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jonnnysuh · 3 years ago

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Never Not - Park Jinyoung

Pairing: idol!Jinyoung x gender neutral reader

Summary: Your bad day is turned around when your childhood best friend, Jinyoung, returns to your hometown and takes you on a tour of your favourite memories together.

Genre: angst, fluff, friends to lovers

Warnings: suggested sexual experience

Word Count: 4.3k

Requested by: Anon

A/N: Hi guysssss. I took a small break from tumblr bc I got super busy with work. I haven’t written something like this in a while, but I actually loved how it turned out. I recommend listening to Never Not by Lauv to get into the mood <33

Effort was hard to make these days. Even the way you walked had an unmistakable slouch. Your exhaustive strides were just a shallow reminder that there used to be a hop in your step. Five more minutes and you were free from the shackles of work. Free to figure out what to make for dinner, and appease the gurgles of your stomach.The seconds on the point of sale system didn't seem to move fast enough as you folded the customer's final item and shoved it into a bag.

When you were a kid, no one told you how exhausting being an adult was, and thus it became something to look forward to. You were so caught up on getting that first kiss, sneaking out to go to parties, seeing people that your parents didn't approve of, that you didn't realize that life didn't slow down from there. It was like you blinked, and you were no longer 16. Instead, you were twenty-something perpetually feeling like life was just an endless pit of "what ifs" and building up the courage to make something of yourself. Another mindless "Have a good day." escaped your lips as you bid a customer bye for the nth time that day. You wondered how many of your years would waste away telling others to have a good day, when you yourself hadn't had one in a while.

You pressed your fingers against your temple to sooth a small growing headache. Working in retail for as long as you had, you knew that the s-curved line of people didn't stop for your discomfort. With a fake smile on your face, you welcomed the next few customers as your eyes wandered around the store looking for the person who was going to take over for the next hour. Fifteen minutes past the hour, your replacement finally came. Externally, you wanted to scream and ask them what took you so long? but you knew that would only make you as good as the worst customer. Graciously, you nodded at them, before walking away to the back room to fetch your things and head out.

...

You stood against the wall at the bus shelter shivering from the cool summer breeze that was disguising just how rapidly autumn was truly coming. Today probably wasn't the best day to forget your coat. You rubbed your arms for warmth, taking micro footsteps in place. The pain in your feet made you romanticize the comfort of the sturdy old bus seats as a place of rest. You felt your phone in your pocket vibrate, but you let it ring out. You were determined to get a seat on this bus. A deep sigh escaped you as you surveyed the density of the crowd on the platform- the ride home was definitely going to be longer than usual. When the bus arrived, you queued behind a long line of people. Your phone rang a second time, at this point the crowd was getting larger and you knew you weren't going to get a seat on this bus.

PRIVATE CALLER

"Hello?" you pressed your phone to your ear. Sometimes your mother used phone booths to reach you, so you expected her voice to be on the other end of the line. "I'm offended I had to call you twice for you to pick up." The voice was much deeper, and the delivery much more lighthearted than anything that would've came out of your mother. The absence of a greeting was distinct and direct, but no matter, you knew exactly who this was.

You felt the tenseness of your shoulders drop with just the sound of this voice. "If I had definitely known it was you, I wouldn't have picked up, Mr. Private caller." you jest with the phone pressed between your ear and the crook of your shoulder.

"You know, I was gonna suggest that I pick you up, but just for that comment, I change my mind."

You poke your tongue at your cheek, coyly. For all the changes that occurred in your life, for some reason you could depend on Jinyoung's quick wit and humour to hit the spot even after all this time.

"That's fine, I just finished work so I was thinking of just going home anyways." You had no idea he was even back in South Korea. Last you heard, he was on tour somewhere in North America. More than that, you couldn't even remember when the last time you actually talked was. You were curious about what he was up to these days, but you you knew any hint of urgency in your voice would lead to incessant teasing on his part. The line progressed slightly, but you still didn't feel any closer to the entrance of the bus.

"I'm about to get on a bus home."

"Well, don't get on."

"If I don't get on then you're gonna have to repay me for the fare I paid to even get here." You eyed the bus reaching its capacity, and stepped aside. You twisted your fingers in hope that he was being 100% serious, otherwise you were going to have to wait out for the 6:30pm bus.

"I can't believe the cost of your attention is only $2. Do better." the voice quipped.

"Okay, Jinyoung I guess I'll just get on, then." you threatened, although you had no intention of boarding the departing bus.

"Fine, fine. I'll pay for your fare. Just wait for me."

...

The sky had darkened tenfold since you hung up from Jinyoung's impromptu call. The streetlights glowed gold against the lavender backdrop of the sky. You sat on the bus shelter bench, swinging your feet back and forth as you waited for him. If he took even a minute longer, you vowed to somehow become the president of the Park Jinyoung hate club. Of course, you wouldn't actually, but the idea became more appealing the longer you waited.

You weren't one to go on spontaneous outings- at least not since your teenage years. Recently, you followed the strict routine of work, home, sleep, and to stray from it seemed pointless. But the fact that he even thought of you when he came back home to South Korea was still not something you could wrap your head around.

In the distance, a glow of headlights appeared, stopping perfectly adjacent to your bus stop. The window rolled down, and there appeared Jinyoung's face in all its glory. To say all the words in your vocabulary disappeared would be an understatement. A part of you doubted he would even follow through. Without missing a beat, he returned a look to you. "You just gonna stare at me, or are you gonna get in the car?"

...

Your backpack was sitting atop your lap, bouncing with the movement of the car. Jinyoung hung one hand over the steering wheel. The orange and purple of the sky twisting, and creating a brand new colour that only seemed to grace the skies at this hour. The music was unidentifiable, but the volume was low enough that you didn't even bother trying to figure it out.

"So what'd you do today?" he asked.

"I worked, I told you that." you replied, matter-of-factly.

"And how was it?"

"I honestly can't tell the difference between this week and last week. Or even last month. Same old, same old. Annoying customers, stale lunch, forgot my jacket at home even though it's 15 fucking degrees outside."

"Do you still work at that clothing store you started at when we were 20?"

Your eyes shifted, following the ever-changing scenery of the highway. No idea where he was bringing you, and yet you were brought to comfort by Jinyoung's habits. You knew he didn't have a drug deal, or a random party planned. Jinyoung was always the type to be home before midnight. He was a self-proclaimed goody-two-shoes, but you weren't completely fooled. You knew he could bend the rules if it seemed to serve him.

"That exact same one."

"Anything else?"

You looked at him, the shock settling in that he was really right next to you-- no longer just a figure on a billboard that you used to know. The changes of his physicality were subtle; his face was more defined, but his cheeks still carried the baby fat that had been there since childhood. The shadow of his facial hair loomed on his smooth skin. The mole on the top of his lip, not necessarily gone, but faded. He looked older, but the aura of his presence remained the same.

"And then I was dumb enough to get into a car with a stranger because he said he'd give me $2."

Jinyoung side eyed you, causing you to erupt in laughter. His glare was also unchanging. "Stranger? Your memory's fading already?" He shook his head disappointedly. "I thought you still had a few good years left."

"Oh yeahhhhhh. Sorry Jinyoungie. Didn't recognize you with all the fame." you pinched and pulled on his ear- both things a relic of your grade school years. When you were kids, you never let him forget the age gap. Granted, it was only 3 days, but that gave you the freedom to refer to him however you pleased, while he was stuck with the honorifics.

As you let go, the curve of his ear flushed red. "OWW.” he cried, swatting your hand away. “You’re lucky I’m driving otherwise I would pull your hair.”

Being raised with Jinyoung meant that you were inseparable but kind of in the worst way. If Jinyoung got a good mark on a test, his parents would immediately flaunt it to yours. If you wanted to sneak out, he was on your tail telling you to go back home. And if he knew you liked someone, then that person would know soon enough by the words of Jinyoung. All of that warranted ear pulling, and if you did something in retaliation he would pull your hair.

He was one of the few people in your life, who encapsulated a certain time of your life. The time in your life when you were young, and the world felt so big and everything was possible.

The car rocked back and forth as it shifted into the elevated ramp of a parking lot. Your eyes widened as you realized where you were. He lingered in his seat before popping his seatbelt off and exiting the car. You followed him, swinging the passenger door open.

"So you randomly called me because you wanted to hang out at the...convenience store?" you gestured to the old, orangey building. The bricks were chipped, and the fluorescent lights illuminated the outside through the big glass window. You remember the days when you and Jinyoung would sit on the parking blocks and split a bag of chips until you were chased off the property by the owner. He pulled on the store door, pressing his back to it and letting you enter first.

"Well, I wasn't going to come here until you started yanking my ears. That's when I knew you were hungry."

Without stopping, you weaved through the store until you reached aisle 3- the snack aisle had become a home to you and Jinyoung when you were growing up. In grade school, you were both fearful of what was beyond the boundaries of your home and school so you indulged in after school snacks at the convenience to talk about the latest happenings in your life. As you aged, it became the place of solace after exams, or the meetup location for last minute plans.

He picked up a package of gummy worms, and shook them in your face. "Do you remember what happened the last time we ate theseeee?" Jinyoung smirked. For a moment, you were taken aback by how much he had grown. In your teens, you and Jinyoung met eye to eye. Now, you felt like you had to look up at him in order to be taken seriously.

You crossed your arms, "Yeah, we ate them in the parking lot and you made me confess who I had a crush on."

"Chan, right?"

You nodded, with a sulk as you reminisced. "That wasn't fair."

"Why? Do you still have a crush on him?"

"I haven't thought about him in so long. You really think I'd have a lingering crush on a guy I haven't seen in years?"

Jinyoung shrugged, and shifted his feet. "You had a huge crush on him, though. You even stared at him like this." He rested his palm to his cheek, letting out a deep sigh while trying to maintain an enamoured expression. You snorted, hitting him on the chest. "You'd write his name all over your notebooks AND you bullied me into giving you one of my new ones." he added.

You let out a belly laugh. "And then I wrote his name all over that one too."

Jinyoung rolled his eyes. "They were premium quality notebooks. My aunt sent me them from the states!"

"You had a kabillion of them. Besides, you pestered me for-like-ever to know who I liked, but you never even told me who you had a crush on." You grabbed the bag of gummy worms from his hand and placed it in your shopping basket. Your attention shifted, as you realized you should be in search of your favourite chocolates. You knew that you were far too old to be eating junk food for dinner, but there was something familiar about being hyped up on food that you knew would rot your insides. Your eyes landed on the top row of the wall, and before you could grab your favourite chocolates, Jinyoung stripped it from the wall and dropped it into the basket. He piled on a bag of sour cream and onion chips, and then you both ventured to the drink refrigerators.

Both of you stared deeply at your drink options. On each level of the fridge, stood several different colourful drinks. If you knew Jinyoung, then you knew he would pick a Coke- it was something he swore by in your younger years. You hummed, mentally deciding between an iced tea or a vitamin water. You weren't sure why it bothered you when Jinyoung picked up a Sprite, but you tried to hide your dismay. With an ice tea in hand, and a basket full of both of your favourite things, you made your way to the cashier.

At the last moment, Jinyoung placed a bright yellow umbrella on the checkout counter. He looked down at you, surely, “You never know when it’s gonna rain.”

...

The following car ride to your next destination only lasted about 3 minutes before he parked on the side of the road and dragged you down the street, with the plastic bag full of your foods in hand.

"I should've known you were going to bring me here." you said, strolling down the familiar gravel pathway towards your elementary school. All colour in the sky had disappeared now, finding it hard to see anything but the outline of each other and some features.

Both of you settled on the grass field, onlooking the tall school building that was the foundation of your formal years. As soon as you opened the bag of chips, you found yourselves deep in conversation, talking about what life had been for him the last few years. You couldn't help but be in awe when he explained the rush he got when he got on stage, and how he got anxiety when he thought he wasn’t doing his best. The candidacy of his thoughts drew you in and you were surprised that he trusted you with his secrets.

All these years, you had always wondered what he was up to, if he was living a life far better than the one he left at home. To everyone else, he was this huge pop star that had travelled the world 3 times over, but to you, he was your best friend who left home at 16. You had seen him through the bad hair phases, the adolescent temper tantrums, the voice cracks, and the questionable fashion choices both your parents had put you in.

He leaned back on his arms as he gazed at the school. "Are you afraid of change?" You were silent for a moment as you thought. "On a scale of 1-10?" you rocked your head back and forth. "It's a 15."

Jinyoung raised his eyebrows. You held your legs to your chest, and looked at him. "Why?"

He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it and looked smugly in the other direction. "Heyyy." you poked him repeatedly. "You can't just ask me that and not tell me why."

He enclosed his hand around your finger, forcing your poking to come to a halt. It felt like he was studying your face. Never in your life had you ever felt like you were under the scope of Jinyoung's gaze. The darkness of the sky acted as a mask, hiding your blushing face.

"It was the last thing I asked you before I left." he admitted. "I asked you that when things were about to change big time for us… I always wondered if you resented me for leaving you behind."

�� The last day before Jinyoung left to become a full-time trainee, you two snuck on to this very same field. Both of you ran across the grass, picking up dandelions; believing that if you gathered enough and blew on them, that they would fuel your wishes.

“You thought I could resent you?” He nodded. “Well, for starters, I hate your guts.” You replied sarcastically, causing him to look at the ground with embarrassment and your face softened at the sight of it.

