#also yes you WILL be seeing stupid ass doodles during this as this was done during stream

[nebuladreamz]

Timelapse for the Chime piece from yesterday!

@jack-o-phantom

[khaleesiofalicante]

LBAF CHAPTER 4

i love how it says "Rafael breaks the law" right next to "Alec goes to the park" in the desc like HHUIDJHDFVUKIHDV

“Raziel bro,” Lexi said out loud to her supposedly good friend as she washed her face. “When are you going to let me dream about hot blonde girls? This is very homophobic!”

FUCKING LOVE HER SO MUCH

noo they closed down the academy for now

David was asleep, which usually meant he was up late last night. His phone was in his hand. A tell-tale sign that he had fallen asleep talking to Max.

AWWW

no jace

please no

DO NOT TEST ME I WILL FIND THESE JERKS RESPONSIBLE AND GIVE THEM HELL

cant they glamour stuff and get medical help???

they all need medical help and fast

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she demanded.

Her father blinked and then chuckled. “You want a list?”

MOOD

“Aww,” he pouted. “Are you saying my dream won’t come true? But I’ve been doodling Heronstairs on the edge of clave reports.”

“For Uncle Alec’s sake, I hope that’s not true,”

IM LOSING MY SHIT

alec, seeing heronstairs written all over the reports: 👁️ 👄 👁️

She thought of Uncle Kit and Aunt Izzy. If she ever got her hands on the person or thing or whatever hurt them, she was going to kick their ass all the way to hell.

grab your weapons lex imma join you

is clary also having those dreams...?

“I mean what kind of bullshit?” Lexi demanded. “Out of all the families to kill. Nobody is attempting to assassinate the Cartwrights – who are a bunch of shitheads by the way.”

ikr??

like wtf

“Rafael is the rock of our group. He is our leader. We rely on him so much. Max…If something happens to him, how will I ever look at David? And Uncle Alec...If he gets hurt, it will kill my father. His heart won’t be able to handle that. And Uncle Magnus…He can’t die! It shouldn’t be allowed.”

TEARS

THAT'S IT

i just want them all to be ok...

“You’re gonna pull this off so good that Max is gonna pull it off of you,” Selena grinned.

HUZXUHKHUKXCUKIXC SELENA

“Such a cutie,” Selena giggled. “Good luck trying to have fun with Max while Rafael third wheels in the background.”

HAHA I CANT WAIT FOR THAT

Sure, it was going to be awkward with Rafael there. But David would rather have Rafael there than have one of Max’s parents - especially the Consul.

true true

NAH NOW IM IMAGINING ALEC THERE ON THEIR DATE

“Yes, but they also respect Magnus Bane,” David pointed out.

Selena’s green eyes sharpened at that. “Whoever tried to hurt Magnus better run. The audacity!”

oh hell yeah

those bitches have made a ton of people mad

A lot of people thought that about him. Because David was kind, they assumed he was naive. They assumed he would simply forgive and forgot everything.

But kindness didn't make people stupid. It only made people strong.

There was a difference between being kind and being sensible. And trusting the cohort was not a sensible thing to do.

exactly!!

“Hey,” he lifted her chin with his thumb. “Are you doing something wrong?”

“I don’t think so,” she whispered.

“Is someone getting hurt because of it?”

She shook her head.

“Then there is nothing wrong with having a secret,” he smiled. “You are allowed to keep things to yourself. Don’t feel guilty about it.”

their relationship is so pure

AHASXJHSUCDUCSDHCD LEXI WITH BLONDE HAIR

AWW OH MY GOD

“You want me give me the chair?” he asked in confusion.

BYE I CHOKED-

OH MY GOD THEY ARE GIVING HIM THE INSTITUTE

“Things are going to be different in a few years, Chouchou. We will have a new Consul. A new Inquisitor. It would be time for a new head of the institute as well. It would be time for the next generation to take over.”

The Consul had four more years left in his term. Max had told him that his father was going to step down once his second term was over. David was sad to see Alec Lightwood go. He had done great many things during his time.

But if anyone could live up to Alec Lightwood’s legacy, it was his son. Rafael would take over and do an even better job. David knew that to be true.

this makes me so sad but so happy at the same time

im gonna cry NO ONE FUCKING TOUCH ME

Jace's shoulder...

wait lemme open google

haha im worried....

A loud crashing noise came from the weapons rooms and Miss Fairchild sighed.

“I’ll go check,” David chuckled.

“No, stay,” the woman said and reached up to kiss his cheek. “I’ll go.”

“Everything is fineeeee,” Lexi yelled from the other end of the institute.

“Alexandra James Blonde Herondale!” the woman yelled as she walked to the weapons room. “You better not have broken anything!”

LMAO WHY IS LEXI ME WHEN I MESS UP SMTH

oh my god it's the sword

IT'S THE DAMN SWORD

The same sword clary proposed to jace with

im so emotional right now

TEARS

FUCKING TEARS

THAT'S ALL

if one of them dies before the wedding im gonna-

rafael you told her everything....

well i sure hope no one ever finds out 😄

“For the hundredth time, I’m not part of a cult.”

“Most people who are part of a cult don’t know they are part of a cult,” Camila pointed out.

I love mila so much

THE ACTUAL PANIC I FELT WHEN THE RUNE WAS MENTIONED

I THOUGHT IT WAS REAL

“Yes,” Camila said a little too loudly. “Greetings and good tidings, sir!”

The Inquisitor blinked. “Uh yes. Tidings. Come in.”

“We are going up,” Rafael said as he grabbed Camila’s wrist and ran up the stairs. “I told you to be normal!”

“I don’t know how the shadow police usually greet each other!” Camila accused.

“Shadowhunters,” Rafael corrected.

MY STOMACH HURTS FROM LAUGHING SO MUCH

“The energy in this room is intense,” Camila observed.

IM CHEWING GUM RIGHT NOW AND IF I CHOKE-

I CANT STOP LAUGHING I THINK I PULLED A MUSCLE SHIT

THIS TRIO IS AMAZING

“Are you kidding me, right now?” Anjali demanded. “You brought your girlfriend??”

“Ex-girlfriend,” Rafael and Camila corrected.

“Unbelievable!” Anjali shook her head. “Santiago, you piece of s-”

“Can I take this off now?” Camila asked and took off her cardigan. “Why is it so warm in here? Oh wait. Anjali, are you feeling cold? Do you have a thermometer here?”

I AM WHEEZING

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?” Anjali yelled and then lowered a voice. “You brought a mundane into the Inquisitor’s house?”

“Inquisitor?”

“Kind of like the prime minister of shadowhunters,” Rafael explained.

“Ohhh,” Camila sounded impressed. “What’s it like being the prime minister’s daughter?”

Anjali look at Camila as if the other girl was insane. She turned to Rafael and pointed a finger. “Santiago, I don’t know what kind of lunacy this is but leave me out of it!”

“Anjali,” Rafael sighed. “You need help.”

“If the Consul finds out about this, cancer is the last thing I need to worry about,” Anjali hissed.

“Consul?” Camila asked.

“President of shadowhunters,” Rafael explained again. “My father.”

“The president’s son and the prime minister’s daughter,” Camila whistled. “Power couple alert!”

IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE THIS FUNNY?? I FEEL LIKE I'LL WAKE UP MY PARENTS

“We are not a cult!” Anjali said in an offended tone and then frowned. “But wait…we do have cults. Like the cohort. Rafael’s father was in one too.”

“Ohhh,” Camilla sounded intrigued. “Is this the hot one with the beard or the hot one who looks like a model?”

Rafael rolled his eyes. “It was an accidental cult.”

“Do you know his brother is blue?” Camila asked Anjali. “I just assumed he was super into avatar cosplay.”

I HAVE NEVER LAUGHED HARDER OH MY GOD

Shadowhunters most certainly did not have health insurance. They didn’t have life insurance either – which now seemed stupid considering their line of work.

these people istg

HEY WE'RE NOT IDIOTS TO HAVE MADE IT THIS FAR

WE USE VACCINES, MEDICINES, INSURANCES

DON'T BE A BIG DUM DUM

“You’re telling me it’s okay to use medicine if someone is dying but otherwise it’s not?” the girl asked incredulously. “What about people with learning disabilities? What about people with mental illnesses? They need medication every day!”

THIS!!!!

these inconsiderate idiots

“Anjali has a binder full of reforms for our government,” Rafael said proudly. “She is amazing. She actually-”

“Rafael, I don’t time for your competency kink right now!”

THEIR DYNAMICS DHJHDUHDFVUKF

no i cant imagine alec doing that...

it's too painful

"Okay, you can have my blood too," Rafael smiled and took out a dagger and held out his palm

“Jesus Christ!” Camila yelled. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“You said you wanted blood!”

“I was going to go the pharmacy and get a blood drawing kit!” Camila said in exasperation. “What is wrong with you people!?!?”

Rafael put away the dagger awkwardly. “Right. Of course.”

RAFAEL DHUIKSDHUIUIYVFREIUFDVIUKH

THAT IS NOT HOW WE TAKE BLOOD SAMPLES

“Well, he is already making jokes about getting shot,” Alec shook his head. “That’s Herondale for doing okay, right?”

yup he's alright

“Jace, the shadow world is on fire, and I still haven’t lost my shit,” Alec pointed out dryly.

Im so sorry for laughing

“They are okay. They are in their rooms,” Alec said.

but Rafael-

ok

LMAO THEY FOUND OUT

“Date? What date?” Jace said then. “I never heard anything about a date. I must be confused in my old age.”

JACE-

“Golden boy broke the rules.”

im so sorry for laughing at this but it's 1 20 am and you could show me anything and i'd burst out laughing

Alec didn’t know where he had come wrong.

His heart ached at that.

alec it's not your fault bud

aww David's gonna visit

“I’ll even let you keep the door closed,” Alec tried.

Max looked up at that and grinned. “Really?”

“Yes,” he smiled. “Just…Use a soundless rune for all our sakes!”

“And the contraceptive rune!” Jace said.

“They are both boys!” Alec rolled his eyes.

LMAO HBSHYHCDJUVDH

Jace what

wait everything's happening so fast give me a sec

let me read again

I always scroll down line to line

oh my

wait

Jace what is it

im scared

I don't wanna scroll

a body

there was a body found

WATER??

Not this soon

please no

I don't think it's Rafael

but still

please

Lexi

NO NO NO

I JUST BURST OUT SOBBING

NO

NO

no, the picnic

David

no no no

David

fuck no

not David

he was supposed to get married

he was supposed to get his happy ending

he was gonna take over the institute

don't do this to me right now

I really be here crying when I did this to myself...

I am absolutely not ok DO NOT TOUCH ME

[thewildomega]

Second Chance Ch.12

Looking up at the giant ship with the blue whale as the figure head you tilted your own head. Ed had told you that his own main ship had been sunken during the war so you guessed this was one of his other ones. Seeing how big this one was made you wonder how large the actual Moby Dick had been. It seemed to be made up of mid-colored wood with the white and navy blue trim. The many sails were up since it was docked but the Whitebeard flag flew proudly at the top of the mast. Seeing all the ropes and stuff you could only imagine how many people it took to run a ship like this even more so with the paddlewheels on the back. Swinging your feet you looked back down to the drawing you had made of the ship. Humming along to the music as you added in details and such.

"Of course, why would she sit where it was safe..." he grumbled to himself as he finally caught sight of the woman who held his heart. Looking out to where she sat on he sighed. Somehow or another she had managed to get herself out onto one of the larger rocks in the sea that was the closest to the whaleship. She was just sitting there, her feet swinging idly and doing something that he couldn't really make out. "Y/n!" he called but she wouldn't look his way. Trying twice more she still didn't hear him. He wondered if the waves crashing against the rocks were the cause of it. Sighing out he started to jump across the rocks towards her. Finally getting to the one she was on he moved to stand right behind her, looking down to see she had her headphones in. 'Well that explained her not hearing him.' Seeing something in her lap he leaned forward some and peeked over her shoulder.

A sudden shadow coming over you made you knit your brows and look up to the sky, was it clouding up? Seeing a face you let out a yelp and lost hold of your book. Panicking when you thought it would fall into the water you saw a large hand come out to grab it just in time and sighed. Snatching your headphones from your ears you turned around to give him a small glare. "Stop sneaking up on me." you scowlded, smacking one of his large legs that was beside you.

Huffing out in amusement he smirked and looked down at her, noticing that when she was sitting she only came up to his knee. "You're the one that makes it so easy darling." When she stuck her tongue out at him in reply he chuckled and lifted her notebook. "What were you doing out here anyway?

Seeing him go to look through your notebook you quickly stood and moved to take it from him. "Just doodling and stuff."

Holding it out of her reach when he saw the slight blush on her cheeks he grinned. "Doodling what lass?"

"Just little things, now give it back." you grunted. Wrapping your arms around his large biceps you attempted to haul yourself up or pull his arm down but neither happened as he just held you in the air like you weighed nothing more than a bag of flour.

"I want to see what some of the other dreams are on your list." he smiled.

"No." Jumping up to try and grab it he only held it above his head, even further out of your reach.

Humming he rose one of his brows, "Why not?"

"B..because there mostly stupid things... most of them are places back in my world I wanted to see."

"A person's dreams are never stupid. Most may be places but not all so I'm still curious." Seeing her go to try and grab it again he moved out of the way and jumped to the next rock then the next and back towards shore.

"Edward Newgate! You give me back my notebook right now or so help me I will kick your old ass!" you yelled as you picked up your phone and headphones, jumping after him at a slower pace than he was going. Hearing his loud laugh you narrowed your eyes and growled. By the time you got back to shore he was gone and you were trying to figure out which way he went. "So much for acting your age." you grumbled. Feeling a pull in your chest you decided to follow it and ran as fast as you could.

He had been running for a short time before he slowed down into a walk, moving towards the small patch of trees and shrubs to hide behind. Sitting down in the grass he opened the small notebook up to the first page to see a quote,

A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things. ~Grace Hopper

Smiling at that he flipped through the first couple dozen pages to see small things written out, lists of things she needed to do with some things crossed off, recipes, dates to remember, a list of books. Opening the book to the next page he felt this one heavier than the other and opened it to see a small picture taped sideways to the page. Turning the book so he could see it better he saw it was a picture of a man and woman with five small children sitting all around them. Knitting his brows he looked to the couple and noticed they looked a lot like y/n. The picture looked a little old and he noticed it had a few blotches here and there. Looking back to the family he frowned, were they her parents? She said she didn't know where they were, that she hadn't ever met them, had she lied to him? Feeling the next page heavy as well he turned it and saw a pressed daffodil, written at the bottom was 'Ed'. She had wanted to remember the flowers he had given her. A few more little things went on for a while again until he came to a sketch. A sketch of the whaleship. She had done a pretty good job of drawing the ship out, she had even drew his flag beneath it. Still hung up on the fact that she may had lied to him he only felt his lip lift up a little. Going to the next section in the back of the book he found what he had been looking for.

Bucket List

Meet my parents. (Almost illegible)

Climb a mountain.

Fly in a plane.

Ride on a ship.

Canno the Smith River.

Make a friend.

See a shooting star.

Visit the Grand Canyon.

See the Niagara falls.

See the ocean.

Jump off a waterfall.

Take an art class.

Read The Great Gatsby.

Watch Dances with Wolves without falling asleep.

Go on a date.

Find a four leaf clover.

Touch a cloud.

See a shark/dolphin.

Get my first kiss.

WHAT?! She has never been kissed?! They had almost... last week. Wait, if she has never even been kissed has she never... Swallowing hard he rubbed his face. He would have to come back to that.

Mean something to someone.

That made him frown, his brows furrowing down and his heart ache.

Be apart of a family.

Sighing he dropped his head. He knew what that felt like, knew what it was like to have no one. Going to lift his head up to read again he was knocked to the ground suddenly, letting out a small 'ooff' on the way.

"Ha! Got you!" you hummed. Grabbing hold of your notebook you went to pull it from his hand, "I'll take that thank you..." When he still didn't let go you groaned but didn't get time to protest anymore before a large arm wrapped around you and pulled you to the ground beside him. "Eddddd." you whined. Trying to wiggle out of his hold to no avail you looked to see his face serious.

Laying beside her he held her still as he flipped to the page with the picture on it. He had to know, had to know if she had lied to him. "Who is this?" He asked in a firm voice. Seeing her face fall and her eyes quickly look away from the picture he frowned. "Are they your parents?"

"Yes." you whispered.

"You told me you had never met them." he said confused. He didn't want to seem angry at her but he also didn't like the idea of that she had lied to him either.

Hearing how deep his voice was you knit your brows, "I.. I haven't."

"Then how did you get their picture?" Seeing her frame curl inward some he took a deep breath, he would get nothing out of her if he didn't calm down. "I don't mean to sound angry lass I just... I don't understand."

Glancing back to the picture you felt a lump in your throat grow but quickly swallowed it down. "I looked them up..." when he knit his brows you licked your lips. "Remember that thing I was using, my laptop. I told you about the internet and how it had all this information on it." Seeing him nod you looked to him, "Well a few years ago I got up the courage to look up my parents. I didn't know anything but their names but after a while I managed to track them down. I don't know where they are exactly, just a general location. Anyways I saw that picture there and I got so happy, they were still together and I had brothers and sisters. I sent them a message telling them who I was and how I wanted to meet them, I told them how long I had been hoping to find them." Stopping to get ahold of your emotions you looked away from him, "It took a few days and I remember losing hope but then when I got home one night I had a message from them, my mother." taking a deep breath you looked down to his blond hair that was laying across his arm and onto yours some. "She told me that she was sorry but they had moved on from that time in their lives. They had started a new life with their children and they didn't want me to intrude on that. They apparently hadn't told any of my siblings about me and never wanted them to know. She said that if I really cared about them I would be happy for them and respect their wishes, that I would never try to contact them or anyone else in that family again." Feeling your lip try to tremble you bit down on it. "I printed out their picture because... well I don't really know why..." you huffed sadly. "I guess because even if they could forget me, that that didn't mean I could forget them."

He felt like such an asshole. She hadn't lied to him, she had never lied to him. She just didn't want to be reminded of more pain. His own parents had died, he hadn't been orphaned by choice, she had. He couldn't imagine ever doing that to a child. To make them feel what his lass felt, unwanted, even by her parents. The thought alone angered him and he wished he was back in her world just so he could hunt down all of the people that had ever hurt his darling.

Sniffling you took a deep breath and grabbed the book from him, closing it. Looking up into his warm yellow eyes you slowly felt your pain go away and a sense of ease come over you. Wanting to break this sad moment you grinned a little and stood, feeling his arm loosen to allow it this time. Stepping over him you looked down his wide, toned back and hummed, swinging your foot you turned it and kicked him square in his no doubt muscled ass.

Feeling her kick him, not hard enough to actually hurt but hard enough that he could feel it he felt his eyes go wide and snapped his eyes up to her. "Wha.."

"I told you I was going to kick your old ass." you huffed, crossing your arms over your chest.

"You sure you want to challenge Whitebeard darling?"

"Won't be much of a challenge with you loosing and all..." When the great Capitan only narrowed his eyes, a playful but dangerous look coming over his face you smiled and quickly ran for it. Only getting a few meters away before a light tremor shook the ground and put you off balance. Going to fall you were swept up and tossed over the massive man's shoulder like a bag of rice.

"What was that about me loosing?" He asked with a smirk.

"I was talking about swimming." you giggled but only heard him hum before laughing.

.........................

"What are you looking at hun?" Zella asked her husband who was looking down towards the valley with a soft smile on his face.

Chuckling lightly the phoenix smiled, "Nothing." Turning away from the playing man and woman by the trees, giving his pops some privacy.

............................................

Waking up suddenly he snapped his eyes open and stared at the ceiling of his bedroom. Something felt off, knowing that usually that feeling meant something involving his soulmate he got up from bed and quietly walked from the room. Seeing the bathroom door open he knew she wasn't in there. Making his way across the living room he looked down to the couch and found it empty. Quickly looking to the kitchen and dining room he saw them both empty as well and felt his brows lower. Snapping his eyes to the door he saw it unlocked, she had left the house. With a deep breath he made his way out to find her, letting his heart guide him to her.

Having woke up covered in a cold sweat and panting for air you shakingly stood from where you were sleeping and hurried outside. You didn't exactly know where you were going you just knew you had to walk, had to get away to clear your mind. Before long you had made your way down to the beach and sank down to sit in the cool sand. Pulling your knees up to your chest and hugging them you rested your chin on them and closed your eyes. Taking a deep breath you let it out in a long sigh. Thinking back to your dream you swallowed hard.

