#and everything is brighter and clearer and real again for a bit

[exuviea]

every time I see live music something is reformed in me

[sunghanne]

STAR RACER － ENHYPEN GREASE AU SERIES | PART 4 🚦

racer!enhypen & flaggirl!reader

PARTS: PROLOGUE, PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 5, coming soon...

TITLE: ST★R-RACER : PART 4. THE RUMBLE.

feat. ENHYPEN, TXT, STRAY KIDS?!

PLOT: in a small town during the 1950s, seems the only thing keeping careless teenagers entertained are drag races where only the elite participate. and those elite are known as star racers.

WARNINGS: ooc idols, sexual innuendos, light sexual content, strong language, violence, mild slutshaming, illegal acts, cat calling, sleezy teenagers, tba...

TAGLIST: @lalalalawon , @strvlveera , @kjrcrz comment your @/user to be added!

WORD-COUNT: 10.0k

NOTE: im so sorry this part took so long to write. i burn out easily and ideas were not filling my head. this is my first big series so it is a bit difficult to amount to the number of words each chapter has. but thank you for waiting and i hope you enjoy this long special! i apologise for any typos, its hard to proof read at the moment. likes, reposts and comments are all heavily appreciated, thank you.

your attention has placed the road ahead of you, memorising the familiar landscape as the one you drove past in the evening with yeonjun. from the asphalt road to the street lamps and to the traffic lights, everything was much brighter and clearer this time around. likely due to your vision not being clouded by the raven night sky, or perhaps the regret and guilt tainting your perception of your surroundings that unforgettable night.

"well, i'm not worried. he can have a cow, won't change the fact his turf's in a rut too," you calmly replied while adjusting the collar of your white short-sleeved blouse. a light grin on jake's face humoured your determined attitude, bright eyes laying on your reflection from the rearview mirror.

"you kill me sometimes," your male counterpart complimented before refocusing his attention on the next corner he swerved past. you beamed at his sweet comment, gulping your real intentions down your dry throat. in reality, you were worried. about yeonjun, about going to an unfamiliar school, about heeseung.

definition:'kill'. > to impress.

to even consider the plan of attempting to pact with the clique from the other side of the town meant you were desperate. you yearned to snatch jake's steering wheel and go back the way you came from because an uneasy bundle in your stomach untangled and started to reach every vessel in your body. you thought the pressure of the rumble would ease overnight but instead, it got worse.

someone could end up in the hospital, even inadequately considering the possibility of ending up outnumbered due to the uncertain chance of recruiting yeonjun's crew. so even though you hated it, you had to get the boy on your side, for your friends' sake.

last night's image of riki's untamed berating and thrashing out of sunghoon and jake's grasp was hard to shake off he had never gotten so worked up about another person before. you didn't want to see him in that state again.

the number of stores on the street gradually decreased, replaced by dense trees and bramble bushes, a sign you were nearing the school. "what a load of nerds," jake poked fun at herds of students clad in blazers, jerseys, plaid patterned pants and skirts and the tall rhubarb brick building fenced by tall black metal fencing. it was like some impenetrable fortress with a long moat surrounding it, except it wasn't. it was simply unlike your school. your school was the complete opposite with nothing more but a twisty metal fence surrounding it. students would occasionally hop over the fences just to go get better lunch food or skip unwanted classes, you included.

your eyebrows gradually lifted at the realisation that you hadn't even tackled the first crisis yet, the overbearing fence, "crap," your curse placed under your breath while jake steered into the disbursed car park and came to a gentle halt, not eager to bring unsolicited attention to your arrival. he made sure to park behind a wide tree that's long branches with lax leaves that almost reached the roots on his head.

he quietly wolf-whistled at the amusing sight, taking in the complication you already situated yourself with. you reluctantly revolved your head towards the male beside you in slow motion to find his gaze. and with a suspecting smirk on his face, he inquired you about his nifty scheme.

his hurried hands grasped his elbows as he held his folded forearms in front of him, crouching in an uncomfortable position with knees pressed into the hard pavement.

the corners of your mouth spread outwards as your molars clamped down on one another, too focused on aiming the sole of your shoe on jake's makeshift stepping stool to notice the strain on your jaw.

he huffed out upon your weight's arrival, his arms wavering for a split second before he jolted the platform made with his arms up into the air. you took the sudden elevation as a chance to hold on to the cold metal railings of the fence, concentrating as your wide skirt bunched in the air. with a rigid rattle, you regulated your balance as jake's arms steadied you on top of him.

a gasp of relief vacated your chest as your clenched jaw could relax as your successful stepping stool plan worked. "s'nice view," jake's crude comment blasted below your lengthy skirt and your wide eyes bolted to the male whose head was tilted upwards for anything but the sky. there was only one place his eyes landed upon.

"cut the gas, sim!" you screeched loudly and intentionally kicked the white tip of your sneaker in the male's susceptible nose. he yelped out in pain, eyes squeezing shut while his arms awfully loosened. a mean laugh left your lips in satisfaction while taking the distorted balance as an opportunity to release your foot off of his platform and onto the top of the horizontal railing slab. then, you applied all your weight on the singular foot and extended the rest of your body upwards and over the fence. yet, your landing wasn't as straightforward as the journey over it and you ended up with one of your knees shoved into the damp grass of the school campus.

your partner in crime was rubbing his throbbing red nose after your hostile jab at it, despite him knowingly deserving it. one of his brown eyes opened to peek at your safe drop on the other side of the fence, "sorry. 45 minutes, y/n. js'call out for me if you need," he called out while the hem of your skirt returned around your knees after the velocity of the drop concluded. you were hunched over, a hand dusting your dirt-stamped kneecap that had follicles of grass glued to it.

"i know. don't think i'll need the help of a little boy who can't keep his eyes out of the gutter," you mocked his ogling and spun on your heel away from the car park and the familiar individual with it. jake, the boy who couldn't stand being crowded by girls, confidently announcing the esteem of seeing up your skirt was a bold move. little does he know the minor injury to his nose would be met tenfold by the time you bust out of this unfamiliar school.

45 minutes. all the time you had at your disposal. 45 minutes was the duration of lunch and you needed to be in and out of yeonjun's school as quickly as you could. of course, some constraints were weighing you down other than the time frame. and that was yeonjun's compliance.

it was safe to assume the male you threw a drink at two weeks ago would most likely refuse your proposition. neither did you know the layout of the school and whether the teachers on guard would kick you out upon your arrival. so you had to be equally alert.

you strode forward towards the towering building with the large cross logo built in the middle, a slight increase in heartbeat by the countless pairs of eyes locked onto your unknown self. you could only pray that no tattle tail would report on the girl who just leapt over the fences, breaking precisely why they were implemented. it was lunchtime at this school as well and cliques separated from one another sitting on the field or at lunch tables made you realise just how difficult carrying out this secretive mission of yours would be.

by secretive, only you and jake knew of it. hence the reason he was chauffeuring you to the other side of town and missing out on whatever lunch menu was on at your cafeteria. quite the feat, you thought.

after passing a few outdoor pillars by the side of the main building, you found the lunch block that remained outdoors. girls with rolled-up plaid skirts sat on the collection of bleachers by the soccer pitch in the distance to your right side, indulging in minuscule amounts of cafeteria lunches and the meals running across the soccer field. a mixed handful of preps sat along benches and or on the concrete-covered floors under the shade of the freshly painted veranda to your left. yet, from both ears you could hear the endless pour of gossip about your appearance surface. "that's the chick that went home with choi a couple'a nights back."

your focus on the defaming vocal of opinions suddenly terminated when a large, warm hand on your shoulder cuffed itself around you. your shaken eyes found themselves settled on a face you could put to a name. soobin. "aren't you lost, choi?" his deep voice questioned and a small curl of his lip caught your attention, face inches apart from yours. the hunch in his back signalled he was leaning over your head to meet your eyes from behind. you were speechless, not expecting a target to reveal themselves so easily.

the tall male raised an eyebrow in curiosity at your brief quiet demeanour, standing upright. only at that moment did you realise how much the male towered over you and it caused you to blink profusely out of intimidation. he wore a grey blazer with his school's emblem on it in contrast to the heavy dark jacket he was wearing at the race tracks. you licked your dry pink lips and swiped his hand off your shoulder discretely, "reason you callin' me choi?" you questioned lowly while he towed his hand to his side, shaking it off like it were wet.

"well, you are yeonjun's missus. ain'tcha?" he chirped while his lips protruded outwards and his cheeks huffed meanwhile. your eyebrows dipped low and a side of your lips lifted in a sneer like you'd stepped in rubbish. to even think of the said male as a spouse sounded like a nightmare. yeonjun must have been spreading misinformation around his turf, and a side task was unexpectedly placed upon you.

to prove him wrong.

"that's not true. i think i'd much rather be called my name," you seethed tediously with squinted eyes directly align with the male. he cocked his head to the side in wonder, trying to piece together whether you were joking or not.

"it's not? he was tellin' people you're round heels," he began to chuckle lightly and your hands balled tightly into fists. your yeonjun accusation stood correct. a flare of embarrassment sparked on your face in a blaze at such wording used on you. you groaned in irritation at such cunning stirs and trudged forward, bumping into soobin deliberately to tilt him backwards.

definition:'round heels'. > an easy girl, heels rounded for easy tipping onto a bed.

he staggered for a brief moment before regaining his balance and following behind your careless actions, half amused and half confused. "oh, choi is dead meat," you grumbled while stomping your feet into the lavish grass and heading towards the veranda. meeting numerous gazes of students who sat underneath it, you pondered why they were so judgemental. at first, you thought it was because of yeonjun's rumours, but when your head craned behind, you realised it was because of soobin trailing inches apart from you. it was so unsettling the shift in appearances of the boy who was once chasing after you and sunghoon on a friday night.

soobin was a renowned racer and the students either loved him or hated him, no in between. it wasn't hard to miss the only individual sporting black leather threads and tight blue denim amongst a crowd that didn't. it made you wonder how he even got into such a school in the first place. maybe his parents were filthy rich and threw him into such a populace with the intent to 'right his wrongs'. then they probably explained to the headmaster that 'he's just a boy, he doesn't know any better' when he set the science lab on fire, or something.

nonetheless, his reoccurrence made a palm slap against your face in annoyance, dragging your hand down in disarray, "if you're here to court me, hit the road," you complained while turning around for a brief moment and he shone a crooked smile at your notice of his presence.

"why, but you're a firecracker to tease," he jabbed while quickening the pace of his long legs and catching up to you, now side by side. your angry hands pressed onto the male's chest, trying to shove him away only for the male to lean all of his weight atop of you. the heavy force had your steps reversing and reluctantly, you backed against a hard brick wall. you grit your teeth anxiously, eyes glaring into his as the top of his head was against the vacant wall space above yours. "settle, doll face. if you wanted to get your hands on me so bad y'could've just asked."

his shower of flirts repulsed you and your head turned away at such compact contact, hands still driven against his chest as his torso didn't budge even when you started to hook your nails into it.

by the intimate distance, his cologne almost suffocated you, whisked with the scent of tobacco. his bold actions made your head spin and worst of all, everyone's eyes were on you. your hot face combusted with his warm breath, like waving a fan in front of flames.

"get off of me, rag!" you argued with an increase of pressure you placed on him. the corner of his lips cocked upwards and you eventually broke through his overbearing cave. you staggered forward drunkenly, feet pivoting away from the male as he toppled backwards for a split second. you briskly padded away, slapping two of your palms over your soiled burning cheeks.

"he was lyin', clearly," soobin chuckled breathlessly while resuming his follow on your whereabouts. honestly, if he pulled that trick on any other girl you were certain he'd be rejected just the same.

"lay off. if you're not going to help me find choi then you can waste someone elses," you retaliated and pressed the crease out of your white skirt. you hated that his cologne was now rubbed off of you and the scent didn't leave even after you shook out every article of your clothing like you were dusting them off.

"whats the occasion?" he questioned and licked his lips out of habit, loud footsteps echoing yours and acting all innocent like he wasn't pulling that stunt a minute ago, "i can."

"get on with it," you ordered through an eye-roll and endured the painful trip towards yeonjun's whereabouts. the sunlight appeared and disappeared on soobin's face as pillars blocked fragments of light each time you passed one, "i'll tell you when we find the guy."

"if it's another necking, i'd be more than happy to offer my services," he teased and swayed his body closer to yours, almost causing you to crash right into him. you cursed under your breath and pushed the boy away aggressively. you were starting to reconsider whether the problem with your plan was soobin's irritating antics or yeonjun.

definition:'necking'. > make out.

"another? we never did. in fact, he hadn't even laid a hand on me before he was pullin' out," you lied thickly but you didn't care. if it were an opportunity to humiliate the male, you didn't need to be asked twice. soobin's head was thrown back as a chain of laughs sprouted out of him at the correction.

"no snow job," the male teased while shaking his head after his high of laughter disbursed. the edge of the concrete veranda was nearing and soobin took the initiative to pass a corner, leading you towards an area that was much more secluded with taller brick walls. you were a little proud of your fake tales, even more at the reaction of the other male who didn't doubt it one bit. to be honest, you were over the whole situation. the bad date, the manipulative language used on you and the oil spill on heeseung.

well, partly over that last part. but with other concerns shadowing it, it was forced to the back of your cluttered mind. similar to the oversized blazer thrown around your sides and forced over your arms a moment ago. your arms weighed heavily at the large article of clothing and you cluelessly stared at soobin as he held your shoulders gently, only the tips of his fingers against you.

"lid on," he shushed you carefully and lead you in the correct direction, his head only focused on the individual walking past. an old lady, likely in her late 50s, wore sleek red glasses pressed to her face and a tight, knee-length pencil skirt that made her strut look funny. a teacher, a very intimidating looking one at that. she had a returning stern gaze over soobin and her wrinkly lipstick-chapped lips pursed in dismay. your shoulders were hunched like a box, from the tension in the air, or perhaps the heavy jacket over the top of you.

you weren't looking at the teacher, but when her echoing footsteps lowered in volume, you let out a sigh of relief from your chest, shoulders relaxing. the male took his hands off the top of your shoulder blades and left his warm blazer around you, only looking down at you with his dark irises.

"what was that for?" you questioned with a low whisper as if the teacher had super hearing and would've heard you if your voice was amplified another decimal. while adjusting his lengthy grey blazer around you comfortably, soobin shone a quick grin and rubbed an index finger along his smooth philtrum.

"disguise. that broad is the principal. if you weren't in uniform she'dve rocked you," he answered while playing with the hem of the white t-shirt he now resided in. your head tilted at his quick wits and perhaps you'd taken him lesser than he first ought to be.

"well, gentleman," you chirped and the boy licked his lips at the nickname, eyes shaped like crescents merrily. the walk resumed without anymore hindrance, only small talk between you and the tall boy who happened to let down his guard. finally, you came in contact with two large wooden doors at the end of the hallway. you bit on your lip, head checking up to soobin's for a split moment for confirmation. and by the light nod of his head, you padded forward and pushed the pair of doors open with two spread arms.

bright white headlights flashed in the dark ambience and heeseung's hand propped in front of his eyes to shield them from the blinding clash. he was sitting on the alleyway ground, forearms draped over his knees and his fond jacket across his spacious lap.

the bright light illuminated the entire alleyway and heeseung could see from his peripherals just how easily his position was given away by the brick walls of the alleyway lighted. alerted, he peeked through the gaps of his long fingers and cursed out at the reckless decision the other boy made to keep the headlights of his ride turned on. although, that angered fire in him snuffed out when his gaze landed on the longing face of his friend, jay.

the appearance of the younger boy was like a flashback to heeseung. it had been so long with zero contact with one another, it could've easily been another one of his daydreams. but, jay heeded to his call like the loyal service he was.

heeseung stood up straight as the engine of the car halted and the light vibration of the vehicle froze, headlights clicking off like a tv pulled at the plug. he dusted himself off, carefully padding towards the suspecting vehicle and walking along the exterior to the passenger's seat, taking light steps on the coarse rubble foundation.

the silence in the air grew as he opened the passenger seat and inclined his slim frame inside, settling on the vacant seat. no words were exchanged between him and the other male, only the turn of jay's head and the tilt of his sunglasses while he scanned heeseung's appearance like some judge.

"jay," heeseung greeted, nodding his head and keeping a straight face with a raspy voice. the male in question tilted his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, a smug grin on his face.

"heeseung," he responded cooly, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly as if it were a normal interaction between the two. nonchalant before the aggressive tug on his shoulders yanked him forward into heeseung's warm embrace. jay's sunglasses tilted crookedly as his face smashed against heeseung's ear, returning the tight hug tenderly.

"you idiot! what's this get up? forgettin' your honorifics and wearin' sunglasses in the middle of the night?" a long, gleeful laugh left heeseung's throat. he hadn't laughed like this in ages. the strong hug came to an end as heeseung disengaged and scanned jay's awfully misplaced glasses. jay bit back a hearty smile, pleased his little gag with sunglasses made the other laugh. he ran his long fingers through his black locks and whisked his head back as though he were in a photo shoot.

"well, y'know. work," he replied, still piling onto the joke. heeseung shook his head, sweaty bangs glued to his forehead after his eventful night of running from the fuzz. jay flicked his sunglasses above his hairline, not being able to see anything in the dark with them on anyway. now able to see clearly, he didn't miss the mass amounts of cash splayed all over heeseung's dirty coveralls, "dude?"

heeseung's orbs traced jay's gaze and peered down at his own body, realising the male was flabbergasted at more than just his arrival. he bit back a proud grin and dug a dirty hand into his side pockets only to return with a handful of papers between his clutches, "dude," he replied and jay's raised eyebrows lowered to a normal slate, realising heeseung's act was true.

"the fuck did i miss?" his counterpart questioned as me of his palms pressed against his sweaty forehead, colliding with his tilted sunglasses unintentionally.

the older male returned the cash to it's rightful place in his pocket and kept that same smile splayed across his cheeks, "robbed this old man's register when he wasn't lookin'. don't worry, i kicked the bucket right after," his remark held no remorse for his criminal act and instead acted as if he were bragging.

a half scoff half laugh left jay's lips and he looked off the to side like heeseung had spoken a terrible joke, "y'crazy, hyung," he remarked whilst a hand kept itself on his leather steering wheel. the elder began to undo the upper clasped buttons of his coveralls and slid the thick navy material off his shoulders, typing the sleeves across his waist in a bulbous knot. he returned his beloved race jacket around him and leaned forward with a finger playing with the sweaty black strands of his hair whilst scanning himself in the rear view mirror.

jay was watching silently, amused by the sudden interest of appearances, "gonna need more than a pampering, y'stinkin' up my chariot. who y'trying to impress anyway?" he questioned next.

"...nobody in particular, park," heeseung cheesed with a flashy reply, adding the finishing touches to his hair and sitting back in his car seat with a satisfied nod.

"not fallin' for that snow job," the other retorted whilst continuing to view heeseung's conflicting mannerisms, "'ts y/n, ain't it?"

there was a cascade of silence that laid the car, only the sound of cars driving meters from the alleyway entrance roaring past. until jay opened his mouth once more, "she'd been down in the dumps since you left," his dark eyes faced forward, tracing the terracotta brick wall heeseung once leaned upon previously, "everybody. jungwon, sunoo, hoon, jake, riki 'nd y/n. we all been bugged. just constant losses-i mean did you know that kid sunoo dropped outta school 'cause he lost a bet on your last race?"

jay's calm tangent caused heeseung's eyebrows to raise slightly. he knew there would be consequences to his careless disappearance, but nothing of this calibre. heeseung wasn't a dickhead like the other greasers you'd categorise him with. he was the eldest of the clique and brought a sense of meaning to that label with reason. and, he definitely knew when he should be held accountable for up and leaving as though that selected group meant nothing to him but a mere memory.

jay's vent furthered, "guess that saying that goes 'you never know what y'got 'til its gone' is true," his vision returned to his eldest and the black haired disheveled individual had his brows real upturned this time, mouth parted slightly in surprise at the sincerity of his pride smitten companion. the boy in question was flustered at the non-responsive behaviour of heeseung and cleared his throat while looking off to the side.

lee simply shook his head, placing a hand on the awkward male and nodded in acknowledgment, "yeah, man. guess i got a few apologies to make," he answered whilst lifting a palm off his friend and instead returning them to his jacket to fully zip it up as the cold night breeze bristled the hairs on his head.

jay tilted his head slightly forward in response, taking the cold wind as a sign that solidified that heeseung wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. now, there was only the future to look forward to-and a group of assholes to prove himself to. the car engine started once more and the automobile began to reverse from the dark alleyway.

a cold curious hand dug into the front pockets of his jacket, only to brush past a crisp wad of paper. heeseung brimmed with confusion for a brief moment as he lifted the paper out of his pocket and held it in front of his eyes. with a squint, he realised it was a collection of numbers written with pencil. heeseung's eyes narrowed further in suspicion, only one person had access to his clothing and he drew a straight line to the culprit.

"y'good?" jay asked to break the sudden silence and the other male immediately crumpled the paper between his fingers and flicked it behind him.

"yeah, keeno," lee nonchalantly responded while jay had fully backed out of the dim alleyway, only now waiting for several cars to pass so he had a clear entrance.

"i got a plan to get you outta juvi," the other appeased with an anticipating grin on his face. the loud screech of tires burned against the asphalt ground as jay forced himself to break a brigade of cars, earning a few ear-piercing honks from other drivers.

heeseung's head was turned towards the rear end of the car, an astonished smile on his face, "surprised y'haven't lost your license yet. shoot," he encouraged the other's question.

jay clicked his tongue at hee's snarky comment and drove towards the direction of a gas station that's bright neon sign was spotted miles away, "dyeing ya 'do," the dark haired male explained while his eyes flicked towards heeseung's raven locks.

the male in question reluctantly lifted a hand to palm the side of his hair, lips pursing in uncertainty, "fracture me, will you? there ain't no way in hell you're touching my hair," heeseung refused almost immediately.

definition:' fracture'. > amuse me.

"'ts either you sportin' a new color, or spending the rest'a senior year with the fuzz," jay reasoned while shaking his head in disapproval. personally, he thought his plan was well thought out and a good cover for his criminal of a friend.

"ain't that a bite, park. think they got ciggies in jail?" the other sighed out while repositioning himself in jay's vehicle, long legs outspread lazily whilst his torso pushed upwards so his head could stay upright.

"get with it, hyung! y'know how hard it's boutta be when you return to school with a felon on y'head?" jay continued while heeseung closed his eyes stubbornly.

"you watch too many damn flicks," he laughed out while jay hadn't changed direction towards the servo at all. it'd take a lot of convincing for heeseung to agree, but jay just couldn't let go of his marvellous idea. and yes, he'd suppose he watched too many movies.

right in front of you were none other but the pack of greasers leaning on bleachers with their thumbs flipped over of their pockets while their other four digits tucked into their skinny jeans. one individual, in particular with their back turned from you had a long hand pressed on the wall that a shorter girl leaned against. the familiar curls of his brunette hair were hard to discard from your memory, so much so that you hesitated to step any closer.

if it weren't for taehyun's quick tap of yeonjun's shoulder, the male would've never turned his head to notice your presence. at first, his foxy eyes were pried in surprise before they relaxed and a cocky smirk replaced his ajar mouth, "i knew you'd be back for more, cherry," he cooed and unhooked his hand from the wall pressed beside his female companion and stood up straight, smug look unwavering.

soobin left your side and travelled up the bleachers to meet his clique, long legs used to skip past two bleachers at a time. he exchanged a hand shake with yeonjun briefly, tugging in the male and dabbing his shoulder before pulling away and settling on the cold spot beside beomgyu. now, only you resided alone as a group of five looked down at you like a feeble insect.

"back for more? more of what?" you spat with raised eyebrows, almost holding back a fake laugh at his outpour if confidence like the night between you two had gone well.

"why, don't act coy. i know you miss me," yeonjun tutted while digging his hands into his pockets, shoulders relaxing as your expression crumbled in agony.

"oh get bent, choi. i'm not here to relive the terrors of friday night," you answered in determination, hands fisting the heavy blazer over your shoulder's you'd almost forgotten soobin left on you. the four other men murmured between each other, one of them patting yeonjun on the shoulder and causing him to stumble forwards slightly.

his calloused hand brushed off the previous spot the hand had touched him and he glared towards the boy in annoyance, "well then, clue me," yeonjun responded while his legs began to extend forward and step down each bleacher seat with a hop in his steps.

you inhaled sharply, watching as yeonjun proceeded to step unwarrantedly close to you with the tip of his shoes nearly budding into yours, "your turf's being threatened by those... stray animals from the next town over, y'know those ones?" you answered with a hesitation as you described the male group in question. yeonjun's lips pouted, an eyebrow crossing in confusion from your unreliable outpour.

"name 'em. i don't know who they are," he demanded while turning his head left so his ear protruded towards you closest. your teeth grit in irritation at his actions potentially mocking you and the sliver of power your position gave away. a girl, left alone in a school full of random people, in front of her sworn enemy.

"felix, hyunjin, chan, those lookers," your eyes decimated off to the side as you recalled a few of their aliases. the boy in front of you rubbed his chin in thought, still missing a few details.

"yeah, them freamers," yeonjun parroted before throwing his head back to repeat the message to his lackeys up on the bleachers. a couple of their faces screwed, a little complacent with their cooperation. you bit down on the insides of your mouth, kneading the soft flesh as a way to pass time as no straight answer was given from the other party.

"listen, uh, we lost star racer to them and since riki struck at them first, they wanna rumble with us," your anecdote retained uncertainty yet you wanted to persevere confidently.

two front teeth bit down on the right side of the boy's bottom lip, biting back an unconvinced smile, "that ankle-biter ought to have at it. well, what exactly would we get out of it?" yeonjun asked with a deliberate whining tone towards the end of his sentence.

"you kiddin'? we're stuck in the mud for your turf and you want something out of it?" you scoffed with narrowed eyes.

"do you's really need us?" his hands outstretched in front of him as his shoulders shrugged, faking unconvinced, "sounds like we should just let em' bash ya' and clean up the mess after."

your eyebrows creased for a split second, eyes strictly trained on your counterpart's imposing face, "your turf won't be lost, you get a good swing on those douchebags and..." your volume lowered while thinking of your next proposition. until yeonjun finished your suggestions for you.

"—how 'bout a proper date. a good one that might end with something else gettin' damp, i'd rather," his condescending voice stifled a laugh at his dirty innuendo. the pack on the bleachers seemed to mirror his reaction, yet they were encouraging.

"another fake out?" your face screwed while weighing the odds. did you really need these guys as backup? the chances of succeeding did increase if they were to defend their own turf. for pete's sake, was defending their own side of the town mean nothing if they didn't get a piece of you out of it? you knew bets never ended well, you knew very well.

but there was an undiscovered surge of eagerness that anticipated you.

yeonjun's head lifted and lowered slowly, nodding for you to continue. your tart fingers bore creases in the oversized jacket slung over your shoulders as you  finally responded, "no. see, i don't usually settle for sloppy seconds," you replied while your eyes peered behind his broad shoulder. specifically at the girl leaning against the brick wall with her arms crossed, burning holes into your frame by her stare.

the male whipped his around for a split second before turning back to you with a hand plastered on the back of his warm neck, "that broad's jus'ta rebound. we get comfy, don't we?" he attempted to convince yet this time with a softer voice, most likely lowered so the men behind him couldn't hear his pompous attempt to sway you.

"i am anything but comfy 'round you. y'know, its fine. we should just back outta this rumble and allow them to take your turf. you've already won, haven't you?" your eyes scaled upwards to the ceiling, checking off an imaginary list in your head, "you've got heeseung's car, you've got star racer, you've got my friends leaving one after another," an uninterested frown grew on your face as your hands outspread outwards in pretend surrender, "i don't see why we should hold onto our pride if someone's already fucked us over, really."

yeonjun's eyebrows raised while he listened to your lost hope, quite unsure of how to appear. his eyes travelled from your long skirt, to your tucked in blouse and even to the stilled palms on display, "so you finally wanna admit we're better than you's?"

"sure, choi," you replied unenthusiastically.

he swiped his tongue on his bottom lip in thought, knowing there were only two ways your encounter could go, "you pushin' the right buttons if thats your goal. but, what do y'mean your goons are leaving one after another?"

his question brought your eyebrows to skyrocket that he was even concerned with the status of your group. one of your palms pressed against your wrist, rubbing it uncomfortably as if there were a stain lingering against it, "...yea. heeseung's gone, jay's on a vacay, sunoo's dropped out. i know you don't care but i guess that's why we need your clique," your voice softened as you opened up to the boy for the first time.

yeonjun's head rotated around to face his group to view if they heard the same thing and there was a sinister smile plastered to his face as he faced you once again, "was wonderin' why i hadn't heard of lee in a while. i'd say too bad, but if that greaser was here you wouldn't be pleadin' to me."

the boy's apparition earned a tilt of your head, slightly confused by his wording, "you lay off. i wasn't pleading, just playing messenger," you argued back. suddenly you remembered the time frame you should have cohered to and flicked down to the boy's cuff of his jacket to see if he was wearing a watch, "what's the time?"

choi blinked a number of times before he brought his hand to run through his hair while bringing his wrist into view. he flicked his sleeve's cuff back while squinting his eyes, actually confining to your request without a fuss for the first time, "it's 1:20, dolly."

you mentally cursed while your feet paced back and forth for a second, only 10 minutes left of lunchtime and to be back at your side of town. there wasn't anymore time to talk so you grasped onto the oversized jacket around your shoulders before quickly spurting out, "it's tonight, same time and place as the races. if you don't show up, tell soobin to kiss his sweet jacket goodbye!" you skimmed through the details with a gleeful laugh leaving your lips.

ignoring the calls and requests behind you, you pivoted back towards the gymnasium doors and hurriedly shoved them apart to make way for your triumphant exit.

you had a clue that yeonjun's clique wouldn't back out of such a contest, especially after you had practically kissed their asses for participation. but regardless of how it occurred,

'snob high' was officially on your side.

the ruptured footsteps of heeseung's converses padded against the white floor of the gas station while his dark eyes analysed the shelving surrounding him. jay was leading him through the limited beauty section of the store, an anticipating smirk of mischief coating one side of his face to the other.

"tellin' ya, give it a chance," jay persuaded whilst one of his hands extended forward to pick up a box of hair dye, an extremely vibrant blue. the eldest boy's eyebrows furrowed, one side of his face hit by the cold toned lighting of the shop. his calloused hands dug into the blue coverall bottom pockets he retained in that's sleeves were still tied around his waist.

"freakin' blue? you tickle me, ha-ha-ha..." the pompous fake laughs excavated heeseung's lips like a robot, not swayed at all.

jay scoffed comically, pursing his lips together to puff the black tuffs of his fringe upwards and out of his eyes. the spikes lay flat back against his tan forehead while he returned the blue box dye and picked up a new one. this one having another vibrant colour and a hair model with the phoniest white smile hee had ever seen.

he slowly craned his head to heeseung who returned the dramatic head turn back before breaking out into an immediate head shake of refusal.

