#and i know in my heart going to mermaid's would win

[queen-scribbles]

I've been texting with Monkey's mom to figure out when I can bring his birthday present(yes, he's still getting a present, even if I'm not watching him and Mermaid anymore) and it made me laugh she texted me at 6am. Bc I've been essentially part of the family for 9(!!!!) years now and she knows I'm up this early.

[goldenstring6123]

Hi !!! How r u pooks :3

Ignore this if u haven't played dti but what do you think the L&DS boys' reactions would be to their s/o playing dress to impress and actually raging at it like verbally LMFAO this game seriously has me TWEAKING bro but I can't stop playing it gigi please free my family 💔 (hcs plz)

Thanks for reading O_o

Lnds: Dress to impress chaos

Warning: no warning! GN!READER, crack-fic (?)

Author's notes: DTI has me on a chokehold as well pookie.

Zayne:

Surprisingly, Zayne knows about this because of the children in the pediatric ward. A good number of kids have their tablets with them and play the game; to him, it looked like some regular dress-up game. He didn't think much of it and just warned the children to lessen their screen time.

When he arrived home and was taking his shoes off in the foyer, he could hear you complaining about something. The only coherent sentence he heard was, "The theme is Y-THREE-K, NOT Y-TWO-K!" He wondered what you were talking about and who you were mad at, but when he saw you huddled around the coffee table, fashion magazines sprawled all over, and another gadget displaying fashion catalogs, he knew what was up.

"What are you getting so worked up about?" he asked, sitting next to you and placing down a cup of tea after changing into his clothes. He could see that there were figures walking down the runway.

"I don't get how those ugly layering players win first place!"

He was confused by what you meant. The outfits were suitable, donning the familiar attire of the staff at the hospital, particularly scrubs and white skirts that were too short for the protocol. "What's the theme?"

"A doctor or a nurse," you replied. As the screen turned briefly black, Zayne waited in anticipation. The scene changed, and on the podium was a mermaid with neon green wings and a god-awful dress.

You threw your hands up in frustration and wept on his knees. Zayne was dumbfounded. "I hate this game!" he heard your muffled cries on his knees. He patted your head.

He got used to seeing you so engrossed in the game, but he would never get used to your mood swings: one moment, you're insulting children, and the next moment, you're giggling because you won 1st place.

Zayne bought you a VIP pass because he loved seeing your reaction every time, although he isn't really a fan of spending money on in-game currency. But he loves you too much, so he just keeps that thought to himself.

After seeing you play, he watches the kids play as well, occasionally commenting on their choice of clothing. The nurses were pretty confused by his comments because Zayne never really commented on any outfits, much less in a game.

Xavier:

Xavier knows about the game and has tried it once, not getting the premise of it at first. He didn't know how to change patterns or delete the clothes he was wearing, so his first catwalk was a bit of a mess. But here's the thing: Xavier won first place, which made him more confused. He screenshot himself on the podium and sent it to you.

When you got home from work, excited to play with him, he was pouting while looking at his phone. You wondered why and saw that another player was walking around in the same exact fit as your partner's character. Xavier said that he kept on trying to change his outfit, but that one person kept doing the same thing. You decided to give that player a piece of your mind on behalf of your boyfriend.

When you're at work, Xavier will send you links to fashion hacks he sees on social media. "This looks cute; let's try it later," and he's more updated when Gigi is working on something. The codes—Xavier knows the codes by heart. He knows them more than he knows the date of your birth.

It was thanks to this game that he likes to go shopping with you to get some inspiration. Surprisingly, he can make a coherent outfit with the ones he sees in the malls.

When you both play together, he likes playing duo, and even if your outfits are unfinished or bad, he gives you 5 stars. But for the rest of the players, he forgets to vote more than half of the time—you don't know if it's on purpose or really by accident.

He would occasionally laugh when players fight against one another, especially if you were involved.

He once bought himself the VIP pass, but his outfits still looked too generic for your liking, but you didn't have the heart to complain. Xavier once lost a bet, and now he has to buy you the pass as well.

He once used his work account to comment on some suggestions on Gigi's Twitter, and kids were confused as to why a hunter was commenting on a kids' game. He deleted it soon after, but he amassed a few hundred followers.

Sylus:

He felt nothing about the game at first and thought of it as nothing more than your form of entertainment. It keeps you busy and out of harm's way, but he never once thought that it would cause a rift in your relationship (he's exaggerating).

Sylus would grow annoyed at how you weren't picking up his calls when you were clearly at home, so he sent Mephisto. The little snitch took a picture of you being so engrossed in your game and sent it back to his boss. Sylus was half disgruntled and 100% dumbfounded when he found out—he was laughing, but he was annoyed. Luke and Kieran were utterly confused.

At midnight, while you worked your way to being a fashion maven, you didn't notice your man sneaking in through the window. Just as you were about to hit pose 11, Sylus yanked your feet and stole your tablet from you.

"No! Give that back!"

"You're not answering my calls because of…this?" He turned to the tablet, which displayed another player's half-decent outfit for the theme "star."

"What calls?" you turned to your phone. '18 missed calls' and your heart sunk to the floor. Shyly, you turned to him, scratching your head. "Oops?"

He sat down on the edge of your bed. "Why are you so engrossed in a dressing game? Why not dress yourself with all the clothes I gave you?" He nudged to the mountain of paper bags in the corner of your room—branded ones, too.

"Because it's fun?" You took the tablet from him and showed him on screen how your outfit won first place. "See? I like winning—one more round, and let's go on a night ride."

He paused, patiently waiting for a minute while you scrolled around the game lobby. He came to a decision. "No. Screen time is over. You've neglected me for far too long." He yanked the tablet away from you using his evol, then pinned you down to the bed, burying his nose in between your breasts.

Although Sylus claims he's not interested in playing the game with you, he did, in fact, join the game secretly to spy on you. He was mildly infuriated with the little amount of selection of menswear and the ridiculous look on the men's faces, so he still really doesn't understand the hype, but he'll be generous enough to give you a three or four-star once in a while.

Once, he joined your server, and the theme was the bad guy. You dressed up as a white-haired, red-eyed man with over-chiseled cheekbones. A moment later, Sylus bombarded you with a screenshot of the game. "I do not look like that. Delete it."

As much as he says he doesn't like the game, Gigi made an update and added some dark reddish aura in-game, as well as a crow perched on the hand of the model. The bird looked awfully close to Mephisto. You confronted Sylus about this, and he denied having any involvement in it.

Whenever you sleep in Sylus' home, he would wake up to the goddamn beat of the game at 3 am, and out of frustration, he would use his EVOL to get the device away from you and place it on the highest shelf in the room. Then he'd hold you down.

Rafayel:

Rafayel introduced you to the game, but after a few times of playing it, it didn't take long for him to get banned for cyberbullying—he wasn't bullying, actually; he was just stating facts, and the other players couldn't take it, and so they reported him. He fights anyone, and he comments a lot in the game, earning him the title of a "yapper."

"You guys don't have taste. How did that thing win first place?" That thing refers to a pretty decent outfit but doesn't match the theme.

"You don't look good either, hun," said the person in first place.

"You don't get to say that when your hair looks like puke, darling." He rage-chattered, saying everything he was typing out loud.

You were cackling beside your boyfriend, witnessing him rage while you were just perched on top of the 3rd place, happy you even got to go up there against all the fashionistas.

"Kids really have the gall to compete and insult adults with taste."

"Raf, you do understand that they're adults as well, right?"

"No, they're not. They're children. This is a kids' game."

You stared at him intently. He stared back, thinking.

"Then I don't need to hold back from insulting them." he placed his hand on the keyboard.

Rafayel's fits are absolutely top-tier. He always wins first place. The layering, the color combination, the form, and the aesthetic are all on point and top-tier. He doesn't reference, and the only time he does is when the theme requires it.

This man doesn't do duos with you because he wants the podium to himself. He once did a duo with you, and it broke his winning streak. You had a small argument about it, but you just gave in, eager to make him lose. Newsflash: You failed miserably.

He secretly joins a farming server every once in a while. Rafayel unknowingly joined the same server as you, and when you asked about it, he denied it, saying only people with bad tastes need to farm for stars. You sent him a screenshot. He didn't talk to you for a day.

He files a lot of complaints and goes on Twitter about how buggy the game is and how bad the texture is. He didn't know that his graphics were on low.

Rafayel is very active in the community and contributes to it during his free time. He uses an alternate account to post suggestions when Gigi opens a post about it. A lot of people actually agree with Rafayel's complaints and suggestions.

Rafayel once freaked out when he accidentally went inside the meat room and told you about it, but when he showed you, it was already catwalk time. You pretended you didn't believe him and tried to pretend to listen when he was searching for that passable wall. You laughed at him and brushed him off, pretending that you didn't believe him.

This began the downward spiral to Lana's lore. He kept on sending you reels about it—and speculations and theories. He even once invited you to that scary horror game, but he quit because it was too creepy and full of 'negative energy.'

Author footnotes: If I'm taking a break while writing, I would be playing dress to impress and I would be fighting children (i'm not joking, I once made a player and her friends leave the server)

Layout by me, using Canva premium | Do not repost |

[blueberrypancakesworld]

Milky bath with flowers

Geta/Caracalla/Marcus x wife!reader

warning : fluff, kisses, bath toys in ancient rome (no spicy ones sorry), characters were written before the movie came out

Summary : Emperors and generals went bathing like everyone else in Rome. Maybe not on public baths or in pools, but rather in private pavements with pretty marble floors and statues of gods. But when your beloved wife has already claimed the bath, some things go differently than simply washing.

info : yes the second work to the three and i thought to myself while showering hey why not do something like this so here it is and enjoy reading :)

masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marcus

His body was always covered in dirt, the dusty ground from the campaigns, dried blood on his hands armor and face and sand in his washed hair after weeks and months on the return journey.

So it was all the better not only to finally be able to take off the few washes with bowls and cloths, but to wash himself completely in the large bath.

Unbeknownst to him, there was already someone in the large room, someone who was closest to his heart, the reason why he prayed to the gods that he would come back to her from every fight.

Warm pleasant water surrounded her, flowers in various colors floated around her and spread an ethereal pleasant smell, the water with milk added creating an unnatural yet pleasant water color following the example of Cleopatra.

Until her eyes settled on her husband a simple cloth tied around his hips a body of fine devinietren muscles, scars and slight injuries, dark hair a mix of dark pepper and salt when she looked at the strands a pretty sign of his aging. ,,A mermaid has strayed into the water, what am I doing?" his question echoed lightly in the large room and a smirk came to her lips as he slowly climbed into the water before placing the towel on the edge and swimming over to her.

Steam rose from the water as new wood was added under the fixture to make it more comfortable for the reigns, ,,What could you do, my dear General? A kiss as a sign of your devotion," she suggested and her hands placed themselves on his upper body, feeling the muscles, the strength and willpower that dwelled within him.

She heard his slight smile as she ran her hands over the various scars, smaller and larger, before he took her hands in his rough hands and moved them down her arms to her hips, ,,If it's a kiss you want, you should have one," he replied before he smiled and complied with her request for a devoted kiss.

She let herself fall easily into his arms knowing he was holding her, but she could still feel his almost proud grin, they were both proud of each other. She knew she was his heart she was his life the reason he came back every time and he knew she was his haven when he was haunted by nightmares of battle when the uncertainty of sleep threatened to take him over she was always there for him.

Before he broke away and his fingers stroked her cheek, ,,I have the prettiest mermaid for a wife, she has stolen my heart." From time to time he enjoyed her flattering look, her gaze was followed by a kiss and she splashed him with water.

But Marcus had other plans for her to swim to the edge, he took the soft sponge and indicated for her to sit on the stairs, ,,My dear husband is aware that I am no longer a child?" she asked as he placed the sponge on her leg and held it while she relaxed.

Despite his rough exterior, killing people to win and using swords better than anyone else, he was extremely gentle. He knew exactly how hard he had to wipe the sponge over her skin, how pleasant he made it for her and left kisses on her skin when it was a little too hard.

The divine sight of her wet hair, the individual drops of water that slid over her naked body and the flowers that surrounded her did everything for Marcus. ,,I am aware of that, my heart, but let me be your humble servant," he replied, a smile creeping onto his lips and she let a hand wander over his curls, which had grown a little longer since the last time. Before she let him go on, her sigh of pleasure came over her lips every now and then as he massaged her muscles and kissed her body.

The conversations of simple business to new home furnishings were interrupted every now and then by touches and kisses as they enjoyed the bath, enjoyed each other and the blossoms of love continued to float around the roses long after they had left the bath hand in hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Geta

An emperor did not dirty his hands, never would a man of his status, his stature, his influence soil his own hands with blood. Giving orders and passing judgment was more what he did and yet Geta also had to take a bath in the large extra area of the palace, a bathing area, an area full of baths, full of exotic plants with statues of gods, statues of him and his brothers in various poses and a statue clad in gold of his wife the Empress of Rome the most desirable of all the beautiful beauties the empire had to offer.

But above all she belonged to him and whenever the golden sun went down in the evening, Rome slowly lay down and ate his dinner, Geta found himself in the large bathing area, a simple tunic wrapped around his body, but as he moved towards the large pool he saw that someone was making the water move.

A body, a body familiar to him was in his bath if it was his brother they would have argued enruet but instead a satisfied look settled on his bright eyes. ,,My empress takes a bath without me and doesn't even invite me in, how disobedient,” his voice rang out and she turned to him, startled that someone had come in, as no one else was allowed in except the emperor himself and she relaxed again.

Swimming over to him, she saw him take off his clothes and come to her, a familiar sight swimming towards her after he had been submerged once, his white face make-up running and the black around his eyes making it look like another mask before he wiped it away.

,,I hope my Emperor can forgive me…I was afraid for a moment that it was your brother and I would have to call you,” she admitted and felt his hand move up her thigh, soft skin smooth through the milky water with yellowish and white daffodils specially grown for the Empress, her favorite flowers.

She saw him roll his eyes, he was hardly ever on speaking terms with his elder brother Caracalla but it flattered him when she admitted that her husband was her salvation.

Simple flattery between them but you had to keep an emperor of the world happy in one way or another. ,,You are forgiven and you must be unconcerned only the two of us are here,” the blond murmured and she felt his fingers go up further, a smug expression as he ignored her midsection and instead ran his fingers over her lips before engaging her in a kiss.

Greedily, he took her lips, rasped her words and the two bodies drifted lightly against each other through the water, lightly pushing aside the flowers and coming to rest at the edge of the pool.

His lips broke away from hers, but his hands remained on her body, running down her cheek to her neck, seeming to enjoy her steady pulse, ,,I'm always soothed when you're with me, my love,” she assured him, stroking his curly blonde hair, feeling him nuzzle his head against her hand for a moment and knowing that he enjoyed it when she played with his curls.

Especially when they lay together in the big four-poster bed after a bath a few hours later and he put his hands around her and didn't let go while she ran her hands through his hair until he fell asleep.

The quiet moment pleasant between them was the excitement of the Colosseum behind them both, his excitement was so much enjoyed that Rome's fate lay on his and his brother's shoulders, war had to be fought and a kingdom had to be preserved.