“You know what I wished for on all of those dandelions, Jinyoung?”

“Not to fail the math exam.” Even in a soft moment, he couldn’t help but be sly. “No!” You exclaimed.

“Well, you should’ve. You got a 48.” He sensed your killer look on him. “So what’d you wish for?”

You played with your fingers. You thought you’d take this secret to the grave. “I wished that you’d be successful in whatever you chose to do.” His eyes enlarged, alarmed at your confession. “but maybe I should’ve wished for the math thing.”

Jinyoung giggled, inching closer to you so your legs were pressed against each other.

“What did you wish for?” You asked. He smiled with the side of his mouth, shaking his head.

“I wished that I’d always find my way back home.” “Oh goddd.” You gagged. “you’re so corny.”

“What about you, huh? You used your wish on me!” he bellowed, his voice echoing against the school playground.

“Hey, I might just be the reason why you’re famous.” You fought back.

You flipped your phone over, 7:53, the brightness of it only barely illuminating the dark. You thought about what you would be doing at this moment if you weren’t here, if he hadn’t picked you up. Mmm probably falling asleep to a tv show. Probably dreading tomorrow. Probably not as happy.

"But what did I say? You know… the first time you asked me that question?” You couldn’t even begin to imagine how 16-year-old you answered.

"You said you were excited to see who we were going to become.” The words of your younger self were so hopeful, yet your current self felt hopeless. Your expression sank, and Jinyoung offered a small smile to revive it. He felt guilty having asked you the question in the first place.

You sat in silence for a bit, dwelling on the excitement for life that you once had. Where was it? And how could you get it back?

“I feel like I’ve let myself down. I don’t even know who I am now.”

Jinyoung blinked slowly, watching his childhood best friend crumble. He rested a hand on your shoulder. "I just look at you, and in so many ways you're the same. I still know what makes you laugh, and the way you say things. I can still pick out your favourite snacks, and know you’re gonna pull my ears when I do something to piss you off.” he yanked on yours softly. "Everything about you feels just how I left you. I feel my youth when I'm with you. But at the same time I’m comforted by how much you’ve changed.”

“I don’t think I’ve changed much.”

“You don’t see it, do you?” You shook your head no. “Do you remember how scared you were to even leave the house when we were kids? Now you live on your own. You never took anything seriously back then, but you’re now one of the hardest working people I know…” his voice softened. “And you let yourself be vulnerable with me when it used to take hours to drag it out of you.” You laid on his shoulder, and he rested his head on top of yours, snuggling closer. “You fear change, yet you’re changing right before your own eyes. And maybe one day, I’ll come back here, and I won’t even be able to recognize who you’ve become.” You sniffled, the idea of Jinyoung not remembering you broke your heart. You held your chest. “But if that day does come, it’ll be okay. Because I know that the person that you’ve become will have it all figured out. I’ll always be rooting for every single version of yourself even if it doesn’t include me.” You sobbed quietly, interlocking your fingers with his. He held your hand tightly, rubbing his thumb against the back of your hand. For once, there was an action not done out of habit or relic. It was an action evoked just for this moment, and it was a change that you didn’t mind.

…

Jinyoung held your hand, leading you down a narrow road a few minutes away. The sound of crickets, barking dogs, and distant vehicles could be heard as you stood in the middle of the road of your childhood neighbourhood.

You hadn’t been here since you moved in 2016. You looked up at the large modern house that sat on what used to be two lots. Yours and Jinyoung’s childhood homes were purchased by a wealthy business man and demolished to build the business man’s dream home. You stared at the foreign house that sat on the place of your childhood dreams and frustrations.

Jinyoung placed his hands on your shoulders and stopped you at the exact halfway point between what was once his house and your house. You rubbed your arms as a gust of wind rushed by. Without thinking, Jinyoung slipped off his hoodie and placed it on top of your shoulders.

“I remember racing you down this street.” You piped up, pointing down the end of the road. Jinyoung always won that race. No one was faster than him on this street.

“I remember finding that stray puppy and fighting over who got to keep it.” He responded.

“It should’ve been me.” You bickered. Jinyoung laughed, amused at how you were always one to hold a grudge.

“Do you remember that day when it started raining soooo hard and we had to walk shoulder to shoulder under my umbrella?”

You nodded. “Ya, that was the same day with the gummy worms, you dummy.”

“So do you remember what happened right here?” He pointed at the exact spot you were standing. You racked your head for a memory, but nothing stood out to you clearly. You shook your head no. “We always said bye to one another here...but…?” you trailed off.

He took a step forward, both of you standing directly under the streetlight now. You watched his face light up as he likely played the moment back in his head. “So that day, standing under my umbrella, we were about to go our separate ways. You turned into me.”

He took another step closer, popping open the bright yellow convenience store umbrella and holding it over your heads.

You could see it now. It was drizzling so hard, even your hair wasn’t protected from getting soaked. You wrapped your hands around the handle, just like how you did back then. Chest to chest, huddled under the umbrella. Jinyoung locked eyes with you, your heart beat faster.

“And you looked at me, and I swear I was going to say everything I wanted to tell you right then and there.” Your mouth opened in shock. “This was the place where I almost told you I loved you.”

You studied the eyes of the boy you watched grow up. He looked scared, but sure. There was no doubt in your mind that Jinyoung meant what he said. He lowered the umbrella, not letting his gaze veer from you.

Your life was just a build up of what if’s and trying to gain the courage to make something of yourself… but you didn’t want that anymore. With your heart beating out of control, you leaned into him, taking the risk and kissing his lips. He wrapped his arms around your waist, deepening the heat of the kiss.

A round of thunder boomed above you, and little by little, raindrops began to pour from the sky.

You and Jinyoung separated to look up at the sky. “I did say, you never know when it’s gonna rain.”

You both ran for the car, shoulder to shoulder, under the umbrella. From your heads to your toes, you were soaked in the rain, but neither of you cared. You silently thanked the world for every bad thing that happened to you today that led to this.

…

You blinked your eyes awake, surveying the damp clothes strewn across your living room floor, and the heat of the bare body laying next to you on the couch. You stared at your sleepy childhood best friend, a smile spreading across your lips. This was a change you were ready for.

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redxblueihateloveyou · 4 years ago

Note

spill the yoi hot takes :o

I’m really flattered with the amount of asks (I hope you won't mind that I combined at least 5, it's just easier this way), interested in my yoi opinions, I wasn’t planning to get into that honestly, until I mentioned it to my friend Alex (I’ve mentioned him here before without a name tho, he’s gay, he’s very into anime, he was also the one behind that 4am text “but how do u think Rin’s teeth feel on Haru’s dick” lol).

I just didn't want to rewatch it, as I've said before, but something he said got me very intrigued and last week ended up with me staying until 7am for a virtual watch party that got pretty hilarious, but not for the yoi reasons lol.

So just know that to be completely fair we did it and I'm saying everything below with a very fresh impression, which hasn't changed really bc like I'm 25, I was watching it the first time when I was 21, not 14 xD. I think it got worse actually.

Once again, I know that since they’re both gay sports animes comparisons are inevitable, but to me one has nothing to do with the other and no matter the fact that I adore Free! and don’t like YOI, I don’t want to throw words like smth is “superior” out there, bc I don’t want to be like those YOI fans back in the days, who thought that none other gay ships should exist after this (unless they say smth specifically for me to counterattack, then I can say whatever lol).

Like if you love stories like this, it’s okay. Like what you like. But to yell at everybody that they must think that this is how relationships should be and trash every other gay ship in existence, you maybe should not, especially when you don’t really have much to be proud of. Just like kisses don’t make a love story high-quality, full censorship doesn’t take away a good love story.

"Heaven official’s blessing” is also censored, but no matter how much you censor it, their love for each other is seen in their actions so clear, that it is in fact will not take anything away from the power of their feelings and the greatness of their love story if at the end they won’t show them kissing. Just like if I kiss a random stranger on the street, it won’t make us the best couple in the world.

Now I went into watching YOI unbiased the 1st time I watched it (I did watch it after Free, bc it was in “recommended”). I did not expect it to be “like Free”, I just wanted smth that’ll give me the same kind of emotion, investment in the story, ship, etc. It didn’t, so I just moved on.

I didn’t even think deep about why. I thought I just grew out of the “Cinderella” stories a long time ago or as it was here not very gracefully called “how to turn the pig into the prince”.

Like if you want the “she’s all that” but with the boy instead of a girl, you’ll probably enjoy YOI. But once again, love stories I enjoy are the opposite of those. It's really nothing bad, if you enjoy the stuff like “Someday my prince will come” in whatever age tbh, but I since a certain age just wasn’t invested in those anymore and began to obsess with stories like “Anastasia” instead, and I’m talking about love stories with less naivety in between and feelings out of nowhere, but more stuff like “yes, bitch, I find you attractive, true, but whether I fall for you unconditionally or not, only real life situations will tell later on”.

And I don’t mean stuff like going through war together or some epic journey, but grown ups must know those. Those life situations or even tiny things someone do, that make you not only fall for someone, but think “yeah, I can imagine my life with you”.

Like in my humble opinion, you can’t fall in love with someone bc of the way they swim or skate, for example. What ppl call “love at first sight” is in fact “attraction at first sight”. So yes, we do joke about Rin falling in love at first sight, bc he did in fact walked into the hall, saw Haru and was like “dat bitch is so fine”, even tho he was just standing there, but once again, he was just attracted to him. What happens after this is you can go on a whole beautiful journey with tiny Rin putting together the prettiest puzzle of why he falls for Nanase Haruka. In such little things like when Haru slowed down when he saw Nagisa feeling bad during running and Rin was like “omg you’re so uwu”, how he mentions that he always helps ppl, but never asks for help himself, he slowly gradually paints a picture of what kind of person Haru is, same goes for Haru about Rin. And then you have a whole story of them falling for each other all over again when they’re already adults, and you again watch it through their eyes, and once again I’m not in fact talking about some grand gestures like 1x12, I’m talking about stuff like them focusing on Haru’s eyes shaking, when he saw that Rin secretly helps Rei to learn how to swim. It’s the little things, that you watch and you get why they feel what they feel for each other. And that also makes you fall in love more with their characters by seeing how the other sees them.

YOI doesn’t have those moments. Not only they weren’t in any situations that would make them know each other for who they really are, they hardly even know the basic info about one another. Hell, the viewer doesn’t know anything about them. And this is why to me it goes into the category of those typical romcoms I can’t get invested in.

So I don’t think these two can be compared. And while some yell “bc you’re not canon, but yoi is canon”, I think they can’t be compared for another reason. Bc some ppl are trying to prove to me that a 27 years old man fell head over heels in love with someone overnight during a drunk banquet, then watched a vid of him skating and flew to another country and hey “if you win a gold medal, lets get married”. This is not the kind of relationship progression I’m looking for like at all. Between that time he started training him and their “censored kiss” there was nothing and I mean nothing that’d made me go “yeah, I see why he loves him”.

But anyways, lets live piecefully really, you can like one, you can like both, it’s all okay.

Like I know many have ptsd and it’s true that back when YOI was popular, most of their fans for real did annoy to death almost everyone, bc they yelled that No.6 is trash, when someone said “but you’re not the only one gay story that’s not based on sex”. They yelled that Free! has no right to exist bc its queerbating (LOL). By that time, I’m not gonna lie I was ready to poke my eyes out each time I saw smth YOI related, bc it was like: you make a multigay shipping vid - “how dare u not include YOI”, you make a gifset - “you forgot YOI” like I HAD TO like it just bc it’s gay. There is no such rule to me. Just like I don’t care for some hetero romances, I don’t care for some gay romances. Simple is that. Once again gay has nothing to do with the relationships dynamic and the story.

Yeah, comments about fanservice. Like why should I watch Victor’s naked ass for several minutes every episode, but don’t get to see Haru or Rin’s at least once? So salty rn.

Free is more fanservice-y.. well, it’s hella fanservicy, yes, but like we can’t swim in shirts, you can tho not show naked ass in each episode, I thought you were skating.

See, it’s all debatable.

But I do wish ppl stop putting yoi relationships on a piedestal, their relationship are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too far from being inspirational for many and not even close to the what love is in my opinion. If you seek smth of a very high standart of gay love, choose MDZS for example, idk. But don’t throw YOI at ppls faces as a “this is how should be”. Not everyone wants that.

I don’t need a half-assed engagement and esp the censored kiss (like either do it or don’t do it at all honestly). Also stuff like this should carry weight. I don’t want things for the sake of things.

Like to me Rin’s “the only thing that hasn’t changed in my life is how I feel about you” speech, considering the fact that he felt like that throughout all those years, means hella more, than this.

I think 1stly, it’s because of the “it’s like it was a destiny xD” factor and 2ndly, bc at least this scene gives a little more sense to the fact that he flew to another country to train him. Now it’s if “I fell MADLY in love in one drunk night and was pining my whole life after that and that vid was a sign for me to go see you again” makes any sense to you. At least that’s how some fans read it.

Once again it might be a good thing for a passable one-time romantic comedy. But plots and pairings like this is what made me turn to anime in the first place, so.. sorry lol.