"it was me who picked y'up. do this as a reward to pay me back?" jay bargained with a low snicker.

heeseung didn't want to, of course. not with such a bizarre colour as that. if anything, he wanted to reach out and slam jay's idiotic face into the shelves and collapse every other hair dye box on display with him. but instead he sighed, eyes training on the front design as one of his hands slid down his chest and to a pocket of cash he'd tucked away.

"beat feet, 'fore i change my mind."

tonight was the night. the rumble. the dawning wind blew in your hair as sunghoon steered his roofless car in the direction of the race track. the breeze contorted your hair in all sorts of swiped arrays yet your face stayed stone-still. your eyebrows creased with a firm line shaping your lips. not even the loud roar of music from hoon's aux crossed your mind besides worry.

what if yeonjun and his squad were tellin' fibs just to get a rouse outta you. and if they did show up, theres no telling if all the other boy's would react kindly to their arrival either. you didn't exactly tell them your plan of inviting snob high affiliated other than jake.

it was the six of you, riki, jungwon, sunoo, sunghoon and jake all crammed inside sunghoon's five seater leading to riki being the one on the carpet flooring by your feet. he leaned his tall back against a car door, his neck hindered by the bottom cup holders on the door's inside.

he fought against it at first, of course, but sunghoon told him to suck it up or be left behind because he was clearly still in a bad mood from yesterday. you sat between jungwon and sunoo who were oddly silent while facing the nighttime scenery bleakly whipping past. the entire car ride was silent, all of you knowing the uprising tension to unfold moments ahead.

there it was. the loud bass of music coming from the dried dam's surface that the sloped concrete walls hid from eye view. sunghoon's dark eyes flicked to his rear view mirror for a split second before he veered forward on his pedal and down a slope to meet with the very source of sound. the enemies.

as the group of brute men unfolded in view as your ride came to a screeching halt that was overshadowed by the loud cooing and hoots of bangchan's clique.

"lookie 'ere!" one of their brash voices called out, earning a curdle of your nose in return.

your vision focused on felix who was leaning against the bright blue automobile with a cigarette between two fingers, only snapping out of your unintentional selected vision by the aggravated slams of car doors.

"c'mon y/n, hop out so i can get out too," riki ushered, the first time he'd spoken from the entire car ride. one of his hands placed itself on the driver seat's head, nails digging into the beige leather. you bit down on your bottom lip, clicking open the car door on your left and hopping out of the automobile.

riki followed suit, not leaving through the car door but instead manoeuvring himself in the air and jumping over the other closed side. everyone was already standing around hoon's car, glaring off the mugs across from them.

the tall blonde stood inches from sunghoon who was the closest to the 'stray boys'. clearly he wanted to display no fret the other side exuded since it was basically his fault this rumble was occurring in the first place. jeongin could tell immediately and silently stepped forward as well, his braces shining as his lips parted.

"if it isn't rik-dog, the candy ass," the brunette of the other side taunted, eyes shooting straight to riki who clenched his teeth immediately at the name call.

"and cookin', ain't i? train-tracks," riki ridiculed back, earning a quiet coo from sunoo who couldn't contain his satire encouragement and resulted in an elbow in his ribs by jungwon who knew it wasn't the time for such antics. your white sneakers tapped against the pavement as you situated yourself beside jake who was positioned behind the gap sunghoon and riki had between them.

definition:'cook' or 'cookin''. > doing it/well.

jeongin sputtered, brown eyes glancing towards your appearing figure instead. his gaze flicked up and down your frame before turning back at riki, "i see your classy chassis can still only clothe in her mother's clothes. she ain't been popped yet by you's, has she?" his uncalled insult targeted at you instantly drew a frown on riki's face.

his sick innuendo mixed with the unnecessary comment at your clad attire brought irritation in your veins. but honestly, you had only worn long skirts and blouses since heeseung went missing as well as refusing to be flag girl at race events simply because you weren't comfortable anymore. yet before he could respond, you did, "if we talking mother's i'd assume the only thing popped is your mother loaded before she had you."

definition:'loaded'. > drunk.

jeongin's braces disappeared after that, hiding behind a dropped smile as his lips curved downwards in an outraged pause. jake's giggle rumbled from his throat, unable to stifle it in time and attracted everyone's attention.

"something real funny, huh, sim?" one of the boy's you wouldn't be able to recognise questioned and jake lifted a hand to quickly cover his unserious smile that had arose.

"you lay off now. how 'bout we stop throwing insults and get started in the race," jake began while his hand collapsed from his face and revealed his still toothy smile.

"get on with it," hyunjin gruffly hasted and suddenly began to walk around to the driver's seat of the blue car.

"finally, some fuckin' action," sunghoon boldly responded in the second hyunjin entered his vehicle, mirroring his actions whilst everyone around the car migrated off the side.

"countdown!" one of the slack hooligan's hooted as a countdown of three began. your head was buzzing. events were happening too quickly and yeonjun hadn't even arrived yet. you didn't want him. you just needed him. eyes screwing shut, all you could do was pray for a moment that god was on your side.

but the roaring of engines filled your ears instead.

perhaps things could never go according to plan. you were already quite familiar with that concept. as your eyes pried open as the chatter in the air heightened, you didn't meet with the rear of sunghoon's car. his vehicle was still in place, along with hyunjin's.

it wasn't their revving cars taking off. your brows lifted gently at the realisation it was heeseung's car. except, he wasn't in it, of course. it was yeonjun. the chestnut haired male attracted the attention of everyone, his face contorting into a smug grin.

"what the hell are they doing here...?" you heard jungwon whisper beneath his breath while watching the boy in question kick open his car door. yeonjun's dark derby's trod out from his vehicle while his hands swiped against one another-almost as if he were wiping dust from them.

"well, ain't this a lumpy time to make the scene," familiar foxy eyes danced across the array of people in front of him, all standing in an imperfect line behind the two cars anticipating a race.

definition:'lumpy'. > mediocre.

definition: 'make the scene'. > attend an event/activity.

there was an uproar of confusion and questions creating scores in the air, people from you and bangchan's clique all turning to one another. your white soles collided with the pavement as you stepped forward, "didn't haul ass to get here, did you's?" a stifled laugh erupted in your throat while you eyed the group of five standing around choi's car.

"be grateful we's even showed up, cherry," yeonjun replied with a lower in his tone yet his grin retained on his face. you rolled your eyes in mock annoyance, placing them back on the group beside yours.

"is this every freamer you've kissed together, y/n?" one of the oppositions mocked, a reaction of laughter leeching off of his words. you frowned, hands balling into fists as you stared the boy down.

"y'keepin' count of the amount of boys being kissed wouldn'tya, han?" yeonjun butt in, the sound of a lighter flicking coming from his direction. oddly enough, the boys standing near you stifled laughs at yeonjun's remark. sunghoon's silver hair resembled the moonlight as he whipped his behind around to face us, his dark browns stern.

"explain what these germs are doin' here?" he rasped out, his neck in an uncomfortable twist from his position. jake's head immediately turned to you as you ushered out a curse at the oblivious male's action.

soobin's eyes trained on you with a squint, one side of his lips lifting into an intrigued smile. an uneasy lump in your throat swallowed down, "i invited them. like you said, we were outnumbered," you explained to the puzzled boy.

"yeah well, what'll ya do?" sunghoon raised another question, taking his smoke from his pink lips and tapping it on the edge of his car door, ashes falling to the ground by the gentle force, "i sure don't see any bottles of car oil in y'boot."

the obvious jab towards the oppositions group's wrongdoings towards heeseung altercated the tension in the air. yeonjun extended a leg forward, head cocking towards the side in amusement as he stepped towards sunghoon's idle position.

"you wanna find out, park?" the brunette rhetorically asked, approaching the right door of sunghoon's ride.

"bite-me," sunghoon grit through the fangs of his teeth, lifting his cigarette between two flexed fingers. then, he flicked the lit stick right between yeonjun's eyes, causing the male to abruptly duck forward and grab him by the collar with screwed eyes.

jake and riki were already jumping forward to engage in whatever hand's on experience they could get. soobin, beomgyu, hueningkai and taehyun followed suit, getting into an unnecessary scuffle.

you wanted to face palm at the failure to cooperate between both sides that were originally supposed to bind together.

"we're not supposed to fight you duds, we're on the same side! gods sake, they're like animals," sunoo attempted to persuade, his yells falling flat along with both his palms that he placed on both sides of his mouth.

one of your ears filled with howls of laughter from the sleazy guys you were originally supposed to fight. bangchan was hunched over, slapping his knee while jeongin was pointing and laughing. along with a scrunch in hyunjin's face from the embarrassing display.

you wished jay were here right now. if it were him, he wouldn't let some petty distraction disrupt the goal at hand. you knew that no matter who won between sunghoon and yeonjun, the hooligans would just clean up afterwards and win the turf.

"sunoo, you actually got those salt shakers?" you asked, turning towards the frantic boy with no fret on your face.

he gasped like he had memorised an answer for a test as he reached into one of his jeans pocket's and pulled out a small glass salt shaker, just like he said he would. you licked one corner of your mouth as a lightbulb lit in your mind, "watch this."

you ran towards sunghoon's side of his car and bent down behind the cover of the vehicle. from within you could see sunghoon's toned arm tightly head-locking yeonjun as the said make grunted and tapped his biceps in any way to be loosened. riki had hueningkai's converses roughly planted on the side of his face and jake was letting out girlish squeals from beomgyu and taehyun grasping onto his white shirt to lift him over the bumper of the car.

the most atrocious scuffle you'd seen. but instead of focusing so much on the circus act in front of you, you poured your attention onto your wrist bent at a 90° angle. you were aiming the salt shaker towards bangchan's group and you needed just enough power to throw it over the vehicle beside you.

luckily, salt shakers aren't relatively heavy. with a singular motion, the glass ornament went flying into the air and crashed into jeongin's eyes. the sudden collision staggered the young boy and his feet once keeping his balance toppled one over the other.

the brown haired boy fell backwards onto his tailbone, hands cupping around his eyelids and he let out a groan of pain. you heard a loud cascade of sinister laughter from the group of boys gang fighting in sunghoon's car. it was obviously riki getting the biggest kick outta jeongin being victim to throw.

"haha! was that you sunoo hyung?!" riki laughed abnormally with a wide smile, hands gripping onto the converse sole roughly kicking against him. with his stubborn hold, he bent the shoes back towards hueningkai who groaned at the agonising stretch, "good throw!"

hearing riki's loud banter, jeongin wiped his eyes with the back of his forearm, immediately targeting sunoo across from him, "you askin' for it, fucker," the youngest cursed with a sudden shift of gravity as he stood up and bolted towards sunoo's oblivious self. changbin, han, and a few others followed suit.

your friend squeaked out at the scare, stepping backwards and beginning to run the opposite direction from the newborn crowd, "you just had to say somethin' riki!"

although your plan had sort of backfired, it sparked the interest of jungwon who was standing behind you with his fingers buried tightly in his locks. he had just observed your impressive throw of precision, yet he was still debating on how to include himself in the rumble. his blue coveralls hang loosely around his fit frame, his head turning towards sunoo's quickly paced frame running across the width of the race track.

it wasn't like jungwon offered to fight in rumbles often. he rather be in jay's garage, tweaking any automobile he could get his hands on. with such brute handy work, you'd assume he would pack a somewhat hard punch, kick, or something like that.

"jungwon-if y'don't do somethin' i'll-" sunghoon grunted while scampering his torso up with one of his feet extending himself high on his car seat. using the newfound angle, he slammed one side of yeonjun's head into his steering wheel and sounded an ear-piercing beep of his car.

a few of yeonjun's lackeys who were beating up jake and riki loosened their hold on them to cover their ears at the sudden crack of sound. jungwon's dark round eyes shifted to your crouched position next to sunghoon's car door and bit down on his lip in uncertainty.

just as you were open your lips to say something, a bright flash behind you distracted your train of thought. everyone's heads collectively fwipped around like there was a magnet placed behind an external magnetic field. a flat hand placed itself against your brow bones in hopes to shield your poor eyes from the bright gleam.

the high-beams of the car switched off.

"that couldn't be..."

your eyelids immediately raised at the appearance of jay park behind the steering wheel, "you think a rumble s'gonna happen without me?!" the familiar boy roared over the loud engines of his car. beside him was a figure with reddish-pink tuffs belonging to someone with a flashy smile. you didn't recognise him at first. hell, you wouldn't believe anyone could with the new colour he was sporting.

it was heeseung.

"jay-heeseung!" the masculine voices near you loudly exclaimed in an imperfect harmony. you sputtered on your own breath while watching as jay diagonally parked in front of sunghoon. his ridiculous sunglasses rested atop of his nose bridge as he exited the car, not even waiting another beat before getting his claws onto yeonjun.

"y'gonna miss this," jay laughed out, rough hands digging into yeonjun's shoulders as he dragged the unsuspecting male out of sunghoon's reach. yeonjun landed onto the course pavement, grunting out with a sore cheek from the brutal number sunghoon did on him.

"those shades look ridiculous," were the first words sunghoon exchanged with the make he hadn't seen for a couple of nights. the reunited duo clasped hands, pulling each other into a half handhake-half embrace position.

your pupils dilated, ears cancelling the noise of your surroundings as you watched heeseung leave the car next. his pink hairdo highlighted him in the moonlight and it only made it harder for your eyes to peel off of him.

he wasn't drenched in car oil, or sums of feet away from you on the race track. he was right there. he was wearing his beloved race jacket and navy jeans thats pocket's occupied his thumbs. his remaining fingers rested on his thighs as he skimmed the scenery. seeing him after countless weeks didn't feel real. but another daydream.

"do-something!" sunoo's heightened scream broke your tunnel vision of lee. he ran right towards jay and sunghoon, on the path past jay before the taller man simply reached a finger out to hook onto the back of sunoo's collar. the forceful halt of his marathon had jeongin and the other couple of boys suddenly freeze in confusion of where sunoo had vanished to.

jeongin huffed with a puffed chest rising and falling like a hyperventilation bag, a mean look on his fatigued face.

"and you's would be?" jay questioned, unhooking his finger from sunoo's collar in which the boy collapsed onto the ground from exhaustion. jeongin balled his fists staring off jay, never having met him before.

"put a lid on it. y'wearin' sunglasses in the middle of the night," jeongin responded with a foul tongue. jay raised an eyebrow, mouth pursing as a smoulder crept onto his face whilst he pushed his sunglasses upwards smugly.

the display of mock confidence was less than appetising, to say the least, "ts' a handicap for you goons. y'gonna need it," jay remarked, his beady eyes analysing the crowd and positions of everyone surrounding. jake, taehyun, beomgyu, hueningkai, riki, sunghoon and even yeonjun had paused their actions, curious to watch what the exchange of banter would entail in the centre of the floor.

"rattle your cage, y'not that important," jeongin spat, turning back to the numbers behind him to whisper something. bangchan, felix and hyunjin were the only three not engaging in the festivities but the appearance of heeseung and jay ushered them towards the centre with everyone else in curiosity.

"well ain't this a kick! thats lee, but with pink hair, ey!" felix's deep voice announced as if heeseung wasn't standing there for minutes already.

"either i get my revenge on your crew for what y'did to lee over there, or you get up and take down these mobs here," jay briskly offered towards yeonjun, extending a hand towards the chestnut haired boy. yeonju had a hand holding his stomach, wheezing out at the collision his back suffered against the concrete ground.

yet, he returned the gesture. he'd know exactly where a battle with jay would end up, and he didn't exactly appreciate the steaming smoke of a cigarette fry his eyeballs again. jay grinned with one side of his mouth as yeonjun beckoned something towards the rest of his group, causing them to release jake and riki from their thresholds.

you were unsure of how to react. on one hand you wanted to run to heeseung, vent to him how much you were dying to see him, see a sliver of his presence to calm the storm in your heart. on the other hand, you wanted to avoid him out of all possible chances he loathed your being for what you did.

his head gradually turned towards you, doe eyes following suit as he noticed your hiding figure. as someone called out his name, he straightened his posture and held out a hand while curling his fingers for a split second to gesture you to follow. your shoulders stiffened as your breath hitched for a split second, hesitantly raising in your stature.

you quickly jogged to heeseung as he held out his forearm, your waist being the perfect place to rest it as he walked with you towards the others. there was no 'hello', no 'how are you?', not even a 'where were you?'. you simply craned your head upwards to lock eyes and admit,

"i missed you so much, hot stuff."

[sanicsmut]

WORDS OF THE FALLEN - P.2

Read part 1 here.

Warnings : Spoilers for the end of Summerset. Uhhh a bit of angst, happy ending, the ending kinda lets you imagine how it end? I guess? I don't know. Uuuuh I hope its good.

Words: 1096

Robin’s comment: Sooo I finally finished this. I hope you'll like it!

“Hey, wake up!”

You recognized this voice. It hasn’t been long since the last time you heard him, but it still felt like something from a long time ago. You blinked, blinded by an intense light, before your vision adjusted. A man was looking at you, his voice tainted in concern.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, puzzled.

You blinked again.

“Darien?”

“It’s me.” He nodded, his face becoming clearer in your vision, despite the light surrounding you. “What are you doing here?” He asked again. “Are you another illusion from Meridia? Is she still trying to make it worse?”

“Huh?”

At this, a hint of a smile appeared on his lips, as if that simple reaction was an undeniable proof that you were real. That it was you.

“Ah, of course. No one else would go to these lengths to save a comrade, mh?”

“And no one else would end up stuck in the Colored Rooms just to help a friend, mh?” You retorted, your lips curving slightly. This place was brighter than you had anticipated, and Darien – oh Darien, he didn’t look bright at all. He may have looked happy to see you, but his signature golden armor was so dull, so…. So not golden, his blue eyes almost looked lifeless. His smile definitely didn’t reach them, and his voice was cracked, as if he had been screaming.

“Are you okay?” You eventually murmured, slowly standing up and taking in your surroundings, though you could barely see any landscape with all that light.

A heavy silence followed and he sighed quietly, his shoulders slumping.

“Honestly?… No.”

Darien. The heroic Darien. The Darien, who was always all smiles and positivism and smugness was admitting he wasn’t okay. It was a big thing. And deep down, you knew that even before coming here. That book said he was disappearing, after all, of course he wouldn’t be okay.

“Well. We’ll get you out of here and it’ll be fine.” You declared.

“How do you think you’re going to do that? How did you even end up here anyway?” His voice was skeptical with a hint of concern.

“I kind of… argued with Meridia.”

“Argued?” Darien’s eyebrows raised.

“… Yelled…”

He almost snorted.

“Of course you would do that. Just for me?”

“Darien, I–“

“You…?”

“… I couldn’t leave you here and you know that. Not after everything, not after you literally sacrificed your life for me.”

A heavy silence. Your eyes were on his, (e/c) pupils meeting blue ones. Your breathing was audible, a steady pattern going in and out of your lungs while he pondered an answer to that.

“How could I not?” He finally whispered, making your eyes widen ever so slightly. “You’ve been my companion for so long, my friend. I’ve saved the world – hell, our reality – by your side, twice, and even before that it was in my dream that you accompanied me. Even if those dreams were visions from Meridia, I’m grateful for them because they made me realize I’d find someone who matters. And after that, that I did find someone who matters. So yes, I’m grateful for them. I’m grateful for you. More than you could imagine.”

Another pause.

“… How much?” Your voice was as quiet as his.

The question hung in the air, as you stared at each other.

He took a step towards you, his tired eyes looking way less hopeless than they did a few moments before.

“My friend…”

Oh, how you loved this. He never called you vestige. Never called you hero, never by any title. Just his friend. And it was all you needed.

“I gave my life for you…” He continued, slowly taking your hands in his, intertwining your fingers. “… And I’d do it again. And again. No questions asked.”

You exhaled, your breath shaking a bit. “Darien… I would never ask you to give your life for me. I wanted you to live. I want you to live.”

He smiled.

“I don’t know if I should call you selfless or selfish for this.”

You shrugged.

“Maybe I’m both.”

You looked down at your joined hands, he was absentmindedly rubbing circles on your skin.

“Maybe it doesn’t matter.” He replied. “All I know is that I won’t let your efforts go to waste. We’re getting out of here together, okay?”

You couldn’t help it, you smiled, hard, and this smile definitely reached your eyes. You briefly squeezed his hands in yours.

“Good, because you don’t have a choice. I’m not leaving without you.”

You reluctantly let go of his hands and turned around, determined to look for an issue in here, to get both of you out of this terrible place. However, he caught your wrist and, before you could realize what was happening, he turned you around and pressed his lips against yours. It was over in less than a second, as he took a step back.

“Sorry- I don’t know-” He apologized profusely, looking unusually awkward, realizing he had just touched you like that without asking you. He didn’t have time to finish, though, as you kissed him back, shutting him up instantly. He exhaled through his nose before wrapping his arms around you – realizing just now how unpractical his armor was. You stayed like that for a moment, pouring out pent up feelings, pain, fear, even, and affection, into this kiss. When you finally pulled away, you murmured.

“Ask me, next time. Okay?” You said gently.

“… Yeah. Sorry.” He breathed, still looking dazed. He wasn’t expecting you to actually kiss him. But then again, you didn’t expect this either. He blinked when he realized those last words.

“… Next time?”

“Yeah. Next time.”

He smiled like an idiot, holding you tighter in his arms.

“Ow, ow, okay big guy, maybe- tone it down a bit, your armor is suffocating me.”

“Sorry!” He said quickly, loosening his embrace. “Sorry, I just… Wow. You really mean that?”

“Darien.” You said, taking his hands in yours once again. “I care for you. Okay? More than you can imagine. If I have to go through Oblivion as a whole to get you back, I will. If I have to fight Molag Bal again, Nocturnal, Meridia, every daedric prince, I will. I’m not leaving you here.”

He nodded hesitantly, not knowing how to answer. But then, he took a deep breath.

“… I love you.” And you could see he meant that. His eyes held an unmistakable sincerity. Just like yours did when your only answer was to kiss him again.

[tsulv]

ɪ ʜᴀᴅ ᴀɴ ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴇsᴛɪɴɢ ᴅʀᴇᴀᴍ ʟᴀsᴛ ɴɪɢʜᴛ…

"A dreamwalker can be many things." She spoke solemnly with her eyes fixed on me. "The one that seeks you is not human."

"What is it then?" If I had been awake I don't think I would have entertained the conversation, but dreams are different. Dreams are meant to be explored.

"What's important is that you do not let it near you, and to see it before it is too late." The stories told in dreams, by dreams, are always odd. What's real, and what's true aren't what's important. It's the story that's important, and this one was dire. I had to ask this old dream woman the right questions.

"How do I see it?"

"This one moves by nightmares, the ones beyond the liminal spaces. Once you're in these nightmares, you must look for it to wake yourself up."

I suddenly realized that I didn't know how I had come to this old woman. There was a light from a small fire between us, and a distant light behind her. As I looked around, there wasn't much of anything else. It was like the darkness was too thick away from the fire to see, and whatever the source of light was behind her was too far to tell what it was, or what it was near.

For whatever reason, I also couldn't bring myself to look behind me. Something was stopping me. Not fear, but some other feeling. A feeling that if I turned too far the old woman, the fire, the distant light would all vanish, and I didn't want that. I needed to hear everything she had come to tell me. She had come to me, not the other way around.

"What does it look like?" I relaxed a bit, knowing that as long as I could see her time didn't matter. She would tell me everything I needed.

"It tries to look human, but for now it cannot completely mimic one. None of them can in the beginning, but as they succeed with others they grow. They learn." I noticed the fire grew a bit brighter when she answered. Her face was a bit clearer, and more familiar. Something I had asked was a bit off, not wrong, but not quite what I should have asked.

"How do I look at it?"

She smiled. "It will hide in your peripheral vision, moving closer with other things to distract you. Ignore the distractions before you, and you will see on the edges of your vision the one who is wrong. The one whose face is not clear, whose face is falling apart, whose face is melting away."

"What do I do to wake myself?"

"Don't look away. It will try to make you. It will try to scare you, but you must look into that fear. You must look past its illusion to break it, and the nightmare it constructs."

"What happens if I get too scared to look at it?"

"Then it will take you, and you will never wake up." She frowned, almost as if she pitied me, but when her expression changed her eyes didn't. Normally, when someone frowns their eyelids narrow slightly. Hers didn't, and in fact, when I realized this it also occurred to me that she hadn't blinked the entire time we were talking.

There was no heat with the fire between us, only light, so I leaned forward. I was trying to look at her face better, get a closer look at her to figure out who she was supposed to be that made her so familiar to me. It didn't really help, as far as I knew, I'd never actually seen her before. There was no one name or even relation I could place with her face.

"You don't know me, and I don't know you." She spoke again. "You're just a stranger on a train." Then I realized she wasn't actually looking at me. She was staring, unblinking behind me.

Admittedly, I was a little scared then. I started second guessing not looking behind me before. Where I had this sudden flood of thoughts all at once. What if she wasn't telling me the truth? What if she was tricking me? Maybe only part of what she was saying was true, and maybe she was the distraction. I had to look.

I spun around so fast that my own shadow from the light of the fire almost startled me. That was all that was there, just my shadow, and an impenetrable darkness beyond the edges of the light. Just nothing everywhere I looked, and I searched as hard as I could expecting something to be there.

"It's not here yet." When she spoke, I started feeling like I had fucked up. Seeing nothing behind me wasn't reassuring, and her words weren't helping. I looked back at her and she was fading. Before I had turned around and looked away from her she had been full figure. "But it's coming soon." It was like her body had sunken into the background, and all that remained was her shoulders and head.

"How do you know that?" Even though I was looking at her again, it didn't seem to stop. The fire was dimming, and her shoulders vanished, but the light behind her was growing. It was almost like it was swallowing the rest of her, creeping along the edges of her neck and head.

"Because I saw you," even her voice was lower, like there was a growing distance between us, "and I know why…" I could only see her lips moving to form the rest of her statement, but I've never learned to read lips. I don't know for certain I even heard the last part correctly.

I woke up. The dream was still clear, and I tried to write everything down as soon as I could.

Dreamwalkers aren't something new to me, but I've never heard of anything like she described. I don't know where my mind could have gotten it from.

[prfctethereal]

just another horror movie. | james potter

pairing: james potter x reader

chapter: one 

warnings: NSFW, smut, oral (male receiving), exhibitionism, talk of dead bodies, actual dead body, blood, vomiting

word count: 3.7k

read the prologue here or on ao3 here

summary: you and james take a quick detour through the woods, to have a bit of morning fun, but find something gruesome.

Three weeks earlier…

The quiet town of Hogwarts had never been quieter. It was typical though; towns that resided in the countryside of Scotland were often described as “quiet”, unbeknownst to most that it was anything but. Except, Hogwarts lived up to the stereotype. Peaceful, tame, quiet.

Quiet.

God, you needed some quiet.

Exam season was narrowing in, which meant endless nights of caffeine and random studying music that you found on spotify, its main purpose to help you concentrate. It was unfortunate, with the school year coming to a close, but you were determined to leave the year proud and satisfied with your work. Everything was going perfectly so far. Nothing could screw it up.

This is what you told yourself as you began your walk to school this morning. Leaving your house at seven in the morning on the dot had become the regular for you. Now that Summer was finally coming in, the walks were warm, without chilling breezes. You could feel comfortable with the wind in your hair and a light shirt on your back.

Something felt tranquil about this morning in particular. You didn’t feel held up or anxious. You didn’t even feel stressed as you busily organised your school bag this morning. You didn’t even blink an eye when you dropped your chemistry textbook on your foot. You were in a good mood. You were glowing.

Maybe it was because you had been getting some amazing sex from your amazing boyfriend lately.

Maybe.

But today wasn’t for what ifs. Today, you had one thing on your mind. A conversation needed to be had between you and your guidance counsellor, as the prospects of colleges were starting to roll around. Applications were beginning to close and your aspirations for life after high school were beginning to get clearer and clearer. You no longer wanted to be tied down in a small town, where the most important job you could get was at the Mayor’s office, sitting at a desk, listening to the complaints of highly egotistical citizens.

Wasn’t for you.

Your mind drifted off to your could-be life, and before you knew it, your legs had walked to your boyfriend’s house without you even realising. It was something unconscious and natural, something you were completely used to. The sight of the grand, three-story mansion that your lover lived in brought unprecedented comfort.

The spiralling pillars covered in the greenest of vines was something from a fairytale. A pale cerulean was painted across the panelling, giving a dream-like feel. Right above the front door housed a giant window, one that opened up into James’ bedroom.

Right. James.

Walking up the path, you felt comforted by the familiar sound of gravel beneath your feet. It reminded you of all the nights you had snuck up this very path to climb into James’ bedroom via the window. Nostalgic really.

Now you were here in broad daylight, ready to walk hand in hand with your boyfriend to school. Knocking on the front door, you were excited to see a nearly immediate opening of the door, with a very joyous boy standing there. His signature dopey smile glistened even brighter, as his eyes lingered over your clothed body a little longer than expected. His tongue shot out very quickly over the pink cushions of his lips, something you could’ve missed in a blink of an eye, but you didn’t. Laughing, he pushed his glasses up the nose of his bridge, before running his fingers through his unruly hair.

“Should we go then?” It sounded as though it was the first time James had spoken this morning, a fact that you didn’t mind, as your brain thought unholy things when listening to his gravely morning voice.

“Soon.” You mumbled, your voice trailing off slightly, as you stepped towards James, swinging your arms around the back of his neck. Taking a breath of his scent, you leaned forward, placing a delicate kiss upon his lips. They were slightly chapped, but you didn’t care.

It may have been a Summer day, but that wasn’t the only reason you were feeling hot.

Stopping yourself before you went too far, you pulled backwards, not before suggestively running your hands down James’ chest, smirking against his lips. “Come on, let's go.” You remarked playfully, smacking your hand lightly against James’ firm butt, which elicited a short laugh from the bubbly man.

So, hand in hand, you and James darted down his footpath, back into the street. Even more birds had woken up by now, with a choir of chirping serenading your descent into the bustling streets of Hogwarts.

Everything now seemed a little more public than you initially thought. Neighbours were waking up and going to work now too, giving no shorter than five second glances at you and James’ hand intertwined. You know what they would say; old people gossiped too much for your liking. It made you especially nervous, knowing that your parents didn’t know about your illicit relationship. Maybe it should stay that way. Well, before any neighbours get a little too gossipy in the weekly book club meetings.

“Are you listening to me?” James asked, snapping you out of your thoughtful haze. Blinking twice, you returned your attention to James, who’s eyes were laced with concern as he looked you over once again, eyebrows furrowed. “You seem out of it.”

“Oh, sorry.” Your voice came out almost silently as you looked away, flushed and embarrassed. “What were you talking about?”

“How I was going to fuck you so hard later today that you are going to struggle to walk.” James followed his statement with a dash of laughter, something that you mimicked like a pirate’s parrot.