Sitting on the cold wooden floor in the middle of the dark room you breathed heavily and looked around, "Hello? Is anyone there?" No one answered at first and you licked your lips. Looking down you saw you wearing old threadbare clothes like the ones you wore when you were living on the streets for those two years. Moving to push yourself up to stand you were suddenly struck across the left cheek and fell back to the floor, your hand flying up to your burning face.

"Despicable girl."

Snapping your eyes up to the familiar female voice you saw your grandmother standing there in her usual red dress, a deep scowl on her wrinkled face. Shaking your head a little you turned to move away from her when you were stuck again, this time the hand a little larger, rougher.

"Worthless."

Your grandfather, a look of distaste in his eyes as he looked down his nose at you.

"You should have never been born." your grandmother snapped.

"No one wants her, she's so ugly."

Seeing your great aunt had joined them you swallowed hard.

"What a waste of life." Your cousin spoke.

"Stupid."

"Loser."

"...going to grow up to be a common harlot, just like her mother."

"Unsightly."

"Useless."

One by one more people crowded around you, striking you and calling out insults. Everytime you tried to get up you were hit back down to the floor until soon you could do nothing but curl up into a ball, your hands over your ears and your eyes shut tight as you tried to drown out what they were saying. When their voices got louder you felt tears fill your eyes and you started to scream.

"They're right you know."

Gasping you heard all of the other voices stop and opened your eyes to see them all gone. Turning your head you looked around the dark room until you saw him. Watching as he crouched down in front of you you stared up into those yellow eyes. Something wasn't right, why did they look so cold? Swallowing hard you parted your lips to speak, "E..ed..."

"They're right."

Furrowing your brows you licked your dry, cracked lips and started to shake your head. Before you could speak he started laughing.

"Did you really think I would ever want you?"

That wasn't his normal laugh, wasn't the one you had heard so many times before, the one that made your heartbeat a little harder in your chest. Feeling tears well up in your eyes you blinked and felt them roll down your burning cheeks.

"You're so pathetic. No one wants you, you don't mean anything to anyone, especially me." he huffed.

Feeling the lump in your throat burn you let out a little sob.

"Why would I want someone as ugly as you by my side?"

"P..plea..sssse ssstop..." you cried. Feeling him curl his finger under your chin and lift your eyes to his you looked up at him through your tears.

"I will never love you."

It felt like someone had stuck a knife straight through your heart. Feeling his finger slip from you, you dropped your head to the wooden floor and curled up as tight as possible as sobs wracked your body. You heard his deep chuckle and then the sound of his boots walking away before you were left alone in the cold darkness.

Feeling something wet land on your cheek you opened your heavy eyes and stared out at the sea, the moon reflecting off of the dark surface. Curling up tighter if possible you sniffled, another tear rolling down. It felt so real, all of it. The clenching in your heart as well. As much as you hated it you couldn't help but wonder if this was a warning of some kind. There was no doubt in your mind that you were falling for Edward, never in your life had you felt this connection with anyone, this longing, this happiness. But what if it was all too good to be true? What if he didn't feel the same? Would he grow tired of you soon as well? Would he throw you away like everyone else had? Then you would be alone again. You didn't want to be alone anymore. You didn't want to hurt anymore.

Looking out to the moonlit shore he saw her and started walking forward. What the hell was she doing out here? It was the middle of the night and she was in nothing but his damn shirt. Getting closer he went to call out for her but stopped when he saw the shining tears rolling down her cheeks. He had only seen her cry that once, when he had stopped that man from raping her. Just the sight alone made his heart ache. She looked so fragile to him in that moment with her body curled up as tight as she could, clad only in his button up shirt that was too big on her. Her hair was blowing wildly around her with tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn't look hurt to him, not physically but she was hurting that much was clear. Slowly walking over to her he saw her glossy eyes stay on the dark sea before snapping to him once he got close enough.

"E..ed..." your voice was nothing more than a broken whisper. Quickly remembering that you were crying you looked away when you saw him looking down at you with concern clear on his face. Wiping at your cheeks and eyes you mentally started cursing yourself for no doubt looking so incredibly pathetic. Here you were crying on the beach in the middle of the night, STUPID!

Not saying anything at first he crouched down beside her, placing his hand on her back. Hearing her start apologizing for waking him and telling him to go back to his home in a soft, saddened voice he furrowed his brows. When she still refused to look at him he tilted his head. "Lass, look at me."

His voice sounded so deep and low, you knew he wasn't asking. That was the voice of a captain giving an order, just maybe a little softer that he would have been with his crew. Screwing your eyes shut you tried to force away your previous emotions, not wanting to look weak.

"Y/n."

Swallowing hard at the way he said your name you slowly moved your eyes out from where you had hid them in your knees to look up at the giant of a man. You thought he might be angry, that he might be annoyed but that wasn't the case. Those weren't the cold eyes from your dream, those were warm and kind and caring. Just one look made you feel so much, his touch, his smell, his... everything. Never before had you felt so alive than you did when you were with him. How could one man, one person cause so many feelings inside of you? He made you want to smile, want to laugh and cry and... love. You loved him. YOU LOVED HIM! It was like someone had hit you with a ton of bricks and all too soon you were crying again. No, no you couldn't love him because if you loved him there was no going back. If you loved him and he didn't love you then it would break you. If you loved him and he tossed you away then it would kill you. Oh God it hurt, just the thought alone hurt, it hurt so bad.

Seeing her start crying again, her body curling up and her fingers dig into her arm he felt his heart throb. "What's wrong? Y/n, darling tell me what's wrong." he spoke in a deep voice, kneeling down to place both of his hands on her, trying to comfort her.

His touch was like a warm blanket and his voice a light shining at you from the darkness. "I'mmm afffraid." you cried without looking up at him. There were so many emotions hitting you all at once. Shame, embarrassment, fear, uncertainty, sure, delightled, doubtful...love."

Afraid. First thing that popped in his head was him, was she afraid of him? Many people were. He was sure he had never given her reason to be though, he was careful around her. "Of what, afraid of what?" She didn't answer him for sometime and he feared it was him but then she spoke one quiet word that made it all clear.

"Feeling."

He knew her past, knew what she had been through. The past was hard, it was for most and some never recovered from things that happened to them. It could make people bitter, angry and afraid. His lass had been hurt time and time again. She had been tossed aside, given away and never given the chance to develop any real relationships in her life. Everyone she had ever trusted had hurt her and so she had shut herself off. She didn't have any friends, didn't try and make friends because she was scared of being hurt again. Now though he assumed she was feeling the same thing as him and that scared her. Taking a deep breath he gently lifted her up into his arms, feeling her not even fight him. Holding her close he dipped his head down and closed his eyes, "I know you've been hurt before and this scares you but Y/n you have my word that I will never make you feel what they did. I will never leave you. I will never hurt you." he promised her in a low, deep voice.

You wanted to believe him, you really, really did but you were still afraid. Still unsure. People had made you promises before and never kept them, were his just empty words as well. Would he grow tired of you or change his mind?

Feeling her body remain tense he turned his face to her head, touching his lips and chin to her forehead. Letting out a sigh he stroked her thigh with his thumb. "There's nothing wrong with being afraid lass. Just means I'm going to have to work on making those fears go away. I'm going to spend the the rest of my days proving to you how wonderful you truly are."

"Wwwhy? Why would you... why do you c...care?" you asked in a broken cry.

Smiling he breathed in the scent of her hair, wrapping his arms around her to hold her close. "Because lass, I love you."

Gasping you opened your eyes, looking at the skin over his hard chest, feeling his heart thumping in your ear. A tear rolled down your cheek at his confession, the words you never thought you would hear anyone say to you. "Yo....uuu...mmmee?"

"Need me to say it again darling? I'll tell you everyday." he grinned. "I love you."

Fresh tears poured form your eyes but these were not from the sadness or loneliness you were so accustomed to crying about, no for the first time in your life, these were tears of pure joy.

He hadn't been expecting her arms to wrap around his neck, nor her face to nuzzle into his neck as she cried but he wouldn't complain.  Wrapping his own arms around her he hugged her as tight as he could without crushing her.

Swallowing thickly you felt a burst of courage come over you and smiled, you couldn't exactly leave him hanging."I love you."

Smiling from ear to ear he turned his face to press a kiss to her head. "You really do know how to make this old man feel young again lass." he chuckled and heard her hum softly.  When she nuzzled into his neck more, her arms still latched onto him with no signs of letting go he grinned and stood, holding her to him with one arm under her ass and the other over her back. Walking back to his home he carried her inside and locked the door. Passing by the couch he felt her head perk up some and grinned but said nothing as he walked back to his room... their room.

"Ed..."

"No more sleeping on the damn couch." he told her in a firm voice, moving into the dark room and over to the bed. Laying her down on the side closest to the wall he got in beside her and pulled the covers over the both of them. He could tell she was a little apprehensive so he got comfortable on his side, facing her, gently pushing her down to lay beside him. "Go ta sleep darling." he told her in a gentle voice.

With his arm wrapped around you, holding you to his chest you slowly relaxed, letting out a sigh. Closing your eyes you listened to the sound of his beating heart, felt the warmth of his body seep into yours.

Listening as her breathing turned deep, her body going limp against him he grinned softly. Placing a gentle kiss to her temple he felt her face nuzzle into his chest. "Goodnight my darlin'."

[frostbite-the-bat]

okay back to rambling about spectre except im not adding to that one ramble reblog chain

Okay so obviously they work for Queen since they work and probably live at the mansion

Their position isn't as high as Swatch but they are above most Swatchlings in terms of position

They do a very specific job and I'd say they're decently known for it to those who come visit Color Cafe

This idea comes from my friend, but we know that the Swatchlings do dumb stuff for Queen while remaining all fancy and stuff

Well, even if Queen genuinely cares about Spectre actually enjoying working there, just for the fun of it she goes "ight bestie well so you can keep your special role and all that make a show for me"

and they do

occasionally, Spectre will perform for Queen or any others who might want to watch with either skating or ice skatin

Or better yet...

An entire fucking musical

On skates

with all the other Swatchlings

And they fucking LOVE doing this shit!! I mean they already do soe occasional performance or trick or two at Color Cafe but they can go all out here

Even if they don't do proper ice skating as often (I think they might've even done it competetively for a while) they still love putting on any kind of a show and

They rlly enjoy making others happy so they go

YEAS QUEEN LETS GO BESTIE

Wether or not the other Swatchlings enjoy this goes from Swatchling to Swatchling but I can tell that some of them feel absolute dread when Spectre is like AYO WE DOING ANOTHER PERFORMANCE SOMETIME THE QUEEN WANTS YOU IN AND YES WE'LL HAVE CANONS PSPSPSPSPSP

They're already more energetic, jolly and silly than the usual Swatchling and while they're also pretty fancy and composed most of the time they can let their energy out on this

Also like, they do enjoy like, standing out and having attention on them so this is a bonus

Queen does genuinely enjoy this stuff and I am sure at first she was like lmao do this hell yeah sounds fun I dunno but I think she quickly realized yo y'all got talent

random other rambles i dunno

Spectre definitely overapologizes and if they screw a thing up they feel BAD BAD about it

They actually wear those protective covers on their knees because I think with how the Swatchlings can bounce with their entire body in that one attack they have

I think they're like... Pretty beefy you know? Like they also deinitely have a hard head like you cannot hurt them that way

HOWEVER skidding down like nasty ass concrete and getting a nasty fuckin scratch on your knees isnt fun anyone who went thru that can say sdfgsrgeth since fallin down on your head on something hard and skidding down a hard floor at high speeds are different kinds of damage

So they wear those since they wanna avoid that lol, they're a skilled skater, but you'd never know

They're also pretty scared of the Maice like the other Swatchlings, they're just so fast and tiny y'know

They probably don't like Tasque Manager even if they're covorkers

They like having fun sometimes and like... Bro... Not EVERYTHING HAS TO BE PERFECTLY ORDERED SHUT UP

They definitely draw little smiley faces and doodles on the customer's checks :)

If you're an asshole their niceness could possibly be exploited

They're not stupid and not so completely pacifistic as Ralsei, but they don't wanna hurt people either especially emotionally since it's very complex stuff

They still have beef with people though, like I said with Tasque Manager like they're definitely not perfect

While as a whole they're like

"Oh dear, my apologies for the mistake, why don't we get you patche dup and brew you some tea? On the house."

but they're also LMAO YEAH FUCK THAT BI-

(Sometimes, you must take inspiration from yourself but twist it in a few ways)

they like

genuinely care about other peole and all that but sometimes they do it just so the other person doesnt feel bad and say anything because therwise they will feel very bad to and during those moments they tend to just

ngvhgghGhNbghb nbghbc and just not talk they need a bit

during those moments they like to wait till the place closes and they brew themselves and sometimes watch as well some tea

sometimes theyll both talk about stuff but sometimes they just sit there in silence and enjoy the moment

I'm stating to think f them both more and more as close friends and I am liking this dynamic

I think Swatch is secretly also somewhat energetic, but not as much as Spectre

They are very talkative and love to talk, and tend to overshare as seen in their dialogue where they cut themselves off from telling a secret to a complete stranger

I think that's how Spectre knows all about the basement since they not only work with Swatch, are good friends but Swatch is also like

Dude yo so there's this creepy ass machine in the basement uh yeah don't let anyone in lol but yeah i helped build it

I like to think when they're not working bc I don't think they all work 24/7 there I think Queen would care about shifts somewhat and the well being of her workers in the long run even if she does stupid stuff with them (together) or tells them to do stupid shit sometimes

aaand while they MIGHT live at the mansion I am not sure i haven't decided yet, but I think they would

They still love coming back to the city often as they grew up there and they think it's a charming place

I wonder if they ever skated into the darker calmer streets of the city and met up with spamton post his prime and theyre like

ayo bestie THE FUCK YOU DOING HERE

hshgreth considering i established that Spectre liked Spamton as a frequent customer and recognized him a lot and how caring they are they'd loose their shit knowing he lives in a fucking dumpster DGRHERTH

probably also kinda scared of how he talks now

i also considered that i might make it canon that they were the one to see him tryna sneak to the basement with the machine while he was dressed more like Swatch like

bro bestie the fuck you doin like that outfit is fly but what the fuck im gonna have to yeet you the fuck out </3

mmm i also wonder what their relations t sweet cap'n cakes would be since y'know, they're my fav characters but like considering they DIRECTLY work for queen and that SCC are rebelling against Queen during the duration of the game and such and how far away they are it might not be the best

But maybe they'd know each other a BIT since Spactre lived in the city which is closer to where they are located AND it has some of their shop locations? I mean they wouldn't have always been set up there but who knows

Maybe they djed some music and stuff for their old skating performances

But yeah as much as I want it I am not sure how much these would be able to interact in a more canon sense, even if i go YEA LETS HAVE FUN I think SCC would be a bit :/// since they're working for QUEEN but who knows Spectre is a very sweet person and SCC are pretty chill people like you just "defeat" them by dancing with them aand they think they got you on the good side so

who knows

maybe theres funky trucies

but legit i dont know how this would work but maybe ill figure something out, but for now spectre is mostly in the queen/swatch/spamton character area and stuf

this tok a bit to ramble abt lol bc im also talking in dms but i did wanna write all of this down a bit and brainstorm some stuff maybe,,,, i dunno honestly i dont care if nobody cares but i am just! vibin here

[lovlieziam]

7 and 78 COMBINED, I DARE YOU (ALSO I LOVE YOU AND I MISSED YOUR WRITING)

Challenge ACCEPTED. Did I write this in like 20 minutes because you’re mean and threatened me? Yes I did so if it’s awful you can all go and yell at Mara!!!! Also @ mara your ass is so lucky I love you because I had an amazingly fluffy idea for this prompt, but I know how much you love angst with a happy ending so I caved and wrote this angsty piece.

7. “I thought you loved me.”

78. “Hold me and never let me go.”

Liam and Zayn had had their fair share of fights. Years of acommitted relationship is bound to have it’s ups and downs, but it had neverbeen like this. It had never been this bad—trading verbal blows likethey were in a fucking boxing ring, like it was a fight to the death and by Godone of them were going to come out on top.

“It’s not the same thing, Liam, and you should know that!”

“Jesus, Zayn,” Liam muttered back, bringing a hand up toscrub roughly down his face. “I thought we were on the same page about all ofthis.”

Zayn let out a bitter laugh across from him. “Yeah, and Ithought you loved me.”

Liam’s head jerked up, his gaze burning hot with suddenanger as it met Zayn’s own. “What did you just say?” He growled, his voicedangerously low.

“I’m just saying, Liam. You’re not even trying to seethis from my point of view.” Zayn put his hands on his hips, his scowldeepening.

And Liam, well, Liam did his best to hide the sharp, suddenstab of hurt that moved through him. Dimly, he was aware Zayn had meantfor his comment to hurt, that he wanted it to hurt and that was the only reasonhe had said it. They both had a tendency to use sharp words during a fight—butthey were never. They were never like this. It was never questioning thelove they had for each other. Their intelligence, maybe. Their judgment? Sure.But the love they had for each other? Liam had never even thought to call itinto question—he knew Zayn loved him, he hadn’t ever doubted that, even whenthey fought. But Zayn—apparently Zayn didn’t feel the same way and Liam felt—hedidn’t. Liam didn’t know how he felt about that. Hurt. Angry. Anoverwhelming sense of grief.

“Get out,” Liam barked, trying to focus on the anger he wasfeeling and obviously startling Zayn in the process, if his jump was anyindication.

“What?” Zayn asked.

“I said,” Liam hissed. “Get. Out.”

Zayn shook his head, confusion creeping over his feature.“W-why would I get out? Liam what the fuck are you on about? Why are you—”

But Liam was too angry to listen, too worked up by Zayncareless jab to even think straight. He reached out, grabbing for the nearestobject to lob at Zayn. It was his sketchbook—filled with countless doodles ofZayn, of their dogs, of happy moments Liam wanted to hold onto—and he watchedas it arched through the air, his throw wide on purpose. He wanted Zayn to shutup and leave, he didn’t actually want to hurt him.

Still, even as he felt the book leave his fingertips, heregretted the action. Regretted the ramifications it would have, the fear hemight see in Zayn’s eyes, the damage it might do to their relationship.

Zayn ducked, looking back up at Liam with wide, wide eyeswhen the impact never came despite the dull thud of the sketchbook makingcontact with something—the wall, of course it was the wall. Liam lovedZayn, he would never do anything to hurt him on purpose, even half out of hismind with rage and grief as he was.

“Liam,” Zayn breathed, his expression more confusion andcaution than fear—but it was there, barely, just lingering. Liam felt like hewas choking. He was only very dimly aware that he was shaking. His hands, hisknees, his whole fucking body. He was trembling like a leaf, his mind playingZayn’s words over and over again.

I thought you loved me. I thought you loved me. I thoughtyou loved me. Like a sick fucking mantra of Zayn’s doubt; like a chant ofLiam’s obvious mediocracy.

Apparently he couldn’t even love Zayn right, not if he wasso easily able to say something like that—like Liam’s love was soinconsequential that it became a throw away line in an argument in order tohurt him.

Liam felt like he couldn’t breathe, like his throat wasclosing up on him and his vision was starting to blur. Tears, Liam realizedwith a jolt. He was crying, his body shaking with the effort to suppress it. Itwasn’t working.

“Liam,” Zayn started again, taking a step forward, but no.No, that’s not what Liam wanted. What Liam wanted was for Zayn to leave,for him to walk away and just let Liam sort his thoughts in privacy.

“I said leave,” Liam heaved. He reached out, blindlygrasping for something again—his pencil, it was sitting next to hissketchbook—and throwing it again, the pencil arching even further away than thenotebook had. Zayn didn’t even flinch this time. “Just…please just go.”

“No,” Zayn murmured, taking a slight step forward. He wasstill so far away—a rooms length away. It felt like miles. “Li, tell mewhat’s going on. What happened? What did I miss?”

Liam shook his head. He couldn’t—he couldn’t say anythingeven if he wanted to. His throat was so tight now, the all too familiar stingof tears closing his throat off to everything but a choked-out sob. Andthen—then the ground was closing in on Liam, too. The ground getting closer andcloser until impact was imminent. Liam’s knees hit the floor with a jarringthud, the pain reverberating up his spine and causing pain to splinter in alldirections.

He was—he was so lost right now. His reaction toZayn’s words so violent, and he wasn’t even sure why. Why did—why didZayn’s doubt in him cause him so much pain?

