#also like people (white people) seem to wedding crash anyway

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

Broke: going to a random stranger’s wedding for free food and a chance to dress up and dance

Woke: going to a random stranger’s wedding purely as a chance to get together with your friend and her family, getting free food, dressing up and dance ✨together✨

[comfortwriting]

A Summer Secret Part 1 - F.W

Masterlist, Requesting Rules, Writing Prompt Masterlist

Part 1 of my mini-series 'A Summer Secret' want to be tagged? Let me know!

Part 2

Requested/About: After bursting a water pipe and flooding his house, Fred needs a place to stay - whilst the family is on a vacation he temporarily stays at  George's house. Y/N tries to get out of an arranged marriage her parents have planned with the Malfoy Family. Failing to do so, she flees to George's house - the father of her best friends who promised she could stay there to escape. Fred and Y/N meet unexpectedly, and something sparks between them - something that Fred vows to be nothing more than a summer fling, a summer secret... but is it?

Warnings: Age gap relationship (y/n is 18), swearing, mention of arranged marriage, mention of food and eating.

Staring out of the train window, bidding farewell to the mountains, the river, and to Hogwarts, you felt tears prick at your eyes. You weren't ready to go home for summer, you never did - you were always at the Twin's house, living under George and Angelina's roof to escape the arguments your parents caused when you said no to them controlling every aspect of your life.

Unfortunately, Gideon and Fabian were going away for the summer with their parents to visit Charlie and you were unable to join them, you understood and was fine with it, but you were absolutely terrified to step foot into your home, with your parents trying to force you into a marriage you didn't want.

"Cheer up, Y/N." Fabian frowned "I hate seeing you upset."

You broke your stare from the scenery and looked over at your best friends, taking some puking pastilles from their bags.

"Just in case" you muttered, "If they're sick they'll leave me alone."

Fabian smirked and shook his head, tutting "Did they say anything else in the letter?"

You shook your head back "No, they just told me I didn't have a choice.  I've graduated, I'm eighteen yet I can't decide what I want for myself."

"I can't imagine getting married at this age to someone I've probably never met."

You stared at Fabian, a little sore and taken aback by his sudden burn.

"Thanks, Fabian, I can't either." You squirmed in your seat and pulled out some jelly snakes from the bag of sweets you were sharing, biting and pulling at the tail, stretching the snake, bursts of green apple and lime flooded your mouth.

"I'm sorry Y/N," he apologised starting to panic.

You shrugged it off and tried to stay calm, throwing him a jelly snake"It's okay."

Gideon rummaged through his large bag and pulled out a large bronze key, handing it to you. "If things get really bad, stay at our house anyway."

You smiled slightly and took the key from him, examining it before stuffing it in your pocket "Thanks, lads."

Fabian nodded his head, flicking through job applications he had filled out before sighing and plonking them back in his bag. "Thank Merlin we've got dads shop"

"Tell me about it" Gideon replied "Uncle Fred will be chuffed when we roll up begging for a job."

The two of them laughed, waiting for you to join in, but you were too busy staring out of the window getting lost in what could unfold in a few hours time.

Dear Y/N,

We are so proud of you for working so hard, we are very eager to find out your N.E.W.T results in the next few months to come.

Your mother and I have been looking for jobs you can apply to once you're home, if you've got the grades, working for The Ministry seems rather promising. Your friend's uncle worked as an Auror for a little while, the one who now picks up spare shifts at that joke shop every now and then.

Anyway, we have got some news we need to share it with, unfortunately, we are unable to tell you in person as the wait is too long, but I don't doubt our owl is rather fast at delivering letters; a lot faster than yours it seems.

We have decided that you will be getting an arranged marriage, your status needs to be high if you want to go for and do well in life, you will marry into a very successful family, one that will open doors for you which your N.E.W.Ts cannot.

If you have anything going on with anyone right now, you need to end it before you arrive home. This matter is not up for discussion, neither is the family we have chosen for you.

Arrive home on time, well dressed, and we will go through the meeting. Don't you dare show us up in front of them, you will regret it.

Please write back, I'm not sending another owl to check on you and you are old enough to realise that Howlers are for kids.

Grow up and act like an adult.

See you soon.

Safe Travels,

-  Y/D/N

Grumbling down the path to your house, your stomach started to do flips as you inched closer and closer to the front door. Seeing yourself in the reflection of the glass diamond shape in the middle of the door, you quickly fixed your hair that got ruffled in the wind, unrolling your skirt and straightening out the creases in your blouse.

Taking a deep breath, you exhaled and pushed the front door open, carrying your trunk inside, your owl flying inside eagerly for scraps of food. Your heart thumped in your chest and you could hear each thump in your ears.

"Mum!" you called out "Dad!"

"We're in the living room, Y/N," Y/D/N replied.

Setting down your trunk beside the stairs in case you needed to make a quick escape, you walked into the living room, staring at your shoes, afraid your parents had already pulled out a wedding dress and pamphlets of various venues waiting to be hired.

"How lovely to see you," your mother smiled, getting out of her seat to pull you into a hug before your dad cleared his throat.

Yeah, go on, scare her away from me like you always do.

Your mum quickly sat back down beside your father who didn't hug you or welcome you home. Instead, he pulled two moving photographs from the pocket in his waistcoat, setting them face down on the table in front of you.

This must be the family he's chosen for me.

"Well dressed like I asked, thank you." He smiled "You'll be happy to know that the family we have picked out for you are rather eager to... get the ball rolling. They've been kind enough to offer to cover the costs of the wedding, and helping you move into their home once you have married their son."

A wedding... I won't get to choose...

Moving into their home... where I cannot escape...

Fred cursed under his breath standing in his kitchen, the bottom of his trousers heavy and drenched because of the water rising up to his ankles. He dragged himself around the kitchen, searching for some parchment and a quill, but with no luck, he grabbed the muggle telephone, trying to remember how to ring his brother.

"Hello, George Weasley speaking-"

"Alright, Mr Fancy arse" Fred replied, swearing as his shoes started to squelch with each step "Look, I need some help."

Angelina could be heard in the background, telling George to meet her at the airport after she lands with the boys.

"What's up, Freddie?"

Fred sighed "I'm up to my ankles in water, a bloody pipe burst and these muggles take ages to get here. The whole house will be flooded by the time you get here, can I crash at your place? I don't want to bother mum, she's got enough going on with Ron and Hermione's newborn."

George smirked through the phone, amused at his brother's bad luck with something as simple as a water pipe, magic not being able to fix it after a prank going wrong with Fred's wand.

"Of course, me, Angelina, and the boys will be gone for a few weeks though, there's enough food and that - all I ask is that you look after the owls for us."

Fred walked up the steps, his lower legs now getting wet "Thank you, George, I owe you one!"

"It's okay Freddie, just don't get up to any trouble."

"I won't. Say hi to Charlie for me!"

If Gideon and Fabian knew Uncle Fred was staying at the house too, they would have texted you, sent an owl if they didn't have any signal, but they didn't know - and their father didn't think to tell them.

If Fred knew a younger girl would be staying in the house, he would have rented a room somewhere else, hell, he would've stayed in the office above the shop, but he didn't know.

And you of all people would've forced yourself to stay under your parent's roof for a little longer, or jump on a plane and bump into Gideon and Fabian just by chance, but they didn't tell you.

Fred always felt amazed when he was in George's house - it was large and cosy, a proper family home, a master bedroom with an ensuite, two guestrooms where you had slept during previous summer - where the twins often slept instead of their own room from time to time, and a large bathroom that could fit in the whole Weasley family.

You swallowed hard, shifting in the stiff chair, you shook your head, your voice wobbly as you tried to speak.

"Dad, I appreciate all of this, I really do - but I'm an adult, it isn't your choice or right to make decisions for me, I don't want to get married, I don't want to live with another-"

You wanted to continue, but Y/D/N glared at you, he spoke through gritted teeth, flipping over the photographs of the family trying to buy you for their son.

"How dare you disrespect me. After everything I have done for you, for this family, you are not an adult, you still act like a child!"

"I'm eighteen!" you snapped, feeling brave, finding your voice.

"You are still living under my roof! You will do as I say!"

Your mother did nothing but stare into the fireplace, perhaps deep in thought or imagining you in a white lace dress, walking down the aisle with a face smile plastered on your face.

"No, I will not!"

"You will!" your dad bellowed, rising out of his chair "because they are coming to meet you in an hour and you better comply, girl!"

Tears pricked at your eyes, your chest tightened and the familiar lump formed in your throat. Staring down at the picture made you sick to your stomach, you recognised the young lad in the photograph, for he was no other than Scorpius Malfoy.

"The Malfoys!" you also stood up "I will never, ever marry into that family! Not after what they did!"

Y/D/N grunted "What are you going to do? Marry a Weasley? Work in a joke shop and be a laughing stock for a living?"

You stormed out of the living room, grabbing your trunk, your mother continued to stare into the flames, blocking out everything around her, smiling about what could have been.

Your dad followed you, grabbing the other handle on your trunk, pulling you to him.

"You aren't going anywhere!"

"I'm going anywhere but here!" you snarled back, your trunk opened and your clothes dropped onto the floor, letting go, you stormed up the stairs and sprinted to your bedroom, slamming the door behind you.

Frantically, you pulled out your phone, messaging the twins.

Y/N: They want me to marry into the Malfoy family! I can't fucking do it.

Fabian: Wait. Scorpius?

Gideon: You've got to be joking.

Y/N: No! I'm not! His family are coming to meet me in the next hour, what the fuck am I going to do?

Gideon: Puking Pastilles?

Y/N: No, I'm not risking leaving this bedroom if I'm not going outside.

Fabian: You've got our house key, use it genius.

Y/N: I will tonight, I just need to fake this shit, hopefully, I won't be married by morning, I'll run away to yours in the night.

Gideon: Be careful.

Fabian: Don't do anything we wouldn't do.

Y/N: Why do you think I'm running away? The Malfoys are the worst match!

Fred got used to being alone in the house after a week, blasting loud music, dancing like no one was watching, walking around in nothing but his boxers as the summer heat became unbearable. He felt on top of the world, he was alone, enjoying himself, in a huge house all to himself.

Managing to escape through the night as you had planned, you were taken by surprise when you arrived at George's manor to find the lights on and music blaring through the walls.

Maybe the twins came home early to surprise me.

Knocking on the door was pointless, even if you yelled the music was too loud to compete with. Pulling out your key, you unlocked the door and walked inside, setting your bags down on the table on the porch, hanging your coat up on the peg. Following the music you stopped in your tracks, in front of you was Fred, dancing in his boxers, sliding across the wooden floor in his socks, playing the air guitar. Your cheeks started to go red. If this was a prank, it was definitely well thought out - but deep down, you knew that Fabian and Gideon hadn't come home.

You had met Fred before, you always visited the joke shop with your friends and he had been at George's many times over Christmas, and Summer when he wasn't working. Each time you had seen him, he had always been on his own, no girlfriend, no ring on his finger.

Fred spins around with his eyes closed and opens them as he faces you, he jumps out of his skin and instantly covers his private parts with his hands as his eyes met yours, you grabbed the remote and rapidly paused the blaring music.

"W-What are you doing here?!" he asked, breathless and red.

You picked up one of his T-Shirts and threw it at him, leaning against the table, staring at your shoes as he got dressed "I could ask you the same thing." you replied shyly.

taglist: @amourtentiaa @alwaysnforeverfangirl @horrorxweasley @inglourious-imagines @reeophidian @sebby-staan @xmalfoyweasleyx @onlyfreds @lucymfer @livvysnaps @supermassiveblackhope @youralternantpersonality @xgoodbyexinnocencex @gustepasilyte 

[inkdemonapologist]

[BatIM Call of Cthulhu Masterpost]

REMEMBER BACK WHEN WE GOT INVITED TO A MASQUERADE??? And we figured out the masquerade guests are definitely the sacrifice meant to summon their eldritch deity and that the party will probably be the location of the final ritual? ANYWAY WE’RE CRASHING THE PARTY, which means we need costumes.

The party is Alice in Wonderland themed; Sammy hasn’t read the book but got kin-assigned the March Hare by Joey, so naturally i’ve been doing nothing but drawing this loser in a dapper rabbit costume for an entire week

---

Anyway have a little smattering of out-of-context quotes from session 11

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[Sammy] Sammy just has no magical powers. [Jack] YET. [Sammy] Yet. Correct. ...He doesn't want any. [GM] Half of him doesn't want any. [Sammy] That's... accurate, yeah. Half of him ALSO wants the OTHER half of him to stop having magical powers. [Jack] No Magical Girl transformation? [GM] *laughing* Is that what that is? [Jack] I'd watch a magical anime where the main character drugs themself and then becomes a weird... religious... madman! [Sammy] That does sound compelling! Maybe you should see if you can find a franchise that contains that element, and then become a big fan of it and draw a bunch of fanart for some reason. [Jack] Yeah, I dunno, I mean... it's so tiring getting into new media, I need to get a friend who will drag me into it. [Henry] And then you guys can start a roleplaying game with it and drag me into it! [GM] There's an idea! [Jack] Yeah! Someone should get on that! [GM] And if there was such a theoretical game... people might have to figure... what they're doing when they wake up!

[Sammy] We were put in a situation before where we were told that the only thing we could do was kill the host, but we found a way around it last time, [Peter] What way was that? [Sammy] Complicated.

[GM] Henry is the first to notice the apparent cultist, camping out, looking tired, trying to spot you guys. [Henry] Uh, Henry is just going to tap Sammy on the arm and point him out. [Jack] Bros! You've got to unionise! Look at these working conditions! [GM] Maybe one of these days you won't spot them, right? Hope springs eternal!

[GM] Okay, you can make an intimidate! [Sammy] Okay! *rolls* FIFTEEN IS -- this is the only thing Sammy's good at now -- fifteen is a hard success!

[Jack] I'm proud of him! [Sammy] Someone has to be.

[GM] Allison chats with everyone, and gets you into the costume room! Everyone seems relatively friendly! [Sammy] Except Sammy. Sammy doesn't seem friendly.

[Joey] My idea was, Joey would be Mad Hatter -- [Sammy] Because he needs a hat, [Joey] --Yeah, so he can have a hat -- I was thinking Sammy could be the March Hare, Jack could be White Rabbit, and then Henry could be the Dormouse, [Sammy] Yes! And then the Haiti boys are all the Mad Teaparty, which is great, because the Mad Teaparty is canonically trapped in a time loop. [Sammy] Because we tHOUGHT ABOUT THIS TOO MUCH,

[Jack] Kin-assign Pete! [GM] He's content to wear anything that looks like it fits him, as long as people aren't trying to push a co-ordinated effort. [Joey] (Pete can be Caterpillar,) [Jack] Catter-pete-lar [Sammy] Oh my goodness. Completely unnecessary. [Jack] This is a pun that Jack might make, out loud, to Pete [GM] Pete laughs, despite himself! [Sammy] I feel like, Jack would make this pun, and then Jack would be SO pleased with himself that Pete would laugh, because Jack was so happy about it. [Jack] Yeah that sounds canon. ....It IS canon!!

[Jack] You can like, actually pretend to be people who decided to come to this party to enjoy it, and not just steal and/or murder!

[Henry] I want someone on the help, because I feel like we would have more control if we had someone on the inside, [Henry] And Henry does have a very forgettable face, apparently!!

[Joey] What are the staff wearing? Target red shirt, khaki pants? [Sammy] Perfect! Everyone will fall for it! Based on my experience wearing red shirts into Target!

[GM] I guess this does mean Joey misses an opportunity to dress up Henry. [Joey] *excited gasp* Wait, wait, [GM] What? [Joey] Sorry, this has nothing to do with anything that's happening right now in the roleplay, but I just suddenly realised that (1) when Henry got married, was Joey his best man, and (2) did Joey get to pick out his tuxedo for him [Henry] UHHHH... I feel like, Henry usually defaults to Joey for outfits and stuff, but he would hesitate a bit to ask his best friend who has an obvious crush on him to help dress for his heteronormative wedding!

[Joey] There probably is at least one of the wedding photos where Joey is insistent on standing very next to Henry -- while Henry's next to Linda! -- but, [GM] ...but also, Joey is here, [Joey] But also Joey is here. [Sammy] ...absolute disaster of a man... [GM] But the tuxedos look good! [Joey] Yes. Henry was properly fitted.

[Sammy] I don't want a full-- I don't want a freakin' fursuit, because-- [Henry] (FNAF in the distance)

[Sammy] But I feel like, since both White Rabbit and March Hare are, like, dapper rabbits, they could do something like, yeah, splicer mask and also a hat. [Jack] I mean, Jack's not opposed; Jack likes hats. [Sammy] Jack absolutely should have a hat, I agree. [Jack] He's getting so many hats! So many hats, and so many boyfriends, [GM] He can't be stopped! [Jack] >:3c He shouldn't be stopped.

[GM] I'm still just stuck on the phrase "Dapper Rabbits."

[GM] If Joey and Allison are talking further away, I guess it's moot. Though Allison did see Prophet Sammy! He changed in her room. [Sammy] Well, nobody explained him to her. Sammy just showed up the next day and hoped that we wouldn't talk about it, and then we didn't! It was great. [Jack] Sammy's over here, hoping that Allison is distracted by Joey so that none of this conversation is being listened to, [Jack] MEANWHILE, smash cut to the other side of the room, where Joey is explaining SillySam,

[Joey] A lot of Joey's lack of giving information was to keep her out of it, and not paint a target on her back... but now? She has a target on her back, so... Sure! You can also sacrifice yourself, for the greater good!

[Sammy] I'm sure someone in this party will thank Allison. It won't be me. But I'm sure someone will.

[Henry] Henry's already smearing his blood on people, he's gonna agree to whatever at this point.

[Sammy] DEFINITELY not a cult, now hold still while we put this guy's weird glowing blood on you, it's fine. [Jack] Welcome to the flock!

[GM] What does this mean for Prophet Sammy's sacrificeability rating on Henry, though? Now he's potentially long-term useful... [Sammy] I mean... [Jack] The Prophet isn't here so he doesn't need to know about this! [Sammy] ...I feel like, if something has greater value, then it's an even more impressive sacrifice. That's why you sacrifice an unblemished sheep, traditionally. If it's not a blemish-- [Sammy] Like, that's most of what he was worried about, like, “does this make you not fit for sacrifice.” But if it's actually a really cool thing, ...!

[Sammy] Sammy's nervous. [Jack] Jack is also nervous. [Henry] Henry is also nervous! [Jack] Oh, that's always a good sign, [Joey] Joey's going to be confident! [Henry] ...Of course he is. [Joey] Someone has to be! [Jack]...is he "Confident" or "Confident (Fast Talk)"? [Joey] YES. That last one. [Sammy] *muttering* That's the best we got, unfortunately.

[Sammy] If Jack or Henry express nervousness, Sammy agrees with them. If Pete is nervous, then Sammy will very aggressively say that Joey knows what he's doing.

[Sammy] Allison, don't use a spell to bind people's souls together in order to avoid crunch,,, [GM] You never know when something might be handy! [Sammy] I mean, [GM] Waste not want not!

[Henry] Does Henry have to draw in blood on himself...? [GM] No, Henry has a lot of his own blood on his person.

[GM] Aw, man, Bendy should've commented on the rabbit outfits! I'm sure he'd find that hilarious. [Joey] ...why...? [GM] WHY? It's just objectively funny! No additional reason is needed!!

[Joey] Joey will go through his notes, and confer with Henry and Bendy on, okay, shall we try this, and see if we can help Bendy as well? [Henry] Henry is down to try! [GM] Bendy is worried about Henry overexerting himself. [Henry] ...Henry is down to try!

[Jack] Worst case, Jack looks at the symbol, and then he can be seeing-eye rabbit for the rest of the group!

[GM] Norman wonders what the plan is! [Henry] Bold of you to assume,

[Sammy] We're having such a good sleepover! We did a weird blood ritual, and we're braiding each other's hair~ [Joey] Having a fashion show, [Sammy] Yeah! We went out and got clothes, [Jack] Can't believe Joey called a boy, [Sammy] Gotta ask Joey about the boy he likes... wait, no, don't do that. [Jack] I'd say it's time to play seven minutes in heaven, but I think we, we did that early. [Sammy] WE DIDN'T DO A VERY GOOD JOB,

[GM] Norman wants to see how this plays out. [Joey] Okay, well, try not to get sacrificed, then, [GM] He laughs, and thanks you for the advice! [Sammy] *Hypnos Hadesgame voice* "Try not to get sacrificed, okay?"

[Henry] Allison is very helpful, and not weird at all!

[Joey] We already have the banjo case full of ritual circles, and Joey would rather have the emergency circles than Sammy carrying around bOTTLES OF INK. [Sammy] WHY, WHY WOULDN'T YOU WANT THAT TO BE HAPPENING? WHAT WOULD BE THE PROBLEM WITH THAT,

[GM] Make a sanity check! [Jack] Wait, what's happening? [Sammy] Joey was trying to think too hard.

[GM] Sammy does manage to catch that there's a little-- next to the kitchen, when you go into the place where they're serving food, there's a sign that says "Sheep Shop" over it. And there's a person wearing a sheep mask, handing out food. [Sammy] OKAY, THAT'S FINE,,, I don't feel like Sammy has actually read Through The Looking Glass, so I don't know if he knows why this is happening. I think he's just concerned. [GM] Excellent. Ideal response.