“Well, I hope that’s not a joke, my dear.” You flashed a sly smile, looking James up and down. You both stopped walking, with James now admiring the way you were biting your lip, as if you were a siren trying to entrap him. Surely, you guys wouldn’t quickly dash away into the bush and go for a quickie right now, right?

James thought about it too, eyeing up someone’s poor hydrangea bush. Unfortunately, there would be too many witnesses, and exhibitionism wasn’t something you had both openly discussed before, although it wasn’t completely off the table.

“Lunch period.” James finally said, stopping his momentary halt, and marching forward.

“Lunch period?”

James leaned over, pressing his lips so close to your ear. His hot breath sent shivers down your spine, ones that ended in your core. “Meet me in the hallway between the chemistry and physics lab. I think there’s a new cupboard we could Christen.”

Giggling in excitement, you rubbed your fingers up the length of James’ arm, tugging him down the footpath, continuing your conversation about whatever. You learnt that he had a History test today, all about women earning the right to vote. You sighed as you listened to him talk about what he was passionate about, his stressed vowel sounds turning you on more than you would’ve thought.

Then came a predicament. An actual, real life crossroad. Right in front of you was where the footpath curved to the left, following along the road onto the main road through town. It was the way you went every day, with the road taking you directly to school when you walked along it, arriving perfectly at seven twenty-five every day. It was ideal.

This morning, though, you were feeling cheeky. From this footpath curve was another opportunity. The footpath also opened into a dirt path, something that twisted into the woods, or, as the conspiracy theorists of the town called it, the Forbidden Forest. It was hardly forbidden though; they literally took Scouts classes there, and those have kids as young as seven in them.

Feeling devilish, you paused James for a moment, the cogs turning over in your brain. You might arrive at school a little later than you first thought, but at least you would have some distance between the prying eyes of the Hogwarts neighbourhood. And maybe, you could have a little bit of fun too.

“James,” you smirked, tugging at the edge of his shirt, capturing his attention, something that wasn’t actually that hard to do, “shall we go for a detour this morning?”

Your eyes flashed over the forest and onto the quiet stillness of it. You could feel James’ heart rate speed up, but it wasn’t because he was scared. He was just as excited as you. It was like a switch had flicked on in his brain, although he was still hesitant, his feet still planted firmly on the ground.

“Are you sure?” James questioned. “How late is this going to make us?”

“Not that late at all.” You justified, mocking offence. “Oh, we should get there at maybe, quarter to eight? And besides, it’s fresh air, it’ll be good for us, and our lungs. Think of it as reversing the side effects of being around Sirius and Remus when they smoke all the time. Your lungs will thank us.”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works.” James laughed.

“How would you be so sure?”

“I’m the one that takes biology out of the two of us.”

You had to try another tactic, so, you jutted your bottom lip out of your mouth, putting on your best doe eyes, hoping you could flutter your eyelashes enough for him to give into temptation. “Please?”

A sigh escaped James lips as he seemed to give in. His reluctant look of worry was quickly replaced by an eager spark. Knitting his fingers in with yours, you two walked hand and hand together down the dirt path. The change of feeling beneath your feet was almost instantly recognisable, the normal, smooth, concrete path replaced by the rough dirt, and slight mud, even though it hadn't rained in days.

As you continued to wander down the path, you were suddenly covered in a canopy of shade, as the trees of the forest soon covered your heads. The route got a tad darker, the path no longer illuminated with the light of the sun, not that you minded though. You could still easily see where you were going.

You felt a little colder without the extra heat from the sun. You didn’t like the way goosebumps rose on your skin or the way you had to rub your hands along your arm to keep yourself warm. You felt out of control, a feeling of which you loathed. You didn’t want your perfect morning to be ruined by a little chill.

When you reached a tall, winding tree, you stopped James from his walk, pulling him off the path. Luckily, you had spotted a small dip in the earth, perfect to stay in, somewhere where regular bystanders wouldn’t find you. Happy with your discovery, you looked back at James, who had a puzzled look across his face.

“What’s going on?”

“Can I kiss you?” You asked breathlessly, your hands already getting fidgety. You wanted to be connected with James again, intertwined if you will. You needed to feel his skin, even if it was barely quarter past seven in the morning.

“Yes, love.” James breathed out, his voice quiet and shallow. WIth the consent, you leaned upwards, connecting your lips at last. It felt right to be pressed up against each other once again, even if it had been only yesterday when you had last felt such passion.

You deepened the kiss, feeling urgent to make the most of the short time you had together. Your mouths melded together almost perfectly, your lips pushing against each other like a playful pillow fight, one which you were determined to win.

Feeling mischievous, you reached to James’ hair, tugging lightly on his roots, an action you knew he liked. This action got the response you wanted from him, a needy moan, in which you took the opportunity to slip your tongue into his mouth, battling it out with his own, regaining confidence and dominance.

You pulled away, your cheeks flushed from the lack of oxygen. James looked disheveled but pleased, wanting to continue your little make out session, but unfortunately, you had limited time.

“Can I suck you off?” You whispered against his mouth innocently, looking up at his hazel eyes, brushing his hair off of his forehead. You could hear him gulp with nervousness, before nodding quickly, his hands making their way to his slacks.

You knew James was slipping into a mindset clouded by arousal, so you sank to your knees slowly in front of him, still looking up at him through your long lashes. On your journey downwards, you carefully unzipped the zipper on his pants, pulling them down to ankles, until he was clad in only his boxers.

Lifting yourself up slightly onto the balls of your feet, you kissed him lightly on the outside of his boxers, feathering gentle kisses. You knew you were being a tease, but you needed him nice and hard. As you felt his bulge setting like cement under your lips, you lifted your hands up, joining your lips so you could palm him, stroking the material.

When James started moaning, - “oh please, stop teasing, I beg you,” - you released him from the cage of his underwear, dragging the clothing down the apex of his things, watching the muscles twitch in excitement. There, James’ half hard cock laid against his thighs, the tip a gentle rouge colour.

Your fingers grazed over his prick, lightly tracing a prominent vein of the underside of the sex muscle. James groaned in pleasure, the teasing getting too much for him to handle. Feeling benevolent, you dribbled saliva over the tip of the cock, before wrapping your entire hand around it. You started stroking harder and faster, making sure James could feel all of you in a way you hand. He was starting to fall apart above you, but it wasn;t enough.

“So- so good.” James murmured, his eyes gently shutting as he became lost in the feeling. “Don’t stop, please don’t stop. I love your hands, so perfect, so precise. Perfect for me, precise for me.”

“It was like you were made for me.” You agreed with the raven haired boy, before bringing your lips down to the tip of his penis. This action shocked James, but the whimper out of his mouth made you know he was enjoying it. Living from the excitement of the exhibisionist route, you swiveled your tongue across the tip, reaching down the length of the cock, savouring his taste.

“Right there.” James moane, as you brung the rest of your mouth down over his now fully hard cock, reveling in the flavour of the salty precum that was leaking from his angry tip. With a smooth rhythm, you bobbed your head up and down on James’ cock, the sound of his moans itching you on.

You knew you were running out of time, and you still wanted him to cum, so you sped up your movements on James’ cock, stroking the base of his cock, which could not fit in your mouth. Adding to the pleasure, you let your hands move downwards a bit more, so they played gently with James’ hanging balls.

This applied pressure was becoming too much for James, as his breath became laboured and a tingling feeling was nearly bursting at his cock. “I’m gonna cum, please, I’m going to do it.”

You lifted your mouth off of James’ cock, just to murmur, “let go.” James, with your permission, spurted his cum across your hands. Eager to savour him, you opened your mouth, catching as much of the milking substance as possible, not wanting to waste any of it. Jacking James off through the entire thing, you watched as his orgasm crashed over him entirely, the way his face contorted in pleasure almost being the most beautiful portrait to you.

Licking the rest of his cum off of your fingers, you stood up, wiping your knees off, as the dirt sticking to you was becoming slightly uncomfortable. While you stood up, you reached from the top of James’ pants, pulling them upwards as you went.

“Thanks.” James almost laughed, except he still sounded out of breath, which was very reasonable though. You did just suck the life out of him. His fingers worked quickly, rearranging his pants, and cock, so that you both could continue on your way to school.

As you waited for James to finish cleaning himself up, your nose turned upwards. There was a strange smell coming from the area, one you didn’t notice before when you were on your knees in front of James. It was a smell that you were relatively unfamiliar with, but all you knew was that it stank like rotten meat.

“Can you smell that?” You asked James, looking off into the little ditch you were beside. Wherever you were, it seemed that it had been recently disturbed. Broken twigs snapped into pieces laid amongst crunched up leaves. If you squinted, you were sure you could even make out that faintest of footprints on the ground. It was odd, but nothing you haven't seen before in the woods. The smell on the other hand…

“Smells like thrown out vegetables.” James readjusted his glasses before holding out his hand, inviting you to close your fingers in with his. “I bet some old granny thought it would be a good idea to throw out their compost in the woods. If the council found out, they would have a fit. You know all about their weirdly tight rules on littering? It’s not even bad for the environment.”

You had stopped listening a while ago. Something didn’t feel right, but it was nothing you could sort out now. You weren’t satisfied but you turned back towards James anyway, knowing that you needed to head off to school or you would be running a little bit behind schedule. As you turned around, you noticed James’ face morph from a cheeky grin to a concerned frown.

“What is it?” You pondered, stepping towards James, matching his pear-shaped frown with one of your own.

“Did you cut yourself when you were on your knees?”

“Huh?”

“Look.” James bent down to look at your knees and you turned your head down too. What you thought had just been a bit of dirt must’ve been something else. Your knees were covered in a browny-red, maybe a maroon colour. It looked as though your entire knee had been cut open, as blood was still dripping from your skin, but that couldn’t be right. You felt no pain on your knee. You hadn’t cut yourself.

Swiping your fingers across your knee, you gathered some of the drying blood on your fingers. This was the first time you had looked at your hands since you wiped off your knees before and you saw that you had smudged blood stains all across your palm. You nearly barfed on the spot. You felt incredibly uneasy, like a stormy ocean filled your stomach.

You lifted your fingers up to your nose, a theory hypothesising into your head, and you were right. The smell of the blood matched the rotten meat smell you could smell before. As if you were a dog, the odor latched onto your nose and expanded, its putrid smell being the only thing in your senses.

“I'm going to be sick.” You doubled over a rock. Resting your hand against a boulder, you hovered downwards over a patch of leaves, letting your breakfast out. Your head was reeling as you could still smell the retching odor of the old blood. You couldn’t get it out of your mind, so you leaned over again, round two of the hurling intervention.

James rushed over to you, placing his warm hands on your back, rubbing soothing circles. He wished he could say that his main focus was to make you feel better, but it wasn’t. Over in the deepest part of the dish, he noticed something strange. It was almost like a small lump in the ground, something unnatural. It seemed to be covered very messily by old leaves and sticks, and an entire tree branch, as if it would make it any less inconspicuous. It even had that opposite of the desired effect, seemingly sticking out like a sore thumb.

“Darling,” James waited until you lifted your head back up, regaining your breath once again, “what do you think that is?”

James’ hand pointed into the direction of the ditch, in which you followed his eyesight and body movements. You could see it too; just a lump in the ground. Your mind was racing of what it could be. A dead animal? A pile of rotten food? Maybe a…

“Holy shit!” You had only just realised that James had already walked over there, except his body was covering your eye line, and you couldn’t actually see what James had found. Although, he told you immediately. “Quick, call the police. It’s a body.”

A dead body in Hogwarts? Making sure you didn’t lose any more of your stomach through puking, you rushed onto the path in the woods, grabbing your phone out of your pocket, hoping you could get service all the way out here in the woods. Fumbling to turn your phone on, you nearly groaned out in annoyance when you saw that you were getting no bars of service.

Running back to James, you couldn’t stop at the moment. You called out to him, your words a blurred mess, trying to convey to him that you were going to find someone to help. Unsure if he had even heard you, you ran back down the path, your feet carrying you to where you needed to go, unable to bring yourself to a cohesive thought.

When you exited the forest, you flicked your head around, trying to find someone, anyone, that could help in the moment. The first person you saw was your calculus teacher, Mr Slughorn, to which you promptly called out to.

“Mr Slughorn!” You cupped your hands around your mouth to project your words across louder. Mr Slughorn snapped his head around and gave a friendly wave. Annoyed, you shook your head. “Call the police!”

“What?” He called back, walking towards you now. You groaned, trying again.

“There's a dead body in the forest. Call the police!”

***

lmao. anyway this has become a series whoops.

[tteokdoroki]

💜-Hawks Pt 2 commission kidnapped I wrote most of this at 1 am, so it may not be the best.

You sat quietly in one of the commission cars,accompanied by one commission agent who hasn’t told you anything no matter how many times you ask where you’re going. You were worried about keigo, knowing that he probably was freaking out when he saw you weren’t home when he got back.

You were even lucky for the commission to give you a blanket, even if it is a poor excuse for a blanket, it is still better than only being in the commission uniform they give to their prisoners. You assume it is a bit nicer though due to it being cloth and not paper like material you’ve seen other have to wear. Hell you didn’t even get shoes, only hospital socks.

The car stopped and you hear the wind pound against the window. Thinking the worst you being to well up, terrified of what you assume is you impending demise. Maybe they’ll tell keigo that you love him one last time. But as the door opened youre greeted by two arms nearly yanking you out of the car and into a tight embrace.

“Keigo?” You ask, wanting to know if this is real, you’re not going to die. His wings wrap around you, almost acting as a shield.

He lets out a deep sigh of relief now that you’re in his arms, safe. His arms tighten around you as his eye dart around his surroundings. His pupils were pins and he had more of a wild bird look than his normal clean cut, playboy hero look.

“Please baby, tell me you’re real,” he says with a strained voice. Holding you like you’d slip away if he let go.

You wrap your arms around his torso, snuggling into his chest,”I’m here keigo, I’m right here,” you lift up one arm to gently move his face from your neck, having him look at you, “everything is okay, I’m here. I’m alive. “

He looks you over in his arms, checking for any major injuries that need immediate attention. Once he sees none he sweeps you up in his arms and takes off.

While you were taken he prepared new security systems, took more measures to ensure your safety. He also had to clean up and replace the broken furniture, not wanting to make you stress or worry.

He arrives in the balcony, not even feeling the cold wind with the adrenaline flowing through his veins, but he feels you shiver slightly and presses you closer to his chest. Even when you two are inside of the house he didn’t calm down, not till all the doors were locked and the security system was enabled.

“Keigo, thank you so much. “ you say kissing his chest, leaning your head against him.

“I’m sorry,” his words filled with pain and regret,”it’s my fault you were taken. If I wasn’t such a fucking idiot I could have protected you better,” he wasn’t nearly crying at this point. He slides down onto the floor with you in his arms, clutching you close to his body as guil overwhelms him.

“Keigo, do not think like that. You are the reason I’m here right now. You couldn’t have stopped them, but you rescued me. “Taking his face in your hands you kiss his cheek,” that was for saving me,” you kiss his other cheek,” that is for being the best boyfriend in the world,” you kiss his nose,”that’s for being my hero,” you continue to pepper his face with kisses and shower him in complements till he stops crying.

Even when his tears stop you continue to hug him with his wings encircling around the two of you, keeping you safe and warm. When he has calmed down a bit more, he’ll realize that you’re wearing a paper thin set of pajamas and socks. Those fuckers could even give you actual clothes, or at least shoes, he thought to himself. Carefully he stands up with your arms and legs around him, carrying you too the bedroom he gets out one of his hoodies. He hates how you don’t smell like him or even yourself. You smell like the commission cell, and the generic soap brand they made you use.

You notice the foul look on his face, his ruffles feathers and his constant sniffs.

“Keigo, what’s wrong baby. What’s with that foul face. I didn’t think I smelled that bad,” your joke at least made him crack a smile, but that quickly turned into a frown once the smell of the commission soap hit him again.

“Your smell, it doesn’t smell like you. All I smell is that fucking place.” His pupils shrink and his wings puffy up again think about how you were taken against your will and held in a cell. The one person who grounded him, made him feel loved, who was there for him and loved him when he didn’t know how to love himself.

“How about we take a bath? Would that be okay? “ you suggest. He just nods, not trusting himself to keep a level head right now.

He is so gentle and attentive when helping you into the bath, checking you over for injuries while you try to talk to him. He washes you down till you don’t smell like the commission anymore. He sees your exhausted eyes, and decides that he’ll pamper you more tomorrow.

Dressed in his hoodie and his pajama bottoms he picks you up again, carrying you over to the bed. The blankets and pillows that are piles onto the bed makes it look more like a nest, but you’re not complaining. Not when keigo is holding you tightly with his wings covering you, and a warm blanket is over you both. You nuzzle further into his embrace, letting yourself drift off into the first deep sleep in a while.

Keigo couldn’t sleep much, not now. He is too worked up to let himself relax, although he does feel better with you in his arms. His dove who deserves the world. Only three more years of being trapped in the commission till he can be free, till he can finally be keigo again.

If he has to fight every villain, every hero, every fucking commission worker to be with you he will, he’ll do anything to keep you safe and happy.

“I love you dove,” he mumbles in your ear, expecting you to be asleep

“Love you too birdy,”

HERE WE GO 🥺🥺

as soon as keigo sees the doors of the car opening, the world begins to spin like oxygen is finally filling his lungs again...because quite frankly— you are his oxygen. you were the one to breathe fresh air into his life and give it a sense of meaning to his life all over again. his arms tremble as he takes you into them, pads of his fingers sinking into every ounce of your flesh to check that you’re alive and breathing and real.

you’re real.

he can’t help the flutter in his wings when he brings you into his arms, nuzzling you like a touch starved animal while he still gets a sense of you. your poor birdie looks heartbroken as heartbroken as you feel— being apart from each other is painful and draining, like you’re being ripped aosrt with a burning feeling in your chest. but once you’re with him, everything has colour again, the world is brighter and the sky clearer.

when you’re finally back home, new security measures in place— he breaks like shattered glass, pretty tears cutting you with just how much hurt he feels. and while you hold each other, he realised that you don’t smell like comfort, but the horrid people who took you from him. even though you’re in his arms you don’t feel like his dove, his love, but a little pawn in the game that the comission played with you.

keigo sings to you; while you bathe together— the birdie chirps that remind you of the days you shared in secret with one another, covering you in a thick sheet of your eternal love before everything that happened. you sing back, tales of your deep routed feelings for the number two hero written across your lips. your love for hawks speaks even bigger when you intertwine your fingers while he sleeps, listening to the sound of his now calmed breathing.

“do you love me?” keigo asks, nosing your hairline.

“always birdie.”

“is this real?”

“yes.”

[simplyclary]

Adriene Mishler: The Yogi who saved me

(Photo credits: Vox.com)

Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear cloaks like my favorite sorcerer Doctor Stephen Strange. Some wear friction-proof suits like The Flash and some wear spandex like Spider-Man. The thing is, those heroes exist in fiction but of course, there are also some heroes who exist in reality.

Heroes, both fictional and real, have one thing in common: they do their best to save people. Some do it while wearing white lab coats holding scalpels and tools to save someone from the brink of death while others simply have use the power of peace and mindfulness (while wearing fashionable sports gear) to save someone from the brink of insanity.

Meet Ms. Adriene Mishler, a Texan actress, writer, entrepreneur and yoga teacher who hosts the "Yoga With Adriene" channel on YouTube, where she offers free yoga practices with various lengths to her ever-growing audience and viewers.

Adriene has been a voice of stillness and peace, and she has this peaceful energy that emanates from the screen whenever I turn on one of her videos to do a practice. I feel nothing but serenity around me when she speaks, amid some of the practices feeling like torture especially on days where I'm a little bit sore.

She honestly changed my entire perspective about yoga, because to be honest, prior to doing yoga, I always thought it was all about flexibility and I admit that I am not a flexible person by any means. Going into it changed all of that. I soon discovered that yoga is not all about flexibility alone, it is about strength, discipline and patience because all doers of yoga (or yogis) could admit that they did not nail a specific pose on the first try. I do admit that and I also admit that up to now, even after a couple of years doing it, I still fall and lose my balance but I just remember that the ground is there to catch me, like Adriene said.

Doing yoga consistently has made some effects on my body and mind. My posture is better, I can breathe deeper, even my sleep is better because of the consistent practicing of yoga. Even my friends say that I've gotten taller, which up to this day, I still could not believe. My mindset is also clearer and I'm much more focused now because of the meditation practices that I try to do on a daily basis.

One thing I do love about Adriene is that she just has a practice for everything. If I have the monthly cramps, I do one practice specific for that and it relieves my cramps. If I have problems going to sleep, I do a bedtime practice and after about 20-30 minutes, I feel the need to hit my pillow and snooze away. This is just one of the many things that I love about Adriene, and that is just the cherry on top.

The "icing on the cake" or another thing that I love about Adriene is she is one of those fitness YouTube content creators that is empowering and motivating the viewers as they follow along the practice, and that empowers the viewer, making them eager to follow along. Not only do I get a physical practice but also an affirmation that could enlighten my mood and make my day brighter.

But what takes the cake for me is how she saved me from insanity through the craziness that has been occurring for the past couple of years, not only through the form of the pandemic but also political turmoil, everyday stressors and many more. My yoga mat and her voice are two of the things that I yearn for whenever I'm having a stressful day. I admit to sometimes breaking down into tears whenever I step on the mat after a stressful day, and I break down even more when I hear her sweet and angelic voice saying an affirmation that I didn't realize I need to hear until that moment.

I do also like to mention that I am subscribed to her love letter box and so I get a letter from her every now and again in my email and every time I receive a letter from her, I can't help but smile from ear to ear because sometimes, the letter contain sweet words and affirmation that only an angel like Adriene could conjure up.

Before I conclude this entry, I would like to point out that this entry will be my gift to Adriene and this will be posted on her birthday which is on the 29th of September...so I will end this with a birthday message to her...

My dearest Adriene,

Happy birthday to the sweet soul that you are. I hope you celebrate today with Benji and the people that you love and those who love you. You may not know me personally, but do know that I am one of those people who consider you as her superhero because I am one of the people you saved through the practices on YouTube. You are such an angelic soul and I never regret that day that I first clicked on a video from your channel because my life changed after that. Your calm (virtual) presence and empowering words are things that I now need to complete my day.

Please do continue to empower this beautiful community of yogis who found hope and motivation to live their lives because of you. Sending you loads of love from Manila, Philippines all the way to your home in Austin, Texas.

With love,

Clary

[heyiwrotesomethings]

Soulmate

ShinoMitsu Week 2021 Day Three: (Fake/Secret Dating, Soulmate, Hobbies)

A/N: Here we are, the last time I’ll need to give this warning! This is the last part of the main storyline, everything else after this will be snippets from this AU safe for anyone to read. Enjoy! Word Count: 4,104

Mitsuri waited outside the gates of Sekirei Girls’ Academy, humming and rocking on her feet. It was obscenely early, but it was a price she was willing to pay if it meant being the first person to greet Shinobu on school grounds each morning.

Mitsuri was very happy. Ever since the surprise thunderstorm, she and Shinobu had grown much closer. Whenever Shinobu would spot her, she’d shoot Mitsuri the cutest little smile that made the older girl’s heart feel like it was going to explode! They talked more and even hung out outside of school on occasion, it was all Mitsuri had ever hoped for in pursuing a relationship with the cool, smart and beautiful Kochou Shinobu.

There was one thing that bothered her though, and that would be Shinobu’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge the strange bond between them. It hadn’t just been a product of the storm, they had experienced the visions a few more times since then. Usually, a specific touch or smell, even a sound could trigger an event and they’ve only gotten clearer since that rainy day.

From what Mitsuri gathered, she and Shinobu had been part of some kind of war if the uniforms and katanas were anything to go by. She didn’t really have many specific details beyond that. Many of the visions that came to her seemed to reflect whatever triggered them in the first place. Mitsuri had been researching the phenomenon in her spare time, but wasn’t making much progress on her own. She was sure if she could get Shinobu’s help on the matter they could actually find something, but as previously said, Shinobu wanted nothing to do with it. That didn’t mean Mitsuri was going to give up though.

“Good morning, Shinobu-chan!”  Mitsuri grinned and waved excitedly as Shinobu appeared in the distance.

“Good morning,” Shinobu answered once she was close enough to do so without yelling. Her lips were curled into that small smile that Mitsuri loved to see.

“What are you going to be practicing today, Shinobu?” Mitsuri asked, following her Kouhai to the track. Now that she had her foot in the door of Shinobu’s life, she was working on wiggling herself further in by spending all the time she could with her.

“My events next week are going to be the triple jump, high jump, one hundred meter dash, one hundred meter hurdles and the four hundred meter relay.” Shinobu recalled. “After I warm up I think I’ll start practicing my jumps and finish off with the sprints. I wanted to try pole vaulting, but Tomioka says I have to focus on my strengths now that the season is almost over. He’s such a killjoy.”

Mitsuri giggled. That was another part of Shinobu’s practices that she loved to watch. The shorter girl often sassed the coach or countered his teachings. It had worried Mitsuri at first, but quickly learned that it was simply their dynamic.

“There’s always next year, Shinobu! It’s sad I’m graduating this year, watching you practice is so fun. It’s too bad we didn’t become friends sooner, then you could have watched me during dance and volleyball season.” Mitsuri said wistfully.

“I’ve seen you do both many times.” Shinobu mumbled, a faint flush coloring her cheeks. “My sister was in both of those clubs as you may recall.”

“Yes! That’s true!” Mitsuri clapped before she thought about it a moment more and her face dropped. “But that means you’ve only seen me at my worst! I was only a first year back then and I wasn’t really good.”

“I remember, you fell a lot.” Shinobu snorted. Mitsuri covered her face and whined pitifully.

“But I didn’t stop going to meets and events even after Kanae graduated. You really improved over time.” Shinobu added shyly, keeping her eyes staring firmly ahead at the track where some other girls were already warming up.

“Aw, Shinobu!” Mitsuri cooed. She couldn’t stop herself from latching on to the shorter girl, pressing tightly into her side while Shinobu tried halfheartedly to shove her off.

The pair slowed their stride significantly as another vision past behind their eyes. A similar hug, but again with the strange uniforms and taking place in a grand garden that was growing steadily more familiar.

"Come on, I know you saw that." Mitsuri said once the feeling past and they began walking again.

"Saw what?" Shinobu feigned ignorance.

“Shinobu, when are you going to admit there is something supernatural going on here?”

“Never. It’s just absurd. I don’t believe in that kind of stuff.” Shinobu said, setting her bag on the bleachers.

“What do you mean? You love ghost stories and supernatural phenomena.” Mitsuri countered, sitting beside Shinobu’s belongings.

“I love telling scary stories precisely because I don’t believe in any of that junk. It’s funny to see how others react.”

“If you would help me with my research for just one night, I just know we could find something.”

“I’m sorry, Mitsuri. That just sounds like a waste of time,” Shinobu said, stretching her arms over her head before placing her hands back over her hips, “I’ve got to go warm up now.”

“No!” Mitsuri pouted.

“What?”

Mitsuri snatched Shinobu, catching her off guard and making her fall into Mitsuri’s lap.

“Mitsuri,” Shinobu scolded quietly, “let go!”

“Not until you promise to help me research what’s going on between us! Just one day, please!” Mitsuri exclaimed, pressing her cheek snuggly between Shinobu’s shoulder blades as her strong arms held her firmly in place.

“Fine, fine! Just cut it out!” Shinobu snapped.

“Yes!” Mitsuri cheered. She gave Shinobu one last tight squeeze before letting her go. The Kouhai stood and shot a glare at the giddy girl before darting of onto the track. Her skin already flushed before her workout even began.

Mitsuri used the rest of her time organizing the research she already had so she could really optimize her time with Shinobu. It was a little difficult to stay on task however, when she could be watching Shinobu twist over the high jump pole or sprint and leap over hurdles like they weren’t even an obstacle. Needless to say, Mitsuri didn’t get as much work done as she could have.

***

They had set the research session for Saturday. Shinobu thought she could have gotten away with a couple of hours Friday night, but Mitsuri had shot down that idea quickly. She had finally coerced Shinobu into helping her and she wasn’t going to settle for a couple of hours, she wanted a whole day.

They decided to do their research at Shinobu’s since it was a more quiet and controlled space than Mitsuri’s house with all her rambunctious siblings running about.

Mitsuri arrived bright and early Saturday morning, beaming brighter than the sun. Shinobu answered the door with messy hair and squinty eyes. Clearly she hadn’t been expecting Mitsuri to already be here. It was only seven in the morning after all.

“What time did you wake up this morning? You live on the other side of town.” Shinobu asked. She sounded grumpy, but it was mostly because she herself had only woken up fifteen minutes ago.

“I couldn’t sleep at all Shinobu. I couldn’t stop thinking about how excited I was to spend the day with you!” Mitsuri said, giving off a glow that should not have been humanly possible for someone who hadn’t slept at all the night before.

“You’re insane.” Shinobu deadpanned whilst making room for Mitsuri to enter her home.

While Shinobu finished getting ready for the day, Mitsuri made herself at home in Shinobu’s room and set up her own workspace. With Kanae at her job and Kanao heading out later to stay over at a friend’s house, it would just be the two of them for a majority of the day. Mitsuri wasn’t sure why, but the thought made her heart beat faster.

“Alright,” Shinobu sighed, dropping onto her futon beside Mitsuri, “what do you have so far?”

Mitsuri turned to face Shinobu and smiled. Gone was the cute, tousled bed hair, now tucked neatly into place, but the giant hoodie and athletic shorts she had been wearing when she had answered the door remained unchanged.

“You really like wearing giant sweatshirts, don’t you Shinobu?” Mitsuri had said instead with a light giggle.

“I get cold.” She stated simply.

“But you’re wearing shorts. Wouldn’t it help if you wore something longer?” The older girl pointed out.

“Watch this,” Shinobu sat up further back on the futon, “I’m about to blow your mind.”

Shinobu lifted the hem of her hoodie and before Mitsuri could register and appreciate the newly exposed skin it was quickly gone again as Shinobu’s knees pressed against her chest and the large hoodie was thrown back into place, encompassing all of Shinobu’s legs, making her look like a lumpy egg with a human head.

Mitsuri blanked for a moment, taking in Shinobu’s form for a few moments before laughing heartily. Shinobu laughed too, although more subdued. She had gotten just the reaction she was hoping for.

“What a problem solver, Shinobu-chan,” Mitsuri wiped a tear from her eye, “when you get a boyfriend you’re going to steal all of his hoodies, aren’t you?”

Shinobu winced a bit at the insinuation, instead of giving Mitsuri a real answer she hummed noncommittally, making Mitsuri tilt her head curiously.

Then a thought crossed Mitsuri’s mind that chilled her to the core, did Shinobu already have a boyfriend? She was so beautiful and amazing, had someone already claimed her heart? She lurched forward, startling Shinobu by balancing her weight over Shinobu’s knees, still hidden beneath the blanket like sweatshirt.

