#also i was listening to blank space while writing lmao

[stellaelillac]

𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 ? ; oh, the smirk her lips are showing while she walks through the palace walls pretending to hide, pretending to play this game of hide and seek. And yet, it felt disappointing how easy it is to bait him. It seems like curiosity takes the best of even the most powerful ones — and she couldn’t quite blame him for it. The goddess could play this game all night only to see how long it would take for the king of Hell to get tired of it and finally come to her. However, the fun always needs to come to an end and for this plan to work, she needs to be the one in control. Fury walks toward the palace gardens with such confidence, that she knows no one would be there while they chat for a little bit. The goddess ignites her own power one last time just to tell him where she is. Only this time, she wouldn’t run away. Fury has her back to @direodes once he finally arrives, she slowly turns around and bows — quite dramatically and slowly but once she is moving back up, Fury's eyes ignite with flames only for a mere moment.

one could classify being the king of hell as exhilarating, the power to hold every little thing in the palm of your hand and having the power to squash it, whenever you feel it’s necessary. the house of wrath flourished in the destruction of others, the anger that fuels and binds each individual. he was unsure why he agreed to an extravagant ball, hosting the demons of his house, yet it was anir who made the suggestion. if anything, the general of war would have rather spent his evening training, allowing himself the opportunity to refine his strategies. and yet here he was, adorning a black suit as the demons of his house celebrated amongst their king.

he could see anir smiling from where he was standing, hand lightly holding the golden glass as he observed those around him. if he slipped out now, it seemed no one would miss him, and the hand that moved to bring the glass to his lips stilled when he felt it. HER, the power radiating off of her with enough force to leave the king curious, his hand dropping as he searched the room for that ounce of power. wrath’s spine tingled, his freehand gently drifting over the house dagger attached to his hip.

golden flecks eye every individual in the room, his movements slow, calculated as he finds himself shifting from the throne placed in the center of the room. wrath catches anir’s eye, and as his eyes do another sweep over the room that’s when he finally spots it. the power, the essence of her being. her. a slight smirk creeps it’s way onto his lips as he watches her, the only woman adorning a mask, keeping her identity hidden. a game of cat and mouse. taking a long, slow spit of his wine, wrath keeps his eyes on her, straightening himself up before taking a step. and just as quickly as she appeared … he feels the power dissipating his smile dropping as she disappears amongst his house.

wrath thrusts the glass towards a demon, allowing them to take it before he descends from his alter, eyes taking in every member of his house with a staggering breath, a careful and watchful eye. every time he thought he caught a glimpse of her, she disappeared. he was growing restless, hungry for the one woman who caught his attention.

[chaisshitposts]

Hi chai hope your doing good sending this anonymously because my sister is following me here so;-) english is not my native language i am arab i hope there is no mistakes I am nervous because it is the first time I write a lot in English and also because this is the first ask I send to someone in this app. Please be patient with me if there are mistakes. Thank you.

I think this is a success story even tho i did'nt fully shift but i got into the void, i did psych-k for the past 4 days i did it when i woke up and when i went to sleep i listen to affirmations tape bc my english suck and it was so hard for me to pronounce words correctly and it was so cringe in arabi bc i don't talk like that lmao anyway whenever i imagine myself getting into the void i thought my first time would be in a lucid dream but my past self had this limited belief that i never lucid dream or even have dreams like all my dreams are just blank space and i wake up and remember nothing so she did'nt take it seriously and thought it was impossible but when i visualized in my psych-k Sessions it was always in a lucid dream so anyway when i fell a sleep last night i had this weird dream where i was in our old house and i was 12 again the whole dream i thought something was off and weird stuff would happen like there was a Rhinoceros (وحيد ا��قرن) flying above our garden! but somehow i did'nt notice it was a dream until i saw my mom and she said hey darling how are you(اهلين حبيبتي كيف حالك) and i was like wtf that not my mom she never called my darling before (حبيبتي) 😭

Anways i ran so fast to my room and looked in the door and i visualized a portal and said it well get me to the void state and i did it and god it felt so good like i am just being without effort or negative thoughts with no hate or worrying i was just a free spirit full of love and happiness. It was a very pure state i sayed there for sometime but i am not sure bc time really did'nt seem real to me there, i did'nt shift which is sad bc that was my goal but i got into the void and now i am sure It’s real and i can do it again

Also i think i been in this state before it felt so familiar when i woke up that felling i had i knew very well like i just felt like i always got into that state but this my first time being aware while experience it so that was beautiful

Thank you for introducing me to this wonderful technique

شكرا لك من كل قلبي حبيبتي💞

Love you chai<3

first of all, your english is super good. second of all, holy crap, congratulations!!! I'm excited for you!!! the void is indeed a wonderful place to be in. lastly, thank you for not giving up on yourself, and good luck to you! I wish you nothing but greatness and prosperity. 🕵️

[thekingofthenameless]

6, 27, and 29 for the Writer’s Wrapped ask game?

Thanks for the ask!

6. Favorite title you used?

The King of the Nameless: Flufftober! I’m a little biased towards it because it was the one I first published, and I’ve written more for it lol.

27. What do you listen to while writing?

Whatever feels best, really!

If I need to write an angsty scene, I’ll sometimes listen to “Night Shift” by Lucy Dacus. However, it does make me cry every time so I tend to avoid it lmao.

For fluffy/happy scenes, I’ve been listening to “Dog Days” by Florence + the Machine recently! I also listen to “Silhouettes” by Colony House, and a few other songs that I’m completelyyyy blanking on at the moment lol.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

Currently, it’s a passage from my newest wip, Blood in the Dungeon! Which is good because I’d rather not go through all that writing lol 😂

It’s about the casual affection 🥺

Also it’s the last peaceful moment they have before everything goes to shit

Charlie looked between the two of you, evaluating. After a few moments, he came to the same conclusion that you did. “Would you… keep him safe?” He asked Kenna, who nodded and smiled. “Of course.” He still hesitated even with that knowledge, before leaning down to bump his head against yours. “I’ll be back soon,” he promised. You smiled, reaching up to stroke his cheek. “I know. I love you.” “I love you too.” He moved away, and Kenna stepped back to give him space. His giant wings spread after he gave you one last glance, then he was gone with a gust of wind.

[persephoneflouwers]

i do think she may not trash him like how it happened with Jake... recently Joe Jonas and John mayour both were let off easy...maybe the worst will be haylors cause they can't let go of 2 month of pr and while I know it was a very bad time for harry back then during haylor but also I dont think any song in 1989 particularly trashes him...she calls him James Dean in 1989 if you compare any song that's potentially about him from 1989 to any song on red or speak now...1989 songs do not sound like disses at all....so paired with Harry's hopeful rest and cooling period ...I hope there's not much shit tbh...I am not particularly mad even tho I hate haylors and this whole thing but 1989 was always gonna happen so I think this is the best time and we should just get past it imo

2 months of pr… like literally lmao those fans must listen to something else because honestly she couldn’t have said any better that shit was a contract (“i got a blank space and I’ll write your name” are you kidding me)💀

[charlieconwayy]

Re: the last ask I sent I’m so sorry you had to go through that 😭 I really hope you’re doing better now & in a better place where you feel accepted and loved. & I’m glad that at least that album was able to help you through it. Music really is a life saver and Reputation similarly enough actually became my second favorite Taylor album over the last year or so and I define very hard with this is why we can’t have nice things too, I don’t think the song deserves to be clowned at all it’s very relatable! The lyric “There I was, giving you a second chance but you stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand” literally describes this situation I had with a guy and also look what you made me do I literally had that song on repeat for most of this year because of said situation with guy who screwed me over, I only saw him as a friend but it actually was worse than any heartbreak I’ve had from someone I was in love with. Both of those songs but especially lwymmd got me through. “Not for me not for me all I think about is karma” literally was me for several months lmao

Those are all great songs! I relate to anti hero a lot too but instead of all the people I’ve ghosted it’s all the people that have ghosted me 😂😭 but like “I wake up screaming from dreaming one day, I'll watch as you're leaving and life will lose all its meaning” is possibly the lyric of hers I relate to most it’s so real. Clean is another one I love dearly too! The one I originally was referring to in my original ask was blank space and I’m so excited to hear the re recorded version.

The songs about your friend It sounds like your friend is great and sees how wonderful you are and hope you continue to have him in your life ❤️ it sounds like there’s also some feelings there so I hope that things work out if that’s what you’re looking for!

If I had to describe the guy I’ve loved for years who I also considered my dearest friend in Taylor songs it would be I almost do and everything has changed. I still have hope though. I just saw him a few weeks ago and what’s funny is before I saw him (i wasn’t even planning to I was caught by surprise, great day though) everything has changed was the song I was listening to right before I unexpectedly saw him. Maybe I’m silly but I took it as kind of a sign idk lol.

I love how many songs Taylor has that can be applied to so many different situations. Lyrical genius I love her so much!

I loved reading your answers :) sorry this was a long response haha

thank you :') i appreciate that!

yeah you get it, reputation just hits differently when you've been betrayed, i don't think she has another album anywhere near that

oh yeah blank space is like an anthem for us bpd bitches haha so i love that one!! anti-hero is the first taylor song in forever that i felt genuinely connected to, the lyric that always comes to mind for me is "i'll stare directly at the sun but never at the mirror"

yeah he's......special. i'll leave it at that <3

sounds like we may be in a similar boat with our best friends. it's so funny the way that sometimes a specific song will play and illicit those emotions from you all over again. i don't think you're being silly. i think if it's been years and you still love him, there is something there, otherwise you would've given up.

i love taylor, but olivia will always be my number one haha just had to say that!

thank you so much for writing in!! i loved discussing this w you :)

[kazhan-draws]

Hi! Not sure if you're still doing the OTP relationships ask thing but if you do I'd love to hear your thoughts on 29 and 37 for Mungrove! Thank you!

Hiiii! I'm still doing it, it took me a little while to get around to do it because I have, once again, a lot to say, but thanks a lot for the ask and the opportunity to be completely unhinged about them again 🥰

wanna ask me questions about my blorbos? follow this link to the otp ask game

29.  What is their sex life like?  

The short answer: wild, kinky, mildly dangerous, somehow therapeutic.

The long answer under the cut. 🤣 CW: I obviously talk about sex, kinks, use of one homophobic slur.

In canon universe—or close enough to canon since it works better if they’re alive 😂 I think their sex life is mostly about exploring at first. 

Themselves, each other, what it means to be a man who has sex with another man. Eddie is pretty much a blank canvas because I don’t think he’d have a lot of experience before Billy, so it’s mostly fun and “yeah I really am gay lmao” for him, meanwhile Billy does have experience but strictly with women, so he’d kinda be rediscovering what sex is and coming to terms with the fact that he will never, ever feel that way with a girl. 

They both have a pretty bad case of internalized homophobia, but it’s even worse for Billy—he’s the one who gets called a fag by his own father because he likes taking care of himself and looking good, he’s also overflowing with toxic masculinity, so things are probably a bit rocky at first. Billy is 100% the kind of guy who’ll laugh in Eddie’s face the first time he asks him if he wants to bottom, because he isn’t that gay, you know? 🙄

Thankfully, they move past this, either because Eddie knocks some sense into him by telling him there’s no Gay Scale, or because Eddie implies Billy’s too chickenshit to take a dick up his ass and Billy simply can’t resist a challenge. 😈

So, yeah, no matter what universe they’re in, I think they experiment a lot. They’re both very horny and very into each other. They’re young and stupid and they both are a little bit (sometimes a lot) self-destructive, which means they’re kinda on board with trying basically anything at least once even if it sounds dangerous—perhaps even because it sounds dangerous sometimes. 

Like, they can’t be found out because the consequences would be bad, but that doesn’t stop them from having sex in public spaces because they enjoy the thrill, things like that.

And yeah, I think they’re both pretty kinky, again, no matter what experience they have. I think they’d play a lot with D/s dynamics, it’s not always a part of their relationship but it’s definitely something they’d explore. 

I tend to write Billy with a thing for pain, so mostly impact play, some overstimulation, it’s about getting hurt in a safe and controlled setting, where he’s the one who decides when it stops because all he has to do is safeword and he knows Eddie will listen. Name calling, humiliation and degradation are a big no though, boy needs to be praised and called pretty. 😌

Eddie is very much into all of this. Giving Billy what he wants/needs? Hell yeah, man could spend hours just taking his boyfriend apart and be satisfied with not getting an orgasm out of it himself, like that’s just a bonus at this point.

Pain is a big no for Eddie, Billy can spank his ass a little bit but not too hard okay >:(  I think (and I’m currently writing a fic featuring this, which I hope to finish soon) Eddie’s thing is humiliation/degradation, being used and denied an orgasm also works wonders for him. It’s pretty heavy for Billy to get like that with Eddie though—yes he can be an absolute dick, but that’s not who he wants to be with Eddie—so it’s something he’d do for him, and not because it’s something he’s into on his own.

I think they’d have quite a few accidents, the fun kind of accidents they can laugh about immediately, and the not so fun kind where one of them gets hurt—physically and/or mentally—but they make a point of working things out and making sure they’re okay afterwards. 

Anyway I could go on and on with all my little mungrove sex headcanons, because I have a lot of those (surprising, I know) but the bottom line is that they love each other a lot and their sex life is mostly about that. 😌

37. What do they like the least about each other?

There are two things Billy has a hard time dealing with. The first one is how Eddie gets when he’s completely wrapped up in something—music, D&D, whatever Eddie is fixated on at the moment. Eddie often requires some ‘me’ time, and that means ‘me and that specific activity I’m so into I forget about everything else around me including my boyfriend’. 

And like, Billy loves that Eddie is passionate, it’s part of what drew him to Eddie, but Billy doesn’t do well with being ignored or forgotten, it triggers all of his insecurities and abandonment issues, so Eddie showing up late or completely forgetting to show up because he lost track of time doing something? Eddie not being available for him for a long period of time because he’s working on a new campaign or whatever? Yeah, that shit hurts. That’s probably something that leads them to fight a lot at first, at least until Billy realizes this isn’t something Eddie does on purpose and that it doesn’t mean Eddie loves him less or whatever. Still, it’s a struggle, one of those things they both need to learn to compromise about.

The second thing Billy likes the least about Eddie is how he gets when he’s struggling with emotional stuff, or hurt. Eddie is awful at dealing with emotions when he feels like they make him look weak. He’s a prideful motherfucker, joking about things that actually hurt him is basically 80% of his personality, and when it hurts too much for him to be able to laugh about it, Eddie shuts down completely. 

A wounded Eddie runs and hides. He’s going to say something awful to push people away and then lock himself up in his room and stay there, wallowing in self-pity until someone volunteers to drag him out. 

And even then, it’s like talking to a fucking wall, and getting Eddie to admit that something wounded him, or that he’s struggling to deal with something is like pulling teeth. 

You know it’s bad when Billy has to be the emotionally mature one, because he’s really fucking bad at it and at having the patience for it, and it drives him kind of crazy when Eddie gets like this, especially considering Eddie’s the one who always encourages him to communicate his own feelings. 

The thing Eddie likes the least about Billy is how insecure he really is, because that’s the source of most of their serious fights. Eddie is a social creature, he craves attention as much as Billy does, but he also genuinely likes people—maybe not a lot of them but he has a circle he really, really cares about, and that’s more than Billy ever had. 