[GM] And Joey has NEVER seen the symbol EVER because he's incredible at not looking at creepy symbols! Which you wouldn't expect. [Sammy] I'm sure Joey will put this in his autobiography.

[Jack] :/ No Hashtag Gay Rights at this party,

[GM] Seems to be another party-goer; in fact, you recognise the voice! [Joey] Ohhh. Kyle -- I don't know his actual name, but -- [Sammy] (Dennis!) [GM] (Yes, that's-) [Joey] -- Kyle.

[Henry] Henry is going to try to sneak up on Moonlight while he's distracted! [GM] OH! ...Okay! He's very distracted, Sammy just screamed! [excited noises from everyone beCAUSE NO ONE EXPECTED THIS] [GM] You successfully sneak up behind him! [Henry] I'm going to grab the staff! [GM] Make a Brawl check, with advantage! [Sammy] (He has SO many limbs that don't work my dude, you got this,) [Henry] That's a success! [GM] You snatch it! [Henry] I RUN!!!

[Joey] We're just both escorting Jack, now. [Sammy] Would you say Jack is late, for a very important date? [Jack] Well YEAH, his Face Removal was scheduled like 2 dreams ago!!

[GM] He'd have to roll for it, to see if it felt familiar to his trip to Carcosa. [Jack] Extreme success! [GM] Then he would pick up that familiar feeling! [Jack] Oh, nice and homey at this party! Really nice. Nostalgic! It's been a while. [Sammy] Hm, [Jack] Maybe he should go play the piano, for old time's sake! [Sammy] NO

[erosia-rhodes]

Top 9 Newbie thoughts on Supernatural after Six Months of Madness

I started watching Supernatural a week before the series finale, and full disclosure, it was only because I heard about the gay angel. I loved me some Good Omens, so I decided to check out a series my only previous thoughts about had been, "Is that show still on?" In the past six months, I've watched about fifty percent of the episodes scattered across all fifteen seasons. I've also spent time following the bonkers-in-the-best-way fandom on Tumblr, and here is what I have learned:

1) Everyone who loves Supernatural also hates Supernatural

No one is capable of praising this show without also trashing it. Supernatural is as awful as it is awesome. Watching Supernatural is like hate-fucking your nemesis against a wall; you're totally conflicted about it, but it's enormously pleasurable and you know you're going to do it over and over again. No one has a pure, untainted love for this show. They only have complicated emotions. This is because…

2) The fact that the show needs to be fixed is an essential part of its appeal

Strangely, if this show were better, it wouldn't be as popular. If you love a show that is perfect, you watch it once or twice or thrice, make a bunch of memes, and move on with your life two years later when you find something else to hyper-fixate on. If you love a show that's broken, you spend the rest of your life obsessed with fixing it. It's the crooked photo hanging on the wall that yearns to be straightened (because, you know, this show is bad at making things straight). It's the stray dog you know would be adoptable if you fattened it up and socialized it with your other dogs, and just like some people can't stop rescuing animals, Supernatural fans can't stop thinking about how to fix a show that isn't great, but could be with a flea bath and a trip to the groomers. Supernatural fans are not fans of the actual show, but of the show they imagine it could be, one that only exists in an alternate universe. They are in love with the Platonic ideal of Supernatural. That's also the reason why…

3) The fans understand the characters and themes better than 95% of the people who worked on the show

The people who watch Supernatural have thought about it way, way, way, more than anyone who produced it. I have read complex essays about what the color of people's clothing imply and how the state of the Impala reflects the state of Dean's mental health and other things I'm certain this show did not do intentionally. People can find depth in the shallowest aspects of this series. Any random fan could explain the complicated dynamics of the Winchester family and the overriding themes of the series better than most of the people who worked on it. That includes the LGBTQ stuff, which leads to the fact that…

4) The show is simultaneously too gay and not gay enough

On one end of the spectrum are fans who are offended you would dare to suggest one of the Winchesters might like kissing a boy and they'll shove you in a locker and duct tape your butt cheeks together for it. On the other end of the spectrum are fans who think it's odd that every episode doesn't end with two attractive men dry humping in a dark corner of the bunker library. No one is happy with the level of gayness on this show. It's always got too much "No Homo" or too much queer subtext, which is why I've concluded that…

5) The audience this show wanted is not the audience they got and they are resentful of it

The original pitch for this show targeted a male demographic who’s into toxic masculinity in a non-ironic way. It was about bros and beers and muscle cars and shotguns and hot chicks who will be killed to further the man's storyline. However, when making that show, they accidentally created a show that attracted female viewers who liked speculating about the queer subtext of each scene while looking at pretty men with traumatic backstories fight back their man tears. The show depends on the unintended audience segment to survive, but is bitter about it, which they remind you of time and time again by killing the female and non-white characters and toying with endless queer-baiting. It's like the writers got a plane to Rome, ended up in a gay nightclub in Amsterdam instead, and even though the canals and tulips make it a lovely city to visit, they wanted to go to Rome, damnit, and they'll never let you forget it! I also suspect that…

6) The people who made this show were at constant war with each other

This show has such a split personality. Sometimes it leans into the gay stuff and other times it makes fun of it outright. Sometimes they'll introduce an interesting side character that could make the show more diverse and then they'll slaughter that person for practically no reason. Sometimes they praise free will and other times they force people down pre-destined paths. The writers feel like a dysfunctional family stuck at Thanksgiving dinner endlessly squabbling with each other—who then had to write a TV show together over dessert. That's why it's such a weird hot mess. The show's unevenness makes me think that…

7) Some people's attachment to the show can only be explained by the fact that it imprinted on them when they were young

Some fans have mentioned they started watching Supernatural when they were kids. It's a pretty common experience to go back and watch things you loved when you were a kid and realize they were…not so good. Your memories of them are far better than the reality of them, but you cling to them anyway. The shows you watch when you're young imprint on you in a way you never forget. Supernatural fans are like a baby duck who looks up at a cat and assumes it’s their mother. Then that cat slices open their poor little hearts, leaving them wounded but not dead, forever be toyed with in agony. The only relief is that…

8) The fandom is batshit insane in the best way

I started following the Supernatural fandom on Tumblr in November of 2020 and OMG, it was AH-MAZE-ING. It was total insanity. I didn't understand half of what was going on, but it was more fun than a yard full of puppies doing zoomies. People were posting detailed PowerPoint presentations theorizing how the series would end, citing extensive physical evidence like the background in Misha's hotel room. People learned election results through Supernatural memes. Destiel went canon every other week. When the Spanish dub was released, Tumblr literally crashed! Obama's Twitter was following a Destiel account. There was a Twitter wedding for Destiel on Valentine's Day, which made the one-month anniversary on Pi Day.

It's been a ride, y'all. I have no idea how you guys survived fifteen years of this. The fandom has been so much fun that I actually sat down and watched more than 100 hours of this show so I could understand everything better. It's like the show is an extension of the fandom instead of vice versa. If anything sums up Supernatural for me, that's it. It's all about the fandom and the show is secondary to that. It's like the fans willed the show into existence as part of some partially botched spell. And part of that twisted spell is that…

9) The show will never die until someone finds its bones and burns them

This show has been off the air for more than six months now and it keeps trending on Tumblr consistently. Misha recently trended on Twitter simply because he was at the Oscars. That was it! He didn't even do anything there, he just attended, and some people figured it out by the reflection in a photo posted by someone else! And just as I was proofreading this post, Destiel started trending again because John Cena is a stan or something? This fandom is crazy and unpredictable and I love it like Dean loves pie! If there ever does come a time when this show stops trending, that will be the moment when they decide to reboot it or revisit it.

There is a lot more I could say about this show, but these were the elements that seemed most unique and bizarre about it. I wouldn't say Supernatural is a ride-or-die fandom for me, and I have no intention of watching another 100 hours of this series, but it's been hella' fun to drop in for a while. The show is just as much a dysfunctional mess as the Winchester family and I guess that's why people love it, right?

[got-svt]

for tonight 

order up !  large caramel latte at 75 % sweetness, an oatmeal raisin cookie, and a slice of cheesecake with doyoung for anon <3 order notes : doyoung x reader, angst, but the end is kinda fluffy, exes to lovers, some mentions of other nct members look, something’s written on your cup… hi anon! for oatmeal raisin cookies the prompt is either enemies or exes so i hope you don’t mind that i chose exes haha. anyways, i hope you enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it! <3 - ren

summary: it’s taeyong’s wedding and you find yourself having no choice but to share a bed with your ex-boyfriend, doyoung. word count: 2.75k ( so sorry, i might have to change the word count on large orders asdfghkl literally all my oneshots are over 2k why did i think i could stick to under 2k for ca )

You stared ahead, eyes unblinking at the sight. Sure, the sight of a single bed wasn’t remotely daunting to most of the human population, but not to you. Not when you had to share it with your ex-boyfriend, Doyoung. He wore the same look of shock you did, mouth parted, eyebrows raised, and a cold drop of sweat dripping down his forehead. Beside you, you could see his fists clenching and unclenching — like he was trying to keep himself calm, but to very little success. Unfortunately for him, you were also feeling very on edge as you bit the inside of your cheek — waves of nervousness building up from the very pit of your stomach, soon enough they would eventually have to come crashing down. 

You shouldn’t have come in the first place. If it weren’t for the incessant pestering of your friends, you wouldn’t have come at all. But it was Taeyong’s wedding, it was too big of a deal to ditch just because you didn’t feel like running into an ex. 

“Seriously, Yn?”  Taeyong pouted after hearing your initial hesitation on attending, “You’re skipping my wedding, the biggest day of my life, because you’re afraid you’ll see Doyoung? May I remind you that you were my friend before he became your boyfriend.”

You huffed, crossing your arms in front of your chest, “I know that, but what if things are awkward between us and we ruin your day because of it?”

“Hasn’t it been a couple of months already? I’m sure both of you moved on.” Taeyong rolled his eyes, “I’m not saying both of you have to spend the day together, I just want you to be there.”

You eventually agreed, though it took convincing from at least three other people besides Taeyong to get you to finally go. Johnny promised that he would sit beside you during the ceremony, you subtly asking to sit as far away from Doyoung as you possibly can — which meant tugging on his sleeve the second you caught sight of him. Taeyong was kind enough to move seating arrangements around, placing you in between Jaehyun and Mark and having you four tables away from Doyoung. You spent most of the reception dancing with Yuta and Haechan, laughing loudly whenever you stepped on their feet or when they spun you around a little too quickly. For most of the day, Doyoung had been in the back of your mind, enjoying the company you kept and catching up with your shared friends. But the day eventually had to end, nightfall slowly creeping up on you before shaking you back into the reality you had to force yourself to face.

“Okay, thank you.” Doyoung politely spoke before placing the telephone back on its receiver. His suit’s jacket was now off, neatly folded across the back of a wooden desk chair. The top two buttons of his crisp white button-down were undone.  

You had to stop yourself from staring too long to be considered appropriate, shaking your head slightly. “Well, what did they say?”

Doyoung winced at the sharpness in your tone. You didn’t mean to sound so harsh, or cold for that matter, the effects of the long day had been wearing down on you and you wanted nothing more than to take a warm shower and fall into a dreamless sleep surrounded by the fluffiest pillows this luxurious hotel had to offer.

“Hotel’s all booked up because of the wedding. We can’t get another room.” He sighed, taking a seat on the edge of the bed, the soft mattress dipping ever so slightly.

You pinched the the bridge of your nose, shutting your eyes as tightly as you could — as if that would somehow help you will into reality that this was not happening. The two of you booked this hotel room weeks before you had broken up, the minute you had finally gotten wind of the where the wedding was going to be held. In the sudden whirlwind that was your breakup, neither of you had remembered to cancel and book another room. With the the nearest hotel somehow fifty miles away, you slowly braced yourself to deal with the unfortunate situation of having to share the room with your ex-boyfriend.

You opened your eyes to see Doyoung hunched over, eyes trained on his phone, very clearly frustrated. His fingers moved across his screen quickly, face slightly lit up from its harsh glare. You tilted your head to the side, watching as he eventually shut his phone off and ran a hand through his already messy hair. “I asked our friends if I could sleep in any of their rooms. All of them answered no. All full apparently, so no space for me.”

You scoffed, there was no way none of them couldn’t possibly spare a bit of space for Doyoung. He nodded in agreement at your annoyance. Both of you knew all of your friends rooted for the two of you, they were the reason you had even gotten together in the first place. You knew Taeyong ever since you learned how to walk, and you saw no harm in going on a blind date with a friend he had claimed would be absolutely perfect for you. Their denial only triggered memories of their exaggerated wails of heartbreak when they found out about your breakup. 

“It’s fine, maybe I can sleep on the tub or something. You can take the bed.” Doyoung offered, motioning a hand towards the bed before heading to the bathroom. You rolled your eyes. Always the sweetheart, you thought. He was gone for all of five seconds when you heard his voice from the bathroom, soft yet clearly frustrated, “There’s no tub.”

Doyoung made his way over to you, his hands behind his back. There was a certain nervous energy that surrounded his figure, you wonder what was it about you that made him feel this way. Granted, this had been the first time you were going to be alone with him in months, you don’t even recall seeing him in person before the wedding. He refused to meet your eyes, gaze firmly on the carpeted floor beneath him, “I’ll take the floor instead.”

You knew there was no way you were letting him sleep on the floor, you were already about to protest his suggestion of sleeping on the tub until he made his way to the bathroom before he could even respond. Sure, you were broken up, but that didn’t mean you were that cold of a person to deny him access to a bed. “No.”

“What?” Doyoung looked up at you in surprise, eyes growing wide.

“Listen,” You sighed, not wanting to make this a bigger deal than it already was, “it’s been a long day, we’re both tired, both of us can take the bed. It’s just one night, what’s the worst that could happen? We can go back to pretending the other doesn’t exist in the morning.”

Doyoung blinked back at you, processing your words before nodding slowly. He didn’t feel like arguing with you anyways, not when the last time he saw you was in a screaming match that lasted hours and had you storming out of his apartment. “Fine, I assume you’ll take the right side of the bed? You can have the extra pillow too.”

You stepped back, trying your best to not seem too shocked that he still remembered your sleeping preferences. “Yeah, thanks.”

Doyoung nodded in acknowledgement, before both of you tried to get as much of your night routines done without bothering the other. The silence in the hotel room was palpable, breaking every now and then by the sounds of water running, doors opening and closing, bare feet prodding on carpeted floors, shuffling about as you narrowly avoided looking at or bumping into each other.

This is only for tonight, you and Doyoung thought to yourselves.

“Good night, I guess.” You mumbled, as both of you turned off the lamps on your respective sides of the bed.

“Night.”

The two of you were submerged in darkness, the only whisper of light coming from the moon that peeked through the curtains. You and Doyoung retreated to opposite edges of the bed, leaving an obnoxious amount of space between the two of you as you slept on your sides. You shut your eyes, hoping that sleep would come to you as soon as possible. 

It didn’t, but only because your thought kept drifting back to the man that lied beside you. It was almost impossible to keep your mind at bay, not when he was right there, just at arm’s reach — so close yet so far. You couldn’t help but look for the sound of his breathing, remembering how it used to comfort you on nights you had trouble sleeping, patterning your own breaths after his. Something in you wanted to turn around and face him, to lay your head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat. His arm wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer in the way he did before.

The truth was, you didn’t know the exact reason for your breakup. All you remembered was crying, screaming, eventually storming out. It was all the little moments that both of you held in, eventually bursting out when it was all too much to hold. All those late nights he came home from work late, the small seconds of jealousy that welled up between the two of you, all the cancelled plans, missed dates, moments of misunderstandings that never got brought up or resolved. 

You groaned as quietly as you could, not wanting to wake Doyoung up if he was already asleep. Maybe it was the effect of a long and tiring day, maybe it was because you had just been at a wedding and love was in the air, maybe avoiding him the entire day wasn’t the right move, not when it only made you miss him more. You couldn’t help but want to reach out for him and little did you know he felt the exact same way.

Doyoung felt cold, a chill creeping up his spine, goosebumps littering the little areas of skin he had exposed. He could hear your sighs, the groans that escaped your lips, and Doyoung knew you were having trouble sleeping. He wanted nothing more than to hold you in his arms, the warmth of your body pressed against his. When he spent years falling asleep with you close to him most nights, it was hard to forget all of that in a matter of months. 

He remembered how his heart ached when he saw you lead yourself and Johnny away from him, when he saw you seated tables away with him, talking it up with Mark and Jaehyun. But it shattered when he saw you dancing with Yuta and Haechan, smile wider than he had ever seen before, looking like you were having the time of your life without him. 

Doyoung didn’t know how you were only keeping it all in, pretending like it didn’t bother you. 

You turned to lay on your back, eyes wide and wake, looking up at the ceiling. There was nothing to look at, everything was painted in a pale shade of gray. There’s shuffling beside you as Doyoung turned to lay on his back as well, hands neatly folded on his stomach.

“Can’t sleep, Yn?” He asked, eyes also fixated on the ceiling. 

You shook your head but quickly realized he probably couldn’t see you, “No. I suppose you can’t either.”

“Any reason why?”

“Thinking…” You trailed off, afraid of what you’d say if he dared to ask more.

“About?”

You sighed, unsure if you should actually answer. There was never really any closure to your breakup, you could only remember leaving. “Us, like what exactly happened?”

There was a certain amount of vulnerability in your voice, it was quiet and soft, yet it still pierced through the air and rang in his ears. He couldn’t believe you, how could you ask him that? 

“Yn, you left me.” Doyoung answered back, he tried to sound nonchalant, but his voice cracked at the final word, giving his true emotions away.

You deserved that, the little clench in your chest at the sadness in his voice. “But you didn’t go after me. You just let me leave. You let me go so easily.”

“Did you want me to go after you? Would you have taken me back if I did?” Doyoung turned on his side once again, now facing you, “I thought you were done with me.”

You kept your eyes on the ceiling, trying your best to ignore Doyoung’s piercing gaze. You couldn’t look at him, not when the guilt of your actions finally caught up with you. It was a selfish decision really, to leave so suddenly, not giving each other a chance to possibly work it out. You still don’t know why you had done it, or at least made no effort to contact him after, leaving both of you to just assume that things were over. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring that up.” You bring your hands up to your temple, trying to rub away the headache that was beginning to form. Should you say anything else? Did you even want to? Your chest tightened, feeling tears form in the corners of your eyes. You had spent the entire day keeping it in, spent the months after your breakup pretending that this was for the best, that this was what you wanted. The walls you built around yourself finally came crumbling down, “I just…I missed you. I can’t even remember why we broke up in the first place, why I left…”

You expected him to turn away, to tell you it was too little and far too late. Instead he reached out to you, the suddenness of his action had you yelping in surprise. He pulled you to his chest, closing the distance you had put between yourselves. Doyoung whispered, his breath ever so slightly tickling your ear, “I’m sorry for letting you leave.”

“No,” You shook your head against his chest, tears staining the white cotton shirt he chose to wear to bed, “I’m sorry for leaving in the first place.”

Doyoung didn’t say anything else, letting you cry into his chest as he rubbed comforting circles on your back. You calmed down after a few minutes, but you still gripped his shirt tightly, like you were afraid that you were going to lose him again if you didn’t. 

It was quiet, but it wasn’t the same kind of silence that descended between the two of you earlier in the night. This silence was more peaceful, content. You could hear the sound of his heart beating, relaxing and consistent — lulling you to sleep. Doyoung felt your breath against his neck, warm and inviting, reminding him that you were once again in his arms. The heaviness in his chest that plagued him the past few weeks was suddenly gone, replaced with a sense of peacefulness. 

“You know, something in me says that you didn’t cancel this hotel room on purpose.” Doyoung teased, knowing it would get some sort of reaction from you.

And it did. You groaned as you hit his chest, in the way you always did whenever he teased you when you were still together, your hand still lingering on his chest even after you hit him. Unfortunately, you exerted a little more force than you originally intended. 

“Ouch!” He exclaimed, but you could tell he wasn’t actually hurt when you saw the ghost of a smile making its way to his lips, “Are you trying to flirt with me or start a fight?”

“Which would you prefer?” 

“Definitely flirting.” Doyoung grinned, wrapping his arms tighter around you. 

You hummed, content as sleep finally began to take its hold on you, “What happens now?”

“We can talk about it in the morning.” Doyoung kissed your temple, one hand running through your hair, “We should go to sleep.”

You snuggled further into his embrace, a content sigh escapes Doyoung’s lips. There was still so much left for the two of you to talk about, to actually work on if you wanted your relationship to last. But that was all to be discussed in the morning. Right now, for tonight and this very moment, Doyoung only decided on one thing: there was no way he was letting you leave again.

— thank you for visiting cafe amore ! feel like ordering something else? check the menu here.

[serendipityjxmn]

Mr. President

Chapter 17

TW: Mention of rape

Words Count: 1.9k

Link to Masterlist

Link to Chapter 18

[Jimin, 4:35PM] Be ready for formal dinner at 7.

You received the text three hours ago. And that’s why you’re here now standing in front of the mirror as you take one last look of yourself. It doesn’t take long for you to get ready. You don’t have much knowledge in make ups anyway. So you just lightly put anything on.

To be honest, you don’t want to go. You haven’t talk to Jimin since last two days and he didn’t come home as well.

But who are you to say no. It’s one of your contract clause with him to accompany your husband in all functions as and when needed.

