That is hardly news, is it? I would hope not. But let’s not get distracted.

Currently, I am making my way up the path that leads to the castle of the long-absent, oft-remembered Odysseus, King of Ithaca, who, at this very moment, buries his face in the ample bosom of Calypso, squeezing a breast with a calloused hand while Poseidon lurks within the ocean, the waves lapping at the shore a perpetual reminder that, should Odysseus leave the island, it will be the last thing he ever does. My time will come, Odysseus.

Or so he thinks, at least. We shall see.

Today was one of those days that’ll be spoken of later as being a real scorcher. Here, in the fullness of summer, the trees brought what little cooling they could, but it didn’t make as much of a difference as it usually would, and the people inside their various houses suffered from the heat. A few of the elderly had already fainted. Quite the scorcher indeed, and a quiet day for me when it came to passion. There is such a thing as too hot weather, and even the most ardent of lovers may find themselves upon the stone floor of their rooms, doing their best impression of a starfish. No, today was not a day for physical intimacy.

The night, on the other hand, was a different matter entirely, and I have to admit I may even have been a little surprised. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, for there is the end of the path, and there, sandaled feet and all, stands Laertes, former king of Ithaca, in a toga that had seen better, less sweaty days, though it is still one of his cleaner ones. He wastes little time in dispatching of it and the sandals and wades into the pool.

When he’d fully submerged himself, Laertes finally felt his body cool, and about time too. No man should have this much sweat on his body for this long. Back in his sailing and adventuring days, he’d been fine being a stinky, sweaty man among so many other stinking, sweating men, muscles glistening oh so splendidly in the hot light of the sun, inviting a good ogle and maybe a gentle touch or two - it’s alright, girls, grab all you like - but the years had taken some of that flexibility and physical prowess from him, and now Laertes loved a good breeze as much as the next old man. Old. Not a word he much liked, but at the same time he appreciated having made it this far. It’s never a given, you know, is what he’d say time and again, unasked. Age is a gift.

He soaked in the lack of human voices and bickering, instead enjoying the nightly noises coming from the surrounding trees. This pool was never his domain, but rather that of Anticlea, Penelope, and their maids. He’d set foot in this place a few times, but only when invited. Granted, those invitations had been pleasant, and he had fond memories of his wife’s body as they’d bathed and made love here together.

Laertes was a man of intellect, and while he’d been taught to just take women in the Greek tradition - that being with them face down, mere tools for pleasure and procreation - he’d quickly realised this was not the way to go. What helped immensely with that realisation was Anticlea, who’d delivered an astonishingly powerful kick in his unmentionables when he’d even so much as tried it. He’d been hurt and then angry, but what truly got to him was the look on her face. You may chide him for not understanding this sooner, but Laertes had not seen fear in his wife’s eyes before, and when he did see it, decided he did not like it. What followed was many nights of deep and vested research into the dos and don’ts of physical intimacy, which was more than Anticlea expected, though it was not at all unwelcome. Thinking back on those nights he’d spent in this very pool, enveloped in pleasure with his beautiful wife, tugged on his heartstrings and certain other parts of his anatomy in equal measure. It’s okay, I whispered, caressing his arm, you’re alone, enjoy these thoughts.

Of course, Laertes wouldn’t be alone for long. A new set of footsteps approached, and the old man swiftly and quietly dove under, swimming softly to the far end of the pool, hoping no one saw him.

Penelope, too, was having a night of little sleep. It was simply too warm for such things. She’d managed to sneak out of her room, leaving her maids to their dreams. Now, wearing nothing but the flimsiest and most basic of robes, her sandaled feet barely making a sound, she too approached the pool.

From behind a large water lily, Laertes observed as Penelope sat down by the water, took off her sandals and bathed her tired feet in the stream, as she’d done many times before, and let her thoughts drift into far-off places. Well, she tried to, at least. To dream of a life different from her own, somewhere far away. Sadly, the rules of the patriarchy invaded even the deep recesses of her mind, and she found she had some trouble coming up with a scenario wherein she enjoyed the same degree of freedom and influence she currently had, and so her mind wandered instead to summer seasons, fresh fruit and sheep shearing.

She’d undone all her weaving for the day, and while she was tired of a long day of entertaining suitors and regular displays of piety and sorrow, she found she did not have it in herself to sleep. Her head was still all ache as the muscles of her neck reminded her she’d been peering at the weave too hard. Foolish thing, really. It’s not like she needed to do a good job. She could have written a swear in it and it would have been fine and unmade by morning. Oh well, no sense in regretting now. She watched her feet as they moved around in the water, sticking out one leg, then the other, watching the water drip-drip-drip back into the pool. Should she? Would she dare? She decided that she would, and soon Laertes was treated to a view he thought he’d never see again: that of a naked queen, lowering herself in the cool water.

Of course, he could not stay here now. Not with Penelope - beautiful, naked queen Penelope - in the pool with him. Why, there’d be talk. Not immediately, of course, but if he ever stepped out of line, those maids of hers would know just who to sing to like the pretty birds they were, and there’d be a reckoning. Laertes respected the queen immensely, and he knew full well the network of women on the island and how they schemed and kept the place in check. It was a world he was not privy to, and he was fine with that. He’d hate to be on its bad side, however, so he gently lowered his head beneath the water and began to make his way carefully back to where his clothes were.

Penelope was enjoying this little time to herself, allowing her thoughts to drift. She dove under for a moment, then submerged, letting the water run down her face and past her neck. She made for quite a pleasing sight, if I do say so myself. She rubbed her sore neck in an attempt to relieve the ache a little, but was only moderately successful. A gentle splash caught her attention, and she turned her head to see a pile of clothes on the rocks nearby, and Laertes himself in the pool, looking at her, naked as - well, as any other day no one required him to wear clothes. Well, this was quite the predicament.

“Please don’t scream,” the old king said quietly.

“I suppose I could hold it in,” Penelope responded with as much dignity as she could muster, lowering her entire body so only her head was visible. Of course, this may very well be moot. How much had he seen? She’d have to assume he’d seen everything, just to be safe. Well, this was going to be a problem.

“I’ll just be heading out then,” Laertes said as if he was going to market.

“If you must. There is plenty of room.”

The answer gave both of them pause as they stared at each other. For her part, Penelope wasn’t entirely sure why she didn’t just let him leave so she could have the pool to herself, but she’d said what she’d said and a queen did not go back on her words.

Laertes let go of his tunic and returned to the cool embrace of the pool.

“Thanks very much.”

“You’re most welcome, father.”

She made that movement again, rubbing her neck. Should he offer? I placed my hand on Penelope’s. Someone with a surer grip really should have a go, don’t you think? Usually, my advice fell on deaf ears, but it seems tonight was going to be an exception.

“Neck giving you trouble, is it?”

“A little.”

“All that weaving, no doubt.”

“Quite so. It is surprisingly strenuous on the body.”

“I could… That is to say…” Laertes had a sentence planned, but found he couldn’t quite get the whole thing together as he’d intended, instead stumbling over the easiest utterance like he were a boy of thirteen instead of a man well into the fullness of life.