All this mega tragic posts of “Victor was soooo in love for such long time, it’s so sad” made me laugh so hard. Like he feel in love so hard during a one drunk banquet with a guy who was so drunk he didn’t remember anything he did? WHY? HOW? what could he possibly do to make him fall that hard, no one knows. Like to me the only reason u can fall for someone in one night is if you saw him risking his life saving a kitten or a puppy from a car or smth.

I’m just not the kind of person who thinks you can fall for someone for no reasons. Again, you can find someone attractive and go from there, but there must be things along the way that will make me believe in the progression of it. It can of course all come in the future, but the story was what the story was. Whatever you are trying to add to it is already a fanfiction.

YOI is not boring per se, bc everything goes way too fast and sometimes with no reasoning, so I was more surprised that “this was it?” lmao. But their relationships are dull, yes. Bc there is nothing to even discuss really, you can only assume things, bc the whole thing didn’t give u much, esp in the characters department. It’s just really funny to me that someone would write a whole post of “I love this character bc I presume he’s like that”, usually it’s “I love this character bc facts, facts, facts”.

______

Now back to the beginning of my post and to the funny story that happened. We were randomly discussing shit, when I mentioned about possibly rewatching YOI, bc I didn’t want to start talking about smth in case I forgot some stuff (I didn’t btw lol) and turned out that he freaking disliked it a lot. I never even asked, for some reason, and we’ve been yelling about Free! and other stuff for ages and like his boyfriend is in love with Sousuke and they both adore rinharu to death.

And he has lots of gay friends who love Free (this made me happy the most, btw during our YOI chat I asked and it was 4:1 harurin:rinharu haha I win) and some ships from Haikyuu too, but turns out that literally none of them were into YOI. And the funniest thing he said was “bc it felt more heterosexual than some heterosexual stories I’ve watched”. Now I don’t know if it would make sense to anyone else out there, but I kinda did get what he meant.

I asked if it was bc of the “fairytale setting” and the fact that no one cared that they’re gay (bc “in front of the stadium?!” was the reaction, when I told them “there was a cencored kiss here” (btw not everyone got it lolz) and then “did they just write the story with a girl, but then changed it by the end?”), but they said “no, just the overall feeling”.

And like everyone knows that YOI targeted audience is hetero girls. It wasn’t made for the sake of the LGBT community and none of the homophobic ppl will watch it either, no matter what some think. So for whom they did it the way they did it is very questionable tbh. They say it’s the LGBT representation in anime, and yes, good, great, always happy about, but isn’t it kinda funny that some of LGBT representatives don’t even feel like it apparently.

Now I’m just saying some, I’ve asked him to ask around out of curiousity, and it was only 11 gay guys in total, who watched it, including our company and his bf who was forced into it haha, but 11 is quite a lot, considering the fact that not even 1 liked it. But then somehow stuff like MDZS and even uncanonical mikayuu was highly appreciated and loved, bc it accidentally made a dent in some extra conservative parents and dull ppl.

It’s just much more interesting to hear what guys who are actually dating guys think about all those kind of animes and ships, than some girls here who yell at me stuff like “why are you supporting queerbating”. Btw I asked Alex if he’s offended by that, he said “no, but we for real think they’re doing it” lmao.

It is supposed to be funny. You didn’t get it wrong. But if you saw many ppl would aggressively disagree with you. I just thought that “analysis” was an “interpretive process that draws conclusions from a set of facts”, not “writing a fanfiction based on assumptions”, but then again to each their own.

The problem is that I don’t even get what’s cute about it, it’s just absurd to me. Like it’s pulled out of an ass, for real. They’re not in the stage of a relationships, when I would find such thing romantic. And all the agressive denying of the fact that it was indeed wedding rings made this scene cringy, too. The whole thing is cringy to me idk. The “win the gold, only then we’ll get married”.... It all gave me a weird feeling. The opposite of “touching”.

So in conclusion, when you skip most of the important parts of the love story and jump into stuff just for the sake of it, then also make fun of it, it leaves a hella weird impression and aparently not just to me.

And once again trying to market some primitive story as an epic love story, just bc it’s gay is extremely weird to me. If you make 50 shades of grey gay, it’s not gonna suddenly become a pulitzer prize winning kind of book, it’ll stay the same dumb af story with dumb af characters, but gay.

So being happy about some representation (and btw they still managed to add stuff like “its not gay if you exchange rings with your hommies” here and there and make it “hahahaha joking”), I get it, but to say that this what all the gay ships should aim for, pls stop. We really don’t wanna. Sincerelly.

We here stick to a motto “I can picture the kiss of the characters whose story is so amazing, that the kiss is the only thing missing, but if I basically have just a picture of two guys kissing, I won’t write a whole story myself.”

P.S. I will forever laugh now tho at the fact that calling your bf a “pig” and being an arogant asshole without any canonically established reasonings is a great relationships, but Adam with his past gets what he gets now for the “dog” comments even tho his bf enjoys it lmao like I did not remember this bits in YOI. I honestly thought it was like completely “unproblematic” one, but it’s like hilariously not. So what ppl are trying to even put out their as a “pinnacle of the lgbt representation” as you say, like there are for real older yaois that are much better than this.

#answered #anonymous #anime

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hxseok-honee · 6 years ago

Text

i found | part 29

a/n: o h b o y here we go- the BIG BOI CHAPTER! i’ve had the idea for this chapter since basically the beginning of the au, and after a long time planning and an even longer time writing and editing, she’s complete. a huge fucking thank you to my bby girl @deepseavibez (ALSO IT’S HER BIRTHDAY OMG MY BBY)- she’s the first to read any of my drafts and also be very honest and real with me about them, and im incredibly appreciative of her. she told me she needed at least 24 hours before she was allowed to speak to me again after she read this chapter bc she was just gonna end up yelling at me, which i love about her. i hope you enjoy it!! lmk what you think uwu~ [also i first had the idea for this chapter after listening to Violence by Tender! not on the playlist but a v good listen for this chapter if you’re into that]

previous | next

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It’s been four weeks. Four weeks of whispering and pointing. Four weeks of uncertainty and confusion. Four weeks of being avoided by the one person in this school who had always sought him out first. He knows something is wrong- he knows it’s his fault. She told him that she doesn’t regret what happened between them, but everything she’s been doing is telling him that she does. Avoiding his gaze, being vague in her texts, barely speaking to him in class- it’s obvious that she lied to him when she told him everything was fine between them. It’s so obvious that he can’t tell what hurts more: the fact that she lied or the fact that she’s not even trying to hide it.

Yoongi’s barely been able to get out of bed in the morning these days, let alone sit through all his classes and see Y/n every day. He’s gotten so used to her warm presence that he’s almost unable to revert to his old self with her. He’s forgotten what it feels like to ignore her and only acknowledge her when he has to, and it kills him inside to know that she’s doing it without even hesitating.

And yet, he finds himself showing up to their shared classes every day hoping that maybe she’ll come around. Today is no different. Although she was acting the same in potions, he’s still holding onto the hope that she’ll have even the smallest of smiles on her face when she walks into transfiguration. So as he sits there, trying to prepare himself for what’s likely to be another failure, he finds himself wondering yet again what he could have done differently - wondering how things could have ended up like this. He’s so lost in his head that he almost doesn’t hear her reach her seat, the sound of her bag hitting the desk interrupting his internal despair.

Taking a quick glance at her and confirming that she’s, yet again, not going to acknowledge him, he sighs slightly and opens his textbook, wishing for what feels like the millionth time that things will get better soon. He mumbles a quiet greeting in her direction and waits until she’s hummed in response to start flipping his textbook open. He can hear people whispering behind them, and when he looks over his shoulder he finds that most of the people in the room are looking at him and Y/n. Even a month later, they’re the most popular topic of conversation.

Before long, McGonagall enters the room and silences the class, beginning her lesson for the day. They make it about halfway through the class before she gives them partner work, at which point Yoongi is groaning internally. Y/n’s managed to get through every set of partner work they’ve had without initiating any form of communication, only speaking when Yoongi directly asks her for help. Even now, she’s started working on the assignment without him, leaving him to stare glumly down at his textbook.

He finishes about half of the work before he gets to a question he can’t answer no matter how hard he searches through the chapter, so finally he swallows his pride and pokes her arm, frowning deeply when she flinches away from him. She doesn’t even look at him when she speaks, still staring down at her own textbook.

“What’s up?” Yoongi’s heart skips a beat at the sound of her voice, and he hates himself for it in that moment. Clearing his throat, he taps a finger on his textbook.

“I don’t understand number 12. Can you just show me where it’s explained in the book?” Keeping his eyes on the pages as she reaches over to flip through his book, he’s on the verge of sighing again when something catches his attention. There, peeking out just a tiny bit from under the sleeve of her sweater, is a mark. It’s almost impossible for him to see, but as she’s flipping pages her sleeve rises marginally, exposing her wrist to him. And the more he looks, the more he realizes it’s not just a mark- it’s a bruise.

His blood runs ice cold in his body as something else registers in his mind- he hadn’t just asked her about their relationship that day.

‘is anyone bothering you? there’s no one trying to mess with you, is there?’

Yoongi’s breath catches in his throat as he remembers their conversation. He had assumed she’d lied to him about regretting the night in the common room, but it was entirely possible she’d lied about something else. Dragging his eyes in her direction as if in slow motion, he takes in her appearance as she focuses on finding the passage in his book. He hasn’t looked at her properly in a long time, too busy trying to close himself off to her again, but now he does. What he sees has his fists clenching tightly in his lap, everything becoming so clear now.

Her skin is pale and her eyes are sunken in like she hasn’t slept in days. He can see a cut on the corner of her lip, still red as if it had happened that very day. It’s obvious she tried to cover it up before class, but the makeup is messy, as if applied with a shaky hand. Pulling his gaze down, he has to stop himself from reacting when he sees evidence of more bruising just under the collar of her shirt. As Yoongi stares at her, he wonders just what else she could be trying to hide under those long sleeves and that high collar, and his blood boils at the realization that she had probably flinched away from his touch earlier for a different reason than he had thought. His imagination is running so violently wild now that he can’t stop himself from calling out to her.

“You lied to me.” She freezes in her task, gaze finally lifting to meet his after so long. When she sees the anger swimming in his eyes, she swallows hard. Looking around and realizing that the same nosy people are still watching them as subtly as they can manage, she tries to deflect the conversation. Now isn’t the time to talk about this.

“Yoongi, let’s talk about this later, please-” Her words only incite his anger further, and she has to stop herself from jumping when he slams his hand down on the table, catching everyone’s attention.

“You told me everything was fine!” His voice cracks on the last word, his desperation finally showing as McGonagall starts to make her way over to them. Attempting to ease the situation, Y/n reaches out to grab Yoongi’s shoulder, but he backs away from her touch, choosing instead to reach out with his own hand and take hold of her wrist. Ignoring her protests, he grips her sleeve and pulls it up, exposing her arm to him.

He feels like his breath has left him entirely when he sees her skin, every inch of it covered in dark bruises. Handprints left by several people, scratches and cuts littering the surface of her arm from her wrist to her elbow- everything he had hoped was just his imagination is there, right in front of him. He barely has time to lock eyes with her, hers filled with frustration and his overflowing with disbelief, before she’s yanking her arm out of his grasp, standing out of her chair and successfully knocking it over in the process. He follows her lead, yelling after her as she turns on her heel and rushes for the door, ignoring McGonagall’s request for him to calm down.

“You can’t just keep ignoring me, Y/n!” Not even sparing McGonagall a second glance, he follows after Y/n, fighting the urge to yell at everyone as they start talking loudly now. McGonagall’s call follows him out into the corridor, but by that point he’s already locked onto Y/n’s retreating frame and he knows he won’t let this moment pass.

Catching up to her quickly, he reaches out and takes hold of her arm, almost giving in to the guilt that courses through him when she flinches at the pressure on her skin. Dragging her down the corridor and into an empty classroom, he releases her arm, the guilt so strong now it’s as if he were the one that had put those bruises on her body. Slamming the door shut behind him, he looks at her through eyes filled with pain, frustration, and - most notably - intense anger.

“Why did you lie to me, Y/n?” She’s turned away from him, and it’s so isolating that he just keeps talking, saying anything he can to get her to react to him. “Why didn’t you tell me that any of this was happening? You’ve never lied to me before, Y/n, so why now? Do you blame me for this?” It’s those words that trigger a response from her, so charged with emotion that Yoongi almost takes a step back when she turns to face him.

“Blame you? Yoongi, how could you think that I blame you for this?” She sighs angrily, running a hand through her hair, and Yoongi’s heart lurches when the bottom of her sweater rises just slightly and he sees more damaged skin there. He can feel the corners of his eyes prickling at the sight, the thought of what she’d been through running through his mind as he wonders where he’d been when this was all happening. Swallowing hard and blinking rapidly, he listens as she continues her rant.

“Yoongi, of course I don’t blame you for this. You didn’t cause this. I just didn’t want you to find out - is there something so wrong with that? Is there something wrong with me not wanting you to start even more fights? I’m fine, Yoongi-” All the self-control he had left in his body leaves him as he explodes.