You look at yourself in the mirror, feeling somehow estranged at your own reflection. You’re wearing a V neck long burgundy satin dress that Taehyung gave you when he dropped by this evening.

When you head downstairs afterwards, you see your husband with his back on you, speaking to his bodyguards. Their eyes travel to you, informing Jimin of your presence. He turns towards you and you almost stop in your tracks.

He’s dressed in immaculate black suit which you assume is Valentino as well to match yours, his hair tousled to the back, he looks so handsome you feel your heart racing as you take his appearance. You had to remind yourself you both aren’t in speaking terms.

Jimin on the other hand, has his gaze on you for only a fleeting second until he looks everywhere else except you.

The ride in the car is exceptionally quiet as well. Jimin only speaks when he informs you that the function is held by Jaehyun, his cousin’s family.

When you arrive, Jimin got out first and offers you his hand automatically since there are tons of photographers and people from medias.

You realize the function is held at a huge mansion you assume is owned by Jaehyun’s family. Jimin leads you through the long porches towards a garden that’s been well decorated with beautiful lights, tables in white linen clothes and all kinds of flowers hanging on every nook and corner.

The function turns out to be a charity event collaborated with UNICEF you’re pretty sure is only part of their CSR responsibility. Everything goes by in almost a blur, with you sitting silently most of the time and zoning out, clapping only when you hear others.

Everyone is dressed stunningly in all their suits and long evening gown and everyone seems to know each other, you note. Well obviously since this is a family event with close family members and friends which you feel nothing like you’re part of it at all. Your fingers find your wedding ring on your chest, grasping it tight.

Even your husband has been completely ignoring you, talking animatedly to someone beside him. The main event is now done with most items being auctioned off, so you tug Jimin’s sleeve a little to excuse yourself to the bathroom. Most people are getting up for a slow waltz but Jimin doesn’t seem to have any plan for it so you just quietly slip yourself out of the garden and find your way to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, you reapply lipstick that is barely gone at all and fix your dress that barely needs fixing at all.

Once you’re done, you find your way out and heads back to the garden. Or so you thought.

Walking mindlessly, you somehow reach the end of the stony pathway and that’s when you start to panic.

At the same time, you suddenly got the eerie feeling of being watched. Hearts pounding, you turn around, searching for the source of your unease. But there’s nothing, except darkness.

Perhaps you’re just being paranoid.

You retreat using the same path but weirdly, you still couldn’t shake off the feeling of being watched. It’s eerily quiet and you can almost hear everything since the music playing at the garden sounds like a hum now from the distance.

As if on cue, you hear little footsteps shuffling from behind you. Yet when you turn, there’s nothing but darkness.

Getting even more freaked out now, you start to walk even quicker. Throwing side glances everywhere, at one point you start to run as fast as the heels would allow you.

Too busy craning your head around, you don’t see a figure in front of you. You let out a scream when your vision turns black as your body crashes against the solid figure.

“Hey- hey Y/N calm down-“ the voice is familiar. But it does little to calm your anxiety. “It’s me, Jaehyun.”

You lean back to take a good look and realize it really is Jaehyun. Unknowingly, you let out a sigh of relief. “Ah- it’s you-“ you say, though body still trembling and heart still racing.

Jaehyun’s gaze drop down to match yours. “You okay? Were you lost?”

“Uh yeah- I just thought-“ you glance once again behind you, “nevermind.” Only now do you realize that Jaehyun has his arms around your waist to support you so you quickly step out of his arms. You forgot that you aren’t in friendly terms with him.

Jaehyun seems to notice your change of demeanor and sees you trying to jerk away. He drops his hand instantly, probably not wanting to give the wrong signal to you. “Hey. I was looking for you just now.” He smiles and if it wasn’t for his personality, you’d probably swoon at his dimpled smile. He starts to walk and you follow his pace beside him.

“Why?”

“I wanted to apologize for last time, you know. That was really rude of me. Please forgive me.” He stops in his track and you look at him to see that he’s staring intently at you. His eyes tells you that he’s being genuine so you just nod. You’d probably nod anyway even if you don’t forgive him. Plus, he saved you from getting lost.

You both arrive at the end of the stony pathway but it isn’t dark like the one you found just now. Instead, it’s just dimly lit and deserted but the bushes and flowers are all well trimmed. You place your hand on the English style white fence in front of you as you stare out the grassy meadow. You honestly believe there’s no end to the open darkness you briefly wonder how rich Jaehyun’s family must be to have such huge estate.

The two of you exchange conversations and you end up laughing hard on several occasions. Now that you’re having conversations with him, you realize he isn’t so bad.

“So, how’s married life?” Jaehyun asks as he leans on his elbow on the fence, body facing towards you.

“Don’t you think the question’s a bit late?” You smile in amusement.

He chuckles. “I suppose it is. But hey, don’t blame me. Blame your husband instead. He loves to keep you hidden.”

“In the dark,” you mutter under your own breath.

“You know,” he starts as he stares out into the open darkness as well. “I think the both of you really look good together.”

You smile a sad smile though you’re pretty sure Jaehyun can’t see you. “Why do you say that?” You don’t think Jimin and you had put that good of a performance for people to see you both that way.

“I’ve known Jimin since we were child. He’s.. not the friendliest person, sorry not sorry.”

You let out a soft chuckle. There’s no denying that.

“He’s a very self sustained guy. Very smart, never needing any help ever since we were kids, not even me. He’s always clear of what he wants and would never stop in anyway to get what he wants. No matter how or who he hurt in the process. I learnt the hard way when I was seven.” He lets out a small laugh that somehow sounds sad.

“And.. why are you telling me this?” You look at him.

He looks at you too and his face serious, all trace of playfulness disappears. “I just want you to be careful.” He says carefully. “And also.. perhaps because I want to steal something of his..” he says that as he eyes you with unreadable expression but it causes a shiver to run down your spine.

You look away quickly as the atmosphere becomes awkward. “I- I don’t think I’d ever want or wish for anything else if I have a land this big.” You try to joke.

He laughs. “Is he not making you happy?” He suddenly asks, face turning serious again.

“W-why would you say that?”

“Because if he is, firstly he probably wouldn’t leave you all alone here in the cold.” He adds while grinning when he sees you shivering slightly. You don’t realize as Jaehyun tries to step closer towards you.

You shake your head slowly. “It doesn’t really matter how he treats me.”

“Why wouldn’t it? Because if he doesn’t..”

Suddenly, he swivels your petite body and crashes his own body against yours as he pull you into a hug. You crumble slightly in utter shock, falling back and you wince as your back pressed against the fence.

“Jaehyun what are you-“ You struggle and try to push him off of you. At that moment, your eyes flicker ahead and sees Jimin over Jaehyun’s shoulder, standing a few metres away from the both of you, staring at the scene in front of him.

You struggle again against Jaehyun but for a moment, you stare in lost at your husband.

For a brief second, you think of standing there in another man’s embrace just to see your husband’s reaction.

Just to see his feelings towards you.

To see if he feels something. Anything.

You just desperately want to see an inch of his thought.

He finally takes a few strides, “What the fuck you two think you’re doing?”

Jaehyun definitely heard him but he surely takes his time to release you before turning to face Jimin.

“Do you want to be seen hugging my own fucking cousin in the tabloid?” He snaps at you.

“I’m sorry, Jimin. She’s not at fault. I was the one who initiated everything.” Jaehyun says.

“Yeah whatever.” Your husband doesn’t even look at him. Instead, he reaches for you and pulls you close to him. His hands find its way to hold your waist firmly. Possesively.

“I was looking for you.” He says very gently. And then very tenderly, he leans forward to kiss your forehead.

You realize that this is the first time Jimin’s ever done anything intimate towards you in public.

And he does it in the eyes of Jaehyun.

Suddenly it dawns to you that he’s just marking his territory.

He’s showing that you’re his property.

“Come, let’s go home.” He says softly and nods curtly to his cousin before dragging you away by the waist.

You could only take a look at Jaehyun very briefly before being whisked away by your husband and finds him smiling in amusement.

The car ride on the way home is almost as awkward as when you got to the event early this evening.

It’s mostly filled in silence until your husband speaks up.

“I’m sorry.. About.. you know.” He says quietly. He’s trying to apologize for almost raping you. The memory almost brings fresh tears in your eyes. You still remember vividly how terrified you were.

“I’m really sorry.” He says again when you remain silent.

You don’t really trust yourself to say anything so you reach over for his hand and gives it a brief, gentle squeeze to let you know that you forgive him.

You think that a twisted part of you will always forgive him. Even if he didn’t apologise.

A/N: the stupid me just found out I didnt write the trigger warning for previous chapter. I’m sorry 😭

Anyway, things had been pretty tough because of pandemic. I was on contract basis for my job until June last year but was not renewed and I’ve been searching for jobs ever since but unfortunately wasnt able to land a permanent one. Writing had been a form of escape for me and I’m sincerely doing it out of love. But if, if you guys love my story and may wanna support me, you can drop a visit and buy me a coffee here! Thank you so much ❤️

Link to Chapter 18

Posted on 210507 9:00PM

[dontshootmespence]

Home Again

Summary: Spencer and Luke are happily married when the world goes to shit. In the chaos, they’re separated. After years, each one presumes the other dead. Until one day.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Luke Alvez

Word Count: 3,564

Warning: Zombie apocalypse shit. Character deaths. 

A/N: This fulfills my apocalypse au square for @cmbingo​. 

Inside their mid-size apartment, Luke dances to his favorite music as he moves about the kitchen, getting dinner ready for when Spencer comes home. A medical researcher’s work was never really done, but in the years since they’d gotten married, Spencer made a commitment to be home by every night at 6PM unless they discussed otherwise. 

Turning on the nightly news, Luke saw what looked like a pretty severe car accident on the road that Spencer normally took on the way home. He pulled out his phone and dialed, hoping to give his husband a head’s up about the driving conditions, but it went straight to voicemail. “Hey, Spence, it’s me. I mean, of course it’s me,” he laughed. “But anyway, I’m working on dinner now and I just saw the news. There’s a big accident on I-275 so you might want to take another way home if you can. I’ll see you in a little bit. Love you.”

As Luke slipped the chicken into the pot, he heard what sounded like another car wreck and ran to the window, sticking his head out to see a car on its side and one man running clumsily after another. A knock at the door distracted him from the damage on the street below. 

“Luke, it’s Steven. Open up.”

Steven was their neighbor and a college student. They rarely ever spoke. “Steven, what’s wrong?”

“There’s something wrong, man. People are going crazy out there. They’re attacking each other and...and eating each other. It’s like there are...”

Luke couldn’t help but laugh. “Do not say zombies. There’s no such thing, kid.”

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Steven insisted. “Something is happening. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll pack up some essentials and get moving. Apparently, it started at the Recovered Exploration Lab downtown and people, zombies, whatever they are, they’re headed this way. I just wanted to give you a heads up.”

Steven sped down the stairs in a panic, leaving Luke’s focus to drift back to the television. “We’re here just above Recovered Exploration Lab where the breakout of what looks like zombies seems to have started,” the news anchor started. “On the ground, people are ripping and tearing and eating each other in what seems to be a real-life apocalypse, folks. At this time we don’t know what caused it, but we can assume that the staff at Recovered Exploration have been keeping secrets. This is WLVW Channel 2 News. Back to you in the studio.”

Luke couldn’t believe what he was hearing and ran back to the window to see even more people than before ambling down the street. Cursing under his breath, he pulled out his phone again and dialed Spencer again. “Spence, have you heard what’s on the news? Are they talking about it on the radio? They’re saying it’s a real life zombie apocalypse out there and I’m, I’m, I’m, uh, looking out the window and people are attacking each other. There’s a swarm of people heading toward the apartment so I’m grabbing some essentials for us. Meet me at our diner okay? Then we can figure out what to do. Be safe, Spence. I love you.”

Running into their bedroom, Luke grabbed the biggest backpack he could find and anything he thought they might need. Spare clothes, toiletries, canned food, a can opener, toilet paper, some sharp knives and his guns from work. “What else?” He spoke into the empty room. On the wall hung their favorite picture from their wedding. He and Spencer wore matching tuxes and walked hand in hand along a lit-up, tree-lined path. Lost in thought, the commotion brought him back. He stuffed the picture into the backpack and ran downstairs, hoping that this was all a dream.

----

Having heard both of Luke’s messages, Spencer took an alternative route home, but unfortunately, he ran into another accident, slamming on the brakes as two cars crashed into stopped cars in front of them. With traffic at a standstill, he pulled his phone out and tried to call Luke. Obviously, there had to be another explanation for what was happening. 

As he was about to try calling for a second time, he saw someone in the wreckage ahead, who he’d previously assumed to be dead, jerk back to life. Slowly, she go up from the ground and shuffled toward an office that had his back turned. When an ear-shattering scream resounded through the air, Spencer dropped his phone. She wasn’t the only one.

A man from a nearby car knocked on Spencer’s window. “Buddy, we need to get out of here. You have anything that might help?” 

“Like what?” Spencer asked, voice quivering as he picked up his phone from the car floor and shoved it back in his pocket. Quickly, he searched the car for anything that might be helpful. His keys.

“Anything in the trunk?” The man asked, grabbing Spencer’s arm and yanking him away from the incoming crowd. “We need to move now.” 

His mind had blanked. After grabbing the emergency preparedness bag from the trunk of the car that Luke insisted he have, he and the unnamed man ran over the highway barrier and away from the traffic. “I need to get to the diner on Jones and Washington,” Spencer said. “Do you know it? My husband said to meet him there.”

Staring back into the growing see of screaming and ambling bodies, the man replied. “I don’t think you’re going that way, kid.”

----

Stumbling down into the street they lived on, Luke looked around in horror. He ran. He ran as hard and as fast as his body would allow, staying clear of any of the infected like his life depended on it. Right now, it did. 

Luke wavered between walking and running in the general direction of the diner he knew so well. For five years, every Friday, he and Spencer would head there for a greasy burger and fries and some of the best milkshakes either of them had ever tasted. 

The farther he traveled from the apartment, the less insanity he seemed to encounter, but still, his heart beat with reckless abandon as he peered around every corner. If whatever this was didn’t get resolved soon, every street, every city, every state would be something to fear. No longer would he and Spencer be able to go to the local park and bask in the sun. No more walks on the beach. No more calm and colorful sunsets. “You’re getting ahead of yourself,” he muttered to himself. “Just get to the diner.”

Using landmarks to guide his way (so that he could keep his phone on and pray for a call from Spencer), he crossed what he believed was the halfway point between the apartment and the restaurant. They now lived in a world where people ate each other and rose from the dead, but it was the groups of human beings taking this whole situation as a free for all that he had to avoid most of all. 

As he hurriedly turned the corner, Luke bumped into a group of nervous but determined young adults. The youngest couldn’t have been 16 and the oldest topped 25 at the most. By the looks of the straggling adults, most of them had already lost someone or taken this new world as an excuse to ditch their families and fend for themselves. The most self-assured of the bunch stepped in toward Luke and looked at his bag. “Seems like you’re well stocked.”

“For a couple days,” he replied, carefully taking a small step backward. “For my spouse and I until this whole thing blows over.” He spoke the words, but something told him ‘this whole thing’ wasn’t going to be over anytime soon. 

With each step Luke took back, the young man stepped forward and tried to yank the bag from his grasp. “Sorry, kiddo. That ain’t happening.” Before the other man could swing his gun from his back and into his hand, Luke had his pulled and aimed. “Don’t. I don’t wanna hurt people. You walk away. I’ll walk away and we’ll pretend this never happened.”

The next moments passed by in a blur - kids running, bullets flying. Luke didn’t glance back, running away from the screams and toward the diner with tears in his eyes. He just shot a kid. A kid who was just trying to survive in whatever the hell this new world was. 

----

Days passed before Spencer and his party of misfits arrived at the diner. Jim was the man that shook him to reality. On the way they’d also run into a single mother named Avery and her 3-year-old son, Chase, who were being harassed by a couple of guys who just didn’t want to take no for an answer. Although they tried to resolve things peacefully, Jim killed the one that pulled a gun on him and the other ran away. From there, they all went to Jim’s former precinct and grabbed whatever guns they could find. Unlike Luke, Spencer wasn’t used to holding guns, but he was going to have to get accustomed quickly.

Normally, the diner looked reminiscent of the 50s. Crisp black and white checkered floors, red leather seats, clean white tables and chrome chairs at similarly colored bar-tops. Now there were skid marks on the floors, dinged counters and bits of food all over the floor. The kitchen had already been ransacked so very little decent food was left, but they stocked up on what they could and waited. 

Nearly a week went by before Jim insisted they leave. “I know your husband was going to meet you here, Spencer, but if we stay any longer we’re putting ourselves in danger. We don’t wanna use all our gunpower to defend this place when we can’t stay here.”

Spencer knew he was right, but the thought of leaving hurt his heart. “I’m never going to see my husband again, am I, Jim?”

The older man just looked at him sadly, resting his hand on Spencer’s shoulder. “Call him. You’ve still got a little power left. Leave a message. And hope for the best. I’ll give you a minute before we head out.” 

Spencer thanked him softly and went into the back room before pulling out the phone. Shakily, he dialed Luke one more time. “Hey, babe. I’ve been at the diner for almost a week. I don’t know what happened to you...or,” his voice broke, “or if you’re even still alive, but if you are, I’m headed toward my mother’s nursing home. I need to see if she’s okay. I have no idea if we’re ever going to see each other again. I hope we are. But if we aren’t, I need you know that the years we’ve been together, the years we’ve been married, they’ve been the best and happiest of my life. Studying what I study, it can suck the life out of you, but seeing you in the mornings, the sun shining on your face, it gave me that little push I needed to go do what I do. You changed my life, Luke. I love you so much. If you’re out there, and you can’t get to me, just know that, I love you with everything I have.”

Quickly, he ended the call and shoved the phone back in his pocket before breaking down sobbing. He allowed himself a few minutes and then met Jim, Avery and Chase outside. They’d all agreed to head in the direction of his mother’s nursing home. Spencer prayed that Luke and his mother were still alive. And safe.

----

After shooting the kid, Luke ran into a building a melted down. Sure, he’d had to shoot people before. He’d killed people before. But this was different. This was practically a kid whose only crime was trying to look out for the group he was with. Between dodging zombies and dodging other people, it took Luke almost two full weeks to get to the diner, but by the time he arrived, if Spencer had been there, he was gone. 

Despite the possibility of nearby zombies or walkers or whatever he’d heard people calling them, Luke screamed at the top of his lungs and lost it. Without finding him here, there was no guarantee that they were ever going to see each other again. In his search for any salvageable supplies, he came across random papers, broken glass, ripped bandages - but nothing of use. 

When he glanced down at the floor, he saw Spencer’s signature and hurriedly picked it up, but the other pieces of whatever note he left were too ripped up and dirty and stepped on for him to make out what it said. As his fingers slid over his husband’s name, a tear fell from his eye. If Spencer was still alive, he was likely headed in the direction his mother lived. 

“Hello?” A small voice broke Luke from his train of thought. He spun around, his hand on the gun in his holster. “Please don’t hurt me,” the girl said. Dirt and dried blood covered her face and her eyes conveyed a lifetime of hurt. “Please.”

Luke lowered his gun. “How old are you?”

“Fourteen.”

Luisa had been right in the eye of the storm at the start of this whole thing weeks earlier. “My papa died trying to save my mama. And then she was bitten trying to save my sister and I. She saved me, but it was too late for Josephine. My mother lost too much blood. She fell asleep and never woke up and I had to- I had to put her out of her misery. I’m all alone.”

“Not anymore, kiddo. “You’ll stay with me.”

“Thank you - “

“Luke.”

“Thank you, Luke.”

----

The weeks that followed put Spencer’s band of misfits went through the ringer. After detouring around a group of people that would’ve outnumbered them three to one had they decided they wanted trouble, they had to fight their way through a hoard of walkers. Though they had few weapons, they managed, but not without Jim being bitten. 

“Kid, you know without a medic around this tourniquet is just stopping the inevitable. The bastard nicked my brachial artery,” Jim said, heavily drawing in each breath as it came to him. “You’ve got to take the weapons and keep those two safe for as long as you can. Maybe find your husband again.”

Spencer swallowed the lump in his throat. “I could go find-”

“No way. There’s a hoard at our backs and only Lord knows what up ahead. I won’t have you risking that for me.”

Over and over again, Spencer tried to reason with him, but in a way Jim was right. He had no idea what was up ahead and even if he found a medic there was no guarantee that he’d get back in time to save Jim. “I’m sorry,” Spencer said, placing a handgun in his palm. “I really am.”

“I know, kid. I have you find your husband again. Now get going.”

Once Spencer grabbed the weapons Jim had, he gathered up Avery and Chase and headed out into the unknown. A gunshot rang out and the crows fled into the sky. Hope was waning fast.

----

On their way to Diana’s nursing home, Spencer, Avery and Chase faced no further challenges. As soon as they detected voices, they headed away from them, preferring to stay in their small group of three than risk bringing other people into their ranks. They crossed the occasional zombie, but they were quickly dispatched.

Finally, they reached Diana’s home, but they were too late. Spencer found her alive, but too bloodied and bruised to move. “Mom, I’ll find someone. I won’t let you die,” Spencer said softly as he cried. “I can find someone to help and we can get you out of here.”

