#also sorry for the explanations they were supposed to be short but i got to ranting

[inkzectz]

in your Bigger than the sky animation benrey starts out as barney? that seems so interesting lore wise? i would love to hear about what you were thinking when you animated that askdhfjlagh and the sweet voice and dreading stare? no clue what it means but curious as hell

ok im gonna go a little crazy on this because this is my biggest/favorite bc ever.

In the full vods they refer to benrey as “Barney” for the first while, it’s kind of unclear why, from Wayne’s perspective it seems he just didn’t know his name and defaulted to the character models name, and gir and Holly said they thought the joke with benrey was he was Barney but wrong, and they kept calling him the wrong name, so bipple, booper, Bentley, but eventually benrey, the name said by scorpy, stuck.

All this to say, it’s a BIG hc of mine that he was intended to be Barney (in universe) but due to being self aware was able to break off from this character he was meant to be. it’s kind of implied within the series they all have fake memories of who they are, being AI they are supposed to sort of act a certain way to maintain the immersion but at the end of the day, nothing before the game booted up really happened.

And benrey knows this, benrey knew from the beginning nothing was real, that he wasn’t human, how it ends, that no one actually dies, the works. I also headcanon that he became self aware during the AI model training stages, that the guy in charge of training his AI as Barney, broke him causing his self awareness and he was just launched into the beta game fully aware of the circumstances of his existence. I don’t think he was fully aware of how everything in game worked though.

but this to me is why he seems to constantly be changing his view of Gordon, antagonizing him one moment and then being friendly the next, his feelings about him are complex, he knows from the beginning he isn’t actually Gordon Freeman, but a guy just playing half life. Being a security guard, he’s programmed to protect Gordon with his life, but he knows this. He knows what’s compelling him to care for Gordon isn’t himself but lines of code he’s bound to, and this is why he antagonizes him. But that’s a whole different rant on its own lol

That sequence at the beginning of the bigger than the sky animatic was supposed to be a false memory, something he was supposed to think happened, but the version of Gordon he remembers isn’t real. This idea of ‘Gordon’ is a concept that only exists in these fake memories. (This is also why I think he never calls Gordon by name throughout the series, because he knows it’s not actually him (besides that one time but it doesn’t count bc it was for a bit lalala I can’t hear you))

there wasn’t much thought into the details of that part, like the coughing into the hand with the sweet voice, I really just put that bc I thought it looked dramatic and cool 😓

BUT on the topic of this big ass hc of mine, it actually is super important to a upcoming project im working on, and I realized throughout the story boarding it might need some explanation because it also has a lot of flash backs to some fake memories.

Sorry this got super rant-y I tried to keep it as short and simple as I could, I love hlvrai, I think about it literally every moment of my life and have so many hcs

[awriterinthenight]

"Is Anyone Else Joining?"-Five Hargreeves

requested: anonymous

words: 954 (sorry its short, might do a part 2 though)

warnings: bickering, siblings inviting themself, swearing, Klaus mentions something about hating gay people (its really funny in context and in character I swear), they also throw things at Five, idk but this was really funny like I laughed the whole time, its so funny and I might do a part two

summary: Five and reader plan a trip, but the Hargreeves siblings just have to crash it

Alone was a word you could not use to describe the Hargreeves siblings. Anywhere one went, another went, then another, then Klaus shows up, so then Ben shows up, and then its a family reunion at that point.

All you and Five wanted was for a day or two alone together, but his siblings had other plans. Your trip was just you two driving a few towns over to go see a museum you were dying to see. The drive there was half a day, so you would drive there, check into the hotel and sleep, then go to the museum the next morning, then drive home that night. It was very simple till the rest of the Hargreeves showed up.

"You got everything?" Five asked, leaning against the driver's side of the car, the car keys in his hand.

You threw your bag with all your clothes and everything you needed into the trunk, "That should be it, you ready to go?" You asked, opening the passenger door to get in the car.

Five followed after, "Do we really need all that? It's only two days," Five said, starting the car.

"You can never be over prepared," you stated, not seeing anything wrong with the two bags you packed for a two day trip.

"I would argue you can be overprepared, which you are," he argued back. This started a small banter between you two, not yet having left the house. You both continued to bicker until a voice startled you.

"As much as I love a little lovers quarrel, let's get this show on the road. Me and Benerino over here are excited to see where we're going."

Of course it was Klaus who was trying to ruin your trip. He managed to sneak his way into the car when you two weren't looking. And of course if he was going, so was Ben.

"Get out, Klaus," Five yelled at him, annoyed at him ruining everything.

You decided to take a nicer approach to getting Klaus to leave, "He's right Klaus, this just a two of us trip. Plus you don't even have a bag packed," you told him.

"That's where you're wrong, my psycho brother's lover. I do have a bag," he claimed, pulling out a child's backpack, "So let's go before I get hungry and have to pee again."

There seemed to be no way to get Klaus to leave, but the two of you kept trying. Unfortunately for you Diego entered the car for some god awful reason.

"Now what are you doing here?" Five complained, hitting the back of his head against the headrest in annoyance.

"Klaus said you guys were going on a trip, thought why not make it a double date, me and Lila haven't been out in awhile," he explained, but something wasn't quite right about his explanation.

You squinted your eyes at him, "Oh really, you haven't been out in so long, so you just decided to crash our trip?" you questioned.

Diego quickly broke though, "Fine," he said, admitting defeat, "I promised Lila I would take her forever ago, but I forgot, so I'm tagging along, and neither of you will tell her anything."

"Great, so our trip is now victim to my brother's dumbness," Five continued to complain, "Is anyone else joining, or can we go now."

As if the universe itself needed to annoy Five even more, Allison entered the van sitting in the third row, "Who's ready for a family vacation," she shouted, making Five groan as you held in your laughter, "What's wrong with him?"

Klaus spoked up first to explain, "Apparently this was supposed to be a "just the two of them trip", but it's going to be so much more fun with us."

"Wait, you told me this was a family trip?" Allison uttered, confused about what was happening.

Five had his head in his hands, already wanting this trip to be over, "Why me?"

As if this already ruined trip needed more people, Luther and Viktor entered the car after the trunk was slammed shut, "We're lucky we caught you, we thought you left without us," Luther said, entering the van.

"This museum seems pretty cool, you have good taste Y/N," Viktor complimented, making you let out a small chuckle.

Once Lila entered the van, sitting next to Diego, Five asked for the final time, "Is that everyone or is the Pope joining us too?"

"I would love it if he did. I have so many questions for him. First off, why do they hate gays-," Klaus started, but was cutoff by Five.

"I will kick you out of this car, if you don't stop talking," he said, now grouchy from the turn of events.

Klaus just put his hands up, acting all innocent, "Wow, someone's grouchy, this is supposed to be a fun family trip, don't be so negative," he said, acting super dramatic.

"Yeah, don't be a dick," Lila shouted at him, throwing some sort of snack she was eating at him. Which started a chorus of 'don't be an asshole' 'this is supposed to be fun' and the favorite 'my tummy is rumbly' from Klaus, who ate the snack thrown at Five that ended up on the floor.

Five let out a long sigh, "This is going to be a long trip," he whispered under his breath, only loud enough for you to hear, making you laugh. Five might've been annoyed that your trip got ruined, but seeing you laugh put a small smile on his face. Maybe this trip wouldn't be so bad. Minimum it would be a good laugh for you, and anything that made you happy, made Five happy.

Current Taglist for all fics (ask to be added)

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[maincharactermuse]

The one where there is a party. (11)

(Find my masterlist here)

The party was already in full swing when Y/N stepped into the garden, holding a large wooden tray of desserts like a shield. The sun hung low, golden through the trees, and the sound of people laughing - Harry’s people - rolled over her in waves.

She’d arranged the desserts herself, of course. Tiny pistachio tiramisu cups, lemon cakes with olive oil glaze, strawberry galette. All perfectly imperfect, rustic but elegant. The kind of desserts that said: I’m relaxed and effortlessly cool, even though I stress-baked until 2 a.m.

This was her contribution to the evening. It felt easier to lead with “I’m the one who made the desserts” than “I’m sort of dating Harry Styles but we haven’t defined it”.

She adjusted one of the cups unnecessarily, giving her hands something to do.

“Hi there. Y/N, yeah? I’m Gemma.”

She turned and met a pair of kind, sharp eyes, Harry’s sister. Immediately warm but carrying that clever, knowing energy.

“Yeah. Hi. Sorry. I’m Y/N.” She offered a slightly flustered smile, trying to look breezy and not like she was having a small existential crisis. “Nice to meet you.”

Gemma looked at the dessert table, then back at her. “You made all of this? He wasn’t lying.”

Y/N smiled, still unsure how to plant herself in this social terrain. “Yeah. It’s kind of my job. I own a café in Hampstead.”

“Oh my god! Is it Toast? The one with the tiny glass lemon tarts and mismatched chairs? Harry said it’s his new favorite place.” Gemma tilted her head, amused. “He also said the owner was bossy about her espresso machine.”

Y/N blushed. “That’s… accurate.”

Gemma grinned, sipping her drink. “So… how do you two know each other?”

Y/N hesitated, grasping for a tone somewhere between “your brother makes great coffee chat” and “I’ve seen your brother naked… A lot.”

“Uh, we met through the café. He came in a few times. Then… we talked. And… now I’m here.” She cleared her throat, smiling awkwardly.

“Relax,” Gemma said warmly. “You’re clearly not just here for the tiramisu.”

Y/N opened her mouth to reply, but Harry’s voice suddenly floated in from just behind her. “You alright?”

She turned and there he was, all linen shirt and flushed cheeks, probably from a beer or just being loved by several people at once.

“Yeah,” she said quickly. “Just… chatting.”

Gemma opened her mouth to say something else, but someone else called her name across the lawn and she gave Y/N a cheeky wink before turning to go.

“You alright?” he asked again.

She nodded once. “Yeah. I mean, define ‘alright.’”

He looked at her a beat longer, reading her.

“Wanna take a break?”

“God, yes.”

He guided her gently away from the crowd, his hand brushing her back like it belonged there. They stepped around a corner of the garden, where vines tangled overhead and the fairy lights gave everything a soft amber glow.

“You didn’t have to bring desserts and have a nervous breakdown,” he said gently.

She gave a short, dry laugh. “I don’t know what I’m doing here, Harry.”

He frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”

“I mean… your mum’s here. Your sister. Your friends from when you were twelve, old tour friends. These people know you. I’m still trying to figure out if you’re- you‘re left or right-handed.”

“Right,” he said automatically. “Almost ambidextrous on guitar. Continue.”

She shook her head, trying to laugh it off. “I just… feel like I’m supposed to have some title or explanation. Like, when people ask how I know you, am I supposed to say ‘baker’? ‘Frequent acquaintance’? ‘Girl who made the tiramisu and has seen you naked’?”

Harry tilted his head at her. “Is that really what you’re worried about?”

“That, and the fact that I got the idea for the tiramisu during sex.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Wait- during sex?”

“I know. It’s awful.”

“No, no, it’s kind of impressive.”

She buried her face in her hands.

“You were thinking about me,” he said, “and tiramisu at the same time. That’s passion. That’s dual focus.”

“I wasn’t thinking about tiramisu instead of you. It was the sheets! They reminded me of ladyfingers and then my brain just… went.”

He grinned. “You’re so weird.”

“I’m aware.”

A beat passed.

“I like it,” he added softly.

She peeked up at him, skeptical.

“I do.” His voice gentled again. “You’re not crashing this. You’re not a question mark. You’re not on the outside. You’re just… at the beginning.”

Her chest fluttered. And for a moment, she couldn’t say anything. So she nodded.

They stood there quietly, the sounds of the party muffled by the ivy and summer dusk. She watched the way his fingers gently tugged at a leaf on the trellis beside them, nervous energy barely disguised.

Then he looked back at her. “You okay now?”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “I mean, the part where I confessed to thinking about dessert mid-sex will probably haunt me forever, but… yeah.”

He smiled. That slow, crooked one that always got to her. And then, without fanfare, he leaned in and kissed her. It was warm and soft and quick - not hidden exactly, but careful. The kind of kiss you steal when you think you might not get another quiet second for the rest of the night.

Her hand brushed his chest on instinct, resting over the open part of his shirt, her thumb catching the edge of a button. When they pulled apart, neither of them said anything right away. They didn’t need to.

Then she smirked. “If anyone saw that, I’m blaming you.”

“I’ll take it,” he said. “Gladly.”

She stepped back, smoothing her dress with a breath. “Okay. I should go pretend I’m social again.”

“You’re doing great,” he said. “Only one panic tiramisu confession so far.”

She gave him a look. “Let’s not make that a thing.”

“No promises.”

———————————————————————————

Later, the sun was dipping low, casting that perfect Instagram light over the garden. Y/N stood near the drinks table, finally starting to breathe normally again, sipping a sparkling elderflower something she wasn’t sure she actually liked.

Out of the corner of her eye, someone approached - tall, longish hair, low-key vintage tee.

Guitar man, her brain supplied before she could stop it. She’d seen him in one of those blurry tour photos Harry had shown her - the kind where they were all sweaty, laughing, post-show, with instruments slung over their backs. She remembered because she’d stared too long at it once, trying to piece together who was who in his life.

“Dessert girl.”

She blinked, brought back to the present, and turned.

“I’m sorry?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

“You’re the one who made the pistachio tiramisu, yeah?”

“I am,” she said carefully. “Should I be flattered or slightly alarmed that that’s my title tonight?”

He grinned. “Flattered. It was unreal. I’m Mitch, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said. “And thank you. I stress-baked at 1 a.m., so I’ll pretend this is validation and not enabling.”

He laughed at that, full and unexpected. “It’s definitely validation.”

There was a pause, a kind of friendly ease settling in.

“You and Harry,” Mitch said casually, nodding toward the far end of the garden, where Harry was deep in a conversation with two guys and Anne. “You’re cute.”

“Oh.”

“He’s talked about you,” Mitch added. “More than he usually talks about anyone, really.”

That caught her off guard. She looked down - her fingers were gripping the back of the wooden chair again like it might float her away.

“You can stop holding onto that thing like it’s a flotation device,” Mitch said with a smirk.

She snorted. “Listen, dessert girl’s had a day.”

“Clearly.”

He lifted his glass toward her. “You’re doing fine. Promise.”

She smiled. “You’re nicer than you look in that tour photo.”

His eyes lit up. “You Googled me?”

“No comment.”

He gave her a mock suspicious squint, then chuckled again and walked off.

She looked back toward the garden.

Harry was still in conversation, but - like always - his eyes found hers.

He smiled. Then winked.

She smiled back, and this time… didn’t need the chair at all.

———————————————————————————

group chat: the coven🔮

Y/N

Currently hiding behind a hedge

I need someone to tell me I’m not imagining things

Noor

Oh god

Where are you??

Grace

Did you get locked in a closet again

Y/N

I’m at his birthday thing

Still happening

There are too many people and like three different types of wine and his mum is here

I’ve had one olive and I am spiraling

Noor

Wait wait wait

You met Anne??

Grace

Was it warm? Was it terrifying? Did she hug you like a goddess or did she judge your soul

Y/N

No I avoided Anne

I made a sharp left when I saw her talking to someone in a floral blouse

I’m not meeting my maybe-boyfriend’s mum while I have boob sweat and flaky galette crust stuck to my forearm

Noor

A wise woman

Grace

Honestly I respect it

Y/N

But I met Gemma

She said I wasn’t just here for the tiramisu

Which felt like a compliment but also like she knows everything

Noor

She definitely does

Grace

So wait

Are you guys like… couple-y? At the party??

Y/N

No labels

Still

Still no “this is my girlfriend Y/N”

Still just… “this is Y/N”

But he invited me

And he kissed me in a secluded corner and said something nice

And then walked away like my entire nervous system wasn’t short-circuiting

Noor

He kissed you in front of people??

Grace

This is not a drill

Y/N

It wasn’t like, makeout

It was like… soft

Still kind of private

But not secret

Grace

Soft is worse I’m going to die

Noor

He’s into you. Like into into

Y/N

Apparently he’s talked about me to his work friends

Mitch called me “dessert girl”

Grace

WAS HE FLIRTING

Y/N

I don’t think so??

Noor

Okay but also that means Harry’s definitely talked about you in group settings

You’re real to him

Grace

That’s like ten emotional points

Y/N

Okay but like

Still no definition

No status

No “my person” label

And I feel like I’m trying to be chill and mysterious but also I think my deodorant’s failing

Noor

Babe you brought homemade desserts

You’re not mysterious

You’re irresistibly competent

Y/N

Anyway I should go back out before someone thinks I’ve passed out in the lemon glaze

Grace

If he doesn’t introduce you to his mum tonight, that’s fine

But if he does

We expect a play-by-play

Noor

We’ll be emotionally holding your hand from this chat

Y/N

God bless this coven

Okay

Wish me luck

Grace

Ladyfingers and courage

Noor

Go get ‘im, tiramisu queen

———————————————————————————

The house had settled into that quiet hum that follows a party - plastic cups half-filled with forgotten soda water, napkins hanging off plates, the soft thump of bass still in the walls like an echo. Y/N stacked dessert plates with practiced ease, barefoot in the kitchen, sleeves pushed up.

