#and if you want to ship tease those two i guess that's. fine.

[aparticularbandit]

Big battle! What is Rika's super cool thing?

Oh? She gives ALL of her power to Ryo? Which literally stripes her Biomerge Digivolution Sakuyamon down to nothing? (LITERALLY.) Just so Justimon - Ryo's Biomerge Digivolution - can grow his laser sword extra large to cut down this part of the D-Reaper? And it leaves Sakuyamon super duper weak after while the big strong man gets to go wreck stuff with his super long sword that has been made super long by taking the main female character's full power and stripping her down to nothing?

YEAH, THAT'S NOT A SUPER GROSS METAPHOR FOR ANYTHING.

UGH, I HATE IT.

[livelaughlovesubs]

~ 06.10 - Boothill ~

Dom!reader x sub!boothill - reader is gender neutral

Warning: a little dark, dubcon, sadistic (?) reader, first time (doing smt sexual), finger sucking, gun play, teasing, dacryphilia, dry orgasm, cumming untouched, hair pulling, use of chemicals, choking, violence, vomiting, kidnapping

~ Word count: 7k ~

Nini!rant: went for a slightly different vibe this time~ how is it?

Kinktober list 2024

“Hah, another fake galaxy ranger? Who’s tryna impersonating us this time?” Boothill lowered his hat to hide his face while he stared at a wanted poster. Still clean, it must be a new commission. At first, he only wanted to check his own bounty, when he noticed another one right next to his.

‘Galaxy ranger […….], wanted, dead or alive, bounty [1.380.000]’

Consider him surprised when he didn’t recognize the name or the face. Him, the one who owns a data bank to support his memories. It could only mean that it’s an imposter. Having a fake ranger’s wanted poster hung right next to his is pretty humiliating, are they looking down on him? “This might be interesting.” The cowboy smirked to himself, yanking off the poster from the wall while he continued his pursuit.

This was going to be a side job, to yearn some cash for his good ol’ alcohol: Asdana’s white oak, about 6% alcohol and fragrant like the fields after rain. A classic among the malts. Pair that with a bullet to match and consider yourself drinking the holy water from the garden of Eve. The bass and gunpowder will bring an exquisite taste only folks with fine tongues can taste. If he had to give a deeper description, the word mellowness would match mighty fine.

Just thinking about the taste raised his spirits. Since he was going to catch you soon and get compensated big, it wouldn’t hurt to celebrate like this once in a while. Don't get him wrong, this isn't indulging, it's enjoying life. Which is why he was standing in front of a bustling bar, his favorite one. The minute he walked in, he felt his mind be at ease, like a ship with smooth sailing. Everything stayed as cozily as he remembered, the same old barkeeper, music, and seats. As if this was his second home, he popped down right next to the counter and put his arm up onto the bar table.

“Boss, here! The usual for me, you know, the lit stuff.” Boothill smirked, his other hand was tapping his knee slowly. “It’s you again, one Asdana without ice?” The man behind the counter seems to remember that very cowboy, as well as his usual order. To that boothill answered, “Of course, I take my Asdana neat.” Then the barkeeper nodded, as if to acknowledge it, commenting, "You are as lively as ever, sir." Before walking off to get the bottle.

Lively? Huh, it's not a word he'd use to describe himself, but it isn't bad. No, not bad at all. In the meantime the cyborg looked around the establishment, seeing many new and old faces that bring back memories. Among those, there was a single shadow that intrigued him. It was the person sitting next to him.

You were there already when he came, sipping away at your drink as your eyes darted around aimlessly. A cocktail of some kind, fading from black to red. If he had to guess, probably hangman’s blood? One of the specialties of this bar, he knows the owner is proud of that drink. It’s pretty strong, you must be good at dealing with alcohol. Maybe you'd be a splendid drinking buddy, he thought to himself, grinning from ear to ear. Meeting new people and making connections never hurts anyone.

Suddenly he moved his chair closer to yours, opening his mouth and attempting to strike up a conversation with you. “Hey, you there, I haven’t seen ya’ around here. This your first time here?” He tried his best to give you a gentle smile, that ended up with him showing off his sharp teeth. For some, he might have appeared threatening even. “...Yeah, it is. I heard that the drinks here are excellent, which is why they have so many regulars.” You stirred around in your glass, mixing the two colors.

“That’s right, you see, I consider myself a regular too.” Boothill chuckled, by the looks of it, he was quite proud of that title. “Oh right, name’s boothill, you can call me that. How ‘bout we drink a lil’ together?” He smirked, it was still a rather awkward smile. Though luckily you didn’t seem to mind. “Boothill huh? I’ve heard that name around, you are notorious for your misdeeds against the IPC.” You turned around to face him, returning his gesture by smiling as well.

At least he thinks you did, since he saw your face twitch. However, he couldn’t see it clearly due to the effects of the lighting. That was why you looked like a shadow from afar. The cyborg scoffed a bit, appearing amused by your words, “misdeeds you say? Cutie, my actions may not be innocent but I only do honest work.” A low chuckle reached his ears, followed by your response to his rather playful comment, “Of course, I understand. You galaxy rangers are brimming with righteousness after all.”

For some reason, your voice was as clear as day, despite the bustling noises emerging from the background. Many people were talking among themselves, so despite you not speaking especially loud, he still heard you perfectly. It was almost as if he filtered the other sounds out for yours only. At first glance, you seemed friendly, kind even. Yet there was this strange feeling surrounding you, he couldn’t get rid of the lingering suspicions. How did you know his occupation? Sure, his name was pretty infamous, though was it normal to know this much?

“…I guess the number on my bounty isn’t just for show.” He joked, before letting out some breathy laughs. Instead of paying attention to his words, you stared at his hand, each finger was out of metal. A artificial arm, or to be precise, a cyborg. Nothing you didn’t know. Suddenly you raised your finger, pointing in his direction. Boothill frowned a little, taken aback by it. “Your drink, it’s coming.” After a moment you explained, and he turned his head around.

Who would have guessed, you were right, the bartender was just putting down the liquor as he chirped, “One Asdana?” Before winking at the male and leaving the two of you alone. “Ah, yeah, that's for me.” The cowboy mumbled, about to take the old-fashioned glass when you stopped him. “Wait a second, I have something for you.” The moment your sentence ended, you began fumbling with your bag, apparently searching for something.

He was a bit irritated but listened to you anyway, taking his hand back. Waiting like this was a tiny bit annoying, but he put up with it. About a minute later, you were holding a shiny object in your hand. Without giving him any warnings, you dropped the said object into his drink. The beverage splashed against the glass due to the impact, only a single drop landed outside before the liquid calmed down.

Now, a bullet was slowly sinking to the bottom of the glass. Its color matched his drink, it had a golden gleam. “Holy forkeroni…” He gasped, this bullet, it was- “9 millimeters caliber, 147 grain, and the bottom's round as a pie. An eternal classical, am I right?” After explaining something obvious to him, you finally showed your face by leaning forward. The lightbulb brightened your features, exposing your identity to the cowboy. A daring move, a risky gamble with cards not everyone would have played. You stared right into his black pupils without a hint of fear, and his response to your boldness was as expected. “This information, you are...!” Immediately, the cyborg grabbed you by your collar and yelled, “Son of a nice lady- you are the one from that wanted poster! The fake galaxy ranger!” He shook his head, then demanded, “Fudge me… don’t fork around and answer, how do you know so much about me?” What a serious tone he had, he must be feeling threatened.

Your eyes darted down to his metallic hand, the same one you were eyeing up and down earlier was now clenching your shirt. Instead of taking him seriously, you were calm and collected, taking one step after another. Seeing you so relaxed, he felt a hint of anger building within him and used more force. It was almost enough to lift you off your seat. Gosh, look how much contempt he suddenly has for you when he was so nice to you mere moments ago.

“Please don’t cause a scene, sir boothill, I was only being nice by catering your drink to your taste. What's the problem?” You cooed at him like he was a child throwing a tantrum, playing the naive card. This playful tone of yours reminded him awfully of his own, yet at that moment it annoyed him. “You are dodging my question.” He stressed his words, furrowing his brows and tightening his grip. But he jerked a little when you clasped your hand over his, your touch was warm in comparison to his.

Then you spoke in a calm tone, “Shall we take this outside? There are many watching eyes here. I believe you wouldn’t want to get banned from your favorite bar.” The way you talked suggested you knew much more, a lot more than what he does about you. After all, you knew some private details about his preferences and hobbies. In conclusion, you must have been waiting for him here, at this very bar.

Boothill still hesitated for a moment, before eventually letting go of you. He clicked his tongue as if he regretted your meeting today. In truth, he wasn't in the mood for a fight, despite everything he came here to have fun. Your clothes were now wrinkled and slightly messy, disheveled would also be a fitting term, but you didn’t really bother with straightening them out, rather, you were amused by his hot temper. The boy thought about the situation and the problem he was facing. He couldn't read you at all, what a tough nut to crack.

It would be smart to sort out his thoughts, so first things first, he has to find out how you obtained all this information about him. What was your deal and reason? Then he should think about how to clean up this chaos in case it becomes messy. Even so, startling the other guests wouldn’t be good, that’s why he should contain himself for now. “Fine, lead the way, and don’t try to pull any funny business with me.” He clasped his arms in front of his chest, glaring at you with nothing but contempt. To be honest he looked like a cheeky cat instead of a dangerous lion.

“Don’t look at me like I’m some kind of criminal~” You jest, grinning from ear to ear as you sipped at your cocktail. “Oh yeah? Why do you have quite the sum on your head then.” The cowboy countered your statement, squinting his eyes a little. To think you lost his trust this fast, he was a cautious fellow. “Haha, you hurt me. Don’t you have a bounty on your head as well? If so, why can’t I be righteous too?” He shuddered a little at your words, by the looks of it, you could also be a crazy stalker who invaded his privacy. Heck, he would almost bet on you knowing his head's value in and out.

At this point your voice alone was enough to scratch him the wrong way, you were really testing his patience. Boothill dismissed your statement with a groan, “Don’t compare us, I’m not a motherfudgin' fake ranger like you.” You blinked a few times at his words, before laughing out loud. He didn't like how you reacted. “Ahaha~ yes yes, of course, I’m the bad guy in your story, how did I forget this detail?” You blabbered, and he didn't really understand what you meant.

Then, without giving him any time to process what you said, you sprang up from your seat but made sure to take your cocktail with you. “Come now, cowboy. Take your drink with you, can’t leave that to waste right? Let’s continue drinking outside, like real drinking buddies.” That last sentence, he hasn't asked you yet, that means you guessed by his actions alone. Was it that obvious? It almost felt like you were taunting him or making fun of his previous idea of befriending you.

To save some of his pride, he decided to entertain your little chitchat. “Take it with me? I don’t think I’ll need that long to deal with the likes of you.” He sneered, a cheeky expression was plastered on his face now. You scanned him up and down a few times, then said, “If I can give you one advice: you’ll regret it if you don’t.” Shortly after, you walked out of the store, not giving a damn if he followed you or not. It was because you knew he wouldn’t let you escape so easily, and as you predicted, he followed you to the back of the bar. His footsteps were rather silent for a cyborg, he must not want to involve other guests.

The environment was filthy and dark, as well as out of the sight of innocent civilians. Perfect for an ambush or to have a private talk. You took another sip of your drink and complimented it, “Heavens, have I told you already? This tastes great. Wanna try some?” This sudden courtesy didn't seem fitting at all, considering he already lost all trust he had for you. His eyes pointed to your hand, the hand holding the glass in front of him. Instead of taking it, he clanked his own glass against yours, saying “No need, and cheers. Now that we are drinking, it’s time for you to start talking.” After finishing his speech, he drank his much-anticipated beverage.

This was what he missed, the sweet taste of paradise. No matter how he hated to admit it, the bullet you put in was just the stuff he needed. The faint taste of brass and gunpowder partnered up with the overwhelming sweetness of the malt juice was simply magnificent. “Ehem.. now,” He began, putting the drink onto the staircase next to him. It was the emergency staircase in case of a fire, yet it looked rusty as hell. Still, it won’t crash down because of one measly drink, will it?

This was something he had noticed for a while, somehow, he always found your gaze on his hands. The same applied here when he was putting his malt juice away. Was it worth being careful about? Boothill sighed, before continuing, “Tell me, what is your purpose? You were looking for me, weren’t ya?” Straight to the point, as expected of an ill-mannered cowboy like him, but you didn’t dislike it. “If I told you, this won’t be fun anymore. The villain always shares their plan when the hero is subdued.” You gurgled down the last bits of your ‘hangman’s blood’, then put the glass on the ground, unlike him. Would you look at that, who has no manners now?

Afterward, you walked up to the man, and his response to it was taking a few steps back. It wasn’t until his back hit the wall that the two of you stopped in your tracks. “Shirtbag… do you want to imitate a cartoon villain that bad?” He scoffed, crossing his arms once again. “Hehe, maybe.” You smiled at him providing him with a vague answer. Fork it, he was definitely going to wipe that insolent grin of yours from your face. “Anyway, before things escalate and you hit me, how about a quick introduction? My name is y/n.” The ranger didn’t look happy at all at your suggestion, and so he snapped, “I know, I saw on the poster. Can you stop wasting my free time now?”

“Whoa, easy there. And hey! Don’t pull your gun out!” You said and raised your hands as if to testify to your cooperation, then spouted “Well, I don’t know what information I own that could possibly satisfy you.” Now you were really wasting his time, chatting with no end in sight. Obviously, you were playing dumb with him. This caused Boothill to shout almost angrily, “Just tell me what business you have with me, fudgehead!” His rather funny way of talking didn't shock you, which means this was another piece of information you had access to beforehand. Who was feeding you with all that info?

He reached out for your collar again, but to his surprise, he couldn't move his arm anymore. “What the fork?!” His eyes turned to look up at you, his soft lips were parted due to disbelief. “Thankfully it worked~ otherwise I’d be cheese by now!” You joked, taking another step forwards him. “Holy wubabboo- is this your doing?” A confused expression spread on your face and you questioned, “Did what?” What the- what was happening, he couldn't comprehend this darned situation.

“How did you pull this off-? UrGhh!!” Out of nowhere, he dropped down to his knees, hovering and kneeling on the ground while sweating furiously. There was no strength left in his legs, or he lost control of his limbs somehow. On the outside he looked like a robot out of power, arms dangling next to him all lifeless. “Fudge! Tell me! What did you do?!” This has to be your doing, the timing is too perfect. You scanned his body again, smirking to yourself. "I had to prepare a lot for this, you know."

His ears perked at your confession, were you finally getting bored of that clueless act? Your face was barely visible since the alley wasn’t very bright, there was only one dimly lit street lamp around the corner. “You were easier to catch than I thought.” You then uttered. What the hell is this! That was supposed to be his line, so how did things end up this way? He is a motherfudging cyborg, what could you have possibly done to him?

The word confusion was basically written all over his face, he couldn’t even curse at you because he was so baffled, so perplexed about basically everything. Then, you raised your foot and stepped down on his shoulder. He turned his head to the side just to be faced with your shoe, the soles dirtied his cropped jacket.

“Get off me, you son of a nice fugin' lady.” Boothill gritted his teeth, trying to push you away. But the word in capital letter and underlined was 'trying', since he couldn’t move at all. He felt as helpless as the day he lost his home, unable to do anything but watch from the sidelines. “I like that feisty look in your eyes, cowboy.” You teased, those stinging words hurting his ego. Suddenly you leaned down, all so you could meet his gaze more easily.

Your hands reached for the glass of malt juice standing on the staircase and held it above his face. It shone in a golden light, almost akin to a disco ball. His eyes were glued to that glass, partly because he wondered what you planned to do. “Here, as I said before, this shouldn’t go to waste.” You told him and grabbed his chin. It happened so suddenly that he couldn’t react to it, not like he could have done anything in self-defense anyway. “Ugh, let go you mother- fuuHHMM!!”

When he opened his mouth to curse and to let out a shocked yelp, you forcefully poured the drink down his throat. It streamed down his oesophagus. You had to admit, he had good reflexes for reacting to this so quickly. Some of the liquid landed on his lips or cheeks, but he drank most of the juice. You watched the remains that weren't swallowed drip down his chin, soiling his clothes further and creating a darker spot on the fabric. It also covered his metallic chest in a golden shine, one could easily confuse it with oil.

The cyborg closed his eyes to avoid the liquor getting in places it shouldn’t, he choked a little since you were pouring so fast he couldn’t keep up with the swallowing. This didn’t stop until the glass was empty, even the bullet you gifted him earlier ended up in his mouth. He let it rest on his tongue for a while, before gulping it down as well. “Mmmh, guhh- cough cough!”

Boothill gasped, the bullet didn’t roll in as easily as the malt juice, it remained stuck in his throat. He had to cough a few times for it to slide down, after that he instantly complained, “Fu-fudge... why did you do that? I wanted to enjoy my drink slowly!” But he stopped mid-track when your familiar laugh echoed in his ears, and your fingertips stroked his chin. Shivers ran down his spine at your touch, he didn't know why.

“Dear ranger~ did your mommy not teach you not to take things from a stranger?” His eyes twitched and widened, you couldn’t really grasp the expression he pulled, though he looked devastated. It seems a light switch clicked inside his thick skull. Did you mess with his drink? Boothill just couldn't keep calm anymore at the realization, glaring at you with a nasty attitude. “Oh my, did I hit a sore spot there? You look like you want to kill me.” Yet his threatening, imposing body language didn’t scare you off, which is why you continued ridiculing him.

“I’ll ask you a last time, what the fork did you do to me?" Despite all these misfortunes, he didn't give up his insolent side, he was planning on giving you a hard time until the very end. Boothill was showing his sharp teeth once again, but this time he wasn’t smiling. “Are you familiar with Sulfuric acid?” You uttered, tapping his lips with your thumb. That word was foreign to him, was it something he would know? He wanted to bite down on his bottom lip, but you stopped him. This feeling, it was latex, you were wearing gloves.

“You see, it’s potent enough to melt metal.” The expression that followed after you enlightened him of its importance was simply amazing, you were curious about what he felt in that moment. Shock? Anger? Frustration? Maybe even self-hatred? “Then, how did you-” “Hey, I wasn’t done talking. Anyway, to answer your question, I hid it inside the bullet. Then I just had to wait for it to melt through the brass and voila, need me to say more?” What a talent you have for spouting such horrendous things with an innocent tone.

“Everything’s going according to your plan, huh, explaining everything when the hero’s subdued.” He repeated your words, then coughed again because his throat was burning. Actually, it hurt and itched. His face also felt like it was on fire, or to be precise, his skin did. It was so painful he had to clench his teeth to suppress the pain. You laughed under your breath, laughing at him, mocking him. “Right, if it’s potent enough to inflict wounds on a cyborg, then of course it irritates the skin as well.” Well, that should explain why his skin was hurting. “Now, boothill, may I give you another advice?”

Your hand caressed his cheeks as you asked him that, face only millimetres away from his. The way you touched him was surprisingly gentle, it made him sick. “What do you want.” He scorned, shaking his head to brush off your hand. “I’m sure you have extra protection around the more important components inside your system, though you should still get rid of the acid.” You looked unfazed when he avoided your touch, instead you closed the already nonexistent distance between you two and whispered into his ear.

The male looked mad, really damn angry. He yelled into your face, “Well fudge me I guess?! I can’t forking move my body!” That caught you off guard, you blinked a few times at his aggressive behavior. Don't get you wrong, it's not that you didn’t understand his point of view. On the contrary, it's good to see him still so energetic. “Ah~ my bad, I didn’t think the acid would break your control Center first. Why is it located right next to your stomach anyway?” You admitted, scratching your head a little.