Diana was nothing if not a realist. “I’m going to die, Spencer. Soon probably. I just hope I can keep my wits about me until the sleep sets in. How’s Luke? Where is he? Is he-?”

“I don’t know,” Spencer sobbed. “You really want to talk about my life right now?’

“Yes. When I first saw this on the news, I thought I was having a nightmare, but it’s real and it’s unreal and I just want a sense of normalcy.”

Spencer radioed Avery to tell her where he was before curling in next to his mother. “I was on my way home from work when this all started. Luke was home. I-I haven’t seen him since and I don’t think I’m ever going to see him again. Mom, I’m so scared of being alone.”

“You’ll find him again,” Diana said weakly. 

“How do you know?”

“A mother knows. Remember?”

Spencer grabbed her hand and started reading the nearest book he could find. “Spencer...” she said, whisper soft. “It’s time for me to go to sleep.”

“No, mom, just a little bit longer.”

“Promise me something.”

“Anything.”

Diana fought for each breath. “Don’t let me turn into one of those things.”

Spencer choked out a sob. “I won’t.”

“And stay hopeful.” 

He promised he would, though he wasn’t sure it was a promise he could keep. “Mom?”

Nothing.

Before she could come back, he took a small gun out of his pocket, aimed, and fired. “I’ll try, Mom.”

----

Days passed into weeks passed into months passed into years. In a world changed, it changed those within in. Luke, once a confident and self-assured government agent, turned inward, going from one “safe haven” to another and sheltering himself and Luisa until their hideaway was discovered and they needed to move on, never once fighting for a place to call a makeshift home.

Through the years he lost himself, finding that instead of helping others, he did only what he had to do for he and Luisa to survive, never once taking a life, only dispatching zombies when need be. 

On the other hand, Spencer found himself hardening against the world. More than a year after everything began, Avery was overtaken by a hoard they passed, shoving Chase out of the crowd and toward Spencer. With her last breaths, she begged Spencer to take care of her son. Five years later, he and the almost nine-year-old boy headed a group of nearly 50 people, though numbers dwindled and rose from month to month. 

Spencer became a leader, but he confided in no one, killed if it was necessary to defend his “home”, and rarely spoke, shutting down in the face of any emotional connection. To connect was to lose, and he had lost enough. 

“Daniel and Alexa, you’ll accompany me into town for some supplies.” In addition to defending the makeshift community they’d developed, Spencer always sent out scouts to ensure that no one touched the supplies in surrounding towns. Less-looted stores were low in number and eventually he would need to conduct another reconnaissance mission to find supplies, but for now they would survive. “We leave within the hour.”

Smiles were few and far between, for Spencer more than most. However, the little boy he’d ended up raising as his son brought him a sliver of joy, along with his memories of Luke. They coaxed him to sleep at night and in the morning, he used them to make it through the day. “Chase, you know I love you, right?”

“I do, Spencer. Be careful okay? I can’t lose you.”

“I’ll be back.” He never promised, knowing more than most that sometimes the world was cruel. “Be good for Sandra.”

Though he was born before the world went to shit, Chase had essentially grown up in this new world. He was disciplined and trustworthy and more an adult than any almost nine-year-old boy should ever have to be.

On the way to gather supplies, Spencer zoned out, only gathering little bits of the conversation going on behind him. Both Daniel and Alexa had lost spouses at the start of the apocalypse and something told Spencer they were seeking comfort in one another now that they were “safe.” Funny how the meaning of a word could change in such a short amount of time.

While out for supplies, Spencer had insisted that no one go anywhere alone, so the three entered the hardware store in search of anything they could use as a weapon. As he gathered ropes and zip ties and wrenches into his supply bag, he heard Alexa and Daniel call for him. “Boss!”

Spencer approached the two, their guns raised and ready to fire. In the line of sight was a young woman, sheltered by a man. He closed his eyes and begged the universe for this not to be a joke, his mind playing tricks on him. When Spencer opened his eyes, he remained. “Luke?”

He smiled and immediately broke into tears. “Spence? You’re, you’re-”

Pushing past Daniel and Alexa, Spencer ran into Luke’s arms on the verge of tears, pressing his lips to his husband’s for the first time in nearly seven years. “I’m alive. And you’re here. How are you here?”

“Because I’m a different person. You?”

“Me too,” Spencer said sadly. “Everything’s changed. Except what I feel for you. I’m finally home again.”

[aphroditewritings]

Pregant Omega x Dragon King

Her love for Katsuki was what she could only describe as magical. Having known each other since childhood and having dated for their teenage years being the biggest couple of the village all the time since Katsuki was next in line for the throne. It was only natural to accept when the council arranged a wedding between the two lovers, deeming her a worthy women of being queen one day and a ruler of their lands along side her boyfriend, well her husband now she could finally say.

The blonde had unsurprisingly made it one of the best nights of her life, the very best night of her life though would be when the kingdom’s doctor told her she was with child and that the future heir to the throne was healthy and growing inside of her tummy. She in not only shock but excitement went to his mother Mitsuki unsure of how exactly to tell Katsuki they were finally having dragon babies after 2 years of marriage. The women had nearly fainted when she put her hand on her stomach and used her hightened senses to listen to the babies heart beat.

“This is beautiful” Mitsuki said caressing her stomach at the thought of a grandchild running around her feet finally. Mitsuki had made it an entire day’s worth ordeal, refusing to let Katsuki see or even look at her until nightfall came for fear his extra heightened senses would pick up on the extra heart beat immediately especially with him so in tune with her sent he would know something was up the second he would see her. It was also what made Katsuki scrunch his nose when she finally did enter into their bedroom that night draped in the long light pink silk robe from the bath and spa treatment the women had given her earlier, Mitsuki being extra doting knowing she was now pregnant.

She could tell he wasn’t sniffing the air in disgust but rather...intrest. “What’s wrong?” he asked almost immediately jumping up from the bed and wrapping his arms around her unaware of his mother snickering outside of the tent. “Nothing...well something but nothing bad. At least I hope not” she mumbled the last part looking at the ground and only looking up when she felt her husband finger softly direct her jaw upwards. “You know you can tell me. Never hold back with me.”

Taking a deep breath of courage in she grabbed onto his shoulders and whispered the words “I’m pregnant” in the air. He had froze for a few seconds, frantically looking her up and down to make sure he had heard her right before she felt herself getting lifted off the ground and into his arms in a giant bear hug. Needless to say, Katsuki Bakugo had been very happy that day and all the days after that.

Even when he had to rub her feet and massage her entire body, or go across half the village to get a food she was craving, he happily either went himself or sent his mother in. Ever since finding out she was pregnant especially once she started to show, her belly having started poking out from her dresses no one but himself or his mother were allowed close near her. His trust of everyone around her even poor Kiri who couldn’t even stop by to check how she was doing without getting snarls and growls from Bakugo.

It seemed never letting anybody near her would also be Katsuki’s downfall.

It had been during winter, a strong snow storm hitting the area and more conveniently shen she had been very very pregnant. She was due any day now, her belly swelled to its giant size, sometimes even making her feel self conscious but always remembering that Katsuki reminded her she was the most beautiful thing in the world to him everyday, big belly or not. He had gone out to the other side of the village to collect more fire wood go keep them warm but promised to be back shortly to her and the baby. With being pregnant with dragon kin babies, already came trouble from the outside as well.

Dragon babies sold for high dollar on the black market, high enough to probably set somebody up for life if they ever got their hands on one to sell. As sick as it was, Katsuki’s kind were sometimes sold off like pets, their owners always cruel and monsters themselves training them to be more like guard dogs instead of the beautiful humans they could be and were. It was part of the reason why everyone was so protective over her now, knowing how many criminals and other kingdoms out there would love the chance the snatch up her and her baby.

A giant explosion and screams had made her eyes snap open mid nap in the big fluffy bed of furs and pillows Katsuki had put together for her. Wobbling out of bed she slipped on her slipper boots and a robe before peaking her head out a scared yelp leaving her mouth when she did. A tent near hers, only a few down and belonging to one of the towns people in their kingdom was on fire a giant swarm of soldiers appearing out of the snow clouds with giant swords and axes on them. It finally dawned on her that this was actually happening, they were under attack.

She knew they would probably be dealt with soon, no one usually having the balls or the missing brain cells to attack a village full of dragon shifters, but all thoughts of substance left her mind when she felt big hands yank her arm. “Found the bitch” a man, apart of the group trying to raid them sneered down at her, a gasp leaving her mouth. “Her and that damn baby are gonna sell big” his friend that lurked behind him snickered making panic flash across her eyes.

So that’s what they were here for. They were here for her and her child.

“Help!” she screamed as loud as she could trying to trash out of his hold but getting a hand wrapped around her throat and stopping her screaming. “Just cut it out of her she’s about full term anyways. Sure as hell looks fat enough to be” the mans friend said to him looking at her with an evil glint in her eyes. Tears welling up in her own from her emotional sensitivity she took their moment of distraction from her to kick the man choking her while her face was turning blue where the sun didn’t shine for him, a cry of pain leaving his mouth as he collapsed on the ground holding his groin.

Running away as fast as the snow would let her she began her journey to the edge of the village aware of the men still running and following behind her shoutinh curses at her and her unborn child. It probably wasn’t the best idea to run into the open wild, 9 months pregnant and with no means of defense against the traffickers, but with everyone else busy trying to dispose of the rest of the mens little army it had left her vulnerable and with nowhere to run but to where she could loose them.

Not able to see in front of her any longer she fell to her knees in the snow, vaguely recalling loosing the men in the snow storm a while back leaving her to huddle into a pile in the white ground praying to the gods that Katsuki or at least someone from their kingdom would find her and rescue her, otherwise she knew her and her child wouldn’t last long in the weather they were in.

Sniffling with tears pooling down her cheeks she desperately hugged the fur robe closer to her body and clutched her stomach with two hands hoping to keep it warmer. “Please Katsuki” she whispered hoping he could somehow hear her wherever he was.

Back at the village, Katsuki had finally finished driving his sword through the chest of the last invader releaseing a battle cry of victory at once again winning a battle against petty criminals. He had been in a great mood on his way home shortly after, wonderful even ready to see his beautiful mate and talk to her and their pup. Ask them about their day. She didn’t do much nowadays but between all the pampering she was getting it gave her plenty to talk about. His world seemed to come crashing down upon entering his secluded tent though , one larger than life with a bed as big to match, completely and utterly empty.

An uneasy pit formed in his stomach as he called for his mate but got no response. Fear spiked in his blood more and more, him turning over blankets and table hoping and praying she was just playing some prank on him. They hadn’t gotten her...had they? A growl left his lips at the thought concluding something did happen to her while he was away but knowing she was at least alive kept him at bay, barley but there. Dragons could feel each others heart beats, once the mating ritual was completed mates were connected at the heart and soul for life.

“Katsuki please help me” a voice sobbed in his head. Her voice. Images and flashes of her laying out on the dirty ground in the snow, frostbite covering her toes, her heart beat getting weaker by the minute came across his mind Katsuki silently thanking the gods for allowing him to be able to track her. “I’m coming baby” he said gathering his things and calling for elite squadron and most trusted soldiers and advisors to get ready, giving them the blunt and only words they needed of “she’s missing, we leave now” to know they needed to spring into action. Bakugo shifted into his dragon, with him being the king it was the biggest and strongest of them there, pointy scales running up and down his back his body a crimson red color.

Roaring into the air he didn’t even wait for the rest of his support team before flying away and into the snow storm only one thing on the dragons mind as he felt his mates heart beat fade out more and more.

Releasing a quiet sob she was finally starting to come to terms with things. This was where she and her baby would die. Alone shivering out in the cold body huddled in a ball in the snow. A harsh breeze flew by a few ice shards spitting across her face and making her cry out in pain. Balling her fist together and rubbing her stomach one last time she could barley register the feeling of warmth spreading throughout her body.

The faint sounds of roaring and shouting were heard making her slowly blink her eyes open shocked to see herself surrounded by fire. Katsuki’s fire. Mates didn’t get burned by their dragon mates fire, another plus to marrying the man. It felt like her body slowly ignited and unfroze a gasp leaving her lips when she felt her body being lifted. She could recognize Mitsuki’s voice as the one holding her and carefully laying her now naked body from Katsuki’s fire on her in a pile of furs and wrapping her up. To scared and still to cold to move she allowed herself to be carried through the snow and placed onto the back of Katsuki who’s dragon released a happy pur at feeling her laying on his back.

Wasting no time he flew off into the air and back to the village all of the towns people crowding around as they watched their king transform into his human form again and carrying an unconscious queen in his arms. “Is she dead?” a woman whispered as Katsuki passed her but immediately quieted down when he snarled at her. “Sorry your majesty” she apologized looking anywhere but him for fear of catching his gaze.

Ripping open the flap to their tent he could faintly hear the sounds of his mother and Kiri along with medical staff ushering into the tent and lighting the fire place. He growled when the doctor tried to approach the bed he was holding her in, tears slowly but surly forming in his ruby red eyes as he rocked her unconscious body back and forth in his arms. His mother grabbed his shoulder a serious look in her eyes as she squeezed down on him.

“Let them check on her and the baby Katsuki, now” she said lowly uncovering the top half of her and her big baby bump luckily keeping everything for her bottom half decent. The doctor, who he found the least bit of comfort was a woman lifted up the bottom of the blanket and sucked in a breath. “She has frost bite on her toes, she’ll have the stay as warm as possible until they heal” she tutted and ignoring Katsuki’s gasp as she came around to her stomach. “I’m going to touch her belly, just the make sure the pup is ok” she warned waiting until Katsuki gave a hesitant nod and reached out.

Placing a hand on her stomach she felt around until she could hear the faint sounds of blood rushing to a second heart beat inside the queens body. Looking her up and down after doing a few more bodyily checks she concluded the queen was alright, just would be unconscious and exhausted for a while on top of her pregnancy. She was out for nearly a full day and night before she groaned out, her body sore and in pain and tried to sit up in the bed. Strong big arms wrapped around her hugged her tighter. “Don’t you dare” Katsuki said nuzzling his face into her neck. “I’m hungry Katsuki” she whined getting a grunt from him.

“You almost died and your first request is food?” he asked gruffly caressing her tummy and trying not to smile as he did so. “Do you not realize what could’ve happened to you out there?” he asked rubbing the top of her head to let her know he wasn’t angry at her by any means just was frustrated. “If we hadn’t of found you when we did...” he continued stopping when she placed her hand on his that was rubbing her stomach. “I know. I thought it was going to happen too, but they were going to sell him on the black market Katsuki I didn’t know where to go everyone was busy dealing with the rest.”

“Don’t ever think I’m to busy for you, you hear me” Katsuki said softly grabbing her jaw. “Anything like this happens ever again you come to me first and only”

Nodding her head at him softly she snuggled further into his chest smiling softly at hearing Katsuki call in his and her handmaidens and telling them to have the village chef immediately prepare her a feast “fit for a queen” literally and figuratively Katsuki and her both glad to have a fully healthy and safe family on the way now.

A/N

This is shit but I’m high as a kite rn so njoy ig beautiful people

[hatterstan-shameblog]

Here is the first one

Second :D

And last..he's looking at you 👀💦

ALRIGHT you know WHAT—

There’s…a lot going on here. So much so, that I have decided to create

CONTEXT

for these three images that is

COMPLETELY FAKE

because I think it’ll be a fun writing exercise. kind of a cringe move on my part, but consider: i have fun making up ridiculous lies about characters who don’t exist in real life.

(which is how I’m treating these, by the way. yes, they are pictures of kaneko nobuaki, but for my purposes, they are NOT actually him. they are distinct fictional characters who are not real.)

so if you’re feeling adventurous skip below the cut and watch me break it down:

Image 1: Accidental “Date” Makes Cousin’s Wedding Less Terrible Than Originally Expected

The year is 1999. Your cousin (who you are not particularly close to) is getting married…on a cruise ship. Your mother insists you attend. You insist upon spending 90% of your time sipping margaritas on the deck and flipping through the latest issue of Marie Claire while trying desperately not to think about the fact that you are surrounded by nothing but open ocean.

One of the (very drunk) bridesmaids tries to toss you a beach ball because you have been, and I quote: like, a total bummer this whole time. She misses. It hits the person next to you in the face. Great. Awesome. You think: well now who’s being, like, a total bummer?

Luckily the person who got hit in the face laughs the entire thing off. He says your friends seem…’lively.’ You say that’s pretty rich coming from a guy who looks like a rejected member of ‘The Clash.’ He insists that he left them, not the other way around.

You slip into conversation. You tell him that you’re here for a wedding. He offers his condolences. You accept them. He says he actually likes weddings—something about two people making a life-changing commitment speaks to him on a soul-level. That and the open bar, of course.

You suggest he crash the wedding. He says he’s not sure if he can make it—there’s a shuffleboard tournament that evening that he would just hate to miss, plus the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest is waiting on his bedside table just begging to be opened. You say that’s perfectly understandable, but, if he suddenly finds himself caught up on the latest All My Children gossip, he can meet you back here at four.

Surprise, surprise: he shows up. He’s wearing the same shirt he was before, but buttoned up this time—and with one of the most hideous neckties you’ve ever seen, which he apparently borrowed from the kind old man next door. Instead of complimenting his attire (because it is truly un-compliment-able), you take the opportunity to mention that this is a Titanic-themed wedding. He says that having a Titanic-themed wedding on a cruise ship is “kind of fucked up” and you solemnly agree.

Everyone is very surprised and pleased to see that you’ve brought a date—even the bride, who tells you that you’re “just like Jack and Rose.” You agree, much to her delight…until you say that, if the ship goes down, you also won’t share the door and let him freeze to death in the icy water. He insists he’d be the guy who jumps off the ship and hits his leg on the propellor—that’s his favorite part of the whole movie, and it’d be an honor to re-enact the scene.

The wedding is…a wedding. Vows, toasts, pictures—and you’re sipping champagne through the entire thing. The two of you spend the evening getting completely wasted and telling everyone a different story about just who your ‘mystery date’ is. Highlights include: the captain’s unruly son whose been tasked with following in his father’s sea-faring footsteps; professional cave-diver who discovered a new species of slug and is spending his reward money on a nice vacation; head of marketing who gives all those clever names to the nail polishes at OPI; the guy who folds everyone’s towels into animal shapes.

You end up where you started: on neighboring lounge chairs, with a margarita, and talking to this stranger who has recently crossed into “acquaintance” territory. You chat about how “My Heart Will Go On” is actually a good song, and he promises not to tell anyone that you said that. He also says that this is the best Titanic-themed cruise ship wedding he’s ever been to, and he can’t wait until somebody decides to do Jaws.

Eventually, you both stagger back to your rooms with promises of seeing each other at breakfast. Unfortunately, you have the worst hangover of your life the next morning and even the thought of ‘breakfast’ makes you want to roll over and die, so you don’t manage to stumble out of bed until it’s time to disembark.

You see him at port, and you each offer each other a little wave before going your separate ways. Six weeks later, you get a Polaroid of the two of you together, sitting at the bar and laughing at something that must have been very, very hilarious.

You don’t remember most of what happened that night, but you remember it was not as terrible as it could have been.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Image 2: Extremely Weird Guy On The Street Has You Questioning Your Sanity

It’s 6:00 in the morning—a truly terrible time to be awake, but a necessary evil. Your flight leaves at 10, and since it’s an international thing, you want to make sure you get there in plenty of time to get to your gate (and maybe sample all the fancy perfumes you can’t afford at one of those high-end stores that are always in airports.)

The streets are mostly empty, save for a few random pedestrians and a handful of passed-out salarymen snoozing on the curb. The sky a rainy gray-blue as the sun tries to rise behind the springtime cloud cover—it’s no doubt going to be another dismal day, as is common during this time of year. Hopefully there’s not too much turbulence on your flight…

You stop at a crosswalk, waiting for the little walking man signal to show up on the light across the way. You’re soon joined by another person—a man in a soft-looking jacket who supplies you with a small “good morning” bob of his head. You respond in kind, throwing in a small smile for good measure. It’s nice that he too understands that it’s entirely too early to be having any kind of conversation, even if it is just a simple verbal greeting between strangers on a street corner.

The light changes, and you both begin your trek across the street. Your fellow walker is faster than you—or, more likely, has longer legs and, ergo, a longer stride than your own—and is nearly halfway across by the time you get your wheeled suitcase over the curb. He seems decent enough. You hope he’s going somewhere nice.

It’s then that you make the mistake of looking up. It would have been much better if you had just continued watching the white painted lines on the road and thinking about how it reminds you of piano keys—and how you hated the six months of piano lessons your parents forced you to take in the first grade.

But no. You noticed someone walking towards you, and you just had to look up.

The first thing you notice is a rainbow tie-dye shirt. The second thing you notice is that the rainbow tie-dye shirt is on a very cheerful looking gentleman, who seemed to be bobbing his head in time with a song only he could hear.

The third thing you notice—and this one’s the real kicker—is the large blue-and-green reptile sitting on his shoulder. It’s bulging eyes are hooded in pleasure as it’s red-pink tongue darts out to eat the green something—maybe a grape or a small piece of melon?—from the rainbow tie-dye man’s hand. It is nothing short of a spectacle, honestly, and you feel a piece of your sanity evaporate.

The rainbow tie-dye man continues on, uncaring of your confused stare at his strange pet. You even turn around to make sure that you weren’t somehow hallucinating, and sure enough, there is definitely some kind of creature draped over this stranger’s shoulder. It’s tail even sways in time with the man’s steps, which is both cute and confusing.