“Do you have a boyfriend, Shinobu?” She squeaked, her face mere centimeters away from the other’s.

“What? No!” Shinobu denied, blush crawling its way up her neck from their proximity.

“You promise? You don’t have to hide from me Shinobu, I’ll be your number one supporter!”

“I don’t have a boyfriend, Mitsuri. I never will so just drop it, okay?” Shinobu said, attempting to push Mitsuri out of her personal space.

“What do you mean, never?” Mitsuri was flabbergasted. Did Shinobu think that as pretty and charming as she was, she couldn’t get any boy she wanted? Now instead of relieved that Shinobu didn’t have a boyfriend, she was upset that Shinobu thought she would never have one. “You are beautiful Shinobu, and so smart and dedicated! Don’t give up, you’ll find the right boy for you and if they don’t treat you right they don’t deserve you! Just like you told me, right?”

“Mitsuri, stop.” Shinobu warned, running a hand through her hair.

“But it’s true! You could have any boy you want Shinobu.”

“I don’t want a boy!” Shinobu finally yelled, exasperated. “I don’t want a boy.” She said again this time in a more even tone, jerking her head away from Mitsuri.

“Don’t want a... oh!” Mitsuri clapped her hands together, “Do you want a girlfriend to share your hoodies with then?”

Though her head was turned, Mitsuri watched in amazement as Shinobu’s ears turned red before her very eyes. After a moment of silence, it was clear Shinobu was tongue tied.

“You do!” Mitsuri yelled, wiggling excitedly, “This is great, we can talk about what girls we think are cute together sometime. Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“...What?” Shinobu peaked over her shoulder at Mitsuri.

“Well you know me, Shinobu. I like a lot of different people. It’ll be fun to see where we might overlap.” Mitsuri said as if it was obvious, no big deal. Unfortunately for her, her own idea didn’t make her feel much better. For some reason the idea of Shinobu sharing what other girls she found attractive made her feel anxious.

“No, I didn’t know that. I’ve only ever heard you talk about boys.” Shinobu said, distracting Mitsuri.

“Oh, well, now you know I guess.” Mitsuri shrugged with a smile, her face still hovering painfully close to Shinobu.

Shinobu could just about die.

A knock on the door saves her, and she calls Kanao in. The younger girl has her backpack on and a sleeping bag roll hugged against her chest.

“Nezuko and her mom are here to pick me up.” She said, staring between the two older girls and wondering why her sister appeared so flustered.

“Okay, do you have everything?” Shinobu got up from her futon, happy for an excuse to step away from Mitsuri and her honey sweet scent.

“Yes.” Kanao answered with a nod.

“And how are you getting home tomorrow?” Shinobu asked.

“Aoi said her dad would drop me off.”

“Alright, call or text if you need anything. If you want to come home early Kanae will pick you up at anytime, okay?” Shinobu reminded. Since their parents were often away, Shinobu and Kanae had basically been Kanao’s primary caretakers ever since she was adopted. It was a little hard at times for Shinobu to remember that Kanao wasn’t so little anymore.

“I remember, see you tomorrow, Nee-san.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Kanao turned, rounded the corner and with a quiet closing and locking of a door, she was gone.

Shinobu cleared her throat and turned back to Mitsuri, who had watched the interaction with hearts in her eyes.

“So, are we ever going to get into your, ‘research’ or are we just going to sit here and do nothing all day?” Shinobu crossed her arms, her eyes not quite meeting Mitsuri’s as she was still embarrassed from earlier.

That seemed to jolt Mitsuri out of her musings and the older girl quickly finished setting up and filled Shinobu in on what she had so far.

“So basically,” Shinobu leaned her back against the wall, “you have nothing.”

“That’s not true!” Mitsuri pouted, leaning closer to Shinobu to shove her laptop in the younger girl’s face, “Did you read this article about telepathic dream links and dimensional rifts?”

“Just hearing you say that aloud makes my brain want to melt.” Shinobu snorted.

“Take this seriously Shinobu. You promised you’d try today.” Mitsuri pleaded.

“You’re right,” Shinobu sighed, taking the laptop from Mitsuri’s hands to place it on her own lap, “sorry.”

“You’re forgiven. Now, how can we find out what’s going on with us?”

“Well, let’s type... connected vision experiences, and see if we find something similar and go from there.” Shinobu tapped the enter key and the relevant links popped up on the search engine.

Articles, websites and message boards yielded very little the first hour or so. Then they got really serious. Shinobu got out her own laptop so they could broaden their search. Occasionally they would share an interesting or just down right insane tidbit of information but largely nothing came up that sounded like what they were experiencing.

After awhile, Mitsuri noticed that Shinobu had gone quiet and seemed to be reading something rather intently. Excited, Mitsuri knocked shoulders with her.

“Did you find something good, Shinobu?” She asked.

“Ah, no. Sorry.” Shinobu quickly rebuffed. “I was reading an article about a new species of butterfly.”

“Aw, Shinobu! Stay on task here, come on!” Mitsuri scolded as best she could, but she was just too sweet for her words to have much bite.

“A break wouldn’t hurt, would it? Aren’t you hungry? I’ll order a delivery for whatever you want.” Shinobu enticed.

Now how could Mitsuri say no to that? Especially since her stomach had just then decided to speak for her with a low rumble.

“Food sounds great!” Mitsuri said, easily giving in.

“What do you want?” Shinobu asked, getting up.

“Mochi!” Mitsuri cheered.

“And?” Shinobu laughed.

“Tempura and miso! No wait, oden! No wait, ramen? Yakitori?” Mitsuri rubbed her temples, a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. This was an important decision!

“Pick a couple of things we can get at the same restaurant and anything you wanted that we didn’t get, we can make for dinner, okay?” Shinobu suggested after watching Mitsuri struggle for a minute.

“Really Shinobu? You’re the best!” Mitsuri praised.

They came up with a list and Shinobu ordered from the restaurant before going to the kitchen to make sure they had the ingredients they needed for dinner, leaving Mitsuri to continue their research.

Mitsuri was thinking of a new phrase to put in her search bar when Shinobu’s laptop caught her eye, still open and waiting for its owner to return. With a light hum, she set her own laptop aside, replacing it with Shinobu’s. Shinobu was right, a little break would be fine and she really wanted to see what this new butterfly looked like.

Mitsuri scrolled back to the top of the page, letting out a disappointed huff as there were no pictures. She scoured for the name of the butterfly to look it up herself, but the words she scanned gave her more questions than answers.

Words and phrases of past lives and tragedy, rebirth and second chances. An uncommon phenomenon. Mitsuri decided to reread from the beginning with complete focus.

A few minutes later, Shinobu reentered the room, looking down at her phone as she finished typing out a grocery list.

“Hey, we’re short on a few things. I’m just going to pop by the convenience store down the street. Do you want to come?”

“Why did you lie?” Mitsuri frowned at Shinobu instead, causing the other to whip her head up from her phone.

“Wha—“ Shinobu cut herself off as soon as she saw her laptop in Mitsuri’s grasp. “Oh Mitsuri, I just— it’s one article. It doesn’t mean anything...“

“Doesn’t mean anything... Shinobu, this is us to a T!” Mitsuri shot her arms up above her head, “We’re soulmates!”

“Mitsuri,” Shinobu tried to de-escalate, “you can’t believe everything you read, I didn’t find anything else about the subject. It’s just one story and—“

“It’s so detailed. The visions Koyuki and Hakuji shared, they aren’t so different from how our own come to us,” Mitsuri laid back against the futon with a light groan, covering her eyes. “To think we experienced some tragic end in our past lives, and the visions were so we could find each other and try falling in love again. It’s a lot to take in.”

Mitsuri let out a big breath of air and then remembered that she was still hurt that Shinobu had lied to her and sat back up.

“So why did you lie, Shinobu? Do you,” her voice got quieter, “do you not like me?”

“I do like you, don’t be ridiculous. I was just, I don’t know...” Shinobu huffed, walking over to her fish tank to watch the little colorful fish swim about. An excuse to not have to look at Mitsuri’s sad face.

“Is it because of my hair or maybe, because I eat a lot? Because I’m too clingy?” Mitsuri thought aloud, making Shinobu immediately turn back and stalk over to her.

Mitsuri yelped as Shinobu pushed her back against the futon and hovered over her, eyes dark with great sincerity as she poked Mitsuri squarely in the chest.

“You stop that right now.” Shinobu warned quietly. “There is not one part of you that I don’t like,” She changed her position to sit beside Mitsuri and looked down at the floor,

“...I was just, nervous I guess. I didn’t know how you would react. If you would think I was trying to take advantage of you or you would want to be with me just because of what one story had to say. If we did become a, a couple, I would hope it would because we are genuinely happy with each other and not because we may have known each other in another life.”

Mitsuri sat back up again and nodded vigorously, wrapping up Shinobu in a side hug with her head resting on her shoulder.

“I’ve liked you for a long time. Ever since I saw you running at the sports festival last year, I thought you were really cool and pretty. You made my heart leap back then before I even knew your name. Even without our shared visions or the possibility of the existence of soulmates, I would still want to be with you.” Mitsuri spoke, her words heartfelt, and Shinobu knew it.

“Until now, I didn’t let myself really think about asking you to be my girlfriend because, well, you know what I’ve told you of my track record with dating. They would always end up leaving. I didn’t want you to leave too.”

“I wouldn’t.” Shinobu said sternly, crossing her arms beneath Mitsuri’s side hug, making the older girl giggle and bury her head further into Shinobu’s neck. “Those guys were all assholes.”

“This is why I was so worried you might have already been dating someone, you’re just so expressive and— ahh! I just like you a lot!” Mitsuri nuzzled.

“I like you too.” Shinobu mumbled but she was full of sincerity. She freed one of her arms so she could pat Mitsuri affectionately on her back before clearing her throat.

“So do you, would you, like to go on a date sometime? Not because we might be soulmates or whatever, but because you would genuinely like to regardless?” She asked.

Mitsuri squealed and shook Shinobu in her arms, “Yes! Yes, I’d really like to do that. Do you mean it? Do you want to?”

“Yeah, I do. —Hey!”

Mitsuri pulled Shinobu back down on the futon with her, still hugging her close. Wisteria clung to her nose the longer she stayed close and she didn’t want to leave. Mitsuri grinned into Shinobu’s shoulder as she felt arms finally wrap around her.

“What a weird, amazing day, hm?” Mitsuri breathed through a relaxed sigh.

“Tell me about it.” Shinobu sighed in return though she sounded more spent than relaxed. She wasn’t accustomed to sharing such gooey emotions like this. Honestly, she felt lucky Mitsuri had the patience to bear with her.

“Aren’t you glad I made you do this research with me now?”

“Mm, probably would have just been a lot less work for you to just as me out instead while you had me trapped.” Shinobu responded cheekily, earning a light slap on the arm.

“Now, as much as I’d love to lay here, the food should be here in less than twenty minutes and I’d really like to grab those groceries before the delivery person gets here. Are you coming?”

“Are you kidding? I’ll never leave your side again!” Mitsuri said, shifting her body upwards a bit so she could show Shinobu her very serious, yet extremely cute and hardly intimidating, expression.

“Oh dear, what have I done.” Shinobu couldn’t help but smile. Hesitantly she caressed Mitsuri’s cheek and she melted instantly under her touch.

Before they could leave, Shinobu said she had to change her sweatshirt first and Mitsuri lightly poked fun at her, but in all honesty it would have been like Shinobu was wearing a Snuggie out in public with how big that hoodie was.

Shoes on, they walked down the street to their destination. Surprisingly, their conversation on the way felt normal as if nothing had really changed and that felt good. Mitsuri nervously brushed knuckles with Shinobu a few times and the younger girl easily took her hand in her own. They both quieted for a moment and smiled to themselves, enjoying the small, but not insignificant, act of intimacy.

They got the ingredients they needed with added snacks and managed to just barely beat the delivery person home with a couple minutes to spare. They put away the groceries and set up lunch in the living room because Mitsuri insisted on eating under the kotatsu even though the chills of winter had long since past. Shinobu was happy to indulge her anyway and offered to put a movie on to watch while they ate. They picked one and sat together, steadily migrating closer until they were leaning on each other.

Before long, Shinobu heard Mitsuri’s breathing change and realized that the other girl had gone quiet.

“Missed sleep finally caught up to you, did it?” Shinobu whispered fondly.

She pulled Mitsuri further into herself and she snuggled in. Shinobu paused the movie, having a feeling that Mitsuri would want to finish it later, and turned on a show she would usually watch herself while playing idly with Mitsuri’s hair.

She’d never admit it, but maybe, just maybe, there was something to all that soulmate business because it felt like she had waited a lifetime to hold her like this without another care in the world.

[heyyyharry]

Chapter 7: Shadow And Moonlight

(from ‘The Winter and The Crown’)

…in which the woods try to tell Y/N something.

Word count: 3.6k

AU: queen!y/n, commander!harry

Description: Y/N and Harry set off on a new adventure to find ‘the cure’ for an ancient curse, meanwhile, the enemies are plotting to take her kingdom.

Wattpad link (Reyna as Y/N)

.

.

.

“Don’t move.”

Harry hissed into his palm as he peeked through the gap between his fingers to watch Y/N tending to his wound. His hand had been burned slightly, but nothing too severe.

Y/N had managed to find some healing herbs in the forest. She chewed them in her mouth and spat onto the burn, amused by the way Harry’s face contorted with disgust.

“Yuck.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said mockingly. “Would you like it to be infected?”

A corner of his mouth raised as he watched her bandage his hand with a piece of fabric she’d torn from her coat. “How did you know how to do this?”

“I read,” she said with a grin. “It’s great. You should try it sometimes.”

Y/N wasn’t sure if it was the cold or he was shy, but she’d just seen a bit of colour in his cheeks. Harry averted his eyes immediately, looking at his bandaged hand. And there it was again – that sinking feeling in her stomach.

When they’d managed to escape from the burning house, Y/N had regretted her decision to continue the journey. But as she was looking at Harry now and thinking about how she could lose him any moment, she was more determined to find the lake.

They didn’t talk about what had happened. Y/N wanted to talk about it, but she hated to acknowledge it. She hated that she didn’t have an explanation for the things that she’d seen. For all she could tell, it’d been magic. And magic didn’t always have answers.

Harry probably felt the same way for he’d been quiet this whole time. They were both thinking of the same thing and keeping their guards up. And maybe that was enough to keep them alive for now.

The sun was setting. They’d gone far from the house, killed two rabbits and cooked them for lunch and dinner. They and the horses were too exhausted so they’d decided to camp in the woods for the night, hoping there wouldn’t be another storm, otherwise they’d have no shelter and get buried in the snow.

“Impressive,” Harry said as he watched Y/N make a fire. “It’s like you grew up outside the castle.”

She didn’t say anything about that compliment, didn’t even remind him that he’d been the one who’d taught her that. The more he said things like this, the more she felt like she didn’t know him anymore. He was slowly turning into somebody else. And she must admit that there had been moments when she’d thought she was gradually falling out of love with him. But then, she’d think about that kiss in the burning house. That had felt similar, hadn’t it?

“You kissed me.”

Y/N started as she dropped the stick she was holding and gaped at Harry. He was looking straight at her, his eyes round and full of wonder as he said, “In the house. You kissed me, right? Or was it just an illusion?”

“Yes, I kissed you,” she admitted, not looking at him as she added more wood to the fire. She could still feel his eyes burning holes on the side of her face.

“Why?” he asked.

“I needed to shock you,” she replied coolly. “I pricked my finger and it pulled me back to reality. So I thought–I just...didn’t want to hurt you.”

Harry chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” she asked him. “I saved your life, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did, Your Majesty,” he said with a polite smile. “I’m just imagining His Majesty’s face when he hears about all the things we’ve done to survive.”

Y/N mustered a smile at him, ignoring the jab in her stomach. “Well, let’s hope you’ll survive until my husband kills you.”

Harry didn’t say anything about that, but the smirk never faltered on his face. It made Y/N all flustered so she had no choice but to pretend that he wasn’t there and mind her own business.

They ate the rest of the rabbit, and it was night again. The stars and the moon were visible tonight. They could be seen through the branches overhead, so there might not be a storm and Harry and Y/N would be safe. At least if they were careful enough to not fall into another trap.

“We should take turns keeping watch during the night,” Harry said.

“Good idea. I’ll take the first watch.”

“No–”

“I insist,” said Y/N as she secured the fur coat around herself and sat down by a large rock. “I can’t sleep now anyway so…”

“All right,” Harry sighed, stretching his limbs and yawning. “Wake me up when you’re tired.”

“Sure.”

And so he lay down on the ground beside her, all wrapped up in his coat with his back facing her. She couldn’t help but stare, wanting to run her fingers down his spine or through his hair and kiss him goodnight. But all she could do was watch in silence and repeat those three words in her head so she wouldn’t forget what they sounded like.

“You were very brave.”

Y/N was taken aback. She blinked, for a moment thinking she’d misheard it. But then he went on, not turning to face her, “Thank you for not abandoning me there.”

She felt a smile growing on her face. “Can’t even look at me as you say thank you?” she asked, laughing so he knew it was a joke.

Harry laughed too, quietly. “Yeah, well, I don’t want to see you blush. Wouldn’t be able to sleep if I kept thinking about it.”

Y/N was left speechless. She worked her jaw for a response that never came. But Harry didn't seem to expect anything from her; he drifted right off, his shoulder rising and falling as he snored softly.

Y/N put both arms around herself, feeling goosebumps pimple her skin as a cool breeze blew right through her clothes. This was the first time she’d spent the night in these woods. She’d heard tales about them when she’d been little. The kinds of tales that were used to scare naughty children. And after what had happened in that house, Y/N was very convinced that those tales were all real.

Once you had stepped into the darkness of these woods and felt the cold pass through you, the trees would swallow all memory of light and they would know all your secrets, the stories you’d kept hidden inside the cage of your chest. The trees whispered, too. They could be taunting Y/N right now, making her think she was safe and getting her when she least expected.

She pinched her eyes closed and took a deep breath before observing the lines of tall soldier trees standing guard around them. It was all so quiet, but why did she feel like something was out there.

She imagined a beast or shadow with hooked claws and grim eyes. A thing the forest kept, waiting for the right moment to release.

Her fingers twitched as fear rose at the base of her throat. She hated this feeling building inside her. She was her mother’s daughter. She should not be afraid of invisible things. But then again, when it came to things she did not understand and could not explain, she should be afraid.

“Come.”

Y/N jumped when she heard the voice. It wasn’t Harry’s. He was still sleeping. She whipped her head around, trying to locate where it’d come from but she could not.

“Come.”

There it was again. The voice of a woman. Somebody was here. Somebody was hiding in the dark, camouflaged by the trees, silently watching them.

Heart pounding out of rhythm, Y/N tapped Harry on the shoulder. “Harry, I heard something.”

There was no response.

“Harry, wake up. Harry!” She shook his shoulder harder. He still did not budge. If he weren’t still breathing, she would assume he was dead. It was almost like he could not feel or hear her.

She took a second to calm herself down and study her surroundings. Moonlight peeked through the trees, pale and lonely, bathing her skin. Bare branches above looked like skeleton fingers waiting patiently to grab her when she slept. She held her breath, straining her ear to listen to the voice. But she heard nothing. Moments had passed, and still, nothing.

It was not real. The mountain had a way of getting inside your head—playing tricks on those who dared to walk among the pines long after the sun had set. These woods were wild and rugged and unkind. They could not be trusted.

Feeling anxious, she added some more sticks to the fire and sat there hugging her knees to her chest, staring at the flame. She thought about her mother, trying to hold onto those few precious fading memories of her childhood to put herself at ease.

Suddenly, a branch cracked.

Y/N’s head snapped up like a hunter expecting her prey.

Or maybe she was the prey all along.

“Come.”

It was the voice again.

Soft like silk.

Longing like a distant memory.

Y/N covered her ears as the voice kept repeating the same word over and over again. It only grew clearer as she tried to block it out. The voice was coming from inside her head.

Her skin pricked with gooseflesh.

And when she opened her eyes again, she saw it.

A white deer glowing in the blackness of night. It stood between the trees, watching her silently with its eyes gleaming like the brightest stars. She stared back at the animal, holding her breath, wondering if it was just a figment of her imagination or such creature did exist in these magical woods. Everything could seem and feel real until it wasn’t. Like the house. Like this entire journey. She could be dreaming.

Wide eyes stayed fixed on the deer, she reached for Harry, but he was not there. She snapped her head to the side and found him gone. So were the horses and their weapons and supplies. She was all alone. She pressed her fists to her heart, feeling its violent beats as she prayed that this wasn’t real. Then, the fire went out. Y/N recoiled, shaking all over. What was happening?

She could still feel the creature watching her. So she slowly opened her eyes and saw that the deer was glowing even brighter than before. It was the only source of light now. The moon had been obscured by the clouds. As the light from the creature’s skin touched her own, it was warm and put her at east. So when the creature nodded its head to ask her to follow, she hurriedly pushed herself off the ground and went after it.

This is a dream. This is a dream. This. Is. A. Dream, she kept telling herself as she made her way around the trees. The air was cold and damp. Y/N breathed slowly as she moved forward, stepping carefully, deliberately, over fallen logs and frozen flowers. She didn’t know how far she’d followed the deer. She didn’t remember walking. Her steps felt so light it was like she was being carried.

The next thing she knew, she was heading towards a cliff. The moon was so big it looked like a giant eye or a face in the sky. Y/N was so taken by the moon that she did not see the deer transforming into a woman. The woman was dressed in a white gown. She stood on the edge of the cliff, her white hair flying like a silvery stream.

Just like the deer, she was glowing, too.

“W-Who are you?” Y/N asked, but the woman didn’t answer nor turn around. And when Y/N opened her mouth to ask again, the woman whipped her head to her left, revealing her face for the first time. She was a young girl, about Y/N’s age or even younger.

Curious, Y/N looked to where the girl was staring at and saw a dark figure. A man. He didn’t pay a single glance at Y/N, so Y/N knew he could not see her either. He and the moonlight lady rushed toward each other for a strong tight embrace. They were both young and beautiful. But Y/N had never seen them before.

The man was dressed in all black. The girl in all white.

Shadow and moonlight.

This wasn’t just an ordinary dream. It was trying to tell Y/N something.

But what?

“Your Majesty!”

Y/N’s eyes popped open when she heard it. Harry’s face rushed into view, and she flinched at the touch of his fingers on the side of her face. He immediately jumped back, raising both hands in the air.

“What—” She looked around, baffled. They were now standing at the same spot by the fire. The horses were still here. Moonlight still cast eerie shadows on the snow. But there was no deer. No girl. No mystery man.

“Were you sleepwalking?” Harry asked, looking concerned. “I woke up and saw you just standing here staring into nothing…”

“No,” she said, tearing her eyes from his. “I thought I heard something. That’s all.”

Harry’s forehead puckered slightly. He didn’t believe her. “Your Majesty, if something’s wrong, you must tell me.”

“Nothing’s wrong. Don’t worry,” she murmured, forcing a smile.

Harry raised his eyebrows. “So you weren’t sleepwalking?”

“No.”

His eyes locked with hers for a second as if he was trying to detect a lie. To her relief, he exhaled and ran his fingers through his hair. “All right. Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch.”

Y/N didn’t say another word to Harry as she came to lie down by the fire. For some reason, she could feel someone watching them. It was the woods. They were always watching. And when she fell asleep, she saw the face of the white-haired girl inside the giant moon.

.

.

.

“Your Majesty!”

“Get out.”

Jo’s mouth fell open as she smacked her palm onto her chest, acting shocked, frozen in the doorway. Lance probably expected her to leave immediately, and when she didn’t, he tore his eyes from the book he’d been reading and glanced up at her. He cocked an eyebrow, looking annoyed. “I said–”

“A maid told me you'd called for me,” she said.

Lance opened his mouth, probably about to tell her off when he seemed to have remembered calling for her, so his mouth snapped shut at once. The smug grin she was giving him must have got him all bashful as he cleared his throat and combed his fingers through his raven hair. “Well, I was going to ask you a few things but I figured it out on my own.”

“All right,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I guess I should go now?”

“Yes.”

She picked up her skirt and gave a curtsy. “Good night, Your Majesty.”

“Wait. Actually–” Lance heaved a sigh as he rose from his chair. “I think I’ve discovered something.”

“Well, what is it?”

“Close the door,” he said.

Jo did as she was told then padded over to the desk where Lance had laid out two tall piles of books. This was what he’d been doing for the last few days. Research. Y/N had almost died twice. And at this point, Jo guessed Lance was done just sitting at one place and doing nothing.

Isolde had been at peace since their Queen had left, but it could be the calm before a huge storm. Jo didn’t know much about politics, but she knew Lance had been losing sleep over what Calanthe might have up her sleeve, and also for Y/N’s safety.

As Jo watched him flip through the pages of the huge dusty old book, she could not help but watch the ring on his finger glowing red.

Y/N, she thought, when are you coming home?

“From what we’ve learned from Mary,” Lance said, snapping her back to reality. “This group of people called The Monks believe in one ruler. They want to believe it’s Calanthe so they’re on her side, giving her advice and will fight for her in the battle.”

“If you’re asking me for more information, I haven’t got any,” Jo sighed. “I barely talk to the witch.”

It was true. She now shared the room with the witch who’d erased Harry’s memory of Y/N. Jo didn’t care that the witch no longer had magic. It was best to keep her distance and be guarded at all times.

“No, not that.” Lance shook his head. “I just found something fascinating.” And pointed to the page. “King Lokesh. The first High King in the North was thought to be the one ruler, too. The Monks were on his side during the war with his brothers.”

“It was a useless war. There was no winner. That was how one hundred kingdoms were divided into four high courts.”

“True.” Lance raised a finger. “But Lokesh didn’t rule for long. He died after only two months on the throne and the crown was passed onto his eldest son. It was said that he’d died of a mysterious illness.”

Jo grimaced as she tapped her fingers on the table. “What does that have to do with us?”

Lance clenched his jaw, his thick brows knitted. “Do you think The Monks have something to do with his death?”

“You mean they killed him?”

Lance nodded. “Because he was not the chosen one.”

Jo took a moment to think then shook her head. “I don’t know why you’re worried. I’m actually hoping they’ll kill Calanthe when they realize she’s useless.”

Lance pursed his lips before letting out a sharp breath. He closed the book and crossed his arms as he leaned against the table. “Do you think I’m being paranoid?”

“A little,” Jo scoffed. “But I get it. It’s been stressful for us both.”

Lance was quiet for a moment, his gaze glued to his feet. “I really hope she’ll make it home. With or without finding the lake.”

“So do I,” Jo said. But the voice inside her head was quick to add, With or without Harry.

She felt bad about it, of course. Harry had been unbearable at times yet he didn’t deserve what he was getting. After all, he’d lived and died for Y/N. And Jo’s ultimate mission in life was only to make Y/N happy and keep Y/N safe.

She returned to her room with those heavy thoughts clinging onto her and almost forgot that she wasn’t alone. Her heart jumped as she stepped in and saw the girl with a damaged face sitting on the bed beside hers, dressed in a white nightgown like a ghost.

“Where were you?” Mary asked, giving a smile that crinkled her good eye.

Jo tried not to show how disgusted she was as she walked straight to the fireplace to add some wood to it.

Mary was quiet for a moment, either waiting for Jo to speak or thinking of what to say next. Eventually, she broke the silence, “You cannot not speak to me forever.”

Jo could. In fact, she was doing it now.

“How’s the Queen?” Mary persisted.

Jo didn’t want her to be doing this all night, so she decided to answer this one. “Alive.”

“Good, good,” Mary said, laughing nervously. There was a three-second pause. “Hey, I was wondering...um...since you were the last person to see my sister...h-how was she when she left?”

“She was happy,” Jo said without any emotion in her voice. Then she suddenly felt bad about it and added, “I didn’t really know her, but she seemed like a nice person.”

“You’re a nice person, too,” Mary said. This time, Jo cast a glance at her and saw her grinning. “Maggie wouldn’t just save anyone.”

Jo would tell Mary that Maggie had done it for Y/N, not for her, but she didn’t want this to turn into a conversation. She stayed quiet and walked back to her bed, but Mary had already got up and got in her way. She stopped, second-guessing what Mary would do next when the witch took her hand and squeezed it tightly.

“I’m sorry,” Mary said.

Jo was too shocked to pull back so she just stood there like a statue. “About?”

“The Queen. I know you–” Mary stopped herself at once, yet Jo already knew what she was going to say. It wasn’t hard to tell how she felt about Y/N. “Also,” Mary went on, her hands turning warm as they held Jo’s. “I’m sorry about your baby.”

It’d been so long since someone had last mentioned it. Jo felt like her wound which had recently healed was sliced open again. She stared at Mary unblinkingly. And somehow Mary thought it was a great idea to continue adding salt to her injury. “We’re more alike than you think, Josephine,” Mary said, lacing her fingers with Jo’s.

Jo immediately shoved herself away from the witch. Mary opened her mouth to speak but Jo didn’t give her a chance. “No.” She held up a finger and took a step back. “We’re nothing alike. You’re a witch. Look at you. You’re...you’re–”

Ugly. Evil. Heartless. Manipulative. Pretentious.

“Just...do not touch me ever again,” Jo said under her breath.

“I’m so sorry,” Mary said to her but she didn’t bother to hear it. She turned abruptly and stormed out of the room. This was all too much for her to take. She would have to find somewhere else to sleep tonight.

[cherry-moonlight]

Life Could Be A Dream - Chapter Five

{NOS4A2 - Charlie Manx x Reader}

{A/N} Sorry this one took a little longer, mid-chapter my wrists started acting up. Carpal tunnel is a monster. D: Anyways, I hope you enjoy and that I’m doing our beloved Charlie some justice at least so far. <3 Warnings: None.

Chapter Five - This Isn’t Real

My voice had returned and my mind was racing even more than I expected it could’ve when Vic stopped talking. She picked up a pen from the table we sat at in the kitchen and fidgeted with it, clicking the top a few times as she looked me in the eye. It was clear she was waiting for any kind of response to the boatload of information she’d dumped on me.

“So I’m a… strong creative,” I made air quotes around the words that sounded more like a question than a statement.

She looked at me and nodded. “You don’t need to lose your voice every time you use it, though. I have a friend who’s just like us. Her name’s Maggie.. She figured out how to keep herself from dealing with the cost of using her gift.”

“What’s her gift?” I interrupted, curious.

“Her tiles,” she rasped. “She has a purple bag with scrabble tiles in them. They’ll tell you anything you want or need to know as long as you ask them. But, we have gotten the tiles mixed up before.”

All of this sounded like some magical bologna that I could’ve found in a novel somewhere, and had I not used my gift myself and seen the outcome with my own eyes, I would’ve laughed and told her she was losing her mind.