This was so easy that it was almost boring, you expected him to put up more of a fight. But you can't blame him when he's basically a cripple right now. “In other words, I’m fudged? Fork this, dying so dishonorable tsk tsk.” Boothill snarled, rolling his eyes, he didn’t consider himself a living man before, but now he was dead-dead if you knew what he meant.

You glanced at his face, he was sweating and his complexion didn’t look all that good. He acted as if he didn't mind it, but he was hanging onto life so dearly it almost moved you. In the end, you proposed in a tender tone, “Want me to help you?” The ranger was still glaring at you, though his gaze bore more skeptic than fury. “You caused this first- fine, I don’t have any choice but to accept do I?”

No matter how he despised you, he can't carry out revenge when he's dead. It's not that he trusted you to 'save' him, but rather, this is his last resort. As soon as he finished his sentence, you yanked on his chin to make him look up at you. The tips of his hair were wet due to the alcohol, and his skin also reddened due to the acid. Your thumb pressed on his bottom lip, almost pulling at it. A faint blush crept onto his cheeks at the intimate touch. Adorable.

When he parted his lips a little, you took that opportunity to stuff your index and middle finger into his mouth. “What- Mhm..!?” The male groaned, finding himself in a pretty bizarre situation. God how embarrassing, he was falling into a shameful abyss he couldn't crawl out anymore. Truth be told, he had a pretty accurate guess on what you wanted to do, though he really didn’t want to actually carry it out. Was this the only way?

You stuck your digits deeper inside, already at the second knuckle, causing him to flinch and twitch. His eyes were tightly shut, brows furrowed while a growing blush covered his features. Damn it, this is worse than any nightmares, this feels the worst. So what was this bubbling and tingly sensation he felt? It was messing with him, causing him to shudder. He could feel your fingers pressing down on his tongue, as well as you trying to not cut yourself on his teeth. This was weird, it was so strange, why was he getting lightheaded?

“Don’t act so surprised now, I’m helping you as you wanted.” After watching his helpless face for a while, you commented on it, obviously not planning on stopping the teasing anytime soon. It seems you caught on to the growing tension between the two of you, so you chuckled, “Hey... what’s this I'm seeing? Why is your face getting red?” His once half-lidded eyes were yanked wide open at the thought that he got exposed.

Don't tell him he was enjoying this perverted act. “Hmm! Sho-shou ap..!” Boothill tried to speak despite the difficulties, feeling your digits reaching deeper and deeper. With each poke, the tingly feeling also increased. Was this perhaps what they called sexual pleasure? If so, why did he have to experience it for the first time at your hands?

A few seconds later, you were knuckles-deep inside him, fingertips already rubbing the walls of his throat. It was wet and hot in his mouth, and his face seemed to be gradually heating as well. That process was speeding up quite rapidly. His cheeks quickly turned red, a foggy blush tainting the skin. He was blushing so much just from sucking on your fingers a little? You simply couldn’t miss out on ridiculing him yet again, purring into his ear once more, “Does this turn you on? How cute.”

His pupils shrank at your comment, probably at the disbelief that you’d say something this audacious. Him? Turned on by you? What a joke- this can’t be real. He was just having a hard time breathing, and that’s why he was getting red. Really. Though deep down, he knew he couldn't sugarcoat it, the truth will always be the truth, no matter how he denies its existence. “MhMm, guhNn, hmm-nggHh..!” The cowboy tried to argue with you, though his protests were muffled by you, only inaudible noises could be made out.

There were also sneaky moans mixed among his protests or little gasps. The vibrations of his voice tickled your skin, it felt pretty funny actually. “What was that? I can't understand you~” You admitted cheerfully, watching the emotion on his face rotate from shock, and anger to frustration. What a shameless person you were, and not to forget heartless.

Then you pressed down on his wet muscle once again, and he gagged around you. “Ughhh..!” That one single gag soon turned into a series of chokes, and tears began collecting in his eye sockets. So he still had his gag reflex, excellent, it was exactly what you needed. More coughs and chokes continuously spilled from the male while you mercilessly ravished his throat.

He could feel you poking his throat so deep it almost hurt, yet that wasn't the only thing he felt. No. Far from it, his body was burning up from the inside, though it was a different kind of heat than the effects of the acid. His mind felt so foggy and weakened, was it alright for him to let his guard down in times like this? When he still hasn't discovered your purpose? But he couldn't hang on anymore, it was as if his brain was melting. Never ever was it this challenging for him to hang on to his reason and logic, to what makes him human.

"Dahmmmm it..! S-stouu! GuhHGG..!!" He choked again, but this time, it felt like something was coming out... no, it was- "hmHHh, fooouukk!! Ugh-guUH!" This familiar sensation and taste, he couldn't move his tongue but he could still taste it faintly. Not to mention the burdensome smell, this familiar smell that stayed around his nostrils. The Asdana he just gurgled down was coming up again, he was on the verge of vomiting. It was as if his body rejected the drink, and he couldn't stop gagging.

At least his insides won't get messed up any longer, that must be the only positive thing in all this. Even so, to do something that shameful in front of you, damn it, he wants to spit at you if he could. You noticed how his throat tightened, or how his Adam's apple moved around. With that, you took your fingers out as fast as how you stuck them inside him. Strings of saliva connected your fingertips with his mouth, and his tongue hung outside for a while. "Ugh, fu-gUhg, UhmM!!"

Right afterward, he puked on the ground, head hanging low while more gaging sounds left him. His pupils shrunk as the contents spilled onto the filthy ground. Those embarrassing noises didn't cease until he choked up the bullet he had previously swallowed. Then, he whimpered at the taste, it had become sour now due to the chemical. "There you go, you should be fixed now." You reported, but he couldn't bring himself to be joyful about it.

Rather, he was sweating furiously, eyes widened and almost dried up. If he could cry, he definitely would have. Oh how thankful he was in that moment that he physically couldn't sob. He wouldn't have been able to live with the shame of breaking down in tears and weeping in front of you. "Uhhhhg, da-mHnn it... fu-uGGhh!!" The taste of the alcohol wasn't as pleasant as before, probably due to it getting corrupted by the acid you mentioned. Such a waste, and to think it landed on the floor now. A place like that wasn't worth a drink this exquisite.

His eyelids and brows twitched, and now that he was done, he clenched his teeth again and insulted you, "You muddlefudger..." That rebellious look in his gaze didn't vanish, he glared at you once more. You were almost impressed if you didn't notice a small glimmer of falter within his tough facade. Despite it being a normal bodily reaction, he seems to be holding it against you. "And here I thought I helped you out, how ungrateful." You clicked your tongue, and his face became redder. Was it because of the humiliation or anger?

Your shoe was still on his shoulder, pressing down on him, reminding him of his vulnerable position. The Cowboy snapped at you, spitting through gritted teeth, "What do ya' got planned now?" You took off your gloves, they were covered in his saliva. Then you revealed, "I'm not sure." He only got more annoyed by that nonchalant answer and demanded, "If you're going to kill me make it quick." Weirdly enough, your eyes glimmered, as if you were inspired by his suggestion. "If that's what you want, I don't mind it." You smirked, patting his head, stroking his long hair as your other hand sneakily pulled out the gun around his waist.

He almost lost himself in that small gesture of comfort you gave him, if it wasn't for him seeing you with his gun in your hand. "Hah.. with my own weapon? Fudge, you want to humiliate me to the end huh." How resentful he sounded, you almost pitied this guy. "Maybe I do." After saying that irritatingly proud, you pressed his revolver against his forehead, pushing his bangs to the side. "But this is a little boring, don't you think?"

As if you were truly interested in his opinion, he found it quite difficult to believe that. "Why do you ask me?" Boothill gnarled, but to his surprise, you moved the revolver away. Instead, the barrel was pressed flat against his chest, the muzzle facing his chin. "What are you..?" The male mumbled, twisting his expression at this damned play you organized for him. For you, all this must be a game, a stage you laid out for him, where he was a mindless puppet playing right into your hand.

He thought he couldn't be surprised anymore, yet your actions kept going beyond anything he could ever imagine. You moved the revolver upwards so that the muzzle was touching the underside of his chin. At the same time, the gun was going underneath his short jacket. "Y-you..!" The cyborg couldn't help but blush a little. His face was hot, overheating even compared to the cold weapon you held in your hands. "Do you still want to die? If you beg, I might spar you?" Your tone didn't sound that serious, it was almost said in a joking manner.

“Fork you, never." Boothill snarled again, acting disobedient even though his life was at stake. He had a strong spirit since he was still so cocky after all the things he went through. You wiped off the smile from your face, now staring down at him with a cold-blooded expression, "I'll count down from three then. Three..." Wha- no, this can't be the end, he still has to find Oswaldo. His artificial heart pounded against his chest, causing his mind to fall into chaos. "Two."

You were so cruel, counting down like this without remorse, a fudging monster! Adrenaline was being pumped through his body, or should he rather say every wire he owned? "One-" Without thinking, since he lost that privilege the moment you began counting, he yelled as fast as he could and closed his eyes, "Fudge! Fine! If m'gonna die lemme at least curse at you! You- er, muddlefudging clocksucker!!" Right now, he kind of wished he could cry, just to let out some steam. You couldn't help but giggle, before uttering the word, "Zero." Suddenly, he blanked out.

For a split second, time appeared to have stopped. What followed after was a loud, ear-splitting sound that echoed through the alley. To be expected, it definitely alarmed other people. Then, absolute silence emerged. Not even the faint music from the bar could be heard anymore. "Ah... hu-huh..?" "Oh? Seems like your gun wasn't loaded!" You giggled, you knew this from the start, didn't you? Pants along with a few choked-out whines escaped him. Shivers traveled through him and electricity was being sent to his brain, stimulating the euphoric parts.

A moment later, a slap sound reached his ears, and a sting that felt strangely pleasant originated from his cheek. His face turned to the side, and his cheek throbbed. "uh-urghh..! Ah, wha-what?" Did you just... slap him? Boothill groaned, shaking a little as drool rolled down his chin because his mouth remained open for too long. His spit also defiled the gun, wetting the revolver. Then, the unimaginable happened, and he let out an unrestrained moan, "ahhhHHHNngg..!?" It was high-pitched and whorish, he wore such a confused but slutty expression that it surprised both of you.

Reality crushed down on him too hard, and he couldn't help but gasp and whimper underneath his ragged inhales. "Ugh..ngh- wha-what's this fe-feeling..? W-why.. ha-hmnHg..♡♥︎?" Oh dear, this is not what you think just happened, right? "Boothill, did you just cum?" You said his name after a long while, and he groaned again, "guHhh... s-stop, that's nonsense! How can I e-even.. I-" The boy stumbled over his words, stuttering as a deep blush was painted over his entire face. He was such a twitchy mess now, totally different than his previous self.

“Are you a masochist?” You asked him randomly, it was so out of pocket that it killed the mood. "...are you crazy?" Boothill replied with scorn, his pride was pretty hurt by that statement. As if to test your speculation, you grabbed the back of his hair and yanked on it, making him yelp. "Arghh..! L-let go- fudge!" Then you squeezed his cheeks and stuck out your tongue. He stared at you hesitantly, his own tongue also hanging outside. Mere moments later, your spit was dripping down and landing in his mouth.

That action rendered him speechless, causing him to freeze. Your saliva tasted a little like alcohol. Darn it, this was so disgusting. Once you were done, you let go of the cowboy again, before teasing him, "I was right, you are a masochistic dog~" You knew because of his flushed cheeks, they became redder at your lewd antics. "Are you satisfied now? The fork do you want from me?!" Boothill scoffed, he could only bear this much until his breaking point. "What do I want?" You repeated his sentence, and put a finger on your chin as if you were thinking hard about something.

In the meantime, boothill impatiently waited, he desperately wanted to know your intentions, to see if it justified your actions. When you moved your finger away, you grinned before responding, "I think the answer is you." "...huh?" The cyborg was stunned, staring up at you with spirals in his pupils as you suddenly embraced him. "You heard me, boothill." Your voice and your hug were so warm, he didn't know you could be this gentle.

No, this was no good, it was troubling, to say the least. "Y/n? You- shirt, what do you mean?" For the first time, you heard your name come out of his mouth. His voice trembled as he voiced out your name, the way he said it had a nice ring to it. Then he glared at you once again, but this time he looked like a small animal, eyes glistening while a heavy blush formed on his face. Wait, why was he even blushing? Maybe, because he was wanted for the first time after centuries?

"I hate you." He said after returning to his senses, he got caught up in his emotions there for a moment. These little bits of comfort aren't enough to make up for the mess you caused, and he didn't feel the same. On the other hand, you couldn't stop smirking, and he knew by the looks of it that it wasn't an innocent smile by length. "Let's get out of here, I'll help you move." You then told him and helped him get up, pulling him by his arms.

This was immediately met with angry protests from the male, "Don't touch me- hey, ugh! Where the fudge are you taking me?" The second he let his guard down, you stuffed your gloves into his mouth to muffle his voice, "hMHh?! MmhhGFFF!!!" After that, to satisfy his curiosity, you whispered quietly, "To a place where I can have you."

.

.

"Finally, the guards are here." One of the guests said, to which another one answered, "Thank god because no one dared to go see what was going on." Maybe people we in disarray due to the mysterious sound they all heard. It was probably a gunshot, which means, someone might have died. Yet no one dared to go into the alley, out of fear that they might be the next victim. After the guards arrived, a rather large group of people followed them and ran over to the scene.

They all wanted to know what that gunshot was, standing on the sidelines and observing the investigation. 'What the hell happened here?!' Everyone wondered, eyes searching around for evidence. The only hints they found were two glasses standing on the staircase with some credits, as well as a pool of what seems to be malt juice lying on the ground along with a single golden bullet in the midst of it.

The guard in charge of this operation reached out for the bullet and said, "...someone must have been shot." Then he eyed the bullet up and down, in hopes of finding more clues. That's when he noticed a weird detail, "Why are there holes in the bullet?"

Tags: @ghostiegirl56 @thisisnotangel @ghostgoosygoose @i-dont-fooken-know @chuuya-brainrot @allyfoxglove @thigh-o-saur @fallenthemisticalyingyang @fem-dom-roze

Nini!rant 2.0:

Based on my findings, concentrated sulfuric acid can melt many metals, like aluminium, iron and steel. (Boothill isn’t safe hehe) It’s enough if it’s moderately concentrated, so it’s alright if a bit of water mixes into it as well. It also reacts to brass - the copper aspect of it, I dunno if it reacts to zink as well. Some sources say yes, some denied it.

Anyway, the Formular for the melting process or chemical reaction would be: Cu + h2So4 -> CuSo4 + h2 or Fe + h2So4 -> FeSo4 h2

So it also creates hydrogen gas at the same time, which also melts iron and is poison for the human body. Annnnd copper Sulfid, which is weak and easily breakable, that means it can weaken the brass.

My plan to poison him: his favourite drink is malt juice with a 9mm calliber bullet that’s out of brass. And malt juice is out of ca. 25-30% water. So, I was thinking of drilling a hole into the bottom of the bullet and use a needle to shoot concentrated sulfuric acid inside the capsule. Then drop that in the malt juice. Now we just gotta wait for the acid to melt through the bullet, and mix with the water of the alcohol, then it’d become moderately concentrated. Btw sulfuric acid can absorb water from everywhere, even from the air.

Then if he drinks it, bam, his insides will melt. It might take a bit, so we gotta entertain him and stretch out the time. Even if he doesn’t drink it, he eats bullets, so he’ll get the acid inside his body anyway. With that, we successfully ‘poisoned’ him. It takes a bit of fantasy but oh well.

Now, take this hangman’s blood recipe:

- 1¾ parts gin.

- 1¾ parts white rum.

- 1¾ parts whiskey.

- 1¾ parts brandy.

- 7½ parts stout beer.

- 6 parts champagne.

[chireikiden]

Might be a pretty basic take by the standards of more seasoned yuri fans, but it's my perspective as someone who's mostly read yuri in a Touhou context (though a lot of it), and exclusively manga from the Japanese fans as opposed to i.e. written fics.

Touhou yuri (using it very broadly here to describe any kind of wlw shipping present) is, across the board, in a pool of fan literature going back twenty years, remarkably good at taking the lesbian part for granted. Not counting outright het content or works that simply don't bring it up, I have only very vague memories of a character's lesbian orientation being either denied or even brought to question (even in the cliche "But we're both girls!" manner, which even as a somewhat dead horse trope you might still expect to see, given plenty of doujin writing isn't exactly highbrow). You might be able to read "Does she like girls?" between the lines in the usual question of "Does she like me?" if you really want to, but the way it's still basically treated as default is fun to me. There's a reason Touhou basically has honorary yuri status on e.g. Dynasty Reader, even the stories with effectively zero shipping in them. You might not notice if you haven't browsed the site, but it's literally nothing but yuri + Touhou. We even got upload rights just so we could post more Touhou.

(Of course, Touhou being yuri city is part of the reason any hint of straight romance gets a really strong kneejerk reaction from people, including me. But that's also because the lack of usable male characters makes that shipping inherently hamfisted, up to and including literally making up cardboard villager OCs. Basically the only positive example I can remember off the top of my head is Hisona's An Old Poem for the Cuckoo Bird depicting Youki with a 1000-year-old mostly joking crush on Nue, which after some chin-scratching I decided I liked alright. And Hisona of course has plenty of yuri cred to cover for it.)

But although taken for granted, most Touhou yuri is one or more of: a.) On a "blushing maidens thinking about holding hands" level in its approach to romance, b.) Only depicting the starting moments of a relationship, at best - usually just pining, c.) Only off-handedly teasing, basically to acknowledge the ship is there, d.) Showing a very close and loving relationship but leaving the romance part subtextual, even if thinly veiled.

While those are all fine - some of my favorite artists like e.g. Ashiyama undeniably fall under d.) - it means that artists who depict more established couples, and couples that get depicted as more established, stand out. I love when a story is very blunt about two characters, whether the focus is actually on them or not, already being an item. Be it due to a difference in target demographic or what, many of these works seem to have a slight lean towards being more raunchy/horny even when not outright R-18, but I don't actually mind that too much when it does happen - as long as they're fun and raunchy, as opposed to only raunchy or, god forbid, unfun in raunchy ways.

I like how Moyazou depicts Mokou and Keine as basically-married. I like how Atoki depicts YuuParu or SakiYachi after drawing like twenty books of them (each). I like when Kawayabug depicts Tojiko as Miko's beleaguered wife. But the example of the day is obviously risui (of Ladies of Scarlet Devil Mansion), who you might have guessed inspired this ramble. Funnily enough, in LoSDM she seems to have walked back Meiling and Sakuya's relationship coincidentally at the same time she toned down the content to fit SCoOW's guidelines, compared to her usual works that have MeiSaku at a much more established and mutual stage.

But the point stands that it's really fun to see LoSDM almost rub it in your face from the very start - from Meiling's dream to every other conversation she has - that everyone in it is unapologetically and openly lesbian, assumes everyone else to be a lesbian, and doesn't hesitate to talk about it like a (romcom idiot) adult.

Also, risui draw lady very good

[lowkeyrobin]

hii i love your writing and im wondering if you could please write something fluffy for tommyinnit? maybe y/n is also a streamer/cc and their relationship is well known in the community and theyre always so sickeningly cute that their friends get so annoyed!! i just think that'd be fun.

tyty!

(also could i be 🌙🌊 anon? thanks!)

yeah of course!! welcome to the family 🌙🌊 anon :) ; and oooo okay, hopefully I did this right! thank you for requesting!