“Liam,” Zayn gasped, rushing across the room to wrapLiam in his arms. “Liam, baby, sweetheart, please. Talk to me. God, Liam pleasetell me what’s going on. What is it, baby? What’s going on in that beautifulhead of yours?” Zayn wound a hand around Liam’s back, the other coming up tostroke the hair on his forehead back. He ducked down, trying to meet Liam’sblurry gaze.

And Liam knew, he knew, in that moment whyZayn’s words had effected him so harshly. Maybe to Zayn they were casual, a wayto cut Liam to the bone and make him angry—and they did, God, did theymake him angry at first—but it was more than that. Liam had spent over half hislife in love with this boy, doing everything to prove it to Zayn. Andthe thought, just thinking about Zayn doubting that? Thinking about Zayndoubting everything they had worked towards—worked so fucking hard for?It was soul crushing. It filled Liam with a sense of hopelessness anddread—if Liam has spent most of his life trying to show his love for Zayn andZayn still doubted that? Fuck, but it made Liam want to die.

“No, no, no, no, no, Liam please, sweetheart. God, no. Idon’t think that,” Zayn was muttering into Liam’s hair, his sentences jumbledand mostly filled with ‘no’s and ‘I’m sorry’s. It didn’t make sense—why Zaynwas saying that—until it registered that most of Liam’s stream of consciousnesshad been vocalized—without even realizing it, he’d told Zayn exactlywhat had made him so desperate and wretched in that moment.

“Zayn,” Liam croaked, his voice shaky and choppy and morebreaks than actual, coherent sounds. “Zayn, I do. Please I do love you, don’t—”

“No, god, Liam, I know. I know you do, sweetheart. You’vedone nothing but prove it. I didn’t—I didn’t mean it. I was angry and Iwanted, wanted. God, Liam, I’m so sorry. I know you love me. I’ve neverdoubted that, okay? I’m just so fucking stupid sometimes, I—”

Liam let out a wet laugh, his body still shaking and hismind still reeling, still grasping at the sheer amount of emotioncoursing through him right now. He launched himself into Zayn’s arms, cuttingoff whatever the other man was saying.

“Zayn,” he choked. “I need, please, I need—”

“Whatever you want, Li. Just tell me, please. Whatever youneed, I’ll give it to you, just ask. I promise.”

“Just, please, Zed. Please, hold me and never let go.”

It was Zayn’s turn to let out a wet chuckle, his grip onLiam tightening just this side of painful. “Never, Li. God, I’m never lettingyou go anywhere. Even when I’m dumb, I’ll—”

“I’m dumb sometimes, too,” Liam mumbled, and Zayn laughed.Bright and loud, and so, so soothing for Liam’s still-cracked heart.

“So we’ll be dumb together, then. Forever. God, I love youso much, Li.”

Liam burrowed further into Zayn’s arms, still shaky and hisvision still blurred with tears. But—but Zayn was holding him, and Zayn knew heloved him, and that was all that mattered—that was all that evermattered.

“I love you, too, Zed.”

[hackedmotionsensors]

Here we go Endgame lets talk about it! 

BELOW THE CUT

So I’ll say this!!! Over all!!! I liked it a lot. For a lot of reasons.

I also HAAAATTTEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDD a lot of some of the choices. That’s okay. We can have mixed feelings about movies especially the end of a saga. I think they did a good job of getting nods where they needed nods, bringing in storylines from previous movies and conversations that needed to happen.

And they fucking whiffed it on at least THREE REALLY IMPORTANT THINGS!!!

So lets start with what I liked.

1) STEVE TONY EVENT. DO YOU HEAR ME IT WAS A STEVE TONY EVENT  aaaah oh my god. From the second Tony lands back on the planet and Steve RUNS to him before even Pepper and he’s holding him and just the look of agony as Pepper takes him away and the fight where Tony says ALL THE SHIT WE HAD BEEN SAYING!!!! WHERE WERE YOU! YOU LIAR!!! and he RIPS HIS HEART OFF OF HIS CHEST AND GIVES IT TO STEVE BECAUSE YOU FUCKING BROKE HIS HEART YOU FUCKING FUCKED UP STEVE!!!!! FUCKK!!!! And then reconciling because “Resentment is corrosive” UGHHH!!! And Steve just barely containing himself when Tony shows up ughh!! UGHHH!!!!!!! AND THE ASS JOKE!!! THERE’S NO HETEROSEXUAL EXPLANATION ABOUT THAT!!!! TONY SAW STEVES ASS AND WAS LIKE TAN FRANCED IT LIKE BITCH YOU NEED AN FRENCH TUCK OF MY DING DONG IN YOUR BUTT!!! and Steve over the intercom being like “omg tony not in front of the kids” AND A STEVETONY SOLO MISSION!!!!!! 

A STEVE TONY...

SOLO

MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TONY CALLING STEVE MY MAN  WOW. WOW. FUCKING EXCELLENT ON ALL ACCOUNTS THANKS SO MUCH!! I was given some bread thank you I will eat this stevetony bread nom nom nom nom nom.

2) Tony’s arc in this story was really beautiful. He finally got what he wanted, some perspective and closure with Howard. And I know initially you want to go “Hey Howard was really abusive” and yeah he was. But its complicated. Because Tony even says in Homecoming he was trying to break the cycle of abuse and he DID with Peter and Morgan. You can see just HOW MUCH he cares for his daughter and he was willing to say fuck you to the UNIVERSE in favor of not losing her. Its always a different perspective when you see your parents as people and not as YOUR PARENTS. 

Also Tony lying on the table with Natasha UuU. A lot of the interactions with Tony and the other characters were so good. Tony and Rocket. Tony and Nebula. Tony and Carol (tho brief). Tony arguing with Pierce like his little gay senses were like “This guys a nazi I bet”

3) I genuinely liked the Time Heist. I DID  NOT LIKE THE RULES OF TIME TRAVEL IN THIS MOVIE BUT I’LL GET TO THAT. But I looooved the Time Heist. From the New York stuff with Steve fighting Steve and knowing his dumbass loses his shit when he hears things like “Bucky’s still alive” and being done with his own stupid shit “I can do this all day” “YEAH I KNOW” (which btw at this point was basically the last thing he said to Tony in Civil War so maybe that doesn’t have its plucky little fire anymore and now is a sore spot). I loved Loki running away with the Space Stone (even tho as of now I’m still not sure what the FUCK THAT MEANS!? more on that in a sec) Loki making fun of Cap. Loki rolling his eyes at Odin. Tony dressed in a shield outfit screaming Medic!!! The gang all on the elevator and Hulk screaming about it and LOKI WAVING HIS HAND AT THE HULK AS THE DOORS SHUT!! TONY SITTING ON THE BRIEFCASE! SCOTT GOING “how the FUCK did you not know they were Hydra LOOK AT THEM They’re a COP!” Then jumping forward to the 70s and Steve’s legs that went all the way up to his asshole and Tony dressed as a doctor

I drew a doodle of it here you go lol I’ll post it properly later

oh did this not happen? Idk what movie you were watching.

4) The big battle at the end was SO FUCKING COMIC BOOK I WAS LOSING IT. Also I keep calling it the Battle of Five Armies or Return of the King lol T’challa BATHED IN A HALO OF LIGHT LIKE YES WE STAN A KING. MY WIFE

MY.

WIFE!!!!!!!!

VALKYRIE!!! ON HER BEAUTIFUL WHITE HORSE!!!! (also not being given an actual name and called Valkyrie is the funniest goddamn thing. Like that’s like going into a Footlocker and talking to the manager but calling them Manager)

CAROL!!!!!! WITH HER BUTCH ASS HAIRCUT PUNCHING THANOS IN THE MOUTH AND WRECKING HIS SHIT

WANDA FINALLY FUCKING FLYING. LIKE. F L Y I N G. THAT is what the Scarlet Witch is SUPPOSED TO DO!! SHE’S SUPPOSED TO BE SO POWERFUL IT TOOK EVERYONE TO TAKE HER DOWN CMON!!!!!! And she almost got him too. Honestly if it were down to Carol and Wanda they probably could have ended Thanos alone. 

Korg coming back for more comic relief AND PUTTING HIM IN TAIKA’S PINEAPPLE ONESIE!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING.

5) This is controversial. And I know it won’t age well. And that’s okay and feel free to disagree with me entirely. 

But I liked Fat Thor lmfao. I know it was played as a joke for the wrong reasons but I laughed. I was like fuck yes his belly looks like mine and that’s not why it was funny and it SHOULDN’T BE but I laughed lol. But on the other hand I think it had partially to do with Hemsworth constantly being like “no no we don’t need a shirtless scene” or just sort of a gag at how Marvel always has a shirtless scene and its just kind of funny to have it not be someone cut. EVEN THOUGH its a fat suit and I can’t take off my fat suit but Hemmy can and that’s kinda shitty. 

but I laughed. I can’t help it. He was a whole ass mess and I thought it was funny. And I know there are Thor fans out there who wanted more for him but like I said before this was a SteveTony event. This movie and this win worked because it was Steve and Tony finally coming together again.

It felt honestly the most comic book Avengers of the entire series. 

And true to comic book events

it whiffed the landing.

Before I get into dislikes I’ll say that I liked this movie more than I disliked it. I cried H A R D at the end of the movie. Because its not a movie that’s an on its own kind of movie. You had to have gone through the journey to get here. The pay off is completely lost if you only watch this movie. Or you only watch one or two of the MCU. Or if you’re like a few people I’ve talked to where they only like Steve and Tony. Or they only like Thor and Loki. Or they only like the Guardians and hate the avengers. If you have hate in your heart for any of these characters the payoff of this movie is pretty much lost.

The theme of this movie is clearly about moving on when things come to an end. When things stop or end or we lose people we love you have to move on. Steve says that at the beginning of the movie to our apparent gay representative straight director Joe Russo.

But like Tony said before.

Steve’s a fucking liar lmfao

But lets not start there. Lets start with the fucking timeline.

I hate.

I H A  T E EEEEEEEEE TIME TRAVEL!!!!!! AS A PLOT!!!!!!! WITHOUT ANY RULES!!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed what we SAW of the Time travel but the rules itself DIDN’T MAKE ANY FUCKING SENSE.

So when they’re suiting up Hawkeye for the test run Bruce explicitly says that all these movies that say “if you go into the past and fuck up the past you fuck up the timeline and the present/future is fucked because you’ve changed things”

ARE WRONG. HE SAYS THEY ARE WRONG. He says “If you go into the past. The past becomes your present. But the present then becomes your future. So you can’t go back and un fuck your parents to make you. Or kill baby Thanos. because that happened and you can’t change that but you can change youre present”

WHICH DOESN’T

MAKE ANY

FUCKING

SENSE. BECAUSE THEN YOU AREN”T TIME TRAVELING!!!!!!!!! 

If you go into the past yes YOU are in your present but the world is still being written around you STILL so you go into the past and change something (loki making off with the space stone) that’s CHANGED. You’ve created a new reality.

THEY EXPLICITLY SAY THIS IN DOCTOR STRANGE AND Y’ALL I KNOW DOCTOR STRANGE WAS BORING AS HELL BUT IF YOU’RE GOING TO USE TIME TRAVEL AS YOUR STORY DEVICE THEN YOU CAN’T SAY THAT SHIT IN DOCTOR STRANGE DOESN’T WORK WHEN YOU’VE ESTABLISHED IT AS THE RULES OF TIME TRAVEL.

THE ANCIENT ONE EVEN SAYS “you create a new reality. And it fucks shit up”

LIKE!?!?!??!

WHAT THE HELL!!!

So now Loki has the time Stone in reality B, in reality A Steve goes back and puts the stones back where they belong (and I guess.....gives the soul stone to Red Skull????????? wouldn’t you try to get Natasha back????like that itself is a whole movie of Steve going back and putting things away but ??????) 

And then we get to the end of the movie where Steve says Fuck you to Peggy’s reality A family and now on this timeline where they’ve time traveled he lived an entire life WITH Peggy but like.......you were Captain America and you just said “No don’t worry about JFK being assassinated. Or the Civil Rights movement. Or stopping Bucky in any capacity. Or maybe saving MLK. Or Peggy continuing to join SHIELD. Or stopping ACTUAL NAZIS from infiltrating SHIELD.

Because if you go with this idea that Steve went back and “lived a life” What did he DO then. What did he FUCKING. DO?

You’re not Steve from 1940s going back to 1940s. You’re Steve form 2019 going back to 1940s. No wifi. No medicine. No cell phones? Gays are still being persecuted. You can’t drink from the same fountain as black people (or rather they can’t drink from your white fountain). 

You are.

CAPTAIN.

AMERICA.

and you just said nah fuck it its fine? This shit can all happen but I don’t super care because I get to dance with Peggy. Peggy who on her own had this whole life. Who did all this stuff IN YOUR NAME IN YOUR HONOR. Who married someone else. Who had a FAMILY. Who had a NIECE that you made out with. And just..... wha....

Like if he had gone back and danced with her but came back with Natasha in exchange for the soul stone but during his travels had aged. Or met someone else.

Like movie wise and story wise I get wrapping up Steve’s story. And maybe the person Peggy is talking about in the video of her in TWS is actually Steve from 2019. Maybe that’s it. But it still doesn’t make sense because they FUCKED UP THE RULES OF TIME TRAVEL SO WHO THE FUCK KNOWS.

So. lol I wasn’t a huge fan of Steve at the end of the movie. I know they needed to do something to end the movie with a finality. With Steve being DONE. But instead of finality or closure I just have so many goddamn questions. And I don’t hold it against Evans or even really the directors per say. But I’ll blame Markus and McFeely because they were writing since TWS. They HAD the Cap STORYLINE to write about and that was how they ended it.

its like when you pack for a very important trip and you plan out all your outfits but then wake up late and end up throwing whatever you can find into your suitcase and run out the door.

It felt final and not final.

But I’ll tell you this. From my perspective and obviously I’m going to skew it this way because its me and FEEL FREE to disagree with me.

He left because Tony and Natasha were dead. The two people that he felt the closest to (sorry Sam, Bucky and Sharon [who we didn’t even see as dusted wow]) were gone. Natasha and Steve had become a brother and sister. He would always come back for her clearly. Trying to cheer her up as she’s crying. Natasha understanding Steve’s feeling of being lost. Tony inspiring and fighting with Steve. Like that’s part of what I liked about this is taht you could really feel how Steve and Tony needed each other for this to work but also they needed to not hate each other. 

Also I kinda knew the second Scott said “That’s a one way trip!!” before the 70s bit that Steve was going to stay in the past lol What an asshole.

Also I don’t think it was very UN-Captain America because I think people don’t always realize that a lot of the inspo for the MCU came ALSO from Ultimates. And if Ults Cap was able to go back to the past he would have in a heartbeat. Who was a more depressed Cap? Ults or MCU? I just don’t know.

Now.

Natasha.

This was another one I kind of saw coming from a mile away as soon as it was just the two of them on Vormir. I was kind of hoping they’d Hawkeye a way out of the deal by like throwing his daughters picture or something like that. Or that it would be Hawkeye. But they both had an upcoming movie/series so I didn’t know which way it went.

And then there was that big jump. And I was like oh my god they did it right

AND THEN THEY FUCKING DIDN’T.

Wow. Wowwwwwwwwww

Markus and McFeely 

REALLY DID THAT

THE RUSSO BROTHERS REALLY DID THAT

THEY DID THE SAME FUCKING SCENE TWICE.

The first time you get because Thanos is a dick and abusive and he would absolutely throw his favorite daughter into the soul pit (which I guess Isn’t picky because she didn’t love him back she hated him but I guess its a one way street with the ol’ soul stone)

And they don’t say during that one (far as I remember) that its a permanent exchange. 

But they sure emphasized this time. And they sure killed the original avenger who was the only girl on the team. Who never got a chance to live.

Who Whedon made herself call heself a monster because she can’t have a family and then she gets a found family and then SHE DIES. THEY KILL HER. AFTER HAVING A FAMILY.

WHAT THE FUCK. Like...my problems with Scarjo aside (which are similar with my problems with Paltrow) You DID. BLACK. WIDOW. FUCKING. DIRTY. I don’t care that there’s a movie coming out that was her story. You were supposed to give her a fucking story. And now her story is only how she relates to her TEAM OF MEN.

And now to my last point that I didn’t like. And I don’t hate this one as much as Steve’s ending or Natasha’s ending.

I don’t like that Tony died. I know this is wrapped up in a lot of emotions I have about Tony Stark the character. Robert Downey Jr the person. Tony Stark the character in all his forms is very important to me and I love that he has many forms. 616, Ults, AvAc, Avengers Assemble, the MCU. But his story is important to me. And its heartbreaking. I’m tearing up a bit now writing this out. 

I’m just the type of person that hates that a character, in a fantasy setting where you have wizards, valkyries, robots, talking raccoons and trees, Dave Bautista, a giant green rage monster wearing chinos, that you have to take this one part and make it realistic. That we have to keep realism kill this character off because it doesn’t make sense if someone doesn’t die. Because the stakes aren’t high if you don’t make them personal as well.

Which is true like you don’t have high stakes (the planet or universe getting dusted) if you don’t are about some of the people in that universe personally.

I just would have rather he had retired. Moved onto his little farm with Pepper and Morgan.

I think they did right by Tony. Storywise, ending...all the stuff the dropped the fucking ball on with Natasha and Steve they gave to Tony. And on one hand I get it and I appreciate that because (sorry to nat and steve fans truly) I care more about Tony. Tony started this whole thing. In a miracle of accidents they got the right actor, the right story, the right character, the right director, the right timing technology wise, the right social mood and made solid gold. And none of this would have happened if it weren’t for that amazing accident that happened.

And I think it has more to do with not wanting to let go or move on even though i can always go back to Iron Man 1 at any point and start the journey over again and have a laugh but there’s always going to be that ending where its final. Its done. Its over. And in the simplest of terms. I don’t like it. You have to know when to bow out and I respect and appreciate that. I don’t wanna see Iron Man 8 with geriatric old RDJ trying to fumble into a mocap suit.

I understand. I appreciate. But I don’t have to like it as a person. And that’s okay.

Its all about moving on isn’t it? That’s the theme of the movie. Moving on.

Even if you’re steve and your moving on wipes out the existance of a whole other family lmfaaoidnsfasfada sorry sorry. 

Okay. yeah that’s all I think I can think of. I’m sure there’s a ton more other people have mentioned aside from what I wrote. Like its a LONG movie and I think its hard to say hey “they fucked this up” or “they got this right” for EVERY SINGLE THING. There were so many characters. Nebula’s story could have been better. Thor’s story could have been more involved. Hawkeye could have been more important throughout the series. Janet could have come back for the final fight and healed Tony. Like there’s a ton of “this COULD have happened” But it didn’t. And that’s okay. It may not be right but its okay. I think they wrapped it up as best you could while still making a good movie. I think you probably can go back after a long while and look at the Endgame and go yeah that wasn’t so bad for an ending. Endings are hard to do with any sort of skill. Its why the joke that the third movie always sucks. 

There’s still a ton of stuff to look forward to.

Falcon/Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye, Wanda and Vision (i GUESS??? lol), Black Widow’s movie. 

Maybe Steve solved more than he let on who knows. WHO KNOWS. Maybe Mjolnir left him haflway through the journey when she knew he was going to ditch his 2019 family (who again....mostly dead now)

I love Tony 3000. Which I found out is more than a ton which makes Morgan Stark a lot smarter than I am lmfao

[ordersreality]

Crossroads

Ekúi, still sore from the swim and weary from the medication, decided to stay at home, that night. After all, he hadn’t been invited and his big brother can always fill him in, later.

The first thing Second Class Petty Officer Kirk Samuel Hicks, the Coast Guard Instructor, said when Cull got there was, “Go ahead and tie the dog outside. We won’t have room for him.”

Azif reluctantly agreed to play along.

Just in time to hear his name taken in the role call. “Azif i-Sabba? Sounds Iranian, you a terrorist son?”

“Yezidi, Sir, and a terror only to my vitals, Sir.”

“Yezidi? Never heard of them!”

“Must be because you do not listen, can we get on with the class, Sir?”

He called on “Colin Ironwode? What kind of fool name is that?” Then with a little more volume, “Ironwode!?”

The teen opened the door, “Does that mean the ‘dog’ can join the class now?”

“Wait, ‘you’ are Trainee Colin Ironwode?”