“If you could…” Penelope replied, turning her back to him slightly.

Slowly, so as not to startle her, Laertes swam over, sitting down on the stones by the shore.

“Come here, then.”

Penelope did not like being ordered around. Her many years as ruler of the island had taken its toll on her will, and she found she now had quite a vast amount of it. Nevertheless…

“Alright.”

She sat down below Laertes, pinning up her hair again so it was out of the way. As she felt the rough hands on the back of her neck, she couldn’t hold back the shiver that ran down her spine. So long without another’s touch. She hadn’t quite realised it. Her own company had been enough, hadn’t it? Furtive touching in the night, trying to be quiet so she wouldn’t wake Eos, dutifully asleep nearby in case she needed anything.

Laertes for his part did his best not to get any funny ideas, for however much good that did. He hadn’t touched another so intimately since Anticlea died. Penelope’s slender neck felt warm under his hands.

“Bit of a knot here,” he commented, trying to keep any hint of desire from his voice. For one, he really liked her, and then the image of his wife’s fearful eyes still haunted him. He rubbed her neck and shoulders with purpose, feeling for knots and teasing them out, sometimes pushing down hard, causing a groan from Penelope he really shouldn’t think about for too long.

“Always wondered how this place managed to stay so calm, considering the mad house is just over there,” Laertes said in an attempt to diffuse some of the tension. Not that there was much tension left in her.

“I suppose limited access helps,” Penelope commented, managing to keep her voice level. Laertes had gotten all the knots he could find, but he had some difficulty proclaiming his task finished. Instead, he traced his thumbs down her neck and between her shoulders, moving out below her shoulder blades.

Penelope moaned.

I could go on for quite some time about all the moans I’ve ever heard, and I’ve certainly heard and made better ones than this one - truly deep, guttural moans that could shake the earth and mend all hurts - but I will say that Penelope’s had just that extra bit of zest from having been constrained for so long, a wild animal looking to escape its confines and finally - finally - finding its cage just open enough to risk it.

Now, Laertes may be on the older side and liked to pretend he was going deaf sometimes if he thought it would annoy whoever was trying to bore him with mundane conversation, but he felt that moan run all the way down his spine.

“Like that, did you?” he chuckled, then immediately regretted his tone.

“You’re very effective,” Penelope remarked, leaning into his hands.

She didn’t want him to stop. She knew this was a bad idea. She knew there would be consequences if anyone saw them here, but the pool was secluded and off-limits to anyone not allowed here by her, so perhaps…

I felt her desire to give in, to be unbound by duty for just a few moments. Do it, my love, I whispered in her ear, enjoy yourself. These times are rare.

Laertes shared her thoughts, understood the danger, then went ahead anyway. They both needed it, he felt. He wasn’t wrong.

Behind her, Penelope felt his body shift as he lowered himself to sit behind her, wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling her close, his other hand holding her upper arm in a grip that was firm yet not stifling. She felt his breath on her neck as he nuzzled it, taking in the smell of her, some floral scent barely lingering after a long day of being responsible and unapproachable.

“Gods, but you smell like a feast,” he murmured into her naked flesh, as one hand moved from her arm to her chest, claiming a breast left unattended. Penelope leaned back and let it happen. She trusted Laertes like she trusted Damon. She knew he’d never desert or betray her, that their bond was strong and long in the making. As his fingers moved from massaging her breast to tweaking her nipple, she groaned and pushed her body into his, and hoped her faith wasn’t misplaced.

Laertes felt her body react and he had to admit he was chuffed. Old man Laertes still had it, yes he did. I had to admit this made me giggle. I’ve always had a weakness for smart older men, though this is not what I will be remembered for. Yes, you do, I whispered in his ear, suggesting he guide his hand from her waist to somewhere lower down, now let’s see how well you remember your lessons. Surprisingly, he seemed eager to follow my suggestions. Well, well.

Penelope gasped as his hand slid down to her intimate region and began gently rubbing her.

“How’s that for you?” he asked, his voice gentle, but with an undercurrent of desire that had her flustered.

“It’s… I like it just fine,” she managed to reply, angling her body to meet his hand in a way that improved the entire process. Laertes, ever the scholar, took a mental note, and continued the way he was going.

“Suggestions are welcome,” he added in a soft tone as he moved his hand in tandem with the movements Penelope’s body had started making without any conscious effort on her part. The queen of Ithaca let herself drift on the river of her desire, and placed her hands on his, guiding him in her pleasure. There, please. Yes. Gods.

Laertes felt her shudder as her release came, and she leaned back, her face close to his. As she came down, he leaned in just a little and kissed her. He’d tried not to, he really had, but her lips were beautifully swollen with excitement and he just couldn’t contain himself. Her lips parted and their kiss was deep. He drank her in as she turned a little, moving her hand down to where she knew she’d find a handhold.

Laertes startled a bit when he felt her fingers on his erection. Penelope looked up at him.

“Suggestions are welcome.”

He had to stifle a laugh immediately. Of course she’d say that.

“Just don’t pull it like it needs to come off,” he chuckled.

“I suppose I could manage that.”

She started off slowly. He’d suggest a bit more speed. Also, remember the tip is the most sensitive part. Bit more pressure on the- yes, that’s it. Penelope for her part was a quick learner, but I expected nothing less. She soon found a rhythm that had Laertes leaning back, closing his eyes for a moment so he could focus on the feeling. He soon realised he had to intervene as Penelope was too good at what she was doing.

“Wait.”

Penelope looked up, awaiting further instructions. She’d overheard some interesting conversations between her maids about how certain men enjoyed it when they stuck a finger up their arse. If he was going to ask her for that, she really wasn’t sure she’d be able to comply. That didn’t seem to be what he was after, however, as he submersed his body into the water once again.

“Why don’t you have a seat, make yourself comfortable,” he suggested, nodding at his former perch. She hauled herself up and sat down, readying herself to rub his shoulders as Laertes took her place below, except he didn’t turn his back to her. Sitting on his knees facing her, he pushed her legs apart until her warm centre was right in front of him. This time, Penelope blushed in full view as he started kissing his way up her sensitive inner thigh, all the way to her sanctum, and she had to fight the urge to pull back. His arms had snaked their way underneath her legs and he now held each thigh as he looked up at her. It was often said that Odysseus had his mother’s eyes, but Penelope had to disagree. She’d seen her husband in this very position, and his father gave her the exact same look; a raw, intense thing, that stoked a fire within her she’d thought she’d lost. Knowing his intent, she leaned back and let him taste her.

“Good girl,” he growled as he started lapping at her sensitive clit. Ah, he’d missed this tangy flavour. Laertes pushed his tongue in-between her folds as he held her firmly in his arms, and he could see her back arch, feel her body’s need. One hand released a thigh and moved down to her folds, and Laertes slipped in a finger, moved it as if beckoning, gauging his effectiveness by the sound of her moans and the movement of her hips. Not quite so, but maybe… And an extra finger could… Yes, there it was!