TOMMYINNIT ; sickeningly adorable

summary ; two streamers publicly dating, who would've guessed

warnings ; language

word count ; 562

y/s/n = your ship name

masterlist

You and Tommy finally made yourselves official in late 2021 as the Dream SMP fandom had started dying out. You waited for a while for the hype to go down because of toxic fans and weirdos online who'd care too much about your relationship, and everything turned out fine.

Most of your social media feeds were filled with support, but of course, there were always some hate comments here and there, from yours or Tommy's "fans" about each other. There was a toxic side to every fanbase, and you'd both go to great lengths to try and deal with it. After a while, you both stopped caring and accepted that giving those people attention only drove it further.

But, the toxicity was small, the love and support for you two being together was ten times larger, and that's all you could care about. From fanart and fanfiction to deep dive analysis' on Tumblr connecting your real selves to your characters, it was cute in all honesty. What was even cuter in your opinion was compilations of "adorable y/s/n moments for ____ minutes straight" videos.

You regularly binged those videos, even on stream, even with Tommy. That's what started the constant teasing and bickering from your friends. They were playfully annoyed at the two of you, which also led the community to do the same, which made him trend at #10 on Twitter for the day.

You were both grateful for your communities, and the opportunities and memories you could share online because of it.

But now, you're recording a vlog with Tommy, Freddie, and Tubbo as you hang around an arcade for the day. You split into two teams, You and Freddie v Tommy and Tubbo, to see who could win the most tickets in an hour. You and Freddie quickly went to grinding up tickets on Dance Dance Revolution, while the two T's went to try and get tickets off the basketball shooters.

You look back at Tommy, failing to make a ball in the basket behind you, Tubbo next to him, reminding him of his awful aim. You lightly smile and turn back to Freddie, already judging you with his facial expression.

“What?” You question

The boy with the dyed orange hair looks between you and the blonde across the room, an eyebrow raised.

“You’re both annoying”

“Shush”

You look back at Tommy, lightly chuckling as he and Tubbo begin throwing the balls at each other, aiming for the face. Freddie snaps you back to DDR, wanting to win free lunch.

"C'mon, Y/n/n, I can't carry this myself!" He lightheartedly laughs, pulling you into another round.

As you're playing DDR with Freddie, back to Tommy and Tubbo, the blonde begins to get distracted by you as well. He widely smiles, watching you bounce around on the mat while you focus on the game.

"Look at Y/n" He whispers to Tubbo, watching you with hearts in his eyes. "They're having so much fun"

Tubbo rolls his eyes. "Tommy, we need to get tickets, stop swooning over your partner"

"It can wait!"

"Half of our time is already gone!"

"I'm enjoying my view of my very happy partner, Tubbo. I'm buying lunch anyways"

The shorter brunette groans, "I'm getting a slushie then, have fun staring at them and looking like a creep"

Tommy quickly blinks before running after him, "Tubbo, no, wait!"

[sexyzuka]

Kiba's Uptown Girl

Pairing: Kiba Inuzuka x Reader

Word Count: 13,335

Content: 18+ Smut MDNI, fem!reader, modern!au, boruto era kiba, fem!receiving oral sex, hair pulling, fingering, scratching and biting, standing doggystyle, creampie, watersports, exhibitionism, mentions of blood, surgery/medical references, references to real people/places, pet names 

Summary: For your anniversary this year you and Kiba decide to take a trip back to your home country. He’s never been to New York City before, and you can’t wait to show him all of the best parts of Manhattan. For your first date of the week you decide to bring him to Central Park to show him the “greatest view” that the city has to offer. Will you be able to control yourself around him? You’re in a public space, so I sure hope so! 

Writer's Notes: While listening to the song “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel I had the idea to write a fic where Kiba and his girlfriend visit the city. I’ve lived around the NYC area for most of my life, so I wanted to create something that incorporated a little slice of home. I was inspired by my trip to Central Park last weekend and included some of my photography within this fic. (You gotta love that extra dash of realism!) This chapter ended up being way longer than I intended, but I just had so much fun throughout the course of writing it, I couldn’t stop myself. I hope you enjoy!

Kiba looks around at all of the signs surrounding you with a confused expression on his face. He didn't even have to say a word before you responded with, "We're taking the 1 train. C'mon, this way." You could hear a familiar tune echoing throughout the corridors of the subway station. There were a few musicians set up nearby, belting out a harmonious tune while reenacting a few scenes from a particular music video you were very well acquainted with. "Are we going uptown or downtown?" "Uptown," you respond without a modicum of doubt in your voice. "Heh, I guess you're a real uptown girl," Kiba responds with a smug assuredness in his tone. "Oh hush, you." You could already tell where this conversation was going the second he uttered those words, the chorus of the nearby performers no doubt spurring on his unusually quirky behavior today. "Y'know, when you're walking you're looking so fine-ine-ine," Kiba began in a singsong voice, "and when you're talking you just know I love it when you say you're mine-ine-ine." Kiba knew how much you loved the classics, and he couldn't help himself but tease you whenever the opportune situation arose. Two could play at that game though, no one knew the lyrics to your favourite songs better than you. "Despite your appearance, you're not so tough," you jest back at Kiba with a rhythmic cadence, "just because you're in love with an uptown girl." "Someday when my ship comes in, maybe you'll understand what kind of guy I've been," he says as he twirls you around the subway station. After he catches you in his arms you share a rather short but passionate kiss. You so fervently wish that this fleeting moment could last longer, but you realize that the two of you have drawn in quite the crowd of your own with your display. As the awareness of the situation sets in you hastily straighten up your clothes a bit and give a silent nod to the musicians, one of whom flashes Kiba a thumbs-up before going back to performing.

It had been many years since you visited your hometown, but you still remember how to get to your favourite destinations without consulting a map. Kiba knew how excited you were for this trip, so he made sure to clear his schedule well in advance. You were quite far from Konoha, the trip taking almost an entire day because of the extended layover in Chicago. Couldn't be helped, you thought to yourself, O'Hare is always a hot mess. At least they didn't lose our luggage this time, you shrug to yourself as you briskly grab your suitcases off of the baggage carousel.

After finishing up the final leg of your journey you and Kiba checked into a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. You were used to commuting from Jersey, but you wanted Kiba's first trip to the area to be an unforgettable experience, so you didn't mind spending the extra ryō. No expenses were to be spared, after all this is your anniversary celebration.

Your circadian rhythm was altered because of all of the travelling, the unrivaled enthusiasm circulating your core powering your insomnia with a fervent vigor. But while Kiba was losing his battle against jet lag you eagerly typed away on the notes app on your cell phone, writing up a list of everything you wanted to do  with him tomorrow. You could scarcely contain your excitement, your heart fluttering as you envision the pure joy and festivities to come.

Your sleep schedule was always a bit unconventional, but it meshed well with Kiba's unpredictable shifts at work. Sometimes Kiba would have to respond to calls in the middle of the night or wee hours of the morning. "It's hard being this popular," is what he'd usually say before heading off to patrol the precinct. He took pride in his work, and Kōtarō acknowledged Kiba as one of the top officers in Konoha, so there was no way he would ever shirk his responsibilities to Konoha. But for this next week  his only responsibility was to you, his girlfriend, and he always kept his promises.

You glance over at the clock next to the bed, choosing to do that instead of looking at the time on your phone because you couldn't resist sneaking another peek at Kiba cuddling Akamaru in his sleep. 5:30 PM. It would be just before sunrise if you were in Konoha right now. Normally you would be sleeping right now, but your anticipation for all of the exhilarating adventures to come put your brain into overdrive. The only thing that could quell your frenzied thoughts was, rather unfortunately, snoozing right now, so you had to make due with some maladaptive daydreaming for the main course this evening.

"Mmm..mmhm... princess..." you could hear Kiba mumbling softly in his sleep.

I wonder if he's having a good dream tonight, you chuckle to yourself as you walk over to the windowsill. You open the curtains with a light touch, endeavoring to be as quiet as possible so as not to awaken your company. The late October sun was already setting over the horizon, a serene twilight beginning to overtake the skyline. You could see the faint twinkle of a few stars glitter in the sky interspersed between the blinking headlights of the planes making their arrival into the city. The familiar hum of their engines was a sweet, nostalgic symphony to your ears.

You spend a few good minutes taking in the view of the Manhattan skyline, tracing the reminiscent shapes of the nearby buildings with a wistful yet pensive glance. It feels so good to be back home, you muse to yourself before delicately closing the curtains and returning to your seat.

As the moon begins its conspicuous journey across the night sky you carefully rock yourself back and forth in the office chair, your musings coming to life in bright and flashy colours. "Oh and I just have to take him here," you say to yourself in a hushed tone as you type away on your phone. "We can't forget about Grand Central Station or Bryant Park either. I don't think the big Christmas tree is up just yet, but he'll definitely want to see Rockefeller Center."

The hands on the analog clock above your head move steadfastly as the minutes melt into  hours. Being completely enraptured by your fantasies of the days to come, you didn't notice the moon bidding you farewell as she quietly dissolved, taking with her the boisterous yet somewhat serene cacophony of early morning traffic. The loud blaring of a nearby siren snaps you out of your contemplative trance.

You look over at the clock again. 7:00 AM. You were honestly surprised with how fast time seemed to evaporate from your grasp, marching on with a cold indifference. You two only had so long in the city, and you wanted to make the most of it. At the very least, Kiba was asleep for these past few hours so it didn't feel like a total waste. Still, you didn't want to squander even a second of precious time with your love.

You shift your focus back to your phone, reviewing the itinerary you drafted up with a revitalized sense of purpose. Nothing would stop you from giving Kiba the best week he's ever had. The only inquiry that stubbornly endured, floating in your mind with a gnawing persistence was what to start with.

"Hm, I guess we could kick off our trip with the Empire State Building. Or is that too blasé? Once you've been in one big building, it's like you've seen them all. We could drop by the New York Public Library, but I don't think he'd appreciate the classics as much as I do. And I could definitely see him complain that the lion statues out in front should be replaced with sculptures of dogs instead," you bring up a hand to your mouth to suppress a chuckle trying to escape as you think of Kiba grumbling and moaning about how a giant statue of Akamaru would look way cooler than some lame ass lions.

"And what are you giggling about over there, princess?" you hear the sleepy baritone reverberate through the room with a candid sense of curiosity.

"Oh, it's nothing," you chime back while your efforts to stifle your laughter prove to be futile.

"I don't know about that, it looks like this is an issue I'll have to investigate further," Kiba remarks as he gets up from the bed and saunters towards you. "Looks like I'll have to bust out one of my secret techniques today."

"Don't tell me you're-"

Kiba blurts out a brisk, "Tickle no jutsu," before you're able to respond. His light and feathery brushing on your flanks sparks an unstoppable electric current that pulsates through your neurons and stimulates your body with a fiery zeal.

"S-stop it," you manage to babble after succumbing to the onslaught of his galvanizing touch, "You win, you win."

"Tell me what I win," Kiba proclaims with a little wink, still closely holding onto your body with his brawny arms.

"A taste of my secret technique," you simper as you turn around slightly, angling your body so that you have a clear path to your target. You then press yourself closer to Kiba while standing on your tiptoes and sink your teeth down into the flesh of his neck with a firm but coy ferocity.

You can feel a groan resonating in his throat, the vibrations tickling your incisors, but you decide to not relent, instead doubling down on your efforts by dragging your nails coquettishly along his back.

A thrumming moan caresses your eardrums with a melodious echo as you continue your assault on his unsuspecting hide. You relish in each tantalizing frequency escaping from his lips.

"So frisky first thing in the morning, I like it," he manages to whine out in a frail attempt at maintaining his composure. You're very well acquainted with all of his erogenous zones, so you're beyond confident you could devour his entire heart right now if you wanted to. But giving him a small taste of these humble hors d'oeuvres, a tantalizing sampler of promiscuity, would only fuel his voracious appetite further and more intensely as the day dragged on, so you decide to relinquish for now.

You pull your lips back from his neck as you say, "Just wait till the main course tonight." You couldn't help but be kittenish when you were engulfed in Kiba's embrace like this. The demure front you put up around others came crashing down whenever the two of you were alone, or rather, almost alone.

You hear a faint sniffle from the other side of the room. As you turn your head and shift your gaze you see Akamaru yawning as he lazily scratches his floppy ears with his back paws. Akamaru was just as much your family as Kiba was, so there was no question about him joining you this week. That did mean, though rather unfortunately, that you'd have to be a little more PG than you had anticipated and hoped-for.

"But before that, how's about you and I get this party started?" You shift your focus back to Kiba, flashing him a smile as you gently place your hands around his shoulders, your fingertips making tiny circles as you stroke his skin with a tender softness.

"A party? I'm more interested in a private show," he protests as he looks into your eyes pleadingly.

"We didn't travel to the other side of the world to spend the whole time in a hotel room, Kiba." It's true you would love to spend more time cooped up in this room with him, but you weren't going to let yourself give in to the temptation. There would be plenty of time for promiscuity after you ticked off everything on your travel bucket list. Who knows the next time you'd both have the opportunity to visit Manhattan, especially considering Kiba's hectic work schedule.

"Such a tease. You sure know how to rile a guy up," he responds in a cheeky tone, "But that will only make my dessert this evening that much sweeter."

"Dessert? Don't you think you're jumping the gun a bit there, hon?"

"Oh, so you wanted to do gunplay this weekend? Sorry, the TSA wouldn't let me bring my usual  fare with me, something about it being a misdemeanor in this jurisdiction."

This man. This incredibly foolish man.

"It," you start laughing a bit as the words escape your quivering larynx, "-it's a figure of speech, Kiba. I wasn't literally talking about a gun."

"I totally knew that. Yeah, I was just testing you. Ahahaha.... haha... ha." Kiba couldn't hide his crimson cheeks from your omniscient glance this time.

"Anywaysss," Kiba flounders, attempting to change the subject before he has to admit that he misspoke, "what did you want to do today, princess? I know you used to be a local 'round here."

You were so engrossed in the absurdity of his previous remarks you needed to take a few moments to compose yourself before answering.

"Let me go grab my phone real quick," you say as you give Kiba a short but sweet parting kiss on the cheek before being released from his embrace.

You open up the notes application on your phone and start scrolling down, contemplating about which suggestion would make the most sense. There were no doubt an endless plethora of things to do in the city, but you wanted to make your first outing together an unforgettable adventure.

"Wow, you really came prepared!" Kiba guffaws as he sees you attentively scrolling down the list of options you find yourself feverishly perusing through.

"You know me. I've never met a list I didn't like," you say pragmatically as you push up the bridge of your glasses with your index finger.

It was true, you were always planning ahead. It gives you peace of mind to write down your musings in order to collect your thoughts. The myriad ideas floating in your consciousness at any one time were overwhelming, so writing was the best way for you to make some sense of the bedlam. It was rather amusing when you thought about the stark contrast between your erudite approach to life versus Kiba's passionate resilience and adaptability. He may not be as well-learned as you, but what he lacks in book smarts he makes up for in determination.

"Hm," you hum to yourself as you sort through the possibilities prancing through your mind, the pirouettes of whimsy filling your imagination with dozens of scenarios playing out like a theatrical performance on a Broadway stage."How about? No, that won't do."

"Oh, what won't do?" Kiba asked as he shot you an expectant gaze.

"I was thinking of taking you to the New York Public Library or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but I don't think they allow dogs," you glance over at Akamaru as you say those final words.

"I don't know why not. Akamaru's better behaved than most people," Kiba huffs with a shrug as he acquiesces.

"Yeah, but I definitely don't want to stir up any trouble. Oh, I got it!" you clap your hands together when a bolt of inspiration smacks you with the most glorious divination.

"Why don't we stop by Central Park? There's tons of space there for Akamaru to run around, and there will be plenty of other dogs there."

"We came all this way just to see a park?" Kiba asked incredulously, a baffled tone that reeked of innocent cluelessness.

"It's not just a park," you respond with a snarky chide, "It's the park around here. Trust me, you'll thank me later."

"Well, how could I possibly say 'no' to that? C'mon Akamaru, let's get ready to go!" Akamaru bellows out an excited howl as he jumps up and dashes over to Kiba's side.

Hand in hand you and Kiba leave your hotel room, ready for an exciting day out in the city. The morning sun's rays glistening in the dew drops that cover the scattered blades of grass poking through the slabs of sidewalk beneath your feet. Even in this veritable concrete jungle that you used to call home there were a handful of reminders that nature flourished just outside of the city's borders. Today, though, you were going to experience the majesty of the wilds from the comforts of your old stomping grounds.

"Before we head over to Central Park, let's pick up some breakfast," you suggest while looking up at Kiba.

"Sure, what do you recommend, princess?" Kiba responded with a smile on his face.

"We have to get bagels." you reply instantaneously, almost as if you'd rehearsed the line beforehand.

"Bagels?" The change in his voice's inflection exposed his lingering uncertainty.

"The freshest and most delicious bagels you'll ever eat,"  you reply while tugging on his jacket ever so slightly, trying to nudge him into agreement. He could sense your insistence on the matter, so he chose to abandon any attempts at protesting. You did concede by promising to stop by a pet store first to pick up breakfast and some treats for Akamaru before you made your way to your favourite bagel shop.

"Can I have a taylor ham, egg, and cheese on a sesame seed bagel? Toasted, please. Hold the ketchup." you holler out your order to the worker behind the counter. They give you a tacit nod and get to work on your breakfast.

Kiba, impressed by the innate skill with which you ordered, had a perplexed look of confusion on his face as he read the menu to himself.

"What is a bagel with 'lox'?" he asks while pointing to a picture on the laminated paper in front of him.

"Lox is salt-cured, smoked salmon. If you want something less salty I'd recommend the nova lox," you respond while gesturing towards the display cases in front of you.

"I never would have thought to try cream cheese and smoked salmon together. You sure do have some silly customs, princess." Kiba glances up from the menu to meet your steely gaze.

"Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it," you reply with a subdued grin, trying to subtly goad him into action.

"You know what? Maybe I will try it. Hey mister, give me one of those lox bagels."

"You have to tell him what kind of bagel and if you want it toasted or not," you whisper to Kiba covertly, so as not to draw too much attention from the other people in the shop.

"What kinds of bagels are there?" Kiba responded with a puzzled expression on his face.

"So many different kinds, you've got sesame seed bagels, onion bagels, egg bagels, french toast bagels, cinnamon raisin bagels..." you prattle off the list you'd committed to memory years ago when you used to work in a bagel shop, "and we can't forget about the everything bagel."

"The 'everything bagel'?" Kiba said with an emphasis on the second word, a questioning tone in his voice.

"Yes, it has a bunch of different toppings. It's one of my personal favourites," you say as the reminiscent taste of the culinary delight tickles the basal ganglia in your neocortex.

"Sounds good, I'll have those of those everything bagels with lox, sir," Kiba calls out to the worker across the counter.

"Toasted, please," you respond without a moment's hesitation. "Trust me," you murmur in Kiba's direction, "you'll thank me later."

After grabbing breakfast you gluttonously unwrap the foil around your glutenous delicacy and devour it in a few bites. "Best bagels in the whole damned world. You can't get them like this anywhere else," you mutter under your breath.

"Wow, this is actually pretty tasty," Kiba says while enjoying generous mouthfuls of his bagel sandwich with gusto, "So you really got to eat like this every day when you used to live here?"

"Mhm. The food was just one of the many perks of living close to the city," you recall as you look up at Kiba while he finishes his breakfast with a few final chomps.

"The tap water here is also divine," you continue on as you feel the familiar and distinct taste of the scrumptious cocktail on the tip of your tongue.

"Oh, what makes it better than the water back in Konoha?" Kiba says as he promptly brushes some crumbs off of his cheeks.

"It might not be kosher, but there's tiny crustaceans called 'copepods' living in the water. They make it extra delicious," you muse as you bring your hand up to your chest with a dainty flourish.