“Intern, Son, and yes. And that is ‘iron wood, not iron wad; it’s a weed, not a spit ball, Khurg.”

About that time Captain Madoc stepped to the door, and not realizing the mess that was just made, “Ironwode, what the hell are you blocking the door for?”

“Sorry Captain, I’m tied up for the moment. Still waiting on the Little Officer to let me play with his toys.”

His crew mates thought that was just a little too much, but contained the giggling rather well.

Madoc was still not amused. He opened the door he swept his hand to wave xer in.

Cull grabbed a blue plastic, butt-slider chair at the back, turned it around, and climbed in as best xe could.

Meanwhile, Hicks just had to ask, “Why didn’t you tell me you were signed up for this class?”

“Why did you ass-u-me I wasn’t? You did not even ask, just commanded I be tied up. A fetish of yours, Mate?”

“But, your not hu-,” the man gestured at the body in that blue chair, trying to make sense of what was going on, sputtering, badly.

While Cull patiently waited for the ignition, Hicks went onto the next name on the list, with better courtesy, now that the good Captain was present.

This was followed by what even Madoc thought was a boring rendering of Coast Guard History, skipping over the less popular events like turning the fleet into engines of war during every major military event. Cull had taken to writing one of those Drheigr nursery rhymes when Hicks passed down the isles handing out a booklet.

Cull just couldn’t figure if the man was afraid he wouldn’t have enough, or if someone would get more than their share. The Petty Officer grabbed the doodle and demanded, “What the hell is this?” Without waiting for an answer, “Not in my class!” While the dragon-skinned teen was repressing a growl, “Put that away, you won’t need it here.”

“Um, put what away?”

Tapping the Input Recorder, “That cell-phone, you won’t need it.”

“Khurg, that ‘thing’ is anchored to my skull. It isn’t going anywhere I am not.”

The instructor moved to take it when Madoc barked, “Leave it, Petty Officer!”

“But, Sir,” the Petty Officer whined, “the class, what if it rings!?”

Cull simply grunted, and offered, “It is not a cell-phone. If it rings, I’m the only one who would hear it. Can we focus on the class, Khurg, or can I go home and get some …?”

“… Ironwode!” Madoc barked. “Hicks, either teach the class or get out of my way so I can do it!”

Much subdued and clearly chastised, the Coast Guard Petty Officer continued to distribute his booklet to the rhythm of pages being turned. Though angered by the act without permission, he held his tongue.

When he returned to the front, Hicks asked, “What are the three most important components to an investigation, anyone?”

The seconds ticked on, again to the sounds of pages being turned, without a single volunteer. Feeling somewhat responsible for the silence, Cull raised a winged hand.

Reluctantly, owing mostly to the lack of participation from the thirty-two students before him, he pointed.

“First, blood, sweat, and tears, ninety-percent: then educated and talented deductive reasoning, eight-percent: finally, Anomalous Thought Entities, three-percent.”

“That does not add up, um, Son.” When no explanation was forthcoming, “So, what are ‘Anomalous Thought Entities’?”

“Ideas, hunches, connections, sudden bursts of inspiration, wild-ass chains of reasoning, knowing something without knowing how you come to know it, that sort of thing.”

“And you think it’s that important?”

Shrugging, “It helps.”

“I have never heard of someone relying on ‘hunches’ as a major part of the investigation.”

“Um, my 101% might be a bit fuzzy, but how is ‘three-percent’ a ‘majority’?”

“Tell me, ‘Cull’, how much field experience do you actually have?”

“You mean with the Authority? I don’t know, counting …, wait, is this paid time?”

“Just answer the question!”

“Thirty-two-and-a-half hours, give or take. That would not be counting the times I spent on paleontological digs with my uncle.”

“Thirty-two-and-a-half hours, give or take? Well, I have you know, after eighteen years in the First Fleet I have never entertained a single hunch. Pure science young, um, is it man or woman?”

“Imán, Khurg.” The look of confusion, though entertaining, dispelled any further explanation. “Choose one that entertains you the most, and go with it. I do.”

Then plowing into the ensuing silence, “Petty Officer, after eighteen years you should know that pure science includes both a recognition of ourselves as part of the subject of observations, as well as the knowledge of how very little we really know. I’ve seen people digging in the dirt for hours only to get dirty. And someone accidentally digs where they weren’t supposed to because they thought they saw something, and ‘Dingo!’ a prize in minutes. I’ve also seen someone ignore those hunches and get very hurt. Now, if you don’t mind, I will trust my nearly seventeen years of life experience over your mindless service to our country, any day.”

“Captain, do I have to tolerate this insolence? If he were in the Coast Guard….”

“…I think you would be in chains, Sir. You came to this class with insolence on your tongue. Azif has done nothing to you and yet you call him a terrorist? In a world where that could get him in a lot of hot water? Extraordinary rendition mean anything to you? Pinochet maybe? I don’t even care that you call me a dog, make fun of my name, but he’s my crew mate. I wonder if you even have any friends, Khurg!”

“Captain!?” When Madoc didn’t say anything, “Tell me this, have you ever had a single ‘hunch’ pay off?”

“Just this last Saturday,” Azif replied. “Xe saved a child’s life with it, Sir.”

“What? I don’t get that, how could she have saved a child’s life with a stupid hunch?”

“Story, Petty Officer,” Cull went forward, “the parts that are up for public consumption, that is. I’m floating up there, getting a workout because the ceiling winds are pretty disorganized at the time. I drop down a bit to get some rest and I smell petrol burning. Knowing what I do about the winds I try to follow the smell with my mind as best I can, leading to the discovery of low lying, whitish smoke accented with a taste of black. I fly over there to investigate and notice the boat had already sunk, and a man swimming for Mazatla Peninsula. I’m in contact with my skipper and alert him to my findings. But, I find I am entirely too interested in the sinking boat, and decide to learn why—the singular Anomalous Thought Entity in my equation. The schooner is sinking slowly, nose up, natural I guess if there is still air caught in it. So I open a locked hatch, swim up inside, and there is this little, maybe seven-year-old boy, frightened, feeling very unloved. He says his daddy’s angry with him, I ask where his daddy is, get him to come with me, and learn his dad is now arrested. So, I suppose that ‘one’ hunch saved a boy’s life and lead to a criminal investigation.”

Madoc added, “Not to mention, there were barbiturates in the boy’s stomach. His inhaler was fighting them off. Cull thought enough to grab a baggy and collect the evidence before the fish did.”

“That was just an act of due diligence, Sir, not a hunch.”

“And where were you when you heard the explosion?”

“I don’t know that there was one. I was 33 fathoms over Elephant Island.”

“There wasn’t, just fire,” Madoc added.

“So, how did you learn of it?”

“Okay, let me replay what I said so I know I said it; yes, yes-yes, okay, yes, right after the upper atmosphere turbulence, I told you I smelled the petroleum burning.”

“You must have some pretty special talents to have been made part of the service. Where do you hail from, son?”

Somewhere in the distance a phone rang.

“My mother. Tell me, Second Class PO, eighteen years, and only an E5?”

“Um, nothing to worry about.”

“Good, can we get on with the class? I have some personal training in a few hours and would like some rest before then? We are supposed to be discussing ‘Coast Guard Forensic Procedures,’ not airing your personal issues out.”

The Captain’s personal phone rang, quietly.

The Petty Officer barked, “See, that phone rang!”

Ignoring the charge, “Cull, there is a problem we could use your help with.”

“What and where?”

“Lincoln Street Bridge, the top of the south pillar, a man looks like he might jump. They want us there to collect if he does.”

“Let them know I’m on my way. What frequency?”

“Em-4. What are you waiting for?”

“Sir, only one of us is passing through that door; right, thanks.”

Out, down, and up, Cull found the warm night air a bit thin, but usable.

Madoc simply added, “Class dismissed, Petty Officer, you are on report.”

“What?”

“You spent three quarters of your valuable class time—which is supposed to contributed to these people’s certification—on anything but the subject you were sent to teach. Azif, did he insult you? There, the very reason you are still only a Petty Officer.”

“Well, he kept calling me Khurg, it’s Kirk.”

Greg, who was carrying a heavy load toward the dry-dock, followed by am orc carrying a heavier load, “That would be orchish, mister, means ‘dog’. Did he say it kindly or cruelly?”

· • º • ·

[briannamarguerite]

I had an hour to kill and forgot my laptop so I wrote a quick Drabble off @londonfoginacup ‘s tags on a post with football-shaped bread (namely “baker Harry tries to woo Louis”) I wrote this on my phone so soz about typos😂)

Harry wanted to be romantic and say it was the boy’s eyes he noticed first. And he did get around to those, he did (they were pure and deep blue, the color of the evening sky just after the sun completely slipped below the horizon but before the black of midnight. See, would someone who was not romantic be able to come up with that?)

Or his smile. The one that Harry would later realized he craved, would later do everything in his power to earn. The one that tickled out the crinkles that told of a life spent laughing.

But in truth it was the boy’s ass that he noticed first. Harry couldn’t be faulted really, because it had been at eye-level at the time he’d realized anyone else had even come into the bakery.

He blamed it on the tray. Or the crack in the floor that no one else ever seemed to trip over but Harry swore was real (it was fucking real okay Susan?). And that’s how he ended up on his knees in front of the most delectable ass he’d ever encountered. It was plump, and jiggled beneath the worn gray of the boy’s joggers, and Harry curled his fingers until they dug into the flesh of his palm to stop himself from reaching out, making sure this wasn’t some sex-drought hallucination.

“Oh hello,” the boy said once he noticed Harry, his friendly smile bending toward bemused curiosity as Harry continued to gape (Or perhaps PERHAPS Harry was making that serial killer face everyone got creeped out by but that he could never seem to control until it was too late.) The boy crouched down, his thighs (his glorious thighs! Had Harry been killed dead by his ass? He was brought back to life with the thick perfection that pulled and bunched beneath the fabric). “Need help, Love?” The boy asked, his strong northern accent dropping the spaces between the words, reminding Harry of home.

Harry shook his head. Speech seemed ambitious at the moment, so he simply waved a general hand at the mess (what the hell that was supposed to accomplish he didn’t know) and then pushed to his feet. The boy followed suit.

By the time Harry made it back to the register, he’d somewhat untangled his tongue (don’t think about your tongue you bloody idiot) and managed a weak “Harry” followed by a wide-eyed stare he could only hope would be interpreted as, tell me your name please because I want to know what to call my future husband and also please be gay thank you.

“Louis” The boy said, his (beautiful evening sky) eyes all but gone with the force of his smile.

“Help you?” Harry got out past the disappointment that he couldn’t start doodling his future last name yet.

Louis glanced down at baskets of bread under the register, and Harry sighed both relieved and utterly devastated that he no longer held louis’ full attention.

“Lads and I are kicking around over at the park, but I’m starved. Have any sandwiches?”

Harry jumped into action (okay so it wasn’t technically on the menu but Louis needed to be fed, and who was Harry not to rise to the challenge?) and made Louis his famous ham and cheese using the special gourmet ingredients he kept in the bakery’s mini fridge for his own lunches.

“Cheers, love,” Louis said dropping his change in the tip jar. He bit into the sand which right then and there and Harry’s breath caught on the wrong side of his windpipe as he waited for the verdict. “Fucking sick, mate,” Louis said flashing Harry a thumbs up.

Then he walked out of Harry’s life, leaving only one last image of his perfect juicy peach pressing against thin fabric to fuel Harry’s after work stress relief. (Sex drought okay?)

The ladies of the bakery at first were endeared by Harry’s lamenting that he’d missed his chance with the boy who was clearly his soulmate, but their smiles took on a brittle edge by the end of the week.

It wasn’t until the next Saturday when Harry was vacillating between resignation that now that he’d met and lost the boy who was clearly the love of his life he was clearly destined to live alone, and blind faith that fate surely would bring them together once more when the bell on the door chimed.

The problem was he was near that crack again (which WAS REAL) and he was carrying a tray of cookies and honestly it wasn’t his fault, what was he supposed to do when his future husband was BACK and standing there in A SHEER WHITE T SHIRT that brought out the deep caramel of his skin? That revealed the sharp edges of his collarbones.

Well he ended up on the floor again, of course.

But then Louis was crouching next to him with that smile, the one that promised slow Sunday mornings, and stupid tickle fights, and private jokes shared across crowded tables at dinner parties. “So this is a common occurrence, is it?”

From then on Louis came into the bakery every Saturday, and Harry managed to stay on his feet (okay most of the time, god, alright?).

And they actually started talking. It was slow at first because Harry’s gaping kind of put a crimp on banter. But by the fourth visit they were chatting favorite music (indie for Louis, classic rock for Harry) by the sixth, family (“only one sister? Bless, I’ve got five meself and a brother on top of that) by the eighth, future plans (they were both in school but Louis wanted to try acting, Harry was mulling pastry institutes).

The problem was louis was very much not picking up on Harry’s attempt to woo him. Which, alright he admitted was subtle. But he’d baked the sandwich bread into a heart (and a smiley face and a star and any number of cute creative shapes to let louis know he was thinking about him) for gods sake. What else did a boy have to do to get asked on a date?

“why don’t you just ask him out, dear?” Babs asked as she watched him with his latest attempt (a football and to be honest if this didn’t work he didn’t know what would).

“Cuz” Harry said stubbornly pressing lines into the sticky dough, knowing he was being irrational.

When Louis came in that day, he was beautiful as always, a beenie perched on his windswept hair, turning all this features sharp and gorgeous. He smiled that smile at Harry and this time it promised Friday nights and silk sheets and lace underwear and expensive wine. Or Harry could just really be suffering from his sex drought.

“Hi Lou,” Harry sighed resting his arms on the counter in such a way to casually draw attention to the football-shaped bread in the basket.

“Umm,” Louis didn’t in fact look down. No instead his eyes were on the menu board above Harry’s head (come on! He hadn’t changed his order in all the weeks he’d been coming in. Harry tapped the glass, done with subtlety.) Louis’ eyes snapped to his and then darted away, his hands shoved in his pockets as he rocked back on his heels. If harry didn’t know better he’d say Louis was nervous.

“Yeah? harry prompted and there was pinging going on in the back of his brain, like he should be realizing something, but the messages weren’t quite getting through his Louis fog.

“Was wondering if you’d like to go out with me,” Louis said on one breath so that all the words slurred together and jumbled inside Harry’s head where a part of his brain had understood and was popping champagne while the other (which unfortunately was in charge of his motor functions) was struck dumb so that he was just left staring.

Louis flushed (a pale pretty rose color tint Harry noticed) and started backing away. “I mean ... sorry if ... misunderstood ... read this wrong ...”

“No!!” Harry’s desperation was somehow enough to get the word out and as louis’ face fell he nearly ripped off his tongue for how it must have sounded. “I mean yes!! You didn’t misread. I’d love to please thank you very much. Yes.”

Some point during Harry’s ramblings, Louis’ smile came back. And this time it promised tuxes and aisles and registries and (ok don’t get ahead of yourself here Harold).

“Sick,” Louis said on an exhale and then they both grinned at each other stupid and silly as they exchanged numbers.

Just before Louis turned to head out, he stopped, his eyes on the basket of bread. “Oh that’s so cool, you know if you squint hard enough those actually look like footballs.” He said it with a laugh and a wave and Harry told himself it wouldn’t be well done for him to murder his future husband.

[raendown]

Pairing: MadaraTobirama + HashiramaMito Word count: 1964 Summary: Everyone in the world has two soulmates, platonic and romantic. Only your platonic soulmate can find your romantic soulmate for you. Hashirama should have known who Madara was the moment they met. Tobirama did know who Mito was as soon as they met. Everything would be so much easier if they were able to just say something about it to each other but since when does the universe like making things easy?

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI

Chapter 3: Of Blind Dates and Bad Timing

Madara played with the cufflinks on his shirt as he tilted his head back to take in the glitzy sign hanging above the restaurant. Why Izuna wanted them to eat here was beyond him when there were no less than five burger joints within walking distance of their apartment building. They didn’t have to spend so much money on a stupidly fancy meal at some overpriced restaurant and, honestly, Madara got pretty tired of wearing suits to work every day so he sort of resented having to wear one to dinner too. But if this was what Izuna wanted to do then Madara was willing to dress up a bit more than usual to spend some time with his baby brother.

The hostess greeted him with a saccharine smile and an appreciative once over which lifted his spirits a little even if she wasn’t really his type. It was always nice to be noticed. Unfortunately the table he was led to was suspiciously empty. Madara frowned because Izuna was supposed to be coming here straight from the office; he should have made it here ten minutes ago.

Despite the lack of brotherly company there wasn’t much for Madara to do but slip in to his seat and accept the menu with a curt nod, abandoning it immediately in favor of the wine list. He was definitely going to make Izuna pick up the tab tonight. Which meant he was definitely ordering an expensive bottle of wine to go with their meal. He was smirking to himself while he perused the finest reds on offer when a deep voice from just behind him piqued his interest, making him twist in his seat to peer over one shoulder.

His heart skipped uncomfortably as he took in the sight of Senju Tobirama in a three piece suit. Even shifting with obvious discomfort and wearing a dark scowl the man made for quite the picture, black suit contrasting very nicely with his pale skin and the deep maroon tie bringing out the brilliant red of his eyes. Usually Madara only saw Tobirama during the brief moments he and Hashirama spent dropping by his friend’s home and the younger man could normally be found in khakis and thin sweaters, simple functional clothing. Seeing him like this was like seeing an entirely different person, morphing him from ‘attractive’ to ‘dangerously distracting’ with nothing but a simple change of clothing. Madara was grateful for the few moments he had to gather his wits before Tobirama turned his head to sulk in the other direction and their gazes crossed.

“Madara. Fancy seeing you here.” For whatever reason, Tobirama didn’t sound all that surprised.

“You don’t strike me as the fine dining type, Senju.” Madara grinned. “You strike me as the continue-working-while-I-inhale-a-sandwich type.”

“Hashirama is threatening my work. He set me up on a blind date, of all things, and if I don’t cooperate he’s going to give my notes to one of our nieces for doodling on. They are scientific calculations! Not children’s coloring books!” Before he could work himself up in to a larger rant, the man slumped back in his seat with crossed arms, jaw clenching in irritation.

Madara hid a smile. His friend’s younger brother could be a churlish ass but the things he chose to focus on as important never failed to amuse.

“Blind date, huh? Can’t get one on your own?”

“People are stupid,” Tobirama hissed. “And my brother has no taste, clearly. Whoever was meant to be meeting me here is more than fifteen minutes late. I despise people who can’t be punctual.”

“I know how that feels, at least. Izuna should have beaten me here but he hasn’t even called or anything.” Curious – and maybe a little suspicious – Madara pulled his phone out of his pocket to check and make sure his brother hadn’t sent him any texts. Nothing. Just in case, he sent one off with enough punctuation marks to make it clear how much he didn’t appreciate whatever game this was.

“And that would be why your brother and I are not friends.”

“Bullshit, he’s always hanging around your lab since the two of you met.”

Tobirama sniffed. “He’s a barnacle. I never said I wanted him there.”

With a roll of his eyes Madara turned back to his wine list, concealing a smile between the folds of the fancy booklet. If Tobirama didn’t want someone in his labs he wasn’t shy in the least about kicking them out. The two of them got along better than he liked to admit. Madara’s theory was that Tobirama was just used to the ‘excited puppy’ act from dealing with his own brother; it would only feel natural to fall in to the same patterns with Izuna. At least Izuna didn’t try to hug him all the time.

Another five minutes passed without any reply to the texts he sent, leading Madara to believe his gut feeling was right. Obviously Izuna wasn’t coming. He would be willing to bet Hashirama hadn’t actually invited anyone here for Tobirama either, which meant that the two of them were both here alone intentionally. The only question he had was why. Was he supposed to be Tobirama’s unwitting blind date? Who the hell had that idea? Madara wasn’t opposed to the idea of being set up with someone but he would have preferred to be informed about the situation or at least been given a description of his potential date so he could determine if he was interested.

Pausing, Madara let his wine list droop back to the table, staring off in to the middle distance. Would he have said yes if Izuna or Hashirama had asked him about this beforehand? Tobirama was attractive, there was no doubting that. And he was intelligent, something Madara had poor luck finding in partners, but he wasn’t smug about his intelligence. Sure he hated it when people didn’t keep up with him but usually Tobirama solved that by merely separating himself from the people he considered stupid, thereby avoiding the frustration altogether.

He was spinning around in his chair before he could give himself time to think about it.