But Billy gets jealous because he doesn’t like sharing Eddie’s time with other people, or because Eddie is a very tactile guy and watching him touch and hug other people makes his skin crawl. 

The jealousy is kind of cute at first, it makes Eddie feel desired you know? But then it leads to Billy acting like a dick, and it’s obvious it’s hurting him and Eddie hates it, he also doesn’t always have the patience to reassure Billy and he isn’t going to stop hanging out with his friends or touching them because it makes his boyfriend growl like a big territorial cat. 

So yeah, it leads to them fighting, which makes it not so cute anymore. 

Just like Billy isn’t a fan of Eddie hyperfixating on things to the point of forgetting about everything else because it triggers his insecurities, Eddie doesn’t like how said insecurities make him feel like shit whenever it happens. He already feels super guilty when he realizes he’s been neglecting the people around him but Billy has a tendency to make him feel even worse about it because he gets angry/frustrated/sad and that’s just not helpful. 

It's also really hard for Eddie to realize something is wrong sometimes, Billy will suddenly be a dick or push him away because something Eddie said or did made him fear he's going to leave him, or doesn't actually love him, etc... and Eddie simply doesn't get it? So it's more fighting and trying to figure out what the fuck is wrong, more guilt, etc...

Anyway, I honestly think they're each other's best option for MANY reasons, but that doesn't mean they don't have a few struggles, they're both very flawed and they come with their own baggage—and it's not a small one lmao—so things are bound to be difficult once in a while.

I feel like I'm a bit all over the place in both answers but I did my best, I hope this wasn't awful to read! Thanks again for asking me questions about my blorbos 🥰

[secondhand-trash]

If I Only Knew Your Name

A/N: so this was an idea I got while mindlessly picking songs to listen to on Spotify’s Indie rock playlist and came across this one song that just made me want to write something about it hehe accidentally put this aside for a whole month but I’m so glad that it’s here now lmao I had a lot of fun writing this

Pairing: Miya Atsumu x reader

Description: After a drunken night of passion, Atsumu had nothing he could find you with, not even your name. So he took the matter into his own hands and tried to search for you using the power of the internet.

Warning: drunken one night stand, suggestive descriptions, Atsumu is an embarrassment and I sure hope you cringe while you read it as much as I did when I was writing it

Word count: 9453

The song:

Young Love (feat. Laura Marling)//Mystery Jets, Laura Merling

-

One night of love

Nothing more nothing less

One night of love

Had left my heart in a mess

-

You woke up with a sharp pain spiking down your back, in a room you were sure you had never been to, on a bed that wasn’t yours.

Your head was heavy and every cell in your body screaming that you just wanted to fall asleep again when you stirred awake. You would have, had it not been the fact that you were not in your own room slowly started to settle in. There was a brief moment of blankness in your mind as you took in your surroundings. The room was still dim, the sun barely shining through the windows that were half covered by the shades. The domestic messiness crossed out the possibility that you were in a hotel room or some odd space behind the club you clearly remembered being at last night. 

You did not move as your eyes glanced around the space. Trophies and picture frames were lining up on the shelf at the corner, all of names and faces you couldn’t match up with any of the ones that you remembered. The linen covers you were sitting under was sturdy on your skin, a dark red on top of brown sheets that you would have never bought for your mattress. The scent of the fabric was foreign to you, making your morning state of mind more and more alarmed at the amount of information you were trying to take in. You had to admit that it was very soft on the skin, not the slightest bit uncomfortable as it rubbed against your bare arm when the duvet fell off of your body as you sat up.

You felt a moment of frantic terror at the registration of your own bareness, with your legs feeling terribly cramped, waking up on a bed that you did not remember getting into.

Everything clicked when you stiffly turned to your side, and found someone laying next to you.

The broad back facing your side had you clutching the sheets up to cover your torso that now felt chilly with the lack of layers. The man, whose name you did not think you know and what you had done with him last night you could not remember but was certainly able to guess, was still soundly in his sleep. Now that you were painstakingly unable to ignore his presence, you picked up on the soft snores that lingered in the air, making your legs that were rubbing against each other under what you could only assume to be his spreads tense up as the picture of what happened to get you right where you were slowly got clear. 

You would prefer not to think about it in detail, albeit the fact that it getting vivid in your mind sent a trail of heat from your core right onto your face and burning out the fuse in your head.

There was a slither of shame and guilt as you found yourself staring hazily at the man, his sculpted back spasming with each breath. Your hand gripping at the sheets in front of your chest only served to pull it further down his torso, revealing the dip at his waist and his arms that curled tighter against his body with a shiver. Blonde hair sprawled out messily on the pillow, and you felt chills creeping up your spine at the recoil of your fingers fisting those locks and brushing against the fuzzy patch of his undercut as he hovered above you.

Panting, grunting, moaning.

Your skin burnt up at the lingering feeling of a firm grip on your legs, the warm trail of his lips down your neck, and the unmistakable dullness between your thighs.

The heat settled into the pit of your stomach as a weight, twisting your guts until it resembled what felt like a bitter mix of shame and guilt.

Fuck, you slept with an absolute stranger last night.

You bite back a groan, slamming your hands against your face before letting them run down in a weak attempt to clear your head.

This was why you never go to clubs anymore.

The jolt of your body as you sat up straight pushed the sheets off of you and you winced at the soft whimper from the person next to you at the sudden movement. Your naked state was simply uncomfortable, not feeling like you were in your own skin at all as ironic as this was. You couldn’t help but hug your arms around your frame as you frantically looked around to see where your clothes and belongings were, letting out a relieved sigh when you saw the clothes you wore last night littering across the floor in all its messy glory. 

Your clothes were all wrinkled up from the careless placement, a clear display of the passion and impulse when they were being taken off. Your hands were the same kind of frantic as you rushed to put everything back on, not caring about tugging them in properly or the fact that you did not even look into a mirror at all to see if you were at least presentable. 

You did not hear the groan from the man that tossed over to his side on the bed as you slipped out of the bedroom, careful in softening your steps as you let the door clicked and darting your eyes around to see where the rest of your things were.

If you remembered correctly from the weak reconstruction of what happened last night, then your clutch should be somewhere near the door.

The giggle that slipped past your lips as he swung the door shut turned into a laugh when he latched onto you immediately. You could taste the hint of vodka lingering on his lips, bundling up your senses together with the warm breaths against your neck when he trailed down. It was like floating on a cloud, the way you latched yourself on this handsome man and he seemed to be unable to get enough of you. You barely heard the thump of what you were holding in your hand landing on the floor as your limbs went weak, swinging your arms around his broad shoulders when your mouth fell agape as he sucked down on the soft spot right on your neck.

It was right where you left it last night, the one and only clutch that you felt was suitable for you to bring to a club. There was a hint of hesitation as you rushed to pick it up, holding it in your hand when you thought of the person who you had left on the bed by himself.

What do people do after a one night stand? Talk? Have breakfast together? Or in your case, ask them for their name because you did not remember one thing that happened before you stepped into these doors?

Dear god, no.

So you did the only logical thing you could think of, and rushed out of the door without even looking back.

It wasn’t until you were far away from the apartment building you ran out of, the weight of your body shifting from leg to leg as you waited for the train to slowly drive into the station that something did not feel right to you. Your fingers fidgeted in reflex as you shoved yourself past the small gap between each person stuffed into the cart, a bad habit you had formed as a kid when you were nervous.

Your heart fell into the pit of your stomach when the lack of metal brushing against the tip of your finger finally clicked in your head.

You cussed under your breath, knowing exactly where the thin, gold band must be.

-

Miya Atsumu woke up with a pounding headache, in his own apartment that he forgot how he got back to, on his bed that somehow felt emptier than usual.

At first, all he could focus on was the clear hungover that he was suffering from. His tongue felt dry and he scrunched his face up at the bitterness as he tried to gulp. The half-drawn curtains were not doing it in shielding the sun that already came out, making him squeeze his eyes tight and blinked a few times before finally adjusting to the brightness. Stretching out on the bed, Atsumu whined at the soreness pulling at his muscles, feeling his joints pop as he arched his back and sprawled over to the other side of the bed.

He froze in place, arms still spread over his head and legs bundling up the sheets, before jolting up in one rapid movement only to wince at the horrible spinning in his head at the rush of blood up to his already heavy head.

Yet, dizziness and all that, Atsumu was sure that the feeling of someone being here with him last night definitely wasn’t just a drunkness induced illusion.

He groaned at the untimely pang of pain that pulsed at his temple, ruffling his hands through the locks of his hair that was tangled up from him tossing around the bed. The slight pull at his scalp at his impatient detangling method made him hiss, but it also served to get his wires just a little more sorted out than before. 

First things first, he was very naked and combining that with the certainty that he must have had someone over, it wasn’t very hard for him to connect the dots. He ran his palm over the ruffled sheets, smoothing out the wrinkles and searched if there was still any hint of warmth left on the fabric. He cursed under his breath when nothing else but coolness met his skin, scolding himself for acting like a fool over some one night stand that did not even wait until he woke up to leave.

There was a lump at the back of his throat as he stayed there, holding onto the hovering position he took on the bed without a single thought.

He snapped out of it when he realised that he was in his own space, just staying still and letting time passed without doing anything. Atsumu had a strong feeling that if he stayed in bed any longer then he would just be miserable for the rest of the day and he really couldn’t afford it if he couldn’t manage to get over himself soon enough. 

For all that it was, there was no bigger asset to his career than this very body that he felt like trash in right now, and god knows how much trouble he would get if people learnt that he let his performance slip because he couldn’t bounce back after a drunken hookup.

His steps were floaty as he climbed off his bed, stumbling into the bathroom and harshly gripping at the faucet. The water streamed out as a strong current and he splashed it against his face in a sadistic force. The coldness was stinging his skin, with no help from the way he rubbed his hands down his face and back up his chin.

He looked terrible, Atsumu thought to himself when he stared at the reflection in front of him. His eyelids were pulled taut with his hand, cheeks squished under his palm before he pulled away meanly. Bloodshot eyes made him wince and his face was so dropsy it looked like he had cried himself to sleep.

A loud slap echoed in the empty bathroom when he clasped his face a bit too hard in a desperate attempt to clear his head. He whined, rubbing the area that went numb and then heated up. There was a slight flush around the area he had slapped down, but he was feeling more in touch with reality afterwards.

Alright, so what happened last night?

It would be a lie if Miya Atsumu said he had never had one night stands. He would argue that he never go out with the intention for one, but sometimes one thing leads to another and it just happens. Some were good, some not really, some he hadn’t really think of until now when he was desperately thinking of what it was that led him to now. 

He hadn’t wakened up with a hungover this bad in a long while. Being in a profession that demands that much of your physiques meant that there was not much room for the more self-destructive type of letting loose. It was strange, Atsumu pinched the center of his brows as one hand on the kitchen counter held his body still, he didn’t quite remember the deeds of what was happened once the door to his room was closed last night.

Wow, he looked up with eyes widened and huffed at no one, that was such a douchebag thing to say.

He, however, remembered the person that stumbled through the door with him in shocking vividness to even his surprise.

He would have to pretend that the lack of follow up did not send a blow to his ego, reassuring himself that there was no way it was because he behaved terribly that the person had to run off before he even woke up. He was bitter about the fact that they had left without leaving even a note, something he had no idea he cared about at all until this very moment when the silence of his home became just short of irritating in his pounding head. 

Could have at least said ‘I had fun last night but I gotta go’.

Atsumu rubbed his temple, slowly rotating his arms backwards to get rid of that dull cramp.

Or maybe leave their number somewhere too.

He paused in his track, standing awkwardly in the middle of his tiny living room.

Did he want their number?

He shook his head violently to rid of the meaningless thought, an act he would immediately regret when he remembered that he was having a hungover as the dizziness made him stumble on his feet. 

A crisp clang after he took a fumbled step to steady himself quieted all of the voices in his head. That was not a sound that aligned with what his brain expected from his worn-out room slippers kicking against the wooden floor. Atsumu held his head as the rang of what sounded like something metallic registered itself in his mind, blinking at the empty space right in front of his feet.

His eyes darted around the floor, searching for whatever it was he must have stepped on to make that sound. Atsumu was ready to settle for the possibility that he was starting to hear things when a quick flash of light from the corner caught his attention. He walked towards where it was, and slowly crouched down.

It was a ring, a very tiny one. It looked rather ridiculous being held between his calloused fingers, the thin golden band arching off the afternoon light that had shined on it. A very simple design with no gems or carvings along the surface, something very much so the opposite to his taste. He knew it was not his, from the size to the tone to the lack of anything all over its rim.

And then he remembered the first time he saw the ring, on someone else’s finger, just last night.

-

Atsumu would not classify himself as a party animal, despite the common speculation shared by people who knew him but not well enough. He could deal with house parties just fine, but clubbing had never been much of his thing ever since he woke up outside the back of a night club once with the worst ring in his ear he had ever experienced. 

If it wasn’t part of his job, he would much rather be anywhere else than this overly opulent club that his team’s sponsor had booked up for their event. But business was business, and if he wanted to keep having his own room in away games then this was the price he had to pay.

Was it a nice club? He couldn’t say, but it sure was an expensive one if he was to make a guess based on the decor. So expensive that it was a bit tacky, if he dares to say. It was like the owner wanted to remind you that this was high-end and decadent. Imagine what you would see in a basic mansion on a real estate agent’s website, then dim it up and add many hi-fis, what you would result with was likely close if not identical to the space he was in. It was loud and hard to escape from, his ear pounding together with the baseline every time it blasted through He would never quite understand rich people, he thought to himself as he took a sip of his drink and scrunched his eyebrows together. He forced down the urge to poke his tongue out at the obvious taste of syrup, trying to pass it off with a cough into his fist as he plopped down on the barstool. 

“How’s your drink?”

The smooth voice reaching into his ear was mismatched to the booming club he was in. Atsumu turned his stool to the side with a push with the heel of his uncomfortable leather shoes and was met with an entertained gaze. You sat with both feet on the footrest of the stool, a posture that seemed rather childish for the night club bar you sat in front of. With your bare forearms lazily placed at the edge of the bar table, your finger tapped casually against the rim of your cocktail glass, the pink liquid inside looking like it was glowing under the neon lights. He could not map out your features too clearly but your head tilted as you looked at him through narrowed eyes, a glimmer behind your lashes from the many lights that hung above your head. 

Miya Atsumu was an adult now and in his adult mind, he knew that the proper answer he should give to a stranger asking about the sugary mixture he just poured down his throat was that it tasted decent, expensive even, like the club he was sitting in now.

“It’s kinda shit,” he felt a strange swell in his chest when you let out an unfiltered snort at his answer, leaning back with his arms folded in front of his chest as he licked his lips, “yours?”

You lifted up the glass and necked down the rest of the coloured water, smacking your lips as the sweetness spread in your mouth. “Like the type of stuff they mark up and sell to high schoolers who couldn’t buy real alcohol.”

The bartender at the side threw you two a sharp look and you two sat up straighter, before bursting into a fit of laughter. He supposed you had to be tipsy at the very least and probably so was he, what sober person giggled like a child over trash talking overpriced liquor at a bar? “Why are you here at this trashy place?” you asked, now resting your chin on your palm with your elbow propping you up.