"Crustaceans?" You could see the hamster wheel in Kiba's head spinning extra rapidly as he repeated the word back to you.

"Y'know, like shrimp? Think of it as getting an added bonus on top of the hydration, a special little treat."

"Aren't shrimp bugs?" Kiba responds with a mildly disgruntled tone in his voice.

"No, they're not. Besides, it's extra protein," you chuckle as you flex your arm to show off your biceps, "I thought you were all about bulking up. Or maybe I'll be able to bench more than you if we stay here long enough." You look over from your muscles to Kiba as you see a glint of fire ignite in his eyes.

"Is that a challenge I hear, princess?" The playful yet amorous undertones in his voice can't  help but make you smile, the most presumptuous grin overtaking your countenance.

"You never turn down a challenge, I hear." The self-satisfied look on your face as you realize that you just beguiled him into implicitly promising to stay hydrated is priceless.

"You're damned right I don't. Now hand over that water," Kiba says as he reaches for the bottle in your purse. He takes the biggest gulp imaginable before letting out a boastful exhale.

You judiciously choose to withhold the fact that the water in the bottle he just drank from isn't NYC tap water, instead lightly tugging on his jacket to grab his attention.

"C'mon, let's take the subway to Central Park. I can't wait to show you around," you beamed affectionately in his direction.

"Alright, princess, lead the way," he said as made an exaggerated motion with his hand, sweeping across the stretch of space in front of you with an affable cheerfulness.

You intertwine your fingers with his as you lead the charge to the nearest subway station. You already have your credit card out of your wallet and in your other hand, ready to tap the both of you in without hesitation. A few minutes later and you pass through the Times Square turnstiles with a lithe airiness.

"Times Square is way more impressive at night. We'll come back here later," you assure Kiba as you gently pull on the arm of his jacket, leading him confidently to the 1 Line.

Kiba looks around at all of the signs surrounding you with a confused expression on his face. He didn't even have to say a word before you responded with, "We're taking the 1 train. C'mon, this way."

You could hear a familiar tune echoing throughout the corridors of the subway station. There were a few musicians set up nearby, belting out a harmonious tune while reenacting a few scenes from a particular music video you were very well acquainted with.

"Are we going uptown or downtown?"

"Uptown," you respond without a modicum of doubt in your voice.

"Heh, I guess you're a real uptown girl," Kiba responds with a smug assuredness in his tone.

"Oh hush, you." You could already tell where this conversation was going the second he uttered those words, the chorus of the nearby performers no doubt spurring on his unusually quirky behavior today.

"Y'know, when you're walking you're looking so fine-ine-ine," Kiba began in a singsong voice, "and when you're talking you just know I love it when you say you're mine-ine-ine."

Kiba knew how much you loved the classics, and he couldn't help himself but tease you whenever the opportune situation arose. Two could play at that game though, no one knew the lyrics to your favourite songs better than you.

"Despite your appearance, you're not so tough," you jest back at Kiba with a rhythmic cadence, "just because you're in love with an uptown girl."

"Someday when my ship comes in, maybe you'll understand what kind of guy I've been," he says as he twirls you around the subway station. After he catches you in his arms you share a rather short but passionate kiss. You so fervently wish that this fleeting moment could last longer, but you realize that the two of you have drawn in quite the crowd of your own with your display.

As the awareness of the situation sets in you hastily straighten up your clothes a bit and give a silent nod to the musicians, one of whom flashes Kiba a thumbs-up before going back to performing.

"Well, that was fun." The pheromones were practically radiating off of Kiba's skin at this point. You could feel their brilliant presence circulating through the air, ensnaring you in a covert trap from which there was no easy escape. The only thing keeping you grounded right now was your ever-increasing embarrassment, accumulating at catastrophically high levels.

"C'mon, weren't you gonna show me that park?" Kiba's voice cuts through the awkwardness like a hot knife through the butter of your soul.

"It's not just that park." You would be more exasperated if you weren't so grateful for this man's severe lack of decorum. This brief reprieve from the embarrassment was fortunately enough for you to strengthen your resolve.

"It's called Central Park, and we should get going before we miss another train," you implore as you clutch Kiba's hand in your own once more and motion towards the nearby staircase with a beseeching look.

"Alright, let's do this!" Kiba exclaims as he jubilantly scampers throughout the station, holding onto your hand tightly as you approach the platform together.

"We're going to get off at 72nd Street," you instruct as you walk onto the train with Kiba, Akamaru shadowing you both, closely in tow.

"You know where you're going, right? I'll just be following you anyways. Ha ha ha," Kiba roars as you shake your head with the slightest hint of reproach. Although, could you have honestly expected anything else from this man? His unbridled confidence touched every aspect of his life, and that included his faith in you, his girlfriend. It honestly was a nice change of pace, him letting you take the lead for once and giving you the opportunity to take him along for a wild ride.

As the brakes of the train car screech and the incomprehensible garble of the conductor flowed through the airwaves with a thick discordance you look up at Kiba to let him know that this is your stop. You hop off the train with a buoyant leap and guide your love through the station and onto the street.

"Alright, it's just a few blocks down this way," you say as you turn to the right, your voice filled with an unrivaled exuberance.

"Y'hear that, Akamaru? We're almost there!" Akamaru lets out an excited yelp as he ambles alongside Kiba.

The lavish hues of the foliage take over the scenery as you draw closer to your destination. Splotches of yellows and oranges dotted the landscape with their wistful presence, a beautiful yet melancholy reminder of the transitory nature of life. As the seasons change in an unrelenting cycle so do the myriad creatures that call these woods home. No doubt there were new generations of fauna living here since you last visited, but the unabating feeling of wonder you experienced every single time you entered the park was the same as always.

"And here we are," you announce as you sensually extend your hand, sweeping it across the air with a fluid and rhythmical motion.

"W...Wow," is all Kiba manages to stammer out as he takes in the sights of the park. You could hardly blame him for being awestruck, you were the same exact way the first time you visited Central Park.

You did want to make the most out of the limited daylight hours, especially this time of year, so you volunteered your hand to him once again. Seeing you summon him with such a genial expression was enough to snap Kiba out of his trance. You interlaced your fingers together as you began your late morning journey, a grandiose gala that was sure to bewitch and delight.

You're greeted by an enormous pergola with a plethora of plants twisting and tangling every which way as they adorned the top and sides of the wooden structure. You stroll under splendid architecture with a light step, the cool breeze caressing your cheeks with its slithering zephyrs. It was a mite frigid this time of year, but you always preferred the chill of autumn over the scorching heat of summer.

As you pass under the tendrils trembling in the wind you turn to Kiba and tell him, "Before we go any further you have to put Akamaru on a leash."

"What? Wait, why?" You could hear consternation in the timbre of his voice.

You point over to a nearby sign with a cautious finger. "DOGS MUST BE LEASHED" was printed in bold, capitalized letters. "Sorry, it's just customary around here to keep your pets leashed."

"Akamaru's not just a pet, he's family!" Kiba protests reluctantly before begrudgingly acquiescing.

"I know, I know. But we don't want to get kicked out by a police officer," you shrug as you hand over the leash you prepared in advance.

"Who do you think you're talking to, princess? There's no way they'd arrest me!" Kiba proudly exclaims as he lets out a roaring laugh.

"They can and will in this jurisdiction. I don't think Eric Adams will appreciate an officer overstepping his authority."

"Who?"

"The mayor of New York City. He used to be a NYPD police captain. He's not as lenient as Kōtarō is, so I wouldn't press your luck." You shake your head as you let out a disheartened sigh.

"Alright, fine. Sorry Akamaru, I'll make it up to you later," Kiba says as he hesitantly attaches the leash to the crimson collar around Akamaru's neck.

"I was going to keep this a surprise for later, but there's a big area where Akamaru can run around freely. We just have to make sure he's on a leash when we're walking on the pathways," you offer up your condolences to Kiba with a hushed sigh.

"Sweet! How's about we go there first then?" You can feel the enthusiasm in Kiba's voice as he perks back up, almost instantaneously.

"Hah, I had a feeling you'd say that. Well lucky for you we're pretty close to the area. C'mon, let's go this way," you say as you start jogging with a sprightly sprint. Kiba, infected by your vivacity, energetically follows along with Akamaru by his side.

You make your way to a fenced in clearing where dozens of people are playing with their pups, each engrossed in their own spheres of jubilation. The microcosms before you serve as a testament to the bond that each human shares with their pet, their precious and irreplaceable family members.

As you enter the field with Kiba you unhook Akamaru's leash from his collar. Kiba hollers out a brisk, "Let's go, Akamaru," as he runs across the grassy meadow with reckless abandon.

You decide to sit down on a nearby boulder and watch the two of them frolic together, your heart filling with joy as each passing second ticks by. You're not sure how long they spend playing together, and you honestly wouldn't care if your entire day consisted of this. The bliss you feel from watching your love as happy as he can be is all you could ever ask for.

The sun continues its journey across the sky, its rays filling your cheeks with a radiant warmth as it illuminates the world before you. You see Kiba and Akamaru scampering in your direction, drawing closer with each mirthful stride. You hear the damp earth squelch under their treads as they make their way to your side once more.

"Whew, what a workout," Kiba pants as he plops down next to you on the boulder. "I think I'm about ready to move onto the next area now. I got all of my cardio in for the day."

"We'll have to leash Akamaru again. Are you okay with that?" you ask Kiba while tenderly nudging some of the long, slightly moist strands of dark brown hair stuck to the sides of face.

"Yeah, I think we've had our fun for today. Right, Akamaru?" As Kiba looks over to Akamaru he's greeted by a spirited bark.

"He wants to see more of the park too," Kiba petitions with an imploring pout.

"Alright, if you insist. Let's get going then," you announce as you stand up, brushing the accumulated dust off of your clothes. "There's some beautiful architecture around here that I'm dying to show you."

"Sounds good to me, your explanations can make even the most boring slabs of rocks appear cool," he clamorously laughs as he fastens Akamaru's leash once more.

Oh yeah, you made the right decision by not taking him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today.

You leave the field hand in hand with Akamaru by your side, directing Kiba's attention to the marvelous statues decorating the nearby surroundings.

Kiba feigns understanding when you attempt to explain the meaning behind the art. As you start elucidating him about Ludwig van Beethoven's life and renowned works Kiba responds with, "Well if this song is supposedly super famous, why is it called 'Symphony Number 5' instead of 'Symphony Number 1'?"

You make a mental note to scratch every museum off of your itinerary once you get back to the hotel. You were an absolute fool to think that for even a fraction, an iota of a second that Kiba would appreciate the masterpieces, the veritable magnum opuses of all time, in the same way that you would. It was best to enjoy those treasures on your own time.

This was fine, though, you each had your own interests and were your own person. It wasn't healthy to lose your own sense of self and personality when you were dating someone else, so a part of you was actually grateful that you shared many differences with Kiba. A core tenant of intimacy is being able to appreciate the idiosyncrasies and distinguishing characteristics of your partner without being engulfed by them.

"And over here is the Naumburg Bandshell, it's a famous amphitheater where free classical concerts have been performed for the last century," you say as you point towards the magnificent building standing before you.

Kiba tries his best to appear as though he understands what you're trying to explain, but you could see that his focus was waning. You decide to change things up a bit as you offer up a scintillating panacea to the humdrum afflicting his psyche. "Hey, why don't we walk down by the water next? The Bethesda Fountain is simply gorgeous, and there's a great view I'd love to show you."

"I've already got a great view right here," Kiba says with a conceited smirk on his face.

"Oh hush, you." You squeeze his hand with just enough force to let him know you didn't appreciate his jest.

"But yeah, that's a great proposition. That's my princess for you, she's always got the best ideas!" Kiba's eyes beam with a sparkling effervescence as he looks over at you.

As you make your way closer to the Bethesda Terrace, a procession of horse drawn carriages pass in front of you. You can see that Kiba is mystified by the strange occurrence, his mouth agape as he stands there speechless by your side.

"Oh yeah, I guess this is your first time seeing a cavalcade like this in person. Horses aren't as widely used in Konoha, after all." You look over to see that Kiba's eyes are fixated on one particular carriage nearby. A gorgeous white horse is at the fore of the carriage, lavender and cream coloured flowers adorning the vehicle with an unparalleled vibrance. The velvety seats enticing you with their plum flavored splendor.

"C'mon tiger, you don't even want to know how expensive a ride in one of those is," you say as you gently tug on Kiba's arm before continuing, "Besides, there's a more private location I wanted to show you."

That was all Kiba needed to hear. Without missing a beat he turns around as you walk down the enormous flight of stairs to the bustling plaza area.

You're welcomed with a surprisingly euphonious cacophony consisting of the hubbub of folks peddling their wares, musicians ardently strumming their instruments, children playfully skipping and exploring their surroundings, and other captivated tourists such as yourselves. You see a married couple taking their wedding photos next to the Bethesda Fountain. The sight can't help but put a smile on your face as you fantasize what your own wedding day with Kiba will be like.

As you promenade around the fountain with a leisurely gait, admiring the elegant and opulent Angel of the Waters statue, you squeeze Kiba's hand ever so slightly to grab his attention.

"This fountain right here? It commemorates the opening of the Croton Aqueduct. Back in the 1800s it was a pretty big deal since the aqueduct brought the first fresh water into the city."

"So it's because of this lady that you guys have bugs in your water?" Kiba inquires with an amused look on his face.

"For the last time they're crustaceans, not bugs. But yes, she's a symbol of the healing power of clean and fresh water." you say as you shake your head in exasperation.

"What's her number? I'm sure Shino would just love to meet a bug lady," Kiba jives as he tries to repress the laughter inextricably building up in his core.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that," you utter in a hushed tone as you continue your voyage around the plaza.

You're greeted by a positively resplendent lake as you finish your trek in the piazza. Verdant hues of green bounce off of the water's surface and nuzzle the cones of your eyes with their virid embrace. Dozens of couples are sitting in rowboats, enjoying their own little slice of heaven as the autumn breeze cavorts indiscriminately throughout the park.

You take a minute to appreciate the view before Kiba offers up a suggestion, "Do you think they allow dogs on those boats?"

"Sadly, they don't. But we can always come back here another time. C'mon the best is yet to come. I need to show you my favourite spot," you assert as you haul Kiba away from the pond, breaking his enchantment with some help from a quick peck on the cheek.

"At least we can walk around the Loeb Boathouse on the way. Actually, we'll have a pretty good view of the rowboats once we make it there." It's true, the vantage point that awaited you was a glorious and secluded perch, an oasis of peace and tranquility that persisted despite being surrounded by the chaos of the city.

After passing the boathouse you signal to Kiba to take a left turn onto a dirt path. It's a rather unassuming route, in fact it barely resembled a pathway at all. Kiba shoots a perplexed look in your direction, but he's met with a nod of assurance that assuages his lingering doubt.

"We're almost there," you assure him in a comforting tone.

As you shrewdly climb over the winding tree roots, employing a moderate amount of astute judgment with each step you take, you feel Kiba's grip tighten around your hand as he catches himself before almost tumbling to the ground. You help him maintain his balance before letting out a lighthearted taunt, "Looks like you'll be the one falling for me today."

"You got me there. You win this time, princess." He would normally be a little more miffed at your teasing, but today was a special occasion.

"Anddd, we're here," you proclaim as you push away a few stray tree boughs, clearing your line of sight with an upbeat flourish.

The view that awaited you filled your very soul with an incomparable ebullience, the likes of which you hadn't experienced in years. The vibrant flora, dyed with a multitude of vivid pigments, evoking an insipid sense of both wonder and despondence. The neverending cycle of death and rebirth reflected in the simple elegance of the humble vegetation that dotted the landscape before you.

Why must life always be at its most beautiful right before it ends, a silent inquiry floats in your mind as you admire the leaves fluttering in the zephyrs. Or maybe it's because life ends that we can appreciate the transient resplendence that envelops all living beings.

The dichotomy of the lush trees juxtaposed with the skyscrapers off in the distance gives you chills. The tops of the buildings kiss the afternoon sky with their steely indifference, in stark contrast to the rich verdure, an effluence of life and vitality holding on with a tight grip. It was still early into the season, and the blissfully unaware plants around you exuded an infectious zest for life.

"Wow," is the only thing Kiba manages to murmur as the two of you stand together, enjoying the view.

"Why don't we sit down and enjoy some lunch?" you suggest as you rustle in your bag for the bentos that you prepared last night during your bout of insomnia.

"I'd love to, princess!" You can hear the excitement in Kiba's voice as he graciously accepts your offer.

You elegantly place a blanket down, gingerly putting the bento boxes on top of it before standing back up and beckoning Kiba to come closer. As he draws nearer you reach out your arm, placing it around his back and pulling him in so that you can plant a smooch on his cheek. How many seconds did you leave your lips there? 10? 30? Time has no meaning when you're spending it enraptured by your lover's presence.

Kiba put his arms around your waist, embracing you with a lascivious greediness that you were all too familiar with. As you draw your face back and look into his glistening eyes you could see the salacious undertones in his visage.

You finally had a moment of respite from the crowds, the throngs of people that were an irrefutable fact of the city, so why not give into temptation a little bit?

You lead the charge by placing one of your hands behind Kiba's head so you could push his face a little closer to your own. You then seductively press your lips against his with a passionate fervor. He returns your efforts in spades by forcing his tongue into your mouth, tickling your gums at a rhythmical pace. He traces the outlines of your teeth with his tongue while bringing one of his arms up further on your back so he can squeeze you closer to his chest.

You can't help but let a few erotic moans escape from your core as you desperately try to hold onto your sense of propriety. You are in a public park, after all.

Kiba then releases your lips from his own so that he can redirect his attention to your neck. He knows how sensitive you are there, and he can't help but arouse your lust by using his expertise regarding your intimate intricacies against you. After a brisk crack of his neck he swoops in with a carnal ferocity and begins sucking and nibbling on your neck.

You can barely contain yourself at this point, choosing to relinquish any remnants of discretion you had left. Your nails vigorously claw at the skin of his back, leaving scarlet marks in their wake. He reciprocates your zeal by pressing his canines into your soft and supple flesh with enough force to draw blood. You could feel the dizziness that accompanied the sensation of blood loss overtake your consciousness, you find yourself drifting helplessly in the red sea of emotion. Kiba pridefully stands at the helm, navigating your vessel any which way he sees fit.

You absolutely loved the feeling of being putty in Kiba's strong hands, loved it when he molded you into the breathtaking muse of his deepest desires. The varnish that you cloaked yourself in most days was all too easily expunged by his charisma and inexplicable charm.

As Kiba continues to gnaw on your neck the burning pressure building up inside of you becomes unbearable. You can't stop yourself from whimpering out his name, "Ki-kiba."

He temporarily stops the assault on your neck to whisper in your ear, "I love it when you say my name, princess."

At this point you were seeing shimmering stars in your vision, an aural migraine consisting of squiggles waltzing amongst the leaves in an unrelenting deluge. It couldn't be helped, every time Kiba stimulated your corporeal desires you could feel the frenzy overtaking your psyche. There was nothing that could be done, so you might as well enjoy the ride.

Kiba returns his focus to your neck once more, this time channeling his energy into sucking rather than biting. You could feel the damp sensation of his saliva as it mixed with the droplets of your blood. Audible slurps mixed with the canorous howls of pleasure saturated your eardrums and satiated your indecent cravings with the sweetest ambrosia.

As he releases your skin from its prurient penitentiary he takes a minute to admire the rather huge and splotchy hickey you were now sporting. "Good," he simpers with a self-satisfied grin, "Now everyone will know that you're spoken for."