Because it would not do to stand in the middle of the street all day, considering the existence of rainbow tie-dye man and his exotic pet, you do the only thing you can do: turn back around and continue on your journey. You need a coffee. Maybe with an extra shot of espresso, after witnessing whatever the hell that was. Something to set you right again.

“Was that…?”

The other man—the soft-coat long-stride one—is speaking low enough as to not draw attention, but loud enough for you to hear as you make your way towards the sidewalk. His expression reads ‘concerned, but trying not to show it’ which you suppose is the polite and mature way of handling the situation.

“…an iguana? Yeah,” you answer him, “I saw it too.”

The man’s brow furrows. His mouth puckers into a small frown as he considers…well, something.

“…Okay, then,” he concludes, shrugging his shoulders, “Hell of a way to start the day.”

“Yeah.”

And you both continue on your way. He turns left at the next intersection, you turn right—but even though your paths may now be different, you will forever share an unbreakable bond over the fantastical sight you’ve witnessed today.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Image 3: Near Death Experience At Open Mic Night

You are not a poet.

Well, not professionally, anyways. You’ve been known to dabble in the written word, often scribbling little snippets of rhyme in a notebook over your lunch break or tapping a verse or two into the notes app on your phone. It a kind of outlet, you suppose—a way to keep the creative energy that bubbles inside of you from boiling over.

It’s also worth mentioning that you are not a confident public speaker. Not since that unfortunate incident in the third grade where you forgot the single line you had in the school play and ran off stage, tears streaming down your face and—actually, no, you’re not going to think about that right now. Or ever again, hopefully.

So when your (tipsy) coworkers decide that it’s a good idea to push you onto the stage at the local dive bar’s open mic night—while shouting at you to “read the one about the night-blooming jasmine”—you freeze up. There are at least seven strangers staring at you, expectation rising with every passing second of your inaction. It’s nerve-wracking in the way that the third-grade incident was not, and you gulp against the nervousness that rises in your throat.

Shaking hands scroll frantically through your phone, looking for the requested poem—and after a few agonizing moments, you manage to find it. Your voice cracks rather embarrassingly as you begin to read, trying your damndest to get the words out right so you can slink back to the bar and drown the rest of the night in Chardonnay.

Everything is going well—or, at least, as well as can be expected—until you notice that the room is suddenly feeling very hot. That’s the last coherent thought you have before the room goes dark and everything falls silent.

Next thing you know, you’re staring at the ceiling. A man who you do not know is leaning over you, and his mouth is moving—oh, he’s probably trying to say something to you, but it’s very difficult to tell what he’s saying over the throbbing pain in the back of your head.

You ask him if you’re dead. It’s a possibility after all, that you’ve somehow died and landed yourself in some kind of special public-speaking hell. That’s what this feels like, anyways.

The man says no, you are not dead. You say ‘dammit’ in response. He tries to hold back laughter, offering to help you up by extending his hand. You take it and—ouch, ugh, ew, going from laying to standing is not a fun experience.

You thank him (albeit awkwardly) for helping you up, and he insists that ‘it’s cool.’ Passing out in front of an audience is not even remotely cool, but you nod and thank him again, anyways.

Before you’re able to converse with the helpful stranger any further, your coworkers have come to collect you. You are whisked away by someone from accounting, who offers to escort you home—an offer you gladly accept, very excited to leave the site of your failure behind you.

Safe to say, you never go back to that particular bar again.

[dirtydobrik]

marry me - d.d.

plot: while on vacation, you and your boyfriend, david, spontaneously decide to get married

word count: 2,375

masterlist

"I'm so in love with you, David Dobrik," you murmured, planting a soft kiss on his jawline. You were curled up next to him with your backs against the headboard of the hotel bed, looking out at the Hawaiian sunset. The door to the balcony was open to welcome the gentle breeze and the scent of the ocean. His arm was draped over your shoulder and your hand was holding his while your head was resting on his chest. You wanted moments like this one forever. "Let's get married tomorrow."

"What?" David asked with a chuckle, pulling away from you and staring at you. A look of realization crossed his face, "You're serious?"

You nodded, a smile across your face. "Yeah," you whispered, glancing up at him. You were trying to read his expressions to see if he was on the same page as you with this idea.

"We've only been together for a year. I mean, we haven't even talked about moving in together," he said hesitantly, and your face fell. David quickly noticed and tried to backtrack. "Not that I don't want you to move in, I was going to suggest it in a couple months when your apartment lease was almost up," he insisted. "And anyways, don't you want a big, fancy wedding?"

You shook your head. "I thought I did," you shrugged. "But sitting here with you right now, none of that matters. I just realized I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don’t see why we should wait if we know we want to be together forever, you know?"

David ran his fingers through his hair, taking a deep breath. He stood from his spot on the bed and started pacing back and forth, trying to process what you were saying. His mind began to wander, as he thought about how his friends and family would react if he got married in secret, how his lawyer would react, and how his fans would feels.

He stayed quiet for too long and your heart sank.

"You know, just forget I said anything," you said, trying to hide the disappointment in your voice. You quickly wiped away the tears that were filling your eyes. You had hoped he would've been even a little bit excited about bringing up the idea of marriage.

"Babe," he sighed, standing at the edge of the bed. He reached out and took your hands in his. "I love you, you know that. And I do want to marry you. I just, I don't know if it's a good idea. I don't know how my lawyers and immigration will feel about me eloping," he tried to explain. You nodded and forced a smile, understanding where he was coming from, but you were still upset.

"I get it, Dave," you promised, trying to convince yourself that you believed what you were saying.

"I'm not saying no, okay? I promise I would marry you right now if I knew I could," he reassured you, kissing the top of your head. “I love you." He let go of your hands and stepped into his shoes. He gave you a quick peck, although his mind was elsewhere.  

"Where are you going?" you questioned, as he rummaged through his things, searching for his phone and wallet. There was a distance in David's eyes and you knew his mind was somewhere else. You sighed, growing annoyed that he had ignored your question.

You looked out at the waves crashing on the beach, the sky painted shades of pink and orange with the sun dipping below the horizon, wondering what David's lawyer would say about the wedding. You were deep in thought about what they would think that you didn't notice David slip one of your rings into his pocket before heading out.

 He googled the closest jeweler and took the rental car, calling his lawyer on the way even though it was almost midnight there.

"It's risky, Dave," his lawyer said, explaining that eloping was often a sign of a fraudulent marriage when it came to illegal immigrants. "I can't tell you what to do, but I would advise against doing this. I mean, I know you and your girlfriend and I will vouch for you and the reality of the situation, but it's tricky. You'll have to have a strong case if people question the validity of the marriage."

David groaned, that wasn't the answer he hoped for. But after talking things over with his lawyer, they agreed that they would be able to build a strong enough case between all of the video evidence and receipts from vacations where singular hotel rooms were booked with only one bed. With his lawyer agreeing to let him go through with the marriage, he headed into the jeweler.

The sales associate welcomed him with a warm smile.

"I need an engagement ring and two wedding bands by tonight, if possible," David said, looking hopeful.

"Big day?" she asked, and Dave nodded, a smile stretched across his face.

"My girlfriend decided she wants to get married tomorrow and I can't let her get married without a ring."

"That's exciting," she smiled, pulling out a tray of rings in your size that could be taken home today. He went for simple matching gold bands as the wedding rings but he had clue what type of diamond you wanted. "A simple, singular diamond is always a good option. But, if she wants to get married this suddenly, I don't think she's going to care about the ring."

"Yeah, you're right. I still want it to be something special," David said, his voice trailing off as one ring caught his eye. "That one," he insisted, pointing at one along the back edge of the tray. He knew would fall in love with it.

The sales associate pulled the ring out and handed it to David to look at. It had a round diamond in the center and the band was covered in smaller diamonds. It was so simple and looked so similar to other ones in the tray of rings, but something drew him to this one. The light reflected off of the diamonds and David could picture it on your ring finger. He paid for all three rings and thanked the associate for helping him out, stopping at a small stand for a bouquet of flowers on his way back to the hotel.

He walked down to the beach and used his finger to write Marry Me? in the sand. He called you and told you to meet you down on the beach to talk and you agreed. You slipped sandals on your feet and headed downstairs, anxious to hear what his lawyer had said. You saw him standing with his back to you and your heart started racing as you got closer and was able to make out the writing in the sand. He turned slowly and you saw the ring box in his hand. He handed you the bouquet of roses and got down on one knee.  

"David," you gasped, your hand covering your mouth as he opened the box, displaying the ring. "You didn't have to."

"I wanted to make it official," David explained, his hands shaking. "So, what do you say? Wanna get married tomorrow?"

"Oh my god," you breathed out, none of this seeming real. "Yes," you smiled, tears forming in your eyes. David slid the ring on to your finger and you bent down to give him a kiss, your hands cupping his face. He stood up and wrapped his arms around your waist, holding you tightly, as he picked you up and spun you around. You pressed your forehead to his, tears rolling down your cheek.  

"I love you, soon to be Mrs. Dobrik," he smiled, putting you down and kissing your forehead.

"I like the sound of that," you hummed, looking into his eyes. He pulled you into a tight hug, just holding you as you listened to the waves crash against the shore.

 You woke up to an empty bed and a note that read: It's bad luck to see the bride on the day of the wedding! I'll see on the beach at sunset. Love, your (almost) husband. You giggled at the note but appreciated the effort to be as traditional as possible with the untraditional way you had decided to tie the knot.  

You took a quick shower before heading out. You wanted to wear a white dress but you didn’t pack one. You stopped for a coffee and breakfast before searching local boutiques for your perfect dress. After no luck in four different stores, you were running out of patience and energy. As you walked into another store, a white satin dress was on the mannequin caught your eye and you knew you needed to try it on. It ended at your mid shins and it was so simple yet so elegant and classy. You did a quick twirl in the dressing room, admiring the dress, and decided to buy it.

"Just this?" the cashier asked, and you nodded. You swiped your card and she handed you the bag. "Thank you," you said, taking the bag and walking out into the humid Hawaiian air.

Your mind began to wander as you thought about returning to LA. How would you tell your friends that you and David had gotten married? Would they be mad? Would you have to end your lease early and move into David's house? Would Natalie move out? How would his fans react?

There were so many unknowns and questions and you were beginning to wonder if this was a good idea. Sure, you wanted to spend the rest of your life with him, but you were beginning to realize that a marriage was more complicated than just being in love.

You brushed off your worries. You wanted to marry him and he wanted to marry you, and it didn't need to any more complicated than that.

You walked back into the hotel room, setting the bag down on the floor and seeing a large bouquet of white and purple flowers on the bed. You smiled at how thoughtful David was, and changed into comfy clothes to spend the next couple hours getting ready.

You grabbed a notepad and wrote a letter to David for him to read after the ceremony. You sprayed a squirt of your perfume on the letter and left it on his pillow. You also wrote your own vows, since you weren't sure if David was doing the same. Even if you didn’t read your own vows during the ceremony, you wanted to have them written so you could share them with him after.

 You finished doing your hair and makeup with 10 minutes to spare.

Your heart was pounding as you stepped into your dress and zipped it up. You slid on a pair of white sandals on and grabbed the bouquet that was left on your bed. You looked in the mirror and had to hold back tears. All of a sudden you wished your parents were here to see you get married.

You stepped out on to the balcony, looking down at the beach. David had offered to take care of everything, but you weren't sure how capable he was of doing so. However, you saw a photographer standing next to David, and a minister walking over to them.

You took a deep breath and headed down to the beach. The photographer was waiting for you in the lobby, wanting to get a few shots before you walked outside, and then followed you down to the beach.

The boardwalk was lined with white rose petals, with David standing at the end in a white button up with dress pants. He smiled at you, quickly wiping tears away as you walked down the beach to him. You giggled with excitement as he reached for your hands.

The ceremony was a blur to the both of you and you couldn't believe it had really happened. The night was spent in pure bliss, excited to be married to each other and ready to start the next chapter of your lives together.

 A couple days later, you stepped off the plane at LAX, ready to return to reality. You had already told your friends and family at home, but you and Dave hadn't decided how to tell everyone in LA.

Natalie was helping put your suitcases in the trunk when she caught sight of your engagement ring. She immediately reached out and grabbed your hand, pulling it close to her to examine it when she noticed the wedding band alongside the diamond.

"Holy shit," she whispered.

"Surprise?" you chuckled.

"Oh my god, congrats," she exclaimed, giving you a hug. "Tell me everything."

You climbed into the car and began telling the story, David constantly interrupting to share it from his perspective.

You decided to announce it by having Natalie plan an engagement party for the two of you. 

"So, we actually have one more thing to tell you guys," David said, earning the attention of the crowd. "We didn't just get engaged."

"We got married," you interrupted, watching a range of emotions wash over everyone.

Their voices overlapped as they congratulated you and questioned why you did it in secret and so quickly.

After telling all of your friends and family, the only people left to tell where the fans. You scrolled through the pictures the wedding photographer had sent you, picking out your favorite. You were sitting on David's lap with your left arm draped over his shoulder, displaying your ring. David picked a picture of you looking at each other and holding hands during the ceremony, the minister and the sunset sinking into the ocean behind the two of you.

You posted it to Instagram, choosing a quote as your caption to keep it simple: "when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

David kept his post short and sweet, reading: September 12th. The day my best friend became my wife.

[mycomfortblanket]

If I Lose Him Like This

Chapter 7

Sitting on the roof of the palace, Aang watches the sun rise. After speaking with Katara and they had decided to end things, he needed time to himself. The conversation between him and Katara plays over and over in his mind and whenever he gets a small break from that heartache, he remembers what Toph had said to him just before Zuko and Katara had walked into the room.

He drops his head into his hands and rubs them along his scalp until he is clutching the back of his neck. How did he manage to screw things up with the both of them? Thinking back on the past few days, he sees little opportunities to fix the whole situation by a simple act or choice of words, if only he had stopped and thought for a moment.

"Well, looks like someone found my hiding spot," a voice comes from behind him. Aang turns around and sees Azula walking carefully down the roof until she can sit next to him.

"Hey, 'Zula."

"So, Katara found out?" she asks.

Aang whips his head over to look at her, but she is carefully avoiding his gaze. "Who told you about that?"

She takes a deep breath and draws her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. She takes in a deep breath, "During the war, Father would have me interrogate prisoners. Get information out of them about secret bases, battle plans, whatever," she pauses and a shaky breath comes out, "The things I use to do to people..." her voice cracks. She closes her eyes and inhales deeply before exhaling long and slow.

Aang can't take his eyes off of her. The gold in her eyes are illuminated by the rising sun and her skin is so white and clear of any blemish, but he can see the aging the war did to her in the set of her shoulders.

"Anyways, I learned things about people, about how they hide certain aspects of themselves. How they can make the worst parts of themselves completely disappear or cover their worst pain. I learned how to search for these aspects of people without even trying to, to see their worst fear or worst judgement of themselves without even tearing them apart." She visibly swallows but turns to him and smiles, "So, no one told me. You and Toph are just very telling."

Aang draws his knees up to his chest as well and rests his forehead against them, "You're not going to tell Sokka, are you?"

Azula waves her hand in the air as if to disperse the tension, "Of course not, it's not any of my business. Although, I do think you should talk to him about it. He's not going to like it and he's going to be mad, but as his friend, I think it would be better that he hears it from you rather than some of the gossiping maids," her voice is back to the sharp edge he knows so well.

He rolls his head on his knees to look at her. It's still so surprising to see how different she is compared to how she was 6 years ago. He never would have thought they would be friends or have any kind of intimate moment, but he is glad she is here.

"I really messed up with them," he whispers. She doesn't say anything but waits for him to continue. "I love them both so much. But, Katara was right. We had been breaking apart for months, and neither of us had wanted to face that fact. We just stopped working. And Toph, I started messing that up several years ago and I didn't even know."

"You slept with her?"

Aang hesitates, "Yeah. Years ago. I didn't know how she felt about me at the time, I just thought it was..." he trails off, not wanting to say what he thought it was. "We kissed at my wedding and then she disappeared for 3 years. You think I would've put all of this together."

"Ha, yeah, you'd think," Azula laughs a little and wipes at her nose.

"I'm losing them both," he mumbles and hides his head in his knees again.

She looks over at him for a moment and considers his situation, "I think you're being too hard on yourself about it. You're only human. Yeah, you're the avatar, stopper of the Hundred Year War, Master of All Four Elements, but you're still just human." She looks at him for a moment longer. She places a hand on his shoulder before standing up and walking back to the window she came through.

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

Toph feels him meditating in the garden and she mentally steels herself for this conversation. Katara had talked some sense into her and that she needed to talk with Aang about what all has happened between them and the futute. She had reminded Toph time and time again how she didn't blame her or Aang and that she shouldn't ever feel guilty about what happened.

So now, she just needed to talk to Aang. she takes a deep breath and walks over and sits beside him, keeping enough distance between them that they don't touch. Neither of them say anything for a moment, there's just too much to say to each other, that it's hard to find what to talk about first. His heart rate spiked the moment he realized it was her walking into the courtyard and it hasn't slowed at all in the few minutes she's been sitting here.

"I don't really know where to start," Toph mumbles.

"Yeah. I just really fucked up, T." his voice is low and sounds thoroughly exhausted.

She barely nods her head, "Yeah. I talked with Katara," she feels him wince slightly but she presses on, "She told me what happened between the two of you. She also told me that she doesn't blame you. That she doesn't blame either of us," she looks down at her hands and pulls a blade of grass out and twirls it in her fingers.

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

Aang looks over at her and takes in the bangs covering most of her face and the dark circles under her eyes from staying up all night, "Do you blame me?"

Toph lifts her face towards the sun and moves the bangs from her face, "Well, you certainly didn't do this on you own."

"The monks taught us to live without regret, and I've done a really great job of doing that so far. I've done really well at now allowing a decision I had made to hang over my head like a knife. But now, the one thing I will forever regret is hurting you," he pauses, willing his voice to steady. "And, I know that I can't make it up to you, at least not right now, I'm just asking for one more chance to earn your forgiveness. Not even your forgiveness, I just want to make it to where you are able to look at me without your heart breaking all over. I want to try and make this better for you, because I'm- I'm so fucking sorry, Toph."

He sees a tear streak down her cheek and he so badly wants to lean over and wipe it from her face, to clear it of existence. "Sometimes, I wish you never taught me seismic sense, because I can feel it. I feel your heartbreak every fucking time you feel me near you."

Toph sniffs and laughs a little, and here she thought she was being slick in hiding her pain, but then, a thought comes to her, "How come you couldn't feel it before?"

"I don't know. I don't know if I didn't feel it or if I didn't want to feel it, but, now... it's just so fucking prominent." She expects her hear to ache at this confession, but it doesn't. Maybe she's reached the limit of her heartbreak for the year.

"Is this what it was like for you, all those years ago?"

She lowers her head and remembers the way his heart would almost skip a beat anytime Katara walked into a room, or the way they both soared their wedding day. It was hell and she wasn't ever able to not feel it. Most people, when they're in love with someone who is in love with someone else, they can look away- they can choose not to see it. But, she felt it every time.

"Yeah. Yeah, it kind of feels like that," Toph whispers.

Aang nods his head and inhales, " I can't even ask you to forgive me, it's not right. But, Spirits. I'm going to try and make this better, I swear to you." He turns to her and her face is as impassive as ever. His heart sinks lower and lower the longer she is silent.

But then, he sees a small smirk come onto her face, "This is going to be fun to watch."

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

Zuko finds her in the library curled up on one of the plus couches with her head down. The slouch of her shoulders is very telling of how upset she is and makes him hesitate just a moment. He doesn't want to go over to her and bother her, not when her whole world just came crashing down.

Straightening himself, he swallows his hesitation and makes his way over to Katara. Just as he is rounding the couch, she looks up at him and smiles. She seems like she is perfectly fine. Her head wasn't hanging down in defeat or heartbreak, but she was reading a book. There's no tear marks on her cheeks and the slump of her shoulders doesn't seem as dramatic up close. The smile on her face even reaches up to her eyes.

"Hey, how'd you know I'd be here?"

"Oh, uh. Lucky guess, I guess," he moves to sit beside her.

They're both quiet for a bit, both of them just staring into the flames. "Please don't ask me if I'm alright," Katara's voice is quiet. Zuko glances over at her from the corner of his eye. She seems okay, and even now, her voice doesn't tremble, and she shows no sign of the heartbreak he thought she would be suffering from.

"Wasn't going to. But, uh. I did want to ask you something," he clears his throat a little, suddenly becoming nervous. She turns to him, an eyebrow raised. "Would you like to be my date to the ball tonight?"

Read the full story on Ao3

[gukyi]

for you, anything (post-script) | ksj

summary: in the midst of all of the coworker chaos over your newfound relationship, you and seokjin make a deal. 

{established relationship!au, friends to lovers!au, enemies to lovers!au}

pairing: kim seokjin x female reader genre: fluff word count: 2k warnings: bts being annoying coworkers a/n: shoutout to @aurawatercolor​ for being so wonderful and for commissioning this drabble’s monster predecessor: for you, anything!! thank you for being so patient with me and overall being a good friend of mine. much love!