You did not know him, Atsumu was almost delighted by the fact that you likely just struck a conversation with him because he was another bored person trying to escape to the sidelines of dancing bodies just like you with no other intentions. “Got an invite and couldn’t say no because of work reasons,” he wasn’t exactly lying, he just didn’t say that he was supposed to be one of the main guests of this function.

“Ooo...” you let out a soft whistle, tilting your upper body forward him, “are you a big shot?”

He smirked.

Yes. “Not entirely.”

“Hm...” you sat back, your smile pursed as you tapped your finger on the table, “not denying it, huh?”

The vibration of your hum sent shivers to his spine and he blamed it on the very spiked drink he just gulped down. Atsumu ran his hand through his hair, a move he discovered in his teenage years that could let him smoothly fixed his hair while also flexing his arm. “I try to stay humble,” he replied, earning him a playful eye roll from you.

The melting ice clinked in the glass when he held it up against his lips, still looking at you from the corner of his eyes as he tilted it and let the pungent liquid run down his throat. 

You nodded, returning to the laid back posture you kept before he sat down next to you at the dim corner of the bar table when you realised he wasn’t going to say more. “Fair enough,” you pretended to sound disappointed, holding your hand out in front of you to swiftly turn your attention away.

“You?”

“Got dragged here by a friend who works for the organiser,” you huffed, “don’t even know anyone here besides from them.”

Atsumu felt the warm buzz of the liquor spreading from his stomach to the rest of his body, settling onto his face as a tipsy fever. He did not look away from you and he was sure it was exactly what you wanted, mindlessly toying with your hand as you faced away from him. Your shoulders pulled back as you slid the thin ring off your index finger smoothly with your thumb, twisting it with the tips of your fingers before letting it fell down another one, all while pushing your hips back against the stool as you crossed your legs.

“Nice ring,” he tipped his chin slightly.

“Oh, this one,” you held your hand out to him, spreading your fingers apart to show him. You pulled back just slightly when he reached out, grinning teasingly at him when he quirked his brow up.

“my grandma gave it to me before she passed away,” you sighed, caressing the band that sat on your finger dreamily, “shoved it into my hand on her death bed and made me swore to never lose it, said it was given to her by her first love when she was a girl.”

“Oh,” Atsumu let out a soft gasp, “oh wow, I-”

He rolled his eyes when you broke out into laughter, the longing expression all gone from your face as you let out a hiccup through your giggling. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

He clicked his tongue, letting out a huff, “Lying isn’t good.”

“Neither is talking to a stranger at a club but I’m still here,” you wet your lips as you flashed a childish smirk, showing him your hand again. He was certain that he was drunk now, because there was no other way he could excuse the pounding in his chest when you didn’t pull away this time as he reached out to hold your hand for a better look.

“I got this as a pack of 5 for 800 yen online,” you said proudly, “quite the deal, if you ask me.”

He hummed in approval, letting out a shaky breath when you slowly pulled your hand out of his grip, the tip of your finger ticking the center of his palm before you lifted it away. It sent electricity trickling down his spine, the feeling of your touch lingering on his skin even as you were steps away from him again, once again staring at him with a smile tugging on your face like you were waiting for his move.

Was it a challenge or was it an invite? Either way, he was ready to take on whatever you were offering.

“You still owe me some sort of compensation for toying with my poor heart like that,” he mused, mimicking the way you leaned towards him from before.

You sniggered, “And what do you want from a poor stranger like me?”

The music playing through the speakers stopped temporarily and for a moment, the projected light illuminated his figure briefly before moving to another spot. You had not taken a good look at him until now, knowing full well that the attractiveness of anyone under the pink, dim glow of the bar was not to be trusted.

But he was really, really good-looking, even when you could actually see his face properly. 

The next song started playing and the party people on the dance floor cheered. The loudness that returned made your head ache and you scrunched your nose in annoyance as the dj yelled into the mic. Atsumu threw his head back as the music returned, tapping his finger against his jaw.

“How about,” he said, knowing that you and he were likely to be on the same page, “you make it up to me by letting me buy you a drink somewhere where the drinks aren’t shit?”

You chuckled at his unfiltered suggestion, your laughter slurring into a hum as you grabbed your clutch by the side of the bar. “I can make up to you,” you asked as you stood up, tilting your head to your side, “by letting you pay for me?” 

He nodded, smoothing out his shirt as he got up from his stool too. 

You shrugged, pressing your palm to your face to let the coldness of your hand calm down the heat on your face as you grinned.

“Take me somewhere nice then, big shot.”

Even through his tipsy haze, Atsumu was sure that this was the most irrational thing he had done in a while but as you took his arm while he pulled you through the crowd and out in the open after being stuck in the same space with many drunk and sweaty bodies afterwards, he was quite certain that he couldn’t care less whether this was stupid or not.

If he had any regrets about it, he would just blame it on the alcohol.

-

Now that he was staring at a fake gold ring you got as a pack of 5 for not even a thousand yen, Atsumu could only tear at his own hair in regret when he realised that he didn’t ask for your name or contact at any point during which you went from the first bar to one he actually liked, then to many other because there was no way he would get this drunk after just two drinks, and finally stumbled through the door of his own house, before you disappeared as if you had never been there at all.

It was all the alcohol’s fault, fuck alcohol.

It was not his first time taking a near-stranger home and even though he wouldn’t want to say it out loud to people, he also couldn’t guarantee that this was the last time either. He should just forget about it and move on with his day, maybe make some tea, maybe get some soup to cure this heaviness in his head so he wouldn’t make it too obvious that he hadn’t been taking care of himself the way he really should. After all, there was really nothing he could do about it since he didn’t know anything about you other than what you looked like and that you wore cheap jewelry. But it left a strange tightness in his chest when he toyed with the gold ring in his hand, knowing full well that drunk or not he did enjoy his time with you even before it really got to the fun fun part.

He really should have just asked for your name like a normal person instead of trying to look cool and mysterious the moment you talked to him at the bar.

Miya Atsumu let out a sigh no one was there to hear as he slowly accepted the fact that not only was he hungover, he was also hung up, and put the only evidence he had of you ever being there with him into the key tray by his door.

He would figure out what to do with it later but for now, he was starving. 

So Atsumu set off for the only one place he could think of that couldn’t kick him out no matter how annoying of a customer he was.

“Say, Samu...” 

Miya Osamu sighed, putting the plate he was drying at the side and let the damped towel fell from his hand onto the side of the sink. His twin had finished his food a long while ago yet he was refusing to leave, planting his face down at his counter like a pile of mush as he took up the precious space of Onigiri Miya’s bar seat. Osamu liked to think that he was a supportive brother , by all means. He fed Atsumu, listened to his childish whines and didn’t kick him out when he started getting so loud that the other patrons sent him a worried glance. Maybe he should have pretended that he was about to head out for errands when he saw his twin marching in, slumping down on the stool like he owned the place (Miya Atsumu claimed that he had unlimited access by relation, Miya Osamu denied it with his life and told all his employees to just kick his twin out if he said that bullshit to them).

He was so nice, Osamu thought to himself, he was far too nice.

“What is it?” he said, crossing his arms in front of his chest when he heard Atsumu’s muffled voice.

“Do you think it’s possible to fall in love with someone without knowing their name?”

Oh god, what was he up to again?

“Depends,” Osamu snorted, picking his towel again when he realised that it was nothing too serious that he should stop his work to listen to, “if it happens to someone else, then sure, maybe, everything is possible. But if you're telling me that you think you’re in love with someone you don’t know,” he paused, before breaking into a wide grin, “I think I might laugh.”

“Hey!” Atsumu yelled, his fist slamming on the counter as he snapped his head up. The bang caught the attention of several other customers at the shop and Osamu sent them an apologetic bow before glaring at Atsumu who was rubbing his aching hand for slapping it against the wooden surface. “I’m being serious,” he muttered.

“Alright then,” Osamu nodded absent-mindedly, "so what are you going to do about it?”

Atsumu’s raised hand froze in the air before he slowly, robotically put it down, down, down until it was back on the counter together with the rest of his upper body.

Osamu’s nodding got firmer now, letting out yet another snigger, “Thought so.”

Atsumu let out a groan, deflating onto the counter more and more with each whine. He looked sad and pathetic, even more so than he usually was and even Osamu who was born immune to whatever teary rent he put on was starting to get concerned.

“Was the sex really that good?”

“it is not about the sex,” Atsumu mumbled, leaning his chin on top of his folded arms as he sighed, “I just... think we had a connection.”

Osamu laughed, the ugly kind, and earned himself a sharp glare. “A connection, huh?” he giggled, “you’re down bad.”

“It’s not funny...”

Hiccuping as he tried to calm himself down, Osamu placed a hand onto the kitchen counter to steady himself as his body vibrated. 

“I still think you’re overreacting,” Osamu took in a deep breath, catching up after finally regaining his posture, “besides, you’re technically a public figure, right? If you can’t find them, why don’t you just try and get them to find you instead?”

Atsumu’s hiss about how he wasn’t overreacting stuck at the back of his throat when paused and thought of what Osamu had suggested.

“Huh,” he sat up a little straighter, eyes rolling inside of their sockets as he pondered, “that’s actually not a bad idea.”

"Of course it’s not,” Osamu huffed, “I’m the smart twin.”

“What did you just-”

Osamu ignored Atsumu���s glare, turning around to resume his work now that he seemed to have fulfilled his responsibility as a brilliant, amazing brother. He gave it a month, no, two weeks max before his brother forgot all about this person and moved on as if Atsumu had never shown up in front of his door with puffy eyes and a love-sick expression. 

Oh, he just couldn’t wait to hear all the excuses and denial when he brought it up again the next time they get into a petty argument.

-

It was a terrible idea.

The Inarizaki volleyball alumni group chat exploded when the first post of what would be many to come was published for the world to see. Suna Rintarou, always so quick with capturing his old teammates embarrassing moments, kicked Atsumu out before he sent out links, screenshots, and pinged every single member of the group who did not read his message immediately. Miya Osamu refused to speak up about it, keep denying that he knew anything about it.

“I do not know this person,” his fingers hurt from how fast he was typing, not even bothering to correct the typos in his message before hitting send to clear his name, “I have no idea what has gotten into him but I’m not responsible for it.”

He was, in fact, telling the truth. Osamu was just as shocked and wide-eyed as everyone else was when he came across his twin’s post on Instagram as he scrolled through his feed mindlessly after work. Let us just say that all his sleepiness was gone when he saw his twin’s pretentious selfie of him standing in front of a window (shirtless), his hand holding onto the frame as he looked out into the grey sky. The posture was optimal for him to flex his back, letting the light seeping out around his frame do the trick of accentuating his muscles. Atsumu’s face was not entirely in the frame but Osamu did not need to see to know that he had his eyebrows furrowed, his gaze lowered into a look that was supposed to convey the message of “wow look at me, I’m so sad, and I’m also hot”.

Miya Osamu felt a metallic ting in his mouth when he imagined Atsumu’s face, so heart-wrenchingly similar to his own, making that look.

He got spammed by the group chat as soon as he clicked out of the app in horror, refusing to look at that monstrosity any longer. Ginjima was losing his mind, Akagi sent out strings of just him keyboard smashing, Oomimi replied with a very concerned sticker and proceed to not show up again, Kita who was not actually on Instagram at all said it wasn’t very nice of them to make fun of their friend like that but also didn’t quit the group chat himself. Ojiro was the last one to reply, seeming to be rather irritated after Suna kept tagging him and tagging him until he finally went online. Unlike the others who were still comprehending what had possibly got into their friend, he sent out a screenshot but this time with the caption of the post highlighted.

“Is he ok? Did he got dumped or something?”

Osamu did not look at the caption before it was brought to his attention, already feeling the impact sufficiently enough from the visual itself. He felt chills running through his arms and spreading to his entire body when he glanced at the string of words, his face scrunching up in disgust at how any sane person could type it out with their own hands.

“My world had not seen light since the day you left it without saying goodbye.”

He silently switched his status to “do not disturb” when the group chat exploded once again, knowing exactly what this was and that he was fully responsible for the pain he was experiencing right now.

Osamu tried to convince Atsumu that if anyone saw these, the only thing it would persuade them to do was run away instead of reaching out to him but it was to no avail. He was convinced that this was romantic and if he kept it up, it would create enough buzz that would possibly lead the stranger he was hoping to stumble across one of these painfully awful posts and recognise him. The posts kept coming and every day, Osamu felt more and more of an impulse to just block him for good so he wouldn’t have to open his feed each day with the fear of seeing things he did not want to see. 

One day, on a beautiful weekend morning, when he finally had time to sit down and have a nice breakfast without rushing, Osamu opened his feed to see a glorious picture of his twin chest down (shirtless) on the bed, with the camera panning up to close up on his face from below. The blanket covered Atsumu’s torso loosely, showing just enough of his waist but not too much that he would get flagged. He had the lower half of his face behind his forearm, staring into the camera with such a sultry stare it made Osamu’s skin crawl.

“If I can start over, I’ll give up all I have just for another night with you.”

Osamu nearly didn’t manage to hold himself back from spitting out the water in his mouth.

The word slowly spread among the community. Suna, ever the enthusiastic teammate he was, shared his recently discovered source of joy with fellow EJP Raijin member Komori Motoya, who in turn spammed the latter’s cousin who had no choice but to acknowledge his teammate’s questionable online presence. Sakusa didn’t think he could ever have such a reaction to something that was not physically there to bother him and proceed to show it to the nearest person he could grab in the locker room, but not without reporting the post for containing unsettling images. 

If he had to suffer, then he must make sure that there was someone else suffering with him too. Sakusa had no intention of being the only person who had to see Miya’s pretentious bathroom selfie where he stared into the camera all while running his fingers through dampened hair along with a caption Sakusa did not even want to read in his head. The “someone”, captain Meian Shugo who was really not paid enough for this, sighed as he wondered if this was worth reporting to management as a potential pr crisis. Tomas, somewhat curious by the look on his captain’s face, asked if this was the current social media trend in Japan to which all the players present fought to clear that misconception from his head in order to defend their nation’s honour. 

Bokuto looked it up after hearing about the whispers and chats between breaks. “Why, this isn’t that bad!” he said cheerfully, “There are people complimenting him in the comments too! Look!” 

The rest of the team spent a good chunk of time convincing him that he should think more cautiously about it when he suggested that perhaps he should try to take on this dynamic posing style for his social media accounts too.

It sure did stir up quite the storm among his fellow athletes and the many fans that were wondering what exactly, or who exactly, it was that caused this sudden shift in his behaviour online. The few people who knew the reason for Atsumu’s melancholy, namely Osamu and some others who could not escape from a venting Atsumu, were almost certain that you would have to at least see his face somehow. If he was still hearing nothing, then it was probably about time he gives up and accepts that you just didn’t want anything to do with him.

One thing that these men who put their entire lives into volleyball failed to take into account, however, was that not every person in the world was particularly interested in the sport that lived and breathed. For people who only heard about the sport if the Olympics were coming up, whatever the players were up to in their private lives was probably not something they would care too much about.

Sadly, for Miya Atsumu, the exact person he was looking for was one of those people.

“The fans are starting to go crazy, no one has any idea what is going on with him,” you pulled your phone slightly further away from your poor ears as your friend let out an exasperated yell from the other end of the call. 