It was all the nicer when they could spend their time together in the evening, ,,The fight today I think the wagering was unpleasant” he joked and told her about the rumors and gossip of the senate as his fingers casually wandered into her hair and he took out the hairpin and her hair now touched the water.

During the day she always had it up because of the sun and heat to avoid sweating even more, but in the bath she had actually known to apply a special tincture that shouldn't get wet until it was absorbed, but now she could forget about it. ,,You're even prettier this way,” he said and ran his hand over her strand of hair, playing with it by wrapping the long needle around it and watching the water drip down it while her hand played with his curls from time to time.

It was a slow evening, an evening in which she let him talk, enjoyed the little games and massages between them, the kisses he initiated and was grateful that he had had her warm bathrobe brought so that they arrived in bed together warmed up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caracalla

Geta's older brother, Caracalla, was a young man who, even though he was the most powerful of the current world, had completely different interests. He was not concerned with the people, the war was an amusement for him and victories were a matter of course.

No, what mattered to him was his amusement and that he wasn't bored because there was nothing worse than being bored, a wlet's existence in a long world was bad because he was always looking for entertainment.

Not only in his beloved wife, the Empress of Rome, his love and his everything and this entertainment, this amusement, was also part of his life and, as on this evening, also in the large bath which was also in the emperor's palace. The bath was specially equipped for him with beautiful ornaments and decorations a favorite gods and past people so that his imagination was stimulated, including a statue of his wife in a godly disguise.

But that's not why he ran into the bath with his things in his arms - on the contrary, he gripped the wood in his arms tightly and looked from afar at the naked person in the large basin. ,,Attention! The fleet is attacking!” he shouted and heard the surprised sound of his wife before he landed in the water and the wooden toys scattered on the water and individual flowers almost threatened to drown.

Colorful flowers that resembled a rainbow many colors were his wife's favorite even though he preferred blood red he liked her devotion to color.

After hastily emerging, he laughed when he saw that his waves from the jump had completely overwhelmed her and she brushed the strands of hair from her face, ,,A surprise attack is not a bad tactic,” she admitted before she lunged and splashed water at him, causing his make-up to melt and him to spit water.

The two young adults could be heard laughing as she swam closer to him and fished the sponge out of the water she had been using just minutes before and began wiping the makeup off his face while his jittery fingers ran over her body.

From light tickling movements that made her grin to something lewd, she felt him run his hands over her chest to get a reaction from her, always watching what she did, how her gaze changed, whether her lips moved up or down, and especially whether she did the same.

,,My battle emperor forgets I'm busy, doesn't he?” she murmured and rubbed a little harder over his cheek to get the last of the white face make-up off, which he answered with a shrug and a playful dive. She rolled her eyes and still kept an eye out for him, she liked his playful manner and knew that sometimes he was just a bit more playful than his brother, but still the co-emperor of rome.

She had respect for him, but just as often she had to stand up for him when Geta went too far with his sayings and especially his looks and actions, which made those moments of peace and togetherness all the more important. ,,A bestial water creature under me, what am I supposed to do?” she asked loud enough for him to understand and let out a laugh as she felt him dive under her and throw her up very lightly, landing in the water again.

Once again the flowers floated everywhere and the wooden figures sloshed their own way as Caracalla took her hand and gave it a gentle kiss, ,,Forgive me my beloved but this creature is now defeated,” he chuckled and she ran her hand over his blond hair before kissing him on the forehead and taking one of the wooden figures.

It was actually a toy for children, for the future heir of Rome, but Caracalla still enjoyed it and she steered one of the ships towards him while he took one of the catapults and placed a rose on it, ,,And sunk!” he exclaimed, and the blast flew through the air and hit her ship with pinpoint accuracy, sinking it.

They fought a toy battle over several waves and waves until there were hardly any flowers left in the water as they were all shot out of the water and she saw that Caracalla was getting bored again.

Which is why she grabbed the warm tunics and decided to play a different kind of game, a game that could last all night and that she would never get tired of and that the bath would only be the beginning of a battle-filled devotion, that much they both knew when their lips found each other again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[candycandy00]

Once Upon a Time - A Higuruma x Reader Fanfic Part 1

Retold fairytales featuring the JJK men! This is The Little Mermaid featuring Higuruma! You’re a mermaid obsessed with the human world, and in love with one particular human: the lawyer named Higuruma. You make a deal with the sea witch to become human, but you only have three days to win his love!

Part 1 | Part 2

Read Gojo x Cinderella Here!

Read Sukuna x Sleeping Beauty here!

Read Choso x Rapunzel Here!

Read Toji x Snow White Here!

Smut. 18+. Fem Reader. AU. Reader is a mermaid. Reader becomes mute. Light violence. Oral sex. 

Dividers by @animatedglittergraphics-n-more and @drizztdohurtin!

The water gets warmer as you swim upwards, toward the light of the sun. You accidentally disturb a school of small fish, stopping to apologize even though they don’t understand your language. You hurry on, afraid you might be too late today. 

If only your sisters hadn’t delayed you. “Stop going to the surface!” they told you. They’re always scolding you, always giving you cryptic warnings about humans. They don’t understand. They’ve only come to the surface of the sea a handful of times between them, and you’ve come hundreds of times in the past year. You pride yourself in knowing more about humans than any other merfolk.

You break the surface of the water, feeling the glorious sun on your face. You only bask in its warmth for a few seconds before swimming over to the island, to the long wooden structures the humans call “docks”. There, it’s easy to hide beneath the boards and peek up at the people moving about on their lovely legs.  

But there’s one human in particular you’ve come to see. Every day he’s here at the docks for while, walking around, talking to various people. 

You dart around under the water, coming up every so often to look around for him. It takes only a few minutes to find him, standing on one of the wooden structures, talking to an aging human man. You swim over quickly to hide beneath his feet and listen to his conversation.

“I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Higuruma,” the older man is saying. 

“I’m just doing my job,” Higuruma, your favorite human, replies. “That contract was clearly predatory. I’m glad I could get it voided for you.”

“You don’t think the Russo family will retaliate, do you? My wife is afraid they’ll burn down our shop.”

Higuruma pats the old man on the back. “Don’t worry. They’ve never targeted any of my past clients. They try to work within the system to exploit people with their contracts, but I don’t know of them ever using violence. Besides, if they were going to go after anyone, it would be me.”

The old man seems comforted by this, but then says, “You be careful, Mr. Higuruma. You’ve helped a lot of people since you came here. We don’t want to lose you.”

Wait. Lose him? Does that mean he’s in danger? Your heart begins to race at the very thought. You couldn’t bear it if something happened to him!

He showed up on the island a little over a year ago, and you were instantly intrigued. He seemed so different from the other humans who lived on the island. He wore strange clothing, long black pants and a white shirt with buttons that looked far too clean. The islanders wore colorful shorts and tops. He seemed to struggle with the heat, making you wonder what sort of land he came from. 

Higuruma seemed more serious than the other humans you observed. He often looked troubled as he walked around the docks, talking to the various people there. He talked about contracts a lot, and you often heard words like “predatory” and “illegal”. 

From listening to his conversations everyday, you gathered that some people on the island called “the Russo family” are hurting other people on the island with their contracts. Higuruma is some kind of expert, and he came here to help people get out of these bad contracts. 

Everyday he‘s here, trying to help people. Once you understood that, your admiration for him only grew. And over the past year, you’ve completely fallen for him. 

You stare up through the cracks in the wood. He’s apparently already been here for a while today, as he’s already rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and undone the first three buttons at his collar. He wipes his brow with the back of his hand as he continues talking. 

Ah, he’s so handsome! Even when he looks like he might wilt in the sun. At your age, you should have already chosen a mate, and if Higuruma were merfolk, you would choose him in a heartbeat. 

Or, even better, if you were human…

No, that can never be. It’s something you dreamt of as a child, always wishing you could walk onto the shore and dance with the smiling islanders, that you could live in the sun. 

Higuruma stops speaking mid sentence, and you realize he’s looking straight down. You freeze, staring up at his lovely dark eyes. Can he see you? Impossible! The crack is so tiny! Just in case, you duck back under the water. 

With a casual wave, Higuruma walks away from his client on the dock, his footsteps making the wood creak. After getting back on the sandy shore, he glances back, at the space beneath the dock. 

Since coming to the island, he’s consistently had the feeling that he’s being watched. He at first thought it might be someone from the Russo family keeping tabs on him, but over time the strange feeling has become oddly comforting. He senses no hostility at all. Quite the opposite in fact. 

Just now on the dock, he thought he saw movement through the cracks in the wood. Was it just the water? He shakes his head to banish the thoughts. Right now, he needs to focus on his work. He has a very important case. 

A young family of four was targeted by the Russos, tricked into signing a contract that would give the Russos nearly complete control over their little upstart bait shop. They’d been naive, thinking the Russos would support them financially until their shop got started, in exchange for a cut of the profits. They expected a fair deal. 

What they got was the Russos controlling everything they did and taking over half the money, long after the shop became popular on the island. Higuruma has spent the past week reading and rereading the contract at night, looking for mistakes or loopholes. He thinks he’s found one, and will present his case before a judge tomorrow. 

He walks through the town, saying his hellos to the people who greet him warmly, and heads straight to his favorite spot on the island. 

On the west side, there’s an old abandoned dock. The small beach there is rarely used by anyone, making it seem like a private piece of paradise. For Higuruma, it’s his “thinking spot”. 

The sea breeze is warm on his face as he steps out from the line of palm trees, stopping for a moment to take off his shoes and roll up his pant legs. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore is rhythmic and soothing as he walks toward the water’s edge. 

He sits down in the sand, at the precise spot where the water will slide up to wet his feet but go no further, leaving his clothes dry. To his left is the shabby dock, its wood heavily damaged by age and weather. 

With a sigh, he leans his head back, looking up at the pink-tinted sky. It’s almost sundown, the time when he should be at home preparing for the hearing. But he needs these little moments of peace to keep himself from getting burnt out. He doesn’t want a repeat of what happened on the mainland. 

After a few minutes, he raises his head and glances out over the shimmering water…

And sees a woman staring at him. 

He blinks, rubs his tired eyes, and looks again. Now there’s no one in the water. Is he imagining things? If so, his imagination is more vivid than he thought. The woman was waist deep in the sea, and quite beautiful. 

He’s had this particular daydream before, thinking he’s seen a woman watching him from the water. But she always disappears so fast, he can only assume it’s an illusion, a trick of the light reflecting off the sea.  

Higuruma stands up and dusts himself off. He looks at the dock and wonders if he could get a better view of the spot he saw the woman if he walks out on the boards. How sturdy is this old dock? Surely it would be blocked off if it’s a major safety hazard, right? 

Walking carefully, he makes his way to the end of the dock and looks out over the sea, squinting his eyes against the glimmering sun on the waves. Seeing nothing, he sighs again, feeling foolish. As he starts to turn back, he hears the wood creaking behind him. 

“Hey, you’re that lawyer Higuruma, right?” 

He turns to see four large men walking toward him on the dock. None of them are familiar, and none of them look friendly. So the Russo family finally decided to make a move. 

“Yeah, that’s me,” he says nonchalantly. “Why? Do you guys need some legal advice?”

The men glance at each other, but keep walking toward him. Higuruma knows how this will play out. They’ll threaten him or rough him up, try to intimidate him into dropping the various cases he has lined up against the Russos. He’s never been the best fighter, always relying on his intelligence to get him out of trouble, but he’s not exactly a weakling either. If there were only two of them, he might have a shot at getting away unscathed. But there’s four, and they’re all considerably bigger than him. 

No point trying to run, not on this dock. Might as well take whatever they plan to give then. 

To his surprise, none of them try to talk to him at all. No threats, no demands, they simply begin punching him. He takes three hits to the face. From the same guy? From three different ones? He doesn’t know because he shut his eyes after the first. 

He feels a kick to his knee, taking him down, then several kicks to his gut, knocking the wind out of him. While he’s gasping for air, one of them shoves him off the dock and into the water. 

Higuruma can swim, but he’s never been especially great at it, and he’s never had to immediately after taking a beating, when he’s already struggling to breathe. 

He feels the waves tossing him about, at one point slamming him into one of the dock’s support beams. His mouth inadvertently opens, and sea water rushes in. That’s when he blacks out. 

When he wakes up again, he’s lying on his back on the shore. It’s nearly night, dark enough to obscure the person leaning over him. It’s a woman. The same one he’s been seeing in the water, and he can just make out enough of her facial features to see that she wears a worried expression. 

“Who… are you?” he croaks out, his throat raw from the salt water. 

She doesn’t speak a word, only moves away from him, so quickly that by the time he manages to sit up, she’s no longer in sight. Where the hell did she even go?

He rubs the back of his head, checking for bumps or injuries. His face and stomach are sore, but nothing else seems to be damaged. 

She saved him, didn’t she? 

You swim away at top speed, your heart hammering in your chest. You touched him! You let him see you! 

Interacting with humans, under any circumstances, is strictly forbidden! But when you saw him being hurt and falling into the water, you couldn’t stop yourself from helping him. 

It’ll be alright! He’ll probably just think he was confused or half dreaming. He almost drowned after all. There’s no way he’ll remember you. 

You stop suddenly, letting the gentle currents carry you. He’ll forget you. He’ll think you were a figment of his imagination. You know this is how it should be, how it has to be, but the thought still makes tears come to your eyes, leaking out to blend in with the sea. 

How you wish you could be human, so that you could run onto the shore and greet him, tell him how much you admire him, how much you want him to be your mate. 

Feeling a bit raw and emotional, you begin swimming again, eager to get back home. Until you’re stopped by two young mermen, twins with dark hair who look to be in their late teens. 

“We saw what you did,” one of them says, his face completely devoid of expression. 

“What?” you ask, pretending not to know what he’s talking about. If he did see, and tells anyone, you could be in big trouble with your father. 

“You saved a human,” the other twin says in an equally flat and creepy way. 

You frown at them. “I just dragged him to shore. He would’ve died.”

The two of them swim closer, circling around you. “Even if we see a human child fall in the water, we’re forbidden from helping.”

The other one chimes in, “Too much risk of humans discovering our existence. That’s your father’s rule, isn’t it?”

You look back and forth between them. Clearly they’re threatening to report this to your father. “What do you want from me?”

They exchange glances. “Us? We want nothing,” one of them says. 

“But you clearly want something,” the other adds. “That human man, perhaps?”

You look down sadly. “It doesn’t matter what I want. I can’t have it. I’ve made peace with that.”

“Have you?”

“Have you really given up on your dream?”

Your eyes shift back to their blank faces. “What choice do I have? He’s human. I’m merfolk. We live in different worlds.”

They finally smile, both of them at the same time. “Oh, you have a choice,” they say in eerie unison. “Come see our grandmother.”

“Grandmother?” you ask, confused.

One twin swims close enough to touch you, his fin brushing past yours. “People call her the sea witch.”

“But she helps those in need,” the second twin says. 

Oh. You’ve heard of her. “For a price,” you add. 

They both nod. “For a price.”

You would give anything to be human, to live in that world with Higuruma, but you’ve heard horrible tales of the sea witch tricking people into losing the things they most value. Still, you’ve also heard stories of people being satisfied with whatever deal she proposed. 

“How can she help me?” you ask. What you want is impossible. Surely it’s beyond even her power. 