Kiba always did have a thing for marking you, and honestly, you were into it too. Wearing his love and adoration for you on your very flesh was such a turn on. If you weren't in public you might have asked him to partake in a little mid-afternoon watersports with you, but that could be saved for later. Oh right, you were in public.

As soon as the thought crossed your mind you heard the footsteps of someone approaching, no it was two people. Another couple saunters past Kiba and you, causing you to hide your flushed face by pressing it into Kiba's chest. Kiba chuckles a little bit when he sees how flustered you are.

"You're so fuckin' cute when you blush." You could hear a guffaw vibrating in his chest as he said those words.

"S-s-shut up," is all that you manage to stutter out.

You honestly wish you could stay like this forever in his arms, but you were unceremoniously interrupted by the rather embarrassing rumblings of your stomach.

"What's that, princess? Don't tell me you're hungry." The lighthearted jest deepens the crimson hue that was overwhelming your cheeks. You aren't able to give a response to Kiba because of your current predicament. Instead you choose to bury your face even further into his chest.

After around a minute or so like this Kiba gently takes a step back and crouches down a bit so he's closer to your level. "Whaddya say we have some lunch, princess?" he asks in a mild and soothing tone. You're able to squeak out a meager, "Mhm," as you shake your head in accordance. 

You sit down next to Kiba, cozying up next to him as you hand him one of the bento boxes. As he opens it up he has the biggest grin on his face.

"Wow, you made all this just for me?" he remarks smugly, already knowing the answer to his rhetorical question.

Another "Mhm," escapes your lips as you try to avert your sheepish gaze, a sincere but futile attempt at modesty. The man knows everything about you, there's no reason to be so timid right now. Maybe it was because there was an audience right now, but the other couple was on the far side of the boulder, and they were too busy making out to pay heed to anything else. You were merely giving yourself excuses to not give into your temptation.

A quick bite to your bottom lip helps you snap out of  your daze. If you were going to make your move, this would be the perfect time. You can't let your reservations hold you back, not on today of all days.

"Hey Kiba," you manage to blurt out, "do you want me to maybe... feed you?"

"Feed me?" Kiba repeats with an astonished yet pleased look on his face, "You're damned right I want you to feed me." After a short pause he follows up with, "Wow, you're being so forward today, princess. Gotta say, I'm digging the vibes."

That sassy leer on his face was all of the affirmation that you needed. You could already tell what he was going to say before a single word was uttered from those gorgeous lips of his.

"Alright then," you instruct Kiba as you grab your chopsticks and pick up an octopus weiner, "say 'Ah.'"

"Ahhh~" the whimsical manner in which he responds can't help but make you chortle a smidge as he chomps down on the flavorful morsel that you so diligently prepared earlier this morning.

A few more bites and now it's time for the rolled omelette. You made today's batch extra sweet because you know that's how he likes it even if he swears to the contrary. You intersperse some white rice in between his mouthfuls of omelette to mix things up a bit. The next thing on the menu is a delicious salad you tossed together with some walnuts, almonds, and cranberries. This is always Kiba's least favourite part of lunch, but you purposefully added a few different textures in there so he won't protest as much as usual.

To your surprise, he gobbles everything down with a voracious  appetite, savoring every crumb of food, even the grains of rice. If only he'd clean his plate like this when you were back at home.

"Mmm," he moans with a euphoric expression on his face, "my compliments to the chef."

"Now are you ready for your dessert?" you seductively wink as you proposition your man.

"There's more?" he responded with a curious inflection in his voice, "Of course I'm fuckin' ready, let's go, baybee."

You let out a flirtatious giggle as you hold up your index finger to your lips. "Shhh, it's a secret. You'll just have to wait and see what I have in store."

"Ugh. You're such a little vixen, you know that?" he shoots back at you, emphasizing his frustration at your provocations.

"Yeah, I know." You stick out your tongue, your index finger perched on your chin now while you relish in your brattiness, "It'll be that much sweeter the longer you have to wait, trust me."

"So fuckin' naughty," he shakes his head a bit, but his genuine intrigue stops him from complaining too much.

The dearth of objections emboldens your resolve. You decide to give another saucy response to Kiba, "If you're a good boy today, I'll add a little cherry on top of your dessert."

"Now you're talkin' my language, princess," he says as he reaches over to claw at the skin on your exposed thighs with his sharp nails.

"But first, I think it's time for my lunch." You were so caught up with feeding Kiba you completely neglected to eat any of your own bento.

"How's about I reciprocate 'n feed ya, then?" Kiba stressed his syllables in the word "reciprocate," trying his hardest to pronounce the word correctly. You appreciate his efforts, even if he sounds a tad silly at times.

"I'd love that, actually," you reply while handing your bento box over to him.

"Alright, here comes the train say 'choo choo'." Kiba lifts up some of the rice along with one of the octopus weiners with the chopsticks and brings it closer to your mouth.

You respond with a "When leaving the train, please watch the gap," in a robotic voice before taking a bite of the culinary creation. With your mouth partially full you chuckle, "Sorry, it's a Jersey girl thing."

"I'll never get tired of your silly jokes, even if I don't quite understand them. Oh, what's this? It looks like you got a little something over here, let me just..." Kiba says as he leans in and licks the corner of your mouth, pressing his tongue further and further in with each passing second. It looks like what you're actually hungry for today isn't on the menu. You let yourself give into the temptation as you run your fingers through his luscious locks and return his kiss with a passionate and fiery reckless abandon.

You leisurely cuddle with Kiba from the comfort of your secluded refuge for quite a long while before deciding that it's about time you make good on your promise. He's spent this past hour playing with your hair while periodically sniffing it, massaging your shoulders gently, and dragging his nails softly over your thick thighs, occasionally licking your neck when the mood strikes.

You wish you could stay like this for eternity, but there's still more you want to show him, so you muster up the motivation to pack up your empty bento boxes as you turn your body slightly to face him.

"I think it's almost time for dessert, you in?" you enquire with a salacious beckon of your finger.

"Hell yeah, I'm in!" Before you knew it the blanket and bento boxes were packed neatly away into your bag. If Kiba had a puppy dog tail it'd be wagging with so much unbridled enthusiasm that it would very well knock you right off your feet and into the lake. Thankfully, the only dog you had to concern yourself with today was Akamaru. He spent the past hour napping closeby, curled up a meter or so away from Kiba.

 "Let's get going!" you exclaim as a sudden wave of confidence washes over you and you pump your fist into the air triumphantly.

Hand in hand once more, you lead Kiba back to the clandestine pathway and out to the main road. You take a few turns before arriving at The Ramble, a section of Central Park that you absolutely adored because of its rustic and scenic charm.

There were so many winding paths to choose from, it was hard to decide which one to follow first. You knew the general direction that you wanted to go in, so you let lady luck be your guiding light as you arbitrarily turned left then right before making one final left at the fork in the road. The beauty of Central Park was that all of these paths were connected, so there were no wrong decisions to be made.

This endless maze of wonder fascinates you to no end. You could easily spend all day traversing these meandering trails, engrossed in the splendor of nature. No doubt you would leave fulfilled and fully satisfied after a long walk through these woods, but you had a guest today who was not as easily gratified. As you pass over a quaint wooden bridge you're greeted by the comforting sounds of flowing water from a nearby brook.

You decide that this is the perfect time to slow down your pace a bit before coming to a standstill, Kiba mimicking your stride and stopping by your side as you bring his attention to the gigantic boulder standing before you. 

"Race you to the top?" you ask as you glance over, looking for affirmation despite already knowing what his response will be.

"Oh it's on, princess." Kiba answered without a moment's hesitation. You could see his body stiffen ever so slightly as he begins to prepare himself for the sprint of a lifetime. You loosen your grip on Kiba's hand as it tenderly floats away.

You ready yourself by inhaling slowly through your nose and out through your mouth before lightly slapping your cheeks with your hands. You tense up the muscles in your legs and core, shifting your focus from Kiba to the finish line. You spiritedly call out a "3, 2, 1.... GO!" and with that you're both off.

You can see Kiba being extra flashy on purpose, jumping from the nearby tree branches no doubt in an attempt to impress you. You decide to concentrate your efforts on finding the shortest path to your destination, being mindful of the obstacles in your way. You easily hop over the small rocks jutting out of the ground, a few steps to the right and you're able to avoid that low hanging tree branch. A counter clockwise 45 degree turn and the home stretch descends upon you with a breakneck velocity.

As you take the last steps before you reach your goal Kiba drops down from a nearby tree bough, swiping victory out of your grasp with one final, vehement thud as the full weight of his body lands on the rock with an impressive amount of force. He vigorously throws his hands up to do a little victory pose while you take a moment to catch your breath.

"You," you take a second to inhale before continuing your statement, "You win, Kiba."

"Of course I win. Now where's my prize?" Kiba nudges you as he shoots you an expectant gaze.

"Right here," you say as you leap up to give him an affectionate hug. He catches you in his arms and hoists your legs up so he can princess carry you. You place one of your arms around the back of his neck, resting your hand on his shoulder blade. You then close your eyes shut and pucker your lips before you're greeted by the unmistakable feeling of his lips fondly pressing against your own. After a few seconds he begins to slide his tongue into your mouth, filling it once again with his succulent saliva. You can't help but squeal with delight when one of his hands finds its way to your breast, stroking it with a rhythmical tempo.

You can feel the heat build up inside your core once again as Kiba continues to fondle you while you squirm in pleasure. Oh, how dearly you wish that he would go one step farther right now. You can feel a wet spot begin to form in your crotch as he continues his onslaught. No, you couldn't let your wanton desires get the best of you, not in public. But there was still that part of you that wanted this to not only carry on, but escalate into something even more licentious.

As you wriggle in Kiba's arms you manage to free yourself from his smooches long enough to let out a, "Ki-kiba, we're still in public! What if someone sees us?"

He withdraws his troops when he hears your feeble cries of protest, responding with a "Sorry, you're just so fuckin' cute, I can't help myself."

You flash a superficial pout at him as you try to redirect his attention by saying, "You know what else is cute? This view. Take a look over there."

You could see the lake from earlier poking through the gaps in the lush vegetation that surrounded you. There were still a decent number of couples enjoying boat rides together, but the sun was past its apex in the sky and the slightest tinge of twilight began to overtake the sky. The brilliant yellows and oranges vibrate with a staunch temerity as they hang onto the trees for dear life while the cool autumn breezes assails their stalks. The handsome architecture of the buildings in the distance made for a lovely sight when compared with the contrasting abundance of nature filling the foreground.

"I don't know if I'd call it 'cute,' but the view sure is nice," Kiba replies before shifting his focus back to you. "But the best view? It's right here in my arms."

"Oh stop, hon. You're making me blush," you chirp as you unsuccessfully try to conceal your flushed cheeks with your hand.

 "Awww, don't cover up your pretty little face from me. C'mon, I wanna see all of my girl." Kiba flashes you a warm smile that makes it feel as if you're melting in real time, disintegrating into a puddle of emotions.

If a stranger saw you right now you'd probably die from the sheer embarrassment.

It takes you a while, but you're finally able to give Kiba a response that will both satisfy him and rescue you from your current predicament. "See all of me? Well we better get going if you want that wish to come true."

That was all you needed to say. Kiba lovingly brings your legs down so you can hop to the ground. You then grab his hand with a precise and swift motion before intertwining your fingers together once more. With great haste, the two of you continue the last leg of your journey.

"Alright, so you're going to absolutely love this final location." Just thinking about the breathtaking view from the top of the castle you were planning on taking Kiba to sends a shiver down your spine.

"As long as I'm with you, any place is amazin'." You could hear the sincerity oozing out of his voice as he spoke those words.

"So, where I'm taking you is actually the second highest point in all of Central Park. The building there was designed to be a lookout tower, and it was even used as a weather station at one point. It's hard to explain how incredible the Belvedere is with just words, but you'll understand what I mean when you see it for yourself." You do your best to explain about Belvedere Castle without letting it slip that it's actually a castle. You know that Kiba will absolutely lose his mind and start calling you 'princess' incessantly when he realizes the truth.

As you approach the Belvedere and you're able to catch glimpses of its stony façade you brace yourself for the inevitable comments that are sure to follow. You could almost see the neurons in Kiba's brain firing extra hard when he comprehends just where you took him.

"Is that... a castle?" The incredulous tone in his voice was like a mellifluous symphony to your ears.

"Yes, yes it is." Your reply is filled with a smug self-assurance, growing stronger by the second.

"Princess, you just brought me to a castle? I can't believe my princess brought me to an actual castle. I don't know what I was expecting, but this was not it." Kiba, paralyzed by his bewilderment, holds his hand up to his dazed face, too stunned to do or say anything else until he hears your voice. "Yup, welcome to Belvedere castle, the pièce de résistance of our date today."

You take a second to admire the flabbergasted look on his face before continuing, "C'mere, you gotta see this view!"

You pull Kiba a little closer to your body, guiding him to the lookout area. "Over there is Turtle Pond. There are five different species of turtles that call this pond their home. Some of the turtles are actually former pets and are considered invasive species. It's not winter yet, but when it gets colder out the turtles burrow into the mud at the bottom of Turtle Pond."

"So you guys have turtles and bugs living in the water here?" Kiba was able to shake off his befuddlement with some assistance from your long-winded explanations. For once, your propensity to being unnecessarily verbose came in handy when it came to dealing with Kiba.

"For the last time they're not bugs, they're crustaceans!" You would be more upset with Kiba if you weren't so relieved that he was back to his usual self.

"Anyways, wow, now I know why you were hyping up this park so much. It's absolutely stunning. Almost more impressive than me, ah hah ha. Almost." Kiba let out a roaring, boisterous howl as you can't help but smile at your boyfriend's rather stale and contrived witticisms.

"Y'know what would be even better though?" Kiba releases his hand from yours and starts stroking the hairs on his chin with a glint in his eyes.

"Hm?"

"If we snuck up to the top of the castle and had our own private viewing session," Kiba said while giving you a lewd wink.

"But what about Akamaru?" you reach for any excuse to not give into the temptation.

"Akamaru will be fine by himself. Won'tcha, buddy?" Akamaru barks out a somewhat tired yet affirmative yelp. He lazily meanders over to a corner next to the castle and curls up in a comfortable position.

Drat. There goes your only valid excuse.

"Well that settles that." You could see a wicked grin forming on Kiba's face. "May I have the honor of one final dance with my princess this evening?"

You hesitantly extend your hand once more while shaking your head languidly in consent.

"But how are we going to get up ther- '' Your words are cut short by Kiba promptly sweeping you up into his arms, deftly maneuvering your body until he's princess carrying you yet again.

"You don't have to worry your pretty little head about that. I got it." A boastful roar erupts from his chest as he effortlessly cavorts around the castle to the back side, all while holding onto you with a virulent amount of hubris. A few confident leaps later and you're both on the roof of the castle.

He carefully puts you down, but only after passionately kissing your neck in the same spot where the dappled mixture of ribald reds and indecent purples endure with a risqué persistence. A stifled moan escapes your lips during this debacle with debauchery. Kiba's keen sense of hearing is omniscient, there's no way you can lead him astray while you're mewling like a cat in heat.

"Damn, you weren't kidding. This has gotta be the best view in this whole damned park." Kiba ogles at your body through the rectangle he's made with his thumbs and index fingers, pretending as if he were a famous artist getting ready to paint his muse.

"A little to the left, anddd perfect." A sly smirk emerges on his face as he slowly undresses you with his intense stare, deliberately and unhurriedly devouring your scrumptious curves with his eyes.

If there was any time to act, it would be now. You decide to discard your dignity and throw any remnants of your sense of decorum off the rooftop and into Turtle Pond as you offer up a flirtatious, "I know what will make this view even better."

"Oh, and what's that? Pray tell, princess." The sultry tone in which he says those words makes your heart flutter in pure, unadulterated ecstacy.

"Y'see, I'm feeling a bit stuffy in this dress," it's true you were feeling hot and bothered, "I could use a little help if you don't min-"

Before you could finish your proposal Kiba was already clawing at the tulle on your poofy halter dress, untying the straps with an unparalleled, feral intensity. As the straps haphazardly fall to your sides Kiba ravenously lifts the skirt portion of your dress over your head with one hasty but fluid motion. The rose gold garment is then unceremoniously tossed to the side as Kiba shifts his focus to your lusciously appetizing bare breasts. You never did like wearing bras, especially when there wasn't that much that needed support anyways.

"No bra again, princess? I love to see it. Or rather, not see it." Kiba begins to suggestively lick his lips as he rubs his hands together while emitting a mischievously naughty growl.

As your dress cascades to the ground next to you, let out a hedonistic chortle as you tempt Kiba with a, "Ready for your dessert, sugar?"

"D'ya even have to ask? Of course I'm ready," Kiba snarls those words in your ear as he slithers his hand down your body, stopping at your pelvic region. "I think there's just one more preparation we have to make first."

You place your own hand on top of his and guide him as he hooks his thumb under the waistband of your panties, stepping out of them gracefully as he yanks at the flimsy cotton with a carnal brutality. He brings the cloth up to his face to take a whiff before flinging them off to the side with an unrestrained fervour.

You then take a few steps back so you can perch yourself on a nearby wooden crate. You beckon to him with an alluring gesture, your index finger slightly twitching from all of the excitement. "This evening we'll be starting with a mouthwatering vegan friendly delicacy, followed up by the most delectable creampie."

"Does that mean what I think it means?" The inferno burning in Kiba's eyes scorches through every fibre of your being with its intensity, leaving a wasteland of charred and overloaded neurons in its wake.

"It sure does. Bon appétit, mon amour."

Kiba strides over with a heightened sense of purpose and bellows out a brisk, "Itadakimasu!" before shovelling his tongue into your quivering folds. With a gluttonous gusto he begins to greedily lap up your juices, savouring every drop. You whine in pleasure as he swirls his tongue in messy circles around your clit. The warmth building up in your core overtakes your sense of judgement as you helplessly squirm under the weight of his tongue, your panting becomes more audible by the second.

Kiba magnanimously decides to offer you a short reprieve when he temporarily halts his bombardment on your labia, looking up at you for confirmation, "You ready for the second course, princess?"

You're not quite able to form complete sentences right now, but you are able to give him a brisk nod along with a bashful, "Yes, pleaseee."

This time he brings his hand up to your trembling lips, stroking them with tender caresses as he expertly works his tongue into your vaginal opening. His fingers instinctively find your clit without hesitation, a light but purposeful touch that stimulates every cell in your being with an electrifying impulse. You have to admit, his dexterity is honestly amazing. No other guy you've been with before knows your body the way Kiba does.

You can feel the heat radiating throughout your entire body as Kiba continues to slurp up your slick, the fluids from your body intermingling with his saliva and morphing into a crude concoction of lustful desire. As you feel the indescribable pressure begin to build up, your whimpers begin to compound until you find yourself uncontrollably moaning his name.

"Kibaaa." The syllables escaping your lips are the sweetest honey, the most delicious topping on his dessert that he could ever ask for.

He pushes his tongue in deeper and deeper, every moan that he hears encouraging him to explore more of your cavern. He also stealthily increases the pressure he's applying against your clit the more you squirm. After all, every action must have an equal and opposite reaction, it's a basic principle of physics that applies even to this situation. You can't blame him for responding the way he does when you can't even think straight right now, your mind overrun with lascivious cravings.

"Kiba. Kibaaa," is all you manage to cry out as he takes a brief pause to reply in kind.

"Mmm, say my name again, princess. It drives me absolutely wild."

"I'm so close, Kiba, please don't stop." The urgency in your voice ignites an infernal blaze that can't be expunged until Kiba witnesses your full and complete satisfaction firsthand. A real gentleman always pleases his lady first.