They lost you when they started talking about this athlete they had a celeb crush on and how they had been acting very strange in their posts lately, realising that this would become one of their ramblings about people with names you barely remember. They bombed your phone in the middle of the day when they found out that their company would be sponsoring a sports team they were obsessed with and did not stop until you threatened to block them until they had calmed down. You still hadn’t forgiven them completely for disappearing out of nowhere after begging you to attend a company function with them all with the reasoning that if they came across one of the players that would also be invited, you could be there to stop them from embarrassing themselves. That was not entirely useful, given that they were whisked away by their colleagues not even an hour into the event and leaving you all on your own.

If it wasn’t for them, then none of the events following that night would have ever happened.

But the past was past and as they called you again to talk about how they were heartbroken because their fav might be seeing someone, you did not stop them, obviously, since you were a great friend.

A sigh called your attention back and you silently closed your dash of animal videos to focus on what they were saying. “Are you even listening?”

“Uhm...” you hummed, “emo thirst traps, you were saying?”

“We tried to dig down all the accounts he was following but no one was posting anything that might match up to his posts,” they let out a whine.

“So,” you said, “are you still going to see him this weekend even if you are heartbroken or?”

They gasped before you suggested that if they didn’t want to go anymore, then you would do something else rather than sitting through a game you were not interested in. “Of course we’re still going!” they emphasised on the ‘we’, “who knows when I’ll get front row tickets again once the sponsorship ends and they aren’t giving the company tickets anymore!”

They paused. “You’re still going with me,” it sounded more like a threat and a statement than a question, and they asked again when you didn’t reply, “you’re going with me, aren’t you?”

You sighed. They were usually pretty laid back, except when it has something to do with volleyball. What was it with volleyball? It was like... football but with hands, tennis without a rack, basketball but with no basket. Ball sports, they were all the same in your eyes. But despite your lack of interest, the truth was that you wouldn’t have anything else to do if you didn’t go with them anyways and you did promise you would go as long as you didn’t have to pay a single dollar.

So you sighed again, earning you a displeased click of the tongue from the other end of the call.

-

Your lack of interest maintained when the day came. You didn’t think you had ever been to a stadium when there was a game going on before and the arena was already filling up with people waiting to get it by the time you were there. You were delightedly surprised when you learnt that there would be vendors selling food, silently deciding that the very nice yakionigiri you got from one of the stalls might just be the highlight of your day. 

The staff at the store looked vaguely familiar, but you had no idea where you would have possibly seen him before.

When the lights of the venue switched off out of nowhere and the crowd cheered, perhaps you could finally start to understand why your friend was such a fanatic for sports. There was something exciting and grand about the bright spotlights and the announcer’s voice pounding through your ears from the speakers. You peeked at your side to see your friend’s eyes glimmering in a way you had never seen before and chuckled to yourself, leaning back with your legs crossed to watch the game in a better position as the players’ names were called one by one.

You froze in place when you saw a very familiar face on every screen around the stadium. 

“Number 13, Miya Atsumu!”

What happened to not being a big shot?

Screams filled up the stadium, especially ear grating when the loudest person seemed to be the one right next to you but your mind was an utter state of blank. You were not expecting to see him again, ever again but here you were, with the next several hours of your life stuck watching the man you ditched after a drunken one night stand in the very front row. He looked more put together than your last image of him, the tussled hair replaced by a careful side swoop and the fitted jersey giving him a fresher look compared to the suit he met you in. He seemed to enjoy the attention, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips as he marched out and waved languidly around the stadium. 

You thanked the genius who separated the court and the seats into two floors, hiding you away with the distance even though you were sitting at the very front.

“Oh my god, he’s looking at this direction, he’s looking at this direction!” your friend’s vigorous tug at your sleeve brought your void gaze back to the court.

You were convinced that there was no way he could spot you from that far away. Hell, it was still up to question whether he could see any of the audience with all the lights shining onto his face. But for a moment, just a brief moment, you had a gut feeling that your eyes met in that split second when you looked down and his gaze stopped at right where you were.

“What are you looking at?” Hinata asked, turning his head to the direction Atsumu kept stealing glances at as they lined up in front of the net but saw nothing.

Atsumu shook his head, giving a laugh to pass off the moment when he lost his composure when he thought he saw the face he kept thinking of since that night in the crowd. It has got to be an illusion, he must have been blinded by the lights. Stupid lights, he cursed under his breath before turning to his teammate. “It was nothing,” he smiled, his gaze shifting to the corner he thought he saw you at before quickly snapping back to the court, “just... thought I saw someone I know.”

He did not look at you again throughout the game much to your relief. But this time, you found it hard to stop your eyes from following him around. You would like to argue that it was because you didn’t know any of the other players and the way your friend kept gushing whenever he did something made it hard for you to ignore him but the way he seemed to flourish on court. Something inside of you jumped whenever he scored a point and the live cameras panned up at his face again, showing the satisfied grin and slanted eyes plastered on him. He did what he does so well and with so much confidence and for some reason, that explained to you just why you decided to leave with him that night at the club in the strangest way possible. 

He was, still, very good-looking even under the lights and under your sober judgement, perhaps even more so than your blurry memory of how he looked like with a flushed face. But the true hit to your chest was when the entire stadium was watching him as he got to the serving position, taking strides forward before raising his hand to the air.

The world stopped when the entire ground fell to silence at his command, and you took a deep, shaky inhale when you thought of how this person had kissed you again and again on a drunken night until you were both out of breath.

-

Atsumu was almost 99.9% sure he truly did see you when the match ended.

That last 0.1% was deducted because it was a really good match ending with a win for the Black Jackals and as hot-headed as he could be, he knew better than to believe everything that his adrenaline-filled brain was trying to tell him. But with the spotlights of the stadium dimmed and his full attention no longer required on the court, Atsumu looked straight at where he was sure you had sat the moment the stadium doors opened and people started leaving. It was a blurry glance, just a quick in and out of his vision but he was sure he saw you slipping out of the front row before disappearing into the stairs. 

He knew he could still be wrong, but the sudden realisation that he might be the closest to you now than he would ever be again left him frozen in the middle of the court as he stared blankly at the exit. Reporters were starting to gather around the players and his presence was expected, but his legs started moving before the call of his name by the rest of his team could land on his ear. 

Pushing through the crowd, the gasps and shocked chatters of the guests who saw the player they just watched dashing out the stadium were none of his concern. All he cared about was to run faster, faster, past the hall and past the people of the stalls that were packing up. He might have just mistaken someone else for you and if it really was you, you might have already left before he could get to the front entrance of the stadium but that did not matter. The only thing that mattered to him right now was that you had been there and if he ran fast enough, there was still a chance that his search all along would not be in vain.

Miya Atsumu was not exactly a believer of fate or a divine destiny but as he stumbled with tired legs down the steps of the grand glass door, he silently made a bet with the beings he wasn’t sure were truly there that if he missed you this time, he would take the defeat that your paths were not meant to cross again and give up.

And the beings, who Atsumu believed was actually there for the first time ever, answered his calls.

“Wait!”

Your feet planted into the concrete when you heard a yell behind you. Your jaw dropped when you hesitantly turned around to see him, whose name you now know thanks to the match, stopping just a few steps away from you with his hands on his knees, seemingly out of breath with his arm reached out. His eyes widened when he looked up and saw that you had stopped there, and you were exactly who he thought you might be. He was heaving, sweat drenching his face but he still took a few stumbled steps towards you until he was right in front of you. 

A few words fell out of his mouth but were cut short by his panting. Your head was still not reacting when he finally managed to stand back up, looking right at you even as his breathing stayed erratic.

What does one say to a one night stand that they ditched right when the morning comes?

“So,” you blurted, trying to ignore the heat on your face and the anxiousness in your chest, “not a big shot, huh?”

He let out a snort, his voice cracking as he ran his hand down his face to wipe away the sweat that was starting to get into his eyes. He could finally take the time to look at you now, after confirming that you would not disappear if he did so little as blink.

You were gorgeous, and suddenly all the things he had wanted to say to you sounded ridiculously stupid.

I tried to look for you.

“You left your ring at my place,” he said, his voice still shaking from the sprint he took, growing softer and softer with each word that came out.

“Oh,” you replied, nodding stiffly to try and brush away your nerves.

“Yeah,” he nodded too, and opened his mouth again after taking a gulp to swallow down the knot at the back of his throat, “we should arrange a time to meet so you can take it back from me.”

“Oh,” you stood just a little straighter, “but-” 

But it was just one of the five I got in a pack so it really, really didn’t matter that much.

“You said,” he looked down, holding back a smile as he thought of what you had said to him, “you said your grandma made you swore to never lose it.”

He remembered.

“Yes,” you pressed your lips together to stop the chuckle from coming out, “yes I was.”

“So you should come and get it back from me,” he suggested, the last note of his sentence going up as if he wasn’t sure of himself either.

“Yeah,” he beamed when you smiled sheepishly, “I should.”

“Ok good, good,” he murmured in joyful disbelief, grinning ear to ear. The grin faded suddenly when he thought of one very important thing he had forgotten to do last time and must not forget this time.

“Can I have your name?”

You burst out into laughter. “You can have my number too, if that’s what you want,” you mused, “Miya.”

 A rush of heat washed through his face at the sound of his name out of your mouth. He would die if you call him by his first name later on, he was sure of it.

“Yes,” he said almost embarrassingly fast, “yes I would love that. I-” he groaned when he realised that he still had his phone in his jacket that was left in the locker room.

“Wait for me here,” he had already started walking backwards, snapping towards you with his hand out as he added in panic, “don’t go anywhere!”

You still hadn’t stopped laughing when he sprinted back into the stadium again like his life depended on it.

-

Bonus

Miya Atsumu deleted all of the posts he made during his search for you the moment he added your contacts into his phone, but what he did not count was that there were other people who would preserve those precious memories for him.

It was a few weeks after he caught up to you in front of the stadium and several days after your relationship went public. Your friend had nearly torn your eardrums apart when they learnt that you were the mysterious person they had been hunting after but overall, dating Atsumu had been great, even to the point where you thought it was so stupid of you to run away from him in the first place.

You got a notification that someone direct messaged you on instagram as you were getting ready for a date night.

It was not someone you know but there was a verification mark next to his username. Clicking into his profile, you assumed that it must be one of Atsumu’s friends in the volleyball circle when you saw the line saying “EJP Raijin middle blocker”.

“Hi, I’m Suna, I was on the same high school team as your boyfriend was. I don’t think we have met but I’m sure we will be very good friends.”

Before you could manage to type out a reply, he sent you multiple pictures and you paused as they loaded, wondering what Atsumu’s old high school teammate might send you.

You blinked when the pictures finally finished loading, and silently dialed your boyfriend’s number.

“Do you have something you forgot to tell me about what you have done in order to try and find me online?”

[bumblesimagines]

Green Thumb

Part 14

Request: Yes or No

TW: Vision dying, the snap victims

Did I almost cry while writing this? Hell ya lmao I had to watch the movie in order to get everything right but im also just a big crybaby lol

Three for the price of one? More likely than you think

~

You gently leaned Vision against a branch, taking a seat beside him. You looked over at Wanda as she landed nearby. She rushed over to you and Vision.

"Are you two okay?" Wanda asked softly, placing a gentle hand on Visions cheek. He groaned in pain, hand going to the Mind Stone. You frowned, touching his arm.

"What? What is it?" Wanda asked, watching him in concern.

"He's here." Vision breathed out, looking around in a panic. You swallowed, a chill running down your spine. Wanda stared at him, a shakey breath leaving her. The team quickly grouped, keeping an eye out for Thanos. You met Buckys gaze, giving him a tired smile as he helped you up.

"You alright?" He asked. You nodded, leaning against him. You noticed movement, turning your head and seeing the giant. You took a small step away from Bucky, watching him.

"Cap... That's him." Bruce confirmed. Steve nodded, beginning to walk towards him. You watched as he effortlessly took out everyone. You glanced back at Wanda and Vision as Vision tried convincing her to destroy the stone. You frowned, looking forward.

"(Y/N)." Bucky grabbed your arm, frowning. You looked at him, offering a small smile.

"We'll be fine, Bucky." You assured before you walked forward, looking at Thanos. You raised your hands, making roots grab onto Thanos. They wrapped around his arms and neck, pulling back. Even if they didn't stop him, it saved Wanda time. You lowered one hand, crouching down and picking up the dagger. Thanos grunted, struggling against the roots. He lunged forward, the roots snapping.

"Oh, shit." You breathed out. You were close enough to stab the side of his stomach before he grabbed your shoulder, tossing you aside and throwing the dagger as well. You were thrown against a tree, making it snap.

"Fuck!" You grunted, head spinning. You shut your eyes tightly, opening them and seeing Wanda using her powers in the Mind Stone. She cried but didn't stop until it finally broke, sending a blast through the area. You looked up, watching Thanos approach Wanda.

"I know how you feel." Thanos said sympathetically. Wanda glared up at him through watery eyes.

"You could never." She whispered. Thanos gently patted her head, continuing towards where Vision once was. He rewound time so Vision was slowly constructed again.

"No!" Wanda screamed, running forward but she was thrown back. Thanos picked Vision up by the throat, pulling the Mind Stone out of his forehead. Your throat went dry as Vsion turned gray and limp. Thor finally appeared, throwing his axe in Thanos chest. You slowly crawled towards Wanda, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Wanda?" You stared down at her, trying to blink away tears. Wanda slowly sat up, a horrified gasp leaving her when she saw Vision. You looked up, seeing Thanos half burnt body and half destroyed gauntlet. He made a portal, going through it before anyone could react.

"Vision.." Wanda whimpered.

"Steve? (Y/N)?" You turned towards Bucky, eyes widening as he fell, turning to dust.

"Bucky?" You called out softly, watching Steve touch the dust in shock.

"Sam?" You called out in a panic, standing up and looking around.

"I'm here." Sam stood, stumbling forward but he fell, turning into a pile of dust.

"(Y/N).." Wanda whispered, making you turn to look at her. She turned to dust as well, panicked breaths leaving you.

"Where are they? What's going on?" You asked with a trembling voice, tears beginning to slip down your cheeks.

"He did it." Steve whispered. You furrowed your brows, making eye contact with Natasha. She frowned, approaching you.

"Oh, baby.." She whispered, giving you a tight hug. You hugged her back, mind racing. You suddenly pulled back.

"Mom and dad.." You breathed out. Natasha's lips parted, nodding. Steve slowly stood, picking Visions body up. The team made their way to the city. Okoye met up with the remaining Dora Milaje, telling them the news of T'Challa. By the time you all reached the city, T'Challa's mother and sister had gotten word. The Queen Mother greeted you and the team with a solemn look on her face. You could tell she was trying to stay strong and fight back tears.

"I need to go see them." You said quietly. Ramonda had Ayo take you and Natasha to a jet. Ayo held a strong face though her eyes were watered as she piloted. Natasha placed a gentle hand on your shoulder. You stayed silent, staring at the floor. Your mind went blank, trying to focus on calming yourself down. You and Natasha were dropped off at the farm. You felt immense relief upon seeing Clint, running towards him.

"Clint!"

(Y/N), oh thank god!" Clint quickly caught you, arms tightly wrapping around you. You couldn't stop the sobs that wrecked your body, legs buckling beneath you. You and Clint fell to the ground, still holding onto each other.