“Come and see,” they say. 

You only give it a moment of thought before you agree, then swim behind them as they lead you to the witch. 

They take you to a sea cave, so deep and dark that you can barely see them swimming in front of you. The water is cold here, much colder than you’re used to, and there’s no current at all, making the sea feel almost dead here. 

As you swim further into the cave, you begin to see light ahead. Little bits of seashells are strung along the top of the cave, lit by some strange magic. It’s beautiful to behold, if a bit ominous. 

There in the deepest part of the cave floats an older mermaid with an unusually colored fin - a violet color that shimmers, reflecting the strange light. She’s staring at you as if she’s been waiting for your arrival, as if she’s known all along that her twin grandsons would convince you to come. 

“You’re the sea witch?” you ask, already knowing the answer.

“Yes, and you’re one of the king’s daughters,” she says, her voice having a bizarre echo in the cave. 

“I was told you can help me,” you say, eager to get to the point. 

She swims closer, and at this distance you can see her eyes more clearly. They’re absolutely haunting, large but empty and devoid of color. “I can help you help yourself. I can give you the tools you need to make your dream come true.”

You draw back reflexively. “You don’t even know what my dream is.”

“To be human,” she says. “To live with that man you saved.”

How does she know about that? The twins didn’t have time to tell her. Still… 

“Can you help me?”

She smiles. “Of course I can. I can transform your fin into human legs. After that, it will be your job to win the human man’s heart.”

You’ve already decided to take her deal, no matter what she wants of you. But just as a formality, you ask, “What’s the price?”

“Your voice, nothing more.”

That’s a surprising request. It will certainly hinder you in winning Higuruma’s heart, if you can’t even communicate with him. But love will find a way. 

“It’s yours,” you tell her. 

The sea witch grins. “Excellent! If you’ll just sign this contract, the deal will be finalized.”

“Contract?”

She holds up something, a glowing square that looks like a piece of paper humans write on. Words appear across it, and you read over them. 

“I understand that I have three days to make the human man fall in love with me. During this time, I will have human legs while surrendering my voice. If I succeed, I will become human permanently and regain my voice. If I fail, I will lose my human legs and my voice will become the permanent property of the Sea Witch. This agreement exists so long as my signature is on this contract.”

Ah, so you’ll either gain everything or lose everything. You’re willing to take that gamble! 

“How will I know for sure that I’ve succeeded?” you ask the witch as you take then pen she holds out for you. 

“With this,” she says, holding out a pendant in her other hand. It’s shaped like a heart, made of crystal, with golden trim. “As the human’s affection for you grows, the heart will turn red. Once it is completely full, you have won his love.”

You take the pendant, attached to a chain, and pull it over your head to wear as a necklace. Then you sign your name to the contract. 

The “paper” rolls into a scroll, and you take it as well. This is all done by magic, so you assume you’re bound to the terms regardless. 

“Take this,” the witch says, holding out a small glass bottle. “When you’re ready, drink this and your body will transform. At that time, you will lose your voice. I recommend getting close to the shore beforehand.”

You accept the bottle and swim away without another word, in a hurry to be away from this creepy place. 

You don’t drink the potion right away. Doing so would be foolish. Instead you spend the next day with your sisters, etching their faces and their voices in your mind. If all goes well, you’ll never see them again. That thought stings a little, as you do love them dearly, but you would never expect one of them to give up on her lifelong dream for your sake. So you won’t give up yours for them. 

When it gets close to sundown, you quietly slip away and swim for the surface, then head for the usually empty beach where you see Higuruma alone almost every day. You envision drinking the potion, gaining legs, and standing there at the beach waiting for him. It’ll be difficult to introduce yourself without your voice, but you’ll figure out how to convey your thoughts. He’s very smart, and should be able to understand you. 

You reach the shore and look around. It’s deserted as you expected. Higuruma should arrive soon, so you sit at the edge of the water and pull out the potion. The pendant is hanging from your neck, and the rolled up contract is in your free hand.

The potion shimmers when you hold the bottle up to the sun. You take a deep breath, then bring the bottle to your lips, downing the contents in one gulp. 

You feel it immediately, a savage pain radiating from your waist down to the tips of your fin. You collapse onto your back as waves of agony tear through you, as if your fin is being ripped in two. The witch never told you it would hurt so bad! 

With a gasp, you roll over, trying to crawl back to the sea. Something is wrong! She must have tricked you! But before you can reach the water, a stab of pain so intense that you think you’re dying shoots through your fin. You scream loudly, but the sound cuts off midway, leaving only silent horror as your voice disappears. 

After that, you pass out on the beach. 

Higuruma walks solemnly through town on his familiar path, his black jacket slung over his shoulder, barely looking up when people greet him as usual. 

His case didn’t go well today. The judge, who was always very fair before, was suddenly harsh and unsympathetic. Did the Russos get to him? It was a little suspicious that the judge had zero reaction to Higuruma’s black eye. Almost like he was expecting it. 

Seeing the disappointment and defeat on the faces of his young clients was the worst part. It reminded him a little too much of other faces, from other cases. 

He doesn’t plan to give up. There’s more than one judge on the island. But right now, he just wants to go to his private little spot, breathe in the sea breeze, watch the sunset, and forget all about today for those precious few minutes. 

There’s a thick line of palm trees and flowering shrubs that mark the edge of town, a line he must pass through to reach the old dock. He’s halfway through it when he hears a terrible scream. 

Was that a woman? It sounded like it came from the beach! Surely the Russos aren’t attacking random women there now! 

Higuruma breaks into a run, tearing through the trees as fast as he can, ignoring the shrub branches catching on his crisp white shirt. 

When he reaches the beach, he quickly spots a figure lying at the water’s edge. He rushes over, and is shocked to find a completely naked woman. He drapes his jacket over her and squats down, worried that she might have been assaulted. 

“Miss?” he asks, gently turning her so that she’s not face down in the sand. He doesn’t see any injuries, but she appears to be unconscious. Around her neck is a strange pendant, and in her hand is a rolled up piece of paper. 

He pulls the paper from her grasp, thinking it might be a clue to her identity or what happened to her. The first thing he notices is the bizarre texture of the “paper”. It doesn’t feel like paper at all. And the ink is even stranger. But most perplexing of all are the words written there. 

It’s a contract. But not a single word of it makes any sense. Trading voices for legs? Three days to make someone fall in love? It must be some sort of fantasy game she’s playing with someone. 

He rolls it back up and slips it into his pocket, then starts to pick her up so that he can carry her to the clinic in town. But just as he begins to touch her, she suddenly sits up. 

Higuruma is so surprised he falls back on his ass in the sand beside her. She looks around, then her eyes fall on him. They go wide, and then all at once she’s waving and making gestures in an excited fashion. 

“Hey, calm down, I’ll help you, okay?” he says, getting back to a more dignified position on his knees. “First of all, are you hurt?”

She stares at him blankly for a moment, then shakes her head. 

“Can you tell me your name?” 

If he can figure out who she is, he can take her to her family. 

She shakes her head again, then points to her mouth before shaking it once more. 

“You can’t speak?”

She nods. 

Well that’s going to make this a bit more challenging. Yes or no questions only. 

“Do you live in town?”

No. 

“Do you live on this island?”

No. 

“Where did you come from?” Shit, that’s not a yes or no question!

Before he can rephrase, she stretches out her arm and points to the water. 

… Huh? She’s from the sea? At that moment, looking back at her face, he realizes she’s familiar. She looks like the woman who saved him yesterday, the woman he’s glimpsed watching him from the water. Is this her? 

No, it can’t be. She just coincidentally resembles the person who saved him, if that person even exists. He was pretty groggy when he woke up on the beach, and he’s been stressed out lately. 

“You mean you come from another island?” he asks, thinking that must be why she pointed that direction. 

She hesitates for a moment, then nods. 

He wonders how she ended up here, naked on the beach. Then an unlikely but theoretically possible idea hits him. “Did you just wash up here? Did you fall off a ship?”

Again, she hesitates before giving a nod. 

That would certainly explain a lot. If she was trying to swim to shore, a heavy dress would have been a major impediment. Of course she’d pull it off to survive. 

Still, she seems awfully fine with being nude. She still has his jacket draped over her, but it’s slipped down enough to bare more skin than most women would be comfortable showing to a stranger. He’s been trying to avoid staring out of politeness, but it’s getting hard to ignore the lovely breasts peeking out, especially when she’s making zero effort to cover them up. 

He stands up and he holds his hand out to her. “Let’s get you to the clinic so they can check you over, make sure you’re not injured.”

She takes his hand quickly, an excited smile on her pretty face. He can’t help finding the gesture very charming. 

Just as he pulls her to her feet, her smiling face twists in agony and she crumples against him. He instinctively wraps his arms around her to keep her from falling. 

“Hey, are you alright? Are your legs hurt?” he asks, thinking she might have a broken ankle or some other type of injury that would be difficult to spot. 

She clutches his shirt in her hands and shakes her head no again, then looks up at him and smiles. What was that about? 

He’s suddenly aware that he’s holding a beautiful naked woman in his arms, and he feels heat spreading over his face. He’s feeling something else too, and hopes to god she doesn’t notice. This is definitely not an appropriate situation to be horny! 

“We need to get you some clothes,” he says. “You can’t just walk through town like this. If you’ll wait here, I can go get you some-“

She grabs his shirt again and shakes her head, looking alarmed. 

“You don’t want me to leave you?” he asks. 

She nods quickly. 

He supposes that makes sense. She’s probably afraid to be alone after what she’s been through. 

“The clinic is in the middle of town though,” he says, wondering how to navigate this situation. She’s still clinging to him, and he gets the impression she’ll fall if he lets her go. Maybe her muscles are cramping from swimming for so long. 

“I guess I could take you to my place and let you wear something of mine. I live on the outskirts so maybe no one will see you.”

She smiles brightly then, and nods. His jacket has almost completely fallen off her, so he readjusts it for her, wondering why he’s trying so hard to guard her modesty when she seems totally disinterested in it. 

Probably because he’s trying very hard to remain a gentleman. 

She hangs onto his arm and leans against him as he helps her head through the tree line, toward his small house. 

There are two feelings dominating your very being at this moment: elation at being so close to Higuruma and the utter torment of walking on these human legs. 

You had no idea they would hurt so bad. Do all humans endure this pain? No, you’ve watched them for years. You’ve never seen any indication that they feel pain while standing or walking. If so, how could they run and dance? Maybe it’s because yours are so new, or because they’re made from magic. You seriously hope the pain will subside after a while. 

But even if it doesn’t, you have no intention of giving up. You’ll take any pain if it means being human. 

You love leaning on Higuruma, feeling his warm body against yours, smelling his scent, hearing his voice so close to your ear. It seems so strange to have him looking straight at you after all this time of trying to avoid his gaze. 

He keeps talking about getting you clothes. You’ve observed humans enough to know that they cover their bodies, but you’ve never understood why. It’s just now dawning on you that being unclothed must be shameful to them. It makes you feel a little embarrassed. 

You know for a fact that humans take off their clothes to mate. You’ve seen them do it on the beach late at night when they thought they were alone. You’ve watched in amazement as couples join together, moaning and gasping in pleasure. 

Merfolk do not mate in that way, but they are very free with their affection for those they love. Mating is a completely different process, less intimate, though done with great love. You’ve always wanted to try mating like humans do, despite not having the ability to do so until now. 

There is one intimate act you could have done before, that you witnessed at the beach one night. A human woman got on her knees in front of her mate, opened his pants, and used her mouth to pleasure his mating organ. 

You watched breathlessly, growing heated even in the water, entranced by how much they both seemed to enjoy it. 

After that, you began to fantasize about swimming up to Higuruma while he sat on the dock and doing that with him. It was still an impossible dream, as doing so would require you to reveal yourself, but you could at least clearly imagine it. 

Now, as you struggle through the pain to walk while staying pressed against him, those fantasies are coming to the front of your mind. 

He stops at a human dwelling, a small wooden structure with only a few similar structures around it. The sun has completely set, but there’s still enough light to see the faded white paint on the exterior and the cracked blue door. After opening it, Higuruma helps you inside. 

You’ve never been inside a human home before, so you’re finding it very difficult to act calm. It’s so warm inside! Higuruma helps you over to some sort of large, soft seat and then begins turning lights on. You’ve seen the pretty artificial lights humans make, but you didn’t realize they have so many! 

As you look around in wonder, Higuruma disappears through a door. He returns carrying some clothes. 

“I don’t really own a lot of casual clothes,” he says as he hands the folded items to you. “I hope you don’t mind a T-shirt and boxers. I promise they’re clean.”

You recognize the term “shirt” from listening to humans for so long, but you don’t think you’ve heard “boxers” before. You unfold the two pieces of clothing and look them over. The “boxers” are apparently shorts. These are blue with red circular spots all over them. So he does have some colorful clothes! You wonder why you’ve never seen him in them before as you carefully stand up, trying hard not to let him see you wincing. 

He quickly turns his back to you. “Let me know if you need help. Uh, just bang on the coffee table or something to get my attention.”

You’ve seen humans dressing and undressing before, so you think you know how to do it. The only problem is keeping your balance on your new, painful feet. You sit back down and pull the shorts over one foot, then the other. 

Soon you’re dressed, feeling more human than ever. You wish you could find a reflective surface to look at, so you could see yourself in clothes. Will you look more appealing to Higuruma this way? 

You need to let him know you’re finished, so you take the few agonizing steps over to him and tap on his shoulder with your fingers. 

He turns, looks you up and down, and his face becomes slightly pink. “Uh, we should get you to the clinic, have a doctor look you over. I’m concerned about your legs.”

Doctor? Oh no. A human doctor might be able to tell you’re not human yourself. You shake your head, trying to motion with your arms that you don’t want to go. 

Higuruma looks confused for a moment, then hurries into another room and comes back with a pen and some sort of block of paper. He hands them to you. 

Human pens are different from what you use, but the writing system is the same. You write out the words, “No doctor. Please.”

He reads them and looks back at you. “Are you sure? You seem to be hurt.”

You shake your head and write, “Just tired.”

He seems uneasy, but eventually says, “Okay. No doctor. Is there someone I can call for you? Family?”

You think for a moment, then write, “No family. Can I stay with you?”

His eyes move over the words, then shift to your face. “I guess you could stay here tonight,” he says, making you smile. Then he taps the paper with one finger and says, “Can you tell me your name?”

You write it down for him and he reads it out loud. Hearing him say your name makes you feel giddy. 

“I’m Higuruma Hiromi,” he says. “Nice to meet you.”

You decide to write something else on the paper: “Thank you for helping me!”

He gives you a subtle smile. “You’re welcome. Are you okay with sleeping on the couch? I can get you a blanket.”

He’s gestured toward the large soft seat. So this is a couch? It certainly looks comfortable to sleep on. You nod and he steps out again, returning with what he called a “blanket”. It’s a big, soft piece of fabric. Oh! This must be something you cover yourself with to stay warm at night! 

“I have some work to do before going to bed, so I’ll be awake for a while. If you need anything, let me know. Feel free to eat or drink anything you like.”

You really don’t want him to leave, so you hurriedly write something and then tap his shoulder to stop him. 

“What kind of work?” your note reads. 