It felt oddly like closing down the café after a long rush, except here, she was a guest. Sort of. A ghost of one, maybe.

Harry had disappeared somewhere around the sparkler moment, off talking to someone’s cousin or bandmate or friend of a friend. She’d excused herself to the kitchen because cleaning gave her purpose, a way to quiet the hum in her chest that came from hours of smiling, introducing herself with vague answers, and pretending to feel rooted in a space that wasn’t quite hers.

She rinsed a bowl and set it in the drying rack.

“Are you always this sneaky?”

She jumped and spun around.

Harry stood in the doorway, half-smiling, sleeves still rolled up, barefoot now too.

“I thought you left,” she said, breath catching.

“Why would I leave my own house?” he asked, walking in slowly. “Wait - did you think I went out to…?”

She shrugged, sheepish. “You just… disappeared.”

He tilted his head. “I was in the garage with Jeff. He needed help carrying amps. Also, I found a raccoon.”

She blinked. “No, you didn’t.”

“Okay, no. But wouldn’t that be a more exciting reason?”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I missed you too,” he said, reaching for a bottle of water and then leaning casually against the counter.

She shook her head, loading cutlery into the dishwasher. “I’ve been pretending to be chill and mysterious for several hours, Harry. I need at least twenty-four hours of not being perceived.”

“Understood.” He took a sip of water. “Operation ‘leave Y/N alone unless she looks cute with a sponge’ has been activated.”

She side-eyed him. “You really gonna flirt with someone holding a lemon wedge?”

“Yes.”

That made her smile, even though her shoulders still held the day’s weight. He watched her for a second, then softened.

“Stay over.”

She looked up. “Yeah?”

“Please,” he said. “I’ll bribe you with tea and foot rubs and exaggerated praise for your dessert-based genius.”

She gave a small, tired smile. “Fine. But I get first pick of pajamas.”

“Deal. But if you pick my ‘Treat People With Kindness’ pair, I will make a dramatic speech about it.”

Later, they curled into the couch - lights low, shoes kicked off, one of his enormous sweaters swallowed her whole. He sat sideways, one leg folded up, thumb tracing the rim of his glass.

He was talking through the night in that way he did, stream-of-consciousness, bouncing from Gemma gossip to someone spilling wine to Anne loving the lemon glaze.

Y/N listened with her head tilted, watching the way he talked with his hands even when he was tired.

“You’re very good at this,” she said eventually.

“At what?”

“This. All of this. Making people feel seen.”

He blinked at that. Like he hadn’t expected something soft.

She smiled, then nudged her knee against his. “Happy birthday, by the way.”

He laughed. “It’s not for two days.”

“I know. But I’m giving you your present now.”

“You brought a present?”

She reached behind the cushion and pulled out a small, flat box wrapped in recycled sheet music.

He raised an eyebrow and carefully opened it.

Inside was a vintage leather guitar strap, worn but beautifully kept. The stitching matched the one he’d described in passing - an old one he used to have on tour that had gone missing years ago. This one wasn’t exact, but it was damn close.

He stared at it for a beat too long.

“You remembered that?”

She shrugged like it was no big deal. “You’d had a glass of wine and went on about it for twenty minutes. How the leather had softened in all the right places, how it didn’t dig into your shoulder.”

He still didn’t speak. Just ran his thumb along the edge.

“You said it smelled like your favorite gig,” she added, suddenly nervous. “Not like… sweat. Like warm wood and something electric.”

He looked up. “This is perfect.”

“I thought you’d like it.”

“I love it,” he said.

Something twisted sweetly in her stomach at that. Not the word itself - love - but the ease of it, and the way he said it without looking for a reaction. She smiled down at her hands.

Upstairs, their getting-ready-for-bed routine passed in quiet, familiar rhythm. No awkwardness. Just the low hum of running water, exchanged towels, muted laughter as she tugged on one of his soft old shirts that still smelled like him and the faint trace of cedar soap. It felt bizarrely like something they’d done a hundred times already. Like they’d slipped into a rhythm neither had expected to feel so natural, so soon.

They got into bed with ease, bodies syncing under the sheets like magnets finding their way back.

Harry shifted onto his side to face her. One hand tucked under his cheek, the other trailing lightly across her waist beneath the blanket. His touch was gentle, almost thoughtful, like he was still working something out.

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked softly.

She blinked at the ceiling before turning to look at him.

“Yeah. Just… socially wiped.”

He nodded, thumb rubbing a slow circle over her hip. “From people?”

“From… holding things in,” she said. He stayed quiet, letting her sleep.

“I just didn’t know how to be there tonight. Like, when someone asked how I knew you, I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t say ‘I’m the caterer’ because that felt like lying, and I couldn’t say ‘I’m Harry’s girlfriend’ because-” she stopped, pressing her lips together. “Because we haven’t really said what this is. And that’s fine. I get it. But it made it… hard.”

Harry was quiet for a beat. Not tense. Just taking it in.

“I’m not trying to rush anything,” she added quickly. “I wasn’t sitting in the kitchen crying into the lemon glaze or anything. I just felt like I couldn’t be honest. And that’s a strange way to be at someone’s birthday.”

He shifted closer, his nose brushing hers gently.

“I invited you,” he said. “Because I wanted you there. Not to test you or make things weird. Just… because I like you being around. You don’t have to prove anything or know the right label to wear while passing Gemma a napkin.”

She smiled a little. “She’s very cool, by the way. Intimidatingly so.”

“She said she likes you.”

“She told me I smelled like buttercream.”

“High praise in our family.”

Y/N laughed softly, relaxing more into him. “Sorry if I made anything weird.”

“You didn’t,” he said. Then, leaning in a little closer: “Except when you made a tiramisu that was suspiciously horny.”

She groaned. “Don’t start.”

“I’m just saying, if I’m ever mid-thrust and you mutter something about flavor profiles, I’ll be deeply conflicted.”

“I will literally leave this bed.”

Harry laughed, pulling her closer. “Please don’t. I quite like you here.”

She met his eyes - warm, green, safe.

And then he kissed her. Long and slow, his hand on her back beneath the shirt, anchoring her. She kissed him like she meant it. Like she needed him to feel it too.

The joke lingered, but the moment softened.

Their limbs tangled, bodies pressing together in that unspoken rhythm they were still learning but somehow already knew. He kissed her again, deeper now, hand sliding along her waist, pulling her into him like gravity had finally had enough of the teasing.

Clothes melted away in quiet, breathless touches. There was no rush. No performance. Just skin against skin, the creak of the mattress, the catch of her breath as he murmured her name like a promise.

And when they moved together, it felt like a song they’d been humming in their heads for weeks without knowing.

After, when the silence had stretched out long enough to soften everything, she curled into his side with her cheek on his chest.

“Better than tiramisu?” she whispered.

He laughed low in his throat, curling an arm around her waist. “God, yes.”

[sunny44]

Co-parenting (Part 3)

Pairing: Carlos Sainz x ex!reader

Warnings: medical center, cuts…

Summary: Co-parenting is never easy but y/n never thought it would be so hard.

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Max and I haven't been able to go on that date yet. The first time, he had to cancel because he had to go to Milton Keynes for a meeting, and the second time, I had to cancel because Maeve and I got sick and I didn't want to go and risk getting him sick too.

But after several weeks we finally managed to schedule a day, and it would be today. Maeve is going to spend the whole weekend with Carlos, which would be great because even if he hadn't, I would keep my promise to introduce them only if it was someone I knew would stay in my life longer.

But he was late, and I was getting nervous because I had asked Carlos to pick her up at seven because Max would come to pick me up at seven-thirty. And besides not wanting Carlos to see him, obviously, I didn't want Maeve to see him either.

I heard knocks on the door and ran there to see Carlos.

"I know, I know, I'm late and I'm sorry. I had to wait for the plumber to fix a pipe that was flooding my apartment and he was late, and then I got stuck in traffic, and..."

"It's okay, just hurry up." I shouted for Maeve to come quickly and handed him the backpacks.

"Why the rush and why are you all dressed up?"

At that moment, Max parked, and I panicked. He got out of the car and was smiling until he saw Carlos and stopped smiling.

"Why is he here?" I didn't know what to say. "Are you going out with him? Is that why you wanted me to leave quickly? So that I wouldn't see you going out with Verstappen?"

"It's not because of that."

"Then why?" I didn't say anything. "Answer my fucking question."

"I didn't want Maeve to see, okay? Because I stick to our agreements, she doesn't need to know that I'm going out with someone, and neither do you."

"But why him?"

"Because he invited me and I wanted to." He laughed. "Look, I don't have to give you any explanations. Focus on taking care of our daughter and I’ll deal with my live life ok?" At that moment, she appeared.

"Sorry, I couldn't find Mr. Bibbles." She said, hugging her stuffed rabbit. "Can we go Daddy?"

"Yes baby." He picked her up, and they went to the front, and luckily Max had returned to his car when Carlos passed with Maeve in his arms.

"I'm sorry; I didn't know he would be here."

"It's okay, he was supposed to arrive earlier but got delayed. Neither you nor he were supposed to see each other.”

“You didn’t want him to know that you were going out with me?”

“Carlos and I have an agreement about relationships and I didn’t want him nor Maeve to know about it right now.”

"What kind of agreement?"

“We don't introduce anyone to Maeve without the other being aware, and not with a short amount of time in the relationship, you know? We don't want to put someone in her life just for that person to leave without explanation."

"I understand."

"Our separation was amicable but also difficult; she was small and doesn't remember, but she doesn't quite understand why her friends at school have parents together and she's the only one who doesn't."

"It's okay, you don't need to explain to me." He says kindly. "I can imagine how difficult it is to raise a child, and I also understand what it's like to be the child of divorced parents; I know you're doing the best you can for her."

"Thank you."

"Well, shall we go to our date? They say the third time's the charm." I laughed and went inside to grab my purse and my phone, locked the house and went to his car.

...

The date was great; he made me laugh a lot, and I hadn't had that much fun in a long time.

I felt light, and I felt like I could be myself without being defined only as Carlos's ex or as a mother; I could be myself again.

"Just a minute." My phone started ringing, and I saw it was Carlos. "Hello?"

"I'm sorry; I took my eyes off her for 1 minute, and..." I immediately got up.

"What happened?"

"Maeve and I are at the hospital."

"Which hospital?" I grabbed my purse and started walking towards the exit, and Max came along.

…

“What happened?"

"She was on the couch with me watching a movie and she asked me for a juice box when I went to get it, she started jumping on the couch and when I heard a loud noise, I went back, and she had fallen and hit her head on the table." He spoke quickly. "I'm really sorry; I..."

"It's okay."

"It's not; she cut her head and had to get stitches. I'm a terrible father."

"Carlos, stop." He looked at me. "These things happen; kids jump on things, they fall, and they get hurt, so stop blaming yourself."

"I was just so scared, and..." I hugged him.

"It's okay, everything will be fine." He hugged me back and relaxed. "What did the doctor say?"

"That it wasn't anything serious and that I did the right thing by bringing her as soon as possible; it could have been worse if she had fallen asleep after hitting her head."

"Okay, let's go in." He went in, and I turned to Max. "I'm sorry for ruining our night."

"You didn't ruin anything; our night was perfect."

"Except when I switched back to mom mode."

"Your daughter got hurt, and you did what any worried mother would do."

"Thank you for bringing me here too."

"You're welcome." He smiled. "I would love to go out again. If you want, of course."

"I would love to. I'll send you a message, and we'll make plans."

"Perfect." He said goodbye, and I went into the room.

"Mommy." I went to her and kissed her forehead.

"Hi, sweetheart, how are you feeling?"

"My head hurts and I'm very sleepy." She gave a little smile and blinked her eyes very slowly.

"It's okay, you can sleep again." I pulled the blanket up to cover her more, and she closed her eyes and was soon asleep, and I sat next to him on the couch there.

"How was your date?"

"We don't need to talk about that."

"I know, it was just a question."

"Let's just focus on her well-being and forget about today." He agreed, and we fell into silence.

And that's how we spent the night at the hospital until we could leave the next morning.

Bonus scene!

“What a wonderful night”

Tag list: @ietss @lightdragonrayne @asplarklysoul @xoscar03 @smdrl @shobaes @evans-dejong @cocoxoxo69 @ggaslyp1 @bingewatche @loaves4me @justdreamersdream @alinacecee

Guys, the names with a line on top is because I couldn’t tag

[mothhball]

Raymond Leon

Vodka

Melon

Tabasco sauce to Cranberry Juice (🧍‍♀️)

Cocktail onions (I think the only way he can die is ran out of time idk?)

thanks!!

Occupational Hazard

Raymond Leon x fem Reader

summary short fic + smut + angry sex to confessing feelings + ❛ you? kill me? that's funny. ❜

warnings SMUT!!! semi-clothed sex, sex on top of a car lmao, handcuffed Reader, one (1) spank, Ray is worried and that pisses him off, unprotected PiV sex, cursing, light choking, a little bit of a condescending attitude towards Reader

notes i- i meant to write like 500 words, but this got out of HAND and I'm terribly sorry for taking so long. :( i'm still working through all the requests!!!! they WILL get done!!! also I haven't written smut in a hot minute, so 🫠

! MINORS DNI !

event masterlist • main masterlist • taglist • kofi word count: 2.6k

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” you spat as soon as you were released from the interior of Raymond’s car which had been your metal prison for the past 45 minutes.

45 agonizingly slow minutes during which he didn’t say a single word to you. No explanations as to why he suddenly showed up to pick a fight and arrest you, no apology for slamming you onto the hood of his First Gen Dodge Challenger in front of the people you were supposed to blend in with. You never expected much from him to begin with, but this had been a new low.

You were supposed to be coworkers, for fuck’s sake.

Now, he had parked both of you in the middle of nowhere, almost making you think that he did it so you could finally curse at him at full volume.

“I’m gonna kill you, Leon, I swear –”

“You? Kill me? That's funny.”

His first sentence in almost an hour, and you were already fuming. Maybe you really were going to do it. Your grumbling was cut short when he got out of the car and stepped around to the back seat to pull you along with him. Back to the hood it was, this time face up so you could properly glare at him.

“You’re off the case,” he said, staring down at you with a storm raging behind his eyes. There was a tension in his shoulders, one that he usually lacked. Even in stressful situations, he usually had everything under strict control, including himself. But right now, his jaw was tight. You, on the other hand, were an open book compared to him.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” you hissed. “I just gained their trust! A few more weeks and they’d tell me the location of the stolen time capsules!”

A scoff was your only reply, prompting you to aim a kick at Raymond’s shoulder. Which, to your surprise, he seemed to have been anticipating. His fingers closed around your ankle, hiking your leg up along with it while he planted his other hand on the hood of the car — effectively caging you in.

Suddenly, he was close. So close that you could catch a whiff of his delicious cologne, and he only leaned in further.

“You won’t be going back to those thieves,” he murmured, his breath brushing against your hairline which caused an exquisite shiver to run down the length of your spine. “You’re not tough enough to be undercover for this long.”

You bristled, tongue swiping over your teeth as you met his challenge head-on.

“Then take off the handcuffs and I’ll show you just how feisty I really am.”

Raymond’s brow twitched upwards and his grip tightened around your ankle. He almost took the bait. Almost let himself be drawn in and scorched whole by the fire in your eyes. But this was his game and you’d play by his rules. At least for now.

“I don’t think I will.”

His free hand wandered over to your waist, pulling you up a little higher to let you rest more comfortably on the car. Well, as comfortable as you could be with your hands linked together behind your back.

Looming over you, his touch trailed up your stomach and came to rest on your cheek, palm cupping your burning skin.

“In fact, I think this is for your own good,” he said, brushing his thumb over your bottom lip as his gaze met yours again. “Trust me, I’ve seen enough of your type. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed until they show up with a bullet between their pretty eyes.”

The proximity between your bodies felt electric, stealing the breath from your lungs as you tried to concentrate on his words and not the feeling of him nudging his hips against yours ever so slightly.

“You haven’t seen all of me yet,” you replied, and his eyes narrowed as his lips pulled up into a smile.

“Fair point.”

Raymond leaned back, flicking his fingers against the zipper of your jacket before he slowly pulled it down. Letting the garment fall open, he trailed his fingertips down your sternum, and even though there was a layer of fabric separating skin from skin, you could feel the sparks he left behind on your flesh. Sparks that traveled lower along with his hand until they settled in the pit of your body like burning coals.

As he grasped the hem of your shirt, he paused to look back up at your face, and you were confused for a moment before it clicked. He was asking for permission. You didn’t need to think much about it.

Parting your legs a little more, you silently allowed him to go further. And he did.

Raymond was on you in the next second, capturing your lips in a heated, feverish kiss that bordered on furious. Something deeper was bothering him, and he expressed it through his tongue and teeth, mapping out your mouth and luring sweet little sighs and moans from your throat. He kissed you like he only had minutes left on his clock, like he was trying to savor every second of your lush body beneath his own.