“Anyway, Maggie told me you either have to hurt yourself… or someone else.”

It sounded as though she was reluctant to tell me the latter of the two options.

“What’s the cost of your gift?” I asked again.

She hesitated, setting the pen down and looking me in the eye. “My eye,” was all she said, and I put it together.

I had seen her come back countless times that week with a bloodied eye, but the last time it seemed to have gotten worse. When we left Christmasland, it was bleeding. It all clicked then.

“But Maggie burns herself with a cigarette every time she uses her tiles,” she continued. “I’m sure you can find something to keep you from losing your voice. You have to focus on the pain in order to make it work. But don’t hurt people, {Y/N}.”

I nodded, taking mental notes of her advice. I’d never been told to hurt myself for any reason before but I guessed there were a lot of things that were new to me when it came to this seemingly supernatural situation. My lungs filled with air as I absentmindedly sighed. It felt as though I was thrust into a film and forced to figure out the plot. I was more thankful for Vic than I could’ve ever expressed.

The clock on the wall felt as though it ticked slower than usual as I realized how late it was. Time had gotten away from all of us once we’d started looking for Wayne together. After Vic extracted me from Christmasland on her dirt bike through the tunnel I saw in the forest, she instructed me not to say a word to anyone about what had happened. Wanting to gain her trust enough to figure out what all of this meant, I complied. Once we arrived back at their place and Lou went to bed, she stayed up to elucidate what was going on. But before she got into my gift, she explained that hers was not what I thought was a tunnel, but the bridge.

She called it an inscape. Her “shorter way.”  

But after all of our efforts, it came to be that Wayne hadn’t actually been missing. He’d simply run off to play and threw Vic and Lou -and me- into a spiral of worry. Or at least, that was his story and he was sticking to it.

“Your knife is your voice,” she began again. “And your inscape…” Her brow furrowed as she looked around, picking up the pen again. “Well, I’m not sure. What were you doing when you found Christmasland?”

“Singing,” I said immediately. “I was looking for Wayne and singing.”

She clicked the pen on the table a few times, looking as though she were completely uneasy.

“Maybe you have a shorter way, too,” she swallowed hard, as though that wasn’t the first thing to come to mind.

“But Wayne was never at Christmasland,” I added.

“No.. No he wasn’t. But that bastard Charlie Manx is trying to change that.”

Ah. Charlie Manx.

The man of the evening that I wanted desperately to know so much more about. Vic had abruptly taken me from Christmasland without so much as an explanation, and at least now I knew why she was there. Still, curiosity had gotten the better of me to say the least. He was all I could think about during our search for Wayne and I was slightly bitter that I didn’t get to figure out what I was doing at the winter wonderland in the past through questioning him. He seemed to know far more about me than I knew about myself.

“What about him, anyway?” I questioned, trying not to sound as though I were too excited to get into the subject. “Who is he? What is Christmasland? Where is Christmasland?”

She leaned back in the chair, slipping out of her motorcycle jacket and hanging it on the backrest as her eyes seemed to grow dark.

“Christmasland is Charlie Manx’s inscape. It’s just a big, intricate figment of his sick imagination. His knife is a classic Rolls Royce Wraith, and he picks up innocent kids and he kidnaps them with it, and then brings them to Christmasland.”

Her voice became rushed and shaky.

“Once they’re there.. Well, I don’t know if they ever get out. They turn into something else.. Something inhuman. They attack people and they think he’s their father.”

She spit the words out like venom on the tongue. I wasn’t sure why, but I almost felt offended that she was speaking of him that way. My thoughts drifted back to when he called me by his last name.

“He thinks he’s doing them a service, these kids, by taking them from what he calls “neglectful parents” and giving them the home they never had,” her expression twisted into a cringe. “It’s somethin’ out of a horror movie. Probably why the plate on the Wraith says Nosferatu…” she finished, the statement sounding like a solemn attempt at a joke.

I had a voice now but I still sat in silence, mulling over everything she’d said. It was easy to remain quiet, especially when I had no idea how to handle what was going on when none of it seemed real. It was a lot to grasp, but the more information I had, the better. I must’ve looked as though I were deep in thoughts I shouldn’t have been having, because she reached over and grabbed my wrist then, her slender fingers squeezing it tightly.

“You can’t go back to Christmasland, {Y/N}. No matter what you do or what you think you need. It’s not safe. He’ll kill you. He’s tried to kill me, and Maggie, and..” she trailed off, clearly remembering something else. “Just don’t go, okay? Promise me.”

Somewhere deep in my chest, I felt a pang of hurt again. That kind of sensation where your heart breaks and you know the tears are next. Holding it in, I looked her in the eye, and against what I knew I wanted, I nodded.

“I promise.”

-x-x-x-

This was all more information than I could process in a day. My eyes were heavy as I layed on the couch and pulled the fuzzy blanket they’d given me over my shoulders. The house creaked and groaned occasionally as it settled for the night and it was warm and cozy inside despite the chill outside.

My day had been long and confusing, from the funeral, to visiting my house to grab my things, to finding myself at Christmasland. While I knew I promised Vic I’d never go back, I couldn’t shake the thought of it. The way the snow glistened under the lights; the way the maze of ice seemed to go for miles; the way the houses looked like gingerbread creations and— the way he smiled. His dark, deep set eyes narrowing at the corners just a bit as his lips pulled upwards with them. As though he had a million secrets and he was about to let you in on every single one of them.

I rolled over on the couch, and tried to think of something else as I dozed off, but I couldn’t help that my thoughts were too adamant for my own good. I didn’t understand how I could’ve been so captivated by him, especially after Vic’s rendition of Charlie as she knew him. Something deep inside told me I knew another version, and I just had to figure out which. But I’d made a promise to her, and learning about him personally was no longer an option. No matter how hard I tried to think of anything else, the last fragments of imagination that materialized behind my eyelids were of him.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the road to what I thought before was nowhere. The snow topped trees lined either side, but the moon in the sky was brighter than usual— in fact, so were the stars and everything else that surrounded me. The entire Milky Way could be seen above me, and everything I set eyes on was awe inspiring. Studying myself, I noticed I wore a deep crimson rockabilly halter dress with a big black bow tied in the back. I felt like a present wrapped under a tree, and while dresses weren’t my norm, I felt just as pretty as the atmosphere around me.

Oh, it was my usual dream, but it seemed every time I dreamt it, the more it changed. This time, it was gorgeous.

Snowflakes fell like glitter as I made my way forward, admiring the beauty of the surreal world that surrounded me. It was as though everything was suddenly clearer; as though my place in this icy dreamscape was solidified. My ears caught vague hints of the song that brought me to Christmasland, and I quickly realized that I was facing the wrong way. The twinkling lights weren’t ahead of me anymore, but a spectrum of colorful lights caught my attention as they reflected against the snow from behind me. With a deep breath I tried to conceal my smile. If I couldn’t visit it in real life anymore, my dreams did me the honor.

Upon turning around, I was met with the sight of Christmasland’s gates just up ahead. I’d finally reached my destination, and I knew exactly what my dream was all about. The entire time my subconscious was trying to remind me of a memory; a memory I’d soon revisit.

Seemed a little dramatic to me to have the dream so often, especially after how short my time there was, but at least I knew. I knew that there was more to me than just being the girl with a rough past and an unstable future.

When I took a step forward, I heard his voice.

“It is wonderful, isn’t it?” He said somewhat wistfully.

Charlie had appeared next to me at some point and I hadn’t even noticed in my mystified state. Still, just as he had in person, he stood a small distance away from me. I hoped my voice worked this time as I opened my mouth to speak.

“It’s beautiful,” I smiled.

Thank goodness I still had my voice. However, I had to remind myself this was only a dream. Even if it was lucid, it mattered not what I said or how I said it. But it was still the only chance I’d get to immerse myself in whatever fantasy this was anymore. It was the only place I could let my desires run freely without the repercussions of losing my only friend, and really, my only hope as survival. I rolled with my audience of Charlie Manx. Maybe my subconscious could answer a few of my burning questions about the situation, but he spoke before I could again.

“I must say, I was surprised to see you so quickly after your mother’s passing. My condolences..” He ended his sentence with a hint of joy, as though he were glad the death of my mother brought me to Christmasland, accident or not.

“It wasn’t my intention, but I guess it was meant to happen.”

I held my hands in front of me, letting our eyes meet. The electricity I felt buzzed through the air. I didn’t know what to make of it, but I didn’t want to lose myself so soon in the illusion. Fidgeting with the ends of my hair, I stood taller and began my small line of questioning.

“What is this place? Why do you know me?”

There was a glint in his eye as I spoke to him, as though he were absorbing my voice, some kind of odd pride becoming him. With a wave of his hand to gesture me to follow, he began a stroll towards the gates. I did as he suggested, wanting to hear what he was going to say.

“What do you remember?” He countered instead.

Damn it.

I tried my best to pull any memory I could from the darkest parts of my mind, sighing with a faint shrug.

“Not much.. I remember riding the carousel.. And playing the carnival games. Running between the flashing lights and laughing with other children,” I tried to rattle off, hoping a new memory would suddenly appear. “I remember how to get out of the maze, but I can’t remember ever being there..”

I peeked over at him.

“You did love the carousel,” was all he said, like he was waiting for me to make a breakthrough on my own. Until he spoke again.

“You were a model child at Christmasland, my dear. You played well with the others, made sure no one was left out. In fact, you enjoyed Millie’s company very much.”

Millie…

The name rang a bell, but before I had time to ask, he continued.

“You came to us one day quite on your own, which hadn’t happened before, and hasn’t happened again. I’m sure you’ve realized by now that that voice of yours brings you to Christmasland. Of course, you didn’t know that the night your father laid hands on your mother. But you left your cruel home to soothe yourself with song. The next thing we all knew, there you were. Tearful, and quite pitiful-looking outside of the Candy Cane Gates.”  

“I came here on my own..” I reworded out loud, attempting to piece together any thoughts from that night.

It happened in my house more often than not, more often than anyone should’ve endured or any child should’ve seen. I remembered the night I left, the only night I left. For the life of me, I could not remember singing my way to Christmasland. At the same time, it was nice to hear that my scrambled memories weren’t just things I’d made up or imagined. They were real. I was there. Then again, no matter how vivid the entire dream was, I had to remind myself it was just that. A dream. This was all coming from my own mind.

“From then on we took you in,” he finished. “I knew there was something special about you.. That you were a strong creative, just as myself. That, and you wouldn’t have dreamed of putting yourself in a predicament that would place you on the naughty list.”

He offered a charming smirk at his quirky bit of information about me and I looked away, fighting the pull towards him I felt when he did. I assumed that my need to be good was out of fear after what Vic told me about him. But what he said next surprised me.

“You must bring Bruce Wayne McQueen to me, {Y/N}.”

My brows pinched together almost immediately. Victoria was right.. Or was this just my subconscious making Victoria right?

“Why?” was all I said.

“Because he wants to be here, with me, my dear. He’s told me so himself. I was well on my way to helping him, and then you made an appearance at Christmasland.. I’m man enough to admit that your surprise arrival distracted me enough to let the boy slip away. You must help me get him back now. Do not listen to Victoria. She doesn’t understand how unhappy her son is. He longs to join me and the other children. To finally be safe from her derelict ways of alcoholism and neglect.”

For being my dream, the request was odd.

“I— I would never bring Wayne here.. Vic told me all about you. All about how you think you’re doing right by these children but you’re not. I would never betray her like that. She’s given me a home when she didn’t...“  I cut myself off and regrouped, not wanting to get personal, whether it was real or not.

Despite my rattling off, he didn’t make a sound. He simply let me, as though he knew something I didn’t. As though it didn’t matter what I said, because he would find his way anyway.

“This isn’t even real.” I continued, stopping in my tracks, not moving any further towards the gates. “You’re not here. I don’t know why my thoughts are panning out this way, but I’m not bringing Wayne to Christmasland. I don’t know why I chose to stay here when I was a kid but I have a feeling I didn’t have a choice.”

He stopped several ahead and turned to face me. Shaking my head, I ran my hand back through my hair and dared to let my eyes rest on his again. There was a hint of sorrow in his eyes, like I’d disappointed him— but only for a second. I immediately began to speak again.

“This isn’t real,” I repeated, though I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince anymore.  

“Not real?” The expression on his handsome features changed into something near mischievousness as he arched a single thick brow and approached me. It was the closest he’d gotten to me since we’d met again.

My heart pounded in my chest as I wondered what was going to happen. Each step he took was slow and calculated. It felt as though he didn’t want to get so close, but had a point to prove in doing so. My dress began to feel tight around my chest as I tried to steady my breathing.

Can you die from a dream?

He towered over me once we were opposite each other, and I allowed myself to look up, holding his gaze. Swallowing hard, I inhaled deeply and waited for whatever fate was to become me, mustering the strength to endure whatever was going to happen should I not wake up. It crossed my mind to pinch myself; to wake up before anything traumatic happened. But something within me wanted to stay. It was a strange sensation to stare what might’ve been my brightest dream or darkest nightmare in the face and not know which way the chips were going to fall.

Confusion was all I could sift through when his large hand reached for my neck, placing his thumb and index finger on either side of it as his palm rested lightly against my clavicle. I watched his features, noticing his jaw clench just enough for me to wonder if I had imagined it.

My {E/C} eyes were full of fear that I knew he had to see, but I stood still, waiting for his grip to tighten or his careful movements to turn into some kind of gruesome act. But as the seconds passed, I instead felt how cold his hand was despite not feeling the chill in the air around us; how gentle his touch was against my warm flesh. He treated me as though I were a porcelain doll, set to break at any moment if he made the wrong move. The faintest of smiles placed itself on his lips then, and my heart kicked up for a different reason that I hoped he couldn’t detect in my pulse.

“Wake up,” he instructed, showing off the velvet in his voice.

I gasped awake. Blinking my eyes rapidly through the blackness that was the dark room to gain any kind of clarity about my surroundings. I haphazardly reached over to the coffee table in front of the couch, tapping my phone’s screen for the time before looking around the room through the small amount of light. It was the middle of the night and I was still at Vic’s. Of course the dream wasn’t real. A quiet laugh passed through my nose as I shook my head and settled back into the couch, listening to the quietness around me. Almost hoping deep down that I would hear his voice again. But it all was silent.

What a strange dream it had been this time.

Charlie Manx had certainly made an impression on me, and I wasn’t sure yet in what kind of way. I didn’t want to think I was infatuated by his charm and devilish good looks, but it seemed more and more that I couldn’t deny the feeling. At least the only place I’d ever see him anymore was in my dreams. I couldn’t break my promise to Vic.

As I laid back down and stared up into the darkness of the ceiling, I let my hand linger up to my neck where his hand had been in my dream.

I bolted upright again when I felt a necklace that wasn’t there before.

My fingers swiftly felt around for a pendant or any sort of indication of what the piece of jewelry contained, and when I found it, I lost my breath altogether. Remaining deathly still, I held it.

It was the locket I’d hidden in my little cedar chest for years.

[mor-beck-more-problems]

Deathly Fun || Morgan & Dakota

TIMING: Recent, before New Year’s Eve

PARTIES: @dakotasgrant & @mor-beck-more-problems

SUMMARY: Just gals being pals

CONTAINS: mild gore, brief medical blood talk

Nine times out of ten, Dakota would have said no. To be more blunt, she would have said absolutely fucking not when Morgan invited her over… But wallowing in her own self-pity was just more fuel to her flames, and if she let that fire grow any bigger or brighter, she’d burn the whole damn town to the ground. So hanging out it was, apparently. And shit, if she were being honest… Bone carving actually did pique her interest, as much as she hated to admit it. So when Morgan invited her over, and Dakota found herself parked in her driveway, she figured it was worth a shot to try, even if getting her into the house was like pulling teeth. Just don’t be a dick. Make a friend. What’s the worst that could happen? They could get to know you. After fifteen or so minutes of just sitting in her jeep debating on pulling out and speeding off, she finally hopped out and made her way to the door, knocking three times… and praying that Morgan didn’t answer.

Morgan laid on the floor in her new studio, trying to remember breathing, or at least the way it had connected her to the world’s energy. Her chest rose and fell, the floor pressed against her back, the air circled around the ceiling fan and teased the fringe on her rug. She was here. She was whole. Each of these tiny perceptions was a cord binding her to this place, cocooning her against all odds in comfort. She was here. She was okay…

Knock, knock, knock.

She was late for meeting with Dakota. Morgan shot to her feet and stumbled to the door, smiling bright when she opened. “Oh, good! I was worried you wouldn’t be able to find me. This building is a little hidden from the driveway. But uh, come on and make yourself cozy? I actually have a lot of craft stuff you can play with and works in progress. I’ve got way too many pillows over there--” she pointed, “--but my table is in the sort-of-kitchen area. Do you need anything to drink? Snacks? I’ve got some pretty quality basics for guests.” Morgan sat down at her craft table and propped her legs up on one of the spare chairs, nudging one out for Dakota to take, smiling brightly. “You can say if that was a lot. I can mostly assure you the evening will be much more chill. It’s just, you know, a very long winded way of saying ‘make yourself at home.’”

As soon as the door swung open, it was like being blasted with a very small—but very real—beam of pure energy. The only way Dakota could truly and accurately describe it was as if Jessica Day and Arizona Robbins came together and created the woman that was standing before her—Morgan. Morgan… Something. The thing was, she probably would have been just as taken aback as she was even if she wasn’t hungover, but… Well, that was besides the point. Stop thinking about it.

The main objective was to get in and get out in under an hour, and if it took being an asshole to do it, well… Rest In Peace, Morgan. “Yeah, you just said more words than I’ve said in the past 24 hours,” she stated, shrugging off her coat and taking the seat she’d nudged out for her. If Dakota was anything, which… she was a lot of things… but if she was absolutely anything, it would be awkward. Hands folded in her lap, she looked around the room, taking in the decor as best as she could. Crafting wasn’t her thing, but bones? Bones were cool. She tuned back in when Morgan mentioned something about making herself at home. Honey, I’ve never felt “at home” in my entire life, she wanted to say. But she’d save that tid-bit for her friends Jack and Daniels back at her cabin.

“Uh, I’m fine, thanks. Also, I’m not a very ‘crafty’ person… So if you want to just skip to the part where we talk about death and I get to see some carcasses, that’d be great.”

Morgan scrunched up her face, amused and confused in equal measure. She got up and went over to the small fridge, blocking the view of the brain slices safely tucked away in their novelty pyrex containers as she took out what drinks she had available. “Do you want to talk about whatever’s behind all of this--?” She gestured vaguely to Dakota, slumped by the craft table. “I don’t know you well enough to judge you.” She brought the bottles over along with a water pitcher and a glass and set them down in front of the woman. “As for the carcasses…” She laughed dryly, swallowing the urge to say, well, you’re looking right at one if you feel like playing medical examiner. She climbed up her stepladder and retrieved Ratty and Squirrely from their shelf and brought them down. She brushed and dusted them regularly now, too fond of how helpful they’d been when she’d first died to let them gather dust. “There’s these little guys. And…” She untied a large velvet pouch from the table and carefully poured out a collection of bones. “These came from a raccoon, and these bad boys came from a buck.” She gestured to the antler pieces stacked neatly at the edge of the table. “What is it you like about death anyway?”

Dakota could have crawled out of her skin just at the words “do you want to talk,” period. Why the fuck would she want to talk to a complete stranger about her issues? If she wanted to do that, she would have gotten a therapist by now. But you do, don’t you? You’re dying for someone to listen. Why else would you be here? Why are you here? “What exactly is ‘this?’” she asked, helping herself to the bottle set in front of her. “Because I was under the impression that I was here to craft and maybe talk about murder, not open up about my feelings.” There was a beat of silence, mainly because she was taking a look at the animals she’d retrieved, and then her attention had shifted to the contents of the velvet pouch that was dumped onto the table. Dakota had no problem picking them up, examining them carefully. A female rib, part of a male radius… Multiple vertebrae, an antler. “I don’t like it,” she said, though it was a lie she didn’t know she was telling. “I’m intrigued by it. The intricacies of it. The decay of it. The symbolism of it… The way people who are living experience it all the time, even if no physical death has actually occurred.” she paused. Was she still talking? “What about you? Why do you collect all this stuff?”

“You’re not exactly being subtle about how upset you are right now, but somehow you’re still here,” Morgan beamed, pouring a glass of water for herself. “I’ve been on the wrong-ass side of depressed when you’d rather drop dead than show anyone you’re not okay. And I’ve been like this too.” She twirled her finger in Dakota’s direction, especially around the wrinkle in her forehead. “But we can wait, or just not. I just figured I’d ask.” She listened to Dakota’s vague answers as she started sorting through the bones on her table. A beaded bracelet might be interesting to make. Maybe a little time intensive, but it would look like some of the crystal beads she’d once made when she was done. The antler tips would be good for that too, but other parts would become pendants, or some kind of add ons to a sculpture. She’d save those for when she had a clearer idea. Morgan took up a delicate looking raccoon limb bone and started cutting it down to size. “Oh, no, you’re not getting away with something that vague,” she said, laughing softly. “It sounds like you like it. What do you think it symbolizes anyway? And what do you mean ‘experience it all the time.’” She took out a little drill and started evening out the hollow within the bone. “My girlfriend got me into them at first. But I feel an affinity with them now. Like we’re on the same frequency, and they understand something about me.” Being dead would do that. “I like repurposing them, letting them transform into beautiful things, or compost and nourish the earth, or simply decay and feed the crows and the bugs. It gives me hope.”

Oh, no. Dakota wasn’t going there. She wasn’t depressed, and if she was, she sure as hell wouldn’t be talking about it with Miss Sunshine over here. Just.. Focus the conversation on a morbid reality and maybe she’ll kick you out herself. “Death is all around us. It’s in my sentences, in yours… The things we do, what we eat. Our thoughts, our emotions, this conversation. A few hours from now when the sun sets. A relationship, a friendship. Ourselves. Death is really just the ending of something. Everything, actually, when you get down to it.” She said, still examining the bones before her. Dakota didn’t know why she kept humoring Morgan with her answers, but it was better than finishing the bottle at home. “I guess it depends on who you ask and what you read. It can symbolize renewal, rebirth, cleansing. Transition, opportunity, possibility…” she trailed off. There was a bout of silence that swelled between them, but only for a moment. Dakota didn’t know why she felt compelled to keep talking. “I think life is really just death in disguise because no matter what you’re doing or who you’re with, it ends up ending. I’ve felt that way since I was a kid. I don’t know why I feel that way.”

“You’re starting to sound like a real woo-woo mystic gal,” Morgan said, smiling wider. “But you know, I think everyone has their own relationship to death. Even if it’s pure avoidance or denial or something more thoughtful. I’d like to know what it symbolizes to you, if that’s not too weird or personal. At least recently. I appreciate that these relationships evolve, they die and rise again differently, like all relationships. They evolve. I used to be afraid of it, honestly. I lost so many people, watched some of them die, watched their caskets go into the ground, it just seemed so horrible to me. But then I had this uuhh…” How to put this delicately? “Really bad accident. And now it’s different. A lot of things are but that especially.” She took up a new section of bone and drilled through that one too, snowing thin spirals of bone onto the table in fluffy stacks. “You should get to know my girlfriend. She makes death sound like something beautiful when she talks about it.” Which wasn’t too often these days, but still dear to Morgan. When she finished with the second bead, she held up the pair for Dakota to examine. “What do you think? I need like, thirty more, but not too shabby side-by-side, right?”

Woo-woo mystic gal? So much for saying anything she actually thought, literally ever again. Dakota let Morgan talk—not really listening, of course, because now all she really wanted to do was get the hell outta dodge and probably never see again. That would really be the icing on the shit-cake that was her life. Sooner or later, Morgan held up a pair of the bones she’d turned into beads, and even her cynical ass had to admit that she’d done a good job. Part of her almost felt inspired to take up crafting in her spare time, but that fleeting moment of inspiration was quickly squashed—not for any particular reason, but it often took her several years to try anything new. Hence breaking off an engagement, moving half-way across the country, and sleeping with just about every single woman she could find that seemed desperate or hopeless enough to come back to her place… Or reckless enough to invite Dakota to hers. Out of all of the things Morgan had said, including something about how she wanted to know what death symbolized to Dakota personally, her interest was piqued at the mention of Morgan having a girlfriend. She thought she’d heard it earlier, but she couldn’t brush it off a second time. Fuck it, she thought. She called you woo-woo mystical. Ask her a question. “—Who’s your girlfriend?” Please don’t say Marley…

Morgan’s brow furrowed. Clearly her own brand of self-deprecation was lost on Dakota by her stiff silence. Maybe she didn’t know enough about the tarot cards on her bookshelves or the sigils on some of her book spines to know that she was as woo-woo as they came. But Dakota’s question puzzled her even more. It wasn’t exactly what she assumed the takeaway would be. “Uh...her name is Deirdre,” Morgan said. “She’s a life actuary, like a death accountant. She has a whole room dedicated to bones in the house. For her birthday, among other things, we articulated a deer skeleton together and went for a cemetery walk. Hambry is really beautiful right now, with all the snow on the ground. Have you been?”

That was true—Dakota was lost on anyone else’s self depreciation because she was so entombed in her own bullshit to care about anything anyone else said about themselves. Selfish bastard. But she hadn’t quite realized that yet...Or, if she had, she was ignoring it for as long as she possibly could, because she had an amazing track record in that department. Above all things, she was just glad Marley’s name hadn’t come out of Morgan’s mouth, ‘cause if it had, there would have been a Dakota-shaped hole through her front door. “Sounds nice,” she murmured. “I’ve never been, no. Never even heard of Hambry, actually.” Wow, you’re an amazing conversationalist. A beat or two of silence passed before she shot in the dark. She’d always been the ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ sorta person. Except now she was asking questions first and thinking about it after the fact. “This is going to sound like the dumbest question in the world, but… When did you know? I mean—you know what I mean. That you’d rather date a woman than a man. Or.. That you were at least okay with dating a woman. When did you know that?” Okay, you’re officially never speaking to this person ever again.

Morgan set down her tools and took a moment to really look at Dakota. She had known from the start there was something apprehensive in her, but she hadn’t guessed the depth of her fear. Morgan’s fingers twitched, wanting to take her hand. “First of all, it’s not dumb. Secondly, It took me a while,” she admitted. “I had this best friend, Karen, and she had this amazing two storey house and thick plush carpet in her room, and a pool. I told myself I liked being over at her place as many days as I could get away with because of that stuff. But I also liked it when she played with my hair, when our legs would brush together in the pool, and when she held my hand or my arm in the school hallways I just felt so special…” Morgan sighed. “We were friends for about a year and I didn’t figure out a thing. But then she was kissing this guy in the hall and I was so furious and hurt and awful and didn’t tell her about any of it. And then I had a dream about kissing her, which was a big ol’ flag I couldn’t avoid. And...I mean, it was the 90s and I had these weird special circumstances that made me worry that...what if this is why bad luck seemed to follow my family all around? What if all those awful protest signs and President Regan were onto something and I was some kind of blight on the family. And then things got weird and we didn’t visit or talk so much and I worried she could smell the lesbian on me or something, but then one day we’re in the girl’s bathroom and I start to beg her to talk to me and then--we were kissing. And it was weird and awkward, you know, on a tactile level, but inside, all those dopey romantic things fell into the right key and made sense. I couldn’t un-know after that.” She searched for Dakota’s eyes and held her gaze, waiting for some piece of her own story to set itself free. Was that part of why she bristled so easily? Why she was so desperate to hide herself? Was it just too much of a habit by now,or did Dakota still feel the ghost of that old fear haunting her? “It didn’t end so great about two minutes after we got started, and I didn’t come out to my mom for another three years, because of all that fear. And didn’t date, not really, until after I got out of college. And Deirdre is my first really serious ‘we-moved-in-together and lasted-longer-than-six-months’ relationship ever. It’s been it’s own weird time and process. As far as I know everyone like us has their own weird and different time too. We’re just special like that, temporally clusterfucked.” She paused a moment and looked thoughtfully out the window: evening was coming, the sky turned all the grass blue, and Anya stalked the dead flower beds. “When did you know, Dakota? Is that something I can ask?”

Dakota listened, which in and of itself was a miracle, because she wasn’t just listening for answers to process and remember for as long as she needed them and then do away with them whenever she was done—she was actually just listening for truth, and that was something you don’t just do away with. And Dakota hated eye-contact more than anything, but she didn’t really care at the moment, because as annoying as it was, she had to hand it to her... Morgan didn’t pry. And that was nice. Because everyone always prys. When she looked out the window, Dakota’s gaze followed suit, and she realized she’d been there for a lot longer than she’d planned already. What the hell happened to that ‘one hour only?’ But, as conversations normally go, it was Dakota’s turn to share… If she wanted to, of course. And the thing was, she actually did kind of want to. “Two years ago,” she began, sort of straightening up in her chair. Old habits die hard, so maybe that’s why her gaze fell to the table and her hands fidgeted with the bones laid out on it. “That’s a lie. I knew when I was fourteen. I took my best friend to go see a movie, and I remember being so fucking nervous—I mean, I didn’t think my palms could get any sweatier, especially not in the middle of December. Detroit’s a big town, you know, but.. All those little neighborhoods that make up that city? They’re all like small towns, and everybody knows everybody. So it didn’t matter how bad I wanted to hold her stupid hand, because Michael and Tom from third period were two seats over, and I knew she liked Michael, and.. Well, the point is that it didn’t matter how bad I wanted to hold her hand, because I couldn’t. And I didn’t. And I pushed that so far back in my memory that when I met my ex at 25, I thought.. You know, just.. Run with it, ‘cause it’s the only fuckin’ chance you’re ever gonna see.” Dakota paused, then, because this was the part of the story she hated telling. She wished she could just avoid it all together, but… “Flashforward, we’d been together ten years on and off. He wanted to get married so bad, and I kept telling him I wanted to wait, and I wanted to be established in my career, and I wanted to do all of these things and.. And then, you know, I did them. I was established, and I was the investigative lead, and I was a mentor, and.. Well, to make a long story short, he took me to a restaurant and his dumbass got down on one knee, right there, in the middle of the restaurant, in front of everyone—you know, total strangers just.. Gawking and looking at me and waiting for me to say yes. And I should have. I should have just worked it out, and said yes. But I didn’t. I, uh. Stood up from the table, and I closed the stupid ring box thing that rings come in—why do they come in those stupid boxes?—and I just.. Left him there. At the restaurant. In front of everyone. And he had to stand up, get up off the floor, pay for a meal neither of us ate.. By the time he got home I was already in a studio apartment above a Chinese take-out place across town. So..” she trailed off, then let the silence swell, as she normally did. It felt like forever. “Yeah, I’d say fourteen.”