Here

“Back off, he’s mine!” You shriek, furiously mashing your keyboard buttons as your eyes zero in on your computer screen. Maintaining as much of a grip onto your mouse and keyboard as possible, you push your office chair towards Seokjin’s in a desperate attempt to get him to lose his hold by crashing into him, bumper-car style. You hear the scratchy fabric collide, a soft thud that ricochets you forward, almost like you had crashed into a fuzzy rock. 

Naturally peeved, you turn around to find your boyfriend completely unbothered, having moved barely an inch. And yeah, you weren’t great at Physics when you took it in high school, but you have a feeling that that’s not how Newton’s Third Law works. 

Unfortunately for you, the split second you spend glaring at the back of Seokjin’s head means that he can go in for the killing blow, sword stabbing through the warrior king on the screen until he collapses in a pool of video game blood. The sound of a death cry and a cheer echos from your computer speakers, and you groan. 

“Not again,” you say, exasperated. You toss your head back against the chair, eyes rolling upwards, just enough to make out Seokjin eyeing you, a smug expression written all over his face. “I told you I had him.”

“You just weren’t fast enough, I guess,” Seokjin says casually, bouncing out of his chair to gloat to you all up front and personal. 

“You better share all of the money and rewards you got from that kill,” you demand, poking a finger against your cheek. Seokjin kisses you gladly, wrapping his arms over the chair and around you as he rocks your office chair side to side. The benefit of working together in Kingdom is that you always have backup you can trust (unlike some other MMO games, one of which rhymes with Meague of Megends), but Kingdom was designed for loot to be collected by whoever delivers the death blow, and not split evenly among all parties. 

Lucky for you, your boyfriend happens to be both good at the game and willing to share all of his treasure. 

“Ew, gross, PDA at three o’clock,” Jungkook says loudly, his whiny voice interrupting you and Seokjin’s lovers’ quarrel. 

“Ugh, just because you guys can have a successful and empowering relationship doesn’t mean you have to rub it in all of our faces,” Taehyung adds with a huff. At least nobody’s singing playground nursery rhymes about the two of you anymore. Since when last did people actually sit in trees, anyway?

“Get a room,” Yoongi deadpans as per usual. His attitude has not changed even though the state of you and Seokjin’s relationship definitely has. You know you can always count on him to give it to you straight. 

“Hey, no making out on office premises,” Namjoon says, barging into the room with his glasses tucked into the collar of his sweater, one of those pastel cream ones that dads who golf wear (though Namjoon is neither a dad nor plays golf). He’s switched to an iPad in recent weeks, which, despite being much more environmentally friendly, is still not Namjoon-friendly, and he often has to troubleshoot basic things like the functionality of the Notes app. Not to mention, his place of employment is filled with twerps who love doing things like spamming his camera roll and locking himself out of his own iPad. You think the record is three hours, but give the device to Hoseok and he’ll get it up to a couple of days with ease. “You guys agreed to that when you signed the employee handbook.”

“You always think so lowly of us, Joon,” Seokjin chides, and since he’s everybody’s best friend, he’s the only one who can get away with doing that. “We were just talking.”

“And playing Kingdom,” Yoongi pipes up, quickly switching away from his Haikyuu!!! tab. 

“If there’s a rule against Kingdom in the employee handbook, you’d have to fire all of us,” you remind Namjoon pointedly. Not even Yoongi would be spared, even if he’s terrible at the game itself. 

“But if you did, maybe Jungkook could finally live out his dream of being an E-sports gamer,” Taehyung adds, sending Jungkook into a tizzy. 

Seokjin scoffs, “He’d have to knock me and Y/N out of first and second place first, though.” 

“But please don’t fire us,” Taehyung pipes up weakly. 

“Nobody’s getting fired. You guys just better be doing your work,” Namjoon says. “Hey, it says that my iPad is going to be updated later tonight, do I need to do anything about that?”

Everyone groans. 

“Hey, what if we got married?” Seokjin nudges you with his shoulder. 

You sputter out the water you had been drinking all over your desk. “Married?” It dawns on you that shouting out that word in an office filled with nosy coworkers may not be the brightest idea. 

“You guys are getting married?” Taehyung shrieks excitedly. “Oh my God, I call being best man!”

“You don’t get to make that decision, idiot!” Jungkook shouts. “Besides, Seokjin would totally pick me over you anyway.”

“Who says?”

“Guys, we’re not getting married,” Seokjin says before the whole office breaks out into a brawl. Taehyung’s expression falls, sinking back into his chair, defeated. Yoongi had even quirked up for a moment before immediately turning back to his anime. “At least, in real life, we’re not.”

“Oh, you meant in-game?” You ask, the realization dawning on you. You notice everyone in the office eyeing you and Seokjin. Glaring at each and every person, you say, “He meant in-game, mind your own beeswax, you nosy freaks.” 

“Obviously,” Seokjin says with a roll of his eyes. “I love you, Y/N, but seeing as how we started dating three months ago, I think that marriage is pushing it. But in Kingdom, yeah, why not? We’ll get a lot of buffs from being married.”

Seokjin’s got a point. Being married in Kingdom means that the two of you will share wealth, property, and have the option of combining special powers during battles. It also means that the game will split boss and player rewards evenly amongst the two of you without you having to do it manually. Besides, isn’t it only right for the top two players in the game to get married? Assert their dominance? Remind Jungkook that he’ll never be an E-sports gamer for Kingdom? 

“Sounds like a plan,” you say, easily convinced. Besides, Seokjin could ask you to hand over all of your coins in the game, leaving you penniless, and you wouldn’t bat an eyelash. “We can do it later tonight.”

“My place? We can order takeout.”

“Only if we can get some cheesecake as well,” you say. 

“Done.”

Seokjin plants another kiss onto your lips before returning to his own desk, your office chairs facing away from each other as you get back to work, the promise of a nice meal and some quality time together keeping you motivated. 

Out of the blue, you say, “I would have said yes, you know.”

“To what?” Seokjin asks, not even turning around. 

“To asking if we could get married,” you tell him. He rounds on you, eyes wide. “I would have said yes.”

Seokjin seems frozen in place before he caves, body relaxing as his entire face begins to glow, red and orange and pink. “Tell you what,” he says. “I’ll ask again later, and if your answer is still the same, then we can.”

“How much later?” You ask. You don’t like to be kept waiting. Especially since the both of you know that your answer almost definitely won’t falter. 

Seokjin grins. “You’ll see.”

There

“I never liked fancy dresses,” you comment, pulling at the collar of the white dress lacing your features, hugging your body like a bedsheet. It’s scratchy and uncomfortable and restricting, making you feel like you can’t eat a single apple without popping open. There’s a veil with a train the size of the castle behind you, and the tiara on your head is so heavy and sharp that ti feels as though you’re about to topple. All this for a wedding?

“Good thing you’ll never have to wear one again after this, right?” Jin whispers back, the two of you facing the officiant before you as a crowd of onlookers watches the two of you. 

“Is that a promise?” You ask. “We’re making a lot of promises today, aren’t we?”

“And I will keep every single one of them with honor,” Jin says dramatically. It almost makes you reach out to punch him in the shoulder, but you don’t for the sake of publicity, hands wrapped tightly around the bouquet, filled with roses and tulips and carnations. You can’t believe you’re saying this, but you think you prefer your knight’s garb. At least it comes with flat boots. 

You even tune out what the officiant is saying, an old, monotonous advisor who oversees all military weddings, waiting boredly until you are prompted to respond. Time usually goes by rather quickly in the Kingdom, whether you are strolling through the market or on the battlefield, but here, it feels as though it’s taking forever and a day. Discreetly, you turn to look at Jin, who notices your gaze and rolls his eyes, just to make you laugh. At least the both of you feel the same about this whole thing. You wish there were an easier way to do this, perhaps just going to a courthouse and signing some papers and making a vow or two. Does the entire kingdom have to watch? 

“Do you promise to uphold these values, Jin?” The officiant asks. 

“I do,” Jin says. 

“Do you promise to uphold these values, Y/N?” 

Relieved that it’s finally coming to an end, you nod. “I do.”

“Then, by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss.”

Immediately, Jin turns to you, reaching an arm out to hold onto your waist as he pulls you towards him, your faces pressed up against each other, breaths hitting each others’ skin. 

“I’ve been waiting all day to do this,” he whispers softly. 

“Then don’t hold back,” you challenge. 

In one fell swoop, Jin presses a kiss on your lips, soft and warm and gentle. It’s filled with more promises than the officiant could even dream of making, filled with more vows than any wedding ceremony could produce. What this is is more than a silly pledge, a matrimonial technicality. It is an oath. To protect each other. To care for each other. To love each other.

And you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that for the rest of time, until the sun collapses and the moon vanishes, that you will.

↳ links are broken, but don’t forget i’m still taking commissions!

[rohad93]

Moonlit Masquerade: White & Red Pt 1

Part 14 of the Moonlit Masquerade Series

It was the loud sounds of sawing and crashing trees that woke Eda up early in the morning in late August

"What the hell…," she grumbled, dragging herself up and out of her nest and trudging to the window.

Down below several burley witches in construction hats were clearing away a chunk of the forest just forty yards from the house.

"What. The. Hell?" She narrowed her eyes till she spotted Luz standing nearby looking over a large sheet of paper. "Hmm…" Eda hummed to herself.

She scratched her head tiredly and walked down the stairs, grabbing a mug of apple blood before meandering into the yard where the kid was.

"What are you doing?" Eda grouched, making Luz look after her.

"Oh, hey, mom." Luz smiled at her, but it lacked its usual perk, making Eda frown. “Overseeing the clearing away of the forest where the house is going to go."

"This early?" Eda scowled, squinting against the harsh rays of the morning sun. “They woke me up…,” she grumbled. “You’re getting your own place and you’re still waking me up…” she mumbled, taking a long drink from her mug.

"It's going to be hot later, we have to do it in the morning. They’re gonna get started on it next week… and it’s 10 am...” Luz sighed. Eda just shrugged as she drank from her mug.

“You’re supposed to be up anyway, you’re going with Amity and Mami dress shopping today aren’t you?” she asked.

“Oh yeah… that’s later though, right?” Luz nodded, looking back down at the paper in her hands. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” Eda peered over at the detailed lines on the paper.

“Their plans for the house the construction coven gave us. We had a meeting with them last week about what we wanted. See, here’s the top and bottom floor and these are the two bathrooms, and these are the rooms.” She pointed to the different boxes on the paper, showing both stories.

“You need five bedrooms for the two of you?” Eda cocked a brow.

“No, but Amity wants a study and I want a kind of workshop/office for my projects, and the other two rooms we’ll just use as guest rooms or storage until… we need them.” She shrugged.

Eda caught on quickly.

“Ahh, already planning on a couple of little witchlings, eh?” she grinned and Luz’s face tinted ever so slightly.

“We’re not even considering talking about it right now, no,” she said with finality. “We both do want kids, someday, so we’re just going to build the rooms now. Mami is the only one talking about babies right now.” Luz rolled her eyes.

“Smart, kid. You can barely keep up with yourself right now,” Eda cackled before taking another drink from her cup and Luz pouted.

“Keep it up and Mami and Lily are gonna be the only grandma’s my future kids have.” Luz stuck out her tongue.

That gave Eda pause, she hadn’t even considered that she would be considered a grandmother to Luz and Amity’s future children. It made a warmth spread in her chest that definitely wasn’t the fermented apple blood in her mug.

When she was quiet for a long moment Luz looked back up at her.

“Mom?” she called making Eda blink before she grinned.

“Pfft, who would teach them how to pickpocket then? You two are pretty good with arson and dismantling governments but you still have fumbling hands, Kid,” Eda chuckled, making Luz roll her eyes even though a grin was pulling at her face.

“Don’t tell Amity that,” she snorted.

“Don’t tell Amity, what?” They both looked up as the woman herself came walking around the house.

“Nothing,” They both said quickly.

“Yeah, that’s not concerning…” Amity smirked as she stopped next to them. “How’s it coming?”

“They’re almost done, they just need to level off the ground, and then we’re gonna call it a day, I gotta head to the market after.” She handed the blueprints to Amity, who looked them over.

“You’re not coming to buy clothes with the rest of us?” Eda turned to her.

“Naw, it’s bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding and all that.” Luz shrugged.

“You do remember that you are, also, one of the brides, right?” Eda smirked.

“Yeah, but dresses aren’t my style, I’m gonna wear a suit, so Gus and Edric are going with me tomorrow so we can all get our clothes. It’s just easier to treat me like the groom for the planning bits. Lily is gonna come with us though.”

“What, why Lily?” Eda planted a hand on her hip, frowning.

“Cause the three of us need a ‘voice of reason’ to keep us out of trouble.” Luz air quoted, looking at Amity, who smirked but didn’t look up from the blueprints.

“I’m a voice of… yeah, ok, no, good call,” Eda grumbled, taking another drink from her mug.

“I still think it would be fine…” Luz grumbled and that did make Amity lookup.

“The last time the three of you did something alone together you burned down three blocks in Bonesburough.

“It WAS a war…” Luz crossed her arms, pouting. A tree crashed, making Luz jump, her shoulders tense, the other two witches don’t seem to notice.

"Behave tomorrow and we'll see," Amity teased with a coy smile, handing back the blueprints.

"I'm not a child!" Luz snapped, snatching them back. Eda and Amity blinked at her in surprise. Eda's face turned concerned, but it was Amity’s that morphed into unconcealed hurt, and Luz frowned, hunching and turning to look anywhere but her fiancée's hurt face.

“Sorry, I’m sorry… it’s just…” her hands clenched on the paper and her eyes turned back to all the cacophonous noise the construction witches were making that sounded so much louder in Luz’s ears than it would most days. Today, every crash made her flinch and a quiet anxiety she couldn’t explain buzzed under her skin. “I think I’m just having one of… those days…,” she finally admitted, looking at the ground.

Understanding flashed on Amity and Eda’s faces.

Ever since the war, they both had days like this, days where things were just hard. Noises and lights were brighter and louder, made them jump and tense without reason as if waiting for something to jump out at them from around every corner.

She wasn’t sure if it was better or worse than the night terrors that sometimes made her sit up in bed screaming, drenched in a cold sweat, and heart hammering against her ribs hard enough that she was afraid it was going to break loose and waking the whole house as memories of bloody and flaming battlefields flashed in her mind.

Amity stepped closer, wrapping an arm around her back and Luz sighed, leaning her head on her shoulder, sinking into the warm, comforting touch.

“It’s okay, Luz,” she murmured into her ear and rubbed her back.

She sighed to herself, these days were becoming farther between the more weeks that stretched between them and the end of what was becoming known as the 'War of Reclamation', but that only made the days that did rear their ugly heads that much harder, made her feel like she was failing, she would be having a perfectly good time out in the market or laying in bed when memory would flash through her mind's eye and make her tense. She would be doing so good, and then one of these days would just smack her out of the blue.

She could tell easily when Amity was feeling it, she would clam up, stay in her own head for hours at a time, despondent. Luz had learned the hard way early on when she was like that that she didn't want to be cheered up, she just wanted to be left to the quiet, she would still want Luz nearby, though. She had figured she just wanted to be alone, so the second first time it had happened she went to the living room, leaving Amity in their bedroom, but Amity had followed shortly after and sat silently next to her on the couch, leaning against her. So when she had her days they just sat quietly next to each other on the couch or laying in bed while Luz read or watched dumb soap operas on the crystal ball, her hand in hers and occasionally squeezing reassuringly.

Luz was different, she would get worked up into a tight ball of anxiety and stress, and when it was bad enough, she needed to be comforted, and held tightly, reminded that it was all really over.

"It's not, I can't take it out on you when I'm… feeling off," she grunted. This was far from having a full-on episode, she knew how those went, she was just tense today.

"I understand though, Luz, you know I do, sometimes it happens..." She kissed her temple and Luz made an agreeing noise. "Maybe you shouldn't go to the market today…," Amity trailed off, running a hand through her hair. Some of the worst fighting in the final days of the war had taken place in the market and if Luz was feeling antsy today that could be a recipe for disaster.

“No, I have a huge batch of orders people are coming to pick up today, I have to be there,” she sighed, standing up straight.

“I can take your stuff, kid,” Eda offered.

“No, you’re going dress shopping with the others, it’s alright, I’ll be fine…” she smiled at them, but they both still looked unsure.

“Are you sure?” Amity frowned, looking down at her, worried.

“Yeah, it’s not bad today, just…” another tree smashed to the ground and Luz visibly flinched and Amity’s grip on her tightened. “... that.”

Amity bit her lip. She wanted to argue, but the fact of the matter was that living day to day with their ghosts from the war was something they just had to do. Letting the horrors of the past suck all the life and joy from their present was never an option, even when it was hard some days, but Luz had developed a habit of throwing herself into activities when she was having one of these days to try and ignore it. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it had disastrous results by only upping her anxiousness by adding nervous wood to the fire.

She let go of Luz and summoned her staff, Calliban came to life, crawling off the staff and Amity rubbed his head before he flew onto Luz’s shoulders and nuzzled his snout against her cheek, making her grin.

“At least take Calliban with you today? That way I can be with you in a way,” she asks and Luz smiled at her, that soft, loving smile that made warmth spread through her chest whenever it was on her.

“Yeah, I’ll take him with me. He and Mochuelo can keep me company,” she hums, pulling Amity back in close to press a soft kiss to her mouth. “I love you.” Amity wrapped her arms around her shoulders and mumbled the words back to her.

Eda can’t even find it in herself to roll her eyes at the two this morning, only watching them as Calliban curled himself around Luz’s neck.

The fact that the two’s palisman’s were just as attached to the other as their owners never failed to amuse her. Amity had essentially become one of Eda’s pupils over the years, even if she couldn’t really do magic the way she had once been able to, so when the two had graduated, Amity had chosen the same route as Luz had in following in Eda’s footsteps and carving their own staffs rather then accepting ones from the school upon graduation.

She could still remember the long nights they had sat on the living room floor working on them, constantly knicking themselves, in the days leading up to graduation.

“Is it supposed to look like this?” Luz frowned looking at the misshapen blob of wood that was her palisman so far.

Amity looked over and shrugged, still chipping away at her own hunk of wood with the enchanted chisel.

“I guess?”

Luz hummed, looking up at Eda on the couch questioningly.

“How’s this look?” she held it up for her mom to inspect.

“Not bad.” Eda nodded. “Keep working, you just need to focus,” she said, sipping apple blood out of her favorite mug and Luz sighed.

“I’ve never carved wood in my life, how am I supposed to get a palisman out of this?” she grumbled, laying back on the floor.

“The tools are enchanted, all you need to do is work diligently and focus your will into them, will them to create what you want,” Lilith instructed from her place next to Eda, overseeing the process.

“How will it even have magic when I don’t have any?” Luz frowned, wondering, not for the first time if this was a wasted effort.

“The same way I can still use my staff even though I can’t do spells on my own anymore, Kid. A staff carved by hand from the Isles is its own source of power, this wood is from one of the oldest most magical trees on the Isles, it’s been soaking up natural magic for ages. The ones they give you at school you have to power yourself, they're just conduit’s, but yours will have the wild magic of the Isles embedded into it, you’ll be able to use it, trust me.” Eda assured her with a grin. “Have I ever steered you wrong?” she asked with a confident grin.

“Uhhh…,” Luz hesitates and Amity snickers, while Lilith smirks behind her teacup, and Eda’s face drops.

“Don’t answer that, just trust me. You have a gift for drawing on the magic of the Isles, it’ll work.”

“Okay, okay,” she grumbled, sitting back up and picking up her chisel again and it glowed bright orange in her hand as she carefully resumed chipping and carving away the wood.

“So, what animal did you decide on anyway?” She cocks her head, watching the two.

“It’s a secret.” Luz grinned at her, and winked, Eda just smirked at her.

“What about you, Kid?” She turned to Amity.

“A dragon.”

“Ooh, that’s so cool, Amity.” Luz grinned at her and she smiled back.

“An interesting choice, Amity,” Lilith hummed. “Why a dragon?”

“Dragon’s symbolize power and wisdom, I want to be both.” she looked up at the older Clawthorne, who nodded, smiling.

“Oh, they also bring happiness and good luck.” Luz piped up.

“Are you a dragon now?” Amity mumbled, looking at Luz from beneath her lashes with a small grin, Luz pinked but grinned back.

“I can be your dragon.” she wagged her eyebrows, making Amity giggle but it was drowned out by Eda’s disgusted groan.

“If you two are just gonna flirt, you can work in your room with the door closed where I don’t have to watch,” she told both eighteen-year-olds, with a dead-eyed frown.

“No, no, we’re done,” Luz promised and Eda pretended not to see the wink she threw her girlfriend and rolled her eyes.

These two made her so tired some days with their love that she found both endearing and disgusting in almost equal measure.

The two continued to work on their carvings under the two sisters’ watchful eyes, Amity’s had definitely started to take shape. She shucked off another wood chip when suddenly the wood began to glow and floated above her hands as the wood began to flake away like paper before a perfectly carved dragon with a serpentine body and two stick-like horns dropped into her hand. The wood rippled and turned to flesh, the grain turning to golden scales and a blue mane of fur that ringed it’s head and traveled down it’s back to a tuft of blue hair on the tip of its tail. It’s two long whiskers twitched as it looked up at Amity with bright blue eyes that matched the hair of its mane. Luz squealed in excitement.

“Oh…” Amity stared in awe at the creature sitting wrapped around her palm, his tiny claws poking her skin.