Kiba nods to you in acknowledgement as he takes a moment to lick your juices off of his fingers before pressing his face down once more into your succulent folds. The sensation of his tongue massaging your clit causes the pressure inside of you to build up to critical levels. You don't know how much more of this you can handle before you pass the point of no return. While brushing your clit with measured strokes Kiba brings up his hand one more time and slowly inserts two fingers into your vagina. He steadily increases the frequency of his caresses, tickling your sensitive walls with a sublime proficiency.

"Ahhh, ahhh. Mmm." is all that you're able to mumble.

As his pace quickens, so does your breathing. You're holding onto the last shred of your composure with a single frayed thread that is dangerously close to breaking. All it would take is one final push and- you were unable to complete that thought because at that very moment Kiba pulsated his fingers against your G-spot. Again, there is it. He keeps on pressing up against it. The stimulation becomes too much to handle. You can feel the pressure overpower your senses as you let a tsunami of euphoria wash over you.

Kiba, feeling your throbbing vagina twitch around his fingers, knows that his task is complete. He lets out a "gochisousama deshita," before lifting up his face up to meet your gaze, enjoying every bit of your blissed out expression.

"So good..." you exhale as you feel a wave of peace fill envelop your soul, swathing it with an incomparable serenity.

"I love it when I get to see you like this," Kiba says as he brushes a few strands of hair out of your eyes. "Nothing makes me feel better than making my girl feel like the princess she is."

"Hehe~," you chuckle as you hold Kiba's hand against your cheek, etching this moment into your memory. This was definitely the best place for your first date in the city.

As you push yourself off of the wooden crate you were using for support, you offer up one final suggestion for the evening, "Round two?"

"You don't even have to ask, princess. Let's do this." Kiba moves his hand from your cheek down to your waist and tenderly spins you around so that your rear is facing him. He always was an ass-man. While other men tended to focus on your breasts, or lack thereof, Kiba was all about the "finer things in life." He couldn't resist digging his claws into your behind and taking small nibbles whenever he gave you rim jobs. Seeing him appreciate your assets so enthusiastically thrilled you to no end.

But a rim job wasn't on the menu for today. That's right, there was only one dessert that would sate Kiba's wolfish hunger. The most passionate dessert that a couple can share. And what's more romantic than sharing some creampie while admiring the New York City skyline as the sun sets over the horizon?

"You ready, princess?" You could hear Kiba shuffle around a bit before being greeted by the familiar feeling of the fur trim of his jacket as it brushes against your ankles.

"Fuck yeah, let's do this," you exclaim as you give him a thumbs-up. You weren't able to see his expression since you were facing away from him, but you can imagine the smug look on his face as he slides his rock hard dick into your warm and inviting pussy.

You were already unbelievably wet from your orgasm, so his cock slides in with relative ease. As soon as his dick enters you, a feeling of exhilaration radiates throughout your entire body. With each thrust it feels as if your souls are resonating with each other. The connection you feel when your bodies are this close together is beyond compare, there's nothing else like it in the world.

A few more gyrations of his hips and you become putty once more in his hands. You can feel your essence being molded by the passionate thumps from his cock. Your vagina quivers with excitement as it welcomes every inch of his member into its drenched oasis. The air around you is filled with the squelching sounds of Kiba's dick as it explores your private grotto with reckless abandon.

Kiba periodically quickens and then slows down his pace in order to keep you on your toes. He knows that the variation will drive you absolutely bonkers, and he wants to hear you beg, plead him for more. He purposely slows down the frequency of his thrusts just so he can hear you say it. C'mon aren't you going to say it?

"Kiba," you whimper while holding onto the wooden crate in front of you, "I need more. Give me more. Faster."

And there it is.

"As you command, princess," he happily obliges. Oh, if only you could see his face right now.

Kiba hastens his pace, thrusting into you with a tremendous amount of force. His dick pounds on the inside of your walls as they sway with delight. It feels so good to have him inside of you, especially without a condom. The unrivalled feeling of his dickhead brush against your delicate walls enthralled you beyond words. The sensation of his penis twitching inside you when he came was the greatest feeling in the world.

Normally you'd have to worry about carrying protection with you at all times, but since you were sterilized earlier this year that was one less thing you'd have to concern yourself with. It also meant you could afford to be more spontaneously promiscuous, which drove Kiba absolutely feral. The first night you had sex after recovering from surgery was one of the most passionate lovemaking sessions the both of you ever had. Kiba could see how comfortable you were in your own body after your hysterectomy, and that turned him into a savage, untamed beast when the two of you were alone.

But here you are now, totally not alone. In the middle of Central Park. Fucking your boyfriend.

What have you become? Where was the demure and studious girl who would rather spend her evenings at home instead of galavanting around with a jock who can't even pronounce the word "etiquette", let alone practice it? Have you no shame? I guess you must have tossed that aside when you first started dating Kiba. He always did have a way of bringing out your undomesticated side, you were a girl who secretly wanted to embrace her inner wildcat and just go berserk from time to time. And what's wilder than exhibitionism?

"Umph," you hear Kiba moan from behind you, "I'm getting close, princess."

This was always your favourite part of having sex with Kiba. The moment where your vagina milks him, absorbing every last drop of his cum. This time you felt a little different than usual, though. How long has it been since you last peed? Hours? You did go at the bagel shop, but that was during the morning.

Oh gosh, you think to yourself, he's totally going to make me squirt today. Fuck, I can't believe this is happening to me.

Kiba continues to thrust into you as you feel the intense pressure of your full bladder compound on top of the heat building up inside of your pelvis. Every time he brushes up inside of you, your muscles begin to clench involuntarily. You inch closer and closer to losing control with every gyration of his hips. He slaps your ass a few times before continuing his thrusting.

Kiba then grabs the back of your ponytail so he can bring your neck a little closer to his mouth. When his canines tickle the hickey on your neck you're no longer able to restrain the torrent of warm urine, letting a golden shower rain down on Kiba's jacket. The sensation of wetting yourself sends you over the edge and your walls begin to instinctively clench up as a surge of ecstacy ripples throughout your entire body.

Kiba then lets out a tremendous groan as his dick twitches inside of you and begins ejaculating sticky cum into your vagina, filling it up to the brim. A bit of his cum oozes out of you, mixing with a few droplets of piss as the medley of immorality slides down your legs, a remnant of your grievous sin.

You can hear Kiba exhale deeply as you slowly turn yourself around.

"Sorry about your jacket, I didn't realize until it was too late that I hadn't peed since the morning and-"

Kiba picks up his soiled jacket from the ground and sniffs it with a satisfied look on his face, "Mmm, smells just like my princess."

He puts a hand on your shoulder as he says, "Don't worry about it. I'll just have to use my dynamic marking on you when we get back to the hotel."

No matter how indecent you thought you were, you could always take solace in the fact that Kiba had you beat. This man was always full of surprises, and you couldn't deny that you loved him, not in spite of his degeneracy, but rather for it.

As you pick up your clothes strewn about the castle's roof Kiba quips at you one last time, "So since you drank the water here does that mean your piss had bugs in it?"

"How many times do I have to tell you? Shrimp aren't bugs, they're crustaceans."

You can hear his roaring laughter echoing with that self-assured arrogance that you loved oh so much, even if you'd never admit it. We can't fuel his ego too much now, can we? 

----- The End -----

[simpleeindulge]

A Little Night Rhythm

Info: ReaderxLaw, no gender mentioned, 1st person POV, fluff, romance, sexual relationship insinuated. 

The crew was gathered above deck, ready to ring in the new year. With 20 minutes to go, the energy felt static. Scanning the crowd, I frowned when I didn't see Law.

It shouldn't have surprised me, but it didn't make it any less annoying. Bepo, Penguin, and Shachi were having a dumping eating contest, and the crew cheered as they placed bets on the winner. I wisely put my money on Bepo as I grab an unopened bottle of champagne and two glasses.

The inside of the ship felt peaceful as I walked towards Law's office. The light from his office shone into the hallway, and the sight of it made me smile. Law may have hidden himself away but he was still near his crew.

Law didn't look up from his book as my heels clicked on the floor.

“I was just about to come up.” He said offhandedly without looking up.

“Lair.” I teased. Law scoffed and glanced up at me with a frown.

I grinned as I set the glasses on his desk and worked on getting the champagne open. Law closed his book and stretched his back and neck.

He then stood and reached for the bottle.

“Here, let me.”

I let Law take it and walked over to the radio snail that I had bought for his office. The bottle made it's thrilling ‘pop’ sound as I turned on the dial. I searched for the right station as Law poured the champagne.

Instantly, I found a song with a nice cumbia beat. The rhythm flowed to my feet and traveled up my legs to my hips and shoulders as I danced. Law had commented that the radio was something I found useful, but I knew he used it when sometimes when he didn't think anyone was around.

I stepped back and swayed my hips as I let my body go with the cheerful beat. Law watched me quietly with a slight smile on his face. I turn to see it as I continue to dance. It was those smiles that I treasure the most. I didn't need a big, cheezy smile because the small ones said so much more when it came from him.

“Here,” Law said as he handed me my glass. Carefully, I clinked my glass to his and took a sip.

“And I wasn't lying,” Law commented after he took a sip. “You just happened to come to me first.”

“Right,” I replied and set my glass down. I then grabbed his hand and said, “Come on, you know the steps to this, dance with me.”

Law raised a brow at me and glanced at the doorway.

“The crew is too busy watching a dumpling eating contest to care where you are.” I said to convince him to dance with me for a bit.

“Fine, but only for a little bit.” Law sighed as he took my hands.

The song had changed to another song with a solid cumbia beat and I smiled as Law moved with me. He had remembered the steps I showed him. His expression soften as we moved around his office.

I felt light on my feet and my face had to be glowing from the joy I felt as we danced. Law spun me and pulled me closer to him. I laughed as he started to move me closer to a wall and pressed into me.

“I don’t remember teaching you this move.” I whispered cheekily.

Law grinned and whispered back, “We both know I’m better at this sort of dance.”

I giggled and replied, “Only because I let you practice more-“

“Hey now,” Law chuckled as he caressed my face. “A little less sass from you-”

“And a little more ass.” I teased as I stared into his eyes.

A light blush appeared on Law's face as he struggled to hold on to his lax façade. I couldn't resist teasing him, but he made it easy for me to tell me what he wanted. The slight pressure of his hand above my hip, the change in his breathing, and the look in his grey eyes, all of it said one clear thing. He wanted me.

For a man who preferred a veil of mystery over his wants and desires, it unnerved him that I could read him with something as simple a change in touch or breathing.

“Law?” I said as he continued staring at me. All those little hints evaporated at a speed that less savvy person would have second-guessed themselves. 

Law looked at the clock and said, “Less than fifteen minutes to go.”

“Right,” I said stepping away from the wall. “Let's go up before-”

Law held onto me and I glanced back at him.

“You know we shouldn't again, right?”

I shrugged and replied, “If that is your thinking then so be it. They say three times makes a habit, but what does twice that amount possibly mean.”

“A loss of control,” Law replied blankly.

I glanced away and sighed to hide my expression even though I knew my movement was enough to let him know what I was thinking. I then breathed and smiled at him.

“Like I said if that's what you think then I won't push. You already know my thoughts.”

Law said nothing as I walked over to the radio and turned off the music. I was about to suggest that we head to the deck again when I saw Law closing his door.

“Law?” I frowned at him.

Law walked towards me, and there was something in his step that made me unable to move. After nine times, I should be used to his advancements, but his damn eyes knew how to make a person freeze. In three blinks, he was in front of me, reaching for the radio.

I was trying not to pant because there was no reason to! He hadn't done anything and yet I needed to get my breath back.

He frowned and said “This one is faster than the last song.”

I sighed a laugh and turned up the volume a little higher. “You can do it. The steps are the same, just faster.”

He gave me an uncertain look but I nodded my head at him. “You can, I’ll count the steps for you.”

The music played, and Law reached for me. I softly counted till he didn't need it. I followed his lead and danced with him as laughter bubbled up from my chest. Someone knocked at the door to say there were less than ten minutes left, but we kept dancing.

Law then spun me and trapped me in a corner. This time, I could let myself softly pant as I met his eyes and I touched his face.

“W-what are you thinking?” I asked as I wet my lips and tried to breathe.

Law grinned as he moved closer to me. His hands gripped my hips as his thighs pressed against mine. I swallow back my gasp but a small sound still left me. I closed and opened my eyes and saw him leaning towards me.

The count had started and we could hear the crew over the music that played.

“10…9…8…”

“Law?” I said his name because I really wasn't sure what he was thinking or wanting. I hated not knowing and the power it had over me.

“5…4…3…2…”

On “1”, Law kissed me. I could hear the noise above drowning out everything. Their cheers, noisemakers, the fireworks going off in the city and somewhere a clock was dinging.

I could hear it all, and suddenly, all of it became swallowed up by the kiss. Law had pulled me by my hip and waist to press against him. My hands moved to his hair, and my legs parted to let him in closer.

The only sound I could hear was our breaths and the desire they held. As the intensity grew, so did the question at the back of my mind. When the kiss broke, the sounds of music and celebration outside returned. Law still held me close, and I could see even clearer what he wanted. 

“It's a new year,” I said to him softly. “A new start.”

His hand caressed my face as he looked at me, and again, I felt unnerved.

“I’ve changed my mind, it’s acceptance.” He said.

“What's is?”

Law smiled and brushed my hair back, then touched my cheek. He then kissed me again, but softer this time, and my eyes fluttered as he did. When the kiss broke, I rested my head on his chest.

“Be clear with me, Law. I don't like guessing and pining is undignified.”

Law chuckled as he held me. The celebration of the new year had died down, and the lively music drifted easily into the room’s silence.

“Fine,” Law said warmly. “I want more than… practicing.”

I scoffed a laugh and said, “It’s a new year, Law; let's move past the metaphors.”

He shifted to look into my eyes and said seriously, “I want us to be exclusive.”

I blinked and said, “Okay, I agree. Anything else?”

Law then grinned and replied heatedly, “Yes, I want you in bed.”

I laughed as Law picked me up and carried me over to his sleeping space. On that, we both agreed again.

[crystallinestars]

That one BL ask you received is so funny to me because it would have been so easy to just send you something like "if you don't mind me asking, is there any particular reason you dislike BL?" but no, I guess it was more satisfying to just throw an accusation and then promptly block you 🙃

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I can relate to what you and the other anon said! I fall somewhere on the aroace spectrum and while my policy for this is just to live and let live (and block when I think it's necessary), it's sometimes pretty jarring (and alienating ngl) to see just how often people focus on relationship statuses between two characters when I'm like??? What about the rest of the story??

I think a lot of people live vicariously through their ships, especially if they're starved for representation in media. But that's kinda why I think it's cool when relationship statuses remain unconfirmed or ambiguous, because that way the source material can be elevated with another layer of possible interpretations (I hope that makes sense 😅)

My point is, I see way too many ship wars and like?? Who cares if it's platonic or romantic or something else?? It's all so boring to me because ultimately, what does it matter if it's one or the other? Ultimately it doesn't change the common factor in every scenario: that two characters were written to care about each other / be close, etc.

I also often see people throwing around literary / media analysis terms such as "x-coding" etc. to justify getting on their high horses and feel better about their preferences, when I'm pretty sure that the whole point in literary / media analysis is to find elements which can be linked into a coherent argument to support an INTERPRETATION. I'm sorry if the way I wrote this sounds dismissive, I'm just genuinely confused by this whole debate

Anyway, I'll stop ranting now 😅 Ultimately I just wanted to tell that I also agree with what you said and that I hope you won't get any other unpleasant asks in the future, especially if it's something that could be solved by a "let's agree to disagree"

I would also have appreciated it if the first anon didn't jump to conclusions before blocking me, but it is what it is. I can understand his reaction, though it's a bit immature.

As you pointed out, some people probably live vicariously through their ships, but therein lies the problem. They see their ship as a reflection of themselves, so anything that goes against their ship feels like an attack on themselves. This goes for practically any interest, not just shipping.

My guess is that investing so much of themselves into their ship/interest is what makes it so difficult to accept people's opinions/interpretations that go against theirs. And in the age of the internet where anyone can hide behind anonymity from the safety of their home, it makes is easier to send hate to those whose opinions you don't like.

As for literary/media analysis... I'm not versed in this at all so I can't say much other than I am sick and tired of people tossing those terms around. "Y character is X-coded" has stopped meaning "These are the reasons I think the character is X" and became "These are proof by the original source that the character is X, IT'S CANON". There are instances where characters truly are coded to be something, but in Genshin, 95% of the time there's no coding. Everything people preach is canonically implied is just their headcanon. Mihoyo would be shooting themselves in the foot if they assigned a sexuality to a playable character (I still despise the ship teasing though).

People are just scared of feeling like their interpretations are invalid, so they use anything at their disposal to shut down those who disagree. At least, that's what I think. In the end, I'm just as puzzled as you are about this behavior 😓

Thank you for your rant Anon, it was entertaining to read and think about. I also hope to not have to deal with accusations anymore, but I should be fine since I'm a small blog. Thank you for your support, you are very sweet :)

[bluelolblue]

Random little oc talk :3

Alright, I need motivation for my beloved oc's. I mentioned Mischief once when the ship name of John and Santino was created (MarkerMischief). So I'll explain him and his lover a little :3

╔═══.·:·.✧✦✧.·:·.═══╗

In short, Mischief is my cat oc (anthropomorphic), who is one of the Overlords. He has a white fur and green eyes, can be flirty, gives good advices (romantic ones especially), he is really fun actually being one of the youngest Overlords there, and he really cares for those he loves. Horatio is one of his like, let's say, servants, someone who works for him. He is a brown wolf (hmm, maybe like a mix of red wolf and tundra wolf). He calls him "Master" at first, is really loyal and cares for everyone, wants to protect him, and has had a crush on Mischief ever since he got first introduced to him.

All my oc's are WIP even after so long... I created this series and these oc's back in 2019 and over the years more and more oc's just kinda popped in my mind. Plot? Umm... haha... WIP! But it has Overlords, demons, present time, past time, some mythological creatures that aren't anthro (like griffins and some of my own original creatures who also have mortal forms) and a lot more.

Okay enough of my yapping, I wanna share this ONE little part of my own lil fic that I wrote, two years ago (apologies if some stuff are a bit cringe/have grammar mistakes, it's been a while lmaoo). I think this part is silly :3

╚═══.·:·.✧✦✧.·:·.═══╝

Those types of dreams

Mischief still wasn't convinced that Horatio was fine. "Horatio. C'mon tell me, something is bothering you." Mischief said, tugging on Horatio's arm. "No, I'm fine. Seriously you don't have to worry." Horatio said. Mischief sighed, crossing his arms. "You can be really stubborn when you want to. But I like that about you." Mischief said.

"Now..." Mischief started, holding Horatio's both hands in front of him. "Tell me." He smiled. Horatio groaned softly, feeling even more embarrassed but he knew Mischief wouldn't give up.

"Alright." He sighed. "But...I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable." He said. "You won't. Go on." Mischief said, still having that adorable smile. "Okay.." Horatio said, mentally preparing himself.

"I...had a dream about you...us actually," Horatio began, "A-and...we uh, had..." he paused, "Sex?" Mischief asked, finishing Horatio's sentence for him. "Ah! Um y-yes...well- not exactly, it didn't happen immediately we were just um, teasing each other, I guess." Horatio finally said it.

Mischief chuckled softly, then turned into a small laugh. Horatio was looking at him, kinda confused. "Oh Horatio...and you were embarrassed to tell me this?" Mischief asked, wiping off a tear in his eye from laughing. "Yes..." Horatio said, lowering his look to the ground.