Morgan waited a little while, in case Dakota wanted to sit with her words, say something else, or just collect herself. When she was sure, she said, “It’s not your fault, you know. Knowing and admitting and being able to do something about realizing you’re gay are all really hard, different steps. It takes as long as it takes. And it’s not wrong or cruel to do what’s best for you, for both of you, really. I mean, if he was so great, he deserves someone who can love him enthusiastically the way he wants, right? And so do you. Going into that kind of lie just to spare his feelings in a moment would’ve just harmed you both, deeply, maybe irrevocably. Not that this doesn’t hurt either, I’m not saying that, but… I think you did the kindest thing you possibly could. Even if that’s not how you felt in the moment, that’s what you did.” She leaned in, knowing just enough from Dakota’s body language that she shouldn’t reach for her, not yet. “I am sorry, though. I know something about how carrying that knowledge around can hurt. How it can feel like the scariest or most impossible, awful, stupid thing. I mean, no one dreams of having their first serious relationship at forty, that’s for sure. But can I ask-- where are you now? With--this. Is it still on you, that guilt, that fear?”

Dakota scoffed—not meanly, not because she was upset, but because the question was almost funny. “Uh, yeah.” She shifted in her chair, clearing her throat a bit. “I’ve been screwing just about anyone stupid enough to say yes for weeks. Waitresses, bartenders.. I just fucked a coworker last night. Not just a cop, dude—a fucking detective. I mean, it was great and all, except for how we left things. And also how she left, actually. And then the fucking shitstorm I caused afterwards.” Dakota sighed, leaning her elbows on the table and rubbing her hands over her face. “Annnnd then I called in sick. So, yeah. I feel guilty. And I feel.. Just this raw fucking shame, all the time. And I feel fucking stupid because, you know, for maybe half a second, I wondered.. You know, what if we did it again? What if it could.. Turn into something? What if I finally just get what I’ve always wanted and what if it just.. Get to hold the girl’s hand? And.. and what if it just works, y’know?” Why the fuck are you sharing all of this? “But, you know, she kind of reminded me that that’s impossible. I mean, it’s not impossible for people like you and Deirdre and her and whoever she decided to run to after she left. Yeah, all that “hope” shit went right out the window because not two minutes after we were done she called it a mistake and high-tailed it out of there.” A beat. “But, you know, I’m meeting another chick at Dell’s later tonight, so. Anita something, I think?”

Morgan moved her chair closer, practically leaning against Dakota. “You know you’re allowed to put some of that shame down, right?” She asked. “And it’s not really impossible so much as it’s just...not right, not yet. If you’re really, really lucky, one time it will just work, and all the stress and the angst and the bullshit that comes after you get to hold the girl’s hand and kiss her goodnight will feel worth it.” Carefully, she brushed back Dakota’s hair from her eyes. Under other circumstances, or with a less strictly monogamous girlfriend, she’d try to ease Dakota’s hurt here and now. She hadn’t let herself alone long enough to figure out what kind of person she really wanted to be, but Morgan couldn’t help but feel like that would-be person was probably kind, or could be without too much struggle. “Be careful with Anita. She’s a friend of mine, and a lot of fun, but I have it on good authority that she’s still hung up on someone. But you didn’t hear that from me.” She wondered how Dakota felt about corpses and their startlingly cold temperatures, if she would be horrified, or stay still long enough to realize Morgan’s chest didn’t rise or fall and her pulse was silent. “I have a very weird question to ask you,” she said with a sheepish grin. “Is it okay if I touch you--very affectionately but sans romantic agenda? I feel very endeared to you right now and I'd like to be closer than we are right now. We can also, you know, go straight back to the dead things, or talking about literally any other thing…”

Part of her really wanted to be annoyed, or to ruin whatever the hell was going on by being an asshole somehow—it’s what she did best. Or, well, so she believed. Regardless, it was the best way Dakota could maintain her distance from people, maintain her invulnerability, keep the walls built up as high as she could, with the strongest bricks and the strongest cement binding them together so that way nobody gets in. But it gets so lonely in here sometimes. “Uh..” she began, not knowing how to respond. Maybe it was the fact that Morgan already took the liberty of brushing some hair from her face, and maybe it was because nobody’s done that to her in a while… And maybe this was the first time she’d been semi-vulnerable around anyone, so.. Did she really have anything else to lose? Her dignity, maybe… “Sure…?”

Morgan beamed, her whole face brightening up. “Thank you,” she said softly. She brushed back the rest of the young woman’s hair with a careful, tender touch, and scooted close enough to wrap her arms around her in a hug. “You’re still worthy of love, Dakota, even just like this,” she whispered in her ear. “And it’s all shitty and painful and unfair right now, and there’s no guarantee about any of it, but you’re not unworthy or broken just because things have been hard, okay?” She rose half out of her seat and pressed a fleeting kiss to the top of her head. “Now! Why don’t I show you some of the deathly craft work you actually came here for, at least for a hot sec, huh?” Her arms were still draped around Dakota and she reached over the woman for her carving knives rather than unfurl herself.

Dakota was torn—she enjoyed the physical touch, because damn, she hadn’t felt much of anything gentle in a while. It was sweet in a very genuine, kind way. Morgan was just.. Kind, so she guessed. But still, she was torn between just enjoying the small moment between them and questioning why the hell she was so cold. In fact, it was almost hard to enjoy the interaction because… Well, one of the reasons humans enjoyed physical touch so dearly was because sharing body heat was primal. But as soon as Morgan wrapped arms around her body, it was noticeable. Why the hell wasn’t her hug warm? Or even the kiss she’d pressed on the top of her head… I mean, she’s freezing. Before she really had time to process this, Morgan had already reached across her person to grab her carving knives. “Do you have circulation issues?” she asked, probably a touch offhand. “Or, like, low iron or something?”

Morgan laughed and snapped off a chunk of antler with one hand, too distracted to think of how weird that would look for a woman as small as she was. “That is probably the nicest way anyone has ever asked about my body temperature,” she said. “I can stop, if you want. I know it’s startling and unusual and not everyone wants to be close to an ice queen. But uh--yeah, circulation issue about covers it.” Being dead was kind of a circulation issue, right? She guided Dakota’s hands onto the table, careful to touch her sweater more than her skin. “I was thinking some of this would make a really cool pendant, but I think some designs would be better. So--” She snapped off another piece so they each had one. “You can sketch on the bone with a pencil, if you want, I’ve got plenty right here. Or if you already have and idea, you can just score lightly on the surface with this tool, before you start cutting deeper with this one ....” The larger blade was a little farther from her reach than she wanted, and as Morgan strained, the sharp edge sliced into the side of her finger, carving out a gash that did not bleed, but showed dark, liquid matter resting tepid beneath her skin. “O-oh shit! Uh--ow! Yikes, Sorry…” She pressed down on the wound, knowing it would heal soon, but the pressure of her fingers squeezed out more of her dark, dead blood onto her fingers, impossible to miss until she could wash them clean.

Despite the fact that Morgan just so happened to be unusually cold—more so to the point that Dakota was genuinely concerned for her health, to be honest—it was still nice to feel close to someone. Finally tucking away the emotions she’d let bubble to the surface, though, she truly was ready to let Morgan teach her a few things about bone carving. She was talented, to say the least, and Dakota thought it would be fun to just be creative with it. God, when was the last time she was creative with anything? Her attention was already drawn to the bone she had in her hand, and she had already started to think up a design she wanted to score into the surface, but everything came to a screeching halt when Morgan had reached for the larger blade. Almost immediately, mainly by instinct, Dakota jumped up to search for a rag or something to put pressure on the cut, but she’d only gotten halfway out of her chair before she was absolutely stunned by what she’d seen. “Jesus, Morgan! Did you—” she almost said hit an artery, but she’d seen too much blood in her life to know that whatever was coming out of her body wasn’t healthy. It sure as fuck wasn’t normal. She sat for a moment, clearly stupefied. All the science she’d studied was swirling around in her brain. Extremely low hemoglobin could be a possibility, but she’d never seen it so… No, that couldn’t be it. Early menopause affects menstrual blood, but even then… Well, that just didn’t make sense. Polycythemia vera..? No, it was too.. “What the fu— We should take you to the emergency room!” she exclaimed, finally snapping out of the shock she was in and grabbing the nearest dish towel she could find, running it under some warm water and bringing it back to Morgan, leaving the sink running in her haste. “Why aren’t you..? C’mon, dude, we need to go!”

“No, it’s fine! It’s fine! I just need to wash it off and uuh…” Morgan scrubbed her hand with the towel Dakota gave her, focusing more on the zombie blood stains on her hand than the cut. She ran to the sink and fumbled with the soap, hoping that maybe Dakota would think she was using disinfectant or something else human. Her skin had just started to stitch together and after a quick wipedown with her dish towel, it was good as new again. Morgan whirled around quickly and held up her finger. “See! Look, it’s not even that deep! You can’t even see it anymore!” Then, realizing she looked like she was flipping off her new friend, Morgan scurried over and showed her the proof. With the stains gone, you couldn’t even tell anything had ever been wrong. “It’s just a...uh...thing that happens to me sometimes. Everything looks way worse than it really is with me. I really uh….bounce back easy. I’m sorry to worry you, but look, it’s fine! See!”

Dakota never showed her true feelings, but she couldn’t not gasp when she saw Morgan’s finger. One moment it looked like motor oil was spilling out of her goddamn hand and the next, it was…? Her fucking finger was healed. Completely mended, as if nothing had happened, as if seconds ago she hadn’t needed to go to the emergency room. Given years of training herself to bite her tongue, Dakota still hadn’t mastered her facial expressions. She may as well just have said: what the ever living fuck? But instead, she started to back away, grabbing her coat from off the back of the chair she had just been sitting in, bumping into the table as she did. “I’m—Sorry, I just remembered, I.. Have a thing.” Seconds later, she was out the door, nearly ramming down the mailbox as she pulled out of the driveway like a bat out of hell.

“It’s really fine, you don’t have to go,” Morgan protested. She followed Dakota to the door, feeling helpless as she fled into the night. “You can stay, really, Dakota--Dakota?” But the woman was gone, and all the hope Morgan had built up for her vanished into the dark as well.

[sharinluna]

Translation - Kiro’s Light Pursuit Date

Translation based on KR version.

Translated only about 80 % of the game.

Highly subjective and took liberties in paraphrasing.

The timeline of this date is after chapter 17.

********************************

Kiki: Boss~

I looked up from a pile of paperwork and saw Kiki hastily running towards my way.

Kiki: Boss! You are invited to Loveland TV’s evening party!

She handed me a wine-colored envelope. Inside was an invitation to the party this weekend.

Yōurán: But why would they invite me?

This was one of the most prestigious parties in the field. Only the top celebrities and political figures could attend. Most people would not even get invitations.

Kiki: Maybe this proves how powerful our company became.

Anna: Anyway, this is a great opportunity. This is a chance to dress up and form some connections with the important people. And it will be a nice change for you. Leave the work to me!

Yōurán: I didn’t say anything about going…

Kiki: Boss, you’ve been feeling down lately. And there’s a rumor that Kiro will come as a surprise guest!

Yōurán: Kiro?

Kiki: Yes, you are very close to him, right? Did he say anything about that?

I looked at Kiki’s expectant eyes and couldn’t say anything.

Yōurán: I don’t really know.

Kiki opened her mouth to ask more questions but Anna dragged her away, looking at me with worry in her eyes.

I looked down at the invitation. I would be satisfied with just a glance at Kiro, if only he would come to the party. I wanted to know where he was, and if he was safe. Mostly, I desperately wanted to see him again.

*************************************

In darkness I could hear faint sounds of cheerful music.

Kiro: Hey, Miss Chips! I’m here!

A pleasant voice reached my ears. It held the familiar tenderness, and a little bit of sullenness for being ignored.

I opened my eyes and the darkness melted away into radiance.

Yōurán: Where am I? Kiro?

I blinked to get a clearer vision. Suddenly the shouts erupted as if to pierce the sky. Golden spotlights danced around dizzily. I followed the light and could see the shining figure on the stage, receiving the looks of awe of everyone around.

It was Kiro. His blond hair was reflecting the lights, making everything look brighter. His smile was pleasing and contagious. He was giving off a very attractive splendor.

Kiro: Sing with me, everyone!

As he waved his hand, I couldn’t avert my eyes from him. It felt like he was the only light in this world. I started to sing with the crowds. Our voices united in harmony put fire into my veins. My heart was thumping. I haven’t felt this excited for a long time, it felt so good.

Yōurán: Kiro!

Suddenly, his eyes flashed to reveal a sharp glance that looked somehow dangerous.

Kiro: Can you accept me like this?

His voice seemed to ignore the avid shouting of his fans and reach only me. I didn’t even care that he won’t be able to hear me in the din. I raised my voice to shout at him.

Yōurán: No matter how you look, no matter who you are…

Yōurán: I will always love all of you, Kiro!

It seemed impossible, but Kiro’s smile became even more brilliant.

Kiro: I heard you. I heard your voice.

I heard his soft whisper. I wanted to run to him immediately. Suddenly, everyone stepped aside as if they heard my wish.

I ran forward. I gave up trying to figure out if this was real or not a long time ago. I just wanted to get close to him as soon as possible. I wanted to be in his arms again. I wanted to feel his familiar temperature again.

Yōurán: Kiro!

Kiro put his hand out to me like a prince waiting for his princess.

Kiro: I’m so glad you came here, Yōurán.

Yōurán: Yes, I’m glad too! I’m…

As I was about to put my hand in his, Kiro suddenly started to fade before my eyes.

Kiro: Will you forget me?

Kiro was becoming faint like a water mist. Panicking, I reached out to grab him but he slipped away from my fingers. An invisible wall had come between us and I couldn’t get close to him. The distance between us was only one step away, but it was like a line that we could never cross.

Will I forget Kiro? That sudden question in my head made me tremble in fear.

Yōurán: I won’t! I will never forget you! I…

It seemed like he was taking my memories as well as he faded and disappeared from my eyes.

Yōurán: NO!!!

I opened my eyes. The dark room was deadly silent.

Yōurán: It was a dream…

I closed my eyes. My heart was still thumping. Kiro’s smiling face. Kiro holding a bag of chips, Kiro and the teddy bear… I could still recall those memories clearly.

Yōurán: Thank god. It was just a dream…

******************************

Hoping that Kiro would come, I arrived early at the party. The orchestra was playing a piece that was romantic and sophisticated. I awkwardly held a glass of champagne and stood in a corner, my eyes roaming for any signs of Kiro. But Kiro was nowhere to be found, instead I saw a flash of someone I’ve met before.

The man with silver hair was leaning against a window, looking serene and lazy. He looked like a high-class prince proud and aloof, hiding his dangerous and violent side. He had the name of a sun god, but I couldn’t feel even an ounce of warmth.

Yōurán: What is Helios doing here?

I hid myself so he wouldn’t see me. I didn’t know how Helios could come to a public place this.

Helios must have sensed my gaze, since he raised his head and looked directly at me. Did a flicker of warmth flow in his eyes as our glances met? No, it must have been my imagination.

The corner of his mouth went up slightly. I was sure that wasn’t a good sign for me. What is he going to do to me? I looked for a way to escape, but he was already walking towards me. My head yelled at me to run away, but my body refused to move and I could only stare as he came closer to me.

Helios: We meet again, Yōurán.

This was the first time that Helios called my name. He was brusque as ever, but there seemed to be a small amount of longing in his voice. He did not act like the Helios that I used to know. His attitude and manners were surprisingly refined. Like he was acting a whole different persona.

 Yōurán: Why did you…

Helios: Do you have to ask such boring questions all the time?

He glanced behind me then snatched the wine glass from my hands and placed it on the waiter’s tray.

Yōurán: What are you doing?

Helios: You’ll soon find your answer.

Then he suddenly grabbed my right hand. Before I could protest he started to drag me toward the dance floor.

Yōurán: W-wait!

Helios: Why?

Helios looked at me coldly. Although his outer manners were gentlemanly, he couldn’t hide his true colors in his eyes. Lights from the chandelier above reflected in his hair, eyes, around all of him like numerous starlights. I was suddenly at a loss for words.

Helios: Do I have to resort to formally asking you to dance?

As he was saying that, he grabbed my left hand and placed it on his shoulder, then his other hand was on the small of my back, preventing me from escaping.

The music changed into a piece that I knew well. It was <Por Una Cabeza>.

Yōurán: But I can’t dance tango. Let me go!

I whispered fiercely at him, but Helios just pulled me closer to him. I was wearing a dress that revealed my back, so I could feel his hand on the bare flesh. It felt like electricity was flowing into my veins.

Helios: Relax. It’s very easy.

He whispered into my ear, then he started to lead me into dance. His hands, his steps were guiding me on.

My shock didn’t make my moves any less clumsy. Helios only seemed to enjoy my predicament.

Helios: I thought you had no fear to approach me so boldly.

Yōurán: What…?!

I wanted to retort, but he interrupted me.

Helios: Concentrate on the dance.

The music changed into a faster tune and Helios’s moves picked up speed as well. He guided me to glide smoothly across the marble dance floor. My torso was stuck to his chest and my feet were busy following his quickened steps.

I looked up to see Helios’s face. But he was the one who wasn’t concentrating on the dance. He was staring at some place far away. A pair of sharp knives were hidden in his eyes, like a predator glaring at his prey.

This man, although he had saved me once, was still a dangerous member of the Black Swan.

Yōurán: Did you come here on Black Swan’s business?

When I dared to ask him Helios looked down at me.

Helios: First, you should tell me why you came here.

Yōurán: I happened to be invited here.

My voice started out firm but grew smaller as I reached the end of the sentence.

Helios: Invited?

He lowered his head and I could feel his breath on my ear. He voiced his suspicion softly.

Helios: Let me guess. I think you came here because you’re looking for someone. Am I right?

Yōurán: How did you… oh!

His hand wrapped firmly around my waist, Helios suddenly bent me lower and I hung on to him tighter for balance. Next moment, he pulled me up and I was trapped in his embrace again.

 Helios: Who are you looking for?

 He kept whispering in my ear, egging me for an answer.

The music became more passionate. The air was getting hotter and hotter. The sensual melody and the busy steps. We were so close to each other, but the distance between us was only one step away, but a step we could never cross.

I felt drunk although I hadn’t consumed any alcohol. Why else would my body react as if a lover was close?

Yōurán: Why don’t you guess that as well?

I didn’t wait for him to answer. The music was coming to an end. As the last note sounded, Helios let go of my hand.

Helios: You’re good at dancing.

He was back to his distant self. I looked silently at his retreating back.

In the end, I didn’t manage to figure out why he came here. Maybe he was like me, looking for someone. Unexplainable sadness washed over me as I stared at the place where Helios used to be.

Yōurán: What was he looking for?

Deep in thought, I went upstairs where guests were sitting on sofas talking among themselves quietly. Before I could even get a good look around, there was a sound of an electric spark and the lights went out.

Then, in the darkness I heard something shatter. The guests started to panic at the sudden turn of events. I knocked into someone and stumbled.

??: Don’t move.

A pair of strong arms grabbed my waist and pulled me into a hug. The familiar scent wafted over me again.

Yōurán: Helios?

He vanished without answering. And when the lights turned back on he was nowhere to be seen. I started to search for him but someone grabbed my attention.

Waiter: I’m sorry, Miss. There seems to be a disturbance in maintenance and we have to close the second floor for the guests’ safety. Please allow me to escort you back to first floor.

All the other guests were being escorted downstairs. Although I wasn’t happy with it, I chose to follow suit.

The guests in the main hall were still enjoying the party. The sounds of the orchestra covered any signs of mishap happening upstairs. To most of the guests, it was just a minor encumbrance.

But I noticed that they had silently placed more security guards. What was Helios up to? Was he here for Black Swan’s mission?

The atmosphere was suffocating, and I decided that I had to go for fresh air.

It was there when I finally found him.

Behind the pillar, below the spiral staircase, stood him with his silver hair. He looked distraught.

And here I was. Concerned that this man might be hurt or ill, wondering whether I should go help him, when he might be the one who caused the damage upstairs.

Yōurán: Well, I owe him for saving my life, so…

With that reason, I made my resolve to approach him.

Yōurán: Are you okay?

Helios looked up when he heard my voice. His eyes seemed to have trouble focusing. He looked at me. His blue eyes wavered like a lake sprinkling with sunlight. Surprisingly, there was sorrow, and naivety in those usually unfeeling eyes.

At that moment, his eyes were exactly like Kiro’s.

Yōurán: Kiro…

I went closer to him as if I was bewitched. My heart was pounding uncontrollably.

Helios suddenly grabbed me and pulled me into his arms.

Yōurán: Hey, wait….!

Helios: Stay still.

I stopped struggling when he whispered into my ear.

Helios: Just for a while. Until I get better.

He lowered his head and his chin rested on my shoulder. I have never seen Helios so vulnerable like this. His hands were wrapped around my waist, leaving no space between us.

Yōurán: Could you perhaps let me go just a little bit?

I couldn’t think straight due to his excessively intimate actions. The heat from his body caused raging waves in my heart.

Helios didn’t answer and continued to keep me pressed to his body. There was a deep aura of loneliness and bitterness about him that was barely discernible from his cold exterior.

Maybe the distance between us had to be this close for me to notice the side that he always kept hidden. Feeling lost, I leaned forward, our foreheads touching.

Yōurán: You belong with Black Swan, right? Why do you always reach out for me?

I blurted out the question that had been inside my mind for a long time.

Helios winced weakly for a moment, then answered haughtily.

Helios: Why on earth would you think that I might be interested in you?

Yōurán: Because…

Because to me, you look very similar to someone I deeply care about.

Because my soul resonates with you every time I am close to you.

Because…. I’ve come to a certain conclusion, no matter how ridiculous it may be.

Did I reach the outskirts of truth? Or was I just deceiving myself? I couldn’t know. A deep fog was obscuring me from seeing the truth clearly.

I didn’t voice my thoughts to him. Maybe this was the closest I could get to him. Only one step away but so far away. Impossible to truly reach him.

Helios: Don’t look behind.

Helios suddenly tightened his hold on me and his whole body became strained. Footsteps could be heard behind me, then it was gone.

After a few minutes of heightened sensual tension, he finally let me go.

Yōurán: What was that all about?

Helios: No need for you to know.

A suspicious thought came to my mind.

Yōurán: Did you do that on purpose? Was that just-

Helios: Shh…

He put his finger to my lips to stop me from talking.

Helios: Stay quiet. Unless you want to be seen as an enemy.

So I was right. He was only using me to evade suspicion from others. I glowered at him but he only laughed quietly. He grabbed a strand of my hair and rubbed it between his fingers.

Helios: Thanks for your help.

He leaned closer and I shivered when I felt his breath on my collarbone.

Helios: I’m the one who sent the invitation. Have fun at the party, Yōurán.

There was amusement in his voice as he articulated each word. Not waiting to hear my response he turned around and walked away quickly.

I could still recall how his touch felt when he put his arms around my waist. His lingering scent seemed to submerge to the deepest pool of memory obscured by oblivion.

Yōurán: One day, I’ll…

I clenched my fists. I didn’t know when I could meet him again, or what circumstance I would be in when I did. Secretly, I was hoping to see him again.

I raised my head up and reached out my hand towards the golden sunlight reflecting on the glass ceiling.

I felt like a pilgrim who lost her light and fell into an endless abyss. And was pursuing it after finding it again.

One day, I’ll get my light back and into my arms.

Date Diary

I received an invitation to the party hosted by Loveland TV. I didn’t want to go, but Kiki saying that Kiro might be there changed my mind.

In my dream, I saw Kiro singing on a stage. But when I tried to go close to him he faded and then disappeared. Thank god it was only a dream.

To my shock, I met Helios at the party. He forced me to dance with him. Why did this mysterious man appear? What was his intention for approaching me?

Helios is like an enigma that’s difficult to solve. When I take one step towards him, he takes one step back. Even though the distance between us is very close, it is always like the one step away that can never touch each other.

Discussion

The timeline of this date is after chapter 17, when Helios wiped MC’s memory when she finally realized that he was Kiro.

Suddenly, his eyes flashed to reveal a sharp glance that looked somehow dangerous.

Kiro: Can you accept me like this?

Yōurán: No matter how you look, no matter who you are… I will always love all of you, Kiro!

Oh, Kiro. How much more does MC have to make it clear for you to come out and admit your hidden side?

As I was about to put my hand in his, Kiro suddenly started to fade before my eyes.

Kiro: Will you forget me?

Kiro was becoming faint like a water mist. Panicking, I reached out to grab him but he slipped away from my fingers. An invisible wall had come between us and I couldn’t get close to him. The distance between us was only one step away, but it was like a line that we could never cross.

Will I forget Kiro? That sudden question in my head made me tremble in fear.

Yōurán: I won’t! I will never forget you! I…

It seemed like he was taking my memories as well as he faded and disappeared from my eyes.

Yōurán: NO!!!

This dream is about Yōurán suffering subconscious trauma after the memory wipe. Erasing memories is not enough to make the tears and hurt go away. You still feel the pain but you don’t know why. You are left with a void in the memory that’s driving you crazy.

Then he suddenly grabbed my right hand. Before I could protest he started to drag me toward the dance floor.

The music changed into a piece that I knew well. It was <Por Una Cabeza>.

<Por Una Cabeza> is from the movie <Scent of a Woman> starring Al Pacino. This scene where MC protests that she can’t dance and Helios ignores and dances with her anyway, reminds me of this particular tango scene in the movie.

“That’s what make a tango so great. If you get all tangled up, just tango on.”

Although Frank is blind and Donna has no knowledge of dancing, the two manage to put up a very beautiful performance. What could this mean to Helios and Yōurán in this date?

The music became more passionate. The air was getting hotter and hotter. The sensual melody and the busy steps. We were so close to each other, but the distance between us was only one step away, but a step we could never cross.

I felt drunk although I hadn’t consumed any alcohol. Why else would my body react as if a lover was close?

Even though she convinced herself that Helios is a different person, her body is certainly reacting to being approximant to Kiro. I wish I could have done a better job to express the subtle but thick innuendo of sensual tension.

Yōurán: Are you okay?

Helios looked up when he heard my voice. His eyes seemed to have trouble focusing. He looked at me. His blue eyes wavered like a lake sprinkling with sunlight. Surprisingly, there was sorrow, and naivety in those usually unfeeling eyes.

At that moment, his eyes were exactly like Kiro’s.

Yōurán: Kiro…

In chapter 17, when Yōurán meets Helios she thinks he is Kiro because they look exactly alike, but cannot be 100 % sure because Helios’s eyes are so different to Kiro’s. She determines people by their eyes.

As she approaches him, she notices that for a moment, Helios had Kiro’s eyes.

Yōurán: You belong with Black Swan, right? Why do you always reach out for me?

Helios: Why on earth would you think that I might be interested in you?

Yōurán: Because…

Because to me, you look very similar to someone I deeply care about.

Because my soul resonates with you every time I am close to you.

Because…. I’ve come to a certain conclusion, no matter how ridiculous it may be.

In this date, Yōurán never outright says or thinks “Helios might be Kiro.” I really applaud the writing here. By being vague and using diverse figures of speech, the text is eluding that Yōurán reached the truth that Helios is Kiro, but is afraid to voice that thought, even in her head.

Did I reach the outskirts of truth? Or was I just deceiving myself? I couldn’t know. A deep fog was obscuring me from seeing the truth clearly.

I’m sure that “deep fog” here is a metaphor for Helios wiping her memory.

I didn’t voice my thoughts to him. Maybe this was the closest I could get to him. Only one step away but so far away. Impossible to truly reach him.

This subconscious state of just on the verge of knowing is the closest that she can get to the truth.

Yōurán: One day, I’ll…

I clenched my fists. I didn’t know when I could meet him again, or what circumstance I would be in when I did. Secretly, I was hoping to see him again.

I raised my head up and reached out my hand towards the golden sunlight reflecting on the glass ceiling.

I felt like a pilgrim who lost her light and fell into an endless abyss. And was pursuing it after finding it again.

One day, I’ll get my light back and into my arms.

She can’t allow herself to think or say even in the privacy of her mind that Helios might be Kiro. Her trauma of what happened at chapter 17 led to a reluctance of any amount of conscious awareness. However, she still vows that one day she will get her sun back, although pursuing the light is like reaching out for a vast vague fog. So please stop avoiding her, Helios.

[graciep8ocsblog]

Starlight Constellation Chapter 1: New beginnings! Celestial Rose is born!

A/N: OwO?! The first chapter of Starlight Constellation is out!!! I really hope y’all will give it a read and give feedback! This series takes place in around mid-2018 because that’s when the series was first concieved! 

“Awaken the power, awaken the power…” Ilena tossed and turned in bed, groaning and muttering to herself as a voice called out to her.

Her eyes opened wide, trying to adjust to the pitch-black darkness. The only source of light was seven symbols floating around her. 

“Awaken the power, awaken the power, awaken the power…” the voice echoed throughout as the lights began to glow brighter. An orb of light began to nest itself in her hands, emitting a rainbow halo. Suddenly, Ilena felt the ground beneath her crumbling and she began to lose her footing.

And soon, she felt herself falling into darkness… The girl shot herself out of bed, feeling her heart hammering in her throat. Craning her head, she realized she was in her bedroom and felt herself calm down… 

“A dream?” she sighed with relief, unsure of what to make of it. 

“Good morning, Len” Yuu smiled at her granddaughter, rubbing the last of sleep out of her eyes. 

“Mm, mornin’ Gran…” she stifled a yawn as she bundled her hair up into a ponytail “I’m going out for a small jog, ok?” 

“Alright, but be careful!” the old woman called out to her as she began to put on her sneakers. 

“Bye, gran!”

“Bye, Len!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, in a large building somewhere far away from Earth, two people were having a conversation. 

“What do you mean the Wish Crystal broke?” a woman whispered harshly to the man beside her. 

“Just when I was about to grab it, this thing just broke into a million pieces and flew out!” he growled, clenching his fists. 

“Oh ho ho ho ho~” a playful yet flirtatious voice rang across the hallway.

“Tch, that voice…” he felt his veins ready to burst from that condescending laugh. 

“Looks like someone is in trouble~. Hmm, too bad that a certain someone screwed up this badly!” 

“FINE! You know what? I will find the princess and bring her to the master!” The man threw a crystal to the ground, causing it to form a portal to find the Wish crystal as well as the princess…

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Ilena jogged through the neighbourhood street, she felt a pang of homesickness as she looked at the shops. It was… different from the noise and rushing in New York. On the way to the park, she passed the church, a bakery, a beauty parlour, and a couple of shops that sold knick-knacks and other things like that. It was a nice and quiet place, sure it was no Orchard Road or New York but… somehow, the aura of this place brought a sense of comfort to her…

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once she arrived at the park, the teenage girl spotted a bench sitting under a large tree. Ilena soon settled down to rest for a short while before she could resume her jog. Her legs already felt like jelly as she plopped herself down onto the bench. As she chugged down her water, she heard a loud crash from afar… 

Raising an eyebrow, she decided to investigate the source. After wandering in the direction of the sound, the sight had made her do a double-take…

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oi! Answer me! Are you ok?! Oh my God, we need to get you to a hospital immediately!” a voice rang out inside the princess’s head as she was being shaken violently back and forth. As she opened her eyes, the sight of a girl around her age with a worried expression in her eyes became clearer. 