“It’s waiting, Kid,” Eda told her with a grin.

“For what?” she looked up at Eda.

“For you to give ‘em a name.”

Amity turned back to the creature still looking at her, its head tilted as if in question. Amity chewed her lip thoughtfully.

“Calliban,” she finally said and the creature seemed to huff, smoke puffing out of his nostrils as he wrapped himself around her fingers.

“He’s so cute!” Luz squealed, scooting closer to look at the little dragon.

She held her hand up to Luz to better see him. the dragon looked at her before uncurling himself from Amity’s hand and flying over to land on her wrist.

He quickly crawled into Luz’s hand, tail wrapping around her thumb, and Luz bit down on another excited sound as she reached up with her other hand to run her fingers over his scaly body.

“I think he likes me!” She grinned.

“That’s no surprise,” Lilith chuckled from the couch. “A palisman is intrinsically attached to their owner. He can easily pick up on Amity’s... affectionate feelings for you.” she smiled and Luz turned her wide, starry gaze to Amity who just smiled, cheeks pink.

She returned Calliban to Amity’s hand and picked up her own still forming palisman with renewed vigor as the other three watched her chip away at it, tongue poking out of her mouth in concentration.

Within a few minutes, the process was repeated as the wood glowed and bits of extra wood fell away to reveal a dark brown and white spotted owl that sat on her arm and hooted quietly at her.

Eda blinked at the creature with wide eyes and tried her damndest not to get choked up as the creature flapped its wings. She feels Lilith’s hand on her shoulder give a comforting squeeze.

“Ay, que lindo!” Luz bounced excitedly.

“It’s adorable, Luz.” Amity leaned forward, Calliban nestled around her neck, watching the other palisman with slitted, blue eyes.

“I’m gonna call you… Mochuelo!” she declared and the palisman hooted, fluffing himself happily.

“Little owl?” Amity had to think for a second.

“Yeah! My owlet!” Luz nuzzled Mochuelo to her face and he hooted happily. Amity wanted to reach out and pet the owl but knew well enough that palisman’s were special things, almost sacred to their owners, and had a will of their own. She would need to wait until Luz offered or Mochuelo came to her.

Which didn’t take long.

Suddenly the owl’s head spun around on his body and he blinked his large golden-brown eyes at her before flapping his wings and gliding over to land on Amity’s arm. He hooted at her softly, large eyes blinking at her in silent request and she smiled, reaching up to pet his downy soft head, his eyes blinked closed at her touch, chirping. Luz pressed her fists to her cheeks and was grinning so hard it looked painful as she bit down on her happy noises.

“He likes Amity, no surprise there,” Eda snorted, watching the two play with their palisman’s.

What Lily said was true, a palisman could easily read your feelings for someone else, but that didn’t necessarily mean they mirrored them. Your Palisman was linked to you and you alone, she’d go so far as to say to your very soul, but they still had independent wills. The fact that the kids’ palisman’s already seemed just as attached to the other as their owners spoke of something much, much stronger between the two then ‘affectionate feelings’.

She glanced at Lilith who looked back knowingly, but neither said anything. Something to talk about another day.

“I’m going to go pick up your mother. Eda, we’ll meet you when we get back and head to town to meet the other’s.” she turned to her when she and Luz were finally done playing kissy face.

“Sounds good to me,” Eda yawned and turned to go back inside and change.

“Are you sure you’re okay going to the human world by yourself? I can get Mami” Luz looked at her as she spun a finger to make her ears appear rounded.

“I’ll be fine, your mother lives down the street from the portal, I’ll manage, you finish overseeing this.” she nods to the construction coven leveling off the ground for their house.

“Alright… just be careful.”

Normally Amity would roll her eyes, but she can see in her eyes how antsy Luz is today, so she only nods and kisses her cheek.

“I’ll be fine, querida, just wait here.”

“Okay.” She nodded. With that, Amity walked over to the portal door and Luz watched her until she disappeared. She didn’t like Amity going to a strange world she’d been to once on her own but she needed to finish this and it really wasn’t far. Amity could take care of herself

She took a deep breath and reached up to run her fingers over Calliban’s smooth scaled body and silky fur. His presence always did have a way of making her feel tethered to Amity even when she wasn’t there.

The construction coven was rolling the last of the trees away, thumping loudly on the ground.

There was a low, quiet, nervous buzzing under her skin, one of the tell-tale signs that she was having one of those days. Calliban growled lowly, pressing his body into her hand and she smiled, scratching his horned head as he tried to comfort her.

“Thanks, buddy.”

It was only twenty minutes, at max, before the portal door opened and Amity came walking back through with her mother as Luz waved at the retreating construction coven witches.

“Hola, Mami.” Luz grinned as she walked up to them and hugged her mother.

“Oh, is that where the house is going?” she asked once she pulled back and looked at the freshly cleared and flattened space of forest a stone's throw away from the owl house.

“Yup, they’re starting next week. Actually, it’s only gonna take a week, they sent us all their best builders.” Luz grinned.

“We still haven’t decided if we should move in early or wait till after the wedding like we told Eda we would,” Amity added.

“We still need to get furniture, a new bed, forks… spoons… well, everything really.” Luz chuckled.

“Well, I know what I need to get you as wedding gifts then.” Camila smiled.

“We don’t need anything from you, Camila.” Amity waved a hand.

“Nonsense, Carino!” Camila waved a hand.

“I mean… we could use some towels… or plates…” Luz said, Amity looked at her and she shrugged. Camila could only laugh at the two as Eda emerged from the house

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” Eda announced as she walked out of the house. “Oh, hey, Cam," Eda greeted.

"Buenos días, Eda."

Amity and Luz shared a confused look at that before Amity just shrugged.

"Since the construction coven left, I guess I'll go ahead and head to the market.

"You're not coming, Mija?"

"No, I'm gonna get my suit tomorrow with the guys," Luz called as she disappeared inside the house and appeared a few minutes later with her staff and a large bundle of potions hanging from it.

"Welp, me and the boys are off!"

"The boys?" Camila asked.

"Yeah, Calliban and Mochuelo!" She held up her staff and the tawny owl palisman came to life, fluttering his wings as he settled himself on Luz’s shoulder. Calliban popped his head up from around her neck. Camila ‘oohed’ at the small creatures.

“Amity and mine’s palisman’s respectively.” she smiled as her mother looked with wide eyes at the two magical creatures.

“What’s a palisman?” Camila asked.

“I’ll explain it to ya on the way to town,” Eda slapped a hand on her shoulder as she held up her own staff and Owlbert came to life, hooting at them.

“Right, I gotta get going.” She held up her staff and Mochuelo returned to the top, turning back to wood before she hopped on, floating off the ground.

“Hold on.” Amity stopped her, hand on her arm. “Promise me you’ll take it easy today,” she mumbled so only Luz could hear her.

“I’ll try…,” she answered honestly and Amity pursed her lips but nodded, at least her answer was honest.

“Don’t worry about me, mi amor.” Luz kissed her cheek. “See ya later, Mami, mom,” Luz called as she flew off towards town before Amity could say she was going to worry about her either way.

The flight to town usually helped Luz relax but today the roaring of the wind in her ears was too much and she almost stopped halfway to walk the rest of the way to the market. She frowned to herself, she hated feeling like this, just being constantly on edge and for no reason, but she couldn’t get her body to relax. Her anxious energy buzzed under her skin, quiet, but constant.

Luz managed to keep the buzzing quiet though as she set up her stand, Mouchelo hopped around on her stand, hooting at every passerby as Calliban sat on her shoulder, his whiskers twitching and occasionally huffing out a puff of smoke from his nostrils, his constant weight around her neck was reassuring, grounding, like Amity's arms wrapped around her neck, as comforting as it was though, she knew it could never quiet it completely, so she contented herself with selling her potions, busying herself with the hustle and bustle that always accompanied the market.

[sardinesandhumbugs]

i would be very interested in learning more about horwood (derogatory) if you're interested in explaining?

okay so

so William Horwood was is (apparently he’s still alive and kicking in his 70s) a writer who wrote perhaps the best-known sequel to The Wind in the Willows in 1993: The Willows in Winter. (He wrote three more following after it: Toad Triumphant, The Willows and Beyond, and The Willows at Christmas, but the first one is the one most will be familiar with due to the 1996 movie.)

(He wasn’t the first person to write a sequel to WitW; that honour goes to Dixon Scott in 1983 with A Fresh Wind in the Willows although that had some funky copyright issues) 

The Willows in Winter does its best to mimic the style of the original book, and to some extent it does succeed. It is, however, still essentially published fanfiction and, as such, it has some wonderful ‘misses’ that I will mock this 27-yo story for. (I admittedly kinda love the movie it was adapted into, so this is all done with the same kind of ribbing my friends lovingly bestow upon me after I walk into glass walls or eat notably dodgy apples like some modern-day snow white)

These misses include but are not limited to:

awkward character decisions 

These Characters Are Aggressively Not Gay 

But Sometimes It Will Read Very Gay Anyway 

hilarious character names

I Will (Almost) Kill Mole Multiple Times

Sometimes Twice In The Same Book

you will read “The Water Rat” more than you ever did in witw

Rat has river-speaking abilities now  

Badger has one (1) response to “someone has vanished” and it’s to organise a funeral

Rat sees heaven for, like, a moment

Toad nearly gets hanged 

Anyway, because I have A Lot of thoughts about the book, here’s a spoiler-inclusive breakdown of the plot for your enjoyment below the cut: 

The story starts with Mole’s nephew who we will call “Nephew” for the sole fact that Horwood never deigns to give him any other name. (I have been reliably informed that the next story has Badger’s grandson creatively named... Grandson, just in case anyone thought this might be a one-off.)  

It has been... an indistinguishable number of years since the original book, and Horwood decided the natural character development for the polite and loyal Mole is for him to have become a grumpy old soul who has been passing his recently orphaned Nephew around his friends because he doesn’t like company. 

The biggest issue Mole has is that he erroneously told Nephew that he could stay “as long as [he] wants” and, well, you have to see this for yourself: 

...for ‘as long as you want’ soon feels like a life sentence to a bachelor like Mole, unused to sharing his home with another for more than an evening at a time. 

(Mole is a Bachelor, okay? He’s definitely not accustomed to living whole seasons with Ratty, to the point that he nearly forgets what his own home looks like.)

So Mole is beginning to think that perhaps Nephew isn’t The Worst Thing Ever when Portly turns up in the middle of a horrible snow storm and, in attempting to warm him up, Nephew gives him too much alcohol and promptly sends Portly off to sleep, but not before he imparts that he came running all this way because Rat said that he needed Mole. 

So Mole heads out into the terrible snow storm, gets to the River, and carves his will into a tree because this is Horwood’s fanfic and he can write angst if he wants to, dammit! And, naturally, everything goes wrong. a la Don’t Carry It All style.

You may be saying, oh plot! This sounds dramatic! I regret to inform you that Rat was not, in fact, in danger, but was actually just snowed in with Otter and drunkenly remarked that it’d be so much jollier if Mole joined them (no homo), and then carried getting so drunk that neither of them realised that Portly was gone until three days later. 

[A helpful comic illustrating Otter’s parental abilities]

(This is, of course, the same Portly for whom Otter spent days trying to find in The Piper At the Gates of Dawn chapter of the original book. Turns out his  parental approach has drastically changed since then.)  

After some searching, they find Mole’s will carved into the tree and deduce that Mole attempted to cross the frozen river and failed and they decide to leave off searching until it’s light again. In the meantime, we get this lovely passage that I actually adore for how tender it is: 

The Water Rat knew a night of shadows and half-dreams, memories of Mole in the hot afternoon sun of summer, reflecting upon life. Such remembrances tormented the poor Rat till dawn came once more and he stared bleakly out of the window, tears trickling down his face, listening to the quiet bustle of the other three round the corner in the kitchen. 

During all of this, Toad has discovered a love of flying machines (biplanes, to you and me) and the Riverbankers claim use of his newest one to search for Mole. Long story short, Toad tricks his way into being the pilot, flies so badly that he unseats Rat (who manages to deploy his parachute in time, but has a near-death experience beforehand) and then crashes the plane into a greenhouse in town. 

The other Riverbankers find Rat, who has survived his fall (even if he has seen Beyond the Veil) and he’s currently Talking to the River (Horwood decided to take the “water” part of Rat’s name as a personality trait) and Rat assures the Riverbankers that Mole isn’t dead because the River Said So.

Badger is like, cool, cool, okay he’s suffered a mental break from losing Mole, and possibly Toad too, so we’re going to do the sensible thing and host a funeral for Mole. (Have I mentioned how much they are definitely straight?) 

Anyway, in a move that would make any soap opera green with envy, Mole manages to find his way back to the Riverbank just in time to crash his own funeral, scaring everyone witless until they realise their mistake. (I did say this was published fanfiction.) Everyone is happy, Mole is not dead, and life goes merrily on. 

Meanwhile, Toad has had a few misadventures, that include: 

crashing into a greenhouse that belongs to the judge who sentenced him in the original book

somehow no one realises he’s Toad, so he stays in bed as the heroic pilot who risked life and limb to stop his plane from crashing into the town

escaping disguised as a chimney sweep

turning up to a wedding that the judge was attending and getting arrested

being accused of murdering the missing chimney sweep 

being sentenced to be hanged for murdering the missing chimney sweep

being acquitted from the crime when it turns out the chimney sweep is still alive

(Yes, Horwood really went, hey I should raise the stakes from the original, and then put Toad on trial for murder under threat of hanging.) 

(If what I’ve heard about the later books, Horwood decided that what the Extended WitW Universe was missing was an overarching antagonist, which he rectifies by having the judge return several times.)

Toad is set on his way and he slowly returns back to the Riverbank, mostly because he’s under the impression that not only is Mole dead, but that he probably killed Rat too (this is a Fun Kid’s Book) whereupon he eventually discovers that, uncared for, Toad Hall has fallen into flooded ruin. He mopes and drinks and lights candles before toddling off to Badger’s home, where Badger is having a thoroughly miserable party that has pretty much turned into a Mourning Toad party and they all celebrate Toad’s return. There’s even a sweet moment:

Toad, very drunk and sad: What am I, Badger? Badger: You are home, Toad.

And then in the last two minutes of the book, Toad Hall burns to the ground because Horwood couldn’t resist a last-minute sprinkling of drama into the story.

(Also, also, the last few lines of the book seems to imply that the name of “The Mole” is something that’s inherited like the title of Caesar was, and Nephew will one day be The Mole and I can’t get over that.)

The End. 

Anyway, Horwood is evidence that fanfic writers have always gone, “I can add angst to this,” and that you really shouldn’t feel so bad about that edgy OOC fanfic you wrote when you were 13 because it turns out some people go and get theirs published.

And that’s why some of us have “Horwood (Derogatory)” as a meme. 

[bedtimebrain]

EXO KAI: Detective Gone Wrong P3

You can find the masterlist to the other parts on my bio/description!

Characters: JonginxYou

You came to know Jongin by accident, but have no clue he’s EXO’s Kai. And when you found out....

You walked away blankly, remaining in a daze until your phone started vibrating in your pocket.

It was your boss who called and anxiously asked if you could cover her shift from the afternoon as she forgot about her wedding anniversary dinner.

You gladly agreed, thinking it might be better to have something to occupy yourself with today. Otherwise you’re just going to be spending the day thinking about you and jongki.

Still sane enough to be in need for breakfast, you went by the convenience store to pick up a sandwich. Standing in front of the fridge, you paused to think

What does jongki want? Does he... like me ?

And he KISSED ME TOO?! That’s definitely something only couples do right?!

How did everything escalate so fast overnight ?!

‘Excuse me, are you getting anything? You’re standing in the way’

You must have stood there for quite a while, looking at the irritated face of the customer. Apologising, you just grabbed whatever sandwich there was on the shelf and left after paying.

Falling deep in thought and replaying what happened last night again, you opened your sandwich packaging and bit down on your sandwich  

EW! Egg Mayo!

You sighed. Feeling a little more miserable with wrong sandwich choice, you continued feeding on your thoughts on the way home.

You dive straight into your bed and hugged your big Coney plush the first thing you got back. You screamed into Coney like a lunatic and kicked the air violently with your legs.

Stupid jongki, who does he think he is. Ah yes, I secretly gave you a kiss, so what. IT WAS JUST A FRIENDLY KISS CAUSE YOU WERE CUTE.

BUT WHATS WITH KISSING ME ON THE LIPS AND WAKING UP TOGETHER LIKE ITS ABSOLUTELY NORMAL

What a flirt!! See y/n you were right. Rich, handsome guys, tsk. Bound to be bad.

You threw coney to the side and your phone came crashing down with it from your side table.

Groaning, you bend over your bed to pick it up, only to see a message from the dear boy you wanted out of your mind right now.

J:I’m heading out for work soon~ have a good day today😙

Is that a kissy face?!

Oh goodness, you were so annoyed.

Kim Jongki, are you playing with me right now?? WE ARE NOT ATTACHED

.....

at least not yet (?)

Tossing the phone aside, you decided to take a shower. Afterall showers always work best for any occasion. You got up and spent a peaceful 20minutes running under hot water, clearing your thoughts. 

Though still feeling bothered, you were definitely more refreshed. Time check , it was about time for you to get changed and pick up lunch on the way to the store.

Dusting on some light make up, bunning up your hair, you changed into your working clothes. In 30 minutes you were out of the house.

On the bus ride to your working area, you were so torn between checking your phone and not to. You wanted to know if jongki texted you again, but you didn’t really want to deal with this situation.

Fiddling with your phone, you almost dropped it when it beeped to announce a message had arrived.

That’s a sign, I should look at it! Since it rang when I’m thinking whether I should

Excitedly you unlocked your phone and checked your notification, only to find that it was just a reminder message from your landlord to pay your rent.

Your heart literally dropped because you actually really wanted to receive a message from him. Just then your phone beeped again and this time it was from jongki!

J: y/n ah what’s for lunch today? I’m having kimchi stew. Texting because I thought about you who might be board having an off day today :p

Sigh, you can’t deny that boy is so cute and lovable. But you still weren’t ready to reply him. You wanted things to be clearer between both of you. While uncertainty in relationships can be the most heart fluttering period, you didn’t like being in that phase.

It wasn’t long before you reached your stop to alight. Not feeling particularly hungry yet, you stopped by street stalls along the way instead.

You arrived at your shop, feeling satisfied with the pajeon you just had. You almost forgot how therapeutic the scent of flowers were until you stepped in. The mixed floral scent of dew and freshness instantly released you from the troubled thoughts bugging you at the back of your head.

‘Unnie! I’m here! How could you forget your wedding anniversary , hahah. Have you bought a gift or something yet?’

‘Ah, y/n ah! My life saviour. No I haven’t bought anything! There’s just too many activities and occasions this month that I forgot about my own. Gosh’ she face palmed herself making you laugh

‘Then you better leave soon to get your gift! I’m here already anyway! I’ll just continue wrapping this bouquet you’re currently working on’

‘I’ll buy u a meal another day, sorry for calling you back on your off day~ oh right I’ve a parcel coming later, just open and let me know what’s inside. I ordered so many I can’t even remember what’s coming anymore.’ Removing her apron, she rushed off after saying googbye. 

Looking at the tasklist, it was going to be a busy day. 5 bouquets to finish and lots of prep for the workshop tomorrow. You immersed yourself in the wrapping right away. 

A few minutes later, your phone lighted up. It was a message from jongki.

J:yaaa, are you ignoring me deliberatelyy? do you want to come over again on sunday? 

You scoffed when you saw the message because your detective mind came to a conclusion that the latter question was just bait to get the answer to his first question. He was tempting you with a chance at his place that was a hit or miss if you don’t reply him. 

You put down the stalks of flowers you were still holding in your hands, you paused to form an appropriate reply. 

Text:

my lunch was great, and i cant go over on sunday, im going to my parent’s place 

You typed then deleted it, doesn’t sound about right, you remember telling him yesterday that you got a half day shift on sunday which you really hated.

Trying again,

i got called back at work 

Sounds fine? Should you send it like this? 

‘Delivery!’

Reacting in shock , you pressed the send button by accident at the voice of delivery man

ah shucks! 

You closed your eyes and hit yourself on the head imaginatively. Smiling at the delivery guy, you received the parcels and signed them off. 

One of it came in a tube, while the other was in a box.

What in the world did unnie order that would come in a tube? Wallpapers? Drawings??

The tube really piqued your curiosity, so you decided to check that first. opened it first.

Opening the tube, you pulled out a rolled piece of paper. Unrolling it, you noticed at the top right was a black and white logo that writes EXO Obsession. 

Ohhhh EXO!! Unnie likes exo?

Ever since you watched 100 days my prince, you had a positive inclination towards EXO. Which also reminded you of jongki who seems to like EXO Kai.

You wondered who was going to be in this poster. Not like you would recognise them though, you thought, unless its do kyungsoo ssi. 

A little excited, you pulled the poster open to full length.

Looking at the poster that stared back at you. Your smile faded away. Your jaw dropped.

‘Jongki oppa?’ you muttered under your breath

There was an uncanny resemblance between the man in the poster and jongki. 

 No way, who the hell is this from EXO? 

You turned the poster to the back hoping to find a name of the man in the picture. But there was no information.

Flipping back over, you looked closer at the other small details on the logo, you found this 3 lettered word staring back at you — ‘KAI’.