“You’re not fine, Y/n! And it is my fault! I know that, you know that, everyone in this whole fucking school knows that! But you keep pushing me away- you won’t let me protect you! And for what? You want to stop me from starting fights, but I’ve just spent the last four weeks in a constant fight with myself, wondering what I did so wrong that you would push me away this much!” He’s breathing hard, so hard that he thinks he might actually pass out if he doesn’t calm down soon. But he can’t stop himself now- he needs to know everything now. She doesn’t step away from him as he approaches her, and he notes in the back of his mind that at least he isn’t scaring her. She’s a lot more resistant to his temper than anyone else he’s ever dealt with. Running his hands down the length of her arms as softly as he can, he keeps his hold on her as he addresses her, his voice low.

“Tell me who it was.” Her nostrils flare at his demand, and he knows he’s pushing her limits, but he has to know.

“No, Yoongi. I don’t want you fighting anyone-”

“Y/n, please-”

“I said no, Yoongi. I’m fine.” There’s something about hearing those two little words again, so obviously a lie. He’s so tired of hearing her push him away. Everything about the last month has put him on the edge of breaking down, and to have her do to him the very thing she always told him to never do - to have her push him aside like she couldn’t depend on him, like everything they’d been through had been for nothing - it pushes him over the edge.

He knows she feels it when her expression falls blank, her eyes staring up at him as if asking if he’s really about to go through with this. Still, he has to know what’s been done to her-

he knows he’s officially lost his mind and probably all of her trust, but he can’t let this go unhandled. So he pushes further, keeping a firm hold on her as his eyes stay locked on hers. And finally - at the reaction she gives, pushing against his grip almost violently - he knows he’s found it.

“Yoongi, don’t you dare-” He closes his eyes at her words, shutting her out as he locks onto the memory in the recesses of her mind. Fighting the urge to cry, he whispers out to her, broken and desperate.

“I’m sorry, Y/n.”

There’s too many. Too many instances when he should have been there and wasn’t. The first shove, the first grab, the first taunt. The Ravenclaw boy that pushed her aside as he passed her in the corridor. The group of Gryffindor girls that cornered her in the bathroom and clawed at her until all that was left was bloody skin and a crying girl. The Slytherins that hexed her in the courtyard, pulling her feet from under her and forcing her to float upside down in the air, exposing her underwear in front of a dozen people.

Every time, there was another there to save her. Despite her curses and attempts to stay strong, there was always another there to pick her up and hide her away. The Gryffindor hothead, the pair of Ravenclaws, her favorite Hufflepuffs. Her boys, always finding her before Yoongi ever could. Always there, wreaking havoc on those that dare to hurt their friend. At least she had them. But there, amongst all the moments, is a more recent one that floats in the forefront of her thoughts, almost overpowering in nature.

She’s walking down the corridor toward the library, quickly and almost fearfully as she checks over her shoulder constantly. She’s so busy glancing behind her that she misses what’s in front of her. Looking ahead of her and realizing too late that she’s being approached by two Slytherins, she swears under her breath and turns back, trying to get away. When she turns back, however, she sees two more Slytherins rounding the corner and heading right for her. Looking back and forth, she realizes she’d be alone in this even if there were 50 other people in the corridor with them - she can’t get out of this.

Before she can react, one of the Slytherins - the only girl - takes hold of the back of her head and yanks back sharply, eliciting the scream of pain she was looking for. Throwing Y/n against the wall, the other three hover over her as their smaller friend swings endlessly, connecting with Y/n’s body over and over again. But when Y/n manages to fight back, landing a particularly nasty hit on the girl’s nose, the three boys jump into action.

One of them raises his hand and brings it down across her face harshly as another pins her to the wall and starts sending hit after hit into her torso. Y/n feels something crack in her body, and she screams so loud that she thinks maybe a teacher will hear her, but the third boy is grabbing her by the back of the neck and throwing her forward, shoving her to the ground with much more force than needed. At this point, even a small poke would send her into a fetal position on the ground, but it’s not like they care. The girl grabs the back of her head again, forcing to look up at them.

“It’s not so easy now when this Prince isn’t here to protect you, is it?” Y/n’s breath comes out as a wheeze, prompting one of the boys to send another punch to the same spot on her ribs that she’s fairly certain has already snapped in half. She screams again, and, on the edge of unconsciousness, she hears someone who sounds oddly like Namjoon running down the corridor, yelling her name. Before slipping over the edge and blacking out, the girl whispers in her ear again, her words echoing throughout the memory violently.

“You should have been more careful.”

Pulling out of her mind, the first thing Yoongi notices is the overpowering guilt that’s filling him, almost as if all the emotion he once had is now draining out of his body and leaving him to deal with the consequences. Recognizing just how bad of a person he’s become in the last ten minutes, the second thing he notices is the feeling of hands on his chest, slamming down repeatedly as they push him away. Looking down and finding himself staring into Y/n’s eyes, his brain registers faintly that this is the first time she’s ever expressed herself violently- the first time she’s ever put her hands on someone. But he can’t bring himself to be upset by the fact that she’s hitting him over and over again; he’s too busy recognizing himself in the reflection in her eyes - eyes overflowing with tears, eyes that have never looked at him like he was an enemy until this very moment.

Allowing her to push him back, allowing her to keep pushing until he’s backed up completely against a wall, he lets her cry and push at his chest without even thinking of stopping her. He deserves this, he knows he does. He’s done the one thing she’s asked him to never do, so long ago when they weren’t even friends yet. He knows that, and he knows there’s nothing he can do to stop this. He’ll just stand here and accept the pain that follows because he knows he deserves it. She’s been chanting something through her tears this whole time, the words finally registering properly in his ears.

“I hate you- I hate you- I hate you-” Each one comes with another blow to his chest, her forehead finally coming to rest on his shoulder as she sobs, her fists weakening against his form as she tires herself out. Once he knows she’s done, he brings his arms up slowly, desperate to hold her but terrified that she wants nothing to do with him anymore. Wrapping her in his hold, he chokes back a sob of his own when she clings to him and brings him close to her. Keeping her in his arms, he slides his back down the wall until they’re sitting together on the floor, his arms around her as she sits between his legs.

Leaning his head on her shoulder, he whispers apologies to her repeatedly, repenting for what he’s done. He buries his face in the crook of her neck as the tears that have been hovering at the corners of his eyes finally fall, the dam breaking as he begs her to forgive him. They sit there together, crying as they both understand what’s happened to them the last four weeks- crying as they realize how much they need each other, how impossible it’s become for them to push the other away after all this time.

Once they’re both done crying, Yoongi lifts his head and looks down at her through red-rimmed eyes, brushing her hair out of her face and wiping the tears from her eyes as she does the same for him. He’s still whispering apologies to her, and she’s just nodding along, having already forgiven him without even realizing it. But he’s not done apologizing, and he’s not sure he ever will be.

“You can keep hating me if you want. I deserve it. I know I do.” He says it through a raspy voice, having abandoned any form of embarrassment left in his body. He just needs her to know how he feels, even if it’s the last time she talks to him. He has no idea that she’s just watching him now, running her fingers softly across his cheeks as tears continue to slip from his eyes.

Leaning into her touch, he doesn’t notice how close he’s getting until his forehead is pressed against hers and their noses are brushing. His breath gets caught in his throat, a feeling he’s well-accustomed to by now, but this time he welcomes it. He won’t let her get away from him this time. He won’t let her go another day not knowing how he feels.

So when he tucks a hand behind her neck this time, he knows there’s nothing left for him to do. Leaning in closer and pausing to give her time to push him away, he waits until he feels her grip on the front of his shirt tighten before he’s pressing his lips to hers.

The feeling that spreads through his chest is so sudden and violent that he feels like he might need to pull away, but he knows he wouldn’t be able to do it even if he wanted to. All he can do is press his mouth even closer to hers, hugging her to him while she runs her fingers through the hair at the base of his neck. He knows he hasn’t been able to really tell her how he feels about her, so he pours everything into the kiss, refusing to break it even when his lungs start yelling at him. She’s the first to pull away, finally overpowered by the need to breathe, but even then it’s only for a second before she’s leaning into him again, as desperate as he is to show him everything she feels for him.

Eventually they break the kiss, breathing heavily as they stare at each other, both uncertain as to what happens next. They sit there for a few minutes, just taking each other in. Yoongi runs his fingers through Y/n’s hair and she plays with the hem of his shirt. He leans into her and presses his lips to hers once more before pulling away and moving his mouth to her ear, whispering softly to her as her face warms, her hands running up the length of his arms and clinging to his shoulders and he holds her close.

“You’re mine now, Y/n - so get ready to deal with me forever, because I’m never letting you go.”

#bts texts #bts au #bts smau #bts social media au #bts hogwarts au #min yoongi #yoongi x reader #yoongi texts

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jungshookz · 6 years ago

Note

can you do a college ta!jimin where y/n is failing her class but she’s too scared to go to jimin for help even though he’s her ta bc every time she sees him in lecture she makes a fool of herself and is embarrassed bc jimin is also v hot

→ pairing: park jimin x reader

→ genre: university!au, ta!jimin, neRVOUS!y/n, tae and kook are the dream team from hell, joon is a try-hard but we still luv him

→ wordcount: 2.5k

→ note: ok i was going to write this tomorrow but i couldn’t wait because i need ta!jimin in my life right now immediately so i’m soRRY if it’s short but IT WAS SUCH A CUTE IDEA and i needed to get it ouT into the world also fun fact: a girl that i met during my first month at uni told me all about how she fucked her friend’s psychology TA to help her friend get an A in the class and i need me a friend like that

(gif isn’t mine!)

quick question

why the FUCK did you think this astronomy course was going to be easy peasy

it was supposed to be your grade booster!!!!!

all you learn about are the STARS in the sky

they’re just flaming balls of gaS and you somehow are unable to grasp that concept for some reason

“how’d you do???” namjoon plops down in the seat next to you before looking at his own test and flicking through the sheets

you blink down at the test in your hands

49% written in an angry shade of red

you technically failed even though you were 1% away from getting a passing mark

this was the last chance to boost your mark before the final exam and you totally just bombed it

there are three midterms that you have to take in this course

which meant you had three chances to study hard and do well

you got 59% on the first one

63% on the second one

and this one?

49%

you droPPED not 1% not 2% but a FAT 14%

o boy

you have a feeling you’re not going to do too well on the final exam considering the journey so far

“i, uh, i did okay.” you shrug and stuff your test into your backpack quickly “how’d you do?”

“eh, i did okay too. 86% is fine, i guess.” namjoon murmurs and circles one of the questions on the test “i didn’t study as much for this one so that explains why i did more poorly compared to the first and second one.”

you peek over at namjoon’s test and let out a sigh when you notice his has a significantly less number of red cross marks

you love namjoon but you’re ready to smack the back of his head because you would be ecsTATIC if you got 86% on a midterm you barely studied for

“i’m probably going to go talk to jimin during office hours and ask for some help with the questions i got wrong. you wanna come with-“

“nO” you immediately curl into yourself and wince when namjoon mentions jimin

jimin

park jimin, if we’re being more specific here

he’s the TA for this class and let’s just say,..,,..,,. there’s a reason why the class filled up so quickly at the beginning of the year

he is drop-dead gorgeous

like unbelievably gorgeous

like sculpted from the gods themseLVEs gorgeous

soft, perfectly tousled raven locks

pretty brown eyes

the cutest button nose

and his lips

his pillowy lips that curl around certain words so perfectly and you’re always mesmerised when he takes over a lecture because he does this thing where his tongue will poke out and swipe over his bottom lip in the middle of his rant and you will never admit to anYone that you’ve fantasised about what it’d be like giving him plump bottom lip a lil kith once or twice or thrice

he has a couple ear piercings and you never thought you’d be attracted to that but oH boy you definitely are

not to mention he’s like???? so fashionable???????

most of the time he wears like a button-up tucked into a pair of slacks just to keep things professional or whatever but SOMETIMES he walks in in like a pair of ripped skinny jeans and a loose white tee and a denim jacket or something and that just gets your gears gOING

one time you caught a glimpse of his bicep flexing as he ran his hand through his hair and you literally couldn’t focus on anything for the rest of the class

(today he’s wearing a white button up tucked into a pair of ripped blue jeans and he has his thick black glasses sitting perfectly on his nose)

and!!!!! on top of that he’s the sweetest human being in the entire world

everything about him is just so utterly, frustratingly perfect

he gigGles very often and overtime he does that you’re pretty sure an angel is born in the heavens above

and he’s always super helpful with everyone

even though it’s pretty obvious some of the people in here approach him with the dumbest questions because they just want an excuse to talk to him he will anSwer those dumb questions and help them to the best of his abilities

you haven’t really had a conversation with him before just because this is a class with 200 people and you obviously aren’t going to elbow your way through the crowd just to stand there with nothing to ask him

the only question you can imagine yourself asking is “…..wat is a star” and u don’t want him thinking you’re a big ol dummy

however

the times that you havE interacted with him or the times that prove to you that he does indeed know that you exist have been awful to say the least

absolute humiliating

you don’t know why but every time you make a fool of yourself it’s in this class and it’s riGHt in front of jimin

when you were doing your presentation with a couple other classmates you kept stuttering over your words because jimin was in the front row just staring at you and you could feel your face growing redder than a tomato

you kept stumbling and missing important parts in the presentation so your teammates had to step up and help you a little and afterwards you apologised proFuSely and treated them all to a drink from starbucks

another time namjoon asked if you could go down to the front and grab his paper for him and as you were walking down the steps of the lecture theatre you missed a step and fell riGHT in front of jimin

so, in conclusion: jimin probably thinks you have a speech impediment aND you’re clumsy as hell

you’re just glad that there are only like 2 weeks of class left because that means you’ll finally be able to get away from jimin

it’s not like you want to get away from him

it’s just that

you can.,,.,. u can feel yourself starting to develop a tiny crush on him (spoiler alert you already have a fat ass crush on him you stubborn walnut) and that ain’t good because then you’ll be all sad and mopey because you know for a faCt park jimin is way WAY out of your league and there’s nothing you can do about it

“y/n.”

but you know what you should at least try and say something to him before the year ends because if you don’t you’ll probably regret it

“y/n.”

oR you could make an anonymous page on that ‘university crushes’ page (there are already severAL park jimin posts on that Facebook page so you’re sure your contribution won’t make a difference)

“y/n!!!!!!!” you jump when you feel someone grab your shoulder and you snap out of it immediately “what’s gotten into you?? i said your name like a trillion times!” jungkook furrows his brows

“what? what?” you look around frantically and-

what the heck

when did you get to the dining hall

“i said her name a trillion times on the way here and she didn’t reply to me either.” namjoon snorts as he picks up an apple from the fruit basket “she’s probably daydreaming about jimin again” he teases and you resist the urge to roll your eyes when you see slow smirks begin to appear on everyone’s faces

oh god

here it comes

“ooOooooOOOHH-“ jungook and taehyung begin teasing you and you whack their hands away when they reach up to pinch at your cheeks “our y/n has a little crush on park jimin!!!!!!!”