“Oh,” the teenager released her grip with the realization “Um… you okay?” 

“I’m fine, I just hit my head but other than that, I guess I’m alright,” Kirara answered after a while “I’m Kirara, and you are…” 

“Ilena, Ilena Briar.” the girl responded “Why did you even hit your head? What are you even doing in here?”

“Well, we were running away…” Kirara slowly began, recollecting the events of the day “And then… I saw something glowing…” 

“Running?” Ilena raised an eyebrow, she wasn’t really one to believe in the unnatural but… “A glowing light? And what do you mean by ‘we’?” 

“Let’s get to the point!” a cat popped up from her head. Their eyes widened before Ilena let out an ear-piercing scream. 

“ADSLKAFWNEDVIKSDJ-yOUcAnTALk?!” she leaped backward as she pointed to what she just saw. 

“Apparently I can but-” a large gust of wind interrupted him and Kirara and the familiar’s faces fell as a tall, shadowy figure escaped the portal… 

It felt as if time had stopped and everything froze as a dark purple mist seeped through from a portal opening… 

“Uh oh,” Kirara winced in fear as the dark purple mist began to surround them… 

“Quick, hide!” Ilena whispered harshly as she ushered them away from the park… she reached for her phone but it was too late.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

A tall man about the age of eighteen with skin as white as a sheet, silver hair, and eyes the same colour as the mist earlier. 

“So…” The man began “I’m looking for someone. About your age, a girl, pink hair, travels with a cat, about yay high…” 

“I didn’t see anyone,” Ilena tensed up as he placed his hand under her chin. 

“By the look in your eyes, I can say that you’re lying…” he continued “My name is Noire and I only wish to know where the princess is…”

“N-never!” she pushed herself away from him and ran as fast as she could. 

“Hey! Get back here!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

After running, Ilena stopped to catch her breath and hid behind a huge tree. She hoped that they were alright… She looked over her shoulder to find that same man, holding up an orb as a light began to glow from somewhere… How was he so fast?!

“Now, my pretty…” Noire held out the orb and cried out “Kurosu! It’s showtime!” 

A mist began to swirl around before forming a monster “Kurosu, find the princess and get that girl!” 

Ilena didn’t hesitate and started to run. 

“Don’t let her escape!” The sound of heavy footsteps followed her and Ilena felt a hand grab her into the bushes… Ilena looked at the culprit, Kirara. The two waited for a moment for the Kurosu to pass them and the girls let out a sigh of relief. 

“Ok, what the heck’s going on in here?!” Ilena harshly whispered “Cats can talk, scary men try to touch my face, orbs now turn into shadows, and apparently, trees glow! What’s next? I’m gonna turn into an old lady and birds turn out to be cursed men?!” 

“I can explain all this…” the cat softly began. 

“You better,” her expression was serious. 

“Well, I’m Mica. And you are…” 

“Ilena Briar,” she answered before raising an eyebrow, noticing his scrunched-up face… “Why?” 

“It’s just… you look like… never mind,” Mica sighed “Well, I’m a faerie! Specifically a familiar faerie! Familiar faeries are assigned to Etoilians like the princess when they come of age! My job is to help the princess master her own magic and assist her in any way possible!”

“He mentioned something about a princess,” she continued interrogating, hoping it was all some crazy dream and she would wake up. 

“Kirara is the princess of Etoilina. And now, we’re searching for the shards of the Wish Crystal, it contains a power that can be dangerous if it ended up in the wrong hands.” Mica paused for a moment “That man and his comrades tried to take that power but on the day of the attack, the crystal broke by itself and scattered around in a place with no magic. Also known as Earth,” 

“So,” she began after a short while “You want someone like me to help you?” 

“Well, I’m not so sure…” Kirara answered “Legend has it that the Pleiades Guardians will rise once again to protect the world from destruction… but who am I kidding, it’s a myth… a myth that may not even be real…” 

“Found you!” Noire smirked as he loomed over the two girls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What is it with this weirdo and somehow arriving at the worst time?” Ilena thought to herself. 

“Well, well, well. Looks like the princess has a pathetic, little human protecting you. What are you even doing anyway?” 

Ilena glared coldly at Noire, trying to find an answer to this. 

“Cat got your tongue? Well, my Kurosu can take care of that!” the Kurosu roared loudly before blasting glowing spheres at the two girls shaking in fear.

Ilena trembled as the creature got closer and closer. She bit her lip and took Kirara’s hand. As the Kurosu released another orb of light, Ilena shoved the princess away and crossed her arms across her face to shield herself. 

Suddenly, a bright light began to shine from her body. 

“What the-” Noire sputtered in shock, shielding his eyes. 

“Is this…” Kirara asked.

“The light of a Dream Crystal?” Mica gaped at the sight, his mouth forming a perfect ‘O’. It couldn’t be… 

As the light died down, a star-shaped jewel appeared in her hand “What the heck is that?!” 

“A Dream Crystal! Could it be?” Mica wondered intently before calling out to her, bringing Ilena back to attention “Lady Ilena!” 

“Huh?” 

“Hold up the crystal and say ‘Aurora Dream Reflection’!”

She stared at the faerie dumbfounded “Really?” before turning to face the Kurosu about to attack again. 

Ilena held up the crystal to the sky, having nothing left to lose now… 

“Aurora Dream Reflection!” Ilena began to draw a star, causing it to glow and surround her in a cocoon of light… 

Stars began to surround her ankles. A pair of knee-high ankle boots formed on her feet. 

Ribbons of light began to form around her, creating a matching vest and skirt along with arm bands. A milky way passed through her hair, causing it to grow longer and become lighter. 

Orbs of light began to surround her as her side-tail was held by a midnight blue bow with a pink gem. She formed a diamond with her hands on her chest, transforming the crystal into a brooch and her rose earrings to decorate her ears. 

Landing on the ground, she struck a pose to reveal her new form. “The shining wish of my heart, Celestial Rose!”

The cocoon faded and Celestial Rose stood in Ilena’s place. 

“What the? HOLY- What AM I?” she gasped, looking at her new form. 

“Why I- Kurosu! Get rid of that Pleiades Guardian!” Noire spluttered. 

The Kurosu charged, Celestial Rose leaped into the air, evading the attack. 

“MICA! WHAT AM I EVEN- HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Calm down and trust yourself!”

The girl let out a scream that could rival any classic monster movie’s damsel in distress. She felt her feet strike against the Kurosu and soon collapsed onto the ground. 

“Ugh… My head’s spinning…” she felt as if she rode a rollercoaster and were about to throw up. The Kurosu spun around aimlessly in the background, creating more of a mess than usual. 

She examined her arms and legs in awe “Wow. I’ve never had this much energy and strength before!” 

The Kurosu slowly began to regain consciousness as it stumbled around, ready to fire. 

“Time to finish them off! The words will come to you!”

Her earrings began to glow and she placed her hand in front of her chest. 

“Rose…” A giant shield appeared in front of her “Reflector!” 

The Kurosu fired its attack again and the shield deflected it, causing the orbs to be reflected as the monster began to cry out in agony… 

Noire gritted his teeth and scowled “Tsk. Next time, I will surely defeat you!”

And with that, he disappeared into thin air… As if it were right on cue, a light began to surround Celestial Rose and she turned back into Ilena… 

A crystal shard floated to her and she felt a warmth in her hand. Looking at the star-shaped crystal, Ilena looked at Kirara and Mica emerging from their hiding place “Can anyone explain what’s going on?! What happened to me?! Why are you staring at me like that?!”

[btssmutficslovingfan01]

King of Love (Oneshot)

Summary: Ironically enough, the well known “king of love,” (Kim Seokjin) a popular matchmaker during the 1970’s, has a non existent love life but then he gets sent into the future, where he meets the love of his life.

Promised I’d release this! Wait no longer, sry if it’s bad/cringe I’m still new to writing bxb.

Pairing: Jin x (Male) Reader

Genre: Time Travel, Non-idol au, Fluff, Smut, Slight Angst

Warnings: Sir kink, creampie, fingering, blowjob, anal, Dom! Seokjin, Sub! Reader

Words: 4k+

______________________________________________

“You’re a star, Seokjin. A real star.” The happy couple walks out, hand in hand.

“You’ve done it again, you made them happy,” His assistant walks into the office, his short blond hair neatly trimmed. “And me.” The young man beams at his boss, as he takes a seat in his swivel chair in the corner and spins around.

“I take it the ring is a good sign?” Jin smirks at the blushing blond.

“Yeah. Yoongi’s treating me real well.” He replies under his breath.

“Promise rings this early? Wow, you must really like each other.” Jin stamps his paper, and he pushes his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

“We do. I know we can’t have this kind of relationship in public but it’s thanks to you that I was even able to tell him how I felt in the first place. You’re so cool, Jin.” His assistant’s praise makes his cheeks turn pink and his eyes form small half-moons as he looks in the direction of the blond.

“You’re even cooler for finding clients and promoting me through your dad’s company.” Jin’s compliment has the man in tears, crying from joy. His dimples are fully visible under the dim-lit room as he smiles wide enough for the United States to see his shiny white teeth.

“Seriously, thanks a lot, Jin hyung.” The man locks eyes with him, just as his boyfriend walks in through the door.

“Yoongi,” He smiles at the older man, as he walks in through the door. 

“Seokjin. I see that you’ve certainly taken your work to another level,” Yoongi kicks aside a file from a previous client aside. “Perhaps this is too much, why don’t you take a break and try finding someone for yourself?” Jin freezes at the comment. He’d definitely thought of dating way back before he even became a matchmaker, but nothing worked out for him. All of the men he approached just ran away claiming he was too “narcissistic” and “self absorbed.” He loves himself, but every single guy he meets says he’s too selfish. So what? He has a stable career, money, a house, and a snazzy new car. He doesn’t need to date to be happy. But he has to admit, seeing his friends in love and holding hands and stealing kisses is kinda cute. Just a little bit. But nothing Jin wanted for himself-he just wanted to see people in love with his efforts, of course. Whether it’s a man or woman, a man and another man, or two women, Jin tries to keep everything fair and equal within his office. That’s why he has such high ratings. He has even been scouted by tv show producers to film a reality show about him, but he wanted to keep his business low on the radar, since some of what he was doing was illegal. He helped people run away before, and start lives anew. He’s even helped a couple prisoners escape, but that was only because he knew they were innocent. Seokjin is a good man. And his friends wanted someone else to see that too. A special person to change his life for the better

“I appreciate your concern, Yoongi. But I simply don’t have any interest in dating right now. Look at this, all of this research! Not only am I matchmaker, but I am also documenting human behavior. This is a study, Yoongi. I’d like nothing more than to dedicate the rest of my life to research.” Yoongi gawks at his friend as he sits down and begins scanning the papers, taking up every single detail with his eyes and ignoring him in the process.

“Let’s go have dinner. It’s getting late.” The younger man looks down at his worried boyfriend as he grabs his arms.

“This isn’t good for him. The King of Love not having a partner? It’s a bad image, Joon, a bad one I’m telling you!” Namjoon interrupts him with an abrupt kiss. Yoongi blushes before being dragged away from the office, to a nearby restaurant. 

“He’s right, you know?” A deep voice resounds through the room.

“Taehyung? What are you doing here?” Jin looks at his younger brother as the man with wondrous grey eyes strolls into the office.

“I’m trying to convince you to get some pussy. Leave before it gets too dark. You know how there’s a curfew now.” His eyes darken as he takes a breath and grabs a folder from the desk.

“That can’t be the reason why you’re here.”

“You’re right. Give me some money,” Seokjin raises an eyebrow at his brother in disbelief. “Just kidding, I just wanted to see you again.” He smiles warmly and Jin sighs in relief. He almost panicked for a moment; almost.

“Aw, you’re so cute for coming to see my handsome face today, but I have to really work on this report, alright?” When Taehyung refuses to move, Jin stands up and starts pushing him, trying to get the younger male to leave the room. “I’ll...talk...to...you...when...I...get...home.” Jin gasps for air after he practically pushed his brother out, surprised by the brute force of the man. He was not aware of Taehyung’s raw power. He must’ve bulked up a lot more from the last time they saw each other.

He sits back down at his desk and begins writing.

“Love is not over until the two parties decide it is officially over. Even when broken up, a boyfriend may still possess some sort of control over his former girlfriend and they go through this phase of denial where neither of them want to admit that they are still in love while they are trying to move on.” He sighs before writing again. “The proper way to break off a relationship is by healing. People may use this time to talk to new people, explore their life as a single person, etc. However, it is never good to distance oneself fully. People are usually attracted to someone they see a lot, perhaps a coworker or classmate. But then they are less likely to be attracted to someone they don’t see very much. Distancing oneself from their ex-lover requires discipline, and harmony between the body and mind. They must be able to stand in the same room without feeling anything. Most issues arise in a breakup when two partners physically separate themselves for a period of time right after the breakup, but then when they see each other after that, the feelings come back. All of the moments and precious feelings arise and they both are back at square one. But then they must consider the reason for why they broke up. Was it worth it? Was it unhealthy? They need to know what’s best for them, individually, and grow from there.” Seokjin yawns as he finishes writing his 45 minute piece, setting his pen down and resting his head on the surface of his hard wooden desk. He closes his eyes briefly, seeing a flicker of light from the corner of his eye.

He sees it again, except this time it’s brighter, bluer, clearer. He stands up, inching towards the door that leads to the hallway. He opens it, finding a man standing directly outside of his room, one hand up, his palm facing Seokjin. Blue dust surrounds him, glittering magically and making Jin’s eyes widen in awe. He looks up and recognizes the face.

“Again, I’ll say it--you need a boyfriend.” Yoongi pushes his palm towards Jin, and Seokjin is thrusted against the wall, his head thudding against the wall as he sank deeper and deeper into the floor.

Seokjin awakens to find himself right outside of his office, except it’s a lot more different now. The hallway is cleaner, and there are more people. The first thing he notices is that the door no longer says “Kim Seokjin.” It says “Men’s Restroom.” What could Jin be doing in front of a bathroom? He remembers the weird flash of light outside of his office and then he woke up here. He shrugs and begins to walk towards the waiting room, where his next clients would be waiting. He doesn’t bother with changing or brushing his teeth; he is a very busy man.

“Mr. Ford, your appointment is scheduled for Saturday, the 14th.” He overhears a receptionist speaking. That’s strange, he didn’t recall hiring a woman on staff.

“Thank you, I will see you then, Linda.” Linda? He doesn’t know anyone with that name.

“Y/N?” He sees you look up at the sound of your own name, as you quickly pick up your book before running to the desk.

“You said they do therapy here, right? Like not massages, but with a chaise, and a person to talk to?” Jin listens in on the conversation, hiding behind a plant.

“Yes, uhhhh, let’s see, Dr. Harry is busy, and so is Patricia, let me see if-”

“I’ll take him!” Jin finds himself moving before even thinking. “Dr. Seokjin, I’m a local therapist working in...Kim Enterprises.” 

“Never heard of a Dr. Seokjin.” The receptionist simply blinks twice before nodding. “Okay, you can go.” She slightly winks at him before letting him walk you towards the direction of his old office.

“Um, do you work here?” You ask.

“Yes. I’m actually a matchmaker, but I also study human behavior.” He truthfully explains it to you.

“Thanks for agreeing to help me. I’ve just been stressed about life, you know?” Jin nods, as he guides you to a seemingly empty room, with a bed, a chair, and a setup of a typical Doctor’s office.

“Lie down here. You can tell me about your troubles. Everything is confidential and safe with me.” Jin reassures you. You simply give him a smile and follow his instructions.

“Let me see...so my day started out great but then my mom called me and told me about how she’s disappointed that she had a son like me and she wishes she had a daughter instead, and then my father stole some money from me last month, that was bad. And just a couple hours ago, I found out that my best friend died in a car accident.” Jin’s eyes widen as you pour out your feelings. He’s mostly surprised with the trust you have in him, as if you already know what kind of person he is and enough about him to tell him all of these private things.

“I’m sorry. On a scale of one to ten, one being the best and ten being the worst, how do you feel right now, emotionally?” Your eyes glistening with tears as you try not to cry.

“Ten thousand,” Jin wipes a couple of your tears before reaching into his pocket and handing you a handkerchief. “You have a custom handkerchief?” You ask him after realizing his initials were stitched into the fabric.

“Yep. I always carry it, it’s like my good luck charm.” He winks at you as you laugh, the direness of the moment wearing off as you speak to Jin. 

“I wish I had something like that. So, didn’t you say you were a matchmaker?” You try changing the subject, now focusing more on the incredibly handsome man in front of you.

“Yes, I am. I normally help clients get the person of their desires, confess, or sometimes, even mend struggling relationships.”

“That sounds like a bunch of jobs smushed together.” You tap your chin as you fall deep in thought.

“It’s the 70’s, so they have one person do all the doctor’s work.” Seokjin gives you another charming smile.

“Haha, you might be right about the doctor’s wor—wait did you say 70’s?” You ask, making sure you weren’t tripping on acid.

“Yes. Is there something wrong, Sir?” He asks, his tongue running along his plump lips.

“It’s 2019. Why are you referencing the 70’s out of nowhere?” Jin’s face turns as white as a sheet. He looks like a ghost. You watch as the poor man excuses himself to the restroom, and how he fails at trying to conceal his panic around you. It’s actually kind of adorable, in a way.

Meanwhile, Jin splashes water onto his face, trying to make sense of the situation. 2019. He said 2019. There’s no way that could be true unless--last night was not a dream. Yoongi actually did magic and cast a spell on him that made him come to the future. Jin was still unsure but the room he is standing in is proof enough, that he traveled in time. He now has to break it to you, tell you the reason he is actually here. You might run away like the others, but it’s his job to be honest with his clients. It may be one of the hardest things about being a matchmaker. His job is very much like a doctor’s, as he can’t promise good results 100% of the time, but he can make assumptions on the “diagnosis” and process reasons for failure. 

“You aren’t from around here, are you?” Your words astonish Jin, as he walks back into the room and closes the door behind him.

“What do you know?” You fold your arms and lean back into the wall, your feet a couple inches off the ground.

“I know you aren’t a doctor, and you used the term “matchmaker” which means broker in this day and age, but back in the 70’s it was basically a glorified therapist.” You smirk as Jin’s mouth opens wide and he gawks at you, eyes twitching.

“H-h-how…?” The only thing he could think of was: witchcraft. Except you whip out your phone and prove him wrong.

“I’m not stupid, you know. We have something called the internet, which allows us to search anything up.” Jin grabs your cell phone and presses the buttons, surprised that your screen was responding to his touch, and that he could do so much with just hovering his fingers above the keys.  

“A typewriter.” He gasps.

“A digital typewriter.” You gently take the phone out of his hands, laughing at his adorable demeanor as he recites the word “digital” like an incantation.

“Since you know what’s going on, I need to ask: when can I go back?” You look at him with confusion.

“What do you mean? I just figured you were cosplaying.” Your words astonish him, since he had never heard of the term.

“No! I am from 1972, and I work here, the King of Love? Ever heard of him? It’s me. I’m Kim Seokjin.” He tries to explain it but you simply wave him off.

“I don’t believe you’re from the 70’s.” You simply state, shutting him down completely.

“What can I do to make you believe me?” He asks.

“Vocab.” You snicker, knowing the man is sure to fail now.

“I have no idea what you’re trying to say. If anything, it looks like I’m the one who is in need of assistance.” His quality of speaking is very different from any other man’s voice you’ve heard, and it makes him sound sincere and more trustworthy.

“Look, bro, I needed a therapy sesh. Not some weird time travel shit. Now can we please--”

“That is not very appropriate, correct yourself.” His sudden command silences you, as you stare him down, a blush settling on your cheeks.

“Y-yes sir. I apologize for my use of profane language.” You feel strangely aroused, as Seokjin circles around you, making you feel slightly inferior to him.

“Good boy.” He smirks as your gaze falls down to his shoes, and you admire how neat it looks. Wow, it almost looks like an original pair. But you can’t get too distracted. “Maybe if you’re good for me, I’ll give you a reward?” You nod slightly as he scans your body, mentally undressing you with his eyes. He steps forward, and before you know it, his lips are on yours, pink, plush, velvety lips pressing against your skin. You’re burning up, and he’s doing this to you.

“Seokjin, please.” You whine as his fingers make their way down your jeans, unbuttoning them and sliding them down your bulge through your boxers.

“Please what?” He teases, repeating the gesture a couple times until you’re grinding against his hand, waiting for something to happen as you rutted against him lewdly.

“Please sir. Please make me cum with your fingers.” You mewl as he kisses you roughly, and his hands squeeze your ass lightly. “F-fuck.” You gasp as he spanks you with aggression.

“Take it off your clothes. I want your entire outfit on the ground. Right now.” You find yourself mesmerized by his authority, as you quickly obey his command, and you strip for him as he scans you. He was truly the most beautiful man alive, at least in this time period. You wonder if there are other attractive men in his time period. But then again, the really attractive ones usually don’t come around very often. He may be one of the exceptions.

“Sir...your fingers!” You look up to see that his eyes are filled with lust, all the compassion and softness gone. All that’s left is a lustful version of him, with hunger. Hunger for sex.

“On the bed, on all fours, right now.” Your eyes widen as your body moves on its own and you lie sprawled out for Seokjin, as your therapist stretches out your asshole with his long fingers. You shudder from his warm touch, unusually comfortable as he takes care of you.

“You’re such a good little boy, with an ass like this, you’re surely bound for great things.” What’s that supposed to mean?

“Um, thanks…?” Your entire body clenches as Seokjin adds a finger, and you let out a painful whimper as Seokjin proceeds to thrust his fingers in at an irregular pace.

“No problem.” He licks the rim, puckered and red for him, and he tests it once again, pumping his fingers in once more.

“Ah, fuck!” You cry out in pain.

“Shhh, it’ll be over soon,” He reassures you, kissing your ass before turning you over for a long kiss. “Are you ready?” He hovers over you, and you gulp as his dick aligns with your hole. You press another kiss to his lips before nodding, and allowing Jin to slide into you by lifting your legs up high and making your hole visible to him.

“Nice and tight. You’re so warm, wow Y/N, I don’t think I can go back. After feeling this ass, there’s no one I’d rather be with.” You were confused at this point, as well as aroused, very aroused. You thought this was a one-time thing, but Jin sounds like he wants more. You don’t care, though, it was probably in the heat of the moment.

“AHHHHH!!!” You let out the most sinful moans as he thrusts into you, his skin slapping against yours, making you scream from pain and pleasure. Jin moans predominantly from the tightness of your ass, and how despite prepping you, your body was still reacting to him in ways that were unexpected. You love this, it’s too good.

“I’m gonna cum, and fill up your ass.” Jin says, the filthy language making your dick erect once more. You never were soft with him.

“Do it, cum in my ass and make me your bitch, sir.” You smirk, challenging Jin as he flips you over, and changes positions. You close your eyes as he begins pounding into you, your ass in pain but it’s so worth it when he cums.

“Y/N…” He groans, pulling out and releasing the rest of his load onto your back. Shortly after, you have your own climax, cumming uncontrollably after seeing Jin reach his high. He kisses you passionately, wiping a tear from your eye. One more time, he slips into you as you climb on top of him. He watches you with a smile as you bounce on his cock, his balls slapping your ass you went up and down. Your ass is basically numb at this point, from being spanked so much. And your dick is pointing straight up, as Jin rubs it between his hands, up and down like how you were moving. You start moving quickly, now the two of you moaning each other’s names like madmen. You slow down when he cums again, making sure the cum filled you up for good this time. This time he continues moving, making you scream out in pleasure, loud enough for all the people in the building to hear. No other man has ever been able to make you orgasm like he could, you know in your heart that Seokjin must be the one.

“Did that hurt?” He asks, all of the lust disappearing from his voice and being replaced with compassion.

“Just a little at first, but it was fun.” You moan as he kisses your back, his plump pink lips leaving a thin layer of saliva as he does.

“You’re very tight, you know? I could warm my dick in there for hours and it still wouldn’t be enough.” You blush at his romantic words. No man has ever been so soft with you, sure you liked it rough since you were a guy, but you also had a strong attraction to the more feminine side of men. That’s how you found out you were gay. You dated girls that looked more like men, and then eventually had your first experience with a guy. Sure, you weren’t focused on finding a relationship at the moment, but tender-hearted Seokjin is the perfect man in your eyes.

“Mmmm, I have to go back now. I see the light.” Jin moves away from you unexpectedly, making your skin go cold as you wrap your arms around yourself.

“N-now?”

“Yes, but just know that I think you’re pretty cool. Any guy would be lucky to have you. Take care of yourself, Y/N.”

“Okay Jin. When will you be back?” You ask, hoping for the perfect answer.

“Never.”

***

It had been about two weeks since Seokjin left the future, and work was as dull as ever. After his experience with you, he couldn’t stop thinking about the future. How you could’ve possibly been pregnant after he released his seed in you twice (Yes Male pregnancy is a huge problem in this world) Yoongi and Namjoon hated seeing him like this, Taehyung even tried cheering him up with pink cupcakes but the only thing he could think of was his princess.

“He’s miserable.” Namjoon sighs.

“I wish we could help him.” Taehyung frowns.

“Maybe we can…” Yoongi wiggles his fingers and lets out a giggle.

Ten minutes later, Seokjin hears a knock on the door.

“Come in.” Even the enthusiasm is gone from his voice.

“Did anyone call for a therapist?” The shock on Jin’s face when he sees you is laughable.

“Y/N!” He runs to you, pressing endless kisses to your face. “I missed you so much, my prince.”

“I missed you too, Jinnie.” Your nickname for him makes him smile. 

“It’s been too long.” He slowly moves down, kissing every inch of your body. He looks up at you for permission before removing your pants. He looks at your lace panties and pulls at the band. 

“Dirty boy.” He strips off your underwear and leaves you to stare at your own rising erection, making your cheeks flush and your pores open up to sweat.

“Ahhhh, Seokjin.” You close your eyes as the slurping noise resounds, bouncing off the walls and letting everyone in the building know how well Seokjin fucks you. He continues rubbing your cock between his hands as he takes you into his mouth.

“Cum in my throat, baby.” He demands. Your body shudders and you let out another moan as you have an orgasm. Jin licks you clean and then you lean in to kiss him.

“This time, I’ll be the one who stays.” You say, yanking his tie off.

[tardis-ghost-blog]

The Master’s Game (5 - Voiceless screams)

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Something had woken her up. It was still dark and at first Roka had trouble remembering where she was. But then memories of a long and rather complex discussion about human literature creped back into her mind. That really had been weird, but somehow actually fun. Although the Master had some unsurprisingly twisted views on lots of topics.

There it was again. Roka couldn't identify it at first. It was like a vague indistinctive feeling of no origin. But as she woke up more it became clearer and clearer. It was a very faint sound inside her head. Like from everywhere at once. A low humming of some sort.

When she sat still and concentrated on the sound it got louder. An increasing and decreasing hum, or rather... a voiceless singing? She shook her head and snuck out of the room.

No one was there.

For a moment she was tempted to take a look at the Master's files, but the sound seemed to get a tiny little bit clearer and now it was like she could make out a direction.

Down... it came from below her. Roka was sure of it. Was it... calling her? It sounded so strange. Right inside her head and outside of it at once. Maybe she went crazy. Maybe the Master had poisoned her in her sleep, maybe... she shook her head. Whatever it was, there was no one around to stop her right now.

So she followed the sound through the halls. Through the darkness. The whole building seemed to be dark. She also couldn't see any guards. How strange. Maybe she should try and find the Doctor. Right now they probably could just sneak out and... No. She didn't have the keys. And those doors were thick and heavy. Even if she were able to find the place in this eternal darkness, she wouldn't be able to actually open the door.

After a while she stopped thinking about where she went. Maybe she was long lost. But a vague feeling told her she was heading in the right direction. Going down whenever she could.

Left... left again... right. Down again. Would she ever find the way back? How far into the ground did this building even reach? It felt like she was moving endlessly, right into the heart of the planet. Into the unknown, the abyss...

The sound got louder. She could hear it clearly now. Something was singing. Singing without a voice. Just humming a tune insider her head. A sad and lonely tune.

There was a glow in the distance. It felt like an eternity since she had last seen the corridors around her. Now she could make out the walls. They were made of thick metal and almost looked like the hull of a ship. Was she below the water? They were near the sea. It could be possible. It would also explain the strange lights that came from before her.

A door... or an opening. The light got brighter, the singing louder. There was a wall made of glass and behind it water. Dark and murky water filled with plants and rocks. Who would build a window to face rocks?

Someone was standing there, leaning his hand against the glass, watching the outside. A dark and foggy being. Like it had no substance. She couldn't make it out very clear. Her head was spinning from the sound inside. But still she had to get closer. It was calling... calling for her.

Roka reached the room and stood still. This wasn't a figure, it was the Master. He hadn't noticed her arriving. He probably couldn't even perceive her right now. If she just stayed quiet she could wait until he would be leaving and then... then what?

He turned around and faced her. Could he see her? Or was it just instinct? Sometimes people got a vague feeling of being watched, but still couldn't notice her. But no, it wasn't like that.

"How did you get down here?" His voice sounded surprised. "You can't have followed me. That was hours ago. How..."

"The voiceless singing lead me." Roka's head was spinning. She felt dizzy. It had gotten so loud it was hard to hear anything else. Her gaze got foggy. "It was... calling. I... I..." She stepped closer into the room. Towards the wall of glass, feeling the Master's eyes on her.

"You can hear it?"

"Of course I can. How could I not? It's so...loud. My head hurts. Where does it come from? What is this? Where... are we?"

"Below the sea. I tracked down a strange signal. The building was abandoned. And down here..." He looked back to the glass. "I can't hear it."

Roka looked surprised at him.

"Maybe you can only have one thing constantly ticking inside your head." He turned towards her. "You... don't look good. How does it feel? Does it say anything?"

"What? No... no it doesn't." She saw him stepping towards her, lying his hands around her head, but she was so dizzy, she couldn't fight it.

"Let me hear it."  He put his forehead against hers and for a while stood still, completely silent. Was he reading her mind? Could he actually hear it now? Whatever he did, it felt weird and the singing slowly got accompanied by a strange rhythm. Like a faint drumming in the back of her head.

Then he let go of her.

Roka couldn't stand anymore and sank to her knees. It still got louder. Now it was resonating through her whole body and she could feel her heart pounding like mad. And now there was also the drumming.

"What did you do? Why did you...?"

"I was just listening. I can't hear it myself."

"It's driving me crazy. It gets louder and louder. What is it? Where does that rhythm come from?"

"What rhythm?" The Master crouched down before her, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Did it just appear? A rhythm of four? Does it sound like a drum?"