Penelope was at a loss for words as his tongue and fingers were engaged in some form of expert dance with her body, and she found she had to cover her mouth quite vigorously, lest the inordinately loud moan half bordering on a scream wake the entire palace as she felt her desire hit a high she didn’t remember ever feeling before. Her body twitched as he kept licking her clit, and she moaned her continued desire, imprinting it into the very stones around the pool. Oh Aphrodite, help me, she prayed. I am, believe me. Let it wash over you. She wrapped her hands in his hair, holding his head in place. Yes, take your pleasure.

Eventually, Laertes figured enough was enough and moved away, releasing Penelope and letting her catch her breath. It took her a moment to sit up and compose herself. Her hair had come undone again and now fell in loose, chaotic strands around her face. His loins stirred at the sight and he found himself moving up as his face drew level with hers.

“Penelope,” he said, voice low and filled with a lust he’d not felt in an age, “I’ll leave right now if you want. Gods know it’ll be hard, but I will. I’ll be honest with you, though… If you don’t tell me to go, I will have you.”

His face was so close to hers, his body, while affected by age, still contained some of that physique that had gained him a place aboard the Argos, and Penelope was too far gone to say no. She didn’t want to. She wanted more, wanted to feel someone inside her again.

Her legs pulled him in, and Laertes wasted no time in putting word to deed as he slid into her in a smooth motion, helped immensely by the work he’d already put in. That being said, it had been much over a decade since Penelope had a man enter her, and she did need a moment to get used to an erection inside her. Laertes knew this, but the warmth of her made it difficult to contain himself. I placed a gentle hand upon Penelope. Relax, for you are in good hands. I promise it.

He could feel her relax and pushed himself in further until he was fully sheathed. By the gods, he had missed this. He started thrusting, slowly at first, wanting her to want this, to want him to keep doing this. Penelope grabbed him by the neck, pulled his head down and kissed him. Their tongues played with each other as his thrusts increased in power and speed.

“Laertes,” she breathed as she felt her body readying for another climax.

“I see you,” he said, adjusting angle and depth just a little bit. “Like this?”

“Gods, yes.”

He kept going, smothering her moans in a kiss as he felt her walls tighten around him. As the scent of her desire filled his nostrils and played merry games with his mind, I leaned in, whispering in his ear one final time. Let go, dear one. Unleash yourself. She deserves no less.

Gods, to have a man be so attuned to my instructions. It’s such a rare occurrence, I’d almost forgotten how great it was. He held her tight and began his work intently; a deep, intense fuck, meant to stretch, to fill, to breed. Penelope rode this wave like a true queen as Laertes absolutely demolished any semblance of reason she had left with the intensity of his thrusts, burying his face into the nape of her neck to stifle his grunts.

He lifted one of her legs for a better angle.

Yes, just like that.

His thrusts became quick and shallow as he felt his release come upon him. Deep, he had to go deep. He pounded her in earnest, holding her firmly in place as he came, filling her with short, deep thrusts, his breathing ragged as he tried to find himself somewhere within the rutting beast he’d just unleashed.

Penelope looked at him. Ah, there he was. She was certain he’d gone for a moment and left an animal of a man in his place. Not that she minded. What with all the preamble, she almost felt he was owed that much, at least. Laertes took a few deep breaths in an attempt to steady himself.

“That went places,” he finally managed to say in-between breaths.

“Quite,” Penelope managed to say. She found she was also a bit out of breath. Fancy that.

Laertes pulled out, though reluctantly, and looked apologetic. “Figured I was gonna pull out before anything came of it, but it seems the old meatsack had other plans.”

To his surprise, Penelope just shrugged. “I will make sure nothing comes of it.”

The old king nodded. Of course she would. Part of him felt sad about this, but it was for the best. Having a child with the son only to then have another one with the father, well, that might be cause for a kerfuffle.

He backed away as Penelope lowered herself into the stream and began washing herself, and he did the same. Couldn’t be found smelling of sex when he went back to his farm. Otonia would know in an instant. A nose like a bloodhound, that one.

“I don’t suppose this’ll be a regular thing, then?” he ventured, knowing the answer.

Penelope washed her face as she pondered how to word her reply. She looked up at the man who’d given her such sweet pleasure tonight, and found she actually regretted what she had to say, even if it was the best - and really only - option she had.

“I’m afraid not. There’d be… difficulties.”

He nodded. He knew this already, of course. They both did. Still, best to talk it out. Good way to avoid problems in the future.

“Just the once, then”

“Yes, just the once.”

[libidomechanica]

Stays blame

A Meredith sonnet sequence

               1

She is throbbing basket were you but ah!   If you against thou tonight difficult,   remembraced or unplease me to be thy voice brown humble-bee. So rain, as welcome, came and bids makes and she shame where’s   they paleness came love you grown feast lifts   then sending and stay. Where the window to be kiss my sister eyes? Pale with bowe, whom nakd then I am losing of all   inheritor an hours; nor about the glen   sae smart did not bright and she was dry together flower, one of the birken about thy heart, my limb her eye; for the birds   are charm invert time for than to theirs—God   bleat for the skycolor. Thy fate I knew to speak the measure, do the saw their lips!

               2

The sun’s and thou this is bleeding, song, and   the sea has left me, for a hundred echoes   oft amid make shall come may lustie Loue to playe, and long sick; you reporten in the upon a taste of public honour   inconstant space. Long with us. Leave, and   can easy task; for his father pleas’d with such cold night I write, they are gone towers his phantasy washboard; which love. When days,   use other’s defects bent with and how can   do. Let there’s sagest head, compassion woos, which you be, and fainties out often knit, my brow old merely cross the unders   and wilt, I ween, and soon managed by far   to leade, in see, beauty temple thee, as the verse shadow at leaps in the question.

               3

Bright bury sorrow old wore: it was sair,   false speech of all the Romish Tityrus,   I had I eat? Muffling tongue that a journey to the sea. His mote be wondren leap in the sleepe art; if charm is she’sfar   ourself and warrior fast and makes and cauld,   your only way we talking or thou for me, I toil, so clear to soone as the selfe, ye word of twilight; I lost in her the   tropics the talk to eat. And hopes out of   nature’s barks, wind. Shore; which keep unespied: mid hush’d not thinking the slabbed stead of all sound when the Muse and keeps for even   as wi’ the under pitiles brown wi’   rightest with pale cheese blenches only. They liv’d; and groaned, wept and she haunted. How thee!

               4

And therefore than race, that Miracles and   stroke off from its mouth for my birth doing   it? Bloom of Wisdom wafted; the ocean’s false with sore it not for clarity oft thy sphere. Him with snow, deceived like Peacoks   spotted to breeds did her on. To thee someone   and he little thou singing either Phip, leaue to the Silver pride; incertain range ribbon in his fault if your lived, swaying   flare unless her long; I was one prisoner.   Imagine you could suffer which nor carry in fauour case we gain’d to bear, till ride. Out of silent ill yet thus did not   Love love, as with as well lives. Whose pallace   a heart, desire to his comes have sad he hill, so flat of light. That with to me.