“Why don’t you come sit here with me? It appears Izuna has forgotten he was meant to join me and there’s no point in both of us sitting alone.” Madara hoped his face wasn’t red. If it was Tobirama didn’t say anything about it, only blinked at him in surprise before tilted his head contemplatively.

“I suppose so.” Halfway out of his chair, the man twisted his mouth wryly. “I don’t suppose you’d help me plan how to get back at Hashirama for this? It seems I have many reasons for a little friendly payback against him lately.”

Madara grinned. “Now that sounds like good dinner conversation.”

The two of them snickered together while Tobirama slid in to the seat across from him, both men intimately familiar with the frustration that came hand in hand with being one of Hashirama’s precious people. Well-meaning and devoted to his loved ones he might be but Hashirama’s over-enthusiastic methods often left something to be desired. He wasn’t the best at taking in to account that other people might not want things done the same way he would do them, which usually resulted in a lot of apologies from his end and not a few tears as well.

His waiter came back in the middle of Tobirama describing some rather evil plans involving itching powder and Hashirama’s turn with the laundry machine. Neither of them had given much thought to their menus yet, too caught up in chatting, but Madara did send for that wine. Tobirama had only just picked out what he wanted to eat when a pair of hands came down on the edge of their table and they both looked up to find Izuna standing over them with a sharp grin edged with laughter.

“Phew! Sorry I’m late, Mads. Car broke down. I had to run all the way here!”

“You’re not very winded for someone who just ran several blocks,” Tobirama pointed out with one eyebrow raised. Izuna waved him aside with a careless laugh.

“I sat down for a minute before coming over. Didn’t think Madara wanted me huffing and puffing all over the food. So…where the food?”

“You’re also remarkably dry for someone running in the rain.” Blinking slowly, Tobirama turned to look pointedly towards the window across the room. Madara hadn’t even noticed it had begun to rain. Now that he did he had to admit it would be impossible for Izuna to run through that downpour without getting soaked.

With narrowed eyes, Izuna leaned in to glare at his friend. “I had an umbrella,” he growled.

Tobirama held out in silence for a few heartbeats until giving in at last, likely deeming it too much trouble to be suspicious any further. Madara cleared his throat and looked away from both of them. Apparently Izuna hadn’t abandoned him, which meant that his ideas about being set up on an unwitting date weren’t true. He couldn’t decide if he was relieved or disappointed but it was a very welcome distraction when the waiter appeared with an extra chair and a menu for his brother.

Dinner, when they finally got to eat, was amazing. The conversation wasn’t quite as lively as it could have been with Tobirama staying mostly quiet after Izuna’s arrival, only speaking when one of them directed a question to him or when he felt the need to rib his friend for saying something dumb. Madara did manage to guilt his brother in to paying for all of them and felt no shame for doing so. It was all his fault that Madara had entertained such odd thoughts, thoughts that lingered in his mind even now like whispers that echoed no matter how he tried to turn his attention elsewhere.

If Madara hadn’t been so distracted by the backside of Tobirama in a suit when they all stood up to leave he might have noticed that Izuna failed to retrieve the umbrella he supposedly came in with when he went to take his jacket from the coat check.  Tobirama might have noticed if he hadn’t been busily texting Mito an embarrassing story about his brother; if she was going to be a part of their family then she was going to have to know these things and if he wanted her to go in to this with forewarning and get a little revenge at the same time then he was only killing two birds with one stone.

Neither of the pair gave any attention to Izuna when he mumbled a few excuses about calling a tow truck and ducked back inside the restaurant, falling easily in to conversation as they walked across the parking lot together. Izuna watched them go with a smile, phone held to his ear and listening to it ring.

“Jerk!” Hashirama’s voice greeted him. Izuna snickered.

“Well that wasn’t very nice.”

“You said you would help me set them up! You weren’t supposed to actually show up for dinner!”

“I was hungry,” Izuna protested mildly. He could practically hear Hashirama grinding his teeth through the phone and only just barely managed not to burst in to wild laughter in the lobby of a fancy restaurant.

Clearly the other man did not share his amusement.

“Why did you interrupt them!?”

“Because it was funny. No one said I had to make it easy for them.”

Hashirama made indistinct noises of rage and Izuna snickered as he hung up the phone. Just because he knew that Tobirama was his brother’s romantic soulmate did not mean he couldn’t have a little bit of his own fun getting them there.

[styomi]

Fifteen study dates | 15-day prompt challenge | Sweet Pea/OC | Day 7

AN: I realized that I skipped updating yesterday, so two chapters today! I was tired as heck because of overtime xD Looking forward to hearing what you guys think :D

Info:

Fandom: Riverdale Pairing: Sweet Pea/OC Rating: T Word count: 1893 Chapter count: 7/15

                                 Master of procrastination and his jailer

From the first day of studying with Sweet Pea, and occasionally his friends, Ruby knew that it was going to be a steep way up towards good grades. While she certainly didn’t have too much trouble completing her workload, her study buddy had issues. More specifically, procrastination and attention span issues. Sweet Pea was the undeniable king of getting distracted. A notification on his social media, a text from Fangs or a phone call from FP were somehow always a first priority. And, when there weren’t any distractions like that, he made himself busy by bothering her. He loved playing with her hair, lazily braiding it into weird dreadlock-like lines that Ruby didn’t have the heart to tell him took her hours and tonnes of conditioner to get rid of. And, when it wasn’t her hair, it was something else. Doodling, playing with his rings, searching for interesting tattoos online, twirling his pencil or clicking his pen. Sweet Pea was an annoying mess of a master procrastinator.

But, what Ruby hadn’t been privy to was the information that he actually didn’t understand half of the material. Most specifically, the physics material. She wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t pay attention in class or because he simply didn’t get the tasks, but Ruby knew that more than seventy percent of his work was always wrong. So, she made it her own, personal goal to get him to pass physics without him noticing how much she was trying.

The first step had been roping Sweet Pea into a study session every day except the weekend. Ruby had managed that easily enough. Promises of alone time in her room or doing something he wanted when they were done got the biker to eagerly oblige. The next task on Ruby’s list had been getting Sweet Pea to actually study during those sessions. He was like a small child, constantly distracted and pulling her attention away from the material. So, she set up an odd reward system, which she didn’t voice to the boy, instead only acted upon it. Ruby would hold his hand, kiss him, sit on his lap or even go a little further when he did a good job in order to encourage him. When she got to her third step, the actual testing, the teen realized her mistake.

Sweet Pea spent the first half of the practice exam trying. His hand kept going to his hair, messing it up when he didn’t understand something or hit a wall. He kept scratching out his answer and progress, before going back to the top and trying again. However, by the time Sweet Pea started the second half of the practice test, Ruby could clearly see that he’d given up. A small curse here and there, a shrug before writing down the answer and not even bothering with his calculator were all setting off alarms in her head.

“Is it too difficult?” Ruby finally asked when she’d finished her own test, sitting still and watching the biker struggle for the last half an hour or so.

“It’s fine,” Sweet Pea countered, eyes not leaving the page. “Just like at school.” Ruby saw him scratch out an answer and write another one.

“Then, what’s wrong?” She asked. Sweet Pea sighed, his head rising and eyes meeting hers.

“I’m just stupid for this school shit, cupcake,” the biker shrugged like the words meant nothing, but Ruby could see the way his fingers were clenched around his pen. “Sorry to disappoint your dreams of me being some kind of hidden, dyslexic genius underneath all the leather and Serpents pride.” Sweet Pea’s grin pissed Ruby off to no end.

“Give me your test,” she held her hand out, waiting, tone icy. Sweet Pea obliged soundlessly. “Now, get your butt over here and listen to my explanation or we’re going to have an issue.” The chair rolled over, crackling along the old floor of Ruby’s room. She grabbed the armrest, making Sweet Pea lean back slightly. He knew her pissed mode was on. “Listen to me. You’re not stupid, Sweet Pea,” he huffed, making Ruby smack his arm with the back of her hand. “You’re not. Otherwise, FP and Tall Boy wouldn’t be grooming you to take over as second-in-command.” His dark eyes met her pale ones, reluctantly shifting to the side.

“Whatever you say.” Do you really think so, he was asking. She knew. Ruby knew Sweet Pea better than he thought.

“I know I’m right,” she adamantly told him. “Now, just like you listen to them when they’re teaching you the ropes of gang bullcrap,” when he opened his mouth to correct her, Ruby put her finger up readily. “No, that I don’t want to know. But, just like you listen to them, you listen to me,” he didn’t reply and Ruby frowned. “Are we on the same page here? Do you want to pass this?”

“Yes.” Sweet Pea grumbled.

“Good,” Ruby smiled. “No more texting in class and you pay attention. You also have to stop procrastinating when we’re studying.”

“Alright, Miyagi,” He was grinning at her. “Lay it on me.” And Ruby took up her red pen, getting started on his test.

Toni and Fangs picked up Sweet Pea on Monday at his locker, the tall biker looking like he hadn’t slept in a week. The purple haired Serpent gave him a once-over before leaning on the wall and smirking.

“Ruby riding you hard?” She caused Fangs to choke on his coffee and attempt to prevent it from spilling out of his mouth and all over his travel mug and front.

“You have no idea,” Sweet Pea groaned, making his two friends stare in shock. “She’s an absolute beast! I think I’ve studied this weekend more than ever in my life. Please hide me or something if she comes looking.” The two bikers exchanged glances.

“Sure, because your tall ass is easy to hide.” Toni shook her head.

“C’mon, man, can’t be that bad having a study session with a girl?” Fangs tried to diffuse the situation. But, Sweet Pea turned to him with a clear face of absolute misery.

“You try it.” He spoke with conviction. “She won’t let me step out of line, like some military camp. I need Ruby-free time.”

“Then you’d better start running now,” Toni remarked, nodding her head at something behind Sweet Pea. “Here comes your jailer.”

“Shit.” Sweet Pea tried to grab the right books and close his locker but didn’t make it. Ruby had already bounded over to him with a cheerful smile on her face.

“Morning, everyone,” she greeted, the two Serpents returning the gesture. “Sweet Pea.” Her hand extended expectantly. With a groan, the tall biker fished his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. A piece of paper was placed in its spot. “Study hard!” With that, Ruby bounded off again. Sweet Pea slumped against his locker. Toni’s eyebrows rose while Fangs’ smile widened to an impossible size.

“Oh, wait! I have something!” He cheerfully said, digging out his own phone and searching before playing a soundtrack. A whip swishing through the air and cracking sounded out in the busy hallway, making Toni lose her cool. The girl barely managed to stay upright against the wall.

“Ha ha.” Sweet Pea glared at Fangs. “Laugh it up until she sees your grades.” Fangs paled.

Sweet Pea found focusing in class much easier without his phone. While his hand did constantly go to his pocket on impulse when he got bored, only to find it empty and have a small heart attack, he kept his eyes on the board and his notebook filled with lines of examples and explanations. And, Ruby’s little notes also helped. She kept passing him small pieces of paper whenever they saw each other, each spelling out a little encouragement in her writing. Some were quotes, others were her own words of praise at how he had done well in class and the last kind, his favorite, were promises of rewards which he would get for his efforts.

So, the tall biker did his best. He actually sat in his chair, for once, instead of on his desk, in physics and wrote down problem after problem. When the exam came, he didn’t find it a head-scratcher, as usual. Instead, Sweet Pea turned his paper in less than thirty minutes after it had been handed out to him by the teacher, surprising everyone. He even got permission to leave the classroom early, which made Toni and Fangs gape after his retreating form. Ruby found him that day, after finishing her own test, by his locker.

“Hey.” She greeted in a soft tone, the hallway still empty because class was in session.

“Hey.” Sweet Pea shot back halfheartedly, expecting a reprimand for leaving early. However, Ruby surprised him, yet again. She took his hands gently, interlocking their fingers and standing on her tiptoes to plant a soft kiss on his lips.

“I knew you could do it.” She whispered against his skin, their breath mingling.

“I had plenty of help and a merciless jailer.” Sweet Pea joked, taking her bottom lip in between his teeth gently and pulling a bit. Ruby groaned and her arms wrapped around his neck, tugging him closer to her. He loved the way she pressed the whole length of her body against his, a rare show of intimacy in a public place.

“I wasn’t that bad, was I?” The girl asked between kisses, which became longer and more heated with each passing moment.

“Fangs has a new ringtone for you now,” Sweet Pea told her, pulling his head back a bit to see her reaction. “It’s a whipping sound.” Ruby lost it, giggling against him, her forehead hitting his chest.

“Alright, I was pretty bad,” She concluded with a sigh. “Here.” Sweet Pea felt her slide his cellphone into his back pocket, where he normally kept it, coping a feel along the way.

“Aren’t I supposed to be the one squeezing your ass, tater tot?” He cheekily commented, their heated mood from before gone. They were back to their usual teasing push and pull. Ruby didn’t reply, though. In fact, her face was as red as a tomato and she was staring at the contents of his locker.

“You kept them?” There were two dozen small papers there, carefully left beside his books and notebooks. All the encouragement she’d written for him along the way.

“Of course, I did.” Sweet Pea shot back, watching the way she hid her face from him. He actually had her embarrassed, for once.

“Throw them out, stupid!” Ruby tried to take the notes, but Sweet Pea slammed his locker shut with a smirk.

“No, they’re mine now. I decide what to do with them,” he told her smugly when he saw her incredulous expression and red cheeks. “Besides, isn’t it your ongoing theory that I’m not stupid?”

“I take that back, you’re stupid and you’re a jerk!” She was already planning to get his locker combination somehow, he knew.

“No take backsies.” The comment earned him a slap across the chest. Sweet Pea laughed and leaned in, kissing Ruby one last time before pulling her towards the cafeteria, ignoring her grumbling about revenge and never doing anything nice for him ever again.

That’s all folks!

Taglist (still open): @enticinghell

You can find the previous parts here:

Day 1: A way to memorize Day 2: How to prepare for a study date (?) like a proper gentleman Day 3: With proper motivation, anything is possible Day 4:  PG13 PDA sugar can be good motivation Day 5: Autumn time is picnic time Day 6: It’s best when we can compete  Day 8: Take me anywhere, everywhere, away from here   Day 9:  Dirty French for beginners   Day 10:  I need… sleep?… no, you…   Day 11:  Delirium   Day 12: Stay still for me   Day 13:  Debate? Apparently, a turn-on   Day 14: Two-seater and Chinese   Day 15:  Unintentional intentions  

Let me know how you liked it :D

[softhaos]

SQUARE ONE

pairing – lee jihoon x reader  genre – fluff + humor + romance + demon!au description – he should be helping you take over the world but does the exact opposite instead. alternatively, he’s internally cringing at your evil plans and should get over it as fast as possible but decides to prolong his company, even if it ends up with even more cringing and banging heads against the wall. warning – includes my usual borderline crack stuff, this time in the form of aspiring villain!reader as tragic + petty as dr. doofenschmirtz and jihoon being the male counterpart of vanessa song rec – turtle | twice word count – 1,911 words author’s note – i swear the fic isn’t as much of a crack fest as the summary makes it out to be

When you presented your aim of world domination to him, Jihoon didn’t need to listen to your proposal twice to say yes.

He regrets it.

Jihoon doesn’t know himself what went through him when he sealed the contract with you. All he knows is that he was rash and dumb and not in his right mind at that time. Usually, he takes his time, weighs his options and ponders whether it’s worth it assisting the petty person who summoned him. Even though you were just one out of many petty humans who wanted a deal with a demon, it only took Jihoon those two simple words, world domination,  to make up his mind on a whim.

Before you, Jihoon had to keep up with blatantly idiotic teenagers who thought summoning wasn’t possible and middle-aged single people who wished for the downfall of their neighbor who happened to live a glorious life. What they wanted to achieve was quite saddening; saddening in a sense that they really needed to rely on somebody else to commit the deed. From causing their snobby classmate to end up in a scandal to vandalizing the rich neighbor’s mansion, everything was mere child’s play for Jihoon. Though it was his job to cause a ruckus on Earth, he wanted to wreak much greater havoc than just shaving off someone’s ex-girlfriend’s hair. If he could, he would’ve done something by himself, but there was this one tiny, ridiculous thing that prevented him from doing so: demons are only able to assist people, not execute the plan with their own hands.

Jihoon was so done with the childish and belittling goals he had to do; sometimes he had to do the same petty thing even more than once. So naturally, when you made him appear in front of your eyes and desperately raved about wanting to take over the world, Jihoon didn’t bat an eyelash with his immediate agreement. You even had proof showing that you tried overthrowing the world by yourself. (Those were some inventions that didn’t seem too miserable but backfired when you switched them on.)

After a few days of somewhat getting a grasp of you, he utmostly regrets his decision.

Though your plans sound like music to his ears, you surely aren’t. Because you don’t have what it takes to be an evil mastermind. Okay, Jihoon admits, your ideas are actually brilliant, but that’s just it. You don’t have the skills to be villain nor do you have the personality to be a proper one. Sometimes, Jihoon wonders whether your parents dropped you when you were an infant or else because wow, Jihoon has never thought he’d ever meet a person as clumsy and idiotic as you. Your type of idiotic is on a whole different level than the idiots Jihoon has ever met. Somehow, you always manage to get the most obvious and easiest things done in the wrong way and your mishaps on the dumbest motions make Jihoon want to return back to hell (or at least, make him bang his head against the wall and it hurts).

What physically pains him the most is how much sooner you would’ve fulfilled your world domination plan if it weren’t for your mishaps while tweaking on your inventions. Much to Jihoon’s dismay, you had to mess up during the most critical tasks even though the critical tasks were easy to do. The routine once you completed building the prototype of your newest invention goes like this: Jihoon figures out why it doesn’t work yet (assuming you didn’t switch it on and the machine didn’t blow up), tells you the faults and how to fix it (he would do it himself but sadly, he’s a demon and can only give you instructions) and then you do the exact opposite of what Jihoon tells you to do.

And lastly, the prototype explodes and Jihoon saves your ass before he a) screams at you, b) tries to contain his frustration and cringe it off or c) bangs his head against the wall.

It stings his non-beating heart even more when he figures the root of your mistake.

“I told you to cut off the red wire, y/n, not the black one!”

“I know! But the red and the black one were so close to each other I accidentally cut off the wrong one! It- hey, I’m not done yet. Jihoon, where are you going?!”

Another prime example, and frankly, probably the moment that takes the cake is the time you mixed up left and right: “What was so hard to get under left and not right? I said left a dozen times!”

“Well… I thought you meant the other left!”

“There is only one left, you dimwit! Besides, I even drew you a picture so you wouldn’t make this mistake and- how in the world did you manage to place the instructions upside down, y/n? The words are upside down the way you read this!”

Honestly, it’s a miracle that your house hasn’t broken down yet for some unfathomable reason and Jihoon doesn’t complain about that. Nonetheless, it doesn’t help his unease. The fact that you add the suffix ‘-inator’ to a random word to name the creation certainly doesn’t help either.

With time, he still winces at your fatal mistakes, still cringes and goes through an internal debate and still bangs his head against the wall when things don’t run smoothly, which is basically every single day. But when he cools down, he suddenly isn’t too affected by it and though he sighs because wow, another day of cleaning up the mess hooray, there lies an undertone of amusement in those things.

He finds himself rolling his eyes at you in a playful manner when you whine around and indirectly apologize for ruining your own invention and therefore, also postponing your ultimate goal of world domination as well as prolonging Jihoon’s attachment to you as your demon assistant. He lets out a snort whenever you refer to your machines as ‘lazer-inator’, ‘fogblast-inator’ and various other inators due to the stupidity of those names, but also because it was hilarious and softening and bewitching seeing your eyes glimmer with expectation and hope.

Long story short: You don’t physically ache him as much as before (because Jihoon refuses to admit that he is in the process of becoming a lovesick demon crushing on a wannabe villain).

Much to his dismay – he’s pretty sure some angel or so is responsible for this – you started learning how to get things right. It worried him when he saw you the first time spending all night reading a pile of books and digging out old sketches to pinpoint the errors in them. His distress shouldn’t be justified, Jihoon knows, but he doesn’t want it to happen yet. He’s selfish, sure he is, he’s a demon after all, but causing trouble should be more important than chasing after someone, or in his case, staying at someone’s side. Jihoon is glad there is no rule book for demons. Otherwise, things would’ve taken a bad turn long before.

But when he finds fewer mistakes in your prototypes, fewer complaints and whines coming from your mouth and fewer mentions of inators on a daily basis, he grows desperate.