“Oh, I’m a lawyer,” he says.  “I specialize in contracts. I have several cases coming up soon so I’m going over some notes.” He pauses, then reaches into his pocket. “That reminds me, you were holding this when I found you. I know it’s just pretend, but in my professional opinion, you got a bad deal.”

In his hand is the rolled up contract you have with the sea witch. You take it, feeling panic rise in your heart. He read it?! Then he knows everything? Wait… he said it was pretend. So he thinks it’s not real…

You smile and nod, trying to seem normal about it, but you’re so distracted that you fail to stop him when he turns to walk out again. Left alone in the room, you sit back down on the couch. You pull the pendant from beneath the shirt you’re wearing and look at it. 

There’s a tiny little speck of red at the bottom! He’s starting to like you! 

After sitting on the couch for a while, you grow restless. You’re very aware of your time limit ticking down. You want to win his love right now! But even more than that, you just want to be with him. Would he be bothered if you go to him now? He said he’s working, but you don’t mind watching him work. 

Gathering your courage, you stand up and make your way through the room, toward the door he went through. You’re getting more accustomed to moving around on these legs. They still hurt, but the pain has become more bearable. 

When you reach the door, you’re not sure how to open it. He turned the knob on the first door to get into the house. Does that work for this one as well? You put one hand on it and use the same twisting motion he used. It worked! 

The door slides open and you get your first view of what must be his private room. The lights are dim, only a small one on a stick with some sort of fabric covering it, sitting on a small table. Higuruma himself is sitting in a chair at this table, several pieces of paper scattered across it. He looks up at you as you cross into the room. 

There’s a flicker of surprise on his face, and you notice for the first time how tired he looks. He turns in his chair and says, “Do you need something?”

You wish you could shout, “Yes! I need you!” Unfortunately that’s impossible right now. How can you express your affection for him? 

You walk over to him and put one hand on his shoulder. His eyes flick to your hand and back to your face. He scoots the chair back from the table and starts to get up, but you press lightly on his shoulder to stop him. Then you slowly lower yourself to your knees, just as you saw the human woman do it on the beach that night. 

His eyes widen. “What are you doing?” he asks, his voice almost a whisper. He makes no move to stop you. 

You stare up at him, hoping he can see the desire on your face. Your hands rest on his thighs, gently nudging them apart. 

“You don’t have to do this,” he tells you, perhaps thinking you feel indebted to him for helping you. 

You look at the table full of papers behind you. There’s a pen there as well. You grab it and hastily write, “I want to” on one of the papers. 

His face is slightly pink again. He swallows, then asks, “Are you sure?”

You nod emphatically. 

He hesitates, seems to be thinking it over, then sighs and mutters, “Fuck it, I’ve had a long day.” Then he opens his pants and pulls out his mating organ. 

Your eyes shine as you look at it. You’ve imagined it so many times, dreamed of touching it, tasting it, feeling it, that you can’t suppress your excitement. 

You reach out one hand and curl your fingers around the warm, meaty rod. It grows bigger and harder under your touch, surprising you with its size. 

This is new territory for you, but you remember that woman on the beach and decide to mimic her actions. You lean forward and give a tentative lick, right across the tip, then slide your tongue along the length, tasting his salty skin and leaving a trail of your saliva. After that, you take as much of it as possible into your mouth. 

Higuruma inhales sharply, his hands on the sides of his chair, as you begin sliding your lips up and down the shaft. Ah, this is what you’ve fantasized about for so long! Having him in your mouth is making your whole body feel hot. There’s a strange dampness between your legs, a sensation you’ve never felt before. Is this what arousal is like for humans? 

Your tongue rubs the underside of him as you push your head forward, letting his tip hit the back of your throat. One of his hands leaves the chair to rest on your head, his fingers gently threading through your hair. He’s enjoying it! You lift your eyes to look up at him while you pull back slightly, lapping at the fluid that’s leaking from the tip. 

His eyes meet yours, his breaths coming more quickly. You lick your lips then wrap them around him, tightening them at his base. You hear a quiet groan above you as the hot organ in your mouth twitches. His fingers bury themselves in your hair as his body goes rigid. Then warm, gooey strings of fluid shoot down your throat. You swallow it hungrily, remembering from the various couples you’ve watched that this happens when a man is pleased. 

You draw back and look up. Higuruma’s face is a little red and his chest is rising and falling rapidly. You carefully get to your feet and step toward the door, turning back only once to smile and wave at him. He looks utterly bewildered as you walk out and close the door behind you.  

[fure-dcmk]

FINALLY WATCHED THE MOVIE first impression rambling >>>

[MILLION DOLLAR PENTAGRAM SPOILER WARNING]

HEIJI WAS SOOOOO COOL. HANDSOME. TERRIFIC. the first 20 minute is just me losing my mind from all the heiji details

>> heiji and kid bantering about fairy lips in the intro. kid going your fault for not noticing hmmp! <- huh? are you a tsundere heroine

>> HEIJI ORIGINAL DUFFLE BAG!!! CAMEO-ING IN 2024!!!

>> 4 new outfit from heiji that fits him so well... handsome guy

>> a fairy lip redraw. i died

how the hell did heiji brought his bike with him all the way in HOKKAIDO. you can almost way osaka to tokyo is only half of the travel to hokkaido how many day trip would it take to reach that far. also a jp tweet i read once brought to question how a high schooler was able to use the high way. did he brought kazuha with her in this extreme trip? with the excuse that he's going for a kendo tournament... when his bigger agenda is to confess. everything about the bike being there doesn't make sense but i give it a pass for being cool 😁👍

and the heikazu scene.,.. i came there fully expecting to not care at all but they actually made me invested. ran was SOOOO CUTE her excitement directly influenced me to also want to see heiji succeed. heiji asking if the legendary 100 million night view is better than big ben and ran agreeing just to placate him for the sake of her otp 😭

THE STUN GRENADE! the fact that kazuha immediate reaction is to protect heiji ears.... her self sacrificial nature a call back to mermaid island in the most subtle way 🥹🥹🥹 heiji shocked eyes was so cute. and heiji confession speech isnt cringe and is actually cute! shocker! (sorry trauma from heart anniversary lines its so awful im dnfuebdjfjf) devastated such an ideal confession scene was wasted. but its from kazuha trying to save heiji SO FORGIVEN

need to make sure ppl know im a momiji enjoyer. all her faults are forgiven purely cuz she is funny. let a rich girl be delulu !

also loove how they keep cannonizing her keen hearing from m21 THIS IS THE APPEAL OF KAZUHA THEY GET IT

touichi gifting a lost national treasure to his little brother yuusaku for winning the macademy award, as well as keeping in touch with him and gifting various trinkets.... meanwhile keeping his own son completely in the dark that he's alive this entire time...

conclusion 1: worst parent award goes to kuroba touichi 🥳🥳🥳

conclusion 2: ah he's definitely a brocon huh

kills me that everyone is dejected that the katana with the star shaped guard is a lost treasure. meanwhile its quitely sitting in kudo yuusaku's store room cuz his big brother gifted it to him LIKE SDJDJFF!? turning your justice leaning lil bro into an accomplices. the gag potential here is so made for me

shoutout to sonoko who took up haibara's usual information provider role. every scene with her was animated so cutely IM SHOCKED m27 doing excellent job at showing off her cuteness. there is a fun parallel to think about, sonoko was the first person heiji went to to get information on kudo's whereabout, and now heiji is also going to her for information ♥️ heiji-sonoko friendship crumb thank you for the food

this movie really play a lot with the crumbs from kendo school tournament arc. heiji-ran friendship makes me want to cry, ran efficiently karate chopping hijiri to make sure theres no distractions for heikazu 🥺😭 ive been convinced on okita's cuteness the past 3 month cuz if the okita fanart boom in my corner of jp twitter but watching it for myself... he really have it bad for heiji LMAO wdym "it's boring if hattori ain't here~" how much did you say this for kaitou kid to catch that its a good trait for an okita disguise. im glad this movie give a good balance of real okita and fake okita, m10 still makes me so sad for having ZERO real hakuba 🥲 kid's dosu e~ is so moeblob

ah i still got so many word vomit on this movie it seems to be never ending 😭😭

my final review of the movie is this is my no 1 fav conan movie of all time, 2nd place is bride of halloween. i still havent rank anything below that properly. im truly entertained by this movie it got so many characters i care about with a lot of bombastic scenes. as much as i want to say my ultimate fav is m7 and m21, both of them are kinda... slow with all the deduction talk. im here for eye candy after all 😔 mixing kid's energy is doing wonders for the tone of a heiji movie. heiji's presence is also doing wonders for KID as well cuz gosh!!! KID has never emit this much childlike moe blob energy. heiji and conan being the straight man to kid's prank is the dynamic really help to emphasize his whimsical energy

and the final theme i caught; parallelism where hijiri is willing to do anything to protect his father's legacy only for us to find that its all for naught.... now why does this sound familiar 🤔🤔🤔

rewatching the movie tomorrow so ill probably do another ramble on it

[heartfullofleeches]

Thembo Shark Reader...

Just this massive behemoth who clears out entire beaches in mere seconds - because they smelled raw meat cooking at one of the pits.

Shark Reader can't catch a break. They're hunted by schools of merfolk, fishermen, and royalty at sea - pursued by life guards and people they've dragged to shore on land. Shark Reader is a passive giant just looking for their next meal and resting place. It's easy to pick up on their docile nature within a few minutes of meeting them - unless they got something in those chompers and asking their new companions if they see the cause of their parallel. That exact scene is what lead to them gaining their little following of merfolk who tailed them from coast to coast. While the meats and other good had been a fine meal, plastic coolers weren't the best thing for a shark's diet and had gotten stuck in their gums. They reworked a net conveniently cast out to sea into floss, freeing the distressed goldfish in the process. They were prepared to swim off and go about the rest of their day - ambushed by the teary eyed school the mermaid belonged to. It's easy to keep their big lovable shark around by catching a couple fish or luring humans out to sea. As long as they fillet their catches properly - Reader can't tell the difference.

Some shitposts under the cut

Yan Sea Captain: Today will finally be the day I catch that beast. A new frame will hang on my wall when its finally mine.

Crew Mate: You mean like that oil painting of you and it in your bedroom.

Yan Sea Captain: Another word and you'll be the bait

-

[Shark Reader carries a surfer back to shore and sticks their board in the sand]

Shark Reader: Not Safe that far out. Sharks

Surfer: o-ok... [frantically searches for that "lifeguard for hire" poster they saw at the entrance to the beach]

Yan Lifeguard, standing on a boat: Are you ready for your first swimming lesson?

"n-no?"

Yan Lifeguard: Fantastic! [yeets their victim into the water and swims back to shore waiting for someone to notice]

-

Yan Researcher: All that time wasted. Had I know this would be the way to win your heart, I'd have done it the day we met, my love

Shark Reader, on their twelfth tuna sandwich and fifth raw steak: I thought it would be pretty obvious

[thoughtsforsoob]

date ideas with riize!

genre: fluff

note: im just getting into riize but gosh...they have me in such a chokehold. i think im leaning into biasing anton/eunseok. i dont even know tho because sungchan is just so...delicous. please accept this nibble of content :3

shotaro

he takes you to japan for the first time and knows exactly where to take you on your first date there. he plans a whole day at disneyland! it's so cliche but he thinks it's so cute. you two wear little matching outfits and he buys you too matching ears. you two taste all the popcorn flavors and snacks, get on all the rides, and take tons of coupely pictures. he loves watching the night parade with you all snuggled up to his side. he holds you tight the whole train ride home.

eunseok

he kind of gives me homebody vibes and im not too sure why. his ideal date is just finding something to do at home. he loves picking a movie to watch or a series to binge. he'll order food for the both of you ad while you're waiting, you two run off to the convinence store to get alcohol. sometimes, he'll pull out the karaoke mic's and you two will have your own karaoke/dance party in your pjs.

sungchan

gives very cozy/chill bf vibes :) he likes to take you on drives and sometimes, he'll even pack up a picnic (comprising of snacks and rice balls he picked up at the grocery store) and take you to a pretty park. he always brings an extra sweater/jacket for you, especially when it's cold, because he knows you love how he smells.

wonbin

photo shoots! you two meet up at your apartment and you get each other dressed. you help him pick some clothes and he helps you pick some clothes too. once you’re all dolled up, you grab you phones and cameras of choice and find a cute place to go take each other pictures. You make sure to get a drink together too as well (he’s for sure taking super cute candid pictures of you while you sip your drink). He also pays to have your film developed :) what a sweet heart.

seunghan

he loves to go out and foking partyyy. if you're not about it, of course he'll still offer a night out but let's just say you also like to go out and party. he always has a cool little club to go to. he's so protective! your drink is always in his hands and his eyes never leave it. he also doesn't let you go to the bathroom alone. he follows you into the hall where the bathroom is and waits outside for you. he panicks if you take longer than 5 minutes. the best part of the night for him is dancing with you and having a great time!

sohee

arcade date! he gives me fun vibes so his favorite dates are food, arcade, and maybe some drinks with karaoke after (he’s a big fan of round one). He’s so cute because he will play a claw machine over and over again until he wins you whatever little prize you told him you liked. He doesn’t care how much it’s costs, he’s going to win the prize. He never lets you pay for your own tokens/card points. He also loves karaoke because he gets to sing whatever he wants and he lowkey just wants to show off/impress you.

anton

he loves beach/pool days with you. its a win win for him! he gets to be in the water and he also gets to see you in cute swim attire! he def doesn't even care if you're not wearing a bikini or anything. he's the type to pull you into the pull if you're sunbathing or something and then he asks you to play mermaids with him. what a fucking nerd (im lying. i would still play mermaids with him at my grown age). anyways, he always asks you to make him little sandwiches because to pool tires him out. he always puts chips in his sandwich to add a crunch and had a juice box with his lunch.

[puckthisshift]

2024 Writing Wrap Up

I blame @sportspuckball and @fleurywiththesave for me posting this. Thanks wonderful friends.

I published 14 fics this past year, and still I somehow feel like I didn't have a productive year. I'm that person, I guess. It's mostly MattDrai, with the exception of one Sens fic (because I'm also that person).

All fics below the cut

MattDrai

One-shots

act like I don't care what you did (E, 6.4k): Matthew had grabbed Draisaitl’s thigh mostly by accident, but he wasn’t going to let that asshole know about that. But after making some promises, he finagles a bid for the winner’s room so he can deliver. And then some. How else is a guy supposed to get an apology out of Draisaitl?