Pulling back only to yank up your shirt, Ray cursed under his breath at the sight of your pretty tits almost spilling out of the bra you wore. It was strange to see him lose his composure like that, especially since said piece was nothing to write home about. You opted for comfort and functionality during your time undercover, so a ratty sports bra had to do. The glint in his eyes and the way he white-knuckled the fabric as he pulled it up said enough about his level of enthusiasm, however.

As soon as your boobs were free, Raymond bent over you to lick and nip at your soft skin while his hands eagerly tugged off your sweatpants to finally get to your pussy. Groaning in approval at the wetness between your thighs, he trailed his fingers up your slit, slicking them up before he sank two of them into you.

Your moan trailed off into a squeak as he immediately set a quick pace, aiming to prep you as quickly as possible to grant both of you the relief you so desperately needed. You arched beneath him, cuffed hands curling into fists in search of something to hold on to while he worked his fingers in and out of your dripping core.

Fuck, you could hear how much you needed him, and he could too, visibly reveling in the effect he had on you. Raymond’s brows were furrowed, his pupils blown out as he stared down at you, watching every twitch in your expression with a keen laser focus to find all of your weak points.

And he was a fast learner.

A gasp hitched in your throat as his fingers scoped out that deliciously sweet spot that had your face twisting with pleasure.

“Right there?” he scoffed against your skin, pulling out of your pussy.

Your attempted protest was cut short when he pressed his wet fingers down on your tongue, making you taste yourself as he unzipped his pants to free his already leaking cock. How he could keep the tremble out of his voice while in this state was beyond you.

Feeling testy and impatient, you lightly bit down on his fingers, earning yourself a swift spank to your cunt. Your muffled moan vibrated against his fingers in your mouth, and he used his grip on your head to keep you still.

“Behave,” he groaned, already grinding his length against you to lube himself up. “Behave and look at me.”

The ache melted away with every inch of his cock that he shoved into your cunt, and the growl that slipped past his clenched teeth ran across your heated skin like silk. Slipping his fingers free from between your lips, Raymond wrapped his hand around your throat instead, feeling the thump of your pulse against his palm as your eyes met his again.

Once he bottomed out inside of you, the two of you shared a sigh of relief, and Raymond’s other hand settled on your hip to pull you closer against him. It was already hard to concentrate on your end. Not only was this man pretty and way too smug, his dick was perfect as well.

“Not so feisty now, are you?” His chuckle made you frown, and you grit your teeth, wrapping your leg around his hip to kick the back of his knee with the heel of your foot. Stumbling forward, he caught himself on top of you, his cock still buried inside of you.

“Fuck you,” you spat, delighted by the way his nostrils flared and his fingers twitched around your neck.

“Gladly.”

The first thrust knocked the air out of your lungs. Immediately, you could tell that you bit off way more than you could chew. Raymond’s pace was relentless, fueled by the needy moans and mindless babble he fucked out of you every time he slammed his cock back into your weeping cunt. His hips collided with yours again and again, sending the impact through your entire body as his fingers sank into the plush flesh of your hip.

His hand around your neck also didn’t relent, occasionally tightening its grip to reduce the flow of blood to your brain. You felt like you were floating, helplessly bouncing under him as he fucked into you.

“That’s it, huh? Look at you,” he growled low in his throat, tipping his head back as his eyes fell shut. “You’re helpless like this. Already fucked stupid and we barely even started—”

Even with heavy, half-lidded eyes, you could see the grimace that suddenly settled on his face, and his thrusts became even rougher. He was absolutely livid all of a sudden, and you were pretty sure it wasn’t your fault this time.

“Raymond— Wait, fuck— Ray!” you gasped, trying to get your braincells to cooperate with one another. A tearless sob shot out from between your lips as he picked up your legs to fold them towards your chest instead, and your mind blanked for a few delicious seconds as he hit even deeper.

“Helpless. A target. A bleeding-hearted rookie,” he continued, his frown deepening. “They’ll eat you alive and spit you back out once they’re done with you.”

His choking grip tightened, and you let out a breathless squeal as the tension in your core wound tighter and tighter and—

His hips suddenly stilled against yours as he released your throat, and you whined at the loss off the exquisite friction that almost dragged you over the edge just seconds ago. About to complain, you opened your mouth, only for the words to die on your tongue when you saw Raymond’s expression. Blown out pupils, messy hair, but his eyes were softer than anything you’ve ever seen from him. For the first time, the high and mighty Raymond Leon looked truly hapless.

“I want you off the streets. Immediately.”

His voice was breathy, labored from fucking you and the maelstrom of emotions clashing within him.

You could only blink up at him, confused and a little suspicious at his sudden switch. Raymond sighed, lowering himself to gently press his forehead against yours. As you both stayed quiet and started to catch your breath again, he traced gentle circles into your hip with his thumb. After a heavy moment of silence, he attempted to speak up.

“It’s too dangerous. What if you –“ He swallowed hard, cutting himself off and abandoning this first attempt.

“What if I..?” you softly urged, afraid that speaking too loudly might’ve shattered this fragile bubble of vulnerability that he was allowing himself to exist in.

“I can’t lose you.”

“Lose me?”

He sighed, turning his head away to stare off into the distance. Alright, keep your secrets, then.

But then, he forced himself to elaborate.

“You’re the only one who can keep up with me,” he admitted, still refusing to look at you. “You’re the only one who’s not just a badge or a file on my desk.”

Oh. Ohh. That certainly explained it.

“Ray,” you started, silently cursing the fact that your hands were still cuffed because you wanted to reach out to him, to touch him and pull him out of his worries. “You’re not going to lose me. I know what I’m doing.”

“You might. But the others don’t.”

He groaned and the muscles in his jaw tensed as he clenched his teeth.

“You might get into a shootout or a car crash because one of those criminals,” he huffed, his grip tightening on your hip once more. “Or the group you’re scoping out suddenly gets into trouble with another. There are too many risks and very few rewards. We’re only looking for a few missing years, after all.”

“Ray,” you said, but he was still ranting about it. “Hey, Raymond.”

Still nothing. Change of strategy.

Lifting your hips, you began to move against him, fucking yourself on his cock in an effort to coax him closer again. And it worked. Like a magnet, he was drawn to you, meeting your eyes once more and softening at the sight of you. With a sigh, he leaned over you, wrapping his arms around your body to hold you close and keep the pressure off your hands.

“Trust me,” you breathed against his lips. “Please, trust me, Ray.”

“I do,” he promised, stealing another kiss from you that lit your insides on fire. He was softer this time, less frantic and hurried as he held you with a reverence you’ve never seen from him before. This was him beneath the coat and badge. The Raymond beneath the Timekeeper title.

With his lips still moving against yours, his hips picked up in rhythm again, working together with you to get you back up to the edge you craved. His tongue licked against yours, exploring playfully until the lack of oxygen caused you to flutter and clench around him, and he pulled back to kiss and bite up your throat.

“There you go. Take what you need,” he murmured into your ear, pressing one of his hands between both your bodies to draw circles around your clit. The noise that you made in response had him gritting his teeth in an attempt to reign himself in.

“Ray,” you gasped, and he nodded in response, feeling it to. How beautifully you shuddered, how your thighs around his hips urged him to go faster, harder.

“Let go. I’ve got you.”

And those were the magic words. With another press of his thumb against your clit, you came undone for him, unraveling under the warm wave of a blissful climax. Raymond cursed and groaned under his breath, fucking you through your peak until he felt [] He pulled out of you, frantically thrusting into his fist until he spilled his cum between your thighs and over the sleek black paintjob of his vehicle. Oh, well.

Panting, he released your legs, to dig a set of keys out of the pocket of his coat, and he helped you to sit up so he could finally free you again. With a careless motion, he tossed the cuffs aside and pulled you close, kissing your hairline before he took your hands in his.

For a blissful moment, neither of you spoke. Even though he didn’t outright say anything about the fundamental shift in the dynamic between you, his actions and the look in his eyes were proof enough.

“I’ll get you a nice desk job at the agency,” he murmured, gently massaging your wrists to get the circulation back.

“Ray—" you groaned, definitely not excited at the thought of sitting around all day, but as you turned your head away, he gently nudged your chin to bring your gaze back to his face.

“And a nice raise.”

“… I’m listening.”

[xo-adeline]

✮ - Thinking about “you’re not as bad as everybody says you are” with Iwaizumi Hajime

You shrugged slightly as you walked with your friend to her next class. She had been rambling on all lunch about some guy on the volleyball team, and how badly she actually wanted to get to know him. Though whenever she got the chance she was always shut down by this other guy with ‘spiky hair and a mean looking face’. You didn’t really understand all the big hype with some random guy on the volleyball team at your school. Sure. Was he what TV would stereotype as a ‘pretty boy’? Absolutely. But you never saw the same interest as most of the girls around you. The only thing you really knew about the volleyball team was to stay away from this said guy with ‘spiky hair’. Now did you actually know that much about him? No, you never actually cared to learn, you only went there so that you could have a decent education before heading off to college to start your career, but it was what everybody else said about him that made you feel that you had to stay away. You knew that not everything people say is true but even when your friend had repeatedly told you that he was ‘mean’ and ‘abusive’ towards his teammates, it was quite a red flag. Well, that was until you actually met him.

It was a complete accident. You had been walking towards the gym as you were supposed to meet your friend there and the volleyball team happened to be coming out of practice. In all the mix you both accidentally bumped into each other, to which, thank gosh for his quick reflexes, he caught you before you could fall over. It was a short second before he pulled you back upright, apologizing and making sure that you were okay. The mean look that you saw on his face just before you fell completely melting away into one of concern. You hadn't even noticed anything else about him until your friend hurried over to you.

“Oh gosh! Are you okay? Did he try hurting you??”

You were a little confused about your friend's sudden outbreak. Why on god's green earth would he ever try to hurt you? He seemed so sweet and that he even caught you before you fell.

“What? No, he was actually really sweet. Why?”

“Well that’s the guy I was telling you about before, Iwaizumi Hajime. The mean and abusive one towards his teammates, well Oikawa Tooru? Ya know?”

“Weird. He didn’t seem ‘mean’ or ‘abusive’ at all, maybe there is another explanation for what you people see as his ‘abuse’?”

She could only shake her head.

“You don’t watch it as much, you wouldn’t know.”

It wasn’t until the next day that you saw him again. He was standing with some of the other 3rd years, ones that you found out were also on the volleyball team, courtesy of your friend. You didn’t really mind it and continued walking over to your class, well until he walked over and stopped you.

“Hey, you were that girl from yesterday, right? The one that I accidentally bumped into yesterday, sorry about that, once again.”

“Oh yeah, sorry about that as well”

He only smiled once he heard that it was you. Definitely didn’t go through the whole volleyball team to try and figure out your schedule in the morning so he could talk to you, definitely not! It wasn’t long before the two of you were actually having a pretty good conversation, luckily just before the bell rang he was able to ask you if you’d like to talk again after his practice, to which you responded with a yes, before turning and both going your separate ways.

He had given you the time to be over at the gym to which you tried your best to be there on time, but with trying to figure out which entrance he was talking about and not losing track of time you ended up being a couple minutes late. He was still sitting on one set of bleachers as you peeked in. Noticing that he was the only one there, you walked in a couple steps before he noticed you, waving you over to come sit with him, even moving his bag down to the floor to make a spot next to him on his right. You walked over sitting down next to him looking over at the already polished court.

“Soo.. how was practice?”

You started off, unsure the reason he had actually wanted to talk to you. He seemed a little surprised by your question but answered pretty quickly.

“It was good. Besides Oikawa being a little shit at the end, but that’s normal for him.”

You could only laugh. It wasn’t often you heard Oikawa being talked about in a more negative tone.

“So I’m assuming you two are pretty good friends?”

He nodded.

“Sadly. We’ve been friends since childhood, basically grew up with him.”

Light Bulb.

They were childhood friends. Of course they were a little mean to each other, and what others saw as ‘abuse’ was really just because they had been friends for so long, not because he was actually hurting him.

“Ohhh! So that’s why she said that.”

He looked a little confused

“Who said what?”

“Oh, sorry! It was something my friend had mentioned the other day about you ‘abusing’ Oikawa.”

He seemed to understand, and frowned slightly.

“Lemme guess. Your friend is an Oikawa fan?”

“Yup.”

He nodded, looking down at his phone.

“Well It’s getting pretty late.. We should head out before it gets too dark. How about I walk you home, since I was the one who had you stay late?”

“Oh, you really don’t have to do that!

“I insist.”

So with that he ended up walking you home, trying to make small talk on the way back. Asking about your day, how your friend was, anything interesting you were learning in your class, ya know, the norm. It wasn’t until you actually made it to your doorstep that it was quiet for a few seconds. He was about to say goodbye before you spoke up.

“Ya know. You’re not as bad as everybody says you are.”

You leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek before waving and heading back inside your house. He stood there shocked for a moment. It wasn’t normal that he received attention, especially not from girls. After the entail shock was over he smiled and pulled out his phone as he walked home.

Safe to say, Oikawa was confused, and both Mattsun and Hanamaki are now gonna try to find who caught the heart of their stubborn ace.

[unfriedough]

Hi super sorry if your request aren’t open.

I had this thought about Zuko x waterbending reader and maybe they could be related to Hama (like a grandma or something) and r basically it’s difficult to explain but Zuko and reader started dating after the war and he tries really hard to get Hamas approval because he’s from the fire nation and Hama ends up sorta accepting him but is still hella weary about him

‘Dinner’- Zuko x female!reader

An: HIYA! So as to not be annoying I’m leaving my lil disappearance explanation at the bottom, enjoy 🫶

(As usual, thank you for your request and patience it means a lot 💕)

Warnings: fighting/agression but it’s brief dw (this is also a very short piece)

You smiled as a candle flickered in your room, kicking your feet as you read a letter your boyfriend, Zuko, wrote to you. He detailed in it his most recent endeavours as a fire lord, as well as affirmed that he could in fact come for a visit. You had been planning to move to his palace soon, as per his request, but he was afraid your grandmother, Hama, a ruthless fire nation hating blood bender who might just hate Zuko, would not be on board. You decided the easiest way was to have them both over for food, and you’d prepared a huge feast of different delicacies of both nations. Zuko was meant to arrive in about an hour, and Hama was already down stairs washing up. She vaguely knew you were going to introduce her to someone, just not entirely aware of who. You shoved the scroll into another backpack you packed for your move, which was supposed to take place a week from now if all goes well.

You walked over to the window sill and sat on a cushion you placed on the protruding wooden part, sighing. You wandered in an endless maze of thoughts, until a face appeared in front of you. You squeaked, almost falling backwards but you caught yourself. Shaking your head, you unlocked the window and pulled zuko in.

“Dude?” You questioned, pulling him in for a hug.

He smelled like the sea, you noted, originally expecting the smell of a certain beast on him.

“Sorry- I got nervous,” you giggled, pinching his pouty cheeks.

He grinned, dipping you into a passionate kiss that screamed ‘I miss you’ in every language. His hand trailed to your back, and yours his hair. Just as things began to escalate, the door swung open.

“YN!”

Immediately, you pushed him away, and he stumbled backwards. Both your eyes landed on your grandma, who was as pale as a ghost.

“I can explain!”

“What kind of nonsense is this?”

Zuko was frozen, from the long list of things that could've gone wrong, this did not even make the top one hundred list.

“Grandma, this is Zuko,” you calmed down, “My boyfriend,”

He snapped out of his trance and extended an arm to shake with her. She walked out, leaving a small stone to prevent the door from closing again.

“Sorry about her,” you groaned, embarrassed that she left him hanging.

He retreated his arm, shoving it into his pocket, “She already thinks I suck. It’s over.”

“It’s okay she’s easy to win over,” you smiled sweetly, contrasting the lies that currently fled your lips.

Stiff, awkward, weird… all of the above.

You couldn’t relax for this dinner, things were so tense after what just happened. He didn’t even get to say hello before she saw his tongue down your throat and now she probably is a hair away from blood bending him into a ball. And he could tell she hated him- when he asked you to pass him a spoon she threw it at him. She missed…

“So, why don’t you tell her about yourself Zuko,” you broke the silence.

His eyes widened, suddenly being put on the spot, “Well I-uh-um-“ he coughed.

“He helped the avatar end a hundred year war,” you chimed in.

“Yeah so he can start a 200 year war all on his own,” she remarked, glaring at him. “All fire folks are the same,”

“Gram, give him a chance, he’s trying his best,” you held his hand over the table, rubbing your thumb in comforting circles.

Suddenly, a fork came hurling at you, and when you both dodged your hands away, you found it embedded in the table.

“Right…” you breathed out.

She stood up abruptly, folding her arms, “Yn, come outside, now,”

“Yes ma’am,” you replied, looking back at Zuko with a worried expression.

You shut the creaky wooden door behind you and adjusted your garments as you stood by here on the patio.

“A fire nation boy?”

“He’s different… he’s not what you think he is,”

“That’s what they all say Yn, he’s bad news.”

“What about him is bad news?”

“Everything. Especially the fact that he’s a ticking time bomb.”

“He’s a good man.”

“Are you forgetting his past? He attacked the avatar!” Your eyes widened, “That’s right, I did my research… I know every little thing he did and so help me if you dare leave this house with him I will make sure that’s the last time either of you see each other.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Who’s gonna stop me?”