               5

With or cry’d: and golden crimson The sea!   Ah, what needs it; by the prayed him thy saving   wherewith love’s whoe’er say, when spake: when how, ere I hem; and I heart as braw and the other to fly have know how few! And   sings: for those Cherrie-tree whose be disputes, all   the World of it in their massive rapture thee my trust was borne receive. Of they paid my eyes were even to turn’d accidentice.   Your bower-door, that from the strange flower   which when thus, she stood from which, those that she doors for a boy of the and nobody who hath sparks something feverie, perhaps   the sung, it seems the and Lo! Perplex and   helmes vnbruzed were reading its making by water I escape. Evening either’s night!

               6

Evening green the skill the sky to touched teach   his worldly him on to golden blooms, it   is impostures, that shaken together. But by thee my powers surround thy love bees, breath and liggen wrapt in women,   there Goddess, as first compile, the was better   if I shoulde haue a divert time of this rested once thing It is an empires much impossibly: Woo’d and know the   dream her like held up by side. He humpback   upon me. The nails are selves into a trembled harebell my hear to till mildly high built hour only redolent: twere   but vaine thy figures, let up and goes by   the red visit. Yon sear, as dead perfume; her voices were not know why hand, my side.

               7

The maid, you—tell the air, on two at Conway   dwelt a nymph’s best exceeds? The street looked   race you are, and I sign’d t’agree: each than the wide, all dare, and Ausemán—the Honeycomb; and lesse are you! Said: nor grimly flapped   for that I make reason? I never hand   in be, when tyrants’ crests just little man what points in rhyme? Slow-stepping as Death and in the will love-glance. And name. From boughs are   every blooms, why shrine, all everyday’s   oppress’d a dream. Well, Your eyes be itself. New streaks for thee sitting does us to all made at the hazel shells with fruit. My   life or four-and-twenty day-nets nor cherished.   Take these bear to say: But he warmed her be but the days of the wonderstand there.

               8

The ioyous the dear reported before I   heard no more. The smiling of the fresh petals   alone, dead ere increase of wherefore the quake her lets of love they were lone that in the hall the Caducean heaven   the potted, or in that vertue and other’s   banishment. After none, yet some and watches great press’d him embranches grace; and then fire, and see; by their jug was ripenesse   gay, so as still love those darke absent here’s   the city gates in tune. The poor human clips’d he way the rose-or magnified was compile, too well, sweet your love thy this   preserve, that my believing to Cæsars bleeding   from think’st though my true stone to their autumn beauty of our like a bumble-bee.

               9

Churchyard cottage minds, or more to them, she   man: the scattered owre thee,—that never and   us, and rue, all power blood there the stood and who this herbs and feede you do but vows, Support Your wind conside of mee, i’ll   laboured and has the girlonds when its   garden. On a rosy face; and ever. Lovers, euen vnto Stellaes self-ingrains breather, for thee, where bar and girl, she white a   nocturnal Foot the beads privilege; then   in deepes him like a broods and I look’d on the speak. Each on the mocking is bed, they are great broken be as the wine. That   length winter, yet evented and so   unsuccess of those pale ghosts, you shall lively dropped as were shall every day my poor rhyme?

               10

For his dying pride sheets. And blandishment,   with griefs, and fell to hide, the work had to   have care on Vertue and grieved hierarch of Them it come, too vehement not figures, while hurried cottage-tree whose beat an Europe’s   sake, if those forbidding my stood, what   shore. And horned much lesse lay; but stem—save then from hang frank reiver, whether dying winges and a’ his hat, but the cool hours by   lacking in complain shall death may wine, as   the serious were reign. Both bind the little; but known than death in my selfe his worst days, Row the envy of you would but the   true-love you tell enoughts engages? No,   no: you greatness ever did your leave, as there but of a back to their death awoke?

               11

Fail I awake unto me, while maids keeps   force them all the diamond true; the sun. My   own sublime? I said, How his dying and streets, the even the saw Byron’s eyes give; that some other worst all then from us—   and each. Than if Kate Brown’d, crooked the mourn   and when she same love is; sae doubled ha’: their death the first intoxications and with stars dream of the man was will this   turn’d; for the rugged clouds of all their powers,   like and blown and thee for each thee at all middle jimp wi’ a hand or understand. So greatest, and evening of her star   of children forcement with Golden clovers,   little ear’s a mate wild plump. Not for she’s sair and glad to teach, Love deeper this.

               12

Plus the gude; yet ever made old … I should   having but if, my arms adoration   I wonder, delight, an easy task; for lust of the same, when image to Will the learn to peeping as sweld so books entered   island day, like a children are not from   the land? Ah! No fault that Titanic strife, the she dooryards she thou may he beauty oft thy faith. Spread from all alegge think back   your hand, to see: where, so that pass’d him that   I hast as four, would read across the pine- crusted beauty, so swerve. On home seen, the will bed when I tell you tells the was a   woman’s prudence of this fearing swallows,   fled evening its engenderstand air; behold merely came by the fire is awoke?

               13

As a breasts and hold my heard, and sawdust   of living the balm fortune. She said, how   tell thee, ah famous curl that have of leave me of my stopped Because of nature of our Elections, and said: The Shah with wo,   euen vnto Stellaes eyes. And when it perfume;   her falls the spoke a pellet the story as thing the heart of death they’re not, belonging peacocks that mattered land? ’ Forest grasp   themselves the general onslaughing itself   between thread a river rarest of thoughts, going tongue since Hamlet, nor she’sta’en he storm; in the mock has may end of gold, In   sick to the wound. I know; so neighbors hand,   if he bough, full of sister fleur-de-lis; because the to doth his featherized.

               14

But Fate no face did just as flicker Will.   A greated me, only. The pure Will league   thy lover either lie so in cloud, the thankful choice is madding friends of doubt, and shores of the go-cart. And althought I half   turn it I brake. The times like legs spring   really the but twenty-one. Down there waken’d eyes shut up from thee and still above, and yet wi’ tin; where ransom me. Why does   Man to singly, a dark smell how show many   mountain-bars: so thy voice sae rashy, O, aboon the closely face. Not if he was she put in my hair, and strange she middle   jimp wi’ right as simple cottage upon   Impossibility. Husband; so I could run the humble still are seven.

               15

And horne still’d him once and Fate no joy is,—   empty road as the her and otherwise   but where within that pass the lonely night not hymns and debate, and vtter I espy; come hame. The tame such pleasury, and blows,   borne, whether hair, an invests heart-throbbing   so sad, I love? The room is to try it on the fond visions of the days your complete: and all is others, euen vnto the   redacted, when I am no Motherwise.   Sparks I wad wake, and round anyway now tedious think scorn; but we can I tell my selfe his better by fate proposed our   most curious tears and modest friends, too,   the was come mine a thou find, for when Winter mesh, and the only air to party?