I was done, the deal was signed (M, 41k): A marriage pact made between rivals was never meant to come to fruition. But in 2032, Leon Draisaitl is playing one last season, hoping to finally win a cup. He didn't expect Matthew Tkachuk to even remember the pact, let alone to hold him to it. And he definitely didn't expect happily ever after.

lift your hearts to the horizon (M, 14k): In which Matthew slut-shames Leon’s wandering heart, Leon makes declarations like the romance novel hero he is, and we ignore the rules of physics in favor of magic.

make this bed get squeaky (E, 8.7k): The Oilers win their series against the Flames and Leon feels like he deserves a reward. Showing up at Tkachuk’s house for a booty call feels like the natural next step.

no one's ever had me (not like you) (E, 17k): Matthew gets drafted by the Oilers knowing that if he makes the show, he’ll be expected to mate with one of the unmated Alphas. And Matthew wants to have it all: sex and hockey and a baby - and there’s only one Alpha he wants that with.

something happens when everybody finds out (T, 3.8k): Matthew had a plan for how to tell his family about his boyfriend. This wasn’t it.

welcome to the family business, you're already in this (M, 10k): The handshake line has one life-changing revelation for Leon Draisaitl.

when I just did my makeup so nice (E, 9.6k): Leon sneaks out of the team hotel and into a queer club. He doesn't expect to meet his dream guy, all dressed up and ready for Leon to make a mess of. For Leon, being down bad is an understatement.

you don't know why, but you're dying to try (E, 9.3k): The pissiest guy on earth visits the happiest place on earth in the summer of 2016. He keeps running into this annoying teenager while in line. With a little help from a mermaid princess, the pissy prince might even… kiss the boy.

you'll find that you were never not mine (T, 10k): Leon goes from moping over his ex beating him to the Cup to flying to St. Louis in the hopes of getting another shot at their relationship. All because of one single emoji

Multichapter and series

catch me, I'm falling (E, 9.8k): Matthew wakes up alone and confused the morning after saying Red to his one-night stand. He’s planning on going right to Biosteel Camp, but someone demands to take care of him.

And its partner flying head-first into fate (M, 4k): Leon just wanted Tkachuk's attention. He hadn't expected to get the honor of taking care of him when he was so vulnerable.

raise you to be good (E, 45k): This is our pack. Kat found it all on her own. It’s little, and broken, but it’s still good. More than good. It might be the best thing that’s ever happened to Matthew.

Chabby/Josh

Lentement (E, 2.1k): Josh is going to get what he wants. Chabby happens to be what he wants. Who he wants. Would be kind of nice to figure out what the fuck Chabby wants from him though.

[spooky-bunnys]

This is a special prompt for a close and sick friend of mine. Or my god as I like to call him lol. Here you go, enjoy Romie! @rome-alone I even did it with mermaids since I know you love them so much! Here's your husband Smiley lol

Smiley huffed again. Watching the male on stage go on and on. He had been assigned by Kisaki and Mikey, to go to tonights auction since apparently a rare treasure was gonna sold tonight. His bosses were interested about the treasure so to speak. So here he was, watching the male in charge blabbering on stage.

Smiley rolld his eyes and looked at his surroundings. To his surprise, there wasn't as many gangsters or gang lords as he thought there'd be. He figured the place would be full of greedy people. But no, there was barely anyone here. Maybe the rare treasure was just a rumor.

Smiley looked at his watch checking the time. He's been here for over an hour already. He was getting extremely bored, since this wasn't like his usual assignments. He turned back to the stage seeing a piece of so called art on stage. It didn't look like art in his opinion. It looked like someone sneezed colors all over a canvas and called it a day.

This continued on for almost another hour. Before his attention was caught by a large object being rolled onto the stage. His thoughts were cut off from the male on stage, explaining that this is the last object up for bid. Smiley didn't think much off it. Until the cover was removed from the object.

It was a tank full of water, and a male with a tail?! Smiley opened his eyes. Shocked that there was a literal mermaid on stage. He stared at the male. He was absolutely breath taking. His beautifully long (hair color) hair. His creamy skin. His amazing (color) tail and fins.

He actually looked quite familiar. That was until his eyes meet the mermaids. (Eye color) eyes filled with fear. Smiley knew those eyes, he just didn't remember where from. That's when he saw the shell necklace around his neck. It was then he remembered who that was.

He was given a matching necklace when he was only just a kid. He remembers making friends with a resident on an island. He can't remember the name of the island, but he remembers going there for a vacation. A lot of the kids on the island didn't like him or his brother. But there was one incredibly sweet boy they met.

He would play with them, and didn't treat them any differently. Smiley had developed a crush on the male, but he knew it wouldn't last. At least that's what he thought. But now that he's staring back into the eyes that was so bright, now filled with nothing but pure fear. He lost his smile. His staring was interrupted by the male on stage slapping the tank.

Frightening the trapped mermaid even more. "Hey! Off the glass! Now for the final object for auction, we have this rare male mermaid. He was found off the coast of (Island name). Now let's start the bidding at let's say, hmm 25 million?" The mermaid squeezed himself in the corner of the tank. Trying to hid himself and not see the way they were looking at him.

Smiley felt his heart break. He raised his hand, letting the male on stage know he was bidding. That had started a war within the auction house. The price for the mermaid raising rapidly. Smiley could feel his chest tighten at the thought of someone else winning the auction. He refused to let them win.

"1 BILLION!" He stood up, hand high in the air. Eyes completely open, smile not anywhere on his face. The room was silent. Everyone's Jaws on the floor when they saw who had bid. Kawata "Smiley" Nahoya. An executive of Toman. The fourth executive if they remembered correctly.

The male on stage looked like he had won the lottery. Smiling widely and laughing loudly. "Anyone else? 1 Billion going once. Twice. SOLD!" He felt like the air had finally been returned to his lungs. Smiley grinned and made his way to the stave. Everyone just watched him, confused on why he'd pay so much for the mermaid.

Once he made it on stage, he could completely see him. The way he was trembling. Trying to make himself as small as he could in the corner of the tank. It broke him. He bent down and carefully placed his hand on the Gass. "Hey. It's okay. I'm gonna get you out of here okay? I won't let anything hurt you again."

The mermaid made a trill sound and slowly placed a hand against the other side. Smiley nodded and turned to the man leading the auction house. "Can I take him now?" The said male shook his head before walking close to them. "I need payment first before you can leave with him." Smiley rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone. After a few clicks he turned to the male.

"Alright. I sent it to the auctions account. Now I'm taking my prize and leaving." He motioned one of the guard forward. Explaining how he wanted the male delivered to his house. Giving him the address before motioning another forward. "I need you to go and get the best tank. Along with whatever else a mermaid would need."

When he made it to his and his brother mansion, he expected the guards to already be there. But to his surprise his brother was pacing on their front steps. He paused confused and slightly concerned. "Souya what's going on?" The younger twin turned and began explaining, how a guard had showed up with a male wearing nothing but a necklace and covered with a blanket.

He then went on to explain how he had sent the guard away. "Nahoya what exactly did you do at that auction house?" His brother demanded. Smiley gave off his signature grin. "I saved an old friend of ours." He held up the necklace and Souya's face lit up. "The male was wearing that exact necklace!"

Smiley then explained what happened at the auction. While he was explaining the brothers had entered the mansion. Making their way to where the younger twin had left the other male. When they arrived the "mermaid" was standing by a large window. Looking up at the stars. Smiley motioned his brother to stay before slowly making his way over.

"Hey. I forgot to ask for your name. I don't know if you remember us, but we had met when we were kids. I'm Nahoya and that's Souya. See look. You even gave me a matching necklace to yours." He held up the necklace and it was like the mermaid had been given a pearl. He lit up and threw himself at the other male. Talking in a language neither brother could understand.

But the way he was rubbing his face against the older twin, they could semi understand what he was doing. He was happy to see the twins but also thanking the older twin for saving him. Nahoya could only smile wider and hug the other male. He promises that he will now do everything to protect him.

It's been a few months since (Name) had joined the Kawata household. When he could finally speak some Japanese he had told them his name. Well he's learning Japanese while the twins are trying to learn mermaiden. Which is easier said then done. Right now (Name) was swimming in the indoor pool, while Nahoya was relaxing on a float in the pool.

Souya had been assigned a new mission. So it was just them today and (Name) had mentioned he needed to swim. So here they are in the indoor pool. The twins had decided to turn their indoor pool into (Name)'s own mini ocean. So every once and a while he'd place a pearl on Smiley's float. Smiley would just thank the male with a bright smile and watch him swim away.

He didn't think much of it honestly. But he was getting quite a pile of pearls. He slowly pushed the pearls back into the water. Not noticing the heart broken expression on (Name). After that (Name) didn't go near the older Kawata. Smiley confused had asked his brother when he came back about it.

That's when the younger informed him that, that was the mermaids way of proposing to the older twin. Smiley then understood why (Name) was avoiding him. So in turn the smiling male bought (Name) a beautiful (color) pearl ring. He thought that, maybe by proposing to the mermaid in his own way, the mermaid would forgive him.

Well he was forgiven but (Name) was pouting for almost 2 months after that.

[luvly-writer]

XOXO

Ch. 18 Nothing happened in the way i wanted

-•-

Author’s Note: I find it so funny that whenever I come back I release like five chapters then disappear, I love that 😭

Warnings: Mentions of SA and predatory behavior. Beginning of angst.

Taglist: @w31rdg1rl @mxtokko @loonymoonystuff @grandstrangerphanthom @1lellykins @cangosleepnow @dreamspectrum @its-maemain @tamimemo @nightw-izhu @trasshy-artist @gabriiiiiiii @pank0w @writing-for-the-hell-of-it

Masterlist:

-•-

Thud Thud... Thud Thud... Thud Thud...

I could feel my heart in my throat. I took the napkins and kept on twisting them in my hands. I feel Grandma's gaze on me and her hand on mine, stopping me from fidgeting.

"Mona, you are going to be okay. You have constantly gone against your father and you will win once again. Plus, I am right here. Your father won't intimidate me," she reassured you with a smile and a wink. You were both sitting in one of the family rooms in the Vanderbilt manor. You had arrived early and had been served coffee. Your father had been taking his sweet time in arriving, always one for theatrics. You remember a time when this sort of dramatics was used in playing around with your sisters. Charlisse always wanted to be a dragon or a pirate; Aurora presented herself as the princess, the unicorn, I always wanted the mermaid and the adventurer. Our father was always the narrator of our little ploys and we would present them to our mother. He used to be so warm and caring and loving sometimes..but when I got to middle school, after my grandfather's death and the beginning of my sisters' competition for CEO, he grew colder and harsher. I would love for my father to go back to the way he was before...

Snapping me out of my daydream, my father enters the room and sits across from us.

"Margaret." he said curtly and my grandmother looked at him dead in the eye, "William...You look terrible," she responded, causing me to snort a little. Grandma was never one to hold back on my father. She was right though, my father looked horrible. He had eye bags and his clothes looked crumpled, something highly unusual for William Vanderbilt. "It's been a rough few days, Marge" he responded and turned to me.

"Y/n.." he acknowledged me softly and I squeezed my grandmother's had tightly before answering, "Father."

"Shall we?" he gestured to both of us and I nodded. He cleared his throat and began speaking, "Before anything...I am sorry, my sweet dewdrop, for everything I've put you through these last few years...I know this in no shape or form begins to excuse anything I've put this family through but I do want you to understand the big why of everything and maybe we could begin a journey where you could forgive me. I love you, sweetie, I do. Your sisters and you are my pride and joy, my greatest creation, and my proudest achievement. I am deeply sorry I have neglected you all these years in the name of the family business and image. A few years ago, when you were in middle school and my father died, in his will he left very clear and strict instructions on what had to be made. Were they not to be followed, everything that we owned would have been put at risk. You see when I was younger, I was much like you...I had a passion for music and it flowed through every breath I took, I wanted to pursue it freely yet my father disregarded it because someone had to take the mantle of the family business. I rebelled for some time and did whatever I pleased, I had the freedom to do so seeing as the family lineage was important to the old man, and me being an only child, I wouldn't be at risk of getting disowned. The old man...he was....furious and pulled some strings so that no matter what, I would fail so that I would end up back home and submitting to taking the mantle. His plan worked and to avoid risking history from repeating itself, he left clear instructions for you girls so that no one stepped out of line. One of the clauses was that everyone was to be part of the family business, the second was that you all had to be married, and if by the time you were 20, you weren't married, it was the board's obligation to find you a suitable husband. The third was that you all had to keep the best image possible so that you wouldn't drag the family name to the ground...the same way I did years ago...My lawyers have been working on ways to invalidate the clauses for years, Clarisse and Aurora knew how to play within the clauses but you...I'm afraid that with your mother's free spirit and my temperament and rebellion, you proved to be a force too difficult to control. No one knows that more than me. I got so lost trying to not lose everything and please my father who is already in his grave, that I forgot the most important thing, my family. I am so sorry for all the years I have mistreated you, Charli, Rora, and Mom. You deserve so much and it took you showing me how much I am acting like my father to reevaluate my behavior these last years. I promise, I will do my best to mend and better all my wrongs."

You were stuck to your chair...honestly...fuck your grandfather. Everything made more sense now, why you always visited your grandparents when your grandfather was gone, how you'd see your other grandmother more often when he died, why he was never mentioned, the drastic change in your father's behavior after his death...

"I knew there was a reason I never liked the man," said your grandmother with a huff as she took a sip of her glass of wine. This made you and your father laugh.

"What about the clauses...do I still fall under them?" you ask. It was the one thing that still worried you...was Morris still in the picture, did you still have to take a place in the family business, was marrige still an obligation-

"No. A few days ago, my lawyers called me. After retting a meeting with the board after New Year's and discussing the clauses, they were finally able to find a breakthrough. Everyone took to voting and decided that the best outcome was to proclaim them invalid. What are a dead man's wishes but silent demands? You are free, I spoke to Mr. Morris. Which speaking of, I want to clear the air that he was the board's decision. They were pressuring us to choose him seeing as he used to have a clean record." He answered.

"I still don't get why you would allow that roach of a man near your daughter, William! This is worst that a disgrace, he was disgusting!" Margaret grumbled and my father agreed with her.

"You said he had a clean record?" I asked focusing on that weird part.

My father nodded, "Ah yes, a few weeks ago, some information was leaked to our members of the board about sexual assault allegations and predatory behavior in Mr. Morris. After we hired some private investigators, we found most of the information to be true. Tomorrow the board is releasing an official statement of apology directed to you. I am deeply sorry, my dear. I do promise to be better." he said taking my hands in his a giving the a squeeze.

"I am free.." you say softly, and both your grandmother and father smile.

"You are. No competition, no family business, no arranged marriage, you are free to be your own person, kid" he assures. "I am very proud of you, dewdrop. I talked with your grandmother over the phone. Once you finish college this may, both of your trust funds will be officially released to you."

"I can open my art gallery!" you say tearing up and both of them nod proudly. "Time to share the good news with Tim, Mona. I bet he is going to be delighted," Said your grandmother.

Shit...Tim...It has been weeks since you'd answered a message of his. You knew it was unfair to him, to just ghost him out of the blue. You had a good reason too...well as far as good reasoning goes. You hadn't talked with him ever since spending Christmas with him and ignored all of his invitations for New Year's...Your conflict must have been visible in your face because your grandmother rand father looked at you concerned.

"About that..." you say and take a deep breathe.