“i don’T have a crush on anyone!” you scowl and grab a carton of apple juice for yourself “cut it out, you freaks”

“aw, don’t be like that! it’s okay! he’s a very pretty person.” taehyung nods and grabs the juice box from your hand

“get your own juice box.” you snatch it back from tae’s hands before whipping around and heading towards the table where they put all the muffins and donuts (you’ve been craving something sweeT)

as you walk towards the table you turn your head so that you’re able to send a glaRE at your friends “i’m terminating this conversation because i do not want to talk about my crush on park jim- oH-!” suddenly you’re stumbling riGHt into someone and you feel hands grip at your waist to keep you steady while your own hands instinctively reach out to balance yourself

you turn your head back quickly ready to profusely apologise to this person for your clumsiness and that’s when you realise you just stumbled riGHT into-

p a r k j i m i n

/…..FUCK

christ

jesus CHRIST

see

it happened again!!!!!!!!

whenever you do something humiliating jimin is riGHT there

“careful there!” he laughs lightly and you retract your hands from his pecs (ᵒʰ ᵐʸ ᵍᵒᵈ) immediately “you good?”

“great. i’m good!” you squeak out and feel your cheeks starting to warm “i- uh, are you okay? i’m so sorry, i wasn’t watching where i was going-“

“don’t worry about me, i’ll survive.” he jokes and your eyes immediately dart away because of your inability to hold eye contact for more than like fiVE seCONDS

“okay, cool, um, that’s good. ……anyways i’m just gonna pay for my juice box-“

“y/n, right?”

you immediately look back up at him

o god

he knows your name

okay okAY okay calm down just act cool you’re super cool you’re a cool gal!!!!!!!

[high pitchy voice] ʸᵒᵘ’ʳᵉ ᶠᶦⁿᵉᵎ

“yes. that’s me. i am her. i am y/n.” okay there we go we finally got there “you’re… jimin.” oOFhkj

u know what just shut up don’t say anything

“you’re the one who wrote about astronomy and its relationship with astrology, right?”

huh

oH righhhhhht that paper you had to write for astronomy

while you’re not good at exam-type things you’re pretty good when it comes to papers because it’s just you ranting about something but make it ~professional~ aNd also cite ur sources

“yes! that was me!!” you perk up because that paper was the onLy thing you were confident handing in in the class lol “i actually changed my topic last minute but i’m glad i did because i had a loT to say about the subject - b-but you probably already know that because you’re the one who graded it, hah-“ you reach up and scratch the back of your neck awkwardly

you catch a glimpse of the boys over jimin’s shoulder

they already paid for their food and they’re sitting at your guys’ usual table and while namjoon is shooting you a thumbs up and a dimpley smile both tae and kook are being iDIOTS

kook has his fingers curled like an ‘o’ while tae is sticking his finger through the hole and they’re botH wiggling their brows at you and you feel your cheeks warm even moRE

that’s so embarrassing

why are boys like that

whY are you friends with boys like that

namjoon scowls and whacks their hands down before pointing to their food and you can practically hear namjoon telling them to cut it out and just eAT you dumbasses

“i thought it was really well-written and very well executed. i enjoyed reading it, actually. i enjoyed it so much i read it twice!” jimin laughs and you feel your heart skip a beat when you hear his cute giggle “how did you do on the latest midterm?”

you’re not… particularly sure why jimin is stiLL talking to you

it’s not like you’re complaning or anything

you’re just confused

..,.,.,is he just being friendly because TA evaluations come out soon

“i did, um… let’s just say i could’ve done a loT better.” you clear your throat

you’re not about to remind him of your grades because u really reaLLy don’t want him to think you’re a moron

“oh! i’m sorry to hear that…” he frowns and his shoulders droop slightly before he perks up again “i’d be happy to talk to you and help you out! i’m free at 5:30 this afternoon.”

“5:30 works for me! but don’t office hours end at 4?” you furrow your brows in confusion and your bottom lip pokes out a little in the tiniest of pouts and jimin uwus internally

“yeah, and?” he still has his bright smile on his face and you are just conFUSEd “i’ll help you out and maybe we can grab a bite to eat afterwards.”

wait what

wait hWAT

“are- are you sure? i don’t want to inconvenience you or anything-“

“don’t be silly, you could never. here, i’ll give you my number.” jimin plucks the pen out from behind his ear and grabs your hand and you feel your heart rate SPIKE almost immediately

you instinctively giggle when the pen starts gliding against your skin and jimin peeks up at you with a smirk “ticklish?”

you take your bottom lip in between your teeth and keep your eyes on your hand “a lil”

jimin clicks the pen and tucks it back behind his ear and you look at the digits that have been scrawled on your hand “alright, i have some more midterms to grade so i’m going to disappear but i’ll see you later?”

“yes, that sounds good” you swallow thickly because you’re still registering the fact that park jimin just,,, gave you his number

“see ya!” jimin waves at you as he starts to walk away and u literally almost scream when his right eye drops in a wink

you wave back at him shyly and press your lips together

what is going on

is this a fever dream

are you in a simulation maybe

and then you’re standing there just wondering.,..,,. what was THAT and also are u going on a….. date later

nO no no

don’t over think it

he’s just being nice

he’s a nice guy

jimin lets out a breath once he leaves the dining hall and he has to stop to let his heart calm down a little

god damN

that number thing was a bold move but he’s so glad you didn’t reject him or anything

hopefully you show up this afternoon otherwise that’d kinda suCK

he can’t believe it took him nearly two whole semesters to finally grow some balls and say something to u lol

better late than never!!

help me help you make your wishes come tru (aka send me a request)

masterlist

#requested drabbles #jimin fics #jimin fic recs #jimin smut #jimin smut recs #jimin fluff #jimin fluff recs #park jimin #bts jimin #jimin bts #jimin cute #bts #bts fics #bts fic recs #bts smut recs #bts smut #bts fluff #bts fluff recs

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ghost-town-story · 5 years ago

Text

... The more I sit here and am allowed to think, the more pissed off and upset I get

Rant blog status reinstated!

So firstly, I’m not happy about getting kicked off campus. But social distancing shit, whatever I guess, whatcha gonna do.

But no. My fucking mother takes the goddamned fucking cake rn.

We got the email about being kicked off around 4 pm eastern time, Monday. My mother. This fucking woman. Calls me and insists I pack my stuff and get off campus by Tuesday morning. Packing is normally at least a few days ordeal, especially since I hate packing and it always stresses me out a bunch. But done in little spurts, okay I guess, more doable.

But noooo I have to get out by Tuesday. Fucking. Morning. And this woman actually has the gall, the fucking gall to halfheartedly suggest I start out Monday evening since I’ve gone nocturnal.

I tried to tell her there’s no fucking way, but she wouldn’t fucking listen. So she hangs up, and I go down the hall bc I desperately need a hug by this point, and she’s a sweetheart but the only roommate available is a gangly skinny girl and not the type of hugs I need. (really, boyfriend would be ideal, but at the time he was in Colorado visiting his sister). And I end up breaking down on huggin friend’s couch bc I hate packing, and I don’t feel like I can pack up a year’s worth of shit in about 12 hours.

Mom eventually calls me again, mostly just to tell me “yeah you need to pack up and get back tonight, your roommate can grab the 1-2 bins remaining.” And she refuses to listen to me saying “hey, it’s a solid 2 loads in my car, it’s not gonna be 1-2 bins” “But it fit all in your first car!” “My first car was a fuckin beast, literally the largest car in the lot freshman year. Fred is definitely shorter, definitely less trunk space, etc.” “Well Y can get the last few bins.” “It’s a lot of stuff!” “It won’t be that much” JUST FUCKING LISTEN YOU PIECE OF SHIT FFS

I was so stressed and crying that huggin friend stole my phone when I was texting my boyfriend, and had him call me so I could maybe stop crying. I miss my boy. Hearing him was good tho.

I’m packing up my stuff in the bathroom when I remember. I store my empty bins at my brother’s place (2 hrs north). I double check with him and call my mom back “I can’t leave tomorrow. It’s too much to pack, and some of my bins are at Brother’s.” Despite all this, despite me literally breaking down and crying on the phone, she refuses to listen, to give me an extra day, to bring half my stuff up to my brother’s (and therefore eliminate most of the need to have my roommate take my stuff) and grab my extra bins. Nope, gotta get out.

I was staring at my room, halfheartedly packing and trying to figure out, and just sobbing out loud. I thought remaining roommate was gone at dinner, otherwise I would have tried to be quiet. But she had gotten back without me noticing, and when she poked her head in, I couldn’t do it anymore and just kinda. Fell to the ground crying and apologizing. She’s a such a sweetheart and I feel bad for probably worrying her (and possibly waking her up in the middle of the night with packing noises)

I texted my roommate about this. She basically said, “Wtf, what she’s asking isn’t possible.”

Same thing from my boyfriend.

My mom kept texting me, asking how things were going, basically ignoring my subtle requests for more fucking time. At one point she said “Hang in there”. I sent a screenshot of that to my roommate and boyfriend and asked, “Is murder acceptable?” Roommate said a solid yes. Boyfriend offered to let me live with him. (cept 2 hour parking and I already got one ticket from that :P)

Mom texted around 10 pm, asking if things were fitting in the car. I wasn’t even remotely to the point of packing the car. I was basically at break number 2 of mandatory “sit down, have something to eat, and rehydrate after crying so damn much”. I think I had one bin completely done (out of what ended up being like. 6 bins? plus assorted bags n stuff) and was mostly done packing my clothes, but like. slow going. Especially when packing is stressful and you keep getting overwhelmed woot woot

I put off a fair number of things bc of panicking about time and simple emotional capability to do so. Sorting out my dishes, unlofting my bed, grabbing my band shit from the music hall across campus.

At some point in the night, I had to lay down, because my body decided “hey, you know what would be great right now? Period cramps, minus the blood.” Which, thank fuck minus the blood, but also it meant I had to spend a solid half hour/hour out of commission bc it hurt so damn much to walk around and try to pack. But I had to keep going, even though the pain came back when I stood up again.

Mom texted me at 7 am if I’m awake. I hadn’t slept.

We have housekeepers, and they got there around when I was finishing loading up. I stopped and chatted for a bit (nobody had told them what was going on), and nearly started crying again because it was just so damn shitty. Everything’s so damn shitty.

So I got on the road at about 8 am, and get to driving for a bit, but about 1.5 hours in I’m doing bad. I can barely keep focused, despite drinking probably half a bottle of Mt. Dew by this point, so I pull into a rest stop and text my mom “Hey, I forgot my shampoo/conditioner/toothbrush stuff, and also I don’t think I can get home safe.”

Does my mother tell me to take a nap in that rest stop? Nope Does she tell me to find a hotel or motel there and take a nap/sleep and try again tomorrow? Nope Does she tell me I can go back to school, sleep through the day, and try again tomorrow? Ha ha fucking ha.

Nope. She calls me, and proceeds to tell me to keep driving, and that she’s going to stay on the phone with me so I don’t fall asleep.

I yelled at her quite a few times, when she was being fucking stupid about all this shit. She had the fucking gall to be pissed that I pulled an all nighter, when that’s what was fucking necessary to meet her stupid fucking deadline.

At one point, I made a new driving playlist so hopefully it would keep me awake better while I wasn’t on the phone (being serenaded... awake? by the lovely voice of Tilian lel (lots of DGD and his solo work on that playlist. Also ATL. Fuck yeah ATL. anywho)). And right after I made that, she ended up calling me before I was driving yet, and I rejected it bc I really wanted to finish my text to the dear bf, and then I started driving, thinking she’d call me back and chew me out for ignoring her, but surprisingly nope. So I just jam out for a bit, and eventually start yelling at myself bc of dumb writing ideas (the original story rewrite... lol) and I end up texting my roommate (while driving... shh) “Hey, feel free to call me if you want to hear me ramble on about writing” So after a short phone call from mum where she hung up to let me drive through a city, roommate calls, and I end up spending the last few hours of my drive rambling at her and mutually bitching about the shitty situation this leaves us in.