But he felt Mischief's hands on his cheeks which made him look up at Mischief. "Hey, don't be sad. I'm sorry I laughed, I didn't mean to offend you." Mischief said softly. "No, no you didn't offend me. I'm just...embarrassed." Horatio said, blushing a little.

"Don't be. Dreams happen, maybe it meant something." Mischief said, patting Horatio's shoulder. Meaning something? Yes, that Horatio loves him. "Yes...it meant something." Horatio agreed.

Mischief hummed softly and leaned to kiss Horatio's cheek. Horatio was left speechless. "I like your dream. I hope I was doing good to you." He said, his voice quiet but soft. "M-master.." Horatio said, not sure what to do, he just wanted to kiss him right now.

[fandomfluffandfuck]

i hope this isn’t a bother, i’m not sure if it’s worth knowing at all. but i was disheartened earlier when i was on x/twt and saw a seb fan hating on the idea of sebchris, and realized the specific speculative shippy post they were being vague about was recent from your blog.

ik everyone is entitled to their own opinion and it’s understandable to find rps unsavory, but it seemed very much like rage-bait for attention: acting like they’d never heard of it before and taking time out of their day to comment. i think you even mentioned you’d never want CE or SS to know about it and would never be disrespectful, it’s all in fun to be teasing. same for me. i swear so many mcufans live in a bubble, rps has been around since forever, lotr anyone? and speculation is kinda what hollywood already does. every celeb magazine cover you see is like: “are they DATING?” as long as no one is bothered, it’s really not that serious. there’s occasionally a double standard with non same sex co-stars too. these fans even ship themselves with the same actors and that’s not “creepy” either.

the reason we like the two of them as friends (or potentially more) isn’t bc we project steve/buck onto them, it’s how well they get along and how rare their irl connection is. without their chemistry SB wouldn’t even be what it is. and it’s sad that due to fandom, ppl feel the need to assert that CE and SS are straight or would never like each other, when that’s really their personal business and not ours. we just enjoy moments what they’ve already shown us, being invasive isn’t on the table.

but yeah, tumblr is a separated fandom space and i wish other fans would just ignore what they don’t like. you and all of us don’t deserve that. i guess we should be careful what’s posted in the SS or CE tag. sorry again about this.

Nah, that's fine, I get that. You need a place to express those frustrations and, also, yeah. Just. Yup. It's definitely rage bait because if you've been in fandom for longer than a minute than you've come across RPF. It's been around forever with fandom. It's fine. Besides, it's not like you can stop it by now, it's for fun and there's so many people that indulge. I do wish that more people, generally, including on Tumblr, but mostly off Tumblr would learn that if it's not for you... then navigate away from it. I think more people would be happier if they learned that lesson, lol. But, yeah, Tumblr is certainly a very unique internet place.

No need to be sorry, I'm totally chill to read your rants, haha.

[princesscolumbia]

Code of Ethics - Ch. 14 - Traffic Control

Friday was uber-crazy busy, so my usual writing cadence was thrown off. Otherwise I might have had this out yesterday.

Also, back to a 4k+ chapter instead of the 8k+ monsters the last two were.

Back at her station, Diane's ready to return to business as usual, if they knew what business as usual even was yet.

Preview below the cut:

In the time they’d been on Mortan, Katrina had gone to the effort to identify a handful of the people that had been living on the station with some native ability to prepare food and set them to the task of preparing meals for the staff and crew, dialing back the synthesizer process to generating the ingredients needed for the foods being made instead of preparing the entire meal straight from the synthesizer. Not only did this reduce wear and tear (and reliance) on the food synths, it wound up producing better food overall.

The addition of the shipments from Mortan helped as well, providing things like salt that could be ‘perfectly��� created on the station but salt harvested from a planetary environment provided things like trace elements that boosted not just the flavor but the nutritional value of the food served in the mess hall. It wound up being…well, not anything like the five-star restaurant they’d dined their last dinner on Mortan in, but certainly landing in the “home cookin’” category that turned mealtimes from when people had a chance to sit down and eat to communal events where the station’s small population gathered to enjoy good food and good company.

While Diane had been quite pleased with this development, they learned on their second day back that the ‘command’ breakfasts should probably be taken in her private dining room. They had decided that Diane would open the ‘care packages’ from the women of Mortan, one package at a time, at breakfast.

The went fine for the first day when the contents of said care package had been a Morvish riding vest accompanied by a note that Norma took great pleasure in reading aloud, “’To: The First Found Daughter – My gran made this for me for my first hunting party, and all my daughters and granddaughters are grown and have long since had their first hunt. I know grandmother would want this to go to you, please wear it for your first hunt.’” she smiled down at the note with a slightly wistful smile, “Awww!”

“That is sweet, you should let me take a picture of you wearing it so we can send a thank you in reply,” suggested Russe.

Diane shrugged, “No reason not to, I guess, though it might be a logistical nightmare to try and reply to all of ‘em like that.”

Norma carefully re-folded the note and put it back on top of the vest in it’s shipping box, “Then maybe we have a form-note made, you know, ‘Thanks for the gift of insert-whatever-it-was-here, I greatly appreciate it, signed First Found Daughter’ or something.”

The second day had forced them to alter their burgeoning breakfast tradition when Diane opened a box to reveal a perfume scented envelope resting on top of translucent and vaguely labelled package of some sort of fabric contents. Continuing the pattern established the previous morning, Norma snatched up the envelope and gently tore open the top as Diane found a zipper seal on the package.

“Oooh, flowery handwriting! Don’t see that often in space, let’s see… ‘Dearest First Found,’ wow, already on a first name basis with a woman on your first port of call? You’re going to get a reputation,” Norma teased as she gently fanned out the several pages of the letter, a small square of photopaper landing picture down on the table from the pages. Diane rolled her eyes and started fishing the fabric out of the plasticine container as Norma continued, “‘I hope you like what you see, I look forward to finding out if you’re a progenitor or a proliferator under those…tight…pants?!” her voice tightened to a squeak and her face started turning bright red as her eyes continued to scan the note, now doing so quietly as Diane held up some ‘clothing’ that certainly wasn’t fit for a work environment.

Except for maybe a brothel.

Sitting almost frozen with a deer-in-the-headlights shocked look on her face, her entire head turning bright red from her bangs down to the last visible skin above the neckline of her shirt. She finally stammered, “…this is way too small for me.”

Russe had picked up the fallen photo and was staring at the picture, somewhat slack jawed and very red as well, “That’s…because it’s not for you. She…ah, modelled it for you.” He swallowed thickly and whimpered, “…for such a small lady she’s got…wow…”

Norma leaned over to look at what had Russe so tongue tied and her eyes bugged out, “Whoah! She’s huge!”

Diane was busy stuffing the lingerie back in the package, doing her best to not think about the… ‘assets’ that the much shorter and smaller woman this would have to fit both the bra and panties she had just held up for the entire mess hall to see…including the giggling teens at the next table.

It had been a week since that…particular incident, and now when they encountered a care package of the racier persuasion, they had a laugh of it in the privacy of Diane’s suite.

Today, though, the package had been from the Morvuck equivalent of a class of kindergarteners, apparently the girls who had watched Diane and the Matron bond in the street. They had wound up almost forgetting about their breakfasts as the poured through the adorably (if inexpertly) hand-crafted notes, cards, and pictures.

“Oh…my…gosh, this one’s adorable!” gushed Russe, “She writes that they voted to make you an honorary member of their class since they’re special to the Matron and you’re special to the Matron so you’re obviously sisters!”

Diane couldn’t help the ear-to-ear grin that was threatening to start actually hurting from how hard she was smiling, “Okay, keep that one separate. I want it framed and hung in Ops.”

Norma cackled at this new soft spot in their commander, but this swiftly morphed into a cooing, ‘oooh,’ as she pulled a drawn picture from the pile. “Omygosh, someone must have told them you’re a station commander, look at this!” The picture was on a material that wasn’t quite black construction paper, and amid a field of glittery, silver puff paint star dots was a child’s idea of a space station. It was incredibly crude and looked almost nothing like her station, a blob of the silvery puff paint next to a little blue and green ‘planet’ that sadly looked more like Earth or Mortan than the gas covered ball of rock and water the station was actually in orbit of. Taking up most of the picture, though, and rendered crudely in gold, white, and yellow puff paint was a dragon with a little white-suited blond woman riding on the dragon’s back.

“Okay, this is going in my office!” she said with a slightly scratchy voice as she gently took it from Norma with the tips of her fingers.

“Are you crying?!” laughed Norma.

Diane wiped the tracks of liquid from her face, “No, you’re crying! Shutup!” she said without heat as Russe and Norma laughed good naturedly.

Before they could do any more appreciation of the children’s artwork, Cynthy’s voice paged over the PA, “Commander to Ops, unscheduled inbound ship from out of system. Repeat, Commander to Ops, unscheduled inbound ship from out of system.”

The trio glanced at each other in confusion before standing to leave, Diane grabbing a pastry off her plate, which fortunately represented most of what she hadn’t eaten yet.

Read the rest of Scribblehub

[k-s-morgan]

Hi Morgan I hope u are well 💌

I am new to the fandom but it always excites me to know how the fandom was when hannibal was first released. About the fandom shipping, what was the pov at that time and what ppl thought were the endgame couples.

Did they ship hannibloom, hannigram or any other characters.

Sorry my English is not good 😆

Hi! No worries, your English is more than fine! And ooh, I did have a post about it somewhere, but I can't find it to link it. I have the text from it saved, though.

So, S1 and the situation in the fandom. Obviously, the shipping was very varied at that time - you could easily find Hannibal/Alana and Will/Alana fans. Some were making bets on Hannibal/Bedelia since Bryan mentioned Hannibal getting a love interest in S2. Hannigram was there from the beginning, too.

Bryan (non)teasing Hannigram before S1 aired:

Filming a beautiful, sexy kiss between two beautiful, sexy actors on #HANNIBAL -- and it's not Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy.

Some people were hoping for some Hannigram content even before seeing a single episode. Hannigram had a small group of shippers ever since the books came out (with Hannibal being briefly drawn to Will before getting pissed off at being denied his phone number and sending Francis to attack him with his family). The movies, with all the “Remarkable boy. I do admire your courage. I think I’ll eat your heart” and “How I’d love to get you on my couch” only fuelled the shipping, even though it was never particularly large-scale. The fact that one of the promos for the show presented after the pilot entailed Hannibal sniffing Will, some people caught onto what was happening at that point already. But no one really took it very seriously, and people’s opinions differed. 

Some were swooning over Will with Alana, calling it an amazing exploration of a relationship between two mature people. Others expressed hopes that Hannibal would try to get closer to Alana to mess with Will. Some were excited to see Hannibal touching Will’s shoulder in E9 and expressing the desire to be a family with him and Abigail. A bit of discussion from those times I saved out of amusement:

Commenter 1: I thought that whole scene had a homoerotic feel to it.

Commenter 2: Gay dads. Gay dads.

Commenter 3: I thought that whole show had a homoerotic feel to it.

Commenter 4: I feel like Hannibal is sexually attracted to Will, but I might be making too many leaps here…

Commenter 5: I don’t think he is sexually attracted to Will. I get the sense that he is only sexually attracted to himself. As a pure narcissist, I don’t think he is capable of feeling attracted to another person, regardless of gender.I think his attachment to Will is based on the fact that somebody can finally understand him. I think he legitimately see’s Will as a friend.

Commenter 6: It’s great to see more of Hannibal with his own psychiatrist. The fact that he seems to genuinely want a friendship with Will seems so touching. His reaction when Will came over to his house to tell him he’d kissed Alana was priceless and almost showed a hint of jealousy (but maybe I’m reading too much into that).

Some stuff about Will and Alana:

Commenter 1:  I am so loving everything happening between Will and Alana. To have characters talk out their issues despite sexual tension, and hold off on a relationship because of them… it feels almost revolutionary in today’s television landscape.

Commenter 2: A romantic relationship would weigh down the show. They really don’t have time to get invested in that. It’s pretty obvious from an outsider’s POV that there’s a Will/Alana attraction going on, and to not acknowledge it would in some ways actually draw more attention TO it. My guess is they’re setting something up for season 2 or 3 (if we get them).

Commenter 3: At the rate he’s going, by season three Will’s going to be drooling in a mental hospital somewhere.

Commenter 4: I’m pretty glad the whole Will/Alana thing was a bust. She’s right about them being bad for each other, and I feel that if they did get into a relationship, that drama would just distract from the story. Plus Will is such a tragic character, a relationship would normalise him too much.

Mads already said he plays Hannibal as in love with Will at that point, so some took it into consideration while others ignored it. People seemed to love the show: they admired how cunning Hannibal was, worried about Will, and screamed at the finale. Many were looking forward to seeing how the tables were going to be turned, with Will paying Hannibal back. 

 People’s major theories included Hannibal seeing Will as a protege / adversary - there were even fights about it since some thought he was genuine in his care while others believed he was just playing a game; many believed Abigail was still alive; Will was predicted to spend most time in jail in S2 while being consulted; many thought Will and Hannibal would be trying to dance to one up each other next. Will’s darkness was a rare topic and no one really thought Hannigram would take the central stage in a mutually romantic way. Will’s Becoming wasn’t a common topic either - few people considered that he might start indulging in his own darkness. Many were wondering how much Bedelia knew and why Hannibal was crying about his lost Murder Family when he was the one to destroy it. 

Interesting links: 

This is a panel from 2013. At 39.13, a person asks about the eroticism between Will and Hannibal and everyone starts cheering. Hugh says he thinks the connection between them is profound but that he doesn’t think it’s sexual. Bryan asks, “Oh yeah?” 

And here you can read discussions of all episodes as they were airing. I think the quotes I provided above are from there as well. 

[loveofbots]

Ooh,Im kinda nervous for this one but uhh.. if you're okay with rarepairs-

Ahem uhh...*coughs* Fort max/Inferno

(Yes,I know we only have limited ideas with Inferno,waahh)

For the mermay req,I have an idea that they could be both octopis or have octopi pets that looks like themselves. Because I find it so adorable. Them taking care of those little/big creachurs

I literally sat down and screamed when I saw this, you’re my favourite Fort Max content creator holy shit

As for rarepairs yes!! I ship Max with Ambulon myself!

OK I HAD A REALLY FUNNY IDEA

Warnings: none, smug af Octo-Max.

“Oh Primus on a gearshift.”

Maximus hears the crass swearing of his coworker and… charming companion. He turns around, looking at the two small creatures in the tank that Inferno was standing in front of.

If the soft undulating mass of tentacles were anything to go by, along with the semi-frantic movements of Inferno Jr. with Fort Mini on top of the Octobot he guessed Inferno was right…

As cute as they were, the last thing Maximus needed was more of these little creatures running about. He hardly knew how to take care of these two as is.

Maximus paces over with a mild sense of hurry dipping his hand in the chilly water. Inferno watches, chuckling like an idiot, as the larger bot tries to gently pry the two Octobots apart. The mating pair fights with all their tiny might, until Inferno Jr. inks everywhere. Max pulls his hands out in disgust, now covered in oils. He frowns as the miniature Octobot version of himself very smugly slides itself and Inferno Jr. into a private cave. Most likely to finish where it left off.

Inferno gives Maximus a towel which he gratefully takes, a tad embarrassed now. Inferno moves into his heated red stare with a playful smile of his own. “Hey, it’s not so bad.” It doesn’t reassure Maximus very much, especially not when he thinks of taking a page from the Octobot’s book and sneaking away with Inferno himself. He looks anywhere but at Inferno, who chuckles at his friend’s bashfulness.

Fortress Maximus exvents with his signature frown. “I just don’t want more of them.” He tries to play it off cool.

“You sure? When we first found them, you wouldn’t stop doing that cute baby voice at them.” The red mech teases. Inferno smiles, knowing that Fort Max’s reddened face was because of the embarrassing ‘baby voice’ he had used towards the adorable Octobots. And also because he had called the Warden cute.

Max stomps off, but not before grumbling something about being back later to feed their new pets. It makes Inferno’s spark warm and happy, knowing his friend deeply cared about something as small and fragile as the Octobots. Perhaps… even him?

This turned out to just be more of an Inferno/Fort Max fic but you know what it’s fine.

[notmoreflippingelves]

EoA for ask meme

otp: *coughs* Elena/Esteban. sorry not sorry.Look if they didn't want me to be unhinged about them, they shouldn't have spent an entire season soulmate-coding them and then capping it off with a BATB homage.

favourite canon pairing: ymmv on how canon it is, but considering it was pretty strongly teased in the series finale, Julio/Doña Paloma. I do find Carla/Mateo pretty cute as well.

worst pairing ever: I wouldn't say any of the pairings for the show are bad. It's just a lot of them don't particularly interest me. I could say Elena/Mateo, because personally I find it overrrated and I'm already gonna talk about it later. But I am going to go with Esteban/Doña Paloma.

I did actually kind of ship it the first time I watched the show...right up until the episode where their AU selves got married. And even though the whole point of "to Queen or Not to Queen" is that everything is absurd and everyone is wildly out-of-character (especially the two of them), they just seemed so miserable together and I couldn't unsee it. I also find it kind of annoying that Paloma is treated as sort of the default "acceptable" Esteban shipping option for people who don't want to pair him with OCs. And just...it's fine and I understand why many people would feel uncomfortable shipping him with certain characters (even if I don't)...but like...Victor is also right there. And honestly, I'm able to get a lot of the same vibes that I initially liked about esteoma out of estevictor, esteban/naomi, gaberico, and Julio/ Paloma---plus just I find those dynamics are more interesting in general.

guilty pleasure pairing: It used to be estebalena, but now, I have much less shame over it. It helps that I really only see it happening in S3 or later and that I hc that Elena would be the much more dominant/instigating partner in the relationship. I mean I guess Shuriki/Esteban is the obvious answer. But it is worth noting that I don't like it when it's genuine/mutual/romantic. I only like esteriki in the noncon/dubcon "Shuriki abusing her power" sense. So my guilty pleasure ship is less Shuriki/Esteban and more "Esteban/severe Shuriki-related trauma that leads to extreme woobification." I want him sad and pretty and haunted by the Dark Times™ so that he can have allll the angst, whump and hurt/comfort.

a pairing you want to see more: Literally every ship that isn't just some permutation of the Four Amigos. There are so many great characters in this ship that can be paired in so many interesting ways, but they rarely get acknowledged. I think I am particularly baffled by the lack of m/m in this fandom, since it's like the complete opposite of every other fandom ever. There's a bit of Mateo/Gabe, but honestly, it's positively dwarfed by other pairings for the amigos. (Also I don't care about Mateo, lol). There's also a criminally small bit of Gabe/Rico, but there could be so much more.

But honestly, the ship that I am genuinely baffled isn't more popular and really really want to see more of is Victor/Esteban. Like it just seems like a no-brainer to me. It has so many tropes that people normally go feral over. Childhood friends to lovers? Enemies to Lovers? Foe yay? Mutual redemption arcs? There isn't even an age difference and Victor's marriage is all-but-over. So, what is stopping people? I've seen at most a handful of ambiguously romantic ship art and not a single fic. Where is it? Where is the estevictor? Give me the estevictor!

that pairing everyone likes but you’re like “lol no” : Elena/Mateo. I mean I get why it's so popular given the popularity and attractiveness of both characters. But personally, I just don't find them interesting. I feel they both have better chemistry and interesting potential with other characters than they do with each other. And its popularity within the fandom certainly doesn't help, as my little contrarian hipster brain turns its nose up about 90% of fandom juggernaut pairings. Plus, I just don't care enough about Mateo to care about a ship with him. He's casually cute with Carla and I can see him with Gabe as well. But otherwise, nope. Don't like him enough to care who he's shipped with.

favorite non-romantic pair: There are a bunch of dynamics that I do ship sometimes (or more than sometimes) but I also love platonically. (Esteban & Elena, Elena & Naomi, Esteban & Naomi, Naomi & Gabe, Elena & Gabe, Elena & Valentina, Elena & Marisa, Chloe & Maliga, Cacahuate & Bobo, various permutations of "Team Isa"). But in terms of pairings that I only view platonically, either Victor & Carla or Isabel & Elena.