-•-

You were finally going home to your apartment after the very long day you had. You had confessed...Not to Tim, no... your family. After explaining the whole thing to your grandmother and father, they were conflicted, to say the least. As they were battling with being proud for outsmarting the entire family and media, disappointed for your lying, and concerned for your well-being, your sisters and mother had arrived and were filled in the entire thing. At first, no one wanted to believe you. They reassured me that they couldn't believe it was fake because they swore the love between the two of you looked real. No one could act that well, yet you were in denial. As everyone sat for dinner, they all agreed on one thing, Tim and you were meant to be and clearly in love, but neither of you was seeing it. Your sisters and mother were insistent in your talking with him, but you were in denial. Your father and grandmother tried a different approach by saying how much they approved of him and how he would make a great addition to the family. Still, you saw no sense. You loved Tim, that is true, but you appreciated him as a friend too much. He was your friend, the one who you learned to trust and tell everything, he was the one who had your side any time, he was the one that showed you every movie you had missed, every game you had never played, every story you didn't know. Sure it had only been two months since you met, but he became such a strong part of your life that you weren't sure you wanted to ruin by confessing how much you loved him. Tim was your friend, he was just helping you out, he knew how to play a part well because he had practiced with his double life, he was just playing a part for you. He wasn't...he....didn't...love...no, you didn't even want to think it. Tim was a good guy, Tim loved to help others and he always gave his best for others, that's why he was so convincing, because he is Tim. He is pure and devoted to a good cause. He was Tim, your Timmy, your friend, mine. He was everything, the closest thing you had to twin flame and you didn't deserve and you shouldn't tarnish the purity of that relationship.

Snapping out of your thoughts, you noticed you were about to pass his apartment complex and noticed his lights were on. You told the driver to stop. You were putting an end to this. The driver parks in front and you tell him you will be quick. You step out of the car and run to the lobby. Having been recognized there, they let you up without a problem. Finally, in front of his door, you knock roughly and call him out.

Lo and behold there is Tim Drake in all his glory when he opens the door. He looks more tired than usual, is the first thing you notice. Ever since the two of you started talking, you have been helping him get a better sleeping schedule and his eyebags have lessened by a lot. But now, weeks later, you can tell your absence took a toll on him. His eyes showed he was conflicted. Anger, relief, sadness, tiredness, and something else you couldn't quite put a finger in. (Admiration and love, sweetie, that's what it is)

"Just when I was enjoying my inner peace..was wondering when you'd deem me worthy of your presence again," he said and you flinch at the slight snark and glare he gave you.

"You are angry, rightfully so" you start and he cuts you off, "Really, what gave you that impression?"

"I have a good explanation"

"That so?"

"My father set me free.." you say and his eyes soften a little

"Which means.."

"I don't have to get married, I won't be forced to be part of the family business, I won't have to deal with Morris anymore" you say softly and he nods, pleased.

"That's good angel, still don't get why I had to be ghosted for it. We started this together we should end it together" he stresses and I look down

"I know, its just that...that means that"

"That?" he preassures

"We are over." I finally look up, trying to keep my tears at bay, "And I've been trying to find a way to tell you."

-•-

extras:

Grandma calls Y/n “Mona” because of Mona Lisa

William calls Y/n dewdrop because of her obsession with mermaids when she was a kid

I changed the time line a little bit. Tim and Yn know each other from high school (Gotham Academy), having both been each other’s crushes, but the formally met on November. Spent the last of November and all of december together. She stopped talking to him after christmas and ignored him until the second week of January which is this chapter.

[fortheloveof-sebastian]

The One Who Has My Heart

Pairings: Sebastian Sallow x Reader

Summary: The second task of the Triwizard Tournament is to recover what’s been taken from you…little do you know just how true that is.

Warnings: potential kidnapping?, kissing, fluff

Word Count: 1.7k

A/N: This request is for @scarydeadlavender Thank you for the prompt, I hope you enjoy it😁

Currently, you’re standing on a platform that’s been erected out of the lake. A few hundred feet below you, the surface of the lake roiled, dark and murky; it made sense why it had earned the nickname of the Black Lake. It wasn’t too difficult to imagine terrifying creatures dwelling within the unpredictable waters.

If the other two champions — a broad shouldered boy from Durmstrang and a wispy, waif-like girl from Beaxbatons — were nervous about this task, this didn’t show it. In fact, they stood on two adjacent platforms, leaning forward with intent.

Your eyes scan the crowd nervously.

Still no Sebastian. You can’t help but feel disappointed by his apparent absence. Where else could he be? He even told you the night before that he would be ready to congratulate you on another win, considering that he had been in detention during the first task. You had tried to assuage his guilt on missing out by insisting that it didn’t matter — and it didn’t, not really — but it had lifted your spirits to think that he might be watching today.

“ — have precisely an hour to recover what’s been taken from them.”

A whistle blows, and the other two champions waste no time diving into the water. You shake your heads, dislodging your worries of Sebastian. A roar of impatience and disbelief assails you from the Hogwarts student section, shouting at you to go and launching you into movement.

You take a deep breath and swan dive into the lake, the icy water engulfing you. The shock nearly immobiles you, until you open your eyes and notice the two other champions are already swimming away, leaving behind a trail of bubbles in their wake.

“I’m here.”

You turn, relieved. Staring back at you is a mermaid, more otherworldly than human, with hair that flows and waves in the current like the tangled black seaweed below you.

The mermaid encircles her arms around your neck and latches a necklace there. Instantly, the pressure of holding your breath releases, and the water clears significantly. The necklace granted you breathing and visibility abilities beneath the water, a special relic that the mermaid swore to bring to you — thanks to Ominis, of course.

Sebastian told you in confidence that his fellow Slytherin had struck up a friendship with one of the fishy beasts, and upon hearing about your latest task, you knew that it would be a great help. Ominis was incensed, understandably, that Sebastian had given away another one of his closely guarded secrets but eventually conceded. After all, he wanted Hogwarts to win the Triwizard Tournament as bad as anyone.

You and Ominis struck a deal with the mermaid, after Ominis vaguely declared that she owed him a favor.

Part of you didn’t believe she would come, most likely because you didn’t trust this mermaid. Her name was Kaya, and she had taken an instant liking to Sebastian as soon as she saw him. Too much of a liking for your taste.

“They said that I needed to recover what’s been taken from me,” you tell Kaya, recalling the only instruction you managed to catch.

The mermaid smiles knowingly. Or else, you think that she’s smiling. Her mouth, lined with razor sharp teeth, looks more cunning then helpful. “And what are you missing, human?”

You rack your brain. Was this task metaphorical? Did they secretly steal away with something from your dorm in the middle of the night?

Then, it strikes you — Sebastian. Sebastian was missing.

Your heart pounds. You knew he wouldn’t have missed for just any reason! But that means that he was here somewhere, in the lake.

“Sebastian,” you say aloud. “Where is he?”

“He’s safe,” the mermaid says.

You narrow your eyes. “Where. Is. He.”

“I helped you with your task,” the mermaid hauntily replies. “So I’ve just taken my payment.”

“If recovering Sebastian is my task, and you’ve taken him, then you have not helped me!” You shout. Red hot anger shoots through you. “You can’t do this. Bring me to Sebastian. Now.”

“Mr. Gaunt said that I only had to give you the mermaid relic,” Kaya says.

Your hands form into fists. “He also said that you have to help me win.” Resisting the urge to throttle the mermaid, you demand, “You have to take me to Sebastian or else your debt with Ominis — er, Mr. Gaunt — will not be repaid.”

Fae can not be trusted, you remember from your studies. But they also take favors and debts seriously, which you hope is enough to convince this magical creature to listen.

The mermaid studies you for a moment, and it’s as if you can feel your alotted time to complete the task slipping away. Finally, she sighs. “Fine, follow me. But keep up. I won’t go back for you.”

Easier said than done. It’s a battle to keep up with her — although she might’ve alleviated your need to breath air and your poor human vision, you aren’t nearly as fast as her. Her fishlike body cuts effortlessly through the seaweed, churning up sand and rocks in your face as you scramble after her. Fortunately for you, her supposed hiding place isn’t far from where you had dived into the lake from the platforms.

The mermaid points inside the mouth of an underwater cave. “He’s in there.”

You don’t have time to debate whether or not she’s telling the truth. At this point, your concern isn’t about the tournament but whether Sebastian is safe. Forcing your way into the cave, you navigate through the pitch darkness for a few feet before remembering that you have your wand. “Lumos,” you whisper.

Light illuminates your surroundings.

And there, at the end of the narrow tunnel, lays Sebastian. His eyes are closed, and if it wasn’t for the seaweed binding him, you would’ve assumed he was just asleep.

Frantically you dart forward and grab him.

“Depulso!” The spell propels you out of the cave. You cling to Sebastian, his body limply bumping next to yours as you swim for the surface.

The mermaid is nowhere to be found, but you prefer it that way. Cupping your hands, you fight your way to the surface, kicking your legs as fast as you can. Your muscles scream at you but you don’t stop until your bursting above the water, greeted by a chorus of cheers.

Durmstrung has already made it back.

You’re rescued by two older wizards who use their wands to carry you back up onto the platforms. Only then does Sebastian snap out of whatever trance he’s in — sputtering and heaving as he coughs up lake water.

“What’s going on?” He asks weakly.

Quickly you cut him free from his seaweed binding, and help him into a sitting position.

“How much do you know?”

Sebastian shakes his head, the motion sending out droplets of water onto your robes. His lashes are wet also, spiky, beads of water collecting on the ends and somehow, despite having literally just been dragged up from the bottom of a lake, he looks infuriatingly handsome.

“I—not much.” He frowns. “I remember leaving the common room and then…nothing.”

You quickly fill him in: about the task, the mermaid, and his temporary kidnapping. He listens attentively, his features morphing from confusion to shock, and then back to confusion.

“She kidnapped me?” He echoes. Sebastian leans back on his hands. “Well, I suppose I can’t blame her. I am rather good looking.”

You scowl at him. “I should’ve left you for mermaid chow.”

“But wait, if I was unconscious, then that means that I missed another one of your tasks,” he says, straightening. A look of guilt passes over his face.

“It’s not like you could really help it,” you say empathetically. “If you think about it, you’ve been kidnapped twice within the last twenty four hours. I suppose I can forgive you.”

He clasps your hand. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“Sebastian, you really don’t have to —”

“And Durmstrang wins the second task!” The announcer booms. “One task Hogwarts, one task Durmstrang. Join us for the last task for the tiebreaker!”

Later that evening, you get an owl from Sebastian requesting your presence. You’ve been trying not to pity yourself for losing the task today, although it’s hard not to when your fellow Hogwarts students cast you accusatory glares. There’s no way you can refuse Sebastian, though — the cheeky bugger — so you heave yourself from beneath your covers and get dressed.

The Slytherin common room is mostly empty, besides a few students who are studying. You traipse inside uncertainly; Sebastian gave you little instructions, just to meet.

“Sebastian?” You call out.

Avoiding the pointed glares from a few of the students, you round one of the magnificent columns and spot a familiar backside. Sebastian’s turned away from you but whirls to face you when he senses your presence. Delight breaks out on his face.

He hastily fills the space between you in two long strides, then sweeps you into a passionate embrace. When his lips find yours, you’re taken aback by his fervent display of affection — it’s as if you’ve been apart for a dreadfully long time, and he can’t wait to reunite. You melt into the kiss. Sebastian’s hands slip behind your neck and around your waist, pulling you close. You’re busy relishing the moment when you suddenly hear the telltale sound of water being splashed.

You pull away from Sebastian just in time to see a large fin swish away from the view of the window looking out into the lake.

“Was that—?”

“Maybe,” Sebastian says, grinning.

“Sebastian,” you scold him. The matching grin that unfurls on your face negates the scalding nature of your tone. “That’s so impolite.”

“What? I think it’s a fitting punishment for a potential kidnapper,” he says defensively.

“Are you going to kiss me in front of the entire Triwizard board then, too?”

Sebastian’s grin widens. “Only if you insist.”

“I can’t believe you,” you say, laughing in disbelief but allowing him to ensnare you in another toe curling kiss anyway.

He punctuates the kiss with several smaller ones, peppering them from the corners of your mouth to the top of your noise. “Why not? I can’t just go around letting psychotic, kidnapping mermaids think they have a chance with me. Everyone needs to know who really has my heart.”

[moonmothbroth]

Yay! Would see drawing is nice

Penguin Shachi will cry in their heat if law doesn’t join them right away it’s just their instinct going wild since law just wanted to eat his lunch for them is the only other omega not approving of thier affection

I read a fic once that the kid pirates were all alpha I wonder if they don’t know how to court an omega or a pirate omega maybe even see Jean Bart as a competition only to get smack in the head by their omega as they get scream at

first time the heart pirate try seduction on the kid hearts was an ambush kid pirates got thrown in lake scrub clean until red smelling like roses soap a full 2 days

“come here it’s totally safe…we can be alone…together

was all kid pirates heard before a bucket of water was pour down their heads being push into the lake

heart pirates live up to their name omegas have stolen dozen of hearts physical spiritual emotional saw kid pirates as a little one thing before they fell in love

I love talking about this happy to find others 👍

Omg Anon, you're cookin!!! So many good scenarios and doodle ideas here! My biggest thoughts are:

1) Jean Bart being so uninterested in his omega crewmates that it's almost laughable when a Kid pirate growls at him for going into "omega-only" spaces, like the nests. Jean is kinda dad energy later on in the show (whenever we see him in the background lmao i dont think he ever has big scenes like he did in sabaody again?) so maybe he takes pity on the Kid Pirate alphas and tells them how to win his crewmates over!

2) omg.....Law, Penguin, and Shachi ambushing and luring their alphas to a bath like how the mermaids on Fishman Island called Sanji over 😭😭��😂

3) Of course Shachi and Penguin need Law to join them in their heat! 🥺🥺🥺 Despite Law putting on a tough exterior, we know he has a soft spot for his childhood friends and will eventually join them. Also i am totally subscribed to the idea that Law/Peng/Shachi were all each others' firsts in everything 😂 There's no way these homos haven't at least kissed each other

[unadulteratedkr]

Hmm for the prompt game — what’s Ed’s favorite piece of furniture or decoration in the inn? What’s Stede’s? Hopefully this is helpful/what you were looking for!

Okay I am 10000% behind every and all head-canons about Stede and his garden, that's his favorite decoration (other than his prettiest princess Edward Teach) in the whole space, and oh now I'm picturing a conversation where ed and stede are like, "okay I know we said no regrets, giving it a go, but I'm ready to like--- talk some more about it" okay hold on I'm thinking thoughts lets see

--

Ed's heart is constant in his chest; he's fallen back in love with the familiar lifts and falls of his heartbeat now that Stede's around to harmonize with it, and it means he feels bold today. He's going to ask the question that's been worming its way through every one of his doubts, every one of his wretched, gravy-basket tinged insecurities, and he knows that his heart will stay in its happy, content rhythm as he plunges off a cliff into the safe arms of a mermaid.

Merman. Mer-perso---whatever.

The sun has started to turn the world golden with dusk when Ed finally approaches Stede, sweaty and cheerfully fussing with the scrub brush as he fights and wins a war with the dirt under his fingernails.

"Are you happy?"

Stede's hands go still against the edge of the barrel he's using to wash up.

"Wha---Ed. Of course I am." His expression melts into softness, and Ed's ready to sink into that, ready to lose himself to Stede's gentle sincerity.

Instead, he reaches out to run his fingers through it, grazing his fingertips with the delicate weave of Stede's open heart.

"I---okay, I know that. I do. I just---I don't know, man."

Stede's eyes glimmer, and he gets the look on his face he always does when he knows Ed's trying to fucking get at something. It makes Ed feel witnessed. Makes him feel seen. Makes him feel heard.