EXO KAI? Jongki watches his dance videos... or rather, Jongki also can dance ..

There were only two logical possibilities to this , either jongki has a twin or... kai is jongki..

You had to know the answer to this incredulous situation.

Making a grab for your phone, you saw jongki had already replied you , but you weren’t even going to read it

Madly typing away

Y: Oppa, do you have a twin ?

You could feel blood pumping through your veins as you sent it.

How could this be possible ? He mustn’t be exo right?

Although you weren’t interested in boy groups, there’s no one that hasn’t heard of EXO in the whole of korea. And that’s how popular EXO is.

Even though you have never checked them out to find out how they looked like, but you still knew a few names. Names like Baekhyun , chanyeol and.. kai..

Thinking of it now, it seems to all make sense that he could dance, he has abs, he’s rich, works till late, doesn’t reply all the time....

As you waited for his text to come back in, you googled EXO Kai.

Birth name: Kim Jong In

Birthday: 14 Jan 1994

Height: 1.82m

1994 was his birth year, that’s right. Kim Jong in, difference of 1 word. 1.82m, yes, obviously describes him. Google images ? 100% similarity.

If it’s not a twin....

Ding!

His msg came in

J: uh, no.. that was so random though, why? Saw someone looking like me?

You didn’t want to believe this. The friend you’ve been hanging with and even sleeping at his place.. is kai?

In the past, when you watched those cliche dramas you never understood why people made such a huge fuss when they found out their dating partner has a hidden identity.

Like isn’t it totally exciting and fun! Especially if the person turns out to be some rich CEO. Wow, your rags to riches story would come true over night.

That’s how you thought you would react.

But honestly, all you felt was some sense of betrayal right now.

Y: oppa, I think I just found out what you do...

you sent

Just in a few seconds, he replied

J:really?! What’s your wild Guess this time ?

Your hands were shaking as you prepared to type this. The moment you send this and he confirms it... what are you going to do ?

But still, this has to be done

Y: EXO Kai. Kim Jong In.

Again, he replied instantaneously

J:omg, took you long enough!! How did you find out though??!

Clearly not being able to sense the tension over the phone, he was, as usual, cheery about everything.

Y:so it’s true ? Why did you lie your name to me?

You had no idea why you felt so emotional to the brink of tears about this truth.

J: ah, I’m sorry for lying about that.. I was worried initially if I told you my real name you might make a connection and recognise me at the start.

He double texted as soon as you received that msg, saying

J: y/n, are you ok?

You typed

no I’m not. I don’t even know how I should be feeling now, or what I should be doing about our friendship.

But.. you didn’t send it. You switched your phone to do not disturb and kept it in your bag.

You stared blankly at the poster for a while before putting it back in the tube. You’re still in disbelief. This situation was ridiculous. But it was logical.

In a state of mental breakdown, you couldn’t even wrap your bouquets right. You switched over to prepping for the workshop tomorrow instead. But your mind was so preoccupied with the whole fiasco that you kept missing things out. You just wanted work to end and have the time to yourself.

The entire day went by in a mess, but at least it finally ended. Back at home, you scroll through the multiple texts he sent you

J: hmm, seems like you’re pretty shocked about this right?

J: I wanted to tell you but you said you preferred if I didn’t though..

Then there was also a missed call from him

J: Call me back?

You swiped away all his notifications. There is something you really want to do, but not really ready to. You contemplated

Should I? Search kai up ?

Typing into Google, you searched kai. It was strange, just 24 hours ago you guys were so close, almost like lovers. But right now, you’re searching him up and getting to know him like an unreachable stranger.

You tapped into one of those webpages that told fans his entire life story. From his blood type to who he has ever dated and all that small little things people conclude from what he has said.

Again, you felt a stab in your heart and sour inside. These were things you never knew about , but surely, everyone else but you knew. It was like... jongki wasnt jongki, this him is different, it feels so far and distant from the one you knew...

Pondering on that thought, you let out a bitter laugh. Jongki really wasnt jongki. He was never jongki.

Switching to YouTube , you click on ‘mmmh’ the first result when you searched kai. No matter how you tried to keep an open mind, you didn’t like it. His costume made him strange and the song really wasn’t your type.

Deciding that’s enough for the day, you put your phone aside and tried your best to fall asleep.

—-

Back at work the next day, you decided to get some ‘intel’ from your boss about kai.

‘Unnie, you like EXO Kai?’

‘Ne!!! Wae? Isn’t his visuals to die for???’ She reacted so excitedly upon hearing his name

‘Why don’t I remember you liking EXO though?’

‘I recently just got into them because of my friend who kept playing their songs on repeat in her car’ she laughed as she fixed the flowers

‘Why did you ask though? Since when were you interested in boy groups?’ She continued asking

‘Ah... When I checked the poster yesterday I thought kai was really good looking, so I’m just asking haha. So what’s so nice about kai you bought a poster?’ Finally asking what you really wanted to .

‘Oh gawd, you really wanna know? I could go on a whole day about jongin. Though he is sooooo fierce on stage , killer looks and everything, but he has such a cute personality!! You know when they ........’

And she went on and on about it, even showing you clips of kai on variety shows, interviews, etc. In these the sense of familiarity was back, you felt like this was the Jongki you knew. Oh well, it’s Jongin now, you really got to change it out.

You laughed along with your boss and you understood why he had so many fan girls. Introducing you to some EXO songs, you had to admit you really liked them!

Knowing more about kai now, you went back home that night and sat infront of your laptop, making a search for EXO’s variety shows, music videos and the likes.

You searched up ‘kai cute moments’ and you wanted to sqush him because he was just so cute like how he was normally. At the same time you can’t help but feel a little jealous that you’re sharing these sides of him with other people too.

You watched his dance videos and he was literally a dancing king. Thinking back to when he danced for you, you suddenly realised just how many girls would die to be in your place.

It was already 1am by the time you finished your search. A msg came in just as you were about to crash

J: are you up? I’m going to the convenience store to grab some food. Are you hungry? Want to come along?

Seeing his msg, you felt a little bad about ignoring him for the 2nd day now. How should you reply him now that the situation is a little awkward ?

Nicely, your phone died as you were thinking.

Alright, just a sign I should go to bed, oppa I’ll reply you after I get my phone charged up tmr.

——

You woke up to an absolutely crisis that you overslept. Considering how you didn’t sleep well for the past 2 nights over jongin, this was bound to come. You quickly washed up and left for work.

Plugging your phone into the portable battery, you phone came back to live. Again, jongin was persistent in his texts. 

J:y/n ah don’t ignore me please

J:Come over on sunday? 

J: I’m waiting for your reply. 

It was 1.30am when he asked you to come over on sunday, but his last message was past 3am. He must have been thinking about what happened with you.. You felt bad for being so absorbed in how you felt and failed to consider his feelings  when it really wasn’t his fault.

All this started out because of your dumb self who wanted to play detective. But then again, if you had found out who he was from the start, would you have gotten this close with him? Possibly not. You replied him without delay

 Y: i’ll come over on sunday

The shop gets really busy on saturdays, packed with workshops, tons of deliveries and online orders. You didn’t have time to check your phone till the end of the day, at which you saw you missed jongin’s call and texts again.

J: omg, you finally replied! is there anything you want to eat on tomorrow? i could get it if you’re coming over from work

J: we are all ok now right? 

Should you call him back? It wasn’t like you were completely okay yet, you couldn’t imagine how it would like seeing him tomorrow. He was surely still that jongki you knew, but he was also kai.

Thinking to leave the rest for tomorrow to think about, you just replied 

Y: there’s nothing i really want, just get whatever you like:)

Back at home, for the 3rd night in a row, you stayed up like a fan girl again, watching all of EXO ladders, their concert videos. You squealed and fangirled over them like a teenage girl. The more you watched, the more you started falling harder for them.

---

A halfday shift always makes your day go by real fast. You were standing outside jongin’s door. You were suddenly reminded of the times you watched 100 days my prince with him and talked about D.O. who he probably knows 1000x better than you do. And how you asked if he was a kai fan. Oh gawd, you wanted to jump into a hole. Feeling a little nervous and a little awkward and hella embarrassed, you didn’t want to press the door bell.

Finally pressing the door bell, you waited for barely half a minute, which felt like eternity before he opened the door. You could even feel your palms sweating. 

‘Annyeong Y/N! Come in quickly!’

You didn’t reply him immediately, neither did you move an inch yet.  The smile on his face slowly faded and he just looked at you, starting to chew on his lips. 

Seeing his face once again, in real life, your heart skipped a beat. You knew it wasn’t because he was kai, but because he was still jongki, that someone special to you.

You quickly smiled back at him the moment you got out of your thoughts. He let out the breath that he has been holding, making you laugh. 

‘Annyeong, jong..’ you paused there, about to call him jongki 

‘annyeong jongin oppa’ it sounds weird to you, not to be calling him the name you were used to

You guess he must have been feeling a little awkward when you called him by his real name too, he scratched his head and chuckled.

‘I ordered pizza, are you hungry? let’s eat’ he gestured for you to go to the dining area and was ready to walk away

But you felt you had to talk to him first about this, 

‘oppa, can we talk?’ 

He turned around to face you, he nodded slowly

‘sure..’

You walked over to him, leaving a comfortable space between the both of you. 

He avoided your eye contact as you started

‘so... EXO Kai huh?’

‘...y/n, i.. you should know i have no intentions to hide anything from you deliberately, i was ready to tell you anytime. but i also thought you would react in a ‘pleasant surprise’ way rather than a ‘nasty shock’ received, so i just let it be’

He looked at you with sincerity in his beautiful eyes which showed how bad he felt. But you honestly just wanted to clear the air and lighten up the mood

‘actually, I just wanted to tell you that... I became an EXOL!’

You exclaimed and laughed. His eyes widened and stared at you like you were out of your mind, before bursting into laughter too.

But his laughter soon turned to sobs, and he rubbed his eyes profusely, which got you stunned

‘I... I thought I messed up our friendship, our relationship. And I really missed you, I didn’t want our us to end like this.....’ he said in between sobs and almost sounded like he was wailing

‘We haven’t even started...! Y/N, you scared me when you didn’t even reply at all! I thought you didn’t want to contact me anymore!’ He give you a light push on your shoulder as he emotionally spilled out all his thoughts

Though you were really confused, it was heart wrenching to see him cry so hard. You quickly put your arms around his waist and have him a hug.

‘Oppa, I’m sorry for the past few days I ignored you. I was just trying to figure how to handle the weight of the truth that you’re EXO Kai. Hahah, I’m so confused at your reaction right now you know.’

Calming down, but still sounding nasal he said

‘I’m going to make you stay here today until I’m convinced that you don’t hate me for being kai.

Oh and that you won’t go MIA on me again if you found out some other kai stuff’

Breaking away from the hug, he grabbed onto your shoulders

‘Y/N I like you, I really like you, so don’t leave my life please’

His impromptu confession got you feeling shy, you didn’t know what to do , but merely nodded in response.

Feeling all bright again he grabbed your hand and pulled you into the house.

You were glad it was as if nothing has changed, except that you probably became the luckiest fangirl alive just like this.

———

This fic went through so many content changes, I’m so glad I finished writing this! For those that waited for this part, I hope it wasn’t too underwhelming:,) feel like there’s definitely still a lot for me to work on as a new writer.

Also just dropping a note to say this would most probably be my last fic tell after may! Please check out of my other fics in the meantime too:) Hopefully I’ll be back with better writings !

[peace-coast-island]

Diary of a Junebug

Exploring the Garnet Bamboo Peninsula

Garnet bamboo trees are cool to look at. They don't seem like much at first glance but when you look closely, you can see little buds poking out, like tiny gem shards. I guess that's how the bamboo got its name - the buds do look like a bunch of tiny garnets.

This place is chock full of them and according to Yasmine, it's the only known place where they grow. Aside from the unusual buds, it's like any other bamboo plant - but that doesn't make it any less special. The flowers however are used in teas and soups, so those are local specialties here. They add a subtle bittersweet flavor that goes well with many soups and stir fried veggies.

I've been here for a couple days exploring the peninsula with Nathan, Yasmine, Dello, and Donna. Originally it was just me, Nate, and Yasmine, then we ran into the Clanwings so our trio became a quintet!

Yasmine and Nathan are on break from grad school. I didn't even know Yasmine went to the same college until recently, having just enrolled in the spring semester. I remember that she was debating going back to school after leaving the entourage. She and Nathan aren't in any classes together but since it's a small school they sometimes run into each other at the commons so they kinda know each other.

I've never heard of the Garnet Bamboo Peninsula until Yasmine brought it up. She heard about the place through Jamie, who of course would know about it. Along with the bamboos, the place is known for its cafes and bike trails. Being an avid biker and motorcyclist, Yasmine was intrigued. So when she suggested traveling there to me and Nathan, we became intrigued too.

The peninsula really is a lovely place for sightseeing and hanging out at cafes. It's perfect for a chill vacation where you don't really want to do too much other than be in a different setting. Just seeing the garnet bamboos up close and trying the local cuisine is enough of a fun experience. If that's all we end up doing, then I'm more than satisfied.

While biking along the beach trail, we ran into Dello and Donna. Dello somehow got his bike stuck and Donna was having no luck helping him. So we pitched in and managed to get the bike out, but it was in pretty bad shape. Based on how the crash scene looked, it's lucky that Dello only had a few scrapes and bruises.

Then again, I'm pretty sure Dello - and Donna - are like physically immune or something because they can take a lot of damage and somehow not break any bones or get crushed. It's funny but also kinda weird and unsettling - even they're low key freaked out by it sometimes. I'm pretty sure their uncle had something to do with that - likely by accident as that tends to happen a lot with the Clanwings.

Anyway, we invited Dello and Donna to dinner after helping them with the bike problem. They were sent by their uncle for a business trip and were planning to leave soon. Then they decided to extend their stay because things are a bit chaotic at home and Louise suggested that they hang around for a bit. She didn't elaborate too much but she insisted that they postpone going home so we assume it has something to do with their dear old uncle getting into some sort of trouble.

So Donna and Dello are now on a short vacation, which Donna's looking forward to. Dello admitted that he could use a break, but he also feels kinda bad for leaving Louise alone with the kids. Louise says she and the boys surprised the kids with a camping trip so they won't be at the mansion either. So whatever their uncle has gotten himself into, he's on his own.

It's been fun exploring the peninsula, gathering flowers, visiting cafes, and enjoying the view. We also took turns riding with Yasmine on her motorcycle, which was kinda scary at first but a lot of fun!

Yasmine's got an impressive collection of motorcycles as well as a vast knowledge on them. She occasionally works as a stunt rider, which was how Jamie met her. She's one of those people who gives off the impression of being a cool badass type and not only she is, but she's fun to hang out with too!

Before that, Yasmine was an actress best known on the Teen Scene sitcom Popular Besties. The show, I'll admit, was not that good, but I enjoyed it as a kid. The episodes tend to be a hit or miss and the first two seasons were all right but by the third and final season it was tedious. It was pretty obvious that Yasmine and her co-star were tired of the show so it wasn't a surprise when they later revealed that they quit, which was why season four was scrapped at the last minute.

Since getting to know Yasmine, I can't help but think of how her talents were wasted on Popular Besties. A lot of actors who debuted on Teen Scene have mixed feelings regarding their breakout roles and have since then moved on to better things. Yasmine still acts occasionally, though she's slowly phasing away from the entertainment industry. She says she's still not quite sure what direction she wants to go in but grad school's a start as well as continuing to pursue motorcycle racing.

Nathan has got a look at Yasmine's motorcycle collection and as expected, he was impressed. We don't know too much about those kinds of things but we know an impressive collection when we see one. I'm glad that they're getting along well - Yasmine's the type who easily becomes friends with everyone, even with people you'd think she wouldn't have much in common with. It's not that she and Nate are opposites but they come from completely different circles so it's unlikely that their paths would ever cross.

Things in Astra are pretty much the same for Nathan, and that's the way he and his family like it. He did mention that he visited Evan's grave for the first time in months, a kinda spur of the moment thing he didn't expect to do. He said he was reading a case study for a class that stirred up some memories so he had to step back when it became too much. Then he found himself at the cemetery and that kinda helped, or at least it grounded him. He told his therapist about it and she said some things that has left him thinking about the past.

I hope that one day he'll finally find peace with that. Nathan's come a long way since we first met and while what happened to his brother still hangs over him, at least he no longer beats himself up over it. That's why he wants to help people, to prevent tragedies like Evan, to save those going through a downward spiral no matter how far gone or beyond saving they think they are.

Dello and Donna have been up to the usual as well, shenanigans and all. Easton's hanging out with Rolly a lot so now they're best friends. Edie's happy about that as she mentioned that before Rolly, Easton didn't have too many close friends his age, probably because he's used to being around those older than him. Stork pops in often as usual and it's never a dull moment when he's around. We got to video chat with Louise and the kids, which was nice. They're all having a great time out on the road, sightseeing like we are.

Philly asked Nathan and Yasmine about Astra as he wants to go to grad school and is always looking far ahead in the future. Tally, as expected, asked about the garnet buds in hopes of using Tally Inc. to make a profit. Dello promised Rosie to bring home some sweet treats, particularly the pink moonberry daifuku a local cafe is famous for. Molly and her friends popped in for a bit just to say hi as well so it was nice to catch up with everyone.

The Clanwings are what most would consider an eccentric family. In a way, they kinda remind me of the McManns, except a lot bigger. Apparently they're kinda distantly related so I guess that explains the similarities. Both heads of the families are rich old men who happen to have a late younger sister, both who have twins who are left to keep an eye on their uncles. The uncles tend to get in trouble during their adventures so a lot of people end up mixing the families up.

Strangely though, even though I know Rocky, Chrissie, Dello, and Donna and they all know each other, I've never hung out with all four of them at once. Like I've known them for years and they live in Cityburg so you'd think at some point I'd meet up with Chrissie and Donna or Dello and Rocky on separate occasions but it hasn't happened yet. I mean it will (should) happen one day but I just find it funny that it hasn't.

Speaking of Rocky and Chrissie, we talked about them a bit. Dello said he dropped by to see Rocky and Lex before coming here. We joke that Rocky and Lex should tie the knot before baby #3 comes along, especially now that they're engaged but with no wedding date set yet. They've been pretty much following Dello and Louise with the whole having two kids before getting married. Though from the looks of it, I don't think Rocky and Lex plan on adding another family member anytime soon, if ever.

I don't know how Dello and Louise did it, having four kids roughly a year apart. Rosie and Lessi are 14 months apart, both were pre-marriage, Lessi and Cissy are about a year and a half apart being the widest age gap, then Cissy and Rolly, aka the planned post marriage ones, at 10 months because Rolly came early. So basically Louise was on and off pregnant for 4-5 years, which is insane.

As for Donna, she had the boys and that was it. Before that, it was apparently rumored that the Clanwings were at risk of dying out since Dello and Donna were the only heirs left as for some reason the family members are against marriage, or at least have no interest in it. At this point Dello's the only living Clanwing who's married, but even he and Louise were on the fence about marriage for a while.

So we met up at this place called the Pink Daifuku and enjoyed a bunch of sweet treats. The peach mochi cakes are my favorite as well as the green garnet rose tea. We also shared a bottle of sweet white wine infused with garnet bamboos, which add an interesting flavor. I think this is the sweetest wine I've ever tasted - it's good but a bit too overpowering, something that would probably be paired better with a meal instead of desserts or alone.

Tomorrow we're gonna visit the Diamond Winery to try some more garnet wines and see how they're made. The winery's on one of the top places to visit in the Garnet Bamboo Peninsula because it has a gorgeous view of the cliffs and it's the only place where garnet wines are made. Dello and Donna are into that kind of stuff so of course they'd want to check it out. Yasmine said she always wanted to try the garnet champagne while Nathan and I are looking forward to taking a bunch of nice pics as well as the free wine samples.

After the cafe we rented some bikes and explored the Waybright Plains trail. There, we looked at the ruins and collected some garnet bamboo. Something about Waybright feels eerie, then again that's how most abandoned places feel like. Exploring ruins up close and personal is always an interesting experience.

We tried to solve something that looked like a puzzle involving the torches but couldn't figure it out. I think we were close though as we managed to light all but one of the torches up. Well, I was never really good at puzzles anyway, and maybe it's probably for the best that we didn't activate what was in there. I mean, I doubt it's like a trap or something, but it is kinda weird that a device like that still works and is just left out in the open. Dello was right to be a bit iffy about it, especially from personal experience.

Yeah, as tempting as it can be, I think we're better off leaving those alone. I don't want to be responsible for causing a catastrophe by messing around with something I shouldn't have.

Time flies quickly when you're wandering the corridors of old ruins. It's easy to get lost in a place like this - I'm surprised that we managed to stay together the whole time. And not only that, but we also managed not to set off any traps or have any accidents along the way so another win. Then again, these ruins are open to the public so that obviously wouldn't be a problem or else we wouldn't have been able to just freely walk in.

For the trip back, we took the scenic route. The trails are super well lit so there's no worries about it getting too dark - and we were out pretty late. Riding around the peninsula at night has a different vibe than in the daytime. I think it's the glow of the lanterns that add to this sorta dreamy, disconnected vibe that makes it so chill. Plus the trails aren't as busy at this time of night so it's just us and the garnet bamboo. If it weren't for the mosquitos, I'd go on nighttime hikes more often.