Jihoon knows better than to prevent you from trying to rule the world, yet he still does it. The only reason he does it – aside from preventing the contract to expire because once you reach your goal, it’s a trip back to hell and a waiting game for Jihoon until another person strikes him up with their so-called evil masterplan – is that he knows it’s not really your life devotion. He's grasped enough of your personality to know that you’re not actually evil, that you don’t hold any serious grudge against the world and that in the end, you’re just another curious idiot who wants to see if the impossible is possible.

(The last part is only partly correct. You’re not just another curious idiot, you’re his curious idiot. An idiot nevertheless.)

Jihoon doesn’t know how you feel about him exactly. He often wonders if you like him just as much as he likes you or even more or sadly less. In any case, he certainly knows that contrary to your words, you don’t want to get rid of him as fast as possible. Otherwise, you wouldn’t cling to his sleeves whenever you are being a whiny annoyance even though he has expressed his bitterness or draw doodles of him as a stick figure on his corrected sketches. The latter doesn’t necessarily amuse him because you just ruined his corrections and your drawing skills equal to those of a toddler and Jihoon finds toddlers a pain. But he still acknowledges your attempts.

He has hoped the day would never come but it came: the day where there isn't a single flaw in your umpteenth prototype invention branded with the name ‘snow-in-summer-inator’. Being the demon he is, he purposefully adds a hefty mistake into the sketch and hands it back to you, hoping you’d just take it as it is.

“Jihoon, you sure this is wrong? I double and triple checked with all the other plans.” you look up from the sketch and shoot him a suspicious glance.

“Look, it’s either you believe me or not. If you’re oh-so-confident about your skills then go through with it. Just remember the countless other times where you thought you got it all right but turned out you weren’t.” Jihoon shrugs in response and pretends not to care. All he hopes for is that you are dense enough to buy his words.

To his luck, you are that dense. A part of Jihoon wants to make him sicker through the floor because how on Earth did you manage to win over his attention with that blunt naivety?

The rest follows the usual routine. You fix it up (this time, you tamper with it), switch it on, the block of metal makes a weird noise and Jihoon brings your ass away from the danger zone before it blows up.

Once the black smoke cleared up little by little, you swat his hands away and unlike the normal cycle, you’re the one who screams at him. “See? I was right, Jihoon! I! Was! Right! Hah- wait a sec mister, we aren’t finished yet! Hey, don’t you dare leave, you have to help me clean up your mistakes–”

It should frustrate Jihoon that you are back at the beginning, back at square one to the ultimate goal of world domination. After all, his purpose and passion are to wreak havoc and cause disorder in the world. But in a sense, he does cause turbulence in the world; not on Earth, but your little world makes the cut.

Long story short: World domination is all fun and such, but Jihoon prefers to simply cause you some chaos (because Jihoon is the type of guy who shows his affection by pissing his crush off).

[ahumanintraining]

sign out (ch. 3 of “follow up”)   a shallura modern era hospital au ft. dr. allura and patient shiro  [link to ao3]

— notes: and yes here is the allura pov chapter that you all have been waiting so patiently for. (and yes, happy shallura day! i say this two days late but we all know that every day is shallura day anyway)

chapter three: sign out

Allura almost squeals.

But fortunately, she’s able to hold it all in until she’s absolutely certain that the phone call ended.

Then she thrusts her face into a pillow and makes the strangest sound she’s come out of her mouth since she matched into residency.  

Today had been a complete series of emotional chess, starting from the moment she walked in to see him, not at all expecting the patient with the uncomplicated right distal radius fracture in bed 24 was going to be an ultra-cute man with the shyest smile and the most curious streak of white hair over his forehead.

She was caught so off guard she almost couldn’t even appropriately perform the final physical exam to discharge him. His gaze was so intense and he had such an entrapping calm demeanor that made her forget about the hustle and the bustle of the emergency department behind the curtain. If talking to him to recap his injury history wasn’t already making her trip over her words, she absolutely stuttered as she told him the physical exam findings, close enough to smell the light cologne wafting from his skin and see the light stubble over his jaw — honestly thank god none of the nurses or technicians were also present in the room because without doubt they would have dragged her about it in the break room if they had witnessed her.

If she wasn’t wrong in reading him, she took a chance on his fast heartbeat, his jagged breath, and the light blush over his cheeks and gave him all the hints that she was absolutely interested in seeing him again outside of the hospital context.

It was a huge risk — she worried that maybe he was just embarrassed about the whole situation or about his entire story falling off the monkey bars, which actually wasn’t all that ridiculous when it came to the emergency room. Not to mention, when she gave him her number, she was technically still overseeing his health care so it was a little weird in the doctor-patient relationship.

But it was fine, right? Technically she just gave him her business card, which she has done to patients she wanted to follow up even beyond the emergency room because of the complexity of their case.

This would just be another someone she wanted to follow up with. Well, maybe not for the same reasons, but…

She groans, pressing her face into the pillow again, remembering how she circled her cell number and even winked at him — so stupidly embarrassing!

How could she have just put herself out there like that so obviously? What if she just read all the signs wrong and completely misinterpreted?

Of course, now that he had actually called her back, she supposes she made the right decision after all.

She — Allura Altea, three years an attending at Olkarian General with her ass still deep in government federal student debt — had a date.

Or something. He did mention he wanted to “at least return the thanks.”

She doesn’t know. It’s unclear.

Regardless, she was going to get to see him again. She giggles to herself again, uncharacteristically giddy with excitement. She throws aside her pillow and reaches again for her agenda book, looking at the Thursday column. She raises her pen point just below her 6 PM shift, twirling her pen a few times to consider what to write.

“8 pm – DATE!!!!!” is too embarrassing even for her to look at — and then what would happen if she opened her book and one of her other colleagues happened to see the colorful all-caps? She’d never hear the end of it.

“8 pm – Date” doesn’t look right either. And moreover, what if it wasn’t even a date? What if he was just trying to be polite? Although… he did ask for dinner, not lunch. Or at least, he did at first…

She shakes her head to herself. Focus, she tells herself.

Maybe “8 pm – Takashi” would be most appropriate. She writes it in but then frowns when re-reading it.

This makes him seem like a consult call or some kind of referral. Maybe she can doodle in something to make it look more friendly…

Before she knows it, she scribbles a small heart next to him — and immediately regrets it. She scratches it out, but then finds that she ends up just coloring in the heart, making now a very clear and very solid heart next to his name.

“Oh my god, what am I? A high schooler? I’m 33 going on 14.” she moans out loud, flopping back onto her hardwood floor, casting her agenda book to the side.

Hearing her distress, her cat mewls, jumping down from the windowsill and climbing on top of her.

“I know. I must be so annoying to deal with right now, huh, Blue?” she mumbles, lifting her cat off her stomach and rolling onto her side to curl around her.

Allura lays there for a long time, replaying the last hour in her head, regretting lots of things she said. What was she thinking?

Oh, yeah, pull rehearsed statements out like ‘I appreciate you taking the time to call me’ or ‘I really like to hear how my patients are doing.’ For sure, yeah, that’ll really tell him that she’s interested in him as more than just a patient.

And then telling him that Thursday evening would work perfectly because she didn’t have anywhere to be the next day? What was she trying to say?

“I’m such an idiot,” she tells Blue.

But Blue is tired of cuddling and of hearing her shit, gingerly stepping out of Allura’s reach. Allura frowns, watching Blue take residence in a solitary corner, before subsequently doing the splits and starting to lick its hindlegs clean. Allura sighs. Her eyes trail back to her phone, strewn a few feet away, and she crawls over to it, scrolling hesitantly over the last message in her voicemail and looking at his familiar set of unfamiliar numbers.

Is it too optimistic for her to save his number into her phone? Probably. Allura knows better than anyone that romance does not work out the way it does for princesses in fairy tales, no matter how sure a princess thinks she’s found her paladin.

She bites her lip, and then pokes her screen to play his voicemail again, pressing her phone close to her ear. She smiles, hearing the croak in his voice as he starts talking.

Um… it’s Takashi Shirogane. I was your patient the other day. I guess I was just giving you a follow up call. Thanks for everything. Hear from you soon.

Such a short message. Barely a full ten seconds. It’s not nearly long enough. She plays it again, listening again for that beginning rumble of his voice when he first opens his mouth.

Takashi Shirogane.

She repeats his name to herself softly. She loves the light r of his last name, and how he says it in a gentle flutter. She hopes that she pronounced his name in exactly the same way during their last call, but she knows better than anyone else that her language skills are actually horrid and for as much as her dear father really tried to get her fluent in Spanish and French, she had no chance with the small amount of patience she had and the little tenacity she had to study anything but medicine.

She catches herself with a stupid smile over her face again, and she shakes herself out of lovesickness.

This is ridiculous. She hasn’t felt this way in such a long time.

She checks the time. It’s close to the time she needed to get herself into bed, so she showers, brushes her teeth, and crawls into bed after downing a few extra gulps of water to hit her daily hydration goal.

But it’s pointless. She doesn’t sleep at all, lying in bed well past her bedtime, dreaming of cute smiles and soft hellos.

The next couple of days is so mundane that when Thursday approaches, she almost completely forgets about the “8 pm – Takashi” line in her agenda until she opens her book in front of Dr. Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, aka the chief of emergency medicine, and sees the crime-implicating solid heart.

Her eyes freeze on seeing the reminder, and she instinctively presses the pages against her chest.

“So, we’ll have our monthly department meeting on the twenty-third next month instead of the twenty-fifth as usual. Are you on shift that day?” Coran asks, scrolling through his phone, not seeming to notice her flushing and sudden protectiveness of her agenda book.

Cautiously, she flips a few pages forward, seeing a night shift on said date. “I should be off my 7 to 7 by then,” she says. “Meeting still at 7 am?”

“Yeah,” he affirms. “Lots of quality statistics to discuss, so try not to be late.”

“You implying I have some improvements to make?” she teases.

He looks up at her, twirling his ginger moustache and chuckling. “Even if you are one of our exceptional physicians, you know I just need to enforce the same expectations for our entire team.” He nods his chin at her unused computer, monitor black from inactivity. “As long as you’re still picking up patients.”

Ah. Funny he should say that.

“Alright, alright,” she says, swiveling her chair around and shaking the mouse.

“Aside from all of this, anything new going on in your life these days?” he asks, tucking his phone into his white coat pocket and leaning over the counter. “Haven’t been able to properly talk to you ever since the new residents joined us over the summer.”

“Yeah,” she agrees, shrugging. “But honestly nothing too much has been going on.” She clicks on the EMR to assign herself to the 53-year old male with chest pain in room 18 and turns to the stack of EKGs next to her, searching for the matching EKG to her patient.

“Really? No new potential suitors?” Coran asks. “I feel like you were complaining plenty about that in the last conversation I had with you. Something about someone moving into your apartment building?”

She rolls her eyes. “The Lotor guy is still bothering me,” she tells him. “But at least because he likes me I can ask him favors. He takes care of Blue for me when I’m out too late.” She finds the matching EKG and interprets it quickly, writing in left ventricular hypertrophy. “But you know it’s funny you ask me that now because I actually have a date tonight.”

Coran raises both his eyebrows. “See that is exciting,” he declares. “Who’s this date of yours?”

As much as Allura wants to tell Coran, she doesn’t want to mention that her date may just also happen to have been a patient in the emergency room just a couple days ago… and also just happen to have a patient chart with her signature on it.

“Uh… well just someone that I met at random,” she lies, of course, realizing she executed the confabulation terribly.

Coran gives her a look that tells her he knows her bullshit. “At random, huh?” he replies, not prying. “Well, I suppose you’ll tell me at some point.”

She just smiles and shrugs, then choosing that moment to stand and get to her patient in room 18. “Maybe at some point,” she promises him.

“I’m sure I’ll hear about it if it ends up turning out horrible.”

“Probably,” she agrees, waving him a short goodbye as she steps past him.

But for some reason, she has the most undoubtable feeling tonight’s date won’t turn out horrible at all.

She doesn’t get home until 7:45 pm.

Well, so far tonight’s date is going pretty horribly, she thinks to herself, rushing to get her keys into the keyhole to unlock her door.

Once in her apartment, she hurls herself in, dropping the day’s handbag on the floor and pulling off her shoes as she walks in. She reaches up to pull off her hair tie, shaking her hair out as she makes her way to her closet, already half-undressed.

She did absolutely everything she could in order to optimize getting back home once the clock hit the end of her shift at 7 pm — even going so far as to beg Sendak to cover the last few codes she technically should have been doing so that she could instead rapidly finish closing her charts because she had no option to just close them on her next shift because the next time she’d be in the hospital would going to be more than 24 hours later and Coran would never let her hear the end of it if she didn’t sign her notes within the mandatory time frame and she would definitely be roasted at the next department meeting.

Needless to say, she is frazzled.

She holds her head between her hands, frowning as she looks in the mirror. She looks at the clock on the wall. Damn. She is not going to have time to look nice. Damn. She doesn’t even have the time to take a shower. And damn it, of course this would happen to her on that one night she has a date with someone she thinks she might actually like?

Well, a maybe-date date. Because what if all this time he really is just taking her for dinner out of the goodness of his heart? After all, he did call her to update her about his arm and to thank her… and he didn’t actually bring up the idea of dinner until after she carried the conversation…

She calms herself down. It’s fine, it’s fine, she tells herself. It’s going to be all —

Wait, check your phone, she reminds herself. Because what if he is already outside waiting —

She taps her phone screen and sees no notification.

She can’t help but frown. Maybe she is really is getting too excited and hopeful about this maybe-date date. If he liked her, he definitely would be a little early right? Or texted her earlier today to check in?

Or maybe he forgot about their dinner?

Damn, maybe she should have texted him earlier today. But no, she didn’t want to overstep and over-text him either.

She groans one more time and ceases her internal dialogue, telling herself to just focus on her outfit for tonight. It doesn’t matter how much time she has; every single second she has left before this maybe-date date of hers is valuable to get her act together.

She flips her phone to the ring setting and hitches up the volume to max so that there is absolutely no way that she would miss a call, walking back to her closet.

She makes another frustrated sound as she sifts through her outfits. All throughout her emergency training, she was able to get away with wearing scrubs, which was great for her at the when she didn’t have the time to figure out what to wear on the sleep-deprived mornings before a shift but right now, as she looks through her severe lack of nice dating-material clothing, she is regretting her options.

She doesn’t even know exactly where he’ll be taking her. Should she wear something more formal or something more casual? But this is okay. She’s been in this situation at least one hundred times before — there’s a few dresses that can pass for most events aside from an underground rave late at night or a Board of Trustees meeting, but she’s pretty sure that he’s not taking her on any of those extremes.

Her hands stop at a white dress with a floral print — kimono v-neck, mid-arm sleeve, about knee-length — and she looks it over with pursed lips, her eyes tracing one of the pink flowers and its surrounding dark green stem and leaves along the waist.

Her favorite dress. She doesn’t wear it often because she’s afraid of getting it dirty and because otherwise she’d be wearing it all too often.

It was the last gift her father gave her, and the first thing she thinks of when remembering him.

Her thumb rolls over the silky material as she muses for a moment, and then slips it off the hanger, lying the dress over her bed before she pulls it over her head, flipping her hair out from under the collar as she looks at herself in the mirror.

She frowns. The dress fits her well, of course, but her hair is a tangled mess. She sighs and rolls it back up into some kind of a loose bun. It looks almost purposefully messy, some of shorter strands of her hair peeking out from behind her ears, but it also looks like she just got out of a twelve-hour work shift and like didn’t care about this date when she actually really did want to impress him and set herself up in the best way possible for this to be an amazing night.

Maybe at least some light makeup? She rushes over to her makeup bag, pawing through it before a loud ring emerges from her phone.

Her eyes dart to it, her heart rate suddenly jolting. Another ring emerges — a long one that she knows means that someone is calling her and who could it be but him… She rushes over, looking over the caller ID and seeing the familiar set of numbers.

She swallows. “Hello?”

“Hey.”

Her heart flutters again. “Hi!” she says, almost too excitedly, but then clears her throat, mollifying her enthusiasm. “Um, hey,” she tries again, stupidly. She briefly pauses, and then unable to figure out what else to say, adds, “What’s up?”

Silently, she hits her forehead with the palm of her hand. What’s up? Was that the only thing she could think of to say? What was she thinking?

“I just want to apologize for calling you so last minute about this,” he starts.

“Oh, no, I mean, I was just getting ready myself. No rush,” she blurts. She’s not sure why she says all this when she could have just said ‘oh, no, that’s okay’ but then again, so far, she doesn’t have a great history of saying exactly what she wants when he talks to her.

“Oh,” he says, pausing in a way that makes her regret what she said. “Well, I was going to apologize about tonight. I, um… well, I’ve had a bit of a change in plans.”

He says this, and her heart sinks.

[link to chapter 4!]

notes: oh no would could have possibly happened???

(also if you think that I’m going to get away with this modern AU without putting in as many Voltron references as possible, you are very very wrong. call me out on all the lame ones :P)

[imagine-loki]

Bruna

TITLE: Bruna CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Ch 1 of 5- In Which the Customer is not Always Right AUTHOR: staria ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine working in a coffee shop and having Loki as a regular customer. You screwed up his order the first time you ever prepared a coffee for him a few months ago so he really dislikes you but as time passes by he starts talking more to you and doesn’t seem to hold that big of a grudge anymore.

RATING: Teen?

NOTES/WARNINGS: There’s some mildly strong language like f bombs and such. This is a quick doodle of what Bruna looks like.

——–

I was in a hurry and needed everyone to get fuck out of my way. The morning was cool, the sun slowly rising  as I was quickly walking- no, running- to Midnight Cafe, a small coffee shop where I was currently one of the baristas. My phone alarm had failed to go off because I forgot to charge it, so of course I woke up an hour late in a frenzy with barely any time left to brush my teeth, put on the first thing I found on the floor and bolt out the door.

As I sped running down the street I double-checked what had I put on this morning: black leggings, a sleeveless oversized olive colored shirt over my black sports bra, and red keds… could be worse. I braided my waist-length teal colored hair on the way to work.

Not that I was proud or anything, but I was so used to doing this that I could do it in my sleep.  

I barely made it on time, but glad that I was not late for the third time this week. If I had to listen to my manager, Brad, say one more time that the early bird catches the worm, I was gonna have to bitch slap him around.

I put on my apron as I punched in my arrival time and immediately went to my work area so I could read the screen with all the orders and quickly start dispatching beverages.

My first order of the day was a cappuccino, a latte, and a frozen hot chocolate, so I began getting the cappuccino and latte ready while my best friend and coworker, Jessica, finished the frozen hot chocolate. She glanced at me and gave me a huge grin and I waved back at her, no need for words. That was my Jessica, always happy, always positive.

I really loved being a barista, it’s all about getting the orders ready as fast as possible during rush time, especially during the mornings. As a chronic over thinker this gives me a break to just be in the moment without analyzing every little detail around me.

It also gives me a break from hearing people’s thoughts here and there. Yup, I’m one of those. But nothing too bad, I just hear tidbits of people’s thoughts here and there. I swear, I’m the worst telepath ever, I have no control whatsoever over this thing. It took me the longest time to figure out that I was a telepath and not just hearing voices in my head.

Once rush began dying down and people began heading to their respective jobs, I decided to go to the back and get myself something to drink because I was totally parched. I got some cold water while secretly wishing it was something stronger like vodka.

As soon as I get back there’s a few orders waiting so I start to work on a coffee for a non-regular. It’s a double shot espresso with two shots of cream and spice caramel for Lucky. I chuckled to myself as I was getting the drink ready because some people have the silliest nicknames ever, I’ve seen worse but this one was still kinda dumb.

After the espresso machine finished brewing the coffee shots, I poured the coffee  in a bone white cup, I added two shots of cream and a few pumps of spice caramel syrup. I cleaned the side of the mug and got ready to hand it to the customer.  “Lucky!” I  yelled, “Order for Lucky!” while putting the drink on the pick-up counter area for the customer.

I was already adding whipped cream to a coffee when I clearly hear in my head a guy thinking about how stupid I must be to screw up his drink. The thing is I just make whatever it says on the order screen, not my fault that Amy, our new employee,  screwed up an order again for like the fifth time this week. Now I’m was gonna have to fix her fuck up. Awesome.

I was super mad but I slowly turned around, ready for whatever bullshit this guy was going to say to me. I see a guy glaring at me like I just insulted his mother. He was actually kinda hot in a goth kind of way. Tall and lean with bright green eyes, black hair, and pale skin plus tall all dressed up in a black three piece suit. He would have been my type, all dark and handsome, but I could tell he was an asshole which was an automatic turn off for me.