Your eyes brimmed with tears- it was one thing to ban you from seeing him, but a completely other thing to treat you like a child. You were old enough to make these decisions on your own. You huffed, storming back inside and waltzing into your bedroom, slamming the door with a lot of force.

Hama sat back down at the table, smiling before she flipped it onto Zuko. He gasped, standing up quickly to avoid being crushed. She stomped around the table and got up in his face, grabbing the collar of his shirt. She was surprisingly strong for her ancient age.

“What do you want from her?”

“To be with her,”

“Why?”

“Because I love her,”

“WHY?”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY?”

She pushed him onto the ground, lifting her arm as if about to bloodbend him. He’d heard the tales of what she was capable of from his friends, and he felt his heart drop.

Zuko froze, waiting, shielding himself and closing his eyes.

“Aren’t you gonna firebend?” She asked, a bitter sounding tone.

“No.”

Just then, you exited your room, finally having collected your bearings. There, you found Zuko almost curled up on himself, and Hama glaring at him. He breathed heavily, and she looked as if a blood vessel was about to pop. You immediately rushed to his side, helping him up to his feet and checking him for wounds. He was fine of course.

Your hand brushed against his cheek and he closed his eyes, humming, “I’m fine,”

“What did you do?” You yelled, looking at the old lady.

“I tested him.”

You laughed sarcastically, “And did he pass,”

“With flying colours,” 2 out of 3 pairs of eyebrows flew upwards, you and Zuko exchanged glances. “For now,”

After a bit of cleaning up, you finished the night with Zuko in your bedroom, sitting at your desk.

“Is everything okay?” You asked, leaning against the table.

“If she doesn’t even want me near you, how on Earth are you going to move in with me?”

“That’s… that’s a great question.”

An: OKAY SO idek where to start I basically obv got back to school and I had exams and then even MORE EXAMS coming up (send help) BUUUT I mainly just lost my spark and interest in writing but it feels wrong to continue to ignore my inbox so I’m gonna try my best to clear it soon. If you have requested I’m genuinely so so sorry it’s taken this long I’m sure you’re mad at me but hopefully not too mad don’t hate me okay bye love you 🩷

[writinandcrying]

TMNT HEADCANON / how the turtles text

A lot can be said from how someone express themselves through texting, so this is just some crack / light headcanons !

Not really based on a single version per say, more that turtles have been deprived of social interaction for the majority of their life and I think texting them would be an very interesting experience lol

Idea based on @avery73 last random turtle post (thanks for being one of our strongest soldiers and writing wonderful pieces 🫡) English is not my first language and I didn’t proofread this, if there is any grammatical erros pls don’t hesitate to tell me!

Mikey

🎢 Single texts

🎢 Just like this

🎢 Loads of it

🎢 You got 60 new messages

🎢 in the past 2 minutes

🎢 Loads of gifs too

🎢 And voice memos

🎢Oh look

🎢6 personality tests links

🎢What do you mean you won’t do it

🎢He needs to know what kind of cupcake you are!!!!

🎢 And music recs

🎢 Your phone won’t stop vibrating

🎢 for the next weeks

🎢 After you meet him (Honestly really annoying unless you have a crush on him)

🎢 For the latinos/latinas; if he EVER finds out about WhatsApp and the stickers. Oh you are so done. If you have an older phone that shit WILL blow up / malfunction for SURE

🎢 uses TONS OF EMOJIS !!!!! 😍😍😝🤪😋🤩AND CAPS AS WELL!!! 🥳😽✌️👅🗣️

🎢Mikey live reaction when you ask if he’s upset that you asked him to tone it down a notch with the texting on a busy day:

🎢 Will lowkey tone it down with the emojis when he finds out some ppl find it cringe, but with his angels cakes ???????? 🫵 YOU BET 🗣️ HE WILL SHOW YOU WITH IT 💋🫦💅🏻🤳🏼💃🏻🕺🏽🙈🦋🌺🧡🌚🌻🔥💥🌟

🎢Will accidentally send you some random ass emoji that wasn’t supposed to be on the context of the text, also the autocorrect is def not his friend

Mikey : how’s it going baby gorila

Mikey: babygirl*

Mikey:

Mikey: I’m sorry

🎢 adds emojis to very contacts in his t-phone:

Leo: Leader of the pack 🐺 🐢 🫡

Donnie: Eistein 📚🧬⚗️ (Raph also shares this name on his t-cell)

Raph: Murderous teddy bear 🧸 🧨

Splinter: Mafia Boss 🪤 (no one knows about this name tho)

April: Chanel N.6 🎤(or World of Apes 🦧 lmao)

Casey: New York Hockey League 🏒

Vern: Some dude (adds 🦅 so he knows it’s Vern and not “some random dude”)

Y/n: angelcakes pookie wookie baby boo boo love of my life !!!!!! 😍🥰👀🧚🏻‍♂️

🎢Mikey live reaction when Raph yells at him to stop flooding the chat, followed by mikey texting him “make me” (they are sitting next to each other):

Donnie

🔭Huge blocks of it in the speed of light. many topics, many questions and also explanations at just one sitting

🔭But won’t hold back on a smart ass short cut response for one his brothers (literally has the sharpest tongue)

🔭Will hardly uses emojis, only when it’s a single text to express an emotion (most current used emojis: 🤓when he does something impressive 💜: for y/n 🙄: when venting about something annoying Leo / Mikey / Raph did)

🔭Will want to discuss random ass problems he has encountered in his projects, in forums online, specially if you ever show interest in debating / doesnt hold back into showing your strong opinions

🔭 Has named their brothers as “Failed Lab Experiments” and managed to color code their messages (has the only t-phone that has this feature)

🔭Donnie creating the most unique and smartass way to charge his phone just cuz he can:

🔭Deadass his reaction when texting his crush 👀:

🔭 Has modified Mikey’s phone so he doesn’t have access to emojis for a whole week after his baby brother decided to spam him “out of no where” (after Donnie won consecutively 10 Mario Kart matches AND ate the last 2 slices of cold pizza)

🔭Result: mikey spammed EVEN MORE and only spoke to EVERYONE by Japanese emojis. Leo and Raph begged demanded that donnie install his emojis back cuz they were DONE with the whole situation

Failed lab experiment N.4: ( ๑‾̀◡‾́)σ" °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° (♡´౪`♡)

Failed lab experiment N.1: Stop.

Failed lab experiment N.4: ┬┴┬┴┤ᵒᵏ (･_├┬┴┬┴ Failed lab experiment N.4: (;﹏;)

Failed lab experiment N.2: You stupid IDIOT Failed lab experiment N.2: look what you've done now he’s sad

🔭 Donnie also has to deal with his brothers thinking he is their personal Google (he will always answer their questions, even out of spite):

Failed lab experiment N.4: Donnie what’s a Cochlear implant

Successful lab experiment: A small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing. The implant consists of an external portion that sits behind the ear and a second portion that is surgically placed under the skin.

Failed lab experiment N.4: :0 yikes

Failed lab experiment N.4: Okay thanks!!!!

Successful lab experiment: Stop asking me stuff when you can just Google it.

Failed lab experiment N.4: But I like talking to you 🙀😔

Failed lab experiment N.4: You are my favorite turtle Siri!!! 😉

Successful lab experiment: I’d prefer if I wasn’t... Also, why are you curious about cochlear implants?

Successful lab experiment: Mikey?

Successful lab experiment: Mikey!!!!!

(He still doesn’t know why)

Raph

🥊 Barely uses emojis. Lowkey barely texts? doesn't see the appeal to it, rather prefer to hang out with you 1 on 1 than being far away from you (will never ever admit to it. maybe after 3 years in a relationship)

🥊as a friend: he wont be the one spiking a conversation, but might keep going if he's truly bored (this is prone to happen during daylight / evening when they still can't go out) but will probably be the one to ask to hang out when he needs an outlet and such 🥊*sees messages* eh i'll reply later *completely forgets about it*

🥊 will effortlessly take the most breath-taking pictures of new york during patrol and send it to you 🥊 if you are already his s/o / someone he trusts: will most likely text you to ask about stuff (if you need anything or something he needs from topside) or to diss / vent / gossip about his brothers 🥊 will send embarrassing pictures of his brothers to you cuz he can't deal with that shit alone lmao

🥊 will either be pretty clueless with the most random ass stuff or out of propose just to tease you: y/n: jniasunoakpfa raph: what was that y/n: keyboard smash? raph: how do i do that y/n: just press anything raph: 7 🥊 Raph Live reaction as soon as he realizes he has feelings for you:

🥊 Also Raph Live reaction when he comes to terms with this feelings and has an excuse to ignore Leo (even if he doesnt like texting) just bc he can ignore Leo as he pleases:

Leo

🎏 Perfect texts 🎏 looks like an email/letter sometimes 🎏 to most people: 1 message with divided topics. pretty direct 🎏 when he can't reply right away: "Hello. I'm happy you wrote to me. I try to reply promptly but currently I'm not available at the moment-" Like omg bro RELAX. 🎏 to his s/o: 70% direct, the other 30% likes to send little reminders, either with songs or pretty things she has seen during a patrol with a "thinking of you" message. lowkey romantic when he doesn't even mean to be, def shows how thoughtful he is 🎏 prefers to call you rather than texting. especially if you are dating/has a crush on you he might not even realize why he likes calling you so much, until it hits like a brick that he just wants to hear your voice 🎏Leo when he calls you and doesn't know when to "intervene" / his time to talk back (god forbid he's unpolite and interrupts you):

lowkey him listening to April vent about smth dumb shit Casey did /any human friend venting and he doesnt know how to react lmao 🎏Just like Donnie, has favorite emojis and will only use it in specific situations (this will take time for it to happen, like after years Donnie first invented the t-phone and finally relized he didn't had to be so formal when texting): 🐢 when talking about team work or his brothers / 🪷 for meditating or mindfulness (thinks its peaceful) / 💙 for his boo and his boo only / 😏 only in a relationship, especially when he's feeling scipy (extremely rare for it to happen over text tho)

——————————————————————————

Group chat (more than one reaction)

💚 catching social cues irl can be hard, you are telling me there are hidden social cues in texting too??

💚 “Nah shut up” group, doesn’t care much about it and won’t change their ways: Leo, Raph

💚 Will research about it, will talk to every single human he knows (yes. you. Vern. Casey and April) Needs to know the social cues. NOW: lmao try to guess

💚 Also needs to know, but for meme reasons, he has to say up to date w the terminology/ slangs: another hard guess /j

💚 Oh btw, Donnie totally uses /j /Tw /srs terminology WHILE he texts fast AND huge text blocks. none of his brothers know how he does it

💚Will over use fresh lingo he has learned overhearing humans on patrol, shows, from his humans friends to the point it’s almost unbearable: Mikey 💚Live reaction of Raph and Leo trying to understand when Mikey or Donnie spamming the group chat with their extremely recent memes or hyperfixations:

💚the chat WILL be flooded with things related to their favorite basketball teams, show they want to see or dumbass pictures of their daily lifes, example: Mikey: *has sent an selfie*

Mikey: you know y/n

Mikey:If you’re fortunate enough

Mikey: your internal organs will spend their entire lifespan in absolute darkness

Mikey: but mine?

April: oh boy here we go

Mikey: Hasn’t. 😏😏😏

Y/n: Oh?

Mikey: *send another selfie flexing muscles* you see when you fight crime everyday-

Raph: yeah he shallowed a glow stick

[fakesimp]

Flaring Devotion

Warning !

Last part of Fiery Love ! ; Mentions of Murder, a little bit of religious stuff, Confession ; The use of Shu and Vox's 2.0 outfit ; Unestablished Relationship

A/n !

It's been too long, it's been almost a year, I am so sorry.

Also heads-up, it's a long one.

← Previous part ||

➶◜◝➴

You'll be safe,

They said.

You don't have to worry about what those two identical beings say.

Is what Shu said, a few days after the last meeting with their identicals, now you're here, doing your daily thing with a feeling of, something called as,

Uneasiness.

You would constantly look around, conscious of your surroundings, afraid someone will suddenly just come over and knocked you out.

Living together with Shu and Vox does feel, safe. The peace you're getting almost made you forgot your already burnt down town, knowing the place that you were born in just burned into ashes just like that made you feel, weak. Powerless to do anything.

Aware of how you couldn't do anything about it, you could only lay down on the futon, with the feeling of guilt wrapped around you. Thoughts of you not meeting these two figures in the forest probably would change the fate of your town, so many thoughts flooded in, the 'what ifs' scenarios going through your head.

You were silent in those few days, got the two worried about your silence. They'll try to coax you into a conversation, but your short responses are enough to tell them that you're not interested in talking.

One night, it was Shu's turn to keep an eye on you, Vox is going out, doing his 'duties', Shu said. You mutter up a courage and decided to ask,

"Shu," You called him out, the raven haired male who was writing stopped and tilt his head towards you, "Hm? Is something wrong?" He eyed you, there's a surprised look on his face, only for a moment before his face goes back to normal again.

"About what those two said, ... I'm sorry, but I couldn't help myself, I kept on thinking about it.." Your apology got the sorcerer put down his writing utensil, he shuffled a bit and you heard a soft sigh coming from him. "It's not your fault, I can understand why you would worry and think about it. Afterall, your home town is now nothing but ashes on the ground." His hues looked at the closed door, he slowly rose up from the ground and slide the door opened.

"I suppose, I, no.. Vox and I, owe you an explanation." He frowned, he then glance at you, smiling apologetically. "Join me?" He asked as he glanced outside, you guessed he wanted to take some fresh air as he explained what's going on with those identical beings' favor.

Soon, you and Shu sat down by the terrace outside your room, the moon shining down on the little garden before you and the sorcerer next to you. "Those two," He started off, getting your attention, you tilt your head towards him as you wait for his explanation.

"My identical self, is called Hikarino. While Vox's called as, Box." He introduced them, "Those two, are polar opposites of us, as if it's not obvious enough." Shu chuckled, though the smile didn't go up to his eyes.

"Those two, hunting down humans for, something called as, immortality." His purple hues reflecting the crescent moon at the night sky, "How does humans have anything to do with immortality, you wonder. It's simply because humans are almost a perfect being to God, no?" You frowned. "I suppose so.." Shu glanced at you, giving you his identic smile.

"We, spiritual beings, are nowhere near perfect, we have what we have now is because..." He stopped, he didn't continue for a good minute before you heard a voice coming from behind you. Giving you a scare, though only for a moment, "Because we, too murder humans." You tilt your head to the owner of the voice, your eyes landed to pair of golden eyes staring back into yours.

"Vox," You and Shu called him in unison, "...Welcome back," You greeted him, and glanced at Shu who looked at you for a moment before looking away from you, with a undescribable expression on his face.

"You two... Murder humans, for immortality too?" You repeated Vox's word, trying to conclude your theory. "To put it bluntly yes, but that was all in the past, we now realize, immortality is truly not what we seek." Vox walked over and silently gesture you to make some space for him to sit down.

And now you're sitting in between the two, Shu on your right, whilr Vox on your left. The three of you look up at the night sky, staring at the crescent moon that conquer the dark skies. "What made you guys realize that, immortality isn't what you're looking for?" You asked, the two was silent for a minute.

"Seeing the world changes, seeing around you from being born into this world, ended to be one with the earth again and again, is not, fun. To say the least." Vox broke the silence, you then heard shu letting out a chuckle next to you. "Fancy hearing that from someone like you," Shu responded, smiling before those small just falls off his face and replaced with a frown after. "Meeting Vox and Making him my familiar, is tough, he was angry at me for taking his death away." Shu explained, glancing at Vox. Earning a sigh from the demon next to you, "I thought you're over from that already."

"As much as I want to let it go, the guilt is still there, you know?" Shu looked down at his gloved hands. He must be reminiscing the day when he revived? Vox. "Utterly helpless." The demon commented. You look over at Shu, you then see him doing a hand motion, and the next second there's a flying shikigami on his palm, floating. The paper then glide towards you, "I'm aware." Shu replied.

"..So did you two get the, immortality..?" You hesitantly asked them, and silence occur once more. "Kind of? Yes but also no?" Shu replied with uncertainty, "I mean, both me, and Vox lived for hundreds of years now. I guess that counts?" The sorcerer continue, he then look over at you.

"Hikarino, Box.. Those two, they exist because of an accident. Their existence shouldn't be physical." Shu added, the frown on his face is so clear that it tells you those two were not suppose to be the way they are. "Those two, are repeating the old history. The old days whereas me, and vox, were so, desperate for such thing as, immortality. Or, me, to be precise since, I am simply a sorcerer." The raven haired male explained and then gesture his finger at the shikigami that has been gliding around you. Eventually it stopped and dissipates into thin air.

"You're thinking about the sacrifice, aren't you?" Shu pointed out, you went silent. The silence was loud, no one is talking, all you heard is just the sound of trees rustling. The sound of crickets somewhere in the distance, and just the moon shining down on you three at the terrace. "If you're thinking of giving yourself to them, absolutely not." Vox cuts the silence, "That is a foolish decision."