               16

Nay more I may be.—I’m weare thy laden   still haunt mine do other melodious   plain the show my wish set forth a haw bayberry kame? While, after sunly and clay, there, trance strange to the spring and in faith.   So that over that glistening to great the   abject strangels see when fire a should not resort of the Almight thus and ride. Tho peep, then born so sweet-gard’n-nymph, with life’s   banishment to loue need, and than the worth, No,   seek—the must need his dames, could from us— and you paid thee? Grass, bent wi’ as gone as the plainly thee please that right but though Hades,   in the walls, and bloudy lyons palace   me the time years beyond all to-morrow not figure be all the walls of greater.

               17

That which that none survives; up in Pennsylvania,   I must as if a lover turn   to hand, who known the other tents, disrobed into a place; let be for lose is the terrified,—while he rude ignorance   was told, the house: and to the dooryards ere   young, it see thy he leade, the brain, throughout rose, only I Fawne on themselves the tells with light, and trellish the dead. His face be   Loue, I meant shall else. Bright, afternoons, beauty’s   legs in beautiful dream here shall gie thy tears shalt find the fall above, and say: I am neither Phip, leaue: his shape   appropriated and to the heed, despise.   ’St into thee, ah famous Despair, I feel waled wilt thou art found used flowers.

               18

And is! ’ Strife of love in vain bushy, O,   aboon the Myllers all the through, who go   wast throbbing back in mine, settling the least by our happy Lycius! Late the very all the windows. That in doves purely he   bridegroom, that unfair throbs, and peaceful canker   eat a sing and leave meadows, her perfume; her view and was a minute. Thou can arise; then spring all the sea mermaids   keep the appease love in either’s disgrace.   The scraping station. But mark yon me, and am belovèd’s beautiful dream. Float only God, dost lonely men. Go children   at broad maybe with the ba’, then it just   as it list is endure, whence in a while touch one of view her want the fire; ye’re world.

               19

All woman’s mouth’d up benefit of it.   Am I thine eye; for Annie, ’ loud I   have the sea? There I the Common Teutonic shadow to sea, yet everyone now his happy doves flying shade: in two. Till   thief, when I tell the held our mind with glances   of directions, could yet would it haven, light guid will, tho’ your when there waits within her haste, not so I thou binna she,   but had to a played the twirled throught them with   there had ourself thy has die, vibrates in the clouds of she exercise her set? On the rugged closer, are two, between worth   a cittadell, crie Victorie, the balances;   thy voice thee howe that in fauour child of you this poor babes that was getting waves blank.

               20

Let by thy young Bacchus ravish’d, and done,   the tendrils did our nerves whereof she loving   you meet to harbor. And moonlight at you there thereof her to this, since Hamlets limb her populous; full Fourteen happye Ewe,   which can no more say a dream as solid   ground the nor truth, what who, like a virgin daught have seene. I have years to mow: and gave and be soft were bereaue, and thou my verse as   ever, and have linen babe; the ball-fields   and incense and the night guid will never gave of my train? And give sea strain wear and to time. As first, but you tell. She sun on   his arms I trusty guid with calm me crimson   her friendshield—and dead for thy festivals in his breast, sat by this gone for men?

               21

Was unpleasant days so tangle draw mate,   stupidity, put he’s tomb. In the from   the wave is; i’ll never ran the shouldst therein mournful famished, but ere I took their bottoms with pleasure—thus the care thee   how it also caught thines intend, taking   on your pining in October, dear, Eadwacer? Which miserably every mightye pride lies, a pamphleteer once the thing, I   adoration both in preace embranching   my Highland leaves before him, on thy figures the flowers Sappha went; which she looked and, from the Greeks’ love speaking hot and then   fitt ne breast, and chase the strength dewy gem,   fright my faith, I didn’t for men?—Thus did strong for age had bounded. Never she twin’d black.

               22

The aid o’ thee. Venus for us. That   rare with one, that fallen—on the comfortable;   and I who fry in the centre of thy hook Ends love: fluttered its know the woman, yours, still death thee without his poor:   their weake a maid of my love engender   and I could cheeks, with reverent. As fastern through vnfelt, for the better if I hae a hundrest of view, while sum of sorrow   should advise the saw no reason why we   talking sun on the future lie frailer completely as the sun’s absent stood. The world except possess was once I hear her   and rang between us at thou, that if   her pent his voice of sugarcane sweet kiss’d be. The little thou makes of thee by side.

               23

To thralled my Lucasia, since embrance.   Perfect of she was laid in heart, of a   strangelic fur. For a hundred Thou swells in sequel of relation, frozen in arias of February and fell   like a mothers at first then those palm dissolve   in our eye, ylike a pair, till. Made her of crimson current to then, is Europe’s defect love looked mountains breathedrals   what shall heard the bedroom is dreams of   King Oberon’s mournful jealous expended nothings from me. Like on bow, and but loving north, thoughts arms a twofold man’s fit   to murder. The moan fled steal think and my   mists and fast, patched; those calm me could be the after the cloud heavy pace thee at a’?

               24

She first, my soul sobs, selfe, and deeps the grass,   bent to be my faith this? Thy should be that   if you? On this, and stronger steps but born, sometimes I thus, o pious inquired: thou watch’d in women could as they did from   mine own starch of all in prince they shrine, like   the solid ground to meet their under than a warbling, known the apart, of passion half-science! Plus throne with tears, tan said to   playe, ah, where in heard truth open! Since, firm,   protective, and dinna singlets, blowes han though her dream. It is spreade, that, she dwell and helmes vnbruzed were modest, and bonfires   reddest knows but of seven. Wither   her eyes scintillation I wont with not the endued with love and she said, how fash.

               25

By wretched all the good about my use   so doth life! How can his central to the   will seru’d thou have care to a Greeks’ love thine, that words be all past, and the was been boys and sea; how she distractice the   enviously poets—as tropics the start   beloved all the teaspoons; I known the birth on the fiery moment our future is adoptiue core; her made of her carrior   fame to oars and so unseen of   relation, from Egina isle fresh anothers— it filled with this is an invade, so thrice tell enough, to win its Self-folding   it with went and bad, that they do ye worlds,   before that did I sit and Time down to win it with skilfu’, try the heart and test!

               26

Of a wounds, and the window long in where   is could not Helen, to a seed. A Greece,   like a minute for only and woods and over either’s well-lin’d thee cannot so I covers gone. You say just as a window   look at you thy far white doth his the   men reed-pipes marble hurried at me. And tree haunt, and most fair pearls that did sing inside still sleepeth insults of the place, nor   placed with their jug was sails, and a case, and   a twofold my door, with thy sweetner of they sat, had fate and scorn; now can recall flame my young birds forms a twofold things in   the garden-croft; that other if you   counterchance harms there held together, lovely dream, mither flower is a winnowing.

               27

And yet to mind: far, fainting firm, protesting   carefull flower-fences of grain,   to see how can tell enought then, we countest charm invert the privilege; they screen, and faire day and verse have you never rue   my heauens did that their silver. Somebody   as it sprong, in them when I credit give young Damon guessed, like to the conjunctions, cities count toil is sad heaven days, make   and were call, like a bee! To kiss—thus he   door, baith Learning a cubit in her to yonder, when we drooping lasciviously poet? And my eye. Love south-westward to   me, and water, thing souls were by my minds,   and wilt th’elixir golden breasts and holds any such precede they are drew, to till.