"They're gone.." You whispered, sniffling afterward as your body trembled.

"Bucky, Sam, Vision, Wanda.. All of them.. They just.. They just turned to dust." You told him in a shakey voice as you pulled back. You could literally see Clints heart break in half. You sniffled, noticing hotdogs on the bench outside.

"Where's mom?" You asked softly, looking at Clint. He stayed silent, staring at the ground. Your brows furrowed as you stared at him.

"Dad?"

"They're gone too, aren't they?" Natasha asked softly, standing behind you. Your face dropped, staring at him as your bottom lip trembled.

"No, no.. They can't.. They couldn't have.." You stood up, stumbling slightly. You glanced at the bench, walking towards the house.

"Mom? Lila? Cooper? Nate?" You called into the empty house, searching for your family. Every room downstairs was empty. You quickly went upstairs, almost tripping as you entered each room. Cooper and Lila's rooms were as messy as always but with no sign of them. You entered Nathaniels' room, almost stepping on a drawing of his. You reached down, picking it up with shakey hands.

"Oh, Nate.." It was of the whole family. It was poorly drawn but it was easy to tell who was who. Tear drops fell onto the paper. You walked towards your room, sitting on the bed. You held tightly into the drawing, holding it against your chest as you cried. You took in short breaths and closed your eyes, letting out a scream full of anger, sadness, and exhaustion. When you opened your eyes, you saw most of your room covered in ice.

"I'm so fucking tired.." You whispered, watching the ice slowly retract.

"I can't have one good thing without it being taken." You muttered, looking out the window. Natasha comfored Clint, most likely having explained everything to him. Natasha left not long after, taking a motorcycle. You licked your lips, hearing Clint step inside the house. It was too silent. You were so used to hearing Laura talking or humming along to whatever song played on the radio, Cooper attempt to teach Nate new words, Lila ask Clint about his work as Hawkeye. You heard Clint heavy footsteps head up the stairs and stop at your door.

"You should take a break from work." Clint said quietly. You kept your stare on the window, mind blank again.

"Okay.." You heard Clint walk away from your room, heading back downstairs. You let out a shakey sigh, reaching out to the device you used to speak to Bucky with. You clicked on the button.

Calling White Wolf...

Call failed.

Your jaw clenched, eyes watering again. Your brows furrowed, noticing one option appear.

Replay previous calls?

You hesitantly clicked on it, brows lifted and lips parting as recordings of all the calls you made with Bucky appeared. You could listen to his voice and see his face again on repeat. You felt some sense of relief. You stood up, grabbing some clothes and a towel. You entered the bathroom, stripping and grunting softly. You turned around, looking at the mirror.

"Fuck.." You breathed out, seeing the bruises. You sighed, turning on the shower and waiting for it to heat. You entered, standing under the water. You watched the blood and dirt go down the drain, slightly leaning against the wall.

"What the hell are we gonna do now?" You closed your eyes, running a hand over your face. You licked your lips, finishing your shower and getting out. You carefully dried off, changing and stepping out. You grabbed your phone, checking the news. Half of Earths' population gone. There was confusion, chaos, and fear.

"Where the fuck is Tony?" You asked yourself, noticing some articles about him missing. They had been published before people turned to dust. You clicked on the video, watching it.

"Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, was last seen in his suit flying towards what appeared to be a space ship. Since then, he has not made an appearance and his future wife, Pepper Potts, has neither denied or confirmed his disappearance."

"This is a big fat shit show." You whispered, turning off your phone and standing up. You left your room, heading down the steps and seeing Clint staring at Lilas' old toy bunny.

"I didn't know Tony was getting married." You said quietly, watching him. Clint gave an amused smirk, nodding as he looked at you.

"Neither of us were invited.. Wonder why." Clint said softly. You approached him, sitting beside him and leaning against him.

"At least we have each other."

~

Tags: @geek-and-proud @wolfelocksley

[henryhas2moms]

who’s a swiftie? ouat edition

regina is the biggest swiftie of all!! (and she’s only a little embarrassed about it) the horse girl romanticism! the edgy persona! the doomed love affairs! she has at least three different playlists— one for crying that includes white horse, sad beautiful tragic, the archer, one for feeling like a bad bitch that’s mostly just songs from reputation along with blank space and the last great great american dynasty, and an emma playlist that includes peace, hoax, state of grace, haunted… dress. she had a henry playlist but it’s just her listening to never grow up on repeat while henry’s on his little motorcycle trip or when he’s at the charming’s place for the weekend

emma is NOT a swiftie! but she does have a fond nostalgia for the older country hits she remembers from the radio— our song, you belong with me, even red. but when regina makes her listen to folklore/evermore though and she stares into space for minutes seconds while seven plays. some more songs eventually grow on her. when she moves out of her parents house she listens to never grow up and has a little cry.

henry is a swiftie! he loves folklore/evermore and her more storytelling songs, and the fairytale motifs in speak now. long live is integral to his parent trap playlist, and it eventually becomes a big swan mills family song and henry loves to listen to it and mythologize their lives

snow is absolutely a swiftie! she loves the cute sappy love songs like love story, enchanted, wildest dreams, lover. she plays yntcd for emma and emma is like “greeeeeat… thaaaaaanks mom! 😬” she tells regina it’s nice to have a friend makes her think of her and regina doesn’t have the heart to tell her it’s on her emma playlist so she makes a snow playlist that spans from seven to look what you made me do to inthaf.

(regina’s snow playlist is more of a narrative while her emma playlist is more angsty love songs bc if she used a taylor swift song for every way she’s ever felt about emma that would be like. every taylor swift song lol)

david is not really a swiftie but he also likes the cute little pop songs especially the family ones like the best day, never grow up, superman

zelena likes the pop albums, 1989, reputation, bits of lover, anything fun and sexy! but everytime taylor has a feud she sides with the other person just to piss regina off (and even though regina is more invested in the music than the celebrity, it always works), katy perry, kim and kanye, karlie kloss (“who the hell cares about karlie kloss??” “she codes! she’s a girl boss!” “who the hell cares about coding??”)

hook is not a swiftie lmao, he would actually be one of those people who say things like “support group for taylor swifts exes lol” “you’re friend sends you on a blind date with taylor swift— you have one hour before she starts writing a breakup album about you” that kind of misogynistic bullshit, but if he was he would like bad blood i don’t have a reason for this i just feel it

robin has a very literal interpretation of the archer and it makes regina SO mad for reasons she refuses to explain

ruby is a low-key swiftie! she likes the songs you can dance to, her favs are red and out of the woods ofc

mulan is like a closet swiftie bc she favors the sappy, pining love songs. she doesn’t want anyone to know about her soft side!

belle isn’t like a hard core swiftie, she’s more of an autumn acoustic coffee shop playlist girl, but she likes stories and romance of course she likes folklore

rumplestiltskin is not a swiftie

[buttcats]

it’s time for my ✨opinion✨

I don’t know how long this is going to be so I’m putting it under a read more :)

First up I’m gonna start by talking about the Warners, obviously. I honestly can’t really fault their redesigns, they’re basically perfect. I love how vibrant their clothes are and the little tufts of hair that Yakko and Wakko have are 10/10. They are slimmer than they used to be but I think it works wel

My only complaint is that Yakko is such a lanky beanpole now it’s hard to fit him into the dimensions for icons and not have a bunch of blank space around him, but that’s just a me problem

Their personalities, while almost exactly the same as in the original show, have a bit more depth to them. This is most obvious with Dot since she doesn’t talk about how cute she is all the time, which honestly I appreciate. Like we all know she’s adorable but she can have other characteristics too. Their dialogue is *chef kiss* and the jokes are so fuckin good. The anime designs were also so god damn well done. Dot is adorable, Yakko has such ~main character~ vibes and Wakko’s fit him amazingly

At first I didn’t really vibe with the designs of literally everyone else until I realised that these are just modern caricatures, the old Animanics also used this kind of style for the human characters they were just detailed in a different way. I just needed an adjustment period for these ones lol

Moving on to the writing and the songs, I think they did so well at staying true to the spirit of Animaniacs. The political jokes were on brand and I loved that Dot had a whole song about the first ladies. The voting song was a bop as well. I’ve been listening to Reboot It on repeat so I think that tells you how I feel about the songs

My main complaints, which are probably just because I don’t vibe with this particular kind of humour, lie in some of the visual jokes. The constant animating of people’s butt cheeks is really something I don’t find funny. It feels very Family Guy and I never really liked that show, but again that’s just a me thing. I know Animaniacs isn’t the height of critically acclaimed comedy but these kind of jokes just feel really, really lowbrow to me and feel a little out of place. Although now that I think about it, there was a sketch that was just Wakko burping a piece of classical music so I guess maybe not that out of place with original Animaniacs. I was kind of able to ignore these jokes anyway so they didn’t have a massive negative impact on me enjoying the show. I think maybe just the animating of people’s ass cheeks makes me uncomfy lmao. 

Overall I think the reboot was extremely well done and really stayed true to the vibes of the source material while also being able to stand on its own. It gets extra points for having the original voice actors come back to their roles. I had such a good time watching it and I know I’m going to be rewatching it again soon. 

[clearlyshyobservation]

Kokichi is dying (V3 chatfic, no particular ship)

TW: Infers abuse, talks about ableism, neglect, panic attack pretty much, depression, self loathing. never being good enough

i am so sorry but vr au's need to be sad, love yall :)

(Background info: This is set in a vr au, they are not with their fake memory parents (Ie; kaito's kind grandparents) but rather why they really have)

(Also i have no fucking clue what ship i was going for???? pretty sure they are all on the table, and kokichi talks like an idiot in this and i love it. Gonta's writing is based off of his Japanese talking style, so no more caveman talking).

USERNAMES:

(Space monkey: Kaito, Detective pikachu: shuichi, Elton john: kaede, Antman: gonta, Mr. Gonstealyoman: korekiyo, Atua's bitch: angie, emoboi: ryoma, be-boop: kiibo, bread roll: Maki, cum dumpster: miu, mommy: kirumi, Gremlin: Kokichi)

TLDR: Chaos ensues, slight angst

Gremlin: omfg im fucking sicK im gonna fucking die i bet this was kaitos bitch ass fault for coughing on me with his tuberculosis headass gROSSSSS I HATE EVERYTHINGGG

Space Monkey: i-

Space monkey: I didn't get you sick dumbass,,,, my tb is fugckin cured bi-

Bread roll: he's dramatic and gross dont believe him

Gremlin: yall mean for what?

Gremlin: i have a life taking disease and yall laughing i- 

Gremlin: see you at my funeral bitch

Detective pikachu: What are you sick with then

Gremlin: anythong bitch, im the universe

Antman: He sounds delusional, thats not good

Detective pikachu: He's always delusional, he's Kokichi

Mr. gonstealyoman: I guess this name is better than my old one

Mr. gonstealyoman: thank you kokichi :) I am glad we have come to an understanding

Gremlin: kay sexy

Gremlin: IGNRE WHAT I JUST SENT

Gremlin: IGNORE IT IGNORE IT IGNORE ITTTTT

Antman: who was that for???

Gremlin: NO ONE,,, 

Gremlin: Okay,,, maybe sexy tall men in general lowkey

Gremlin: okay,,,, maybe anyone over 6 feet 

Detective pikachu: i feel excluded

Detective pikachu: good, i don't like you kokichi, your an ass

Gremlin: u sound jelly shumaiiiiii

be-boop: perhaps he is telling the truth, you know,

be-boop: according to my data, in chapter four Shuichi stated that you will never have friends, and no one will ever like you

Gremlin: SHUT THE FUCK UP STOP MAKING ME FEEL BADBSKVKHDVKDSKJV

Antman: do you need me to come over? I can make you tea?

mommy: Do you know how to do that, Gonta? I can teach you?

Antman: Gonta does know, thank you very much. 

Antman: Gonta is not a child, Tojo-chan, please don't regard me as one

Antman: Gonta can cook, can clean, can be gentle, and has his own mind

Space monkey: but we're just making sure man, cuz, you know,,,, chapter 4

Antman: I am capable of things just like you!!!!!

Antman: Gonta doesn't know why you guys treat me like a child :(

Gremlin: yeah, hot stuff over there is basically a prodigy homies

Antman: Gonta is dumb though, don't say that.

Antman: Gonta is no prodigy, in fact, he is below average in everything

Gremlin: Whats ur test scores bitch

Antman: Gonta got a 98 on my english test,, but i wanted a 100, which would make Gonta actually smart :( 

Antman: Gonta is not good enough to be friends with you all

Antman: I can do basic stuff like tojo said...

Antman: maybe i do need help?

Antman: im not sure anymore:((((

Gremlin: THEY ARE ABLEIST GONTA,,, THEY FEEL SUPERIOR FOR TREATING UUUUU LIKE A CHILD

Detective pikachu: You sound really delusional Kokichi, maybe you should get sleep

Gremlin: S T F U, IM SPITTING ST8 FACTS BITCH

Detective pikachu: Sure you are. Now get some rest. 

Gremlin: GRRRR WHY WONT YOU LISTEN TO ME YOU IDIOTS??

Bread roll: Cause your stupid and aggressive

Gremlin: your personality, basically?

Bread roll: shut up at least i have a boyfriend

Gremlin: Technically, you just stole my frienemy 

Gremlin: Yall do be avoiding each other doe

Space Monkey: WE ARE NOT

Gremlin: Yeah yeah

Gremlin: yesterday i saw you to enter the same cafe by accident, duck your heads, then sit across the cafe from each other, all while  avoiding eye contact

Gremlin: Soooo,,, things not going well in paradise?

Detective pikachu: you're nosy

Gremlin: says the literal detective 

Space monkey: everythings fine your just a dickkkk

Gremlin: "oooo! Im momo-chan, i say bad word and go brrrrr"

Space monkey: im going to fucking stab him 

Gremlin: You cant, ive already enslaved you with my chaotic, yet cute hijinks, havent i~

Space monkey: STOP STOP NO NOT THE SQUIGLY

Gremlin: is it the sex? WHY DONT YOU MAKE EYE CNOTACT WITH UR LADY NO MORE 

Space monkey: ITS NOT THE SEX I HATE YOU

Gremlin: im free by the way at 8 ;)

Bread roll: STOP trying to steal my boyfriend kokichi, ive told you this before

Bread roll: NO

Bread roll: BODY

Antman: Gonta interrupts to say, Gonta loves you kokichi, and we should get flowers together, than maybe we can prank some people :D 

Bread roll: Ive never wanted to stab you more, gonta

Gremlin: I'd enjoy that very much, fine fellow ;)

Gremlin: but idk,,,, can you like take care of me first, cuz IM SICK BECAUSE OF KAITO TUBERCULOSIS ASS

Space monkey: I DONT HAVE TB ANYMORE

Gremlin: SURE YOU DONT 

Space monkey: I DONT

Gremlin:  BUT GUESS WHAT

Gremlin: YOU STILL SMOKE DUMBASS AND THATS NOT GOOD FOR U OR YOUR TUBERCULOSIS

Detective pikachu: He smokes?

Atua's bitch: he does, i walked in on him in the bathroom lmao

Atua's bitch: he was scared shitless and threw it out the window, needless to say atua does nt approve

Gremlin: DO YOU EVEN HAVE THE VACCINE????