"Okay. Hey," Stede takes his hand, squeezing it tightly, holding Ed safe between the soft ridges of his knuckles. "Would you like me to tell you what made me happy today?"

Ed blinks down at their hands, relaxation soothing down his spine. Oh. "Fuck. Yeah---yeah, I really fucking would. Fuck, that's----that's it. Tell me what made you happy today, babe."

Stede grins, and he leads Ed over to Ed's favorite spot in the whole place. Most of their dining room/reception area/rec hall/game room is woefully incomplete, but they've managed to patch up the wall facing the ocean well enough that any hurricane better fucking think twice before trying to tear down the sea-facing wall of the inn, and Stede's fashioned a downright luxurious window seat for Ed to stare out at the waves and the sea-grass without any risk of spiders crawling up on him unawares. He loves watching Stede from it the most as Stede hauls soil down from the deeper recesses of the bush behind them, building a paradise of reds and purples and yellows down the path leading to the shore.

"Do you see the yellow flowers right by the deck?" Stede points to a thin, weaving ivy of happy little blossoms that look as soft as silk and just as delicate. "Those are allamanda cathartica, also known as golden trumpets. If I didn't kill them transferring them down here, they'll grow up all over the stair railings, and I'll be able to bring you fresh flowers for your hair without having to even put my shoes on." Stede smiles at the flowers, and Ed soaks up the rays of his quiet affection without a word. Stede's eyes crinkle as he turns his smile towards Ed, showering more of that love down on him without prompting. "I love being able to take care of my flowers."

Ed's voice catches in his throat, and instead he drags Stede down for a sweet, swift press of his lips against Stede's. "That's a great thing that made you happy today."

Stede presses a soft kiss to Ed's nose as he settles next to Ed on the window seat, tucking an invisible lock of hair behind Ed's ear. "This makes me happy---" Stede's eyes are furtive for a second before he steels his shoulders, sitting up straight and proud in the little corner of the world he and Ed have crafted for each other. Ed loves seeing Stede settling into himself, strong and broad and gentle in equal amounts. "I have never been safe to talk to anyone about my flowers before you." Stede's eyes crinkle again, and he kisses Ed, slow and sweet.

"You make Stede happy too."

---

EEEE this was fun to write ty

allamanda cathartica for anyone curious:

[claudemblems]

Operation "Kiss the Girl" | Chapter 3: The Final Date

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Summary: It's the last day you have to win the heart of Azul Ashengrotto and get him to kiss you, otherwise you will be fated to remain a mermaid forever. Will he return your feelings and save you with the power of true love's kiss? You will only know once you can gather the courage to confess your love to him...

Genre: Fem!Reader. Lots of pining. Fluff.

Notes: This is a long one at 4,500+ words! I wanted it to be a satisfying ending, and I truly hope it fulfills your expectations 💜 I hope you enjoy it. Thank you so much for reading this little project of mine.

Today would be the day where your life would change, for the worse or for the better.

This would be the day where you would confess your feelings to Azul, and if all went well, he would return them and gladly break your curse of mermaidism with a kiss. But nothing is ever as easy as it seems, and, though you had begun to believe that maybe he felt the same way about you, you couldn’t shake off the doubts that clung to the back of your mind. 

What if I’m imagining things? What if this is just wishful thinking? What if all my efforts to win his heart have been for nothing…?

You shook your head, dispelling the negative thoughts. No. I didn’t come all this way to give up now. Whatever happened, you would accept his answer with grace. Azul didn’t owe you anything. He didn’t owe you a “yes” or a cure for your predicament that he wasn’t responsible for causing. In fact, after all he’d done for you, you were the one that owed him. After the day’s end, you decided, you would start planning out a way to show him just how much you truly appreciated him.

A buzz in your pocket pulled you out of your wandering thoughts, and you pulled out your phone to find a text from Azul.

“I’ll be there in two minutes. I got a little lost along the way.”

You couldn’t stifle the small laugh that escaped you. Azul had never been good with directions, at least on land. Really, he was more of a fish out of water than you were.

After the events of yesterday, Azul had called later that evening to check if you were feeling better. He didn’t trust Ace and Deuce to take care of you, especially when he believed they’d actually ditched you while they went to class. I’m going to have to tell him the truth about that, for those two dummies’ sakes, at least. But once you’d assured him that you were feeling much better, he’d offered you a proposition.

“If you’re feeling up to it, would you like to accompany me to a local festival tomorrow? It might help get your mind off of things…but please, don’t feel obligated to accept my invitation! I know you’ve been dealing with a lot lately, so I don’t want to add more onto your plate. I just—” “It’s okay, Azul,” you laughed, smiling to yourself. Azul couldn’t help his rambling when he got nervous, but you found it to be a cute habit of his. “I’d love to go…is it just going to be the two of us?” “Yes…is that okay?” “Of course. I need a break from these two over here anyways.” “I don’t blame you.”

And so Azul had unknowingly scheduled your last “date” for you. When you’d told Ace and Deuce the news, they’d made Jade and Floyd aware of the new plans, and they reached a consensus that they would “observe” your date to make sure everything went smoothly. 

Ah yes, totally not spying.

And, of course, Rook had just “happened to be on a stroll nearby” when he overheard the conversation and insisted on helping you as well.

This was how he and Vil had ended up doing your makeup for the first date. He’d just conveniently walked by at a good time. His whereabouts totally weren’t related to him researching people, especially the octo trio, every chance he got.

Either way, you were thankful for the help, and so you took him up on his offer.

That morning, Vil, Rook, and Epel did your makeup and hair and picked out a cute yet stylish flowy dress for you to be comfortable in. And to tie the look together, Vil had gifted you a pair of heels that he’d been given from one of his many brand partnerships. They happened to fit you just perfectly, and once the three were satisfied with your look, they sent you off on your way, telling you to come back home before midnight. You’d rolled your eyes at their antics, but you were glad to have their support. 

“[Name], I’m here!”

“Oh!” You snapped out of your thoughts as Azul came running into view wearing a sheepish smile. “Sorry I’m a little late. I got the directions mixed up, and Jade and Floyd were talking to me nonstop. I don’t even know what about, but they seemed really excited for some reason.”

I can guess why…

“It’s okay! I wasn’t doing anything anyways.”

“Well, that’s good to hear then.” Azul extended his arm for you to take, ever the gentleman as always. “Shall we go look around the festival?”

You nodded as you slipped your arm around his, your heart fluttering in your chest at the brush of his skin against yours.

“What would you like to do first? Shopping?” he asked with a knowing smile. 

“Hmm…what gave it away that I like shopping?”

“Maybe the assortment of plushies scattered around your dorm.”

“I…Those are Grim���s!”

“Ah, of course they are. My apologies.”

“That smirk on your face says that you’re not sorry at all, Ashengrotto.”

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

As if things couldn’t possibly get more ironic, the festival that Azul had invited you to was ocean-themed, particularly focused around mermaids. The glittering shells and bubbles that lined the streets and stalls made it obvious for anyone who might have been unsure. 

“It’s quite a nice theme for a festival, don’t you think?” Azul asked, an unmistakable sparkle in his eyes. Oh, right. He’s a merperson. He must be happy to see all these references to his home.

“Speaking of oceans…” you began, “what do you think of mermaids?”

“Mermaids?” Azul considered your question as you two aimlessly wandered along the carpeted streets made to look like the deep seafloor. “They’re crafty creatures, that’s for sure, but they’re nowhere near as dangerous as sirens.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Wait, how did Professor Crewel manage to get sirens’ songs to power your necklace? …Maybe you didn’t want to know.

“But, if I’m being honest…” A smile played at the edges of Azul’s lips, but if he was brimming with excitement, he didn’t show it. It seemed that even out in public, he still tried to maintain his cool and collected businessman persona. “They’re fascinating. I may be used to seeing them all the time, but there’s a mysterious allure to them. It’s like I can’t learn enough about them to satiate my curiosity. Perhaps one of these days I’ll have the opportunity to do business with one.”

He likes mermaids? Well, if your confession didn’t go well, at least you had that going for you.

“I quite like them, too,” you answered before your eyes landed on something shiny in the distance. Without warning, you picked up your pace, nearly running to the booth that displayed the eye-catching object. 

“Wow,” you breathed, eyes growing wide. On the table was a pair of pearl earrings, diamonds attached to the ends of the chains. “These are gorgeous.”

“Aren’t they?” the vendor added, flashing you what had to be a well-rehearsed smile. There was no doubt they’d managed to secure several successful sales with it. 

“Oh, these are rather pretty,” Azul said once he’d caught up with you. He gently took them in his hands (much to the obvious annoyance of the vendor), inspecting the jewels. “These are 100% authentic diamonds and pearls. What a surprise. You’d think the first pieces of jewelry you’d find at a festival would be overpriced knockoffs not worth half the price they’d be going for.”

“I can assure you, sir,” the vendor replied, “that my jewelry is completely genuine and worth the cost. But if you’re still not persuaded to buy them, I could find it in my heart to offer you a small discount.”

“A discount? Whatever for?”

“For your girlfriend, of course,” the vendor answered, nodding their head towards you. “She can’t take her eyes off of them.”

WHAT???!!!

Heat rushed to your cheeks as you tried to stutter out a reply. “We—he’s—well—”

“That would be great. How much of a discount could you give us? Would you throw in a freebie as well?”

“I’ll tell you what. If you buy one of these little rings, I’ll give you a free hair accessory of your choosing.”

“It’s a deal, then.”

WHAT????????!!!!!!!!!!!

“Um, A-Azul, are you sure about this—”

“Shh,” he replied, pressing a finger to his lips and sending you a wink. “They don’t need to know.”

I think he needs to know he’s making my heart race right now!

Before you could muster up the courage to speak, Azul had already picked out a beautiful ring and hair accessory that perfectly matched the pearl earrings. When the vendor had boxed up the items for him, Azul took out a stack of madol and handed it to them without even so much as considering the expense.

Azul…was buying you things…without even despairing over the cost of it all.

Yeah, you had to be going insane.

“Thank you so much for your generosity! I’m sure my darling [Name] will wear these pieces for a long time.”

Darling.

You felt as though you might just faint.

“[Name], are you all right? You look a little pale. Shall we find somewhere to sit down for a while? I can get you something to eat, too, if necessary.”

“I’m fine, Azul,” you reassured, gently patting his arm. But my heart is not. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Actually,” the jewelry vendor cut in, “there’s a karaoke lounge a little ways down the street. It’s also part of the festival, so everything inside coincides with the ocean theme, including the songs, of course.”

Was the world of Twisted Wonderland just laughing in your face at your predicament now? 

“That sounds like a good idea. Come on, let’s go rest up for a little bit. I’ll lead the way.”

“Aren’t you bad with directions, though?” you asked, flashing Azul a cheeky smile. 

“Well, you certainly don’t feel bad enough to stop teasing me, so I think we can take our time getting there.”

Despite the pout on his lips, you could see how he visibly began to relax, any stress he felt cascading off of him.

He was worried, more so than he let on. Worried about you. 

It was a nice feeling having his full attention. You could get used to it.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

“Come on, Azul! You didn’t bring me to a karaoke place just so you could sit there and not sing something yourself, did you?”

“I brought you here so you could get some rest! I wasn’t planning on having a concert!”

You laughed at the sight of Azul’s cheeks flushing red. How cute. 

“Sing one song with me, please~?”

“Trust me, you do not want to hear me sing.”

“But didn’t you perform with Malleus at that masquerade thing? You sounded really good!”

“Oh, I’d forgotten I did that,” Azul mumbled, tapping a finger on his chin in contemplation. “I only did it because he insisted—hey, don’t try to change the subject!” He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed. “You’d have to pay me a hefty sum to sing karaoke of all things.”

“Well, what if I made a deal with you?”

Azul raised a brow. “A deal?”

You took a seat next to him in the private room you’d reserved, leaving almost no space between your bodies. Azul took a nervous gulp, but didn’t dare make his nerves any more noticeable than they needed to be.

“How about this: if you sing a duet with me, I’ll perform a show at Mostro Lounge. The students will definitely want to stop by if they hear a girl is going to be singing, right?”

“W-Well…” Azul adjusted his glasses. “You do have a point, but…”

“But…?”

A few moments of silence followed.

Oh no, did you manage to upset him?

But before you had a chance to apologize, Azul spoke again.

“I’d…rather you just sing for me, and nobody else…”

Your eyes grew wide, your breath catching in your throat. Your pulse thrummed with hope and a growing anticipation. Was this bold admission a glimpse into Azul’s deeper feelings, ones that he’d kept in total secrecy? This had to be a sign, a nudge telling you to keep trying to win his heart. Something in the air was shifting between you two, you could feel it.

But what exactly was it?

You smiled at him. “Well, then, how should I repay you for singing with me?”

Suddenly, you became aware of your close proximity to him. Your skin grew hot, heartbeat becoming erratic, but you couldn’t find it in yourself to pull away. If anything, you were leaning in closer…

And you were certain Azul was, too.

But the dreamlike trance you two had fallen into was shattered as Azul came to his senses. 

“You don’t have to repay me,” he answered, redirecting his gaze from you to the glass of juice sitting on the table. “...I’ll sing with you.”

Were you just imagining the tension in the atmosphere earlier? Had you read it all wrong?

Either way, you weren’t going to pass up an opportunity to sing with your crush.

“Okay. How does ‘Part of Your World’ sound?”

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

You both had decided that just singing ‘Part of Your World’ just wasn’t enough, and so you two continued on performing more songs from the same soundtrack, including ‘Under the Sea,’ ‘Fathoms Below,’ and ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls.’” Thankfully, it seemed that Azul was enjoying himself, sending you smiles and even meeting you eye-to-eye as he sang some of the lines. You were just glad to see that he wasn’t angry with you with what happened earlier. As long as he was having a good time, you couldn’t ask for anything else.

But he’d sung enough for one day, he’d decided, and so you chose one more song to sing on your own before you two left to explore more of the festival.

The song you chose to end the karaoke session on was ‘Part of Your World (Reprise)’.

“What would I give to live where you are?” you sang, turning yourself away from the screen to meet Azul’s eyes, wishing that the lyrics would resonate in his heart like a love letter written just for him. 

“What would I pay to stay here beside you?”

Azul’s cheeks flushed, and you had to keep yourself from grinning even wider.

“What would I do to see you smiling at me?

Where would we walk, where would we run

If we could stay all day in the sun?

Just you and me, and I could be

Part of your world…”

After the last note fell off your lips, Azul responded with applause. Despite the obvious flustered state you’d rendered him into, he was gazing at you with such a soft and happy expression. It seemed that your words might have just reached him after all.

“That was beautiful,” he replied. “Your voice is beautiful. You should sing more often.”

“I could,” you answered, “but it would only be for you.”

“Oh. Oh.”

You giggled, throwing him a wink before gathering your drinks. “We should take these back to the front and let the staff know we’re done in here, right?” Before Azul could answer your question, you were already out of the door, your quick footsteps matching the quick rhythm of your heart.

You’d never flirted with him so blatantly before. It was terrifying, but it was also a feeling that left you light-headed, one that added a little spring into your step.