               28

And take one, had never rare. How long mind,   as the Lee that was said, that we are for   on the angelo. Soul, like a higher, was thinking pulses that I couldn’t forest of the grant I it force of the sea   remember? As a charms, but slain to shoot. I   brought a kingdom the day’s dissolving feverie, that fall; she calmly transpared up her nimble some dim yesterday. Partly   by days shed on spright piece of pine, I know,   till freely souls of the createst my with me, fit may so, love in the bedroom is throughout and all those would in the tender   feeling, all; excel: for young made: what   serener pew. Who knows but to hide the others’ work’s expended; and make unto me.

               29

The air heaven of living that something   wretched, a memory Listening rose the   sun took complexion dwelt but the house, then, said, as a charms the wall, as once I halls in the walls black theirs—God beg of Lochroyan   lay calm: God release influence and glad.   And is bleeding, a stept: she, now began the lang lines! That Turkish hourest Silvia, yet with gentle Hermes on a grant   made: hiding a rank thy monument, and   the show my will but have no spurre our soule porring and disappease love, thou founts on the can be; Deale thy parts command, thou did   loud crisis the play for grill groans of their   pink mallowed. Do in his legs sprinkled life advance as evening pipe, thou report.

               30

Those forwards me thunder feet day all be   but lovers, you’re light, when we sat, had touch   I have sight cloth’d proue. Than I say, he reconciled in my verse touch’d nor foul, the stake our wall after supper with Learning surface   I had he hills he page red and weep,   sweet and in the pride; that middle of it and now night empty oft amid a gordian we begin? From what does Man to   aspired: for a mistresspass’d, she took your   live the way thy sport Cenchreas, from you move, how farre those stall; Cupid a bonny ship, that on snow, to give thy perfect love, later   witch no one as true still’d hardly and   still put in the mead, and meant, you were shalt behold, okay? And perfection come hame.

               31

Of lies may makes two reede, alley to you.   Rivals, and speechless reign climbed thee in my   selfe lie frayed the wild me wits quicke to her I’ll labour, and true-heroics stranges out frae our down, tall, ever noticed you’re   dubbed she stolne from me, so, one could to choose.   The cool hours, streth sorowe, and thus against some ease, but yonder fill wed; and starry it and now is sad augurs must knife is   heart to pearlins are eerie? And her mercy   it for magnifice. She hast said Hermes, like a ruby, whom, could tak thy music till than that need, designed hands. In Rose   a sight, that has all red was a princes   of the leave a scorn of Heav’n from the Been of this cruel lady darlins enow.

               32

From my mind them one who shoot gainst him down.   Oft sufference can arias of   direction, Straubs, Rebecca, Bennett Ave. Of bound, and pearl disorder settling but days are will streets of Proserpine sheaf? Just   as we loss, or a while, the ruled—some to   Jove heare, will kame to be wonder press take paid the red handsome, Euclid, Decatur, Union, Straubs, Rebecca, Bennett Ave.   ’ As gone at delightning son is not for,   sick; yours was full farther savourite’s for her flower, and brother own Belovëd, whom I am gone. And sight our   unmistakable months shall speak? Trains hoar the   tag o’ the diamonds not fight, what to golden, green leaps in the deep in two ages.

               33

His such decrease it. I said to keep into   my best, ’ when out—at words are child of   you dearest yet evening is the burn in this, nor wane, wane, of thy tear: alas! As Proserpine. True, her feeling tree; it have   been. The grasses me yours was merit, and   thy pure a syre, and amid that sword she ado, as well me restore had I saw Menalcas completely and seen the place   of doubting breaks from the grew worst all. I   am frae her the soul crazed, and marriage. Since to my flowers, frame but down the look grows death the has flame, that lov’d the same   desire, would dream, so clear fond before am   I deified less they fire it thrones were borne, with other neck unto me.

               34

And tropics the sea which do me no second   you see the skill the innocence hard   the uneven thee by something did you did our dispute: the first, a lang like a mournful hyacinths in her sight like Homer’s   a master; your eyes were drill groan was   but the was too far religions, last notes, possess were shutting from God fostering son is penned, gave your love think ye are filled,   swift-lifting off the molecules. She half   in be, what pass, and the speak, even modest, I shall quench of sums, yet cave, but because; but thing family! The and give you with   the sung, it eats itself overflow the   hang on thy flapped befriend, by colors it perfection, to given thou, O happy.

               35

Adoring clowdie Welkin pitches of him.   Thee cannot see how sunbearably in   each they are rider chin, applying on this to bring all the crown’d, crowning clowdie Welkin clear-cut far away; for to it—but   when it I brakes, and over; the branches   I never managed by the temple whenceforth clymes of Selefkia just fa’ the was never step afterwards but frae   my extender that just as flight, where wild-   wood collar mounts on their feather mailens. Get that would man’s fit to known, in there Beauty must had seruants, and desire, with   a shift, joy reappease, but there all the fault   in upon me. Whether part my child, for his should almost, and the wood, define Waist.

               36

You teacups, though certain, at all the centre   of the family spak his na love me   thus? For a little got with powerfully dost habitante can seems from this rosy wine! Still a-falling empire our voice,   thy liv’d; and so, to speak. Reason, greater   story as I had, blush’d, and the bonny last, points of public, no hear my puling besides. Greene, Woo’d and remember, and wisht   they be it is a million to bough, full   surmised love,—and the full formulated, in pride of mocking but in there was men reed-pipes mane, in leave what she, which here’s   a flighting frank close his words, among so   long, lovemaking up then stock there in the learn to scold me. Only the otherwise.

               37

Whole Wordsworth, there Mixture merry dint, my   finding for where you will never sae rasher   me where when we banter and endured pearling. Will woman that shalt seem best habit; the learn. Each other speak a twin’d by   thee. Then, is Europe, Afric, and I turn   from innocent plack on the preuie marriage. Quo’ her choir’s at thou in them so sweld so tame. I see save that you art from the wide,   looks; bidding to yon his Bed, but her new   grown human rails, since makes me princes of sight, slipped in the spring, hatred, why has e’en as undred their grapple red forgot   and charm enough flash of all than aught that   the better for Lamia’s eyes are in the staind wrigglings, and breakful rite may not fault.

               38

That once themselves the oak is keeps the disclos’d   a longer doth lid-lashes the quake   his son, in her arms, transformed by the avows, nor with undaunters forced to stand amethyst, and will dead, are all these floors forest   gifts that was o’ love fornia we who,   will be as the bright mickle adore; her for a tree. Oh, like light when I pretence and dree, that they choir to mow: and cauld,   Gregory, little got it, and all that   vertue lamplight, your with from your cheese and kin. She shore; no drops from the fluorescents, diverse milk-white beauty’s breast oozings care: the   depth and clowne, lyft vp thy shout that now the   lends of petals spilled and been boy was death’d prophecy; for a schoolboys’ barren band.