"Then is there any other option?!—" Your voice cracked as you unexpectedly raise your voice at Vox' statement, "Weren't they so desperate to get, this sacrifice they wanted? If not human what else?" You look at the two, they simply stare at each other and then Shu's hand reached out to you. Brushing against your hair, "It's nothing about you, trust me." Shu said, barely above whisper. "What?"

"It's late, you should rest, is there a town that you know around? We will send you over there." Shu immediately changed the topic, ignoring the confusion you had on your face. "Don't worry, those two is not something you need to pry into, I know you're starting to regret the encounter we're having." Shu said, immediately drives you into silence. The realization hits you hard that this sorcerer, is aware of your thoughts.

"Tell us where you want to go, and we'll get you there. And we assure you, none of the beasts, yokais will ever land their foot at the place you're living in." The raven added and smiled at you, but his smile didn't reach his eyes. His eyes seemed,

Sad.

It took you 2 days, for telling the two where you want to go, and the next day after they knew where you want to go, they took you to the town you told them about.

Now here you are, standing at the entrance of the town, dead in the night. With the two of them standing not too far from you, you turn to look at them, "What's going to happen to the two of you?" You asked, out of curiosity. And maybe, also concern? You stood there, waiting for their response. There's a good minute of silence before Vox replied, "We're going to be fine," his reply, it seems to be telling you something else. And that is, something along, 'Try not to worry too much, we're none of your concern.'

You frowned at them, but then just sighed. And then you asked them one last question, that you, are for sure, did not expect anything from it. But their faces, says everything.

"Then, will I be able to see you again?" You almost feel like you're asking an illegal question, seeing their faces made your concern rise higher. "Shu? Vox?" You called out, "It's, uncertain." Shu replied, his face, and Vox's, was plastered with a deep frown, and then their faces turn into something undescribable, or maybe, sour?

No, it's not what you think, right?

"Uncertain?? You're going to be okay, like Vox said, right?" You tried not to sound scared, and concerned about their well being. As much as you regret your encounter with them, these two, somehow manage to sit at a special place in your heart.

You've grown fond of them.

"Yes, we will be okay, you should go now. The sun will rise if we stay here any longer, go, don't turn back." Shu said as he gesture you to turn around and walk away, you did, though you sometimes will look back at them, who's still standing on their spot looking at you. After you took a turn into a corner, the two went back, retracing their steps back to their abode with something heavy clinging in their heart.

. . .

How long has it been since the last time you saw them?

You are aware the trip of going back to where those two are at, it is quite the trip. But if you're planning to go visit them, it'll be much more dangerous if you decide to make a trip back alone. You then realized how much safer you felt with them around, now that you're living in a new town, living in cautious and fear, though the town folks cannot do anything but have to continue their daily life despite knowing what happened to the other town, your home town. Despite the fear that's surrounding the people around, they at least have their safety guaranteed. Since the patrols in the town is increased, though you know they're nothing compared to those two identical beings shu mentioned.

Hikarino and Box.

They're not human in the first place, after a few days of contemplating, you finally decided to go visit the two. You prepared yourself, for a long trip, you can already imagine how furious Vox's going to be, how Shu can only sigh in defeat upon seeing you again. But something tells you, those two will not greet you kindly.

. . .

One,

Two,

Three days.

It took you three days to get to the forest, to the forbidden forest where those two lived, you're now standing by the entrance, nothing much changed from the last time you see it.

You then entered the forest, you walked and walked, but as you do, your guts seemed to be telling you that something is not right. Something must've happened. A bad one even. Your foot started to move faster, you ran. And ran, to where you think you will find the two men.

Your foot then come to a stop, your breathing ragged as you stood there, seeing the familiar house. The trees rustling, greeting you with the feeling of familiarity. You couldn't move your foot, somehow it felt heavy, you slowly took a step closer to the house.

Approaching the house, you arrive at the entrance, your hand hesitantly reach out to the door. You tried to slide them open, but somehow it also felt heavy. After you successfully opened it, you slide inside, closing the door behind you, you trace your steps into the familiar building. Your eyes wander from one room to another, eventually your foot stopped once again as you see a figure sitting by the terrace.

It's Shu.

You see him sitting so gracefully, his hair that was used to be tied up now loose, falling over his shoulders as he sat there, seemingly to be holding something in his arms.

As much as you felt relieved seeing him, you cannot miss how he sit there, all by himself. Something is not right. Something is not right. Your mind repeats the same thing again and again, you approached the sorcerer, oh so slowly. Hesitantly even.

"...S, Shu?" Your voice hoarse, calling out to the raven haired male, you saw his figure stir slightly on the spot. He then slowly turned to you,

You swore, you felt chills down your spine when your eyes stares back into his, that's bare of light. It doesn't bear any emotions, his eyes, they're.

Blank.

When his eyes landed on you, there's a flicker. He seemed a bit taken a back at the sight of you, in their house. Again.

"Why, are you here?" He asked, his voice sounded so hoarse, dry. As if he didn't drink for days, "I, I was, thinking of visiting you and Vox.." You replied, while hesitantly approached him. And eventually sat yourself down next to him, there's silence.

You can hear your heart beating so fast as you sat down next to him, somehow you feel nervous. This silence is not giving the usual comfort, it's so tense. You glance at him, and then at the thing he's holding in his arms—

It's Vox's Katana.

"Where's Vox?—" You asked without you realized it, you immediately put your hand on your lips as soon as you ask the question.

"He got what he wanted." Is all Shu said, looking at you, smiling pitifully. You tilt your head trying to process what he meant, "What... Do you mean by that." You trailed off. Then the realization falls upon you,

. . .

...—"Meeting Vox and Making him my familiar, is tough, he was angry at me for taking his death away." Shu explained, glancing at Vox. Earning a sigh from the demon next to you—...

. . .

"No, ...No no, you're telling me,

Vox is, Dead ?"

You stared at Shu, couldn't even comprehend what you're feeling upon knowing the truth. The Sorcerer next to you glanced down at the katana in his arms, and then back up at the moon.

It's full moon,

"Take this, take care of it for him, will you?" Shu said as he offer you Vox's Katana. You almost want to throw that Katana off his hand, but you didn't. You, with your shaky hands, you took the katana off Shu's hand. "Shu.. You two said—" "I'm sorry." He cuts you off, he looked down at his hands.

"I'm sorry for everything," Shu added as he then stared off into the distance, "We shouldn't have kept you here." He continue. Then there's a moment of silence, "But, knowing you, meeting you, was something we did not regret." Shu smiled at you, he then extends his hand towards you.

"Vox had something to say to you.." He said, you stared at his hand, his delicate hand. That you imagined had been dirtied with blood before, you then shook the thought away and hesitantly placed your hand on top of his. Shu gently hold your hand and then closes your eyes with his other hand, "This is his message for you."

. . .

You don't know what happened, but the sound of the trees rustling is no longer heard. All you hear is just the sound of water dripping, you opened your eyes and you saw nothing but void. And then there's a familiar figure standing not too far from you,

You recognize that figure, that back. Without thinking twice, you screamed out—

"Vox—!" The figure turned, his face was originally frowning, but seeing you, there's a sense of relief on his face. "You— You said you two are going to be okay, you liar!" You yelled, not realizing tears had flowed down your cheeks. "You could've said you're going to sacrifice yourself.." You added.

"If I knew the day we part ways were the last day I'll be able to see you—.."

"You wouldn't let me sacrifice myself if you do." His voice echoed throughout the void, you can hear his footsteps approaching you. You didn't move, you had been staring down at the ground, the water below you. Soon you see his figure standing before you, then you saw his hand reaching out to your face. Eventually placed at your cheek and gently he tilted your head upwards. Letting you stared into his golden hues,

You broke into tears.

"Liar." You said in between your tears, "I know," He replied as he graze his thumb gently below your eyes, wiping the tears away. "I'm sorry for not bidding goodbyes with you properly." He whispered, standing even closer to you, "I know you won't forgive me for my actions." He continued, your hand on his chest hitting him as hard as you can. And eventually your strength falters.

Hands clenched into fists, on his chest, you can feel his hand on your wrist, slowly pulling your hand up to his lips. "But this time, forgive me for acting foolish." He said, his words seemed off.

His words, he talked as if you had met him before—

"I don't want to see you perish when you can live a long and happy life." The tears couldn't stop flooding out, he then pulled you into his arms. Letting you cry in his hold, he coos at you. You felt his gentle hand brushing against your hair. Then you felt something soft on top of your head,

He kissed it.

Pulling you away for a bit, he then planted another kiss on your forehead, then another at the corner of your eye. Lowering his head, whilst tilting your head up. His forehead and yours touched, "Forgive me, This time, let me be foolish, let me be the one that give you the happiness you deserve.." He whispered. His thumb graze along the lines of your cheeks as he said so, you sobbed softly. "What if I don't want to—" "Then I deserve it, because I know you won't, but if you do forgive me.." he trailed off, he then shook his head.

The next thing you knew, he then planted his lips on yours. It lasted for almost a minute before he pulled away, "It's time for you to go, I'm sorry, for everything. For my foolishness. I hope you can forgive me next time.." He said as he took a step back, away from you.

And the next thing you knew, your body started to glow, particles started floating around you. You look at the demon in front of you, smiling at you. "Good bye, my love. Until we meet again."

. . .

"Vox—!" You jolted awake, breathing heavily, your hand immediately went to your face that's soaked. You're crying in your, sleep? You then looked over to the side, outside the room, there's Shu, sitting by the terrace, his back facing you. He then turned slightly, looking over at you. "Did you see him?" He asked, his face is so gentle as he shot his question. You immediately went up to him, wrapping your arms around him. It caught him by surprise but then you felt a pair of arms around you, pulling you closer.

"How is it—? Your meeting, with Vox." He whispered, you can feel his hand brushing against the back of your head.

You could only cry again in his arms, not answering him. He coos at you, like how the demon did in that dream.

After a while, you eventually calmed down. You're now sitting next to shu, with his robe dangling over your shoulders. "The sun is rising.." Shu whispered, you who had been looking down blankly at your hands finally tilted your head up. Looking at the orange blue sky, seeing the sun slowly emits from the other end of earth. Your hues reflecting the view in front of you, then you heard a soft chuckle beside you—

"Beautiful as always," He said as he reach out his hand to you, and brushed your hair away from your face. You then saw golden particles coming from your side—

"Shu—" You immediately tilt your head towards him, only to see his body is glowing, like how you were in the dreams, when you see Vox.

Shu smiled at you, though he then dropped his smile and moved closer to you with his hand that was brushing your hair away now to your cheek. He leaned closer and planted a gentle kiss on your lips—

He leaned away and when you're about to touch him, your hand phase through him— "Shu—! Please— not you too...!" You started crying again, he brushed your tears away. It's unfair how he could touch you and you couldn't.

"I'm sorry," He whispered, smiling apologetically at you, and your eyes widen at the sight of him,

Crying.

Too.

His hand still on your cheek, he smiled. "Forgive me, I too have choosen to be foolish." He said, leaning towards you once again, his forehead and yours touched. "I do this because of you, I want you to live a happy life, a happy ending." He whispered, you felt his thumb graze along the lines of your cheeks.

You can only see his body glows brighter as the particles started flying off into the distance, "I'm sorry for leaving you like this," he then smiled at you as he wiped your tears for one last time—

"Until we meet again, My love."

And just like that, he then dissipates into golden particles, away with the wind. Leaving you all alone in their used to be home sweet home, leaving you only Vox's Katana, Shu's household and you in tears.

Your hand holding Vox's Katana tightly as you sob all by yourself, with Shu's robe still clinging onto your shoulders. You watch the sun rises, a new day has come. Yet,

It feels like your day just ended.

A/n !

Okay, That's that. The long waited last part is here, the story ends, I apologize if the ending is not what you expected to be. I am listening to Bruno mars and Lady Gaga's song man ( Die with a smile ).

I'm sorry for the long wait...

[nogenderbee]

♡˗ˏ✎*ೃ˚ 𝕋𝕨𝕠 𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕤 ₊˚ˑ༄

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ anon request: link

Uh oh! I'm so sorry! Could I request this with Freminet, Lyney, and Thoma instead?

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ No worries! And I'm happy you decided to request it with different characters! I hope you'll like it despite how short it is for some!

Also, no favoritism here, it was just a longer explanation of mine with one penguin boy

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ fluff

✧ Thoma definitely wound your shyness cute, I mean... how could he not when you're just hiding behind him like that?

✧ he didn't mind the fact you both seemed like 2 opposites, in fact he liked your dynamic!

✧ he honestly just liked the feeling of helping you just by being around you

✧ but when he realized you're not entirely what you seemed to be... he was most definitely surprised

✧ out of all situations, he didn't expect him getting insulted to anger you so much

✧ so when he first saw how angry you are, he immidietly thinked of an excuse and dragged you away as he tried calming you down

"Let's calm down, shall we? It was just small remark, I'm already over it! There's no need to be upset at anyone now."

✧ how could you not stand your guard but get so mad when someone insulted him?

✧ he'd love to see how you care about him but he'd really prefer if you coule he less... brutal with the words

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot - come get your perfect malewife!

✧ Lyney absolutely loved using your shyness to bring that little red dust to your cheeks

✧ be it gifts, magic tricks, compliments, flirting... anything that worked! He could even do so in public for all he cared

✧ it was only natural for him to gain some attention and some mean remarks from time to time but he was honestly used to it! Tho... you weren't...

✧ when he first saw how angry you got, he had to admit, he enjoyed the show for first 3 seconds

✧ let's be honest, he'd pay back that person himself but if you want to have the pleasure of doing that, who is he to refuse you that?

✧ but he doesn't want you standing in court before he blinks so soon enough, he's right next to you, giving you a hug

"Now, now mon cherie... we're supposed to head to cafe for our date! Not fight with my crowd."

✧ his plan is to simply make an excuse, but if he distracts you too, it's even better!

✧ he won't admit to it but he definitely liked the feeling of being protected by you like that

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot - come get your charming magician~

✧ both you and Freminet were just cute shy duo and no one could change that

✧ despite you two sharing trait that shouldn't go with each other, you were pretty comfortable in each other's company

✧ he was sometimes getting bothered by the comments towards him but he never really spoke out loud about it, just keeping to himself and moving on

✧ he'd only drop few lines when someone would try to say something bad about you and it seemed to be the case with you as well but... more violent it seems verbally of course

✧ when he first heard how loud you could yell and what insults you can think off, even he himself hot a bit startled at first

✧ of course she was quick to realize that everyone was staring so he immidietly put a hand on your shoulder, trying his best to calm you down

"Y/N... love... let's maybe just drop this topic and go somewhere else?"

✧ he's not even trying to hide he's doing his best to pull you away so you won't need to face consequences later

✧ later when you're alone, he sees the look on your face, telling him how disappointed you are so he quickly makes sure you know how thankful he is for your concern and protective nature towards him

✧ though let it not me invite for you to do that again, he'd still be worried that you might be the one ending hurt if you continue

﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌

@bleachtheidiot - come get your shy diver~

[raz-writes-the-thing]

Enticing (Broadchurch Drabble)

Alec Hardy x Fem!Reader 18+ ONLY / requests are open and encouraged

Summary: Alec comes home and ruins your anniversary surprise for himself.

CW: none? it's not smut, but there's lingerie and wandering eyes

Broadchurch tag list: @clarina04 @kaylinelizabeth4004 (send an ask to be added to a tag list!)

___ ___ ___ ___ ___

It was supposed to be a surprise for your anniversary. Alec was taking you out to dinner, and you were going to wear a pretty dress with pretty lace in Alec’s favourite colour and when you got home, you were going to sit him down on the edge of the bed, put some sexy music on and undress yourself, show him your pretty new lingerie (also in Alec’s favourite colour) and then ride him until he busted one inside you and wore himself out, the poor thing. 

But no. Your plans for the evening? Ruined. All thanks to the man himself. 

You’d wanted to make sure the lingerie fitted one more time before you started getting ready for your date night later and Alec decided that this was the one day in the history of his very long, very late career that he needed to come home early. During the daylight, no less. Had Hell frozen over? 

And so, he’d ruined the surprise for himself, wandering into the bedroom and seeing you in all your glory. He’d stopped short right in the doorway, mouth dropping open in shock. 

“Fuck- sorry,” he’d said at first, thinking he’d just wandered in while you were getting changed. But then he noticed the colour, the lace, the fit. “God, you look- stunning.” 

You deflated, arms dropping down to your sides. 

“Damn it, Alec- it was supposed to be a surprise. You didn’t knock. You didn’t even tell me you were coming home.” 

“I’m sorry, love,” he said, coming to stand before you. He raked his eyes up your form, and you took notice of the way his eyes dilated with lust. “Just nipped home f’er a wee snack. Forgot my lunch.” 

As far as explanations go, it was pretty poor. 

“Why didn’t you get something out?” 

“Don’t like the food ‘ere,” he said, lips curling distastefully. “Wanted- erm- some of last night's dinner.” 

Last night’s dinner was, in fact, pork ribs you’d made. Your speciality. Alec rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. 

“I see,” you replied. “Well, you’re here now- what do you think?” 