When I get home, my dad (a doctor) is wearing a mask, apparently at my mother’s request. He also mentions that we probably shouldn’t be in the same room, according to her. I am also forced to strip everything and shower basically immediately. K, fine, I do so, Dad makes me dinner (despite Mom’s probable disapproval), and I stay awake just long enough to toss my laundry in the dryer. It was a close thing tho. I nearly fell asleep waiting for the washer to finish. And so I pass out at 8 pm central time (9 pm eastern)

Mom, during all this, has fucked off Up North to our cabin, my final destination.

Wednesday, Mom makes me leave our place in the Cities at 11 am to get up before weather gets worse and all that jazz. Once here, I’m allowed freedom for as long as it takes to help mother move shit so I can fit my car inside a garage, then I take the bare minimum inside (my electronics, stuff that would explode if frozen (like pop (and my Smirnoff Ices shh)), travel toothbrush I somehow have and hairbrush), and I’m immediately quarantined to my room and the bathroom down the hall.

So here I fucking am. Bored as shit and pissed the hell off

I needed more time. But no fucking way Mom was going to let that happen.

I could have gone up to my brother’s. But noooo I had to come all the fucking way home, only to be shoved in a room for two weeks.

I could have taken care of all/most of my shit by my fucking self (dishes are debatable, would need basically the whole apartment to sort those out), but nope, can’t take enough time to take a trip up to my brother’s apartment 2 hours away, no way.

Nope, instead I have to suffer a panic attack for basically 16 hours, then nearly kill myself driving, because I can’t stay one fucking day more, because I have to get my ass up here just to be basically shoved in a room and left alone for 2 goddamned weeks. Nope. Can’t fucking make sure that moving out, usually stressful on its own, is as calm as we can make it in these trying times. Nope. Gotta just fucking nearly kill the kiddo instead to comply with my stupid whims because I can’t fucking listen

I’m pissed.

Especially since I was almost 100% sure I was gonna block her everywhere and go full no contact with this bitch after college.

But now I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future! Yay! Can’t see that going badly!

(I’ve already texted the anonymemers to call me so I don’t go crazy and actually punch her. We’ll see how that goes. The desire has been kinda strong all afternoon.)

Fuck

This

Shit

#rant blog status: reinstated

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dndfuckhouse · 5 years ago

Text

a warlock and a thief walk into bar

Summary: Psalm and Henrick have a third meeting by chance. And then a fourth. And then a fifth.

Notes: This is canon divergent(?) Yeah but also set after the current events. It's dialogue heavy bc I like dialogue and didnt feel like expanding sorry.EDIT: I’ve apparently grossly mischaracterised Han… Poki only leaves crumbs for me so I did what I could based on my knowledge of her from Psalm’s perspective. Wcyd?

Psalm should know by now that things never tend to go well when he's on a mission with the others. Han and Rokka were too nosy for their own good, something he still hadn't quite adjusted to yet but no longer got mad about. Well, except for right now. Right now is entirely their fault, and once he rids himself of the angry bandits on his tail he's going to make them wish they’d kept their mouths shut. With force if necessary. They just had to go and piss off an entire group of bandits.

The rational part of his mind tells him that there’s literally no way he could take either of the major brawn in their party in a fight one on one, let alone at the same time, but the thought of chewing them out helps to soothe his annoyance at least.

A dagger whizzes past his head.

Stop daydreaming and focus, Ghester’s voice rings in his head, it'd be a waste for you to die here, and at the hands of some low tier goons no less.

“Is this your way of saying you'd miss me?” Psalm responds both in Infernal and his usual monotone. It's hard to sound deadpan in Infernal, which is mostly just a lot of hissing and growling, but he makes the effort. Of course Ghester responds with his usual dry laughter. No surprise there.

Psalm ducks around a random corner, not bothering to check if the bandits are behind him. He supposes part of this is his fault. He usually offered to divert the enemy so that the others could escape, but he bit off more than he could chew this time. He wasn't expecting his charm spell to wear off so quickly.

In a rare moment of good fortune, the alley isn’t a dead end. The goons are still behind him though, so he doesn't slow down.

Eventually he comes across an alley with a small crevice between two houses, and wonders if it's a good idea to duck in there and hope they don’t notice. He hears them gaining though, and in a split second decision shoves himself into the nook and pulls his cape around his face for good measure. Red skin tends to stand out.

The goons run past the nook without even bothering to check, and he hears one of them yell “Where'd he go?” before the rest of them run off. Psalm waits for a couple minutes, and then a couple more just to be safe before he exits. It's a tight fit, especially with horns, but somehow he manages to squeeze himself out.

“Oh, it's you again,” a voice says.

Psalm reacts immediately. Ghester appears as a shortsword in his hand in seconds as Psalm turns and holds the weapon out in front of him.

If he'd been thinking more clearly, he would've realised that the voice was somewhat familiar, but the adrenaline from the earlier chase was still rushing through him. It takes him a while to put it together in his head, not his fault, they’ve only met twice. Psalm blinks once, mostly in surprise and then breaks out into a genuine smile at the man in front of him. He can’t really help it. Not only is it not someone that had been trying to kill him earlier, but someone he's actually quite pleased to see. Henrick, looking just as scruffy and worn out as always, gives Psalm a small, sort of half assed smile.

He eyes the shortsword wearily. “You gonna put that thing away or…?”

“Oh, right. How rude of me,” Psalm says as Ghester disappears from his hand. Being able to summon Ghester at will is not something he reveals to people too often, the less ways to identify him the better, but he figures it doesn't matter right now. The action puts an even wearier look on Henrick's face though, which Psalm finds amusing.

Henrick looks around a bit, for what, Psalm isn't exactly sure.

“Not to be cliché,” Psalm says while Henrick does this, “but we should really stop meeting like this.”

Henrick pauses and gives Psalm a confused look. “Whaddya mean?”

“You're with the group after me right now are you not?”

A look of understanding dawns on Henrick's face.

“You're the one everyone's been chasing after? I couldn't really tell from a distance, but it's not like I can go against the boss's orders y'know so he had me out here searching too.”

Rickert's goons again? What are the odds… Psalm thinks. Shorewater is clearly not as big as he'd once thought.

“You're still working for that tyrant? What was his name again? Ricken… Rackam?” Psalm pretends to think hard about it.

“Rickert. You forget or something?”

“Well Henrick, I must admit I don't make a habit of remembering the names of people I'm not interested in.” An obvious lie, but it serves its purpose when what Psalm has said dawns on Henrick and the man nervously fiddles with the neck of his scarf.

How fun, Psalm thinks.

You really seem to enjoy playing with people, but to what end? Ghester says in his mind. Psalm ignores him of course. He won't very well respond in front of Henrick right now anyways, and Ghester knows that.

“What'd you do this time?” Henrick asks, choosing to ignore Psalm's earlier comment. Psalm begins to answer, but is cut off by the sounds of shouting. The goons are coming back. Psalm curses himself internally for sticking around and making small talk instead of getting the hell out. Before he can look around for a means of escape, Henrick steps into his personal space.

Psalm raises an eyebrow. “What are you doi-”

“Shhh,” Henrick hisses and backs Psalm right back up into the crevice where he'd hid before. Psalm gets the message, and tries to hide as much of himself as possible. He's taller than Henrick, but hopefully that won't matter too much as Henrick stands in front of the crevice and blocks Psalm from view.

Sure enough, the men from earlier return.

“Henrick! What’re you doin’ standin' around like an idiot for? He got away!”

“If he got away there's no point in running around like this then is there?” Henrick sighed.

“He got away cuz you were being a lazy shit I bet.”

“Yeah? Who was the last guy that saw him before he ran off because it sure as hell wasn't me. Should I tell Rickert who lost sight of him?”

Psalm watches as best he can as the two bandits argue back and forth about Rickert. As entertaining as it is, it's definitely too cramped in here and he wishes the goon would hurry up and leave. He considers just firing off an eldritch blast and ending things himself, but attacking Henrick's comrades was probably not in his best interest.

Eventually Henrick chases the guy off, and after a couple more minutes Psalm is free yet again.

“Should be alright now,” Henrick says.

“Thank you,” Psalm says, “I'm afraid I’ve become the reason for your boss poking a fresh set of holes into you though.”

Henrick shrugs. “You get used to it, and it’s not like it'd be the first time anyways. He was pretty mad that one time back in the market.”

“Damn, and here I was thinking we'd been lowkey.”

“Eh, he can sniff out money.”

Psalm ponders that response for a minute but has no answer. Who is he to question one's choice of management?

“I could always have a friend get rid of him for you, if you'd like.”

The statement only serves to make Henrick more fidgety. It seemed that Henrick had at least some reservations about it, but Psalm supposed someone who'd been willing to help the enemy twice now could be expected to be a bit of a softy.

“I dunno…”

“It'd be no trouble. She's been kinda eager to, let’s say “have a chat”, with him again.”

Henrick shudders. “You mean the big one?”

“Mhmm.”

“Yeah, hard pass. Who knows if she'll stop at just Rickert.” Psalm laughs. He knows Han would, but the fact that she's scarred some of Rickert's men is pretty funny. Speaking of, he'd best return to the group soon. His diversion had taken longer than he'd expected. He hopes the others have made it back to Vinny's shop by now.

“I'll give you some time to think about it, but in any case, I'd best be on my way.”

“No gold this time?” Henrick jokes, and then not a moment later looks awash with regret at what he's just said.

“My pockets aren't as deep as you might think,” Psalm says. At that, Henrick, quite unexpectedly, starts to blush.

“That was just a… can you forget I said that?” he says.

“Hmm, maybe not,” Psalm smiles.

“I honestly just, don't remember your name…” Henrick trails off.

“That's disappointing,” Psalm says. He looks around the alley, and for good measure, checks around the corners too. The bandits are gone, thankfully, but maybe it'd be best to avoid using the alleys just incase they were still crawling around.

“You don't sound like you care much.”

Psalm turns back to Henrick after his thorough search of the alley. “I thought that we had something special going on, but clearly I was wrong,” Psalm sighs.

Henrick looks confused. “Huh?”

“But it's fine. I'll reintroduce myself next time.”

“Next time?”

“Well a good deed can't just go unpaid.”

Henrick fidgets with his scarf. “I was kidding ‘bout the gold.”

“Well, I wasn't. But really, let's save it for next time.” Psalm gives Henrick a perfunctory wave, he's not one for excessive good-byes, and heads off down the opposite way of the bandits. He doesn’t look back.

It's all very calculated for you isn't it? Is that how you usually make friends? Ghester pipes up once there's no one around.

“Who said anything about making friends?” Psalm grumbles back in Infernal.

About two weeks later, Psalm finds himself again wandering the alleys of Shorewater. However, this time, it's both he and Plum that have been separated from the others. They'd split into three teams, Han and Keva, Rokka and Cimmorro and he and Plum. It was a simple fetch quest, nothing serious. To put it simply: one of Vinny's cats had gone missing again.

“If this leads us to another thieves’ den I'm going home,” Plum says, obviously irritated at the idea. Psalm is inclined to agree.

“We could get Vinny to pay extra if that happens though,” Psalm points out, “try thinking a little on the bright side of things.”

“Don't wanna hear that from Mr.Broods-a-lot,” Plum mumbles.

“Haha, funny.”

They head to the market square again, the only difference from the first time this had happened being that it's night time now. The market takes on a different feel at night, less lively but still busy enough to feel comfortable. Plum and Psalm go around questioning some of the vendors, one of whom mentions having seen the cat a bit earlier skulking around the fish stalls. Go figure.

“You think Team Rokka/Cimmorro has found it yet?” Plum asks as they make their way over to that section of the market.

“One can only dream.”

Sure enough, when they get there, the cat is nowhere to be seen. One of the fish vendors informs them that the cat had been there though, having made off with one of his fish earlier.

“You gonna pay up?” the vendor asks, as if that were the logical conclusion to the situation.

Plum makes up their face. Psalm steps in before they decide to make things worse.

“I apologise, but it's not our cat. When we find her we can inform our employer and he'll reimburse you. Please wait until then.”

The vendor grumbles but agrees, and Psalm congratulates himself for avoiding that situation. The congratulations last for all of about one second before a man goes barrelling into the cart.

Psalm and Plum jump back immediately. Thankfully, the vendor is unharmed, but his cart has definitely seen better days. Psalm looks up to see Han, because of course this has something to do with her, and a hooded figure in the middle of the square. There are people rushing about, some trying to get out of Han's line of fire, others carrying on like nothing had happened. It's hard to see exactly with all the people rushing about.

Psalm considers ignoring the situation and carrying on with his current mission, but the next thing he knows his feet are carrying him over towards the commotion.

“Han, what are you doing.” It's not really a question.

“Stopping thief,” she says, as if she hadn't just hurled a man halfway across the square. “You expect me to stand by while this man and his friends steal from innocent people?”

Psalm presses his head into his hands.

“Right now I think you're doing more damage than the thief,” Plum says, having followed Psalm over to the middle of the square. They point in the direction of the fish vendor's cart.

Han looks over, confused, and then winces.

“Oops,” she says, and then, “Vinny can pay for it.”