Confused she looked up to him and nodded. "It just appeared when you..."

He let go of her and laughed. "No... no. That can't be. You can't hear that." He looked almost as confused as Roka. "It's just an echo. Even if it were real. You're not psychic, and just a human... you can't... "

"What? What is it?"

"A curse." He stared at her. "Constantly, constantly in my head. It never stops, always calls."

The Master pulled her up and turned her towards the glass wall. What was she supposed to see? There was just rock and some plants and... Did the rock in front of her... move? It definitely did. And that... that wasn't a crack. It slowly opened and Roka gasped out of surprise.

It was a huge eye.

Now she could make out more details. What she had thought was a rock was actually skin. Thick gray... no, white skin. And there were veins. Bluish glowing veins were crossing the whole giant body, illuminating the room.

"Is that a... a whale?" The singing suddenly got louder. Painful, desperate. Now she understood. The creature was trapped down here. And it was screaming for help.

Roka felt rage boiling up inside of her. "Let it go." Her voice was cold.

"No."

She spun around and grabbed the Master by his jacket. "I don't care what your stupid plans are. Let it go!" The singing, the drumming, the pain in her head. It made her so angry. "I swear, I don't know what I'll do to you, if you don't."

A big grin spread on his face. He bowed down to her, staring directly into her eyes. "Careful little human." His face came even closer. "What will you do, eh? Staring me to death?"

Hear head was spinning. Why was he so close? It made her mad. Her heart was pounding like it was about to explode. So close... She just wanted to... He grabbed her hands and loosened them from his jacket. Then he stepped back.

"I can't. Literally. I tried since I found it, but the glass is too strong and there is no god dam lock."

She was shaking. Everything was spinning. The Master turned back to her and came closer again.

"Promise to be nice and I will get rid of the signal for you."

"Just so? For what price?"

He grabbed her head, pressing his forehead against hers again. "This one is free. It would just make you mad. And then you're useless." He grinned meanly. "Focus on the sound... on both." She did. And after a few seconds they faded away. Slowly getting quieter until the silence pressed against hear ears. She felt the hands letting go of her head and she stumbled back a few steps.

Roka stared at the Master for a second. He turned to the glass again. "Just in case you haven't noticed... it's alien. This kind of whale lays eggs that are filled with chemicals so deadly... It's fascinating how they can hatch out of that stuff."

Roka laughed suddenly. "For a moment it almost seemed as if you wanted to free the poor creature. But you just want to use it."

"Hey, I will set it free afterwards. There is no fun in killing creatures that can't think. Also, those are extremely rare. Whoever caught it probably was after a lot of money. I could sell it."

Her head was still hurting. She looked into the big sad eye and stepped to the glass, lying her hand and forehead against it. "It was crying for help... poor creature. I can't help you."

"You can." The Master stepped beside her, laughing softly. "I bet the Doctor would love this. In helping me freeing the whale you will also grant me a terrifying weapon. What a dilemma. I should tell him."

"I told you, I don't care about earth as much as he does. But this singing. This cry. It was so... sad and lonely. I can't leave it here." She turned around to face him. "Fine, I'll help. But we're still enemies. And I will still find a way to free the Doctor."                

He bowed down to her. "And the moment you think you triumphed... I will fill these eyes with true fear. That's a promise."

[chaoartwork]

Multivoid: Chapter 2

A fanfiction revolving around 2K, Palindrome and the alternate Zims in the aftermath of the Battlevoid arc.

Based on Invader Zim comic issues 46-49.

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“Brother, you silly! That’s not how you play the game!”

“But I’m tired. Can’t we do this later?”

“But brother! If you do, we’ll never play it again! Come on now, sleepyhead! I think someone is going to join!”

———————————————-

A familiar whirring sound can be heard.  Palindrome can feel his squeedlyspooch twist and churn sickly the moment he felt his body wake up again. The heavy sensation was there and strong, but his consciousness felt a little stronger than last time. He weakly squinted upon his eyes, trying to process his surroundings again. There was one thing he noticed since his vision has gotten clearer. The Zimvoid. Something’s different about the Zimvoid. It looks so closed in-

Thud!

 The whirring sound was replaced with something falling on the ground, sending a moment of vibration that Palindrome felt on the ground his body was motionlessly lying on. He felt Miniwhale wiggle out of Palindrome’s arms, who was embracing him as he was originally resting, and made a squeak of surprise. Who did he see? Could it be he maybe sees....

“2K....” groans, despite feeling nauseous,”2K, is that...?”

“Zim?”

The fish hybrid’s body stiffened by a voice he knew too well. Few seconds of processing what he just heard, his body struggled to softly shift so he can look at what was behind him. It was much brighter where he was looking. A figure about the same size as him was behind the brightness, viewing the figure’s head to be too massive in the hybrid’s viewpoint to even maintain his small body. A human boy walked closer to him, his dark brown open jacket softly flowing a bit by his movement. His entire appearance was no longer hidden from the brightness by the time he approached him, his more reddish pupil eyes widen a bit in soft disbelief.

“Oh my God. My alien tracker was right. You actually came back.”

Palindrome’s breath quickened a bit in order to find the strength to respond again.

“Dib human?”

His Dib crouched down to take a good look at him.

“Yeesh. You look like a pile of poop right now. No literally. What’s up with that filthy water in your bowl? It looks as though you haven’t cleaned that in months.”

Palindrome squeedlyspooch churned again by another wave of heavy sensation,

“Please don’t mention it,” he groaned again.

“Better yet,” he glared angrily, “where have you been? You think I can just monitor your house for 6 months?!”

“It was actually 3 months,” the sick Irken corrected as he was attempting to gain control of his body’s condition.

“Alright fine, it was 3 month, so what?” He crossed his arms, “you better really tell me what’s going on and what exactly you did this time! Why did we all dissipate and then reversed back to normal?!”

 Palindrome laid still and tried his best to process.

“....What?” His eyes traced back to his enemy.

“Oh you know exactly what I’m talking about, Zim! You had something to do with that dissipation incident. Did you go somewhere and attempted to fully wipe this whole planet with...whatever that was?!”

“Dib human,” he grunted as he shakily sit up halfway, his arms shaky, “I dont know what you’re talk about. But whatever it is, I didn’t do it. If anything, I want to ask you something. Why are you in the Zimvoid?”

“Zimvoid?” His eyebrow raised

 “Yeah, this place is called the Zimvoid. It’s where I have been trapped in this whole time. How were you able to access here?”

His Dib stood still for a long while. Looking at him as if he lost it for whatever reason.

“Zim. I don’t know if the illness is so bad for you that your picturing about your conquered Earth, which won’t happen. But you do realize you’re in your home base, right?”

“My...what?”

His eyes blinked multiple times in order to look about more clearly on where he was. It hurt his eyes, but they strengthened to see his surrounding. His Dib was right. He was not in the Zimvoid this whole time. He was actually in the living room of his home base. He was....back home. Back in his own timeline. Just like he....

“No. No this can’t be right,” he murmured, his heart sinking as he glanced about even more, “this can not be.”

Miniwhale moves next to to the human boy, staring at his master in concern. His enemy’s eyes furrowed.

 “Zim-?”

“I was there a split second ago. He was right in front of me, Dib. I could have caught him right there. He....”

“Zim, what are you going on about-?”

“No. It couldn’t have been a dream,” his body started to tremble in disbelief and confusion, his eyes straining from trying to hold back the overwhelming emotion, “The Zimvoid was real, I’m sure of it. 2K was real too! I know he was-!”

“Zim!” His Dib grabbed him and sharply turned him to make him look at him, “Would you snap out of it?! And who is this ‘2K’ you keep mentioning?”

 Before he could answer, the heavy sensation rushed across body again. And with the combination of the stress he was now going through, it was enough to cause him to completely loose his appetite. And given the fact his head had been stuck in a bowl filled with water for few months, it made things even worse. He knew that breathing the water was  impossible now in this condition.

“Ew gross!” He felt his enemy drop him back on the floor, “what the heck, man!”

“Nya!”

“I know he’s suffocating, what do you want me to do?! Help him?! Because that’s the last thing I want to do!”

“Nya!”

The conversation was starting to blur out as his consciousness began to fade from how much his body was screaming. He can then feel his violently squirming body give in as he is succumb to darkness once again.

————————————————————————-

 The first thing Palindrome remembered when regaining consciousness was the great feeling of fresh clean water rushing  across his body, followed by his gills sucking in as much of the water as it can content. His eyes flew wide open and let out a gasp, the first thing seeing is the fresh water surrounding his entire body. It took him a moment to process this experience until his ear fins fluttered at the great sensation he hasn’t felt in a long time. He smiled in in overwhelming and relieved glee, letting himself enjoy it.

“Ah!...Fresh water how I miss you....”

“Now will you tell me what exactly is going on?”

He fully snapped out of his trance, turning to realize that he was inside of his huge fish tank that was within his lab. He also notice his body was feeling lighter because of how he was no longer wearing his suit or his helmet. He has fully forgotten how light his body really was. without it, it made his body feel incredibly strong when swimming about. Guess it was also the fact that three months physically training and doing his duties with 2K really paid off.

He then remembered Dib’s voice and swam up to poke his head out of the surface, seeing his enemy and servant standing in front of him. Miniwhale, shortly after Palindrome pokes his head out of the water quickly floated over him and nudge against his chest.

  He let his arm wrap around his robot in a cradling position in order to comfort him, already having the idea he must have worried him when he passed out, before looking back up at the human in suspicion.

“You saved me?”

“Please,” the boy crossed his arms, “I never wanted to save you to begin with. Your whale robot wouldn’t shut up about having me save you. Besides, you still haven’t answered all of my questions.”

 The fish hybrid remained eyeing him.

“First,” he replied to the human boy,  “You have to explain to me what you were talking about back there.”

“Which one?”

“The dissipation incident.”

“Oh come on! Why do I have to be the one to explain first?”

“Cause maybe it might give me a clue on exactly what happened in the Zimvoid.”

“Seriously? You’re going on about this ‘Zimvoid’ again? What even is it?”

“Explain to me about the dissipation incident or I won’t explain to you anything,” Palindrome softly squinted.

The human child glared at him for a while. But he gave in and sighed. He sat down by the ground and began.

“I heard nothing about you for months. I tried to use the alien radar many times to see if you were doing something in another galaxy or something. But no matter how many attempts, the tracker could not find you. It was almost as if...you were no longer present in the universe. I eventually was starting to think I actually won, even though I didn’t feel like I earned it until I really did defeated you in person. But I tried to push that though aside and instead continued on with my life. One early morning, I left home to go to school. It was about the third month since you disappeared and I was starting to think less about even counting the days of your absence. I was walking pass through the city....”

  He suddenly went quiet, now showing an expression that he was feeling haunted.

“....I started to feel strange. In fact, it turns out I was not the only one. Everyone were shouting and screaming and...everything just turned into these particles of goo for whatever reason. And so was I. I woke up and a second after  started feeling pretty sick. But everything was back to normal as if everything that was dissipating reversed back to their own form. I really don’t know what that was all about, but I was at least strong enough to head back home so me and my family can recover from the aftermath.”

“And did your ‘dad’ of yours say anything about it?”

“Pfft!” He rolled his eyes, “he just said that some sort of pollution in the air might have been the reason we all-“ he finger gestured, “‘hallucinated’. He was at least not as sick as me and Gaz were though.”

“What did your ‘sister’ think.”

“Gaz just wants to pretend it didn’t happen. Just continue on with our lives cause thinking about that incident will just loose our minds. But I obviously couldn’t stop thinking about it. Soon after I recovered though was when I realized my alien tracker was going off for who knows how long in my closet. It gave me a signal that there was an alien on our planet and...”

His Dib looks back at him, his eyes furrowed,

“Well, you know the rest of the story.”

Palindrome blinked and then placed his finger on his chin, his body nearly flinching since it was the first time he touched his own head in months, and pondered.

“Well,” His enemy said a bit impatiently, “any ‘clues’ you might have?”

Palindrome was quiet for a short while before responding,

“So it was not just me and the other Zims...”

Dib’s expression changed into confusion,

“Other Zims?”

“It also happened in my future conquered planet,” he continued.

“Well you’re not going to conquer my planet, that’s for sure,” the human child narrowed.

“And if that’s so,” the Irken hybrid gazed up at the ceiling, “I wonder if it happened throughout our entire universe. If so....Could it have also happened in the other Zims’ timelines?”

“Other Timelines?” His Dib grew confused again.

 “But that still wouldn't make sense,” Palindrome furrowed in confusion while still talking to himself, “why did we dissipate? Why did it reverse? Most importantly, why am I back in my own timeline? I mean it’s what I always wanted, but....somethings not right. The only reason could be that something happened to the Zapper.”

The human grew even more confused.

“....Yeah. It has to be the Zapper that did something to us. Something was off about it when I last glanced at it, I’m sure of it. And someone might have triggered it to do this. Maybe the Elder pushed the wrong button. Or maybe....maybe someone else triggered it on purpose. Maybe someone like.....”

His eyes narrowed.

“Zib. It must have been Zib. He must have had something when pressing those  buttons that automatically caused the Zapper to-“

“Alright alright ALRIGHT ALRIGHT!” His enemy fully cut him off of his pondering in which caused Palindrome to finally look back at him, “I don’t know what ANY of what you just said makes ANY sense whatsoever! You’re gonna make my skull crack wide open if you don’t tell  me what you were talking about and where exactly you have been!”

“Human skulls can do that?” Palindrome was a bit impressed.

“IT WAS AN EXAGGERATION! Just tell me already!!”

The fish hybrid was quiet again. For the first time since he passed out last time, he felt the sadness weigh down in his chest again, his fin lowering at the traumatic thought of what happened the last time he was conscious in the Zimvoid. He softly looked at his Dib.

“Do you really want to know where I disappeared to?”

————————————————-

 His Dib tried processing everything he has been telling him, with Miniwhale also listening in awe. About the Irken signal he got. How he crashed into the Zimvoid. A world that was filled with alternate versions of himself. How he met a baby version of himself name 2K and how he joined the Zim Resistance. How he learned the entire function of the Zimvoid. His growing bond for his Resistance partner. How three months after meeting 2K that they eventually stumbled upon an alternate version of a Dib and Gir, which led them on adventure all the way to encountering Number 1, revealing to be a fusion of an alternate Zim and Dib.

 They are told of his main scheme and brought nearly all the Zims together to engage in a war against him. But he tells him what happens during the battle. How everyone in the Zimvoid dissipated. And 2K being the very last one he saw in the Zimvoid before watching him disappear as well, along with him blacking out.

“...And that was when I woke up here.”

 His Dib was deadly quiet for quite a while. He blinked multiple times and needed to sit down. He rest his palm on his forehead.

“Uh...wow. Wow. Uh...a world full of my greatest enemy. Man. That sounds like something that is my worst nightmare coming true. How was other me able to cope with that place?”

“He was kind of shook about it when we found him and the other Gir. He seemed to cope with it pretty fast. But,” his eyes slanted, “he thought that me, 2K, and the Elder were the less intimidating and feeble version of his Zim. Don’t know what that was all about, but oh well.”

 “Well I can’t blame him,” His Dib said unamused, “you do tend to not put enough work into conquering our Earth.”  

“Yes I do!” Palindrome responded in annoyance.

“Whatever. Did you ever know what happened to him and that other creepier me.”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I just last saw them sitting by the top of the robot where I last saw 2K.”

“Hm. Oh well. Whatever happened to them, I just hope they got out of that place alive. Well....I don’t really care too much for that ‘Zib’ though, he was too far gone. Anyways, I’m just so glad I didn’t respond to that signal.”

  Palindrome sigh,

“I was guessing that you did.”

His Dib looked at him in surprise,

“How did you know I got the signal?”

“Zib told the other you that he was the only one that responded to the signal. That was when I learned why you did not chase me down while I was heading to the vortex.”

“Oh. I mean, I did see the signal,” his enemy rubbed the back of his head, “but it told me that there was a very violent storm ahead where the signal was coming from. I figured that it would be far too dangerous to come after you at a condition like that. And given how you mysteriously survive everything, I just figured you would turn back or get past the storm somehow.”

“Figures...Mmmph!” Palindrome deeply groaned and hugged himself with one of his arms. Miniwhale felt his master’s other arm around him tighten a bit, making him look up at him in confusion and concern. His Dib noticed and looked back at him,

“Zim?”

“Rggh...it’s nothing, it’s nothing,” he gulped and tried to catch his breath, “...Just having another one.”

The kid just nodded and did nothing else but wait patiently. It took several seconds for the sensation to fully die off again, making the fish hybrid sink almost completely into the water tank in exhaustion, his free arm grabbing onto the ledge. He took easy breaths, with Miniwhale squeaking,

“Nya?”

He tiredly look to notice his servant’s worried expression. He tried giving at least a soft reassuring smile,

“It’s fine, Miniwhale. It’s at least lighter than last time.”

“How long have you been having that?”

 “Not sure. Maybe since everyone here woke up?”

“You seem to have it a lot worse though. Do you know why that is?”

“I don’t know, stink face. I’m not in a mood to think about it either. But given it was a long while since the last time I had it,  that’s a sign that those sensations won’t last long.”

He calmly breathed out and let himself fully relax,

“I just hope it goes away fast. I can’t stay like this. I need to find 2K. I need to know if he’s ok...along with the others.”

The scuba diver softly narrowed,

“And I don’t care whether you believe my story or not, Dib. I need to find my best friend no matter what.”

Miniwhale frowned,

“....Nya?”

“Yeah, you did not mishear it. He really did matter to me,” his said in a bit sadder tone.

“So...your best friend is yourself,” His Dib processed it a bit.

Palindrome responded by eyeing at him in offense.

Dib noticed, not caring too much on how he felt about that comment.

“Then again,” the human shrugged, “I’m not really too surprised.”

 His Dib made a pause and looked away.

“I will hate to say that I do believe in everything you have told me.”

“Heh. Funny,” Palindrome was not convinced, “you always refuse to believe me.”

“Well my incident is one thing that made me do so. But there was another thing that really stood out.”

Dib stood up and walked few steps away from him. Palindrome was confused at where he was going as he watched him stop and look down at something. He bent down and picked it up before turning back to walk towards his enemy again.

 “You were wearing this when I found you. Isn’t that part of your story?”

The fish squinted, trying to figure out what he was carrying. His face slowly morphed into a complete stunned and emotional expression when his sight of it became far too familiar to mistaken it. His Dib stopped and handed him what appeared to be a heavy metallic looking collar that gave off the pale reddish and pinkish color. Palindrome hesitated before reaching out and softly taking it from him. He let it get very close to his chest so he can fully look at it from a perfect view.

  The collar was now unlocked, with it pried open. This indicated that his Dib was actually able to successfully open it for whatever reason. There was something else that he wanted to see and he softly turned it to see a four digit bar that still reflected from the light. The four digits provided four random numbers, reading out 2|0|0|2.

“When you passed out, Miniwhale and I rushed you to your water tank and took your suit and water helmet off in order for you to breathe the water easily. However, the collar was avoiding the water helmet from being removed. So the only way to do so was forcing open the collar. And that was for me to laser the key hole, which is why the key hole looks completely melted.”

The alien was completely frozen for a long while, staring at the digits. He perked a soft smile for a second before they tensed and he started to choke up, his eyes getting watery. The boy also noticed this and scoffed,

“Oh come on, are you seriously gonna cry over me destroying the collar? The one that you said you were stuck wearing all those months? Because if you turned out to have grown attached to it, it’s just a stupid collar.”

 Palindrome softly shook his head and sniffed, letting his arm rub his tearful eyes.

“N-no, no it’s not that. Stupidly enough, I’m actually happy. I knew the whole time that the Zimvoid really did exist. But....”

He emotionally looked back down at the collar, softly smiling again,

“I still needed proof to know I really was right.”

His body hiccuped just a bit before letting his arms wrap around the collar and pressing it to his chest.

“Don’t worry, buddy. I have proof now that you and the others were never a dream. I’ll come find you, I promise.”

Miniwhale stares before smiling at his master’s relief in a response. His Dib just awkwardly gaze,

“...Is no one going to talk about the fact that he’s hugging a collar?”

However, as soon as he said this, an alert went off.

“IRKEN DISTRESS SIGNAL HAS BEEN LOCATED.”

Palindrome’s eyes snapped open by the feeling of deja vu. It also sent chills across his body, but he can’t tell if it’s a good or a bad chill. He and his enemy almost immediately looked at the large computer screen with it showing an internet connection signal and the Irken Empire symbol above it, big blinking letters below reading “IRKEN DISTRESS SIGNAL DETECTED”.

 “Wait,” his Dib said, “isn’t that the same signal that I...?”

Palindrome silently stared at the screen. His eyebrows furrowed.

“Computer, get me a back-up suit.”

“Yes, sir.”

A huge tube buried Palindrome’s body before uncovering him to reveal what looks to be his swimming suit, except the suit is black while parts of it remain pink, along with his gloves and shoes, and a new clean helmet filled with water being worn. A small tube came out of Palindrome’s PAK and went up to attach itself from the back of his bowl.

 Palindrome gently put the collar down and tried climbing out of the huge water tank. But pushing himself out of the tank cause the heavy sensation to come back, causing him to end up having his body collapse at the edge of the floor. The boy looked,

“You sure you can get over to the controls when you’re this weak?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he grunts and looks up at him, “in fact since you’re so ‘worried’, carry me, filth human.”

“What?! Why me?!” He then point to Palindrome’s robot, “why can’t the whale do it? He has telekinesis!”

 “Nya!” Miniwhale answered.

“BUT YOU CARRIED A GIANT TRUCK ONC-!”

He stopped right there. He became unamused.

“Oh. I see what you’re doing there. You’re just saying that so I can be the one to carry him.”

“I said it doesn’t matter! Carry me to the controls!”

“Urgh! Alright fine! Yeesh, you aliens are so lazy and selfish,” he starts walking over to him.

“Oh yeah,” Palindrome mumbled, “I should maybe make a body switching machine so you can know what this really feels like right now.”

“I-“ Dib let out a grunt as he lift him up with both of his arms, “been on this same page too you know.”

“No you don’t since you just stated my condition is the worst one.”

“Yeah yeah sure whatever,” Dib grunted again when making a second short lift. “Yeesh, it was much easier carrying you before you had to wear that stupid suit. When are you ever going to get that thing upgraded to a lighter one.”

“Hey,” Palindrome pointed out as Dib starts waddling over to the controls, “it’s not easy when your body really needs water. Not only for breathing it, but to have an inner layer of the suit that helps keep my scales moisturized so they don’t dry up to the point where they get extremely itchy and then they-“

 “Ok, you don’t need to explain your fish issue again. It’s still disgusting no matter how you explain it.”

Palindrome sigh in irritation,

“Just put me down. We’re already by the controls.”

His Dib rolled his eyes and did what he told him. Palindrome however yelped when his legs failed to stand again and it cause him to fall. It took a while after to recover. Shaking, with his teeth clenching by the heavy sensation rippling across his body again, he made his legs use all the strength to stand up a bit and hold unto the controllers. He panted for a short while and looked back at the screen, exhaustingly reaching out and pressing the button. The screen change, showing what appears to be...

Palindrome paused, trying to process what he was seeing so he can make sure his mind wasn’t making it up.

“What is that?” His Dib asked, “it looks like some sort of an abandoned settlement on an asteroid.”

The fish hybrid’s eyes softly traced as he looked at the picture on the screen.

“The Zimvoid.”

“The what?” His Dib asked. But then blinked into realization of what he meant. “Wait. THAT’S the Zimvoid?”

 “No doubt about it,” he said and pointed out a very tall device standing on the map version of the Zimvoid, “I know that there is no other planet that holds the Zapper.”

“And this is the one that you said caused everything that happened here on Earth. Especially....”

“I’m certain of it.” Palindrome then squinted. “Along with the certainty of Zib being behind it all.”

“Again, how are you certain that it was Zib? You sure that elderly Zim didn’t accidentally cut the-?”

“Nya!” Miniwhale suddenly pointed out something.

“An email?” Palindrome glanced at his servant in confusion and looked back at the screen. Almost instantly, he took notice on a symbol of an email that appears on the bottom left of the monitor. His eyebrows furrowed.

“Computer, open the email.”

“Yes, sir.”

The email opens up to show a note that is typed in Irken.

 “Oh boy,” the human boy scoffed, “more alien writings. Hey fish alien, can you translate what it says?”

The scuba diver went ahead and read it.

“It’s says....’If you really want everything to go back to normal, come see me at the place where you last saw me.’”

“Huh. That’s strange. I wonder who wrote this.”

“Based on what I read and the location, it’s already obvious on who it is. Can’t believe that Roach Human is still alive.”

“Roach Human? What kind of nickname is that?”

“Well since he hates being called ‘Zib’, I might as well give him a much better name. It fits since he’s both cruel, he looks like a human roach, and he’s a Dib.”

“Isn’t he half a Zim too?”

But Palindrome didn’t respond this time and instead quietly stared at the screen.

His Dib slightly tilted his head in confusion.

“Zim?”

The alien hybrid stayed like this for a short while before speaking once more,

“I just don’t understand though. I shouldn’t have received this map. The Zimvoid is from another timeline and I remember when I was trapped there, I could not communicate with my own timeline. How was he able to send me this? Why now?”

 “I mean, he did send us a distress signal before, even if it was between two different timelines. It wouldn’t even make sense if it didn’t work for you yet it did for him.”

“The signal he used was far advanced from my own communications. Then again, maybe you could be right. But this signal is different. If the signal is leading me to the Zimvoid, it would have pointed me to Pandora’s Quadrangle. The vortex portal should be there if I’m getting the signal now.”

“The vortex wasn’t there when I checked that place,” His enemy let him know, “and I have never picked up any activity from that place since.”

Palindrome kept on pondering more.

“Hm. That wouldn’t make sense if the vortex really is closed. I wonder...”

He looked back up at the monitor.

“Computer, zoom out the map on how long it takes to get to this signal.”

“Zooming out!”

The map completely changed from the zooming. The enemy duos and Miniwhale looked at the screen.

The entire room was quiet.

“Um....” His Dib finally spoke, “...Zim? Are you sure the map isn’t glitching?”

“No,” he murmured while his eyes remained glued on the screen.

“Are you sure?  Like I’m for real, you’re really sure. Did you check if the computer is glitching?”

“Hmph. Well that’s just rude. My scanning is indicating that my glitches are 0%”  

“Are you SURE.”

“Ok, you really need to stop repeating that sentence. It’s getting very annoying.”

“Well I won’t tell until you give me proof that you aren’t glitching!”

The boy sharply turned to him.

“Zim! Check his wires or something! After all, this is a glitch, right?”

Palindrome face of disbelief remained in his face. There was absolutely no doubt that the map was just a glitch.

“Oh Tallest, Roach Human, what did you do?”

——————————————————————-

Within an broken throne room, a strange looking creature was fixing his throne until he heard an alert from the other room.

“Huh, that was fast.”

He stopped what he was doing and entered a lighter room, his appearance being a mix a what appears a child that is half human and half Irken. The PAK that was attached to the back of his head remained to softly glow as he approached a huge cracked monitor, which was damaged as a result of the war. It would glitch and flicker for a split second every now and then but regardless, it was still functional.

“Who responded?” He asked his computer.

 “Signal was responded by Earth Number 2002, Number 1.”

“Number 2002. Yeah,” he scoffed, “Ofcourse it would be from one of the Resistance leaders. I guess I’ll have to deal with him too if he decides to come. Speaking of that, what is the condition of Earth Number 2000?”

“The altered timeline of Number 2000 remains stable. It does not appear as though it will change any time soon or rather there is no indication yet if it will ever show a sign of shifting back to its original state.”  

“Well that’s one good news I guess,” he sighed, “then again, there’s no telling if he will notice the sudden change of his environment if he’s in a state for this long, or for any Zim that is in this state for that matter. Whatever the case, the timelines cannot remain like this. And I will make sure I don’t underestimate any Zim again. Especially that....”

The rage, just remembering that particular Zim, makes him want to kill him without hesitation. The thought of him was enough to make him tightly form his hands into a fist.

 Short beeping sounds was suddenly heard from the computer, distracting him. A monitor points to a specific Earth out of the rest of its alternates that live nearby.

“Number 1. I detect another timeline that is having another unknown triggered time anomaly from Number 2004. The timeline’s shift back into its original state is therefore happening momentarily.”

The hybrid species looks at the screen in awe.

“Another one, huh?”

Without a moment to loose, he looked up at the ceiling that has fully broken off and let his spider legs fully come out of his PAK, launching him up there. He launched out of the hole and made a careful landing on the roof of the castle.

  With his spider legs sinking back the where it came from and fully standing up again, he looked out at the Zimvoid. The world felt emptier than it ever was. Especially with the vortexes no longer seen from the sky, resulting in not feeling any wind. Along with the destroyed Zapper, who’s lower bottom half was slightly tilted to the left, as the result of powerful impact of the explosion, and the top portion of it being broken off and laying on the ground, several pieces of it splayed out and surrounding around it. Without the bright light of the powerful device, the Zimvoid has plunged into complete darkness, the stars and moon being the only lights left in such a completely dead world.

  There were barely any broken ships left, given that they all dissipated along with the Zims and their destroyed Girs’ bodies, resulting in giving him very little resources he needs to start rebuilding his technologies. However, several broken and crashed ships can now be seen laying about the asteroid planet. Crashed ships that he had upgraded and were believed to have dissipated.

  Zib looked up at the sky, waiting quietly and patiently. After several seconds of standing there, he suddenly heard a windy eerie-like sound that steadily grew loud. He quickly glanced about the sky until his eyes laid upon what was starting to become more noticeable. Extremely few portions of goo started to softly appear out of thin air in the distance. Then more and more of them appeared, getting bigger and more noticeable. They all started to pull towards each other until they clumped together, morphing into an object that became more recognizable until it became a single particular voot cruiser. It was starting to fly in a very slow motion, almost as if time was in a slow state for this ship in general. But time started to speed up more and more until it was speeding in its natural state.

However, the ship was gliding down, having no passenger inside to steer it, as it was charging almost directly to the top of the castle where Zib was at. He took notice of this and his hair strands, surprisingly, bristled in alarm.

“Oh SHI-!”

He jumped the the other side of the room and covered his head. The ship barely missed the tower, but the wing hit the edge of the roof, causing the wing to break off and make the ship spin out of control. It continued falling in almost a gliding style until it hit the ground and burst into flame, skidding into a stop.

 Zib stayed in his position until he was certain that it was safe to uncover his head and shakily get up. He walked steadily walked to the other side of the roof in order to get a good viewpoint on what almost hit him. He stared at the ship for a long while.

“Time shift from Number 2004’s timeline is complete.”

Zib was quiet. But then hummed in interest.

“2004’s timeline changed even quicker than the last one. Actually...each timeline keeps coming back quicker than the previous one.”

 Zib stares at it expressionless. Then he smiled.