You did a little twirl, squeezing your own hips and smoothing your hands over your barely covered skin. 

“Och, darlin’,” Alec says, stepping forward and running a hand up your side. “You’re fuckin’ gorgeous.” 

“Nuh-uh,” you tutted, stepping away from his exploratory hands. “You’ve had your sneak peek. Go on, get.” 

Alec frowned, giving you unintentional puppy eyes. 

“Don’t give me that look. You can unwrap your present when we get home from dinner.” 

Alec grumbled but didn’t protest too much after that. Though when you finally did make it to dinner, he seemed pretty eager to eat and get home.

In fact, you didn’t even get dessert. He insisted he had something far sweeter than anything that restaurant had waiting at home for him. 

How enticing. How could you say no to that?

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 70 Whelmed Posting

Subdued entry this time, dear void. And I'm back to form with a way-too-long yapfest.

Scans are too potato for me to TL the editor's notes this week, sorry. Might revisit when I can get a clean copy of the JP version.

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter mentions a very sensitive topic happening in canon (toned down in EN) and I will be talking about it near the end. I'll have another warning reminder for those who'd rather skip that part.

White Purity Mechanics and a GILF(?)

Helloooo handsome.

Wasn't expecting to see this guy yet or get detailed mechanics for how the sword style he founded works in the middle of a fight, but hey, it's fine. I guess. Awkward time for that lore dump but powerscalers will surely be happy. I'm interested in the details myself as a world-building nerd.

Short summary of his name here: Shirakai Itsuo (白廻 逸夫), the master of the White Purity style. 白廻 (shirakai) could be roughly translated as "white game" and 逸夫 (itsuo) could be idle/elusive husband lol. At the very least, shira (白) means "white" so that's most likely where that part of the technique's name came from.

As for the rest of it...

居合白禊流 - read as Iai Byaku Gei Riyuu 居合 (Iai) is obvious, that's the type of move being executed here. We know that Byaku comes from the On reading of 白 [shira, "white"]. What are the last two? 禊 is misogi, a Shinto purification ritual; it also means ritual purification or ablutions in general, and/or "...the Japanese mountain ascetic* practice of ritual purification" (thanks, Wikipedia). 流 [riyuu] is simply "school" of method.

Anyway, Hokazono-sensei hit us in the face with a wall of technical terms for how this school works and I had to admit defeat until someone I trusted translated the yap page for it... dear God. Surely the official release will not mangle anything so I won't have to bother that friend for help with TL notes.

I've been thinking that Chihiro is essentially a DPS guy out of the "holy trinity" (DPS, Support, Tank) for a bit now. He's always been about hitting fast and hard without much room for error on his part if he unexpectedly gets hit in return. Thank you, Shirakai, for proving this dumb pet theory correct. Gotta Go Fast: The Move is all about being the fastest guy in the room because if you hit them first then they can't hit you back, right?

The difficulty of mastery part is pretty standard shounen to me in order to explain why someone can't just teach Chihiro how to use it the normal way. Two 18-year-olds picked up the style on their own fairly easily, so while I know we're supposed to see that as proof of how talented those guys are, it's not really anything special to me as a reader. It's unconventional and hard to use because it needs to be for the story more than anything else.

The real meat of this explanation was how changing the grip of the sword on the fly so quickly is ackshully a metaphor for being able to change your mindset. We are continuing the old vs. new themes with the sword style directly now, since Shirakai was mocked for trying to perfect this impracticably difficult Iai move. But the "new" won out in the end since he got the last laugh over all of his detractors. His distraction-free, flexible quick thinking outdid every traditional master that faced him, or so we can infer.

Shame the second coming of this fight left me wholly unimpressed outside of Iori.

(*If you don't want to look it up, then "ascetic" is similar to "austere" in meaning and is specifically for strict self-denial mostly for religious discipline, but can apply for personal discipline too.)

"Whatever," the Fight and Iori

All I could think of during this scene was the two of them chilling awkwardly as pleasant background music played.

I'm not really sold on this fight, honestly. All I'm thinking right now is "good, now that it's over maybe we can go back to the interesting stuff". The poses were cool and all but the theme just isn't hitting. We flew through the buildup to this confrontation and all we got out it was Chihiro winning again despite us being reminded that he's tired, pushing himself too hard, and that Hiruhiko's coming in much fresher and scarier after killing the master of a style.

Kagurabachi's biggest strength was doing character development, exploring core themes, and having sick fights at the same time. But ever since we took a sudden swing into this Iori subplot I've felt like the author is trying to speed run it as fast as possible.

Everything through chapter 59 was awesome. We took the time to introduce characters, set up plot points, threats, and motives, had spectacle fights to get insight into Chihiro's mindset- all the same great stuff that we'd all come to expect. Then we put all that on the back-burner for something related-but-different that wasn't exactly a welcome surprise.

The author primed us for Seitei War reveals and examining guilt as part of legacy. Then the he snapped our necks 90 degrees to witness this sideshow with geniuses, old vs. new, and another thematic foil to Chihiro. Iori was meant to glue this all together and strongly connect it to the main plot we left behind in chapter 59 but it didn't work. She's just a well-designed narrative device instead of a character and I'm still waiting for this stuff to finish so we can go back to what I thought the main event was.

And yet.

She did her best to save this arc.

I do love Iori. She's defending without killing, doing just enough to disfinger her enemies and get them out of the fight. Thanks to her example, Chihiro is able to choose a path that doesn't necessarily involve killing Hiruhiko to win. Yeah the clown is probably still going to be around (sadly for me), just hopefully in a less carnival side-show capacity and more as a proper enemy. Maybe even an object for redemption...

But this is probably going to be the foundation for Chihiro being able to redeem himself from guilt- choosing when to kill instead of thinking of it as the default option. She showed him the best swordplay comes from stilling the mind and heart to attack the reason the enemy bares their fangs, not necessarily slay them. Killing the reason they hold a sword is as effective as killing them but without all the murder stuff. Staying tuned to see if/when this comes back.

The Warning Section

Skip this if Hiruhiko's backstory reveal is not something you want to see a yap about.

The EN version toned it down but the JP and apparently some other languages are explicit. Let Hakuri protect you if you'd rather not read about a slightly different version of "assault"...

Hakuri buffer image for safety (it's super effective).

Alright. For anyone still here...

The FUCK was that about in Japanese?

In case the EN tones it down (bet they will): in the OG Japanese, the language used is very explicit: 手篭にしようと迫る成人男性を噛み殺した昼彦にとって

手篭め [tegome] is literally "rape/violation" and doesn't have any other connotations than what it says on the tin. So yeah. In canon, Hiruhiko was SA'd at 3 years old.

I'm very sensitive about how backstories involving CSA are used for personal reasons. The way it was used here for Hiruhiko did just about everything wrong, in my opinion. Completely wiped out the goodwill I had towards the author after how Hakuri's backstory was handled during the Rakuzaichi arc.

reinforced the stereotype of being SA'd as a child = deeply damaged/dangerous later in life

same-sex SA reinforced men as predators AND homophobic stereotypes

added with no context or buildup just for the easy shock value and pity points

I'm not okay with this at all. The nicest thing I can say is that it's used to explain the feral, bloodthirsty part of his nature and not the social ineptitude (which is probably a personality quirk and/or related to how he was raised). He's twisted but in a way that leans more towards empowerment through activating his survival instincts. Still not at all appreciated though.

100% of my hatred for this comes from my own struggles I'll admit. To see them reflected this poorly in a series I adore by an author I trusted to handle sensitive topics with care really did a number on me. I expected better from the author than to rely on negative stereotypes for this sort of thing and clearly I was wrong. That's my fault and I know better now.

It's fine to use CSA as part of a character's backstory but it needs to be treated with far more care than it was here.

If this had been applied to Chihiro, Hakuri, Iori, or any of the good guys instead I feel like it would have been fine. To show that even if it happens to you, it doesn't make you a bad person who can't function safely around others.

It also would have been fine if it was to show Hiruhiko's a true survivor that needed some help he probably didn't get afterwards- and that's what led him to be the freak he is. If Hiruhiko isn't dead after this chapter there's still time to get into that aspect, maybe even make a point that proper support makes all the difference in a person's outcomes after that kind of trauma. But even if that is the intent, dropping that sort of event without context is a terrible move.

To compare to other traumatic character backstories... basically, Hiruhiko's debut hint doesn't match up with the traumatic event behind it at all.

Chihiro

Give this boy all the hugs he can tolerate.

We see this early in chapter 2 and it's not really a surprise, since the premise of the story is that Chihiro is walking the bloody road of revenge. Something traumatic clearly happened to Kunishige due to the timeskip to "every morning I wake up with fresh hatred" Chihiro meeting Shiba alone on the train in chapter 1, so we were primed for this sort of thing. Batman origin story and all that.

Char

Protect her at all costs.

Char clued us in early on by appearing as a scruffy orphan in her debut chapter- whatever happened to her was not exactly pleasant. From there we slowly learned how she and her mom were experimented on, then separated forever. The logical flow of meeting her, seeing what happened, then watching Chihiro set her on the path to healing made sense. Thankfully she's going to be OK and she will never, ever have anything bad happen to her again (so help me God).

Hakuri

Someone give him all the love he's never had PLEASE.

I already wrote eight thousand words about how Hakuri's traumatic backstory was portrayed in a very realistic and hard-hitting way. The second thing we learn about him being that he "lost his family" five years ago while he's dripping soda out of his mouth on his lonesome was a good clue as to what happened, even if he and the author buried the lede on exactly how that happened and how bad he had it. He lost their love, twisted and manipulative as it was, and endured literal torture to try and earn it back until Ice Lady's suicide snapped him out of it. I honestly can't praise the writing for this character enough.

Iori

She chose her own path in the end...

Being dropped on us out of nowhere as Samura's daughter that everyone's forgotten about wasn't exactly a welcome surprise. But at least it let us know that she's got some difficult circumstances- which could have been expected since she's the daughter of the current arc boss to beat, but still. Her home was trashed and her dad abandoned her and we probably have more to see now that she's remembered everything. But all the reveals so far have been in line with the kind of trauma we'd expect to see given how she was introduced.

Hiruhiko

"Let's be friends, fellow murderer."

And then there's this guy.

Hakuri's the closest comparison to Hiruhiko in presentation with all the understatement going on. But we spent his intro to chapter 24 getting hints that there's something wrong with him that he wasn't talking about. Then we got context for his suicidal jump immediately afterwards, as well as even more hints that his issues go deeper than we've seen.

Hiruhiko's backstory had no build up to the reveal that he was SA'd as a toddler. We only knew he was a freaky, poorly socialised guy the same age as Chihiro who killed at the age of 3. Making us ask what circumstances would force and enable him to do such a thing was good- that's a decent hook to keep us interested in what his deal is while the immediate stuff is going on. Hokazono did it for all the other characters in this list too.

What flopped was the shocker reveal. That single line of "oh, he was assaulted by an adult man, anyway-" was pathetically delivered if it was meant to be an example of understatement. You cannot drop a heavy and sensitive backstory with no follow up. You cannot have it done by the omniscient narrator to launch into why he's such a battle genius.

The biggest problem really is that it's a convenient explanation more than something to explore like every other character's trauma was. When we got those horrific reveals, time was spent looking at them on the page and showing how it affected them. We saw Chihiro and Char crying and looking despondent, Hakuri internalising a harmful mindset about himself, now we've seen Iori pass out from the burden, waver, and will see more exploration of her difficult past to come.

But Hiruhiko, even if we do revisit this topic for him, got nothing except a long yap about what a genius of combat it made him. Nothing at all about his pain or the ramifications. If we still have more to learn about that incident then good, I fucking hope so. But it'll be too little to late for me. I don't know what I did to deserve the friends who helped pull me out of the tailspin this chapter caused, but I'm incredibly grateful to have them in my life.

So...

Current feelings. Also done after this, promise.

Hokazono-sensei isn't "cooked' or on a downswing, burning out early, deserving of being cancelled, or anything like that. I think we're just finally seeing the signs that he's a mangaka being serialised for the first time.

I still like the manga but I feel kind of isolated in being one of the apparent few that isn't having a good time with the story as it is right now. I've been waiting for the issues I've had with this arc to be resolved for a while but they seem to continue piling up. There will still be celebrations of hype moments and good writing but I'm not so keen on giving the author the benefit of the doubt any more.

I'm probably going to be more critical of the manga from hereon out so I don't mind if you unfollow me, dear void. I'm not above being a little anxious and upset when I see that folks have dropped me, but I also didn't start posting to gain a massive following. The idea was that I'd get my thoughts out there and hope a few folks were interested in what I had to say. That's happened and I don't want to chase validation through interaction numbers.

Right now I'm probably going to dial down the investment until either Hakuri comes back or we finally return to the Samura/Seitei War plotline. I feel like Hokazono tried to rush through this subplot with Iori and Hiruhiko as fast as he could to do just that, but that makes me ask a few questions.

What is the purpose of introducing Iori if we are trying to bumrush her big part of the story? Just to be a narrative tool? She's a contrast/compliment to Chihiro, a plot device, and a convenient excuse to get some fights on screen. But the execution was clumsy. It feels like she doesn't exist as a character herself but as a bundle of concepts to glue this arc's themes together and help the segue back into the main story.

Is this sort of thing going to happen every time the author wants to explore a new theme? Are we going to see Hakuri, Hiyuki, Shiba, Iori, and the rest shoved offscreen to introduce a new character tailor-made to explore things the way the author wants to instead of building on older ones? Hiyuki's a total unknown, why not use her? Why not give Shiba some screen time? I get that there are plans for them later on but frankly my patience has run out.

Are we going to see Chihiro running on fumes forever? Right now it doesn't seem like it matters that he's pushing himself too hard- he still got the better of Hiruhiko in round 2. I'm starting to get annoyed that we are being told Chihiro's exhausted, and sometimes shown it, but all of that goes out the window when it's time for him to look cool. Will this ever pay off in the narrative? If not, it's better to stop bringing it up so we stop thinking about it.

I'm still going to be here. I'm just not going to be glazing everything I like and hoping the things I don't like get better with future context any more. There's clear weaknesses in the writing that I can't overlook any longer. That said, I don't want each entry to become a negative rant, so moderation and objectivity as much as possible will be the name of the game.

Alright. If you got through all of this, thank you. Maybe see you next time if I'm still your cup of tea. If not, no hard feelings. Take care of yourself.

[stoat-party]

Evaluating Which Details Pose Continuity Issues (yeah, it’s long, sorry)

I’m being relentlessly annoyed by (some) people mad at the show and by (some) people mad at people mad at the show, so let’s clear up where the issues are and aren’t so we’re not just talking over each other here.

Destroying the Strip

Obviously not a retcon. Retcons refer to previously-established events. Some people might have their own problems with it (I definitely saw it cited as evidence of a coordinated attack on New Vegas), but it presents no continuity problems.

2. What exactly is a vial?

I don’t think this changed ghoul lore. They can still go 200+ years without turning, or they can start turning as soon as they get ghoulified. There’s just a new plot element where they can stave off the effects of going feral for awhile if they take this mysterious drug - without the drug, the rules are still the same. The story was NOT clear on this, and it confused me, but if ghouls need drugs to stay sane, Oswald, Dean, Billy, etc. could not exist even if there’s a massive industry in vials of goop that’s never been mentioned before.

3. It took Vault-Tec decades to build all the vaults.

This is something I worried about because there couldn’t have been much time between the boardroom scene and the bombs falling (Janey doesn't age). But I think it makes sense if you assume the vaults were already built and they filled them with experiments afterward. It does leave the problem that some vaults were unfinished but Vault-Tec also dropped the bombs - why would they do that before finishing their vaults? It’s possible that they planned to drop them but got beat to the punch, or any number of other explanations. Clear retcon but not a huge plot hole.

4. House is worse than Caesar all of a sudden?

This one’s a private gripe of mine because House and Sinclair were not originally written to be Actual Sadists Who Hate Humanity. There’s also House’s mastermind prepper attitude toward the apocalypse, which doesn’t indicate that he had a hand in orchestrating it. While the change doesn’t conflict with the text as far as I know, it really changes the flavor of the game, but not as much as:

5. The Fall of Shady Sands

Let’s say that this happened after the first battle of Hoover Dam, so no continuity issues with their ability to win that. (That’s probably why they set it in 2277, so the NCR would have almost four years to recover before NV. As if Caesar wouldn’t have taken half of their land by then, even with his armies crushed, but ok fine he’s going through a divorce, he’s busy right now.)

But are you telling me that a country can lose a massive city containing much of its infrastructure, most of its central government, and ~5% of its population and still be trying to manifest destiny four years later with no mention of it?

Losing the Divide as a travel route almost crippled the NCR in the Mojave for awhile. Now, not only have they lost the Divide and their capital city, but one of their other biggest cities, the Boneyard, is abandoned and inhabited by an apparently-unaffiliated town. (Yeah, Los Angeles is big, but we don’t see any NCR or Followers despite three main characters traveling through it.) Even if there were still people there during New Vegas, how is the NCR still conducting a campaign in the east?