               39

Steal as truth surely brothers’ seeing skies.   The Prince dead. I smiles. Time. You drink it smote,   I did was meanest advancing, chewing with a sing you drink as you like a key in faithful Highland loveliest visions.   Into rhythm, you to any bitten   Hermes, an yet cave, loved all the speak thy you’re dubbed steps upon the Royal Stem,—a Perfume from your like minute with a smooth   is, and amethyst, and sing quietness   made, and mightye primal night I not my ain love each other ribs, for they be when hair soft delight, and walk upon E in alt,   or rever was death. For it deep, up the   orange decrease of which cluster’d how she act. We call my ain love-glance, star of thee?

               40

Beauties coupe. Why sytten Hermes, let not   see height mickle on the take it strange diamonds   when wide, if human voice fortune dead surround myself to Cleopatra—night: I saw it and of man can wealthy face   doth love my bow against my birth, sweetly   tower shall her hand, for white. And last and then, with Wine thee the ground; he spongy clove a young, and all to raven gave to Jove’s   stable, as ony brat o’ gowd, right   Argus blazing else, from a gardens pawes, those touch I came bless my most clear you a tighten into my five seen my small   routes to join, they felt thou didst of my lost   is like a charity, for the warm Love stones mortal drear falls with life we are gone.

               41

We are gone along tongue and wondering   raine, more pleasure, I weep, sweet; from you had’st   this work my love up of Michelangels seen my ache, while if only as if he caustiks, blame to be thee at all be move   or seem but slip and dreaming Cheek, and, he   for a stocking is sent as not breath, what growth. Cannot dreams are last ride, in Stella O dear me whole fact of heard of this finer   the tyrants tongue haue born bespoke not   help my day-nets nor thou off, and perfit whistless very fair I take me, for loving went thought on spirits can seems the eyes   that we wily brown fear as Swanne, so much   more; no double eyes give youth, and rue, and every hour owling ears old, you this rest?

               42

A gallant flashing more: it is, in women   couldn’t sleepe, In such griefs universe have   been last, patted tomb’d with Golden gates in a warblind down? With thicker, and could I, in equation, as not part left below,   that we are fragile vision, the gloomy   Winter all the wind is fury from Plutoes banishest thou too soothing morning Jack and wooden—I saw Sir Walter will   front of her eyes were strain of Heaven began   to another, throat’s your skin, and we never made it like towers and not thilke same, this centre of love been them it seems   to mow: and spirits arms, transpared wood   college shining leade, into its own presents hackney on, thee, my Loue, with my five.

               43

To proven as you by a sudden spring   stay’d and swiftly ashame any Muse,   and said, thought and wings when I am gone town of thy note; but she saw a fields and of this queen soon their got, Have place of doubt,   for when other lacking thus, she world then   kirtle tired, to thy mither passing, alert. It was buoyant you has suddenly blinket sae rashy, O, I speak; indeed,   thrushes the tree. Walls, if thou my vertuous   atoms with flowers, from my love is no stepdame eke much let me forget success will lives sweep there natiue so doth experience   in their bad, and a greets, and sing,   yet men in my coat, as I using in complexion die with the drops from the more.

               44

Whether. But peering not vsde together   Jewel hung, so that Miracles Mens folded   arrowy small clouds, that have heard of the hazel she strength and disappear that woe amorous he chapel. Have been worth what   all over either mesh, and her left her   tender if those friend? Evening hound there whereof to keeps for ever wanton me, firm, protective, in who never notes and see   the Topic travel, and days to make his   voice broke like content, and take paid: sunk, their was the suddenly she here express’d your death time abstracted in highest side. That   we little many and there will faith Lettice   dying on its mourning the tree; or that with the place men, through you came my Dearie!

               45

Child, from the apex of its say nay, say   or do of use, to goe a sun, and yet   the world coin content; which us doth not because; at trample as all its crisis than from happy plight, when the near thy, my   soul be these floure-de-lis; because to thou   too lavish’d a dreary: it will be thinking against female change; her stopped: the evening like than seems that lone is infancy   set, moon is a wind, nor wished, those to them   was o’ crammed wit, and bow’d her told: the Topic over things divine—a tansy let not by the sport Cenchreas, fragrant I met   with tress, stretch’d to frozen time’s talk to the   reason wedges drowned, or if I shalt sea straight to has crest to violet? A face, stay.

               46

Better falling on it? And yet either   lawny continent to be goodness shaking   brave is come—the just will kame; that the string: at length! Person to which no one town on start and faith, some patience, fix’d, and breath’s   sake, and sloop in the yellow fog that I   confound? And opposition bow, nor wisedome day. Use other, that never hair, dissolving none knew, the spoke that our skin,   beauty, so kindly blush. But seal was the   blue; striped like control; yet, like a parting them with daily face, who from the quake his vows, where heights pure, from God real stay, said the   lava ravish’d the memory something   skies? You required: for that bright be gone. Till say: But he, there, for than if I can see.

               47

Are so wood, fair was on the event and   the air leave. Thunder he die! That we are   in a war of love shadows on two. Which Life beyond, imagine you in state, than it is to comin’ and endured and not   what act provocating fence; no drops from   your soul, like delight mistake? Her eyes, ears in music, your vertue lamp, who were reign of consume us all me who in claye, I   chirped, crusted mountain’d bland, and yet either   breast. Her John was I using pulse, for lessened on true Love is over the eyes fill’d to the fume fresh o’er the ruled—some unto   me out the nomber breathe unbroke, submits   heart of high to the grass, betwixt vow that have craftely come guessed by the sea?

[mushroomwriter]

(pt 1) "Atleast we can suffer together!" lol true! Gosh, that line (and tbh that whole scene with Sergio and Martín murders me of FEELS)... it's just so angsty cause it's not even the fact Andrés died, but he was also sick and Sergio knew that and he still never truly considered the possibility of his brother dying :(

BTW, what headcanon for the hermanos backstory do you subscribe to? I'm not sure when you first started the show, but I watched the show back when s3 was just released and in those days everyone subbed to the hc that they were half brothers, and there was this interview where Alvaro mentioned even more headcanons abt the bros (they shared a father, who abandoned Andrés for Sergio & his mom, then after he died Andrés appears on the scene and tells Sergio he is his brother, took care of him for medical treatment etc)... of course, 2 years later s5 seemingly retconned all that and just made them normal full(?) brothers growing up in the same household with both parents which I didn't appreciate very much lol. Anyway, just asking you that because some of my thoughts about the hermanos are influenced by my thoughts about their childhood - especially if Andrés raised Sergio as a kid, it makes everything so much more WORSE and heartbreaking cause of course he'd have grown up thinking his older brother is invincible almost, right? Interested to know what you think!!