Space monkey: Uh,,, i was taught vaccines were bad, so no i don't have the vaccine

Gremlin: I HATE OLD PEOPLE

Gremlin: ABOLISH OLD PEOPLEEEE

Gremlin: THEY SPREAD MISINFORMATION AND IT PHISCALLY HURTS ME TO SEEEEEE

Space monkey: your dramatic, it cant be that bad

Gremlin: say that when you catch it again

Gremlin: i swear you coughed on me like,,,, 5 weeks ago tho

Antman: OOOO! Fun fact: Tuberculosis can lay dormant from 3 months to a few years! 

Space monkey: u guys are just trying to scare me

Bread roll: Just checked the chat after using the br and,,m YOUDONT HAVE YOU VACCINES???

Detective pikachu: Im sorry, but kaito, please,,,,, for the love of god get vaccines

Space monkey: alright alright, ill do it cuz you guys are all on my case and i don't like being the villain :(

Gremlin: Im so happy i have gonta with me rn, he is making me tea while yall rot in your distant ass relationship (THIS IS FOR YOU KAITO)

Space monkey: Im going to destroy your bloodline in about three seconds if you dont stfu right fucking now

Gremlin: Hhehe i have an inaprwopwiate joke uwu

emoboi: STOP PLEASE DEAR GOD

cum dumpster: wHAt Is iT YOU WHORE

Gremlin: i was gonna say wouldn't he need to like,,,, have sex with my family to weed out my bloodline or something??

cum dumpster: i-

cum dumpster: Why am i acting surprised, ive watched porn with more extravagant plots than this

cum dumpster: ie; are you guys FUCKING? RIGHT INFRONT OF MY SALAD??? is one i will cherish with my soul

emoboi: hehe why did she point out the salad

Space monkey: I hate u kokichi, i truly do

Gremlin: I bet if you got the chance u would kiss me space boy :P

Bread roll has left the chat

Space monkey: o god is she ddoing one of those bf loyalty tests or smthing???

Space monkey: now im nervous lmao

Gremlin: why you so nervous stupid~~~~

Gremlin: It not like ur cheating on her homie

Space monkey: It's just a placebo effect

Gremlin: My brain feels fried Momo-chan,, i don't understand big boy words right now

Space monkey: Basically, if you take a pill that doesn't do anything but you don't know that and believe it does, you will scientifically start to feel better

Gremlin: first and only time saying this, but thank you 

Space monkey: HEHEHEB YOU SAID THANK YOU YOU SAID THANK YOUYOU SAID THANK YOUYOU SAID THANK YOUYOU SAID THANK YOU

Gremlin: Kaito,,, imma need you to do me a favor and look up on your ceiling

Space monkey: i hate you, idk what it is, but i hte you

Gremlin: good <3

Space monkey: HE REPLACED ALL MY THE STARS ON MY CELING WITH FUCKIBG DICKSSS

Space monkey: THIS IS THE LST FUCKING STRAW IM GONNA LOSE IT

Space monkey: IF MY GRANDPARENTS SEE THIS BULLSHIT THEY ARE GOING TO KILL ME, SLAP ME, MAYBE BREAK MY NECK AND DESTROY MEE

Space monkey: Im GENUINLEY panicing HOW TF am i gona get this off my wal???? They are going to bbat me senselpess help me shUichi

Detective pikachu: o god, i can sense the sheer pain and scaredness in  that tet, 

Detective pikachu: are you for real gong to get hurt or are you pulling a kokichi?

Space monkey: FUCKING HELP ME IM NOT FUCKING JOKINGKABKCB HELP THEY ARE NOT HOME RN THEY ARE LIKEE,,,, 40 MINUTES AWAY PLEASEE 

Gremlin: okay,,, maybe this wasn't the best prank.,,, i guess i'll help clean up cuz im not that much of a sociopath

Gremlin: tbh my parents can go shove it too lowkey terrible 0/10 

Space monkey: AHHHH IM SO SCARED PLS PSL GET HERE FAST

be-boop: Of course, i will come, i will survey the outside of the house

Antman: Gonta is coming too! We will get this done in under 40 minutes!

Space monkey: OKAY

Gremlin: Lowkey, if i cough on you ignore it bitch your the one who made me like this

Space monkey: W HA TDONT COUGH ON ME IM NOT SICK ANYMORE

Gremlin: I will give you TB again just cuz your making me suffer

Space monkey: Suffer what??? putting dicks on my FUCKING WALL???

Gremlin: Guilt, idiot, im feeling guilty. 

cum dumpster: oof thats new

emoboi: yeah i wasn't expecting it

Mr.gonstealyoman: Me neither. It is rather peculiar seeing it being texted by him because he is always feels not guilty of his bad actions.

be-boop: I do believe he means it, though...

emoboi: impossible.

cum dumpster: i agree, literally impossible.

Gremlin: I HAVE A FUCKIBG SOUL YOU CRazY CONSPIRACISTS

Antman: Quick question, shuichi can i stay with you again? It'll be dark when i get home and gonta can't do that so,,, please help

Detective pikachu: my parents are like blank slates, who eat slowly, watch tv slowly, and never look at me. Im sure they wouldn't mind :P

Antman: ALRIGHT! :D LETS GET MISSION: MR. MOMOTA ROOM REPAIR DONE!

Gremlin: ooo! I like the name! IM INNNN! 

Detective pikachu: On it!

be-boop: Ready for look out!

Space monkey: I love you guys :)

AN: Im lowkey sorry i ended this chaotic mess with angst,,,, but like fr i love it i love angst,, i hate reading it but love writing it

[capricornus-rex]

Someone Left to Save (10)

Cal Kestis x Reader

Requested by Anon

Summary: The Mantis crew arrives to the capital of Ulfin, in the planet of Pevera, under siege. They meet the local rebel cell spearheaded by the former Republic admiral, Jax Beneb, who seeks to destroy the Empire’s occupation that was aggressively imposed upon while exploiting the planet of its natural resources. A plan is devised to destroy the Imperial’s main base of operations—as well as their influence—in the planet; however, it was a do-or-die mission that you and Cal had gotten yourselves caught in.

A/N: What isn’t strictly prohibited but you feel its illegal? Writing drafts of my fanfic in my office desktop LMAO the banking industry here can be pretty tight with their rules tho. AAAAAHH So sorry I haven’t been posting!!! For the past 2 days, I was finishing this whole chapter and I’ve gotten into like one-fourth of the next chapter!! (stay tuned! that one’s gonna be intense! ;w;)

Tags: Force-Sensitive! Reader, Inquisitor! Reader, Jedi! Reader, Fake Death, Jedi turned Inquisitor, Seduction to the Dark Side, Turn to the Dark Side, The Dark Side of the Force, Aftermath of Torture, Torture, Psychological Torture, Redemption Arc! Reader, Possible Redemption, Premonitions

Also in AO3

Chapters: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 | Previous: Part 9 | Next: Part 11 | Masterlist

10 of ?

Relying on the spies’ intel didn’t cut it anymore, so getting out there was the best course of action. You perfectly knew that this is no race against the other Inquisitors, and each Jedi is just hunted game in the eyes of the Grand Inquisitor, Darth Vader, and the Emperor altogether.

You marched to the hangar with a graceful, poised stride. When you saw the hangar officers conversing by the entrance, they stiffened at the sight of you.

“Prepare my ship!” you barked.

The mechanics and engineers scrambled to your TIE Fighter—distinguishable by its black body, a red intercrossed stripe making the cockpit look like a rifle’s reticle from the outside—you watched them inspect, recalibrate, and refuel the vehicle before confirming that it’s safe for travel.

“All engines go for your TIE Fighter, Twelfth Sister,”

“Good,”

You climbed the ladder to the cockpit and made yourself comfortable. The mechanics scurried to detach the hooks and cables strapped to the vessel as you pump up the engines. The hangar attendant waved his signal rods in front of your cockpit as you slowly hover forward, following the path the attendant is carving for you, when you inched closer to the open air you cranked the throttle’s lever and accelerated. The rotors rippled out a ring of dust and air as it slowly gained some velocity, and then you zoom out of the hangar like a black comet and out of Mons Golotha.

In less than 20 minutes, the X1 TIE Fighter’s speed hindered as soon as it entered Mons Golotha’s exosphere. Staring back at you through that cockpit windshield is the star-dotted vacuum of space.

“Okay, Cal sweetheart, where could you be hiding?” you mutter to yourself as you fire up the nav computer.

You drive the TIE forward, farther and farther away from the orbiting moon, you weren’t trying to pick up a signal—you’re trying to find some peace, ironically, in the dead blankness of the galaxy in the hopes to pick up where you left in your meditation earlier. Your grip loosened, no more than a delicate, dainty hold of the steering wheel, you let go and let yourself get lost in concentration.

The heavy, gloomy hum of space helped you drown out all of the white noise in order for you to focus better. A silent call whose echo reaches as far as the system in the ten parsecs. You struggle to recall the image of the place where you saw Cal in—that’s your next best shot in finding him.

A blinding red hue—it’s either morning or afternoon wherever he is. You could even feel the prickling heat underneath your suit.

An arid wasteland. A single city perched atop one of the mesas erected across the sandy, barren expanse.

This planet is wholly new to you.

You see Cal standing atop a mesa whose surface has cracked, brought upon by intense drought, it overlooks the small city not larger than half a quadrant of Coruscant’s city block. The image sharply jabbed its way through your skull, causing you to flick your eyelids up, and return to reality.

“Jeddah!” you gasped its name.

The place is unheard of to you, going back to Mons Golotha to check the archives would prove to be inconvenient. The next plausible move is to follow your instincts. You crane the neck of the nav computer so it faces you, then your fingers tapped away with the buttons—it was strange, though you weren’t startled, you knew exactly what its coordinates are, and so you charted your course to Jeddah.

When the computer screen glowed green and showed a map of the destination, without reluctance, you punched it—pushing the steering forward and the TIE Fighter cuts through the empty space like an arrowhead.

—–

JEDDAH

Cal sits at the edge of the exact mesa where you saw him in your vision, taking under the stout branches of a dead tree. He’s lost count of the days you’ve been gone, he wagered it to be roughly a month now—and he still hasn’t moved on, he refuses to. Gradually, his new habits have become routine to him, not that he’s gotten any better; he remains stoic, almost unfeeling, and his fighting has lost its grace.

If only you could see him now—he’s riddled with sear marks either from his pastime tinkering or the miss-by-a-hair grazes from Stormtroopers’ blasts, bruises, and brand new scars. He refuses healing from Merrin’s magick and makes do with the stims BD-1 supplies for him; but truthfully, he prefers your Force Healing. He misses the warm touch of your palm flat on his skin, wherever his injury might be, the soothing sensation might as well be a thing of the past for him.

The humid wind blows over his cheeks, red sand pricks at his freckles. He sits there, eyes closed, feeling for something cannot name yet knows wholeheartedly.

“[Y/N]…” he mouthed. The utterance of your name is carried away by the wisp of sand.

Nothing.

He yearned to feel it again. He had hoped he would.

His meditation bore no fruit due to his desperation, impatience, and a directionless, bottled up anger.

“Come on…” he growled, squeezing his eyes shut as the rays of the sun blazed through the spaces between the tree branches.

Over several parsecs away, Cal’s voice saying your name—all but a whisper—and a deep humming rang altogether behind your ears. In the first few minutes, you’re unbothered by it, until it did reach you. Your eyes on the windshield wandered, searching the skies for the source, spotting planets and moons here and there.

Cal locked in on the connection, his furrowed eyebrows now relaxed, his breathing calmed and he maintained the ideal, tranquil stillness of his meditation.

The humming grew louder, it evolved into a deeper, more baritone rumbling—like a stampede in the distance—you kept looking for its origin, but neither a single planet nor moon in the system you’re in seem to have the answer. You lent a few more minutes of listening in, hoping you’d make sense of it until you picked up the same familiar sensation as earlier.

“[Y/N]…?” asked Cal, confirming your presence through the Force.

You didn’t speak, you exploited the connection to clear out the cloudiness surrounding your objective. The red mesa in the desert appeared before your eyes, a dead tree, and the city overlooking the city sitting atop a single, erect rock pillar large enough to cradle it.

[Y/N]…! Please…!

A wicked grin snaked on your face. Your jaw clenched and your eyes had a sinister glint.

“Found you!” you hissed.

According to your nav, you’re two systems away from Jeddah. You pulled the computer by its metal neck, your fingers flying all over the keyboard as you calculate the jump to lightspeed.

Never have you ever punched the buttons on the dashboard of your fighter, you were particularly fond and careful of this TIE Fighter, though the excitement of finally spotting your prey caused you to crank the steering wheel forward so hard that the cogs inside groaned, consequently making the thrusters roar with great enthusiasm and haul the vessel at its full speed.

You grinned as you put the pedal to the metal with your fighter, you licked your lips and smirked.

“Don’t worry, sweetie, I’m coming for you.”

The young Jedi got out of the trance and he’s out of breath, exhilarated by the fact that you are alive after all this time—after all this time of defending that exact same point in every debate amongst the Mantis crew—but connecting with you felt different and eerie. BD-1 inched closer to his owner, his scanners picking up Cal’s stress levels and his increased heart rate. A single chirp caught the boy’s attention.

“It’s [Y/N], BD, but…”

“Bee…?”

“I have a bad feeling about her,”

The droid was in disbelief, BD never imagined—not even his processors and circuit board—that Cal would say that about you! He sent out a whole string of trills, questions that Cal couldn’t translate one at a time. He eased his little droid companion, gently gesturing at him to calm down.

“I think we need to tell this to Cere,”

The most concrete proof he could ever get a hold of was a connection from you through the Force. He questioned himself if Cere would believe him, considering she is the closest he can come to in terms of the ways of the Force.

Cal comes rushing back to the Mantis.

“Cere!” he started to call repeatedly when he was only a few meters away until he got into the ship.

The boy was a huffing and puffing mess when he threw himself into the ship, startling everyone and inadvertently interrupting their individual pastimes.

“Cal? What happened?” Cere had to lower her leather journal away from her face just to check on the boy.

“Are you alright?”

“Slow down, kid! It’s not like we’re leaving without you all of a sudden!”

“That’s not it!” he panted. He then turned to the older woman. “Cere, didn’t Cordova write something about having two Force-sensitive beings connecting or communicating through the Force?”

The more Cal rambled on with his queries, Cere had to put her book down on the lounge table to listen to the redheaded youngster. She knows he’s onto something—his excitement is just making slightly incoherent. Her lips parted as if to say something, but the boy is unconsciously unfurling new discoveries with the ways of the Force.

“Well, I just connected with [Y/N]!”

Greez cuts in as politely as he can. “Wai—Wait, how did you know it was [Y/N]? Moreover, what do you mean by ‘connect’?”

“Her voice!” he then remembers the eerie feeling that he put him off during the trance. “But… something doesn’t feel right.”

“About what? About [Y/N]?” Merrin joins in on the subject, curious and intrigued about your well-being, pausing from her tending of the terrarium and stepping down to the lounge table.

“So is it really her or just some random voice you heard that sounds just like her? My poor brain inside this gray head of mine can’t really grasp all of your Force mumbo-jumbo.”

“Cal, you don’t think—?”