I’m so sorry Vinny, Psalm thinks.

It's then that Psalm notices the hooded figure that Han had been engaged with is trying to make an escape. Unfortunately for them, Han notices too, and before he can get away she reaches down and hoists him into the air by the back of his hood, revealing his face.

Of course it's Henrick.

Psalm quashes down a small wave of panic. Of all the people Han could’ve possibly gotten her hands on. Psalm wishes she had found Rickert instead, because he didn’t care one way or another what happened to him. Before Psalm can say anything to salvage the situation though, Plum reacts faster, surprisingly.

“You're that guy that was with Ricke-!” they start to say, but before they can finish Psalm gives them a swift kick to the leg. Plum turns and glares at him.

“What was that for?”

“What was what for?”

Han narrows her eyes at at the both of them. “You know this thief?”

“I’m not a thief,” Henrick says, “or well, I didn't steal anything just now.”

Han ignores him, eyes trained solely on Plum. Psalm considers that a small blessing for the moment. There’s no way Han isn’t going to recognise Henrick once she actually gets a good luck at his now unhooded face, Plum points at Psalm. “Not me. This guy. They had some kinda shady deal going on. It was kinda gross to witness.”

Leave it to Plum to throw him under the bus in a moment like this honestly. Han already didn't trust him a good percentage of the time, and now this. It’s then that Han finally turns back to Henrick, and of course, recognises him instantly.

“You’re one of Rickert’s men?” she all but yells.

Henrick raises his hands in defense. “Yeah, but not willingly,” he says. While this is happening, Psalm is not quite glaring at Plum, who is making a point of ignoring him.

Psalm, annoyed, turns to Han instead. “Could you put him down? You're causing a scene.” Technically she's already caused one, but Henrick looks like he's about to pass out from fear while Han manhandles him, and Psalm can't really blame him. She did spear one of his friends.

“Like this, I'm stopping him from running away. Why is Plum saying you know this man, Psalm? Are you working for Rickert?”

Psalm tries to think of an answer that isn't suspicious. He’s currently drawing blanks as to ways to avoid making the situation worse. He quickly peers over at Henrick, who, despite being dangled several feet in the air like a doll, looks somewhat pleased.

“I remember,” Psalm hears him say, “it's Psalm.”

Now is really not the time for that Psalm thinks, but he can't help feeling a little endeared anyways.

“We spared his life remember? And he just so happened to be there when we were gathering information underground during that whole fiasco with the ball,” Psalm says, “Did I not tell you? Whoops.”

That was a mistake of course, riling Han up, but his excuse was that he was quickly losing his patience with the situation. That and he was just flat out starting to panic.

Of course, once Han realises what Psalm said she glares even harder. “You're working for Rickert aren't you. You've been fooling us the entire time.”

“I have not, in fact, been working for Rickert. He tried to kill me too remember? Now if you could just put my friend down and maybe not kill him, that'd be great. Wonderful even.”

“I don't kill,” Han says. Out of the corner of his eye, Psalm sees Plum turn and look at the man currently lying unconscious on top of what used to be a fish stall.

“Just put him down and let him explain himself already Han, seriously the guards might come at any time now and I'm sure you don't want to go to jail.”

Han grumbles at that, but eventually let's Henrick down and the group of them exit the square into a small alley a little ways away.

As soon as they get there Han slams Henrick up against the wall of the alley. “You will explain.”

Psalm watches this unfold with a vague sort of empathy. I understand, he thinks, I've been there too.

Henrick looks to Psalm for help. Psalm shrugs. As much as he would like to, things are honestly out of his hands at this point. Still though, he does kind of owe Henrick so he might as well try.

“I think you're scaring him.”

“Good,” Han says. She turns to Psalm as well. “Don't think this means I trust you.”

“Wouldn't dream of it, but I don't think we're getting anywhere like this,” Psalm tries but Han ignores him. Psalm resists the urge to beat his head against the wall. Why is she so stubborn?

Psalm turns to Plum, not that he's expecting them to be of any help. Of course he's right, Plum has already resumed searching for the cat in the alley they're in.

“What did you steal?” Han asks.

“I didn’t,” Henrick says, looking exasperated.

“You're lying.”

“I am not.”

This kind of questioning could go on all night, Psalm realises, so he tries to step in again. He looks Henrick in the eyes.

“Did you steal anything?”

Han looks indignant. “I'm doing the questioning!”

“We’ll be here until dawn if you do the questioning. Just let me do it.”

“But you're working for Rickert,” she shouts at him.

“I am not,” Psalm shouts back, “God, I can even help you find him later if you want to kill him so badly, but can you please just let me do this so we can finish up here?”

He's not sure what about that placates her, possibly the offer to kick Rickert's ass down the line, but eventually Han eases up off the wall and crosses her arms instead.

“Explain everything later or it's not just Rickert I will want to kill so badly.”

“Yes, yes, hurt me all you want later. Now, some silence please.” Han huffs.

Psalm sighs and turns back to Henrick. “Do me a favour and don't resist please.”

Henrick looks confused, and then his eyes glaze over. He looks at Psalm, and a dopey smile forms on his face.

Psalm turns to Han. “I've charmed him, are you happy now?”

Han knows by now what a charmed person looks like, but she still seems a bit suspicious.

“How do I know this isn't a trick?”

“What could I possibly gain from getting in the way of you and Rickert, who I don't give a rat's ass about, at the cost of possibly own life? This man's innocent Han, don't drag him into it.”

Psalm doesn't actually know if he's innocent or not. Everything he's saying right now is a gamble. He hopes Henrick hadn't been lying earlier.

Psalm turns back to Henrick.

“Did you steal anything at the market just now?”

Henrick thinks for a couple seconds, and every single one of those seconds is a year shaved off of his life he thinks.

“Nope,” he decides. Psalm breathes a sigh of relief. Hopefully, Henrick isn't the type to lie too much to his friends though, not that Han needs to know the details of a charm spell right now. Still, just to be on the safe side...

“You're not lying?”

“No point lying to you. You're nice to me. Nicer than Rickert for sure, not that that's hard to do.”

Han raises an eyebrow.

“I paid him ten gold for some information. Don't read into it.”

“Yet I shouldn't be suspicious?” Han says.

“It's more gross than suspicious I think,” Plum pipes up, having given up on the search for the cat at the moment.

“No one asked,” Psalm says.

“Ask him where Rickert is,” Han says. Psalm is not totally opposed to finding out this information if it means getting Han to trust that they're not affiliated. He does feel bad about getting the information out of Henrick this way though. It was yet another way Psalm would've gotten Rickert in trouble.

Something to worry about later though, when he didn’t have his own reputation to clear.

“Henrick you wouldn't happen to know where Rickert is at this very moment would you?”

“Nah, he left the city about a week ago on some mission. Said it was too important to tell the likes of me and the others. Dunno when he'll be back either.”

Han just barely manages to contain her frustration at that answer.

“Are we done here now?” Psalm asks.

“Do you have a base? Somewhere you meet up?” Han pushes.

Henrick regards her curiously. “Not since you guys trashed our first one.”

“I think we're done here now,” Psalm says. He turns to Han. “What now? You want to play detective with me too? I assure you I have nothing to hide.”

Regarding Rickert anyways, he thinks, but of course he leaves that unsaid.

Han looks conflicted. “You never give me good reason to trust you.”

Psalm clutches at his heart in mock hurt, but responds in his usual monotone regardless. “After everything we've been through together?”

Plum interjects again. “Is he just gonna stay like that?” Han and Psalm pause and turn back to Henrick, who is currently staring off into space.

“Regrettably, I don't know how to end the spell. It'll wear off after an hour,” Psalm says.

“I don't want to watch this guy make googly eyes at Psalm for an hour,” Plum says, disgust clear as day on their face.

“Plus we have cat to find,” Han says. Psalm stares at her.

“You sure changed directions quickly.”

Han shrugs. “I'll beat it out of you later.”

“Yes well, if I'm not halfway across the continent by then.”

Now it's his turn to get pinned against the wall by Han. Somehow, he's surprised he didn't see this coming. He has a vague suspicion she just likes to flex on him where possible.

“What was that?” Han says sweetly.

“I said ‘I can't wait’ of course,” Psalm says.

“Good.” She gestures to Plum. “We should go find Keva. And the cat.”

After the two exit the alley Psalm sinks to the floor and stretches his legs out in front of him. Henrick is still standing nearby, zoning out, so Psalm snaps at him to get his attention.

It's only been like what, fifteen minutes? Henricks eyes are still glazed over.

“This back and forth of owing each other is bad for the soul I think,” Psalm says to him. Henrick just stares before joining Psalm on the floor. Psalm just sighs.

I must say that was quite entertaining, Ghester says.

“I’m not in the mood to talk to you.”

That would imply that you are normally would it not?

“Good point.”

Psalm has no idea what to do while waiting for the spell to wear off, but he can't just leave the man charmed in a random alleyway at night either. Then all of his hard work would've been for nothing.

He entertains the idea of getting some information out of Henrick while things are like this, but it feels a bit underhanded, and there isn't really anything in particular he wants to know anyways.

“I'm starting to think this was a mistake.”

You're like a child. Are you really telling me you can't sit still for less than an hour?

“I can't help it if I get bored.”

Childish.

“Whatever, I'd rather chew threw my own tail than listen to you insult me.”

You've no choice in the matter really.

“And I'm the childish one?”

“Who are you talking to?” Henrick asks from beside him.

Psalm nearly jumps out of his skin. Henrick's eyes are back to normal. He'd forgotten that elves were more resistant to charms, especially full blooded ones. It hadn't been a full hour yet. The shock must've registered on his face, because Henrick starts to backtrack immediately.

“Well I don't know if that was talking, actually. Not to be rude. Don't really get to hear Infernal all that often so, uh...nevermind.”

Psalm stares at him in amusement. “I was merely practicing some spells is all,” he lies.

“Oh.”

Then silence. Psalm tries not to find it a bit awkward, which he usually doesn't, but fails. Henrick is apparently thinking the same thing, because he starts speaking again.

“Your friend’s kinda scary.”

Psalm resists the urge to chuckle, because it's the truth when he's on the receiving end.

“I won't deny that.” It's a short reply. From the way Henrick starts to fiddle with the handle of the dagger in his belt, Psalm assumes he'd been expecting him to carry more of the conversation. Unfortunately for him, Psalm is feeling a bit worn out, and maybe just a little bit too amused at watching Henrick squirm a bit. But he isn't a bully. Not really.

“I suppose if we’re going to continue this pattern that it's your turn to save me next,” Psalm says.

Henrick laughs nervously. “I hope you're not asking me to get in the way of you and your friend.”

“Are you saying I'm not worth the trouble?”

Henrick pauses, caught off guard.

“I-.”

“That upsets me to hear,” Psalm says. He rests his head on his knees and looks up at Henrick.

Henrick continues to scramble for an answer. “Ok, but-”

“I mean it's ok if you don't feel that way, as I'm obviously just messing with you. Only a madman would get in Han's way.”

Henrick lets out a frustrated noise, and leans his head back against the wall.

Psalm laughs.

Henrick glares at him, albeit weakly. Psalm assumes that's as intense as someone who looks as worn out as him will get.

“Is it fun for you to do that?” Henrick asks.

Of course, Psalm thinks. “Do what?” he says.

“I dunno, screw with me?”

“Ah, not quite. I believe the word you're looking for is flirting, yes?”

Henrick's eyes widen and he pointedly looks down at the floor. “That's not what I meant.”

Psalm smiles. “But isn't it though?”

“Is that why you kept that note? And the dagger?”

That makes Psalm pause. It's not that weird a question, given that he'd asked about it last time as well, but he'd never thought hard about why.

Henrick notes the lack of response, but doesn't look up. “I'm just curious is all. Don't get any funny ideas.”

“Bit late for that,” Psalm says, and to his endless amusement Henrick rolls his eyes.

“If you want the truth though, I was just clearing the crime scene. And you left the dagger behind. Who am I to turn down a parting gift?”

“That's all?”

Psalm lifts his head and leans in slightly. Even while sitting he's still taller. “You were expecting something else?”

Henrick leans away. “I was just curious,” he repeats.

“I believe you.”

Henrick snorts. “No you don't.”

“I've no reason to lie to you,” Psalm says, and it's sort of the truth. If there's one thing Henrick has more or less proved repeatedly, it's that he poses absolutely no threat whatsoever to Psalm. Weird how not wanting to kill him has endeared this man to him. Psalm wonders where the hell he went wrong in life for a brief moment.

Despite his (mostly) sincere answer, Henrick eyes him cautiously, obviously not believing him. Now Psalm's the one rolling his eyes.

“If I told you I kept your note to prove you'd owe me later would that make more sense to you? Keep in mind I can't see the future, so there's no way I'd actually know whether I could cash in on that or not.”

“It's just weird that you're so nice to me when my boss and I tried to kill you I guess? It's not weird for me to find this weird right?”

“Oh? What's “this”? There's a “this”?” Psalm says. Henrick places his head in his hands and let's out a muffled yell.

“You're really frustrating to talk to! D'yknow that?”

“So I've been told.” He watches Henrick get to his feet, but doesn't bother moving himself.

“Next time it's your turn to save me, alright?” Psalm says as Henrick turns to leave.