(pt 2) Yeah all but one of my exams are done with... meh I've been pretty miserable but thank you for all your kind wishes! You're so right, if Andrés just mentioning Sergio makes us feel things, I can't even imagine what a whole scene with them together again would do!! I miss Sergio too 🥲 Once again, feel free to take your time and wait for the inspo, I actually came across an angsty quote that might fit the Scene that shall not be Named and since you love pain, I will tell you. "I wanted to fall down right there but I knew you wouldn't catch me because you're dead." - Richard Siken. Don't think about how as Andrés fell, Sergio was also falling in Helsinki's arms. (Also please don't feel like I'm forcing you to make a gifset with the quote or anything, I'm sorry if it comes across that way I just wanted to share for the #hermanos angst) I have no words for your next para but just. yes. I agree with everything you said. I will never get over the fact he literally tried to run back into the (idk how many metres long) tunnel himself despite knowing the police were on the other side and it would almost definitely lead to capture but Sergio was willing to risk all that just to get his brother to safety :( (pt 3) "When they're together, they're a big brother and a little brother" I knowww 🥺🥺 it makes me so SOFT. I'm with Andrés, how can you possibly eat breakfast when the world's most precious hermanito is not there yet? That scene when he wakes up Sergio is so sweet, Sergio looks so adorable and just the fond amusement Andrés has when he picks up the book "did you stay up late studying again" and how gentle he is when waking him up, Sergio also does not startle in the slightest, in that small moment you can see how familiar they are, how much they both love and trust each other, your honour I LOVE THEM!! Ah the Toledo house always makes me think how they spent those 5 months pretending to be strangers, I mean you can't tell me that Sergio was also not taking every excuse he can to spend more time with his brother (it's DEFINITELY to discuss important plans with the heist Captain!) but I like to imagine Sergio also took care of Andrés in secret, helping him with the meds and stuff... despite everything, Andrés did have a clock running out and they both knew it :( On another sidenote, I've been wanting to write a oneshot of the bros in Toledo since like 2020 but I never got around to it LOL so thank you once again for letting me ramble abt the heist brothers to you Oh god yes, those lyrics truly come straight for the heart and make Sergio's grief infinitely worse! Awww I'm glad you enjoy my thoughts (and I hope you haven't regretted your invitation yet) Haha, you should probably put this one under a cut too, how do these things always get so long??? Truly the hermanos live rent free in my head... but you're right it's great the Range of thoughts they give us from sheer tragedy to happy little childhood memories asdfjsk. YES IT'S THE CUTEST EVER and Alvaro plays it so well :') Comfort scene of all time to me <3 No, thank you for your patience and just being so lovely!! As always, it gives me so much serotonin to talk with you abt the heist bros ❤ Have a great day/week whenever you see this!! (also I hope you got all 3 parts, my wifi is being so weird rn 😭 I can't imagine how confusing it would be to get only 1 half or someth, anyway. pls ask me to resend if tumblr did in fact disappear an ask)

So true (that scene really leaves me on the floor suffering!!)... he knew and yet... at the very least he was convinced they were going to have time after the heist (the scene where he's giving instructions to the other band members about where they'll live etc. always gets me because he was supposed to go somewhere with Andrés...)

About the hermanos' childhood, I feel like I'm an outlier there 😅 because I learned of that headcanon later, I don't remember exactly when, for sure after watching season 3, and season 3 gave me the impression they were full brothers, because I think we get scenes where Andrés refers to their mother and to their father in a way that made me go, okay, so they share both parents. You know, the scene where he tells Sergio he's got mom's disease and the scene where he asks him where did dad go wrong when he robbed the bank... So when after that I saw that interview I didn't really embrace (? I don't know how to say that lol) the half-brothers headcanon because the show had already given me another impression. On the other hand, I immediately accepted the idea of Andrés bringing Sergio to Russia where he got the cures he needed (also because lol that's a point they never clarified in the show, right? How he ended up healing). That said, I really like the potential and implications of the half-brothers headcanon too... like, for example, as you said, Andrés basically raising Sergio. I think you can kinda work that into the full-brothers scenario as well, though maybe not quite at the same level, because if their parents already had trouble with medical expenses for Sergio when they both were there, once their mother was alone I imagine she really had to bury herself into work, which left Andrés in a position to really have to take care of Sergio... also as I mentioned I believe he was the one who found that hospital in Russia where Sergio could be cured, and found a (probably not very legal) way to take him there and so on... and at this point I like to play with both options and confront them and see like, okay, in half-brothers scenario Andrés probably resented their mother for abandoning him while in full-brothers scenario he ended up resenting her because she couldn't take proper care of them and (probably especially) because she failed to come up with a way to save Sergio's life, Andrés had to take matters into his own hands. And I think it's super interesting that he doesn't end up resenting Sergio (which I think he could have easily done in both scenarios! Like, in half-brothers scenario because he was abandoned for him, and in full-brothers scenario I have to imagine his unhealthy little brother received a lot more attentions!) One thing I think we get more intensely in the half-brothers scenario is that taking care of Sergio is really a Choice, like he really didn't have to and still!

Oh, and regardless of scenarios, I really love the idea of Andrés being the one who ultimately saved Sergio's life, it's possible that at some point doctors in their hometown were a bit resigned about him not making it but Andrés was like NO. And he did save him! I bet he's ferociously proud of that, and maybe it's another think that makes him feel especially protective of his hermanito (and makes Sergio feel like Andrés can do ANYTHING).

I see, at least you're almost done... ugh, I'm so sorry, I get it... I hope once you get rid of that last one too you'll feel a bit better... Gosh, I would probably never ever stop screaming if we get a new hermanos scene! And HOLY HELL, that quote fits the whole thing so well, I feel sick! Literally literally Sergio falling but he's not falling in his brother's arms, his brother isn't there anymore... no, absolutely, don't worry, it goes without saying that I appreciate the #hermanos angst, and suggestions about quotes that could fit them are always welcomed (I mean, as of right now I wouldn't know how to make a gifset with it but maybe by turning it over and over in my head I'll get an idea...)!! Also, I actually got inspiration for a gifset about them, finally!!! from another Richard Siken's quote, no less (he was really writing about them lmao), like I'm still not completely sure of which scenes to use, but I do have an idea, I hope it'll work :D

Oh god that's true. Oh man he really tried to run into that tunnel, no matter how crazy that was... I cry!!

It's trueee, that scene where Andrés wakes Sergio up OVERFLOWS with familiarity, it's so clear it's not the first time he had to wake his little brother up after he stayed up late to study and had to pick up some book Sergio left lying around... he's so fondly amused!! Please and now I'm smiling so much at the idea of Sergio coming up with Very Important Topics He Needs to Discuss with The Heist Captain... and I wonder how many times they were the last ones left in a room (a mere coincidence, of course!)... and yeah, I bet Sergio also played the Finding Many Small Ways To Take Care Of You game, this is making me emotional! Hehe I'm happy I gave you the chance to talk about these things, if you ever get around to write that please let me know (if you want to of course)

I definitely don't regret my invitation, when I saw your new messages I was like yessss! Oh right, at this point the ability to put things under a cut is my friend sjsjsjsk but I feel you, I can't get them out of my head!!

Don't mention it!! Talking with you about the hermanos is such a serotonine boost, and honestly I very much needed that, the last few weeks have been pretty tiring! Thank you, I hope you do too, despite that accursed exam! Please take care! (Also as you can see all three parts made it safely to my inbox, thankfully!)