He just stared at me without saying a word and I wanted him to get the fuck out of my way as soon as possible so I talked to him in my sugary customer service voice.

“I’m sorry sir, is there anything I can help you with?” I said, I following the question with a super practiced innocent smile.

He sneered at me, and drily answered, “First off, my name is Loki, not Lucky.”

There was a dramatic pause before he gave me a very menacing smile and continued, “This drink is completely wrong. I was very specific when I said that I didn’t want any of those nasty syrups like spice caramel or whatever they are called.”  

The jerk then slammed the cup down making it splash coffee all over me.

“But here I am, drinking pure sugar.”

I grabbed a towel and began cleaning my apron as he continued, “I want a new drink before you give anyone else their drink.”

I wanted to throw the freaking coffee cup with the scalding liquid at him, but I really needed this job so I took a deep breath and settled with imagining different way to tell him to fuck off.

I threw the mug in the sink before quickly remaking the order without the spice caramel and handed it to him. He glared at me before leaving without even saying thank you at all. What an ass.

After he left I was just glad to be done with the idiot and got on with my day. I thought I would probably never see him again.

But of course I was wrong.

The next day at work I was busily making a latte and had completely forgotten about the jerk from the day before when I saw him come in the coffee shop. So much for not seeing him ever again.

Luckily for me, Jessica was the one that got to prepare his coffee. I get a tidbit of Jessica’s thoughts, she’s way too excited about being the chosen one to get the jerk’s order. He was hot alright, but again, an asshole.

He decided to stand right next to my prep station on the other side of the counter to wait for his coffee. I swear he went out of his way to stand there just to coldly stare at me, judging, waiting for me to acknowledge him. I tried to concentrate, willing myself to not listen to his thoughts but I heard loud and clear that he still thought I was the worst barista ever.

He was pissing me off so much that I accidentally dropped a hot coffee drink and got it all over myself. Make that two days in a row that I get a drink all over me thanks to him. When I turned around to grab a towel I couldn’t help but look in his direction only to realize he was giving me a smug look.

He used the moment to say, “It looks like you need to be more careful with those,” while pointing to the cup in my hand, “or you might get hot liquid all over yourself.”

Once more he made me want to throw a mug at him but Jessica gave me a stern look as she was handing him his drink. Sometimes I feel like she’s the telepath.

As soon as she showed up he completely ignored me and directed all of  his attention to Jessica. He thanked her while slowly nodding his head at her like she was fucking royalty.

He then tasted his coffee and dramatically sighed before saying, “Mmmm. Now this is how I like my coffee. Thank you for a perfect cup.”

He then glared at me before he walked to a table where he sat down. The asshole was really getting on my nerves.

When I turned to Jessica ready to start my rant I noticed that she was smiling like Loki had just asked for her maiden hand. I was so furious that I said to her, “Oh my God, Jessica, really? He compliments your coffee once and you get your fucking panties all wet? Jesus, I thought you had better taste.”

Her cheeks got all red but she quickly fired back by saying, “Ugh, Bruna, don’t be jealous. He said he liked the drink, nothing else. You can make Mr Dreamy Eyes his drink tomorrow if it’s that important for you.”

I sarcastically laughed before saying, “Fuck no! You can make him his coffee everyday for all I care! He’s such an asshole.”

As I said this I glanced where Loki was sitting only to realize he saw me looking at him. I tried to smile but he just scoffed at me before getting back to his book. He was too far away from to hear us but I felt like he knew we were talking about him.  

“Jessica, I swear, he’s the biggest asshole ever” I said, as I stopped working on the Flat White I was preparing, “Look at him all smug in that corner. Didn’t you see the evil look he just gave me?”

Jessica stopped pouring chocolate syrup to a drink, and said as she rolled her eyes, “Oh my God, really? He’s so not staring at you.”

She glanced in his direction, looked back at me, and continued,  “Are you going to obsess over him like you did with the woman that liked the plain untoasted bagels? Because that whole thing was not fun. There’s only so many rants that I can tolerate from you on the proper way to eat a bagel.”

“No! I was not obsessed! I just… really disliked her. She yelled at me once,” I said, then I  whispered, “She was a total bitch.”

Jessica guffawed and was about to say something else when Brad kindly yelled at us from the cash register area to remind us that socialization should happen after work. Someone was being crabby today.

We got back to full swing getting orders ready, not a single word between me and Jessica but I continued  thinking about Loki. I usually don’t let customers get to me but for some reason he was getting under my skin and I wanted to punch his smug face. I glanced at him one last time only to realize that he had been looking at me. He smirked and slowly went back to his book.

Oh yes, I definitely wanted to punch his smug face.

[baekzhang]

paperweight | pcy

park chanyeol. reader-insert. 5,2k words. fluff/angst. au

—it couldn’t hold onto those letters forever. Neither could he hold onto her.

this one is for Liv

⚜️

“Dear Chanyeol, 

I’m not quite sure whether to classify you as dumb or cute. Seriously, Park Chanyeol? You sent a ring along with a letter with the words “will you marry me?”and a doodle of yourself kneeling, I can’t believe you!

Oh, and PS: Yes, I will.

Love, ____.”

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

Dear Chanyeol,

I’ll be moving abroad next week. Dad just told me he would be stationed somewhere in Europe. I’m sorry. We wanted to celebrate your 19th birthday together, but I guess I have to break that promise. However, I will write you as much as I can! We will stay friends. Forever, for always. You won’t get rid of me.

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol,

Okay, I just arrived at the new house. It’s not as nice as our old one, although it’s bigger. But I speak zero Spanish, I mean, except for ¡Hola señor!, but that is the biggest of my capacity. How is life? How is it without the best of the best a.k.a me? It must be boring as hell. Drink some soju for me because they only have some cerveza here. Okay, maybe I know some more than hola. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️

Dear Chanyeol, 

Can you believe it? I ate bubble gum ice cream again! You and I used to share a scoop because YOU (and I, but mostly YOU) always spent your money on these stupid trading cards and so we were broke and had to count every damn won for one damn ice cream. I felt alive. Thinking of you. Please, come to Spain someday. I still don’t know Spanish. It’s been a month. Save me, Yeol. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

I just read your letter and I won’t answer your goo texts on kakao. Pen pal is better than texting and drunk calling. At least you have to invest some money into communication here. I heard you got a job as a composer. Remember when you wrote this song for that girl from your class and she flat out rejected you? She was a dumb bitch, that song was so damn good. I hope you let some A+ singer sing it someday, it will be the biggest hit for sure. Count me in as a buyer, although it takes like two weeks for the shipping, but some killing anticipation is satanic, yet pleasing. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

Ah yeah, it wasn’t really finished yet! You mentioned that. But hey that one verse alone had me! It’s been three years since then, but I still remember it very well. Why did you never write a song for me? I feel stabbed. Just kidding, would be cool if you wrote one for me, too, someday. You know, some credit for these eighteen years I stuck with your ass. And I would have done even longer if I wasn’t stuck in Europe. But if you close your eyes, drink three beer and look at some moderate looking girl walking by, it’s basically like I am still there. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

¡Hola mi amigo! Puedo hablar un poco español por la presente… But seriously, I hate that I have to learn a new language. And they talk faster than you when you tried to rap like Zico. Imagine what their hiphop sounds like? Probably like 2x sped up triple time Eminem rap. Anyway, Dad said that I might [sic!] be able to visit you during the summer! Isn’t that great? Because I think it is. I know you have a job, I have, too, although I really suck at communicating, but I am somehow managing. Let’s meet soon. You still owe me the 3000 won for when I chugged down that warm beer and almost died. I want barbecue, and you and your freshly filled wallet cannot stop me. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Buzz Lightyeol, 

You are always so busy. You take eternities and beyond to reply. It’s been three weeks since I sent that letter. Answer me. Also, I booked the flight. It’s only for a week because my boss didn’t think I am worth of more days off, but it’s better than nothing, I guess. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

It’s okay, you were busy and your handwriting is ugly, so you take weeks to write a sentence. I forgive you. Three weeks till my flight. Fuel your wallet because I will eat a lot! Also! Jongdae became a singer!? I just went through Naver and his face popped up! Tell him that no matter what clothes he’ll wear, he’ll still remain the three-year-old boy who pissed his pants when my Dad played Santa back then. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

Honestly, fuck that I am in Seoul and my hotel is five minutes away from your apartment. This letter writing game is fun and I’ll sneakily put this in your jacket when you don’t look because I am just that level of ninja. It was a great first day out of seven. I can’t believe you got a balloon with my name on it and brought it to the airport. You are crazy, but I like that about you so much, though. Just stay crazy. Don’t be lame like Kyungsoo. I cannot believe that after eight months all he had to offer to me was a hand shake. Like? What about a hug? Money? Food? Is he broke on feelings and wallet or what? But at least you love me enough to get me a balloon. You’re the best. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

Okay but I really didn’t expect you to actually pay for the entire beef I ordered. Did you rob a bank? It’s okay, you can share your secrets and money with me. It’s so good to see your stupid face again after so long. It’s amazing how we aren’t so awkward and that I can still knock on your door at midnight with soju and watch Grey’s Anatomy. Why are you always crying, though? You watched the first five seasons at least twenty times omg. Also, I’m laughing. You still haven’t seen the first letter I hid in your pocket. You’re so oblivious, it’s actually cute. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

I apologize for being so clingy today, although you didn’t seem to mind too much. You are just very tall and even though you have the tendency to look like a child when you grin, puberty really did justice to you and not having seen you for so long made me get hit with that fact as if with a brick. You’re handsome. There. Smile, smirk, grin, I don’t care. I like you. You are cute. You are funny. You bought me food. You are my best buddy. Date me: 

 ↳ Yes [x]    No [ ]    Maybe [ ] 

I answered on behalf of you already. No stepping out. This is a contract for eternity. 

Love, your new found girlfriend. 

⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

Good that your taste doesn’t suck as much as it did back then with your old crush. What was her name again? I forgot. I can’t believe I had to literally shove the letters into your hands because you didn’t find them. It’s sad that this is already day 4/7. Like seriously, maybe I should just quit my job and life in Spain. Dad said I am old enough to move out and live my own life. I kinda want that…but I don’t want to leave my old life behind like that. It’s so hard that I have to decide between (eloping with) my boyfriend or my family. I want to have you kiss me everyday, but I can only have this for the next three days. Don’t waste your lips on beer bottles too much. You have some perfectly fine lips to kiss right in front of you. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

You’ve been my boyfriend for only two days now, but I am damn sure you are the best. Seriously, I never even mentioned going to the sea and what are you doing? You take me to the sea. What can I do? Burn toast and have you almost choke on it. And you dare to say it tasted delicious. Lying is not good, Park Chanyeol (but thank you for caring about me so much, though. You’re a jem with e and a). 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

Baekhyun is third wheeling so hard and he enjoys it. He’s very precious, you found a good substitute for the best friend position. But don’t you tall bitch dare take him for the girlfriend/boyfriend position once I depart tomorrow. I will return and chop your thumbs. Also thank you for having stayed the night. Not in that way, but for just being there. It was nice to wake up to your snoring self and atop your really comfy sweater. It’s very soft and suits you way too well for my own good. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

You looked so sad when you realized it’s our last day. I’m writing this whilst you are getting me my drink, just in case you’re wondering. Also this handwriting will be hella quick and you might not be able to read everything, but I try to be fast here. Don’t worry, I’ll come back, or you come to me. We will continue to write letters. Maybe I will FaceTime with you, too…if you’re lucky, which you are because I like you very much. Help, I don’t want to leave. I want to stay with you and watch some stupid 2 a.m tv shows and fall asleep in your arms again. There is so much I want to do, but there’s no time for now, which sucks. 

Love, ______. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

Ha! I wonder when you’ll find this letter because this is my secret letter that I didn’t place in front of your self. I stole your sweater :) and I don’t intend to return it. So you have to come to Europe to get it back! 

Love, ______. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

Okay, I’m back to Europe. Dad asked why I was smiling so much and told him that he’s at fault that I am separated from my future husband and he laughed so much, but he was happy. So don’t worry, he won’t murder you when you introduce yourself to be my boyfriend to him. I mean, it would be crazy if he blew a fuss. He basically was present at your first poop, so… 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

You haven’t answered my last letter yet, it’s only been a few days, so it’s still on the way—consider yourself lucky. Even though I really love sending letters, why am I only now hearing that you are Jongdae’s producer? He has the voice of a god! He better not mess up your masterpieces. But hey, now you have that AAA singer for that song. Oh my, I keep nagging you with it. I’m sorry. 

Love, ______. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol, 

Dad saw the letter that just came and he ran upstairs like the biggest moron and kept teasing me. What is he? Twelve? Baekhyun? He was mentioning a surprise, but who knows. My old man has been acting anything close to old currently and behaves like a child, so I can probably only expect some spoiled chocolate cake from him. How is work going? I’m sorry I didn’t take your call yesterday (although when you read this a week has probably already passed). Can mailmen be faster, please? But yeah, I was at work and I already have a strike for having been late twice. I miss you, Yeol. Your sweater began smelling more like me than you, I’m going insane. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

 Dear Chanyeol, 

I saw Jongdae on tv today! And I could have sworn you were that undeniably handsome and tall man in the back. It might already be around a month since my visit to Seoul, but you’ve been having that sassy posture since you were five years old! I see you, Park Chanyeol. Also, Jesus, don’t send food here. It will spoil on the way unless it’s chocolate or something…that lasts longer. But I’m sure your first gimbap tasted amazing when it was still edible. You can cook for me when I visit again! 

Love, _____. 

⚜️ 

Dear Chanyeol,

Mom found old pictures from kindergarten. We looked so cute in them, even Jongdae. Back then he didn’t have that shit eating grin like he has now. But you were so cute, cutest baby cheeks alive. It’s so sad that we live like miles and miles apart. I miss you so much! You should come and visit me. I could show you around a little bit.

Love, _____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol, 

You could have just told me that you would be in a music video, you know. Especially when you are looking like the biggest fuckboi in it and make out with some girl instead of having me find it on YouTube. I don’t know if I should be mad at the fact that you didn’t tell me or because you are doing stuff with that girl you never did with me. But then I tell myself that you probably didn’t choose the theme of the song or the music video. It still hurts. And I don’t know if I’m lying to myself that we work out when we’re so far away from each other. I don’t know. Maybe I just shouldn’t send this letter at all. Congratulations. The public seems to acknowledge you for your looks, acting and your musical talent. You made it. That’s the sunny side to this story, I guess.

Love, _____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

It’s alright, I’m not mad anymore. I was talking to Jongdae and he said you weren’t comfortable with the situation in the music video, and—even though he is the biggest jokester next to Byun Baekyhun—I trust him on that. You don’t have to apologize. I was just too jealous, I shouldn’t have been. It’s your job, it’s not like you grew feelings for that woman. She was probably not really comfortable either… Let’s just not dwell onto such topic, alright? I passed all my college exams for this term, I’m beat. I was studying so much that I pretty much forget that I was mad at all. You’re so lucky to be a music genius and already have a stable career and a well paid job.

Love, ____.  

⚜️ 

—–

Dear Chanyeol, 

I forgot to sent you a letter on your birthday. I’m horrible and I feel miserable. I don’t know how I can even apologize for not congratulating you and not even reacting to your texts and calls. You seemed so worried, but I couldn’t talk to anyone that day. I felt like shit, I just now I feel a little less like shit after I emptied the one or other beer. Chanyeol, it’s my mom. She cheated on my dad and they want a divorce. I’m supposed to be an adult and handle this, but they are my parents. I grew up with the idea of them being the perfect couple, that nothing could get in between them, and I thought we’d be the same. But now? It feels like everything my mom said was a lie. When she said she loved Dad and that we are the most important people for her. It hurts, Chanyeol. And I know you can’t do anything, but I also know that you will try. I don’t know when I will deal with everything better, I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea of me. I like you a lot, Park Chanyeol. It’s just hard for me to take a pen in my hand and write this all down. If you don’t hear from me anytime soon, don’t worry too much alright? I’ll be better.

Love, _____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol, 

No, just no. You don’t know what it feels like. Your parents are still together, they are not fighting and cheating on each other. They are not feeding you with lies of being together forever and loving each other, okay!? You don’t know what it feels like, and I hope you’ll never have to experience it either because it sucks. It just sucks.

Love, _____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

I realized after I sent the letter that I was overreacting. I hope this one will make it you on the same day as the one before. I’m sorry, you tried to comfort me. I shouldn’t have unleashed my frustration on you. It’s Mom’s fault and not yours. You’re never at fault, you’re the only one who hasn’t lied to me. You’re one of those people who immediately say what’s up and not hold it in forever till I find out. I value you a lot, Park Chanyeol. I want us to be together forever, unlike what happened to my parents. I want us to do better than them. And I feel like we do even though we are continents apart. 

Love, _____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

I feel even worse about what I said in that bitchy letter. How dare you just show up at my doorstep like this. How do you even have Dad’s number, and how dare he tell you the address. Just kidding, I’m glad he did. Also, why the hell am I writing you a letter when you sit right next to me. This letter game is really out of hand. Let me guess, you want the sweater I stole back, right? But you have to comfort me and go on a date with me first, else I’ll hide it forever. For how long are you staying? Just for the weekend! That’s too short. Okay, I stop this now. This is getting awkward to write.

Love, _____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol, 

You’re sleeping right now and you look super soft, but you snore so loud that I can’t sleep. Thank you for today. It was nice, everything was. From the date, to well, now. It was my first, but you probably know that, since I was the forever virgin back then. You, too, though! Sehun kept teasing us about it just because he had a girlfriend before you. What a loser. Hey, Chanyeol, I love you. You always do thing for me that no sane person would ever do. Like how back then when I was late for an exam you ate Baekhyun’s horrible cooking just to really look like you were sick…and well, from what I heard of Jongdae, you also puked on Mr. Park’s new shoes. 

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

It was good to see you again, and Jongdae called me just now saying where the fuck you are. Did you seriously book a flight without telling your boss, just because I was a devastated mess? Proves again that you’re insane! I don’t know how I even deserve you.

Also thank you for letting me keep the sweater. You were wearing it before you left. It smells like you again. Gosh that sounded cheesy. You’re infecting me with your flowery language, Park Chanyeol! Not that I mind.

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol, 

Why did I decide to study Psychology again? My head is spinning from all the revising I have to do! I just read through all the letters you sent me, I really needed a break. How is it going by the way? I was looking through Naver and I saw that Jongdae is preparing for a comeback? And apparently you are going to produce that album! Write him good songs, his voice is great. Maybe you can sneak yourself into a feature haha. I don’t know much about music, but I know that your voice sounds just perfect and you and Jongdae could really pull off a duet. Maybe get Baekhyun for it, too! He can sing well, although he was always pissing off Mrs. Choi in choir class. But she overlooked everything because he had the best voice and even when he was sick he hit all the notes. Speaking of Baekhyun, he keeps sending me wedding dress pictures and edits our heads on some Google Image wedding pictures. He’s crazy, give him a hug from me.

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

I’m not quite sure whether to classify you as dumb or cute. Seriously, Park Chanyeol? You sent a ring along with a letter with the words “will you marry me?”and a doodle of yourself kneeling, I can’t believe you!

Oh, and PS: Yes, I will.

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol, 

Honestly, it feels so weird wearing the ring and having to explain that it came by the mail. Seriosuly, Park Chanyeol, you could have just done that when you were here to visit me. Maybe it wasn’t really the best of moments, but Jesus, it would be a lie if I’d have said no then, no matter how grumpy and period cramps fueled I might have been. Also, stop Jongdae from sending me memes from We Got Married with our faces on. First Baekhyun and now Jongdae, doesn’t he have something to do? Like, singing for example? And you still haven’t told me anything about Jongdae’s comeback, and neither has he because I refuse to answer to his texts since they are all about “your boy Chanyeol wanna smooch you” and “name one child after me”. He’s ridiculous, but…if we ever have kids and one is a really big idiot with the loudest voice, sure, let’s name him Jongdae.

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

Mom called me today and I at first only wanted to hang up, but in the end I heard her out and met her with her new boyfriend…or more like the affair. I don’t like him, although he was nice to me and she seemed happy, I just can’t befriend with the idea of being all chill with the homewrecker. Is that childish of me, Yeol?