Cal immediately refuses Cere’s theory without even letting her finish.

“No!” he bolts. “It can’t be. It’s impossible!”

“Cal, we can’t say for sure. But if you do have a bad feeling about it, then you best be prepared for what you’re about to see when she comes to you.”

There was a foreboding tone in Cere’s voice, consciously warning the boy of what’s to come. In his mind, Cal battled with himself and his inhibitions.

It’s not fair! In his mind, he whined like a child, on the verge of sobbing.

In what ought to be roughly a month and few weeks since you disappeared in Ulfin, his ecstasy in knowing that you truly are alive is instantly overridden by the fear that he cannot pinpoint yet—more like, he cannot accept yet should it be realized.

Coming out of hyperspace brought you to half a parsec away from Jeddah. In the nav, you can see the designated planet outlined in green amidst the others drawn in blue, blending in with the screen’s dark blue background.

You eased down to the regular flying speed as you close the distance between you and Jeddah. While the TIE Fighter cruises through space, passing by the neighboring planets, you cannot help but feel… bothered. Earlier, before you went to hyperspace, you were quite startled with how you behaved—you have never acted like this before. This was your very first solo campaign, as well.

Could it be excitement? For what, exactly? For doing something you want all alone—exactly how you want it? Perhaps.

Uncertainty? Because within the recesses of your being, the old you still lives albeit imprisoned?

“Enough!” you roared, leaning too hard and too fast to accidentally hit the back of your head. “Aaargh! Ow…”

You finally calmed down, for real this time, and your attention from the pain rippling across the back of your skull shifted to the repetitive bleeping of the nav computer. You leaned closer to the dashboard, peering on the screen; the radar indicates that you’re approaching the planet’s orbit. You buckle up and prepare the first phase of atmospheric entry.

Your arms flew in all directions, flicking switches and pressing buttons all over the ship—setting up the shields, applying the right amount of pressure on the steering wheel to counter the gravity, and finding the optimum speed. You close in on the bright, sunshine-gold sheen of Jeddah’s atmosphere.

The leather sank as you lean back, the turbulence made the ship rattle under your feet—the shields are doing its job to keeping the shaking to a minimum—and the TIE Fighter tore through the skies easily.

“Well, that turned out more effortlessly than I expected,” you sighed. “Now, to find you, Cal.”

The same feeling you had when you were still out in space returned, only this time, much louder and more prominent. There wasn’t a doubt that you’ve come to the right place; the connection has staled over time, perhaps Cal has given up in trying. The TIE Fighter circles in the skies in search for a specific city atop a mesa, at least a common signal belonging to it.

Along Cal’s trek, he spots your TIE Fighter—in perfect coincidence—zooming through Jeddah’s sky as a growing black speck. He squints his eyes and shades them with his hand over his brows.

“That can’t be good.”

“If this thing could hold a droid, things would’ve been much easier!” you grumbled as you manually optimized the transmitter. You sighed when no blips popped on the radar. “Might as well find someplace to land.”

At first, the ripple of the Force—barely a whisper again, drowned by the engine hum of the TIE—ran in the back of your mind. Unconsciously feeling it, you’re practically welcoming it; Cal gets the exact same feeling as he watches your TIE Fighter circle the horizon, curious what this lone fighter could be doing in some place as desolate as Jeddah.

He senses the familiarity from the TIE Figher’s pilot, of all people, and little by little he starts to think that it’s not impossible.

[larrydoinglaundry]

Ah, thank you so much for tagging me @stylesthebrave 😏

1. when did you start writing? I think my first proper touch to writing was when I was 15 and it was a fanfiction. It was... Very cringe. Oh god.

2. what fandoms do you write for? As of right now, only One Direction. I used to write Adam Lambert fanfics and hate to brag, but I was the shit in there. Entering a fandom this big where I am nothing but a flea is very humbling lol

3. do you write better in the morning or at night? My imagination runs wilder at night, but I can write just as easy in the morning. Just takes a little bit more time.

4. what music do you listen to while writing? Very often I listen to nothing. I find music disracting when I try to get something done, my brains just physically can't multitask haha. Except when I write smut scenes, then I often listen to music. Versace on the floor and I don't wanna live forever for soft explicit smut. Yes, that's a thing.

5. what do you/ plan to major in at college? (if you’re not going to college, what are you up to?) I'm a last year nurse student, trying to get my thesis done by the end of the year but you know, covid makes things hard.

6. do you outline before writing a story? Basic lines, yes. Then I struggle with filling the blanks. My current project started out as a 'I wanna write a short one shot about edging' and now it's 53K words and I'm like ok I don't know how that happened.

7. do you write multiple stories at one time or only focus on one? I may have lots of WIPs, things I need to get out of my system, but I usually only focus on finishing one story at once.

8. do you write every day? Definitely, at least something. It can be easy to just stop once you feel like you have a block, but if you force yourself to write through it, even if you don't necessarily like what you write, it goes away a lot faster.

9. what are your goals for your stories? (& do you want to become a published author one day?) Bring joy to at least one person, I guess? I write in English, which is not my native language, so I don't really have big dreams.

10. favorite work of yours? As in something that I have written or...? Nevermind, let me use this space to praise my favorite fics that I have NOT written:

Something that I keep going back to, is one of the first fanfics I read in this fandom in which Harry is an actor and Louis is a nurse, and as a result of their one night stand, Harry gets pregnant. 83K. You can find it here.

Another favorite of mine is an A/B/O fic, in which Louis is a beta nurse (I swear I am NOT projecting myself into these nurse fics lmao) and Harry is an alpha, with a fictional knot-based cancer that drastically affects his self-esteem and sex life. While as a nurse, I could never imagine myself forming a friendship or a relationship with a patient, especially when they are in such vulnerable state, and I despise it when some fics just dive right into it, but it somehow works in this one. It's also the only Alpha Harry fanfic I have enjoyed reading. Entire series is 25K. You can find it here.

As for my own works? Probably something I wrote for another fandom. It was about a young fashion mogul who fell in love with a troubled, young boy. It was and still is, I think, the most kudos'ed fic inside that fandom. It's a small fandom, so it's not a lot, but still. I wrote it in 2014, so it's uh, very cringe, but with that one, I truly realized how much I love writing.

As for this fandom, I like my current work, but it's still under construction🤫

So I say my smuttier than smutty A/B/O one shot, Omega Harry and Alpha Louis. 5K. Right here.

Please do this if you see this and want to share your story! I love seeing these by other authors.

[doyouever-daydream]

Since we’re alone

A/N Hello lovely humans, this is my attempt to write what I wish would have happened in s13ep12, I’ve had this idea in my mind for a while and at the end it turned out to be more, uhm, cheesier? intense? Something like that, and I blame this song because I was in the middle of writing it when it came on my Spotify and boy, did it change the direction of this fic lmao. But seriously tho, I love the song and it’s beautiful and if any of you already know it, I love you too. Anywho, let me know what you think and enjoy! GIF is not mine.

This is another oneshot for my BAU does blind dates series for the blind date prompt for my @cmbingo​ card

Summary: When blind dates go wrong and the universe conspires Penelope and Luke end up spending their evening together, bonding over french fries and burgers.

Pairing: Penelope Garcia x Luke Alvez 

Warnings: Language (Luke says fuck once lmao)

Word count: 2801

Masterlist

“Since we’re alone, show me all that you are and if you get lost in the light, it’s ok, I can see in the dark”

“Everything happens for a reason”

Penelope stood outside the restaurant repeating those words to herself and feeling different things at once: disappointment, annoyment, sadness and hunger. She never even got to have dinner. She took a deep breath and started walking towards Esther, thanking God she had decided to meet her date here and not having him to pick her up. 

Despite what everyone might think, she had other friendships at work, not only the BAU, and one of those friends, Betty,  had offered to set her up in a blind date. Penelope was unsure if she wanted to be set up but her friend insisted she could find someone good for her but oh, what a mistake that had been. The guy was not only super late but incredibly rude to her. She held back the tears, but with her blurry vision she bumped into someone.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying atten- “ She couldn’t finish her sentence when she saw who was standing in front of her.

“Penelope? Hi, uh, what are you doing here?” Luke asked surprised but glad to see her.

“Uh, I was supposed to have dinner, what are you doing here?” For a moment she forgot the date gone wrong and was having mixed feelings about Luke Alvez being there wearing a black sweater and looking extremely handsome.

“I had a blind date” He replied with a blank expression on his face.

“Funny coincidence so did I” She looked less excited than him and he wasn’t that much excited.

“Was it bad?” He asked with a sympathetic look.

“Bad is an understatement, he was almost an hour late for starters” Her voice was full with frustration, she reminded herself to keep calm or she would end up crying in front of Luke and that wasn’t what she needed right now “Then when he arrived, he made it clear I wasn’t what he expected, he criticized my outfit, I won’t go in to many details but he made me feel like crap, now here I am, having wasted my Friday night with a guy who was not worth not even a minute of my time” Penelope closed her eyes and sighed, feeling less frustrated now that she had said everything out loud, maybe Luke wasn’t the ideal person to vent, but she was glad he was there.

“What the fuck is wrong with him? You should’ve left before he even arrived, he kept you waiting” He felt angry at the man who had done that to Penelope, she was so sweet to everyone she, out of all the people, didn’t deserve that kind of treatment.

“I know, I sat there longer being alone than with him and I am so mad at myself for not leaving before he got here it’s just…” She suddenly stopped, Penelope didn’t want to vent her insecurities in front of him.

“Just what?” He placed a hand in her shoulder, while searching for her eyes. “You need someone to talk and I happen to be here, please, tell me”

“It’s just I don’t date much, I’m not like, well other people, who have dates every weekend, I don’t get asked out a lot and I foolishly set my expectations too high and this clown, he was awful, he made fun of the way I dressed and…” She couldn’t keep the tears inside anymore and they silently fell on her cheeks, the whole scene had Luke feeling like finding the asshole and telling him off, but also he wanted to reassure Penelope that she was beautiful and deserved the world.

Suddenly Luke’s mind went somewhere he had been trying to avoid. Ever since he met Penelope, he knew she was special. As much as she tried to give him a hard time about being the new guy, she was really sweet. She cared so much for her friends, tried to see the silver lining in every situation and did anything she could to help others. Not to mention she was incredibly beautiful, more than once he had to force himself to stop staring at her, her eyes, her smile, her curves, her lips. Her lips were always a huge distraction for him whenever she was close, the times she presented a case, he focused on the casefiles rather than her.

But he was almost certain Penelope couldn’t see him in that way. She only saw him as a friend and he wanted to treasure that, it was the most he would have. 

“Penelope, don’t pay attention to whatever he said about you, none of what he could have said is true, I’m sure” He wanted to lift her chin so she could see in his eyes he meant it.

“How could you know? You weren’t there” She tried to smirk, while dried her cheeks.

“It doesn’t matter, I just know, now, you said you left, did you have dinner?” Penelope looked at him with soft eyes and Luke just wanted to take her in his arms and wash away the sadness.

“No, but it’s ok, I have food in my apartment” Penelope held her bag and started to feel self conscious about being too sensitive in front of Luke.

“I’m not about to leave you like that, what would you like to have for dinner? We’re gonna get it” He stood in front of her with both of his hands in her shoulders.

“I honestly don’t know” She said in a small voice.

“Come on, there’s something you must want to eat right now” Luke was trying to cheer her up.

“I don’t know, you choose” Knowing Penelope was willing to spend some time with him made his smile grow bigger.

“French fries? I love french fries” Luke had already eaten but he was always willing to make space for french fries.

“Sounds good, yeah, comfort food to makeup for the awful date, I’m in” The mood was lighter between them now.

Penelope agreed to follow Luke so he could take her to the “best diner in town” according to him. When she got there, she was unsure if the feeling in her stomach was because she was hungry or she was about to spend one on one time with Luke Alvez and his brown eyes and killer smile.

“Here we are” He opened the door for her and guided her to his favorite booth, close the window and far from the people, not that there were many people but he wanted to have a nice conversation and didn’t want the fuzz to get in the way of it.

“There’s a burger I think you should try” Penelope cut him off.

“I’m vegetarian, Luke”

“I know, this is a vegan burger, I’ve tried it before, it’s really good” His expression made him look like an excited kid, she was unsure why he seemed to be that happy but she brushed it off.

“Ok, I’ll try it”

The waiter took their orders and he went off to tell her how he knew this place and why he liked it so much.

“You sound like a food blogger, Alvez, are you sure you’re not one?” She asked while taking a french frie into her mouth.

“No, I’m not, but I really love it here, besides it’s open 24 hours so sometimes after a case, this place saves me from starving to death” He took a sip of his soda.

“So dramatic, Luke, now tell me how was your date?” She was genuinely curious to listen about her friend’s night.

“Phil set us up, she’s really nice and beautiful but there wasn’t a spark, you know?” He stared at Penelope thinking how this felt more right than the date he just had.

“Maybe you should give it another try, have a second date” There it was again, her kind heart, Luke thought.

“I don’t think I’ll do it, I mean I wouldn’t mind hanging out with her and Phil but just that, nothing else” He spoke as if he was trying not to get into trouble.

“Ok, but don’t miss out on someone just because you’re afraid or something”

“What are you trying to say, Penelope?” 

“It’s just, sometimes people prefer to run away before trying to see if there’s a future there, you know? You said she is really nice and beautiful, that sounds like a catch” He almost fell as if she was scolding him, which put a playful smirk on his face.

“Oh, come on, now I have to marry her just because of what I said?” He joked.

“No, listen what I’m saying, I say it out of experience, don’t give up on something that could be good just because you’re feel unsure at first”

“I’m not gonna argue with you, I’ll try to call her and see if she wants to go out some other day, alright?” He lied just so she would stop insisting.

“Alright, if you end up marrying her and having children, I want to be godmother” She winked.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever, now let me show you how french fries should be eaten” Her eyebrows shot up in amusement at the sudden change of subject.

“What are you gonna do? You have a reputation that precedes you, you know?

Luke gasped feigning hurt. While he put barbecue sauce and caesar salad dressing on the side of the plate of fries they were sharing.

“That doesn’t look good” She admitted while scrunching her nose.

“Maybe, but it tastes really good, come on, try one” He put up the plate with one hand and with the other he took some fries dipped them in the mix and the ate them.

“Ok, just because you’ve been a great company tonight” She tried them and was pleasantly surprised it tasted good.

“See? I was right” He had a cocky smirk and Penelope rolled her eyes.

They ate the rest of their food in a comfortable silence, that was until Luke noticed Penelope was too deep in thought and the look on her eyes gave away she was still thinking about the earlier encounter she had.

“Watcha thinking about, chica?” He carefully watched her getting out of her thoughts.

“Should I be less… Uh, colorful? Wear less patterns?” She said in a serious voice.

“Not if you don’t want to” He replied with the same tone.

“I know I say I’m eternally young but does the way I dress or talk makes me look or sound, I don’t know, ridiculous?” She looked at him pleading honesty.

“No, no” He replied within a second she had finished speaking “Penelope, you are… I don’t even know how to describe it, you’re you, and that’s beautiful, you are beautiful and whoever doesn’t see that or tries to change the way you see yourself is an absolute moron, I cannot begin to explain how wrong they are” He licked his lips, knowing he was about to come out and say much more than he intended to.