Also, who is Muldover and what’s her position? Why does she have raiders at her disposal? Is that really supposed to be what remains of the government? I get that some of this will be resolved later, but short of complete societal collapse, there’s no explanation.

We don’t see any of this in New Vegas. The president (who was in office in 2277) is still alive. No one mentions losing family in the explosion. Caesar, Ulysses, and House, along with the many other characters who complain about the NCR’s weakness and instability, don’t bring it up. People even mention the politicians in Shady Sands specifically. PEOPLE ARE MAKING JOKES ABOUT WANTING A NUCLEAR WINTER-

Now there’s a saving interpretation going around that “the fall of Shady Sands - 2277” refers to a metaphorical fall, and the explosion was later. I’ll accept this if I have to, but don’t pretend it’s not a strained reading. Every entry on the board is dated. Why would you date an amorphous event and not date the city exploding?

The explosion was nineteen years ago, and it had to be that early because Lucy and Norm don’t remember living there. (Not clear how old they are but probably in their early-mid 20’s.) The earliest you could place the event without it making no sense is late 2282, because with the time skips in DLC, the events of New Vegas are about a year long. Maybe you could put a gap between Lucy returning to the vault and the actual destruction, but not a five-year one. And if it was in 2282, Max would still be a teenager.

There are legitimate concerns here. Between House and the NCR, the show changes a lot about the main conflict of New Vegas. It’s not just side details.

Not telling you how to feel! Just don’t pretend nothing poses any problems and people are crazy for being concerned. I think the vibe right now is to dismiss me as a hater, but I hope you can see I’ve tried to make it all work. Continuity is really important in a multi-decade story, especially to writers.

I will be appeased by a respectful and thought-out New Vegas remake that preserves as much of the original continuity as possible and is also really good and costs $4. Thanks in advance Bethesda.

Edit:

6. Tatoes in the vaults

TATOES IN THE VAULTSSSS? THIS IS MASSIVE DISRESPECT TO THE LORE. EVERYTHING WE KNOW IS DESTROYED. UNFORGIVABLE.

(but yeah there shouldn’t be tatoes in a vault that hasn’t opened)(maybe norm and lucy had seeds in their pockets when they came back, sure)

[queenshelby]

Yes! Mr Murphy (Rewritten)

PART 26: THE ARTICLE

Pairing: Cillian Murphy x Reader

Warning: Lots of Angst, Age Gap, Teacher x Student, Pregnancy Loss, Infertility

After you picked up the paper and read through the short-winded article, you could not help but feel nauseous again.

Seeing Cillian kiss his assistant like this made you sick, and you quickly realised that you were not wrong when you got a bad vibe from Kit, making you uncomfortable.

You also wondered whether, during your short-lived relationship with Cillian, he engaged in anything intimate with her. That would not have surprised you, considering that Kit had always had it out for him.

Kit clearly loved the attention as Cillian was not the first actor she was dating and you were curious as to what made her an excellent personal assistant for him. Was she more than that, even when he was married to Danielle? You were unsure and you knew that you should not care.

He had ended it with you and yet, you felt appalled and disgusted by his actions.

Filled with pain medication making you not think relatively straight, you picked up your phone and sent Cillian a photo of the article you read with the note saying “I am disgusted, but not surprised”, immediately following which Cillian called you.

“What is that supposed to mean? You are disgusted, but not surprised?” he asked, seeing that the article had made you upset as, even now, on the phone with him, you were crying.

“It means that I was right. There was always something about her, but you brushed it off when I mentioned it” you told him in a teary voice, causing Cillian to sigh but not answer.

“Did you sleep with her?” you asked after his long silent pause, knowing this was none of your business.

“What does it matter?” Cillian asked almost defensively, causing you to take in a deep breath.

“I will just take this as a yes,” you told him before allowing yourself to curse loudly so that everyone in the room could hear you. “Fuck, Cillian. Why?” you asked but, again, knew that he did not owe you any explanation.

“Because I have been trying to get you out of my fucking head Y/N” Cillian explained with much emotion in his voice but, of course, this made no sense to you whatsoever.

“So, it is my fault that you slept with your assistant?” you chuckled in disbelief, resulting in Cillian backtracking.

“Listen Y/N, I don’t have to explain myself to you. I slept with Kit, yes, but none of this is any of your business. We are not together anymore” Cillian told you and you could not help but ask him whether he had slept with her in the past as well, namely when you were dating each other.

“Of course not. Why would you even ask that?” he wondered and, again, you stated that she had always shown an interest in him, which was something he clearly was too blind to see.

“Okay. Well, at least I know that you have moved on, so that is good for you” you then told Cillian with some sadness in your voice and he asked you again whether it was still all right for him to bring Nina in to see you to which, of course, you agreed.

“Yes, sure. Just, please don’t come in with her. I cannot see you right now because, if I do, I might say something wrong, which would not be fair to Nina. She doesn’t need to know about any of this” you explained to Cillian as tears continued to stream down your face.

“Say something wrong? Like what?” Cillian asked, oblivious to the fact that you were hurting.

“Fuck Cillian, two weeks ago you told me that you loved me. Then you take it all back because of my age. Now I am in the hospital and find out you fucked your PA. How do you think this makes me feel, huh?” you cried before telling him that you were still upset after what happened and that him sleeping with Kit was your final straw. There was no coming back from this and you told him you were hurt by his actions which made Cillian gasp for air.

“All right. I will wait outside. I am sorry” he barely managed to say which is when you hung up on him and he started to curse.

Dropping back into his seat, Cillian sighed as tears in the corner of his eyes began to build up again, this time from knowing how much he had indeed hurt you. It had been two weeks since you parted ways and he never expected to find himself in a situation where he could not cope.

He knew very well that, over the past two weeks, he had been acting destructively and this included the fact that he had slept with his assistant Kit which, if it were not for his heartache and pain, he would not have done.

He regretted it and now, his mistake was already haunting him as even his daughter and ex-wife had brought up the article this afternoon.

Explaining the situation to Nina was, of course, almost worse than explaining the situation to you, and what Cillian did not know was that his daughter had grown to like you much more than she should have.

She also knew much more than she should have and, seeing her father upset, did not bother her much as, in Nina’s mind, it served him right.

“Are you and Kit a thing now?” she asked, before revealing to him that she would not like him to date a woman like Kit who, to this date, had always been a throne in her mother’s eye.

“No, we are not a thing. We just fooled around and it was stupid. I made a mistake” Cillian admitted carefully, trying to gauge the situation. He did not want to upset his daughter and had to be mindful not to hurt her feelings.

“Well, I suppose you are old enough to make your own decisions and certainly not too old to make mistakes, so I guess that’s fair,” Nina said wisely, knowing that her father was feeling bad about what happened. It was evident from his voice and demur and this somehow concerned her.

“I think we are never too old to make mistakes, Nina. In fact, I made many in recent weeks” Cillian admitted, referring to the fact that he had hurt you.

“Was breaking up with my dance teacher one of them?” Nina asked, catching her father by surprise, and causing his chin to drop. He wondered how she knew and why she had not said anything about it previously.

“What are you talking about?” he thus asked, again gauging the situation and, in the end, Cillian was surprised to learn that Nina knew along, ever since he started dating you.

“Come on Dad. I am not stupid” Nina told him, chuckling.

“No, seriously Nina, what are you talking about?” Cillian asked, still pretending that there had been nothing between you and him.

“I found some of her clothes with mine about a week ago when granny visited. She thought they were mine, from the dance academy, but I explained to her that they were not and placed them back in Y/N’s locker when I got to class. I don’t think she ever noticed. Also, the necklace with the Beatles quote she is wearing? It had to be from you. Only you are so weirdly romantic that it hurts” Nina laughed and, just as she explained to her father how she came to know about his relationship with you, he cursed.

“Fuck” he said, causing Nina to break out in even more laughter than before.

“Watch your language, Dad!” she lectured him and he admitted to her that he had, indeed, recently broken up with you.

“Yeah, breaking up with your dance teacher is one of the stupid things I have done Nina” Cillian told his daughter and, of course, she had questions.

“Did you not like her anymore?” she asked, wondering why her father had broken up with you.

“No, I still liked her very much but she is a little too young for me, sweetheart. It was not going to work” Cillian told his daughter who simply shrug her shoulders, knowing that she had to stay out of her father’s love life.

“All right. That’s your choice Dad” she thus said. “I can still like her though, right?” Nina then wondered.

“Of course. She is a wonderful person and there is no reason for you not to like her. Despite, she is your dance teacher and you love dancing, so who am I to get in the way of what makes you happy, hmm?” Cillian reassured Nina before hugging her and, since she was no longer into this kind of parental affection, she pulled away and told him it was time to head to the hospital.

***

An hour later, Nina and Cillian arrived with two books for you to read and a box of chocolates.

Seeing how upset you were earlier, Cillian remained outside, by the door while Nina walked in to see you, glancing back at her father with confusion.

“Dad? Are you coming?” she asked, but Cillian shook his head, telling Nina that one person at the time was enough. According to him, you still needed some rest.

Nina, of course, did not believe his reasoning and wondered whether the separation between you and her father was not on so amicable terms.

This, of course, was the case but both you and Cillian shielded his daughter from your disagreements with each other. This was the right thing to do and, since you liked Nina a lot, it was not very difficult either.

With that in mind, you hugged Nina and thanked her again for pretty much saving your life that day which was something that embarrassed her.

Like her father though, she did not like attention and thus quickly changed the topic.

Thus, you talked about dancing for a while and engaged in some jokes about life and a book you had both read before it came to your mind that you were sent a video of Nina’s recent solo by one of the other dance teachers.

“Can I see?” Nina asked and, of course, you showed it to her, not only once but twice, and, still, she criticised herself whereas you thought she did fantastically.

“Can Dad come in and see it?” Nina eventually asked and, even though you did not want to be anywhere near Cillian, you agreed, simply for her sake.

“Yes, of course” you thus said, pretending to be unbothered by Cillian’s presence as Nina called him inside.

“Y/N has a video from the training on Thursday which one of the other dancers took,” she told her father who, cautiously, approached you.

“Yes, come and have a look,” you told him, making him feel more comfortable.  “I was still in action then and Nina did amazing with the solo. She is showing so much emotion on stage now” you explained to Cillian who appeared to be very proud of his daughter as he watched the video.

“Can you send this to me so I can share it with Danielle?” he even asked and, of course, you nodded.

“Sure” you said before Cillian thanked you and told Nina that it was time to go, which was something she did not want to do.  She wanted to stay a bit longer and engage in conversation with you but her father was adamant that he had to go home as he had a meeting at six o’clock.

“A meeting with your assistant isn’t a meeting, Dad. She can work around you. Just tell her to come later” Nina told her father, knowing that Kit was supposed to come around to discuss the upcoming release of Oppenheimer and his interview schedule.

“I am sure Kit and your father have a lot of important things to discuss” you couldn’t help but say sarcastically before telling Nina that, if it was all right with her parents, she could return the following day for another visit.

“Okay Y/N. Take care” Nina told you before giving you yet another hug and, with that, Cillian and her left to go home and meet with his assistant.

***

At around 6 o’clock, Kit arrived at Cillian’s apartment and, as usual, she was punctual and on time.

As soon as she entered though, she attempted to give Cillian a kiss who quickly pulled away. He told her that his daughter was staying with him, as she already knew, which meant he could not interact with her this way.

Kit, of course, was disappointed, and even though Nina saw Kit’s attempt to kiss her father, she did not say anything, but disappeared in her room, smashing the door shut behind her.

“She seems angry” Kit pointed out before, finally, taking her chances. She pressed her lips onto his in haste and, again, Cillian pulled away.

“Kit, stop. This is not going to work” he told her, to which she sighed with frustration.

“Why? Because we work together?” she assumed, but this was not his reason.

“No, because I am not over Y/N and I don’t think I will be for quite some time. I love her and she...never mind…” Cillian stammered causing Kit to become angry.

“She just what?” Kit asked, trying to contain her emotions while pretending not to care about Cillian’s words.

“She saw the article in the paper, about us and she did not take lightly to it” Cillian explained, causing Kit to laugh.

“So what? You are not together anymore!” Kit pointed out, but Cillian remained firm.

“Still. She just had a miscarriage and I honestly need some time to digest all of this. Nina likes her and I miss her” Cillian explained before regretting telling Kit about your matters which, at this point, he did not know she would be using to her advantage soon.

“Fine. I mean, it was and would always be just sex Cillian. I can get that from someone else” Kit chuckled, telling Cillian not to worry about it.

“So, we are good?” Cillian asked, wanting to ensure that Kit could still be working for him as she had been an excellent assistant thus far.

“Of course, we are good. Let’s forget anything ever happened, okay?” Kit told him before diving right into Cillian’s work schedule.

“Okay, grand” Cillian confirmed with a smile, and without knowing that, later that night, Kit would take it upon herself to send an email to your place of work, using a fake email address.

“Dear Mr Beasly

I am writing to you as it has come to my attention recently that one of your dance teachers has engaged in intimate relations with one of the parents who, to this date, is still married.

Her name is Y/N Y/LN and the parent she got involved in is Nina Murphy’s father. Now, considering Mr Murphy’s status, I believe that this could and would reflect poorly on your establishment if their affair was to become known, especially since, recently, the said Miss Y/LN had undergone a pregnancy termination.

My suggestion would be to have Miss Y/LN resign on a favorable redundancy package, which includes the signing of a nondisclosure agreement.

Your sincerely;

A Concerned Parent”

[rubysgirl32]

Behind Closed Doors

Ruby Cruz x Fem!reader

Warnings: Enemies to lovers (kinda), VERY ANGSTy (By far the angsty-est thing I've published so far), inner Homophobia and mentions of homophobic parents, Reader is on a kinda depressive episode ig (I don't really know so sorry if it's not correct), Mentions of alcohol, Jack being a good brother!!!

Summary: Reader is acting strange so Jack and Ruby make a plan for Ruby to apologize.

Author’s note: this was supposed to be a bigger chapter but I decided to divided in 2 and post this one first. It's a bit short, and there's not a lot of Ruby and Reader interaction, but yeah. Hope you like it!! Also some of you asked for more and I'm a people pleaser so @sam-cooperrr @at1nyzen here you go!

Part 1!

The next few days were very strange for everyone. You would spend your days inside of your head, completely disassociating from every interview and conversation. You would get home and head to your bed in your room. You barely stopped for a snack or lunch. Jack would leave food on your desk and every now and then check on you, only to find you crying into a pillow or just staring into space. At work, the situation is similar. Ruby noticed how every time you had an interview, you would barely even try to talk, getting later scolded by Lola in front of everyone. Everyone could just see a heavy dark cloud that rained on top of you constantly, that would follow around all day til you got back home to your bed.

But that cloud was even heavier than anyone else thought. That  cloud held all the narrow minded ideals of your parents that have been shoved into your head ever since you were kid. That cloud held all the self hatred you held for yourself for even thinking you could feel that type of way. The cold was heavy with the utter fear of being left alone by everyone around her if she ever were to speak about this issue. This cloud was heavy with the unwanted dreams and thoughts about Ruby that she shouldn't be having at all. 

Ruby couldn't help but to feel guilty. She had ignored you and made you feel terrible for an entire year during filming, and then she kissed you without a warning or explanation. You must be so confused by the sudden change, and it was all because of her. All because Ruby couldn’t hold her stupid little crush any longer. Ruby would spend her nights staring into the ceiling of the hotel room, thinking and meditating on how to apologize to you, and how to explain her stupid feeling. Explain how her head thought it was okay to ignore you and pretend she hated you, just to avoid falling even deeper into her stupid crush. Explain how she did this for both of you, since if you ended up dating or anything, they were both gonna get fired for breaking the contract. Sometimes she wonders if the ceiling would ever stop spinning.

Three knocks popped her out of her anxious bubble, as they seemed to come from the door of her hotel room. She sat up and walked towards the door trying to figure out who might be on the other side. It might just be room service or maybe even her agent, who was staying only a few rooms away, but instead it was a tall man, who had both of his hands on his back. He looked oddly similar, but Ruby  decided to just ignore her gut to greet him

“Hello” Ruby who had her hand on her door handle incase of emergency, looked at both ends of the corridors trying to get any hint of who the man on her door was “Can I help you with anything?”

“You’re Ruby, Right?”The tall man pointed both of his index fingers towards her with an eyebrow raised “I'm Jack, Y/n’s older brother”

Her grip on the door became tighter, as she grew nervous at the sound of your name

“Shit” Ruby cursed, her blue eyes going wide “I-i-is something wrong? Did something h-h-happen?”

With a tired yet quite patient sigh, Jack shook his head disappointed and placed both hands on his jacket pocket

“Yeah,” he sighed “can we…” he said pointing towards her room, suggesting to come inside

“Oh! Of course!” Ruby opened the door wider and stood aside “Come in” 

The hotel room Ruby was staying in looks like those pictures from the magazine, every single little thing in its place, barely moved or out of place. The generic artwork, the pale colors, and the lack of personality really made the atmosphere more uncomfortable than it already was. Ruby showed the man the living room, as she took a seat on a rock hard couch. Jack sat on the opposite end, leaving a space so long between them, it felt even weird to be looking at each other from such a distance. The grown man placed both hands on his knees and tried to get rid of the nervous sweat on it, rubbing them harshly while Ruby on the other side, stared down at her socks like an embarrassed child who was just caught doing something she’s not supposed to.