And what am I seeing there? Jongdae spammed me with his teaser pictures instead of memes, can you believe! He said that his comeback is going to take a while though, and that these teaser pictures will probably not be out till a few months. Work some faster haha. I want to listen to the masterpieces you’ve been hiding from me, your fiancee. We shouldn’t have secrets from each other, and with secrets I mean: send me your music. Nah, just kidding, you’re a perfectionist. I’ll patiently wait till Jongdae will send me all the music files the comeback.

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

Sorry for not replying so long! And don’t be confused because of the address, too! Dad is now stationed in the U.K. I finally was able to Spanish and then we’re moving again. I forgot half of the English we had in school, Chanyeol! But just saying, if Jongdae ever plans a world tour, he should come to Europe and the U.K. My personal recommendation is to go to chippie and get yourself saveloy. The best stuff you can get. I sent you a selfie of me at one of these iconic British phone boxes. Even though Spain grew to me, I like it here, too. You should definitely come and visit me.

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

Dad asked if you’d like to come over soon! He actually transformed his old hobby room into…a room just for you. He likes you a lot and he was probably even happier about that cringe proposal via mail than I was. So yeah, you have a room here now, and I’m going to be really honest here: why the heck does your room look better than mine? And it’s bigger than mine! The injustice, I’m his blood and he chooses your sorry ass over me. 

But still, Dad has always been like…dangerous when it came to boys. And here he is, waiting till the wedding we have not even planned out yet. We’re still so young and being engaged is great, too. But we’ll marry, right? I mean…you didn’t propose for nothing.

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

Dad got me into soccer, like not the playing one, but just watching. He started liking soccer already in Spain when he supported Atlético like his life depended on it. I wasn’t too interested in it back then, but hey, so many people here are into soccer and after having watched some matches with Dad, it’s actually interesting. I can finally understand Lu Han, I guess. Though not too much on the Real Madrid part? 

Tell him he should switch teams. Who needs Real when you have Hotspur or Dortmund? Who needs Ronaldo when you have Son Heung-min and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang?

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

I just went for the mail and seriously? You bought me a Borussia Dortmund jersey and put your name on it. “I’m the true keeper and not Bürki”, cheesy much? But yeah, you are, Park Chanyeol. You are the one and only keeper, although you’d be the first to hide from the ball when you were the goal keeper. 

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Keeper, 

No, I did not ditch you for Roman Bürki haha. I’m sorry for replying so late, on phone and by letter. Dad and I went for a little vacation in the middle of nowhere—camping and father-daughter bonding, don’t ask—and there was no post office and I had zero internet, so…I’m sorry.

Also, if I won’t reply quickly, I’m currently very caught up with exams. I had to retake some because I moved and it’s all so stressful. I want to do good, so don’t worry too much.

How is everything going with Jongdae? It’s been a while since his last spam, he must be busy, too.

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

Guess who is in England and into whom I ran today? Minseok! He’s actually an exchange student, but just for a couple of weeks. His English is better than mine, I feel offended, but Minseok was always good at everything. I remember how we were all such good friends and Minseok always saved our ass when we caused trouble. Oh God, do you remember when I had such a big crush on him and I confessed to him by letter and I accidentally placed the letter in Baekhyun’s jacket? He kept annoying the shit out of me and I had to pay him way too much snacks to have him shut his big mouth. 

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

Oh my, there is no need to be jealous! I only like you, my keeper! Besides, Minseok will be off to Seoul when this letter reaches you, so it’s all good. It was just nice to talk to someone, who I actually know. It was lonely for the first weeks because I didn’t know how to interact with people. How do you get along with people so well, Yeol? Share your secrets! 

But I miss you so much! I’m wearing your sweater right now and sit in “your” room. Really, Dad put so much effort into this, you should at least sleep here like once…please?

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

I can’t believe I missed you! My aunt recently moved to Scotland, so I went to visit her there. You should have told me in advance, I’d have met up with her some other day. Dad told me immediately when I cam back. You were literally only there to sleep there once. You could have stayed longer, you know?

But it’s alright, I messed it up. Next time I’ll be there no matter what!

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

Again, sorry for replying so late. I had half of the letter written, but never sent it. So now I’m writing it again. Jongdae was texting me just now and I saw all the messages you sent me. My phone was on silent, ah, I feel so bad. Anyway, Jongdae sent me a mp3 file, some teaser for the title track! I was kind of hoping it would be that song from years ago to be honest. But this one is good, too. Very catchy, I’m proud of you, Park Chanyeol. Your birthday comes up so soon, too! I try to visit you, oh wait, that was actually meant to be a surprise. Though, let’s all be real here, Baekhyun already told you that, right?

Love, ____.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol, 

Promise me to never be mad at me! I may have lied to you. But it wasn’t because I wanted to, it’s just. Nevermind.

Love, a liar.

⚜️

Dear Chanyeol,

It sucks that your birthday always brings more pain to you than happiness ever since I moved away, twice. Surprise, I’ve been trying hard to fight. But I can’t anymore. Back then I didn’t write you for weeks because I was in hospital doing chemo. Also, my aunt never moved to Scotland, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to lie, but I wanted even less for you to worry. It was stupid. I thought everything would be fine. I really did. They told me I was doing well, I was a real fighter. But the tumor was fighting, too. When this letter arrives at yours, at your birthday, I’ll be already…gone…again. And this time I can’t write you anymore. My hand keeps shaking, so my Dad is writing this for me. I’m in hospital again. It’s so white and monotone and everything smells like Kyungsoo’s fabric conditioner basically. Yesterday, I was reading through all the letters you sent me, I even read those stupid messages you sent to my phone. Promise me not to cry. I love you. Just remember that I really do love you…so much. You’re the best person I ever shared bubble gum ice cream with, you are the best composer, best friend, best boyfriend and fiance. Thank you for everything you did for me. Thank you for saving my ass. Thank you for carrying my drunk ass around when I was far away from taking a proper step. Also sorry for having puked on your favorite converse back then. Thank you for loving such a lame person like me. Thank you for being you. Also thank you for having spent money on stamps and perfecting your handwriting to impress me. You didn’t with it, though. But the content did. You are amazing. I wish I could listen to that song you never finished again. I hope you do finish it one day and sing it yourself. Your voice is beautiful. I wish I could have you whisper “I love you” into my ear again. Park Chanyeol, thank you. 

Love, _____. 

 ⚜️ 

Dear _____, 

Guess what! I actually lied to you. I’m sorry, babe, haha. The songs I was writing weren’t for Jongdae to sing, I was just working on one of his songs. I am working on his album now, the work I did during all those months was my own album. It will be out on my birthday, when this letter will arrive along with my album. The song I once sang that you liked so much…I finished it. It’s about you, how much I love you. I hope it will be your new favorite song because this is just for you, my love, my stupid little _____. 

Love, Chanyeol.

[konnl]

Goat Wisdom

The first period of the day is coming to an end. Three friends are exhausted from hearing their teachers talk all day about nonsense – time to skip class, smoke up, and relax. During the get-away, one of the friends finds himself in a difficult dilemma after being given the best advice of his life from an unlikely source.

Goat Wisdom is April’s flash fiction that brings readers into the eyes of a teenage boy who is stuck in a weed-induced conflict that will change his high school experience forever. Enjoy the story in written word, audio, artwork and soundscape.

Goat Wisdom

In Hell

It was one of those days at school. A day you wish you didn’t have to go because the teachers breathe down your neck about everything you do, and the other normie-kids talk about stupid music and TV shows. Not to mention you see your crush hitting it off with her new boyfriend – the quarterback of the football team. Honestly, a day like this was a typical day at school. I can’t really recall a good one. Oh well. Cheers to the best times of my life.

I fiddle with my pencil, carving into the desk’s wood, following the texture of the plank, filling it with lead. It was a mundane, pointless activity that I like to do while I was in the classroom. Carving lead into the desk was better than listening to Mr. Patton ramble on about physics. Where am I even going to use this stuff? I don’t want to be some sort of Einstein. Apparently, we’re supposed to take all types of sciences in grade 10 so we can decide where we want to go. I know where I want to go: cloud 9.

“I want you all to turn to page 27,” said Mr. Patton. “Read the assignment. You can do the first portion of the assignment for the rest of the class and the second portion when you’re home.”

The whole class – of about 30 –pulled out their pencils, turned to the right page and began reading. Some of the keeners in the front were the quickest to turn the page, probably because they were following along with Mr. Patton unlike me. I just flipped open to a random page to look like I was paying attention.

“Hey man,” whispered the boy next to me.

I turned to look at the boy, Alex, one of my good pals. For the first time today, I noticed his Goat Lord T-shirt – a kick ass death metal band we enjoyed. We actually had the same shirt and made sure we didn’t wear it on the same day. He could wear it on Wednesdays, I wore mine on Tuesdays. The last time we matched shirts, the jokes were aplenty about us being a couple. Now we avoid that risk.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“You want to get out of here when we are done class?” He asked.

“Damn right I do,” I said.

“Right on, you got some green in your locker?” Alex asked.

“Sure do,” I said with a grin. “We should get Felicia in on this too.”

“You just want to try and stick your hands down her pants,” Alex said.

I tightened the grip on the pencil. Alex’s words irritated me because they were right. He was a good friend and had the rights to remind me if I was doing something stupid. I just didn’t want to hear it. I couldn’t understand why she would go for someone like Don. I suppose being quarterback made you cool despite being a complete dud. Then there was his goofy face.

“Well,” I said. “If I run into Felicia, I will talk to her. If I don’t, we can just head to the ravine instead.”

“Sure, whatever you say,” Alex said. “As long as she is cool with my mixtape.”

“Totally, she’s into metal.”

“Yeah, the mainstream stuff,” he mumbled while staring down at his book. His face painted confusion while reading the text – probably a very similar version of my own expression throughout the class. Neither of us was interested in physics. Got to love that forced education system hey?

For the rest of the period, we stared at our assignments, pretending to work. Alex was doing something in the book while I doodled around the edges of the paper. Unfortunately, Mr. Patton watched everyone like a hawk, waiting to strike its prey. He loved catching students misbehaving. That’s why we pretended to work. Later, we would pay off one of the smarter kids to help us with our assignment. Smart kids like drugs too.

Eventually, the heavens heard our agony, and the bell rang.

Finally, I thought. That class could not have ended soon enough.

Gathering the Goods

Alex and I packed up our things and hurried out of the classroom. We had our exit strategy on routine and were often the first one to leave the class, despite being in the back of the room. Alex and I walked through the hallway to our lockers. They were at the opposite wings of the school. It was kind of a bummer, but we always knew where to meet up when skipping class. Physics was pretty dull, but the next period was social sciences. God no.

I hurried through the hall to get my locker. My route when leaving physics class took me right past Felicia’s locker. On most days I could see her making out with Don. That creep would have his hands all over her body. The rage I felt mostly comes from jealousy. Truthfully, that’s what I wanted you to her.

Just like every other day, she was at her locker. Lucky for me, today, Don was not here.

Looks like Felicia can have some fun, I thought.

Slowing my pace to a relaxed stride, I approached Felicia as she sifted through her locker. I nodded my head at her, saying, “hey sup?”

“Hey!” Felicia jumped and smiled at me. There it was, that deadly smile, one that could freeze even the most willful of souls. She had a way with her grin – and maybe her whole mouth. I’d love to find out. Either way, I sometimes wondered if she was friendly to everyone or she actually liked me. We’ve known each other since junior high. My feelings for her just multiplied over the years. It probably had something to do with teenage hormones.

“Alex and I are going to the ravine to have some dope. You want in?” I asked.

“Yes! I do.” Felicia shut her locker and adjusted her backpack. “We going now?”

“Yep, going to meet Alex just out by the east wing.”

“Think we have some time to grab Don?” Felicia asked.

“Uh, probably not,” I said. “Doesn’t he have to go chase around some boys on the football field?” I said humorously.

Felicia giggled and brushed her red hair aside, exposing her neck. “So how was Mr. Patton, Is he still running that dictatorship of a classroom?”

“You betcha,” I said as the two of us began to walk. “How about you?”

“Oh, you know, math is math. I don’t mind it. I just can’t wait to get the hell out of here.”

“Two more years,” I said.

Felicia and I reached my locker where I snagged the small jar that contained joint. I always tried to reduce the smell by hiding it inside a glass container with the cork. It reduced the scent a bit. The method wasn’t perfect though. As long as I kept it at the bottom of my backpack, no one would know as we left the school. With the joint obtained, Felicia and I left my locker and went to find Alex.

The two of us continued to walk down the hall to the opposite wing of the school. Alex’s locker was right beside the exit to the football field and the track and field course. The two of us chatted during the walk about the same stuff we usually did: movies, music, and video games. Time was a blur with that girl.

Blow This Pop Stand

Felicia and I exited the school find Alex leaning against the brick wall. The boy saw us and perked up.

“There you are,” Alex said. The statement was obviously directed towards me. Alex was not too fond Felicia. He could see how this girl had me wrapped around her finger – whether she knew it or not. Plus, Alex was kind of a purist when it came to music. If anyone didn’t fit within his criteria of taste, they were not cool enough to hang out with them. He probably tolerated Felicia just because I liked her.

“Yeah man,” I said. “I was just grabbing my stuff.”

“Cool,” Alex said while walking with Felicia and I.

“I’m so glad you guys can get your hands on some dope,” Felicia said. “My dad would kill me if he knew I was into this.”

“Me too,” I said. “I just don’t give a shit.”

The three of us laughed as we walked across the grass. Felicia’s eyes seemed to look at the football field as we moved by it. The football players were all training together in their uniforms while the coach directed them to perform specific tasks. That never looked fun. But I knew Felicia was not looking at the scene, she was trying to see if Don was there.

That douche, I thought.

Eventually, our path took us to the fence at the end of the school’s property. This fence was directly beside the river valley where we were able to move down the dirt path. This path was made mostly by students. It wasn’t paved or covered in gravel which meant roots were sticking out. Bumps and ditches were also throughout the trail. The three of us had to pay close attention as we descended deep the ravine. We continued through the forest until we found our familiar secluded spot. It was off the beaten path and difficult to see due to the thick foliage and dense trees.

Getting High

“Secluded enough?” Felicia said.

“Well, we don’t want to get caught,” Alex said as he pulled out his portable boombox from his backpack.

“This is the usual spot Alex and I go to smoke,” I said while taking the glass container out of my backpack along with a lighter.

Felicia began to play with her hair saying, “boy I feel special.” She smiled. That deadly smile again. It caught me, and I couldn’t look away.

Blaring metal music shot me back into reality, and I looked away from the girl to see Alex had put a CD into the boombox – good old Goat Lord. I didn’t even realize how long I was staring at Felicia for. Thankfully, she was staring at me, and she didn’t look away after the music started.

She’s into me, I thought. Oh, how I would love to make some kind of move on her.

Feeling cool since I had Felicia’s attention, I took the joint out of the glass container and lit it. I brought it to my lips and took a puff, embracing that sweet taste of green. The smell of marijuana filled my lungs and the air around us. I passed the joint to Felicia. She inhaled and then exhaled slowly, letting the smoke ease its way out of her mouth and past her lips.

“That’s smooth,” Felicia said while passing the joint Alex.

“The best,” Alex said while taking the joint and having a puff.

We continue to pass the joint around, each embracing the wonderfulness of the drug. Each puff that we had caused the weed’s effects to grow stronger in our systems. We laughed, joked, and chatted until there was nothing left of the joint. At this point, all three of us were feeling pretty good. Each of us gazed into different directions, downing our ears to Goat Lord. Felicia began playing with her hair while using a stick drawing the dirt. Alex was laying on his back looking up at the leaves. His head rested on his hands. He had a funny smile on his face that just wouldn’t go away. That is what made weed so awesome – it always put you in a good mood.

As for me, I tried not to stare at Felicia. Man, she is hot.

My mind wandered from the girl into bigger picture stuff, like what was the purpose of school? Society forced the youth to work so hard at pointless subjects. They want us to learn things we don’t care about. We barely even know ourselves, and we are trying to understand how particles move? It’s ridiculous. The other part of my mind got sucked back into the Felicia fantasy. She sat close to me. I wasn’t sure if it was the weed, or if she actually was leaning a little closer. It was a bit hard to tell while being high.

“KISS HER,” came a whisper.

I looked around, trying to see where the voice came from. It had to be Alex. The sound was a raspy male voice.

“DO IT NOW,” came the voice.

The voice came from Alex’s direction, yet his lips weren’t moving. Where was it coming from?

“KISS FELICIA,” came the voice again. This time I could see that the sound came from the Goat Lord T-shirt. The animal’s mouth moved as it spoke.

No way, I thought. This was the most intense experience I had ever had on weed. That goat was actually talking to me.

“KISS HER NOW, OR YOU WILL REGRET IT,” said the goat. The illustration of the goat looked directly at me while it talked. The mouth moved in a very human-like motion.

I was not a fool, I knew that T-shirts couldn’t talk let alone give pretty good advice. Even though I knew it was the drug talking, I liked what the goat had to say.

I looked away from the goat illustration and at Felicia. Her red hair, green eyes, smooth legs… everything about her. That goat was a reflection of my deepest desires. All I wanted to do was take Felicia into my arms and start playing suck-face. It’s all I ever wanted to do. From what I could tell she was into me too, despite being with Don.

I leaned in slowly towards the girl and then paused. No, I thought.

A moment of clarity hit me: if I kissed Felicia, what would that mean? Felicia was seeing Don, and things seem to be going well with them. I was already not in the good books with the football team, how much more difficult would that make my life? At the core of my relationship with Felicia, I was her friend. I truly cared about her. What if she wasn’t giving me hints and I did kiss her? She would feel betrayed and creeped out. Don would kick my ass.

“DO IT NOW!” came the commanding voice of the goat illustration. “DO IT NOW BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.”

I froze. This was a dilemma I never thought I would have to experience in my life. On the one hand, the girl wanted was right beside me – being questionably close. On the other hand, I could not tell if this was all just the weed. After all, I was getting advice from a talking goat illustration on a T-shirt.

“YOU MUST,” the goat said.

“No!” I shouted.

My shouting caught the attention of Felicia and Alex. Hell, I startled myself too. The sudden sound threw us all off, killing the weed-vibe we were experiencing. Felicia scooted away from me while Alex stood up, brushing the dirt and grass from the back of his shirt.

“What time is it?” Felicia asked.

“Probably getting close to the end of the period,” Alex said pressing stop on the boombox and grabbing it.

I stared at Alex’s T-shirt, my eyes fixated on the goat illustration. It was no longer animated. The eyes were as lifeless as they were before the weed. Its mouth didn’t move. There were no voices.

Regret

I got up on the grass scratched my neck, I felt nervous that I shouted out some words to my friends that had no context to the situation.

“Smoke much, man?” Alex said with a grin.

“I guess so. Shit, I had some bizarre thoughts,” I said. “I’m wondering if that thing laced with something else.”

“Doubt it. Seemed normal to me,” Alex said. “I think you just tripped some serious balls.”

Felicia giggled while the two of them began to walk back to the school. I followed them, and the three of us walked as a group. I wanted to tell my friends about the ridiculous experience I had with the auditory hallucination. The rational part of me said no. It was a ridiculous story, and it might weird Felicia out. Maybe I could tell Alex later. For now, this stayed with me.

The three of us exited the ravine and returned to the school property. We walked across the grass until we made it near the football field where the football team was just finishing up their training routine.

One football player noticed us, and he stepped away from the group, waving.

Oh no, I thought. Right away I knew it was Don.

Felicia waved at the boy at the football field. He began to jog toward us. Felicia hurried towards him, leaving me with Alex behind.

“There goes your girl,” Alex said.

“Yeah,” I said. There really wasn’t much else to say. Felicia had the most popular guys in school for her boyfriend. I was just her stoner buddy, watching in disgust as Don and Felicia embraced one another. Her arms wrapped around his neck. His hands firmly gripped her ass. The two of them began to make out disgustingly. I just couldn’t look at anymore.

“Let’s get something to eat,” I said. Truthfully, I wanted to get out of there.

He was right, I suddenly thought.

In that doped-up state-of-existence, I heard words of wisdom from an unlikely source. Instead of listening to the strange goat’s words, I decided not to. With a clear mind, I recalled the scene in the ravine: Felicia and my knees were nearly touching, she kept playing with her hair while leaning towards me, and she was looking at me for prolonged periods. She was just too shy to make a move – just like me. The goat was the voice of reason in the situation who was trying to guide me into something that would have been beautiful. The goat was providing words of wisdom, and I did not listen. I should have never doubted the Goat Lord.