“I am not lying when I say you are everything that is good in this world, and in my world, you are the light at the end of the tunnel, the color that brings my days to life, and I know I sound incredibly cheesy but it’s true, the whole reason why Phil set me up tonight was because I told him I had feelings for you and I needed to get over them because I know you won’t feel the same way, and seeing you beat yourself up over what some dickhead said is not ok with me, you are your own person, with your clothes and the way you talk and you’re million different glasses and your optimism, your way of loving people, your intelligence, I could go on and on if you wanted me to just so I can prove to you, how incredible you are, Penelope Garcia.”

Penelope was speechless and very touched by what Luke had said, never in a million years she would’ve thought he thought that much of her. He felt that way towards her.

Luke was also surprised that he had said all of that out loud, after trying to lock it in the back of his head for the past few months. He held her hand across the table and squeezed it.

“I-I-I don’t know what to- what…” Penelope was unable to speak coherent sentences. She wasn’t sure if she was dreaming, so she just stared at him wide eyed and open mouthed. Luke had a feeling that maybe he wasn’t going to be turned down so he continued pouring his heart out now that he had finally dared to do so.

“Ok, since you’re not going to talk just yet, would it be crazy of me to ask you for a chance? A chance to see if something can go from here? Please” He pleaded with his eyes, not letting go of her hand.

She swore he could feel her heart beating faster and faster, for the second time in her life, she felt it was going to come out of her chest.

“Luke, it’s me you’re talking about” He looked at her trying to make sense of her words “I can be me, with all my quirks and my-” He cut her off.

“Didn’t you listen to me? That’s what I want, you, all of you, if you feel the slightest willing to try, let’s do it, I’ll do everything I can to not break your heart” She was still at loss of words and Luke’s confidence was wearing off but he had one more thing to say “A friend told me I shouldn’t give up on something that could be good just because I’m afraid” 

“I told you I said it out of experience and that’s because I’m good at running, running away from relationships and commitment”

“It’s ok, I like the chase” And with that he leaned over the table and kissed her. If any of them needed proof that there was electricity between them, that was it. The feeling that went down their spines when their lips touched could not be compared to anything they’ve ever felt before.

When they pulled apart, it was Penelope’s turn to squeeze his hand.

“Alright, let’s try it then” Her smile and her eyes made him almost feel dizzy.

A month later, Penelope and Luke were feeling more than happy with the way things were, it had been a month of getting to know each other even more over date nights whenever they weren’t on a case. The team was ecstatic learning.they were together, everyone had a feeling they were good for each other.

“Penelope!” Betty, her work friend, called out to her and Penelope regretted coming down at that time.

“Hey Betty” She tried to be nice, it wasn’t her fault that her friend was an asshole.

“How are you, little liar?” Betty said with furrowed eyebrows.

“What do you mean?” She was surprised at the accusation.

“You stood up my friend, that wasn’t very nice, Pen” Her friend’s face softened.

“I didn’t stood him up, he was an idiot, I’m sorry but he was” She felt bad saying that about Betty’s friend but it was true.

“How could you know that if you never showed up?” Betty’s confused look mirrored Penelope’s. 

“I did show up and your friend Ben was not only late but rude to me”

“He told me you didn’t show up, that he waited almost an hour for you” Betty knew something wasn’t right, neither of them lied “Are you sure it was Ben? The Ben I sent you the picture of?” Penelope hadn’t seen any picture.

“What? I didn’t see a picture, you told me his name was Ben” Penelope unlocked her phone and there it was, below the text that read Remember his name is Ben, was a picture of a man that wasn’t the one she had the misfortune to meet.

“Oh, Penelope, who the hell did you have dinner then?” Betty was now laughing, unaware that the first date she had that night went terribly wrong.

In that moment Luke walked  by and saw Penelope, she also looked at him and smiled.

“It doesn’t matter, say sorry to Ben for me, ok? I have to go” She never took her eyes off Luke while he looked curious as to what she was saying.

She approached him and her smile grew bigger.

“What is making you smile so big this morning, Penelope?” He asked with his own smile adorning his face.

“Everything happens for a reason, Luke, everything happens for a reason”

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

All the little reasons (so far) why The 1 is my tied favourite off of Folklore

Continuation of 'classic Taylor’ patterns:

The 1 helps to carry on the tradition Taylor has put into her albums since RED where the beginning of the stories actually starts with song three. The first two songs are instead used to heavily allude to the story and themes about to be told but aren’t directly part of them and especially not the beginning of them. 

In RED, we get State of Grace which alludes to the intense love and positive side of “red” emotions with hints of ignoring red flags whereas Red shows the painful and negative “red” emotions and alludes to the themes of heartbreak. 

In 1989 we get Welcome To New York, alluding to trying to get past someone and new beginnings before transitioning into Blank Space indicating that the opinions of others, particularly surrounding her dating, is something that was going to cause issues.

In Reputation we got ...Ready For It, where the verses again show a somewhat satirical take of how people see the both of them in a dark, “edgy” beat that is often used for “angry” tracks mixed with a “softer” tune more used for happier music for the chorus where she talks about being alone with him and doing what she actually wants to. Then we get End Game which serves as a contrast and connecting piece to the “angry/unhealthy” and “happy/healthy” sides of the album. We get the big declaration of love and showy attitude with hints of insecurity because that’s ultimately what Taylor saw as love in the past which contrasts with the quieter moments of love in the later half of the album such as squeezing hands in a cab or building metaphorical fires in locked up houses to keep each other warm.

In Lover we get I Forgot That You Existed to indicate the theme of figuring out who and what’s truly important in life before moving onto Cruel Summer which not only shows the theme of holding onto each other when things are rough, but the importance of communication in a relationship.

And what about Folklore? The 1 and Cardigan brings us into the fantasy world of Folklore by first asking “What If?” and reminding us that life is full of choices and those choices matter in the grand scheme of things. While the rest of the album tells seemingly unquestionable stories relying on how the characters actually felt, The 1 and Cardigan both rely on nostalgia before reminding us right at the end of each song that that wasn’t how the story went and that certain choices were the reason for that... Which leads me to my next point:

One thing being different would not have made everything different today:

As I previously mentioned, one of the major themes of Folklore is that choices matter. Another interlocking theme is that things just don’t happen out of the blue. The choices we make add up and can cause a perfect storm. 

Looking at this through the lens of the love triangle, in order for James to be in the position he’s in in “Betty”, it wasn’t enough that August happened to be there. The guy Betty was dancing with had to ask her to dance, James had to feel insecure about it AND be immature enough to sulk and leave rather than telling Betty how he felt, August had to show up when she did, James had to make the continuous choice to spend the Summer with August, Inez had to tell Betty what happened and finally Betty had to be offended enough to break up with James. The situation the three of them found themselves in could have been prevented at several different points, making it impossible to say if one thing had been different, it all would have been. 

Despite the lyric, The 1 also shows that one thing being different wasn’t likely to have the desired effect of the pair ending up together through several lyrics throughout the song.

In my defence I have none for never leaving well enough alone - This gives the implication that the narrator was prone to starting arguments over topics that didn’t need to be fought over.

If you wanted me you really should have shown it - The narrator shows that the other person didn’t make it seem like a serious long term relationship was an option. Though this could have been a miscommunication, it also implied to me that the other person wasn’t ready to settle down and acted as such meaning that a long term relationship probably wasn’t on the cards.

Rose flowing with your chosen family.... In my defence I have none - So I’m going to go into this a bit later because it relates to a couple of the reasons I love this song, but in short, the narrator impliedly did not make an effort with aspects of the other person’s life, in this case loved ones, that meant a lot to them nor did the narrator have those aspects for themselves.

But it would have been fun if you would have been the one - Connecting this reason with the theme of nostalgia, I find the word ‘fun’ an interesting choice from a songwriter who tends to use intense words like ‘magical’, ‘fearless’, ‘permanent’, ‘wild’ and even ‘really something’ to describe the loves of her life. In comparison, ‘fun’ feels very casual. While not a choice of the relationship, the use of the word along with lack of hard moments shown in the song does imply to me that the narrator has based this ‘what if’ on pure nostalgia and makes me assume that there several reasons things turned out like they did.

Its links with other songs on the album:

Anyone who knows me knows that my favourite aspect of an album is feeling like I got something out of listening to those songs in that order together that I couldn’t have gotten from listening to the songs alone. Often this comes from contrasts in songs like how I mentioned End Game’s production and lyrics contrast the back end of Reputation, relatability like how 22 is in between All Too Well and I Almost Do because that time with her friends is merely distracting her from her pain or hearing how the same things can be seen differently like how WANEGBT, Stayx3 and The Last Time come one after another to show the relationship was on and off, why she stayed in said relationship and those same traits that kept her staying were now why she was at the end of her rope with said relationship. Really in general RED as an album is a brilliant example because while a lot of people don’t get it, the whiplash of positive and negative songs really does represent what it’s like to be in that kind of toxic relationship.

But I’m not here to talk about RED or Reputation, I’m here to to talk about Folklore. While many people would probably say that the love triangle songs are the best representation of what I’m talking about, I honestly think The 1 and Peace are the two songs that most benefit from the context of the other songs in the album. Specifically, The 1 benefits in the following ways in my honest opinion:

The 1 serves as the other side of the same coin to Invisible String. The 1 discusses a relationship where circumstances didn’t line up to make it work whereas Invisible String describes a relationship where the stars aligned and it all did work out. Further, The 1 asks the question ‘what if things were different and this one relationship worked out?’ and Invisible String answers with ‘well thank goodness it didn’t’.

You know the greatest films of all time were never made versus I think I’ve seen this film before: the automatic assumption and link that the love in Exile was not either of their greatest loves.

If you never bleed you’re never going to grow links so well with But now I’m bleeding and Peter losing Wendy from Cardigan.

Though it’s not connected with other Folklore lyrics, the little links of things like never leaving well enough alone being in The 1 and past songs (in this case ME!) and the Sad Beautiful Tragic vibe that the second prechorus of The 1 gives always brings a smile to my face.

And finally, my favourite parallel of this whole album:

In my defence I have [no chosen family] and its link with Family that I chose now that I see your brother as my brother from Peace. To me, this parallel brings together everything I have said so far. It brings the album together and once again reinforces that a theme in Folklore is how choices dictate our lives. The fact that somewhere along the lines the narrator realised that there didn’t have to be a ‘his loved ones’ and ‘her loved ones’ and made the effort and choice to incorporate themselves into their partner’s life and found that to be an important part of why they are working out in a way they didn’t with their past partners lives rent free in my mind, heart and soul everyday, not going to lie. Like I don’t know how to explain it, but that link alone just added so much to both of those songs for me personally.

Other little things:

This song is beyond relatable. Like I could not tell you one person who doesn’t have that one past thing or relationship, romantic or otherwise, they wish could have been different and fantasise/romanticise what that would have looked like.

The 1 and August are the two funnest songs to sing to from Folklore and even though both are relatively sad lyrically, always give me a good boost of serotonin when I sing them.

Relating to the two points above, singing “In my defence I have none” loudly when you don’t have family and feel like none of your wishes like me ever came true feels like free therapy lmao.

While I know Taylor didn’t write The 1 from a fully autobiographical point of view, the idea of her seeing one of her multimillionaire exes at the bus stop makes me laugh every time.

It’s a grower. While it was always in my top six, as I mentioned in the title, it’s in a three way tie with August and Exile as my favourite song from Folklore right now.

All in all I just really love this song and all the tiny little details that make it amazing and honestly think it’s a very underrated song in Taylor’s discography.

[tshifty]

So it feels a bit wild writing this because 20k has kinda been a personal goal of mine for a while and I finally hit it... not to mention some other pretty incredible things that happened see picture above, click for better quality bc tumblr decided to ruin that for us lmao. I can’t believe so many of yall follow this absolute mess of a blog lmao, thanks for sticking by me through all of the crazy times and 4am shitposting. 

Below the cut I have written up a little follow forever of some amazing people I’ve had the privilege of knowing and talking to on here. I really wanted to make it longer but tumblr has apparently limited tagging to 50 people per post so yeah. I didn’t really listen to that and there’s more than 50 people so like idk if it’s gonna even tag everyone so also pls check bc you might not get a notif but like if you aren’t tagged it truly truly doesn’t mean anything okay I love you and I hate that I can’t tag more people. Making these always stresses me bc it’s inevitable to forget to tag people and I don’t want anyone feeling bad!!!!! And also just like as a general statement here if we’re mutuals but we don’t talk but you wanna talk like please dm me!!!!! I’m so bad at that but I love talking with new people so really truly please dm me. Also like if we’re mutuals and we talk and like you want to trade ig like lmk lol!!

Because this is such a big milestone for me I’m also going to be doing a little celebration thing to thank you guys for helping me hit 20k!! I’ll be taking edit requests from anyone who follows me idk for how long but I’ll try to do as many as I can, all you have to do is send me your favorite Taylor lyric or quote!! 

And yeah, that’s just about it!! To sum this up I just want to thank Taylor again for all of the amazing things she does, particularly how she uses her platform to speak up for and help others, and spread important political messages. Keep up the amazing work, it truly makes a difference. We love you 💖

Okay this is in reverse alphabetical order bc I like being chaotic and honestly idk if this will even tag everyone but here is my small follow forever!!!!! And again like please please don’t be upset if you aren’t on here bc I really only put like a tiny portion of urls and also tried to keep it to 50 in the beginning before saying fuck it but still tried to keep it smallllllllllish. I love every single one of my mutuals so so so so much 💕

@youfitinmypoem @youareinlove @wouldfallfromgracie @weallknownow @wasafairytale @twinfiresiigns @t-swifts @tswiftbecky @thhearcher @thewaybilovedyou @thestoryfous @thelasttime @thefearlesstour @thearrcher @tehlorswift @taylorswiftz @taylorswiftdebut @taylorswift @taylorswifh @taylorsuift @tayloralison 

@swiftiemere @swiftchill @stumbleonhometomycats @stcrlghts @statecfgrace @starlighdt @spendsmychange @sixtiequeen @singinglonglive @shouldhavesaidno @shegavemeroses @shakeitoff @sadbeautifultragique @sadbeautifultragic @rainbowwithallofthecolours @rainbowswift 

@purpleswift @pureheroinelesbian @piecesintoplaces @paintedtaygolden @paintedmesgolden @paintedmegolden @ofrunningfoxes @officialtaylornation @nowyourdaisies @nowimhaunted @noitsydney @newrcmantlcs @magic-madness-heaven @madeurmarkonme @lovestory @loverdeluxe @llikestarlight @lcverswift 

@jumpthensfall @jokeswemade @jakeperalta @itwasntasingle @iseerighthroughme @ikywts @ikywt @idsb @hugeselenatorswiftie @howtodream @holygreund @holdsontoyous @headlightsshine @gotalktoyourfriends @friendlyneighborhoodpegacorn @fearlessworldtour @fearlessthealbum @enchantnd @enchantedswift13 

@drugismybaby @dreyblr @dont-read-thelastpage @diamondseaside @diagon-alli @dancingwithourshandstied @colorsinautumn @coldasyov @centralperkswift @carouselofswift @calmtheory @brandnewdress @blank-space-swiftie @bisexualgorgeous @bireputations @beginagain @backtodecembre @anotherdrama @afragileline @1989s