“This is gonna sound so fucking rude but” He asked, blinking quickly trying to be as straightforward as possible, but at the same time kind and not be too mean “What the hell happened last monday?”

“I… I don't know ” Ruby mumbled, eyes on the floor and fingers  fiddling with a bracelet she was wearing

Jack scoffed and leaned in more, making Ruby see his face on her peripheral view, which made her throat close up quickly.

“Well then” he said loudly “Let me paint you a fresh image. Last Saturday, it was the afternoon. My sister was excited to go on her first ever press tour, worried about messing up and what not. Then, Monday, around midday, I got a text from her begging for me to pick her up, because of something you did. I show up, and she cries the entire way back home. Now, she won’t speak a word, leave her bedroom unless its for work, won’t even eat and she hasen’t answered any of her managers calls or text.” he slaps his hands in his knees as he leans back on the couch shaking his head in disbelief “Lola had to fucking call, and beg me to see what the hell is wrong with. Apparently she won’t even talk in interviews, or even try to be part of the presstour at all, which might just ruin her in the public eye”  As he spoke every word, Ruby felt her lungs growing even tighter, so air that she already lacked became even less “So let me ask you again. What happened last monday?”

Ruby inhaled through her nose, trying her best to get as much oxygen into her body, a small sniff breaking the tense atmosphere in the room. She bit her tongue, sinking her teeth in it till it drew blood. The guilt inside of her trying its best to burst and come out of her mouth, but she tried her hardest inside her stomach. But she knew that keeping it in will only make matters even worse, and so she chose her following words carefully

“We…” she said softly “I-” she placed her hand on her face and dragged them down “When… When I met her, I… I had like… this HUGE crush on her” she tries to laugh of her worries, only making her voice grow weak “and i knew, i knew in that moment, that having to film with her was going to be… a nightmare” From the corner of her eye she could see how Jack turned form completely ignoring her to now being completely hooked and attentive to her words “When i signed the contract for Willow… there was this like… rule. No one, in the show or involved in the show, could have a… romantic relationship or sexual affair with someone inside the cast or crew. So i fucked” she whisper that last sentence as she cover her face with her cold nervous hands, trying to shield the stare from the man beside her “So i did what… I did what I thought would work!” she shrugs her shoulders, the red embarrassment washing over her face

“So you… treated her like shit?” Jack whispered confused

“I- when i was a kid, my mom told me that the only way to get rid of a crush, was to just pretend you hate them. Pretend they are annoying or just gross till the crush washes away. And i thought it would work” she places both of her feet on the couch, her knees close to her chest, hugging them tightly and cringing at every word that came out her mouth “and i thought it worked! I mean… by the end of filming, it really felt like i didn’t have anything for her but then… fuck. My manager told me that for the presstour we were gonna be paired together, and that i couldn’t act so cold or rude, because then it would give bad press and whatever. So on monday, we were in an interview, and apparently no one told y/n that we were supposed to act like… buddies. She didn’t take it well and she was crying, and I panicked. I panicked so i just fuck… I kissed her!” she yells before burying her face on her knees like a angsty teen and groaned loudly “I kissed her and then i realized i fucked up because now she was going to be more confused than before, but then she kissed me back and so i ju-”

“Woah woah!” Jack shook hands stopping Ruby’s rant, his eyes wide “hold on”

Ruby removed her face from her legs to see your brother who was freaking out. He looked lost in the conversation, trying to tie the knots together with ropes that weren’t even there in the first place. 

“My sister” he said blankly, looking ruby “Kissed…” he then pointed toward the girl “you?”

Ruby moves her head softly as she bites her lip knowing that what most follow wont be an easy pill to swallow.

“H-h-how? She’s not like…'' Jack didn’t dare to finish the sentence, being cut off by his pure fear “Like… she’s not… gay” he whispers that last word, as if someone were to hear them “She’s has never…you know? Like- she’s only dated boys… only boys” he shook his head confused “I mean im her best friend so i she tells me literally everything! and if she was… you know… she- she would have told me'' he looked almost offended as he moved his hands as it would help him understand.

“She’s not ga-” Ruby asked quietly

“No!” Jack said a bit loudly “God no! Our- our parents would have killed… her. They would… fucking kick her out! So there is no way, she’s… into girls ”

“Wait what?” Ruby lets go of her knees and she buries them under her body, sitting on top of them, placing her arms now on her lap, turning towards the man on the couch “That doesn’t make any sense! She literally kissed me back, in the bathroom, why would she-” but then a light bulb lit up in  her head that made her place the final piece of the puzzle “Jack?”

“Yeah” the grown man nod was completely staring at the ceiling confused

“You said she only dates guys right? May I ask… how many?”

“Not many really, I mean, she had her highschool sweetheart and she had a boyfriend before leaving to Wales for filming. Why do you ask?”

“Maybe… just maybe. She was… faking it?”

Jack sat up and looked Ruby as if she was crazy

“What? No. Why would she do that?”

“I mean you said it yourself!” she gesticulates  “Your parents aren’t really… allies. So maybe she had a beard or something?”

“A beard?”

“Oh right, you’re straight, shit” she laughs softly “A beard is when a queer person pretends to be straight, and dates the opposite sex to… keep their cover. So maybe she… she was just dating those guys to… look straight. So you’re parent’s wouldn’t question her sexuality”

“Shit” jack mumbled “I-i never thought about that”

Both of them stayed completely silent for a few eternal minutes, letting the tense and touch air fill the empty silent room. On one side of the couch, there was Jack who felt the utter disappointment of being a terrible brother for not noticing or not even making you comfortable enough to tell him. It felt like he had failed his task as your brother and bestfriend, and that only made him wonder more of the different things you might be hiding, or things you have never told him. On the other side, Ruby, buried her face in her legs and pushed the guilty tears back, trying to swallow the guilty sour taste in her throat, but it only made it taste and feel worse. She couldnt believe  she had fucked uup this bad, and that there is probably no way to fix it.

“What do we know?” Ruby frowned in disappointment as she just tugged her knees closer to her chest.

After a few minutes of cold air, jack snapped his fingers and stood up

“I have a plan”

─── ∘°❉°∘ ───

Jack opens the door to his apartment he shared with his sister. The rented apartment was mostly empty except for a few of their things from home. As he looked around the flat he noticed it was exactly the same way it was when he left in the morning. He was gone for over 2 hours, and it looked like you hadn't even come out of your room at all. He left the shopping bags on the kitchen floor and walked toward the hall where your door was left ajar. The lights were out and the curtains completely closed, surrounding yourself in the same type of darkness and emptiness you felt inside. Jack leaned against the door frame, and knocked twice before switching the lights on, making you wince a the bright light

“You up?” he asks as you grab the duvet cover and place them over yourself to protect you from the light.

Jack let out a tried laugh and pushed himself off the door frame and made his way to your bed, sitting on the edge and placing a hand on your shoulder and shaking you. The only response you gave your brother was a groan

“Good afternoon” he then grabs the duvet and pulls it off your face “Have you had lunch yet?”

“Yes” you huffs out “I ate yesterday's leftovers” you then point over to your desk where an almost empty plate rested

Though it is not a lot, it's at least enough, and it made Jack smile.

“Good. that’s good” he sighs

After a few moments of silence, you decide to grab the duvet once again and place it over your head, completely covering you from head to toe. Jack stared down at the lump on the bed and tried his best to follow along with the plan he had just made with ruby. So he bit his tongue and tried his very best to sound truthful.

“Hey, So…. Tony texted me” his words came out casual, and made you react on the exact way planed

You jump out of the covers and sit up quickly, your puffy red eyes now wide. 

“Tony?” you repeated trying to clarify “as in…. Tony Revolori?” you push away the hairs on your face to see your brother clearer

“Yeah” he nodded

“Why?” you shook your head completely clueless

Jack cleared his throat and followed along. You were alway the actress in the family, so him having to pretend to be one too didn’t come out as naturally

“You weren’t answering your phone, so he texted me through insta, he’s inviting you to a bar for drinks tonight, some sort of reunion party” He then sits even further into the bed, making himself comfortable

“Oh” you look down at your lap, to fidget with your nails, but there weren't much left since the past days you have been picking and biting them till the skin underneath bleed through “a party”

“Yep” Jack nods with a soft smile “It might be fun, who knows?”

 “Is it like… a whole cast thing?” you whispered trying to find something in your hands to pick from

Jack then grabbed your hands to stop you from harming yourself any further.  He knew all of your nervous and anxious ticks, so he always made sure to stop you from them getting too bad, before it's too bad.

“Apparently it’s a whole cast thing” He words everything calmly trying not to make you feel overwhelmed by the news, but it didn’t work, as you throw yourself back into the bed groaning loudly “But… maybe Ruby won’t be there” he tries to console, shrugging his shoulder as if he didn’t know everything planned.

You squint your eyes and then roll them

“A cast party without the main character of the show? Yeah, i doubt that she’ll be there Jack” you sarcastically remake before placing both hands on your face

Great, the first ever cast hangout, she wasn't invited, and now that she is, Ruby’s gonna be there. 

“Come on '' Jack then laid down next to her, and stared at the ceiling, completely copying her posture “Maybe it would be good for you, you know? Get out of your bed, wear something that doesn't sweat, and like… actually shower?”

You punch your brother harshly making him laugh while holding his arm

“Hey!” He groaned “Come on, you know I'm kidding! I'm kidding!” you hit him again but now softer, just to piss him off “Hey! Stop! I'm trying to be nice!”

“If you wanted to be nice you wouldn’t have told me about the party” you snap back, giving him a final punch

“Why?”

“Because i'm not going, and now i feel like shit for canceling on Tony”

“What do you mean you’re not going?”

“I'm not going” you shrug “Ruby’s gonna be there, and if she’s there… it will suck” you then shake your head a huff out “Plus, if she’s there, everyone will hang out with her and i’ll spent the entire night on my own”

“Not necessarily” jack bumps his shoulder against yours

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t have to be alone. I could go with you” he then starts to shuffle closer to you, and place his hand on yours and intertwine your fingers “I’ll go with you and make sure that Ruby won’t even try to look at you in the mean way. And if she dares to make a stupid comment, i'll make sure to hype you up if you want to beat her up” He then punches you softly just like you had done a few moments ago, making you giggle

You sigh down the giddiness in your smile as you mutter a “I don’t know” under your breath

“Come on” Jack whines, leaning into you with a teasing smile “I’ll be so much fun. Just the two of us. A couple of shots, maybe some pints”

Half of you told you that it wasn't worth it. That even if Jack was there, the guilt of seeing Ruby there, and just the mere thought of having her close made you feel sick to the stomach. With a simple kiss, she had made every single bone in your body feel brand new, and strange inside your body. Just imagine what she could do if you spent a night with her, while drunk. But then, the other half of you was tired and sick of staying inside the bed. You smelled terrible, felt even worse. You missed laughing and just being around people, so maybe this was a good idea. 

You sigh and shake your head, as you smile at the ceiling. With a decision made you spoke again.

“Fuck it” you sat up and took a deep breath “Let’s get drunk”

Your brother sits up along and shows you his wide smile

“Lets get Fucking Drunk!”

─── ∘°❉°∘ ───

[satureja13]

A bright sun rose above the Magic School beyond the Veil. They take this as a good sign that Ji Ho will wake up soon and rise again. Because Ji Ho is the sun in their centre. But their good mood got damped when Ms Coombes already awaited them in the yard... She ordered Sai and 'Callahan' (she calls each of them by their first name, except for Jack ^^') up to her office...

As soon as they were upstairs, Ms Coombes started to yell: "I thought I made it very clear to you, Saiwa, to keep Callahan on a short leash! And to keep him from dragging Kiyoshi down in his nonsensical activities!" Saiwa: "What have you done? You were supposed to weed the Cursed Cabbage Field!" Jack: "But we did?"

Ms Coombes: "I'll show you what he did. Take a look in the crystal ball. He desecrated the Sanctum!" Jack: "The Sanctum? I thought it was the bathroom?" Ms Coombes: "This is the Sanctum where we prepare for the rituals! Now we have to replace the holy water you contaminated! Ach - and you don't even have an idea of how much effort it's going to take us to enchant that much water and bring it here to refill the basin again! You and Kiyoshi will go down there after class and purify the place again! I hope this will teach Kiyoshi that you are to be avoided!" Jack: "Yes, Ms Coombes. I'm so sorry."

Ms Coombes: "And after that, Saiwa will make sure you keep your distance to Kiyoshi. He's a deity now and not interested in a love affair with you, Callahan." Jack: "A love affair? I'm not interested in that either! We're just mates! Like mates mates. Just friends!" Ms Coombes: "That trusty crystal ball also showed me how you looked at him, Callahan. I won't allow you take advantage of his absent state. Kiyoshi is a precious member of the Resistance with countless achievements in his record, we can't let him go to waste due to Callahan. It was worse enough loosing him for months after he had to leave the Temple. Which also was Callahan's fault! If I get note of something like that again, you will all get punished. And I'm not talking of weeding the fields - am I being clear?" Saiwa sighed: "Crystal clear."

Saiwa: "We're not going down that road again, Jack." Jack is shocked. Not only did he not know that Kiyoshi got banned from the Temple because of him? But how could Ms Coombes - and Saiwa - think he wants more than friendship with Kiyoshi? That really is out of the books for him. Yes, he thinks Kiyoshi is amazing and he enjoys spending time with him - and he's still the most beautiful man he'd ever seen. But Jack is also a wolf - and has an undenieable survival instinct. And(!) he'd grown (a lot!) during the last months (thanks to the Therapy Game). After all he went through - he endured searing pain, fell in a coma and almost died because he couldn't bear being together with Kiyoshi... Jack: "I certainly won't."

Eventually Ms Coombes dismissed Sai and Jack and they went down to their Care of Magical Creatures class. Where the others and a surprise waited for them. (TMI: Jeb and Kiyoshi summoned their familiars. We already met Kiyoshi's familiar, Al'ar, earlier. And since Jeb's family lives in the Burrow, his familiar is named Errol.)

Their teacher is Barfolomew! Sai, Jack and Vlad lived in his Space (Balls) Bar & Grill (& Residence) for over two years and Ji Ho for half a year. Saiwa: "Barfolomew! So good to see you!" Barfolomew: "Awww I missed you, Boys!" Most of the magical subjects had not been allowed at Belgraves Institute (a Council-run school they visited last year), where the Boys were supposed to finish highschool. So they have a lot to keep up with and listened eagerly to Barfolomews explanations about the care of Magical Creatures. Sai wished he would also give them some tips about caring for a certain crazy werewolf...

TMI: The creatures on their tables also match the Boys ^^' Jeb has a cat because of his family's cat Minerva (who is Ms Coombes, but the Boys don't know that ö.ö), Vlad has a cock because of Malfoy, Ji Ho a duck, because water ^^', Kiyoshi a demon because he is a demon, and a peacock for Saiwa because he loves fashion and dressing up, and the growling grizzly for our little Callahan beast :3

After classes, Jack and Kiyoshi went down to the Sanctum again to clean up their mess. Jack: "Maybe it is for the best. Probably our 'fated mates thing' was nullified after you became a deity. I mean, you've spent decades in that tree and you were perfectly fine without me. And when I get rid of that last spot, the pain of leaving you will be gone too and it will be as if nothing ever happened, right? You have Jeb as your best friend and I Vlad. We don't exactly need each other. So keeping our distance won't be that hard. We even kept our distance while we were in our secret relationship! Haha!" Jack's laugh sounded a bit strained, though. And Kiyoshi was on autopilot again, his mind roaming in his demonic/divine realms... And maybe, if he were here, he would have told Jack that he hadn't been fine - at all...

Jack dragged them out of these gloomy thoughts with his puppy strategy: "I wonder what's behind this door?" Omg, Jack!

'See the stone set in your eyes See the thorn twist in your side. I wait for you. Sleight of hand and twist of fate On a bed of nails she makes me wait And I wait– without you

Through the storm, we reach the shore You gave it all but I want more And I'm waiting for you–

With or without you With or without you. I can't live with or without you.

And you give yourself away And you give yourself away And you give, and you give And you give yourself away.

My hands are tied, my body bruised She got me with nothing to win And nothing else to lose.'

U2 - With or without you

M(uch)TMI: While Ji Ho is our bright sun, Jack is our Pluto ^^' (I just told this to my daughters and and we laughed. The eldest asked: And who is Saturn? And then we matched each of the Boys with a planet, losely based on the planets mythology and the Boys' background :3 Saiwa=Venus , Kiyoshi=Saturn, Vlad=Mars, Jeb=Jupiter, Ji Ho=Sun, Jack=Pluto (2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) took away poor Pluto's planet status :'(

From the Beginning 🔱 Underwater Love 🔱 Latest

Current Chapter: 'Here comes the Sun' from the beginning ▶️ here Last Chapter: 'Who killed Jack?' from the beginning ▶️ here

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