“Yeah, yeah. Ugh, I should just leave you if that happens.” Despite this, Henrick turns and waves before leaving. Psalm waves back, and Henrick retreats out of view.

Psalm sits for a couple more minutes in silence. He's not really sure what to do now honestly except return back to the inn. As he stands up, he hears a small meow from further down the alley. When he goes to investigate, he discovers Vinny's cat, huddled under a small fort of crates.

Psalm scoops her into his arms.

“Well aren't you cute?” he says to her.

More honest with animals than people are we?

“Are you going to do this every time?”

Yes.

The group are at the tavern in the Swallow’s Perch celebrating a successful escort mission some nights later. Although, to call it a celebration when two thirds of the party hadn't been interested in attending was generous. Of course it had been Rokka and Han's idea. The two had somehow managed to get the other four to participate. Between Rokka's innocent cluelessness and Han's stubbornness, it isn't like they could've said no.

Psalm watches from a safe distance as Keva goes around pickpocketing strangers while Cimmorro distracts them, and wonders what'll happen if Han notices.

He's not really in the mood to drink right now, but he empties a few tankards anyways for lack of anything better to do.

Rokka comes over and sits next to him.

“Why the long face roomie?”

Psalm raises an eyebrow. “This is how it is normally.”

“Oh ok. Plum said you looked like you wanted company, so I thought you were sad or something but if you're not, that's good too!”

Psalm is pretty sure Plum just didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Rokka's attention, but he refrains from saying that. Plum cuts their eyes at him from across the counter, and Psalm wonders what exactly he's done to incur their wrath this time. Probably nothing, if he's honest, Plum is just kind of a nuisance without really meaning to be.

“Well since I'm perfectly fine, how about we both go let Plum know?”

“Good idea,” Rokka says, clearly pleased at the idea.

Plum does not look as pleased when they look up from their drink and realise that not only has Rokka returned, but Psalm is one step behind him.

“Not this,” Plum says, “anything but this.”

Rokka takes the seat next to them. “Not what?”

Psalm takes the seat on the opposite side of Plum.

“Heard you were worried about me. I'm touched.”

“I'm not worried,” Plum says indignantly, “you've just had a dumb mopey look on your face since the other day. Did your boyfriend dump you?”

Psalm frowns at the exact same time Rokka's ears perk up.

“You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend roomie!” he says, at a volume that was much louder than was necessary. Of course, it takes all of no seconds for the rest of the party to look at Psalm. This is what he gets for trying to harass Plum clearly. God has he learned his lesson now.

“I didn't tell you because I don't have one.” Not that he would've gone out of his way to if he did. Not out of any sort of ill intent towards Rokka, it was just that clearly he couldn't keep his mouth shut.

The others are suddenly crowded around him. Since when did they care so much?

“How'd you find someone with the same freaky kinks as you?” Cimmorro asks. Psalm can never tell when he's being serious or not.

“I'm not even going to grace that with a real response,” he says.

“I have to agree,” Keva says, “with Cimmorro that is. Also congrats I guess. There's a heart in there after all. Probably.”

“I'm shocked too,” Han says, “I just assumed one with no emotions like you would have trouble finding a partner.”

“All of you are rude as hell,” Psalm says, suddenly devoid of any desire to clear the misunderstanding. He has a small suspicion it wouldn't be worth the effort.

It's at that moment, that karma delivers the biggest fuck you imaginable. The doors of the tavern swing open, and Henrick walks in followed by two men, one of whom Psalm doesn’t recognise, and one he does because it's Rickert.

A lot of different things happen in quick succession at that point.

Henrick spots Han, because she's hard to miss, and immediately tries to make a U-turn out the door.

It's unsuccessful, as Rickert spots Han as well, pushes Henrick out of the way and is gone faster than should be possible.

Han spots Rickert and leaps over the counter towards him.

Plum yells “There's the boyfriend! Go bother him!” at Rokka, and points at Henrick.

Psalm contemplates jumping off the nearest cliff into the ocean. Or killing Plum. Whichever is easiest.

There's a lot of commotion after that. Ferrie looks slightly exasperated as she tries to calm the other patrons down. Rokka heads out the door as well, Psalm assumes to go back Han up, but not without sparing a glance over at Henrick. Henrick doesn't notice because he's too busy giving, Plum a curious look. It takes no time at all for Psalm to guess why.

Suddenly Psalm feels his sobriety evaporating into thin air as dread? Or maybe anxiety, he can't tell which, takes over. Curse his habit of over drinking.

“I think I'm done for the night,” he says, standing up. Better to avoid disaster completely, than attempt to face it while rapidly getting more intoxicated.

Plum gives him a look of pity and understanding. Keva and Cimmorro have left, possibly also to go help Han. Or maybe it's just the bounty they're interested in. Either way it's just he and Plum left.

“You don't have to go just because you got dumped,” Plum says.

“I am genuinely curious as to how you arrived at the conclusion that I got dumped, because you sound genuine and that scares me.”

“Is this seat taken?” a voice says to his right. Psalm doesn't turn around because he knows who it is.

“Be my guest.” There’s no escape as he hears Henrick pull back the seat beside him and sit down, but he tries anyways.

“I was just leaving anyways.” He doesn’t want to think about Henrick’s reaction to that. Maybe if he gets there in time, he can get in the middle of Rickert and Psalm’s fight and they’ll both kill him. The idea is incredibly enticing.

Before he can even start to move towards the door Plum pulls Psalm in by the front of his shirt and whispers at him.

“You can't leave. Look, he wants to sort things out.”

“There is no way you could be this stu- I mean mis-infomed. Seriously.”

“I don't get what you mean, but if you leave now it'll just be me and him, and I don't want that.”

Ah yes. Typical Plum behaviour.

“I don't care.”

“I'll tell him about your weird kinks.”

“Go ahead.”

Plum shakes him a bit. “Why are you being like this?”

“I’ve had too much to drink.”

“So you’re worried about saying something stupid in front of the guy you like?”

Plum laying it out bare to him like that makes him feel embarrassed.

“I don’t like him. I just think he’s cute.”

Plum gives him a disgusted look.

“Not like that. More of an ‘his reactions are cute so I want to bully him’ kind of way. Which is what I usually do, but now I don’t know if I can stop myself from saying anything stupid. Like I’m doing right now actually.”

“I see now why you want to leave so badly. You should never drink again. Ever. I’m serious.”

“Glad to see we’re finally on the same pa- where are you going?” Plum is in the middle of leaving their seat, but they stop to give Psalm an annoyed look. Not that the annoyed look every really left their face.

“I’m getting kind of tired of whispering, also you’re being dumb so I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” Before Psalm can stop them, they’ve walked off to a different section of the bar, effectively stranding him here with Henrick, who he hasn’t even formally acknowledged yet.

That problem solves itself the moment Plum is out of earshot.

“So... boyfriend huh?” Henrick says.

Psalm doesn’t turn around.

“If I searched hard enough I could find your boss and get him to kill me right? How far do you think he's made it?”

Henrick chuckles. “Dunno. You gonna sit back down or am I going to end up drinking by myself?”

Psalm sighs. There's no getting out of this one. He considers for one, brief, desperate moment, asking Ghester for help, but that has never proved to be useful the entire time he's known him.

“Can't have that can we?” he says instead, and sits down in the seat he'd been previously occupying.

There's a long silence as Henrick sits there and drinks, and with nothing else to do Psalm just watches him.

“Not very talkative tonight I see.”

“I don't really know what to do now that the tables are turned if I’m honest,” Henrick says. He scratches at his face sheepishly.

“You could consider just forgetting me or my idiot friends said anything. We could go back to square one? Hello, my name’s Psalm.”

Henrick smiles. “Are you drunk? It's kind of hard to tell, but it feels like you are.”

“I'm perfectly coherent thanks,” Psalm huffs.He battles the urge to pout for a solid ten seconds before he loses.

“It's kinda nice? Usually you're just like this,” and then Henrick makes a face that Psalm assumes is supposed to be an imitation of him. It just looks like he's constipated.

“A perfect imitation,” Psalm says.

“Oh shut it, you know I'm right. You're more honest too right now, I guess. You should drink more often. ”

“That is quite literally the opposite of what I was told a couple minutes ago. Funny how that works. Life in general is funny. Ha.”

God Psalm, he thinks, just shut it already.

“I think it's kinda cute?” Henrick says, and the takes a sip from his drink.

Psalm stares at him. The inebriated state of his mind isn't really helping to decipher the meaning behind that statement. Maybe there isn't any. He hadn't really thought that far ahead regarding his encounters with Henrick beyond, “elf cute, gotta tease”, so the reciprocation of sentiment on Henrick's part was throwing him off.

“Do you want to take a walk with me?” Psalm asks. He gets up from his seat. “I feel like taking a walk.”

Henrick makes a face like he misheard. “Uh... what? Right now?”

“You'd rather be here when Han comes back?”

Henrick pales. “A walk sounds good.”

It's a cool night, thankfully, because it'd been kind of stuffy inside the bar. There are just enough people outside in the streets for the night to feel lively.

“What are you even doing here? At Swallow's Perch. I’d figured it was too open a space for thieves,” Psalm asks once they're a reasonable distance away.

“Eh, boss was meeting up with a client here. Although I guess the job's shot if your friend kills him huh...damn.”

“You don’t sound all that concerned.”

“Well it's not like I like the guy...he pokes me fulla holes any chance he gets really. Although it would be a pain to have to find new work and- hey, actually can we not talk about Rickert?”

Psalm fiddles with the neck of his shirt. “Sorry I'm all out ideas. I'm afraid you'll have to take over.”

Henrick snorts. “Weird, you usually have something to say.”

“Yes well, right now it's harder for me. My head's a bit of a mess.” As if to prove his point, Psalm just narrowly misses walking into a lamppost. Henrick reaches out and pulls him out of the way.

Just kill me now, Psalm thinks, there's no need for me to suffer first.

“Maybe you should sit down.”

“Great idea.” The two stop at a nearby bench, just a little ways off from the market square. Psalm hopes that Rickert is keeping Han busy, or it's likely she'll pass by them on the way back to the inn.

Psalm sits down, but Henrick remains standing.

“Ok, I think we should probably stop beating around the bush,” he says. Psalm laughs nervously.

“The tables really have turned haven't they? Is that the liquid courage talking or are you being serious?”

“Actually it's both.”

“I see.”

“Ok just listen. I know this is kind of silly, mostly because you and your friends tried to kill me and my friends the first time we met, and it's been like, two other times since then and your goliath friend-”

“Han,” Psalm interjects before he can stop himself. He's definitely swearing off alcohol forever.

“Yeah her, yeah she terrifies me, but, the point is I think you're interested in me in the same way I am in you, and it'd be nice if we could see each other maybe not by chance?”

Psalm runs that last part in his head a couple times. “Are you asking me on a date?”

Henrick's sudden burst of confidence seems to be disappearing, because he suddenly starts fidgeting.

“Uh yeah? More or less. Unless I just completely misunderstood every interaction we've had so far. I did didn't I? Oh god.”

Psalm feels like he's on fire, but he puts that aside for now to stop Henrick from self-destructing.

“No, no you were right. Sorry I'm just- How about tomorrow?”

Henrick frowns at him. “You don't seem very interested.”

“Sorry were you expecting me to be blushing like a teenage girl? It’s not very easy to pull off with red skin, I assure you.” Psalm is actually doing his best not to rocket into space, but Henrick doesn't need to know that.

Henrick sighs and sits down on the bench. “Maybe I have a thing for assholes.”

Psalm raises an eyebrow. “Oh? I can be nice too I if you want.”

Henrick flushes. “What do you mean?”

“I can show you if you'd like,” he says, meaning in. Before he can make good on his comment though, there's a sudden noise like a stampede off in the distance. Psalm has a feeling he knows what it is, and sure enough as the sound gets closer he recognises Han's silhouette as she barrels towards them.

There's a distinct lack of blood on her, so he figures Rickert escaped safely.

“I think it'd be best if you escaped,” Psalm says.

“What makes you say that,” Henrick says as he leaps off the bench. He takes off in the opposite direction, but not before yelling “Remember tomorrow,” as he disappears into the distance.

Han, having lost yet another target, focuses her attention on Psalm, who she picks up by the cape not unlike she would a small child.

“Hello Han, having fun ruining my night?”

“That makes both of us. Why did your friend run off?”

“You spent most of tonight trying to kill his boss.”

Han scoffs as if what Psalm had just said was in any way unreasonable. “I was just going to gently persuade him to tell me location, nothing too intense.” She drops him to his feet (seriously, she must be doing this to flex on him or something) and begins to head back to the inn.

“You coming?”

Psalm falls into step a little behind her, and the two walk in relative silence for a bit before Ghester shows himself.

Quite a night, he says.

“I'm glad it’s over, if that's what you're getting at,” Psalm responds quietly in Infernal.

Oh? Looking forward to tomorrow I see.

“Something like that.” He realises somewhat belatedly that they hadn't really set a time or place. Oh well, they'd figure something out.

“Did you say something?” Han turns back to look at him.

Psalm smiles. “You must've misheard.”

#psalm/henrick #author: sarita #hellooooo #psalm brimdrorvi #henrick #that guy does not have a tag here #OTHER CHARACTERS MAKE APPEARANCES I'M NOT TAGGING HTEM OUT OF LAZINESS #fiction

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