You’d like to try it again if you ever got the chance.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

After a few more hours spent partaking in the festivities, the day was finally drawing to a close. You and Azul had retreated to a nearby beach, strolling along the sandy shores in a peaceful silence. The sky had slowly begun to turn from a bright blue into a rosy pink, signaling the beginning of the sunset.

This was it. This was the moment you’d been building up to these past three days, a fairytale ending that would break your curse, and Azul was your prince that would save you from your terrible fate.

At least, you hoped so. If all this amounted to nothing, you would end up a mermaid destined to spend the rest of her life in an unfamiliar sea, never to return home.

Despite your desire to become a human once more, this wasn’t all some elaborate plan to trick Azul into helping you. You realized after all this time together that you truly loved him. You adored every part of him, and even if he turned you down, you would forever be grateful that you had the chance to meet him. 

Well, here goes nothing…

“Azul, thank you for taking me to the festival today. I had a lot of fun.”

“I’m glad,” he answered, turning to smile at you. “That’s all I could have asked for.”

And yet here I am, asking for more.

“But…I have something I have to tell you.”

Azul stopped in his tracks, attention fully on you. His brows were furrowed, giving his worry away. “Of course. Is something wrong?”

“Well, yes and no, to be honest,” you laughed, but Azul’s eyes were filled with a growing concern. “”I just…I…I don’t know how to say it…” You breathed out a shaky sigh as you covered your face with your hands. “No. No, I can’t get cold feet now!”

“Hey,” Azul soothed, placing his hands gently on your shoulders. “It’s all right. You have nothing to be afraid of. I’m here to listen to you. You’re safe with me.”

Though the anxiety in the pit of your stomach seemed to keep growing, his calm voice at least pulled you out of your shell. You removed your hands that shielded your red cheeks and lifted your eyes to his, desperate to find the courage to speak your feelings out into the world.

If you couldn’t do it like the way you practiced—romantic and perfect in every way—it didn’t matter. He just needed to know. 

“Azul, I’m in love with you, and I need you to know before I find myself doomed to never have an opportunity to say it again.”

Azul’s eyes shot open, mouth agape in shock. His pale complexion had taken on a brilliant shade of red as his mouth tried to form the right words to respond, but he couldn't manage to speak.

“I got into an accident in alchemy class in which Ace and Deuce accidentally gave me a curse of mermaidism. I only have three days to get my true love to kiss me, otherwise I’ll stay a mermaid forever. Professor Crewel gave me this magical necklace which allows me to stay a human for a short period of time, but it won’t last forever. By the time today’s sunset appears over the horizon, I will turn into a mermaid forever. I will have to leave everything behind to live in the sea, never to be a human again.”

The words seemed to spill from your tongue, and though this was quite a clumsy way of confessing everything, you were overcome with nervousness, and your time was running out. You just hoped his quick-witted mind would pick up on every detail, and that his heart would be inclined to help you, even if he didn’t even love you back.

“That’s why I had dinner with you in the Mostro Lounge, and why I pretended to be sick, and why I joined you at this festival, now deciding to divulge my feelings to you. But despite all of that, my feelings for you were never a lie or some sort of trick. I truly love you, so so much. And I’m so thankful for you. Thank you for being there for me, for being by my side, and for taking care of me. Even if you don’t love me back, Azul…thank you for everything.”

The sun had just started to peek over the sea, and taking Azul’s silence as rejection, you readied yourself for the new and uncertain future ahead of you.

That’s what you were preparing yourself for until a sniffle reached your eyes.

You raised your head to meet Azul’s gaze, and for a moment, time stopped.

Tears brimmed at the edges of his eyes as he gave you the most beautiful smile you’d ever seen him wear. The sight alone made your heart swell, and you swore you never felt so loved in your entire life. Without a word even being spoken, his expression alone had conveyed all that and more to you.

“You’re so silly,” was Azul’s first response, his hands brushing away the stray strands of hair that had fallen in front of your face. 

Silly…is that a good thing?

Azul laughed, no doubt catching the confusion on your face. “You should have told me earlier. I would have kissed you a long time ago.”

“W-What?” you breathed, your heart beat picking up its pace.

“Have you not realized?” Azul blushed, voice growing softer. “I’ve loved you for a long time now.”

Oh. Oh. 

“Really?” Your voice was barely more than a whisper, tentative yet hopeful.

“Yes,” Azul replied. “Although, if you’d asked me then, I probably would have turned into a stuttering mess before I could finally manage to squeak out a ‘yes’.”

A light laugh managed to escape you at the thought. “That would have been cute, though.”

“You’re making me embarrassed just thinking about it.”

Still, Azul’s smile never faltered. If anything, it only grew as he pulled you into him, wrapping his arms securely around you. “Thank you for returning my feelings, [Name]. It is the greatest honor that could ever be bestowed upon me.”

“You don’t have to be so formal,” you laughed, closing your eyes and hugging him tighter. “But the honor is all mine…”

He hummed, his fingers dancing along your back, leaving goosebumps along your skin.

“So…” you began, “is that a ‘yes’ to accepting my feelings?”

Azul pulled back slightly to playfully tap your forehead. “I think so, considering I just bared my whole heart to you.”

“Just checking.”

Azul playfully rolled his eyes at your teasing as you breathed out a long sigh of relief, your body finally relaxing after a long day of mulling over how this moment would play out. It turns out you had nothing to be concerned about, after all. In fact, your confession went much better than you ever expected.

“I was really worried how I was going to win over your heart,” you admitted. “I thought I had to pull out all the stops to make you fall for me.”

Azul shook his head at your words. “You already had my heart. There was no need to win it over.”

Your cheeks burned once more, but this time you chose not to hide your face from view. Instead, you looked directly into Azul’s bright eyes glistening with something that could only be described as pure euphoria.

I can’t remember a time where I’ve ever felt so happy.

And it seems the same can be said for him, too.

“Wait, you said you had until sunset, right?” Azul asked, suddenly remembering your words from earlier.

“Oh…yes, that’s right.” You had gotten so caught up in your excitement that you’d nearly forgotten the urgency of your current situation. 

And as if on cue, the mermaid scales had begun to reappear on your skin. Azul’s eyes followed yours down to your arms, and he extended his hand, asking for permission to touch you. You nodded in approval, and lifting your arm, he took in the sight of the brilliant shades of teal covering your skin.

“You know, if you ever did decide to become a mermaid, you’d make quite the beautiful one.”

“...You’re no fair, Azul” you sighed, this time unable to keep yourself from hiding your blushing face from view. You heard Azul chuckle quietly to himself, but you decided to let him off the hook for trying to get you all flustered…for now.

“Well, shall I, as your true love, set you free from this dreadful curse?”

You giggled at his theatrics, deciding to join in on the fun. “Please, my darling prince, rescue me with true love’s kiss.”

And before you knew it, his hand was on your cheek and his face was inches from yours, giving you an opportunity to change your mind or object. But when you smiled back at him, he returned the gesture, and slowly, painstakingly so, he leaned in until his lips finally descended upon yours in a moment of pure bliss.

As soon as his lips touched yours, you felt the scales disappear into your skin like ripples along the water’s surface, gone as if they’d never been there in the first place.

His mouth moved carefully against yours like gentle ocean waves, pulling you in deeper and deeper before pushing you back out to shore. But you dove in again and again, wanting to get lost in the tide, as long as it meant you could remain with him. Indeed, you’d let yourself get pulled into the depths of the sea just so you would never have to part from him again. That was why you needed to bask in his touch until the very last moment, to keep this memory etched in your mind forever.

When the need for a breath finally arose, Azul’s lips left yours, slightly swollen and faintly pink from the stains of your lipstick.

“Wow,” were the first words to fall from his mouth after your kiss, and it was such a sincere and sweet reaction that it made you burst into giggles.

He just gets cuter and cuter as the days go by.

“Even though I would have never wanted you to find yourself in this predicament in the first place,” Azul began, taking one of your hands in his, “I’m glad it brought us together in the end. If you left Twisted Wonderland before I found the courage to confess, I would have spent the rest of my life regretting it.”

“Well then…maybe we should thank Ace and Deuce later?”

“No, those two are idiots. I’m just glad they didn’t accidentally turn you into a frog.”

Your laughter echoed with the sounds of the ocean waves, creating a happy and serene atmosphere that left you feeling more at peace than you’d been in a long time. And now with your curse cured, you could look forward to all the memories you could continue to make on land, but this time, with Azul by your side.

Wordlessly, you entwined your hands with his, and the two of you turned to stare out at the sea, hearts full of new and beautiful feelings.

Three days had passed, and now a lifetime of them spent loving Azul remained.

[snek-panini]

It's been a few weeks since I had new books to share, but I finally got photos taken of the newest ones so today's the day. Here, have a book:

This is Across Tides and Currents, a Good Omens siren AU by Sodium_Azide and @doorwaytoparadise (hi. I hope I tagged you right). My favorite thing about this AU is that, at its heart, it's about learning to communicate with someone who is so different from you that you can't even physically speak each other's language, and yet you've still got so much common ground that you find a way. It's way lighter and more fun than that description makes it sound, though, so go read it if that's your thing.

The cover on this is Lineco book cloth, scrapbook paper printed to look like leather, and blue foil htv. The foil was actually a nightmare to do. The first time I applied it, it wouldn't stick no matter what I did, and the bits that did stick peeled off as soon as I touched them. I had to peel them up very carefully, cut a new image, and try again. Thankfully it worked the second time but I don't know that I'll be using the foil type again unless there's no other way to get the color I want. The non-foil metallic was so much easier to work with.

More book photos under the cut!

I went with a coptic bind for this one for a few reasons. The first was that I wanted to try one on a quarto-size book to see if I could. I also wanted to try the mitered corners thing I did when I bound Strange Moons, and see if I could have the same effect on the interior. (That bit didn't work out so well; the front is fine but I mismeasured the inside and the lines didn't match up, so I trimmed some pieces of cardstock to cover that up. I really like the layered look though, so that's fine. It's quirky.) The third reason is that not long before I decided to bind this one, the authors published a new chapter after two years of no updates. That's the best possible reason to have to change plans, and the glueless bind means that if they ever do that again I can just redo the stitching to add more pages. Win-win.

Getting whimsical with title pages here. This took way longer than I thought it would, probably because I don't like graphic design and I did it in Word where I do the rest of my typesetting. Usually what I do is grab an image and put text around it or on top of it and then just play with fonts and sizes, but this time I drew the lines and then made the text follow them. This is the first time I've used the word art feature since...probably 2009? I'd forgotten how. I have no doubt there are better ways to do this but if I'd had to learn a new program at that point I'd have quit. And I do think it was worth it--it's cute and fun and looks about how I imagined it.

Couple of photos of the inside. Sorry the first one's blurry, I had someone trying to get my attention when I took these. The section break image came from rawpixel, I just made it gray instead of black so it's more subtle. The fic has very nice illustrations that I specifically got the artist's permission to print and then I failed to get any photos of them when I did my little photo shoot. They look very nice, though. I swear.

The last image is something I've started including in my latest books. I'm calling them "A Note from the Bookbinder" and it's basically just me talking about why I chose that story, the experience of reading it for the first time, stuff that's going on in the fandom, stuff about the process like the new chapter coming out as I was preparing to print. It's kind of...like marginalia? Part of fanbinding is preservation and that's linked to archival work, and something I know archivists love is marginalia and diaries. I don't like writing in my books and I've never found any fun in journaling, but sometimes that kind of context is important so I'm trying to add it. Someday, decades from now, I may not remember all the details, so I'm trying to preserve them. IDK, this got philosophical on me. Go read about mermaids now. Promise it's a good time.

[nahimjustfeelingit-writes]

Hii! I wrote this Mbjxreader one-shot and I wanted to know what do you think of it 🫣

Meka couldn’t sleep. She was tossing and turning in her bed. It was past midnight, and the poor baby couldn’t sleep. Another thunderclap made her jump. She sang the song that her daddy, as she liked to call him, read before bed.

"Yuplee yopla, don't you fear,

Thunder's just saying, "I am near."

Lightning dances in the sky,

But you're safe, so close your eyes."

*Another thunder.*

Meka let out a high-pitched scream and went back under the comforter. In the 3-year-old's bedroom, the only source of light was her Little Mermaid nightlight, but even that couldn’t get her to sleep peacefully.

*A double thunder.*

This one made her jump out of bed. Shaking, she looked for a lamp on her nightstand. She sped to the door, examining every corner of the big hallway. She was trying to safely reach her parents' bedroom. Meka was scared; the palms of her little hands were sweaty. The strong thunder wasn’t helping. Strange how everything could be so scary in the dark, she thought.

She reached out her arms and felt relief as she felt the doorknob of her parents' room.

A couple of minutes before her adventure...

“I don’t know why you don’t like watching yourself on TV,” you said, half-teasing.

“It’s weird,” Michael replied, laying on your stomach while reading some of the unopened texts he had received throughout the day, occasionally glancing at the TV when you pointed out something.

“All My Children is a classic, Papa! You can’t deny it. And look how cute little Michael was with the braids,” you playfully pinched his ear.

“Woo, there goes your kiss scene,” you nudged his shoulder.

“Had I been in high school with you, you would have been my boyfriend back then.”

Michael laughed, "Oh yeah? You think you could handle all this back then?" he teased, flashing that charming smile that always made your heart skip a beat.

"Boy, please," you shot back playfully. "I would've been the best girlfriend you ever had."

Michael raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Back then, I would've been all about impressing you. Writing you little notes, walking you to class, showing off on the basketball court."

You laughed, imagining teenage Michael trying to win you over.

"Hey, it would've worked," he said, leaning in to kiss your forehead. "It worked on you now, didn't it?"

“True,” you admitted, smiling up at him. "But you’ve got more than just your charm going for you. You’re an amazing husband and an even better dad." you said, looking at him lovingly, a hand on his cheek.

Before Michael could respond, the door creaked open, and a small, trembling figure appeared in the doorway.

“Mommy, Daddy, I’m scared,” Meka whispered, her voice quivering.

Michael immediately got up and walked over to his daughter, scooping her up into his arms. “Hey, baby, it’s just a little storm. Nothing to worry about,” he said, his voice soothing.

You moved over, making space for Meka in the bed. “Come here, baby girl,” you said, patting the spot between you and Michael.

Meka snuggled in, her small body still shaking. “Can you sing the song, Daddy?” she asked, her eyes wide with fear.

Michael nodded and began to softly sing the nursery rhyme:

"Yuplee yopla, don't you fear,

Thunder's just saying, "I am near."

Lightning dances in the sky,

But you're safe, so close your eyes."

You joined in, your voices blending together, creating a safe cocoon of warmth and love for Meka. As the storm raged outside, your little girl slowly relaxed, her eyes drooping.

“See, nothing to be scared of,” you whispered, kissing her forehead.

Michael smiled, watching as Meka finally drifted off to sleep. “She’s gonna be just fine,” he said softly, wrapping an arm around you.

You nodded, resting your head on his shoulder. “Yeah, as long as we’re together.”

The storm outside continued, but in the warmth of your family’s embrace, there was nothing to fear.

This was so freaking adorable 🥰🥰🥰 I love it!!!!

And this is definitely something I could see Mike doing 😭 the song and him singing it is so cute because we know he can’t sing 😂😂😂 he’d do anything for his baby girl 😍