[silverdragon-imagines-blog]

Silver darling dearest this is me officially asking/begging you to let Sky and Warriors gang up on the others and tease the everloving daylights out of them in knighthood solidarity and bonding over both of them being total bisexual disasters. If you wanted to. Or you could rant about them. I would love to hear your thoughts. <3

[Your wish is my command ^u^ Let’s take it from the top! This took a lot longer than I thought it would and it’s over 3k?! I’m not even sure how that happened, but enjoy ^u^]

Here’s the first one

Warning(s): This is shippy and mostly fluffy. That’s about it. The ships are Mavioli plus Ralph, ShadLink, Sidlink and past Revalink and Miphlink, Four x Shadow, and then Time x Malon. But there are several other crushes mentioned and also polyamory.

They had stayed in the village for a day or so, and the thought of embarrassing their fellow heroes over who they liked was still lingering in the backs of Sky and Warriors’ minds. It was tempting to just spring the question on one of the others, but as fun as that would be, they would only want to do it with just the two of them and their potential victim.

Legend just so happened to be all by himself at camp, settled under a tree with a scrap of paper in his lap. Perfect.

“Hey dumbass, what are you doing?”

“None of your business dipshit. Now, what do you want?”

“Funny you should ask my little pink friend,” Warriors smirked, sitting next to the Veteran hero and getting as close as possible, “Who are you writing to? Someone at home missing their salty snarky hero?”

“Oh, fuck off,” he replied, shoving the Captain away.

“No, come on, I’m curious. Who has captured the heart of our resident grump?”

He heard mumbling, too quiet to properly decipher, but it had to have been a confession. Sky approached then, a soft yet mischievous smile on his face.

“Someone has to have caught your interest, yes? Is it, perhaps, the one that we saw the last time we visited your home?”

Legend’s face erupted in a blush, but he kept his eyes on his paper, not looking at either hero. Warriors smiled.

“Was the guess correct then?”

“Fine you assholes! Yes, Ravio is my partner! Happy?”

He pouted, and it was adorable, but Sky had a feeling there was more to the story.

“You sound truthful, but I believe I see more than just one letter in your hand. Care to share who the rest are for?”

Legend buried his face in his hands, curses flying from under his breath. Warriors was laughing at the response, Sky joining him and sitting on the other side of the flustered veteran, jostling him slightly.

“Both of you are terrible,” he sighed, but spread out the four papers he had been writing on.

One of them had already been finished, Zelda’s name at the very top. The second had only been partially written and addressed to someone named Ralph. The last two were still blank, but Warriors snatched them anyway much to Legend’s annoyance.

“Give those back you dick!”

“Maybe if you tell us who your partners are, it’s obvious by the number of letters that you have more than one. So, who is this Ralph fellow?”

Legend groaned, leaning back and staring up at the clouds with an annoyed face.

“He’s someone I met on my adventures that just so happened to catch my interest, okay? He’s a big jerk, but he’s enjoyable to be around.”

“Sounds like someone else I know,” Warriors eyed Sky, smirking.

The hero rolled his eyes in response.

“What about the other two? I know Fable is your sister, but the other two are still blank.”

Legend covered his face with a silent scream, the two tormentors laughing at his expense. Sky started poking his arm, almost begging him to start talking.

“Fuckin’ Ravio ‘n Marin.”

“Aw, cute. I hope we get the chance to meet them someday and hopefully get the chance to tease you more.”

Warriors cackled, Legend taking a swipe at him and causing the taller hero to drop the paper. Sky got to his feet, pulling Warriors up and away from the now embarrassed and irritable veteran hero.

-

The next chance they got was on the road, wandering along a set path towards an unknown destination. Twilight was near the back of the group, leading Epona along by her reins while looking lost in thought, a small smile on his face. Sky eyed Twi from a few feet in front, Warriors nudging him to enact their plan. Sky nodded, slowing down enough to walk next to the ranch hand.

“Hey, how are you holding up back here?”

“Hm? ’m doin’ alright, why do you ask?”

“You just looked lost in thought. What were you thinking about?”

At this Twilight sighed a fond smile on his face.

“Just the person that I know I’ll be goin’ home to.”

“Oh? And who would that be if you don’t mind me asking?”

Twilight’s smile grew, a light blush dusting his cheeks. Epona took that moment to bump her head against Twilight’s with a huff. Sky chuckled, Twilight looking annoyed yet fond as he turned to Epona, patting her on the nose.

“Someone I met during my adventure, but we didn’t really interact much until after.”

“Will we ever meet the person who stole your heart?” Sky asked with a smile, Twilight blushing profusely.

“I’ll tell ya what, Sky,” Twilight smiled, turning to face the other, “if we ever find ourselves in my era’s castle town, I’ll take ya to meet my partner. If I know him well, and I hope I do after two years of being together, I think he’ll want to talk to you and ask a bunch of questions.”

“Oh? About what?”

“He’s a researcher, completely enamored and fascinated by the sky people, which are a tribe that lives in the sky. I’ve been up there a few times myself.”

“Was it-”

“No, it wasn’t Skyloft,” he looked apologetic, “But it is pretty cool up there, a whole city made up of this race of people I never even knew about.”

“You’ll have to show me one day, I’d love to see it,” Sky smiled, Twilight grinning in return.

--

Warriors was only slightly annoyed that he missed the chance to tease Twilight about his partner. Only slightly though. So, of course, he decided to go and bother a different member of their group by himself. Wind just so happened to be the closest at the time.

“Hey there, Sailor,” he laughed, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and digging his other hand into a fist, messing up the golden locks.

“Oi, knock it off ya jerk!” Wind yelled, laughing as he threw Warriors off of him, ducking below another attempt at a grab, and launching himself onto Warriors’ back with a triumphant yell.

“Payback time, bitch!”

Wind proceeded to return the favor, Warriors laughing and running around trying to dislodge the other hero from his back. He could see Time watching them fondly, a hint of mischief in his gaze. Eventually, they both tired out, collapsing in a heap on the ground panting and laughing. As the laughter petered out, Warriors leaned on his elbow, face in his hand looking at Wind as the sailor laid on his back.

“I’m curious about something, Sailor.”

“Oh? About what?” Wind asked, craning his neck to look the other in the eyes.

“D’you have anyone waiting for you at home?”

“I mean,” Wind scrunched his face in thought, “there’s grandma an’ Aryll an’ Tetra an’ her crew. Is that what you mean?”

Wars shrugged.

“Sort of. I meant more like,” Warriors leaned over Wind more, blocking the sun with his shadow, “anyone stolen your heart while you were traveling around?”

Wind made a gagging noise, rolling away from Warriors only to sit up and push the Captain over onto his back.

“No way! That’s gross!”

Warriors laughed.

“So the fair pirate captain hasn’t stolen your greatest treasure yet?”

Wind made another gagging noise, covering Warriors’ mouth with both hands and sitting on his chest.

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

The muffled laughter eventually was contagious enough to get Wind to relent and laugh a bit himself. There wasn’t much else to tease about, Warriors only knew the bare minimum about the young sailors travels from the hero himself. Anyone he met during the War of Ages from the sailor’s era never talked about their Hero of Winds enough for him to make any connections either. So Wars surrendered, rolling to get Wind off of him and maybe crushing the sailor a bit with his body for good measure. He only laughed as they started to wrestle in the grass again until Time called for them to hurry up. 

---

Hyrule they asked during his watchshift, knowing the traveler hero was less likely to say anything when everyone’s eyes were focused on him. When the Traveler was settled next to the fire, peering out at the quiet peaceful night blanketing them all, Sky got up. He made sure to make some noise so as to not startle the other hero, bumping Warriors with his foot as he walked toward Hyrule.

“Hey Traveler,” Sky spoke, Hyrule humming in acknowledgement, “mind if I sit with you?”

“Go ahead, but shouldn’t you be asleep?”

Sky shrugged, taking a seat on the log next to Hyrule. He sighed as he sat down, feeling the heat of the fire on his skin that wasn’t covered by his nightclothes.

“So, what’s up? I’m sure you didn’t pry yourself out of your blankets and bedroll for no reason.”

Sky chuckled.

“You got me. I was merely curious about something.”

“May as well say it, then and hope I have an answer for you.”

“About your adventure, do you have anyone waiting for you once this is over?”

“How do you mean?”

“Romantically, if you don’t mind,” Warriors spoke up, causing both heroes to flinch in response.

Sky leveled a tired glare at him, the Captain smirking in lieu of a response. He could hear Hyrule shifting uncomfortably next to him over the quiet crackling of the fire.

“You don’t have to respond if the question makes you uncomfortable. We won’t push you for an answer,” Sky spoke softly, hoping that Hyrule would be at least somewhat less anxious.

“I, uh, I don’t mind answering it’s just,” Hyrule paused, sighing and running a hand through his hair, “it’s hard to explain I guess.”

Sky watched as Hyrule gathered his thoughts, Warriors got up and sat near the log they were seated on. 

“Take as long as you need, traveler,” Warriors spoke, a small smile making its way onto Hyrule’s face.

“I guess… technically my Zeldas are waiting for me back home, but we don’t like each other in that way. Romantically I mean,” Hyrule explained, his hands waving around distractedly as he spoke, “It’s like… we enjoy spending time together, and we want to see each other be happy. I don’t really live at the castle, but I always have a place to stay there if I want to. But I don’t really want or care to have any sort of romantic relationship… it just isn’t appealing to me I guess.”

Warriors nodded, humming to himself as he stood back up. Sky watched him as he brushed imaginary dirt from his sleep pants.

“I’ve heard of that before,” Warriors said, smiling softly at Hyrule, “and I’m glad that you’re happy where you’re at regardless of romantic attraction.”

Hyrule nervously chuckled, scratching the back of his neck.

“Thanks Captain, I appreciate it.”

With that done, there was no real reason to stay up, so Warriors retreated back to his bedroll. Sky soon followed, after hugging Hyrule tightly and wishing him a good watch shift.

----

Warriors slung his arm around Wild’s shoulders, startling him from his thoughts as they were all walking aimlessly as a group. Wild looked over quizzically, Wars grinning at him. Sky then appeared at Wild’s other side, waving.

“What are you two up to?” Wild asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked between the two heroes.

“Well, my heroic friend,” Warriors began, pulling him closer, “We were just talking about your era and wondering who you’ve got waiting for you in that house you always talk about owning.”

Wild looked confused for a moment, looking to Sky.

“He means if you have anyone that you like back in your era.”

Wild nodded, understanding the question now. He thought for a moment, closing his eyes and letting Warriors’ arm lead him to keep up with the rest of the group. He opened his eyes then, looking sheepish.

“Well, uh, where do I even start?” Wild asked, causing Sky and Wars to look at each other in confused surprise, “There’s Sidon, Paya, Lasli, Aliza, Guy, Fyson, I have a thing with Aji, and there’s Bazz, Gaddison, and Rivan. And from what little memory I got back, I think I had a thing with Mipha and Revali.”

Warriors and Sky were slack-jawed at Wild’s answer. So many people, much more than they had expected. Warriors had pulled his arm off of Wild’s shoulders and was tempted to reach over and make sure this was real, but he stopped himself from doing something stupid.

“A-And you’re romantically involved with all of these people?” Sky’s voice was higher than normal as he asked.

“Oh, just romantically involved? Or just overall involved? Cuz overall that’s probably all of them, but for just like devoted to them? I think I was with Mipha and Revali, but I’m now mostly devoted to Sidon in that way. But uh, we’re all in agreement with an open relationship, just, ya know, communication is important.”

Wild shrugged. Seeming unbothered by the shocked expressions from both of his companions.

“O-oh, okay. That makes more sense,” Warriors said, Sky elbowed him in the side at his stutter.

“I’m glad that you’re happy with all these people,” Wars smiled, slinging an arm around Wild’s shoulders once again.

Sky chuckled.

“Yes, I’m also happy for you Wild.”

-----

“My romance life? Really?”

Four sighed at the two heroes looking at him expectantly. He mumbled something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘these idiots I swear’. 

“Fine. I’ll tell you my love life if you’re so determined to find out.”

Four leaned back against the tree he had been sitting under, looking up at the branches for a moment. Sky and Warriors sat in front of him, Warriors looking quite excited to find out all the details. Sky just chuckled at the other’s antics then faced Four fully.

“I know that at one point I had what I thought was a crush on this girl I met on my third quest, but turns out I just wanted to be friends with her. Dot ended up being the one to date her,” Four laughed, shaking his head, then looked at the two eager heroes, “I’ve only ever had one partner and I don’t think I need more than him in my life. His name is Shadow and he’s a shit, but I love him.”

“Shadow, huh?” Warriors questioned, eyebrow raised with a smirk on his face, “So you’re into the bad boy type, the hard to get type.”

“About to be the ‘punch you in the face’ type.”

The sudden voice startled the two heroes as a newcomer appeared from around the back of the tree, looking very similar to Four if not for the dark purple hair, crimson eyes, and sharp toothed grin. Four sighed loudly, leaning against the tree again.

“Do you have to be so dramatic?”

“You love it, don’t even pretend otherwise.”

Warriors and Sky stared, slack-jawed at the new person who just appeared from seemingly thin-air. Sky caught Wars starting to reach for the knife in his boot and elbowed him. Hard. Warriors rubbed his side, a wounded look on his face when he shot Sky a look.

“So this is Shadow?”

Four nodded, sighing.

“Unfortunately.”

“Oh c’mon Rainbow, don’t be like that,” Shadow cried, dropping in front of Four and pouting up at him.

Four laughed, shaking his head and patting Shadow’s head. Sky smiled at the two, watching as they moved to sit next to each other, leaning on each other contentedly.

“You both seem happy,” Sky spoke.

“After everything, I think it’s only fair,” Four replied, grasping Shadow’s hand with a small smile. 

He never elaborated, but Sky figured it was a private matter and nodded to Wars that they should leave the two be. As the two heroes left, Sky saw Shadow kiss the back of Four’s hand before he disappeared once again, but Four seemed happy rather than upset. That was all that Sky wanted for his companions. 

------

“We already know the Old Man’s love life, Wars, do we really have to ask him?”

“Oh, c’mon Sky, you and I both know that there’s more to this story.”

Warriors was practically dragging Sky along up the path toward where Time was standing against a tree. He was watching them, smirking at their antics as they got closer. Sky was tempted to dig in his heels, just to make Wars fall and hopefully abandon the plan, but deep down he would admit that he was curious too. So he kept walking until they were face to face with Time.

“Okay, spill it Old Man,” Warriors started, hands on his hips, “You were young once and I know for a fact that you’ve got some other people who were on your radar in the past.”

“Ah, is that what this is about?” he asked, shaking his head with amusement, “Young heroes with nothing better to do than to pry into an old man’s history, eh?”

“If you don’t start talking, then I can start embarrassing you in front of everyone else in our party,” Warriors looked smug, Time’s face falling from amused to resigned.

“Fine you dumbass,” Time rolled his eye, sighing heavily, “There were a few when I was younger. Back during my first adventure, I accidentally got engaged to a Zora princess and-”

“I’m sorry, but how do you accidentally get engaged?” Sky asked, brow furrowed as he tried to figure out the answer to his question.

“You know, saving her from a monster. Regular hero stuff,” Time shrugged, “but anyway. Later on, I met Sheik and well…”

Time trailed off, looking away from the two heroes with a slight pink tint to his cheeks. Wars was smirking while Sky smiled at the sight.

“I knew it!” Wars yelled, poking Time in the chest, “You can’t hide anything from me ya lil shit! When you first met Sheik in my era all those years ago, I knew something was up! You couldn’t even look at ‘em!”

Time hid his face in his hands, the tips of his ears starting to turn red from the onslaught. Sky giggled, shaking his head.

“Look, okay, they were really cool and mysterious and I was young and dumb. I dunno what you want me to say.”

Warriors and Sky both laughed at the admission, causing Time to crumple to the ground and sit against the tree, face still hidden behind his hands. When they had recovered from the laughter, Sky knelt on the ground, sitting on his legs and facing Time.

“That’s not the end of this tale, is it.”

Time shook his head, finally removing his hands and showing off his pink embarrassed cheeks. 

“Zelda too. She just seemed so strong and amazing, I wanted to get to know her better, but things happened and then I felt like I couldn’t talk to her that way anymore.”

“That part I didn’t know,” Warriors stated, moving to sit next to Time with his back against the tree. He put an arm around Time’s shoulders and brought him close in a small hug.

“I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“It’s in the past,” Time said, a small smile on his face that wasn’t quite happy, “besides, I’m sure you have some ideas about the other ones.”

Warriors’ kind smile turned positively gleeful, his eyes lighting up as he retracted his hand from Time’s should to clap them together. Sky smiled too, the excitement of the captain positively infectious. Time shook his head.

“I ended up in the War of Eras sometime after the first fight with Cia I believe. I met quite a few people and yes, some of them I thought about getting closer to.”

“Names? Perhaps?” Warriors’ smile looked positively shit-eating.

“I think I met your Sheik and Impa first, Captain, if you don’t count Darunia and Ruto. I thought the same thing about your Sheik as I did my own, but it was obvious that they were not interested. Impa was pretty, but intimidating enough that my crush ended quite quickly.”

“Glad you didn’t act on your crush on Impa, cuz I would’ve fought you for her,” Warriors laughed, knocking a shoulder into Time’s shoulder, earning a chuckle.

“I was about to say,” Sky giggled.

“Anyway, I met Agitha and Midna next. I’ll admit, I thought that Agitha was cute and that her bugs were fascinating, but we never interacted much beyond that. And that’s the extent of my crushes when I was there.”

“Ah, I forgot that you didn’t meet the rest of the travelers after that,” Wars nodded, “I was gonna say that I thought you’d have crushes on Tetra and Marin, and potentially Ravio and Medli.”

“Ah, we’ve met them while together,” Time looked thoughtful, “I think you’d be right about some of them.”

“Oh?”

Time didn’t respond, getting up and starting to walk away. Warriors and Sky joined him, following behind him and waiting for an answer, only to see Time smiling at them both.

“I’m afraid that this is the end of our little chat,” Time laughed, breaking into a run.

Warriors tried to call after him, but there was no response. And he wouldn’t respond to any further prodding no matter how much the two heroes tried.

-------

Sky sighed, sitting next to Warriors on the log they had rolled over near the fire. The group had finally stopped for the night and he figured that now was the time to talk since everyone else was asleep.

“Successful prodding for information, hm?” Sky asked, leaning on a hand propped up by his knee. Warriors nodded.

“Legend has Ravio, Ralph, Marin. Twilight has Shad. Wind doesn’t seem interested in anyone at the moment. Hyrule also isn’t interested in anyone. Wild has several but is with Sidon. Four has Shadow. Time has Malon, which we both knew, but it was fun to poke at him a bit.”

“Heh, yeah that was pretty fun,” Sky leaned back, now propping himself up with his arms behind him, “What do we do with this newfound knowledge, Captain?”

At this, Warriors turned to face him, eyes alight with mischief. 

“Why, my dear Chosen Hero, we tease them of course.”

[rasp-passion-tea]

A small (big) update/catch-up post for anyone curious on where I've been and where I'll be:

*rides in on a skateboard with sunglasses and a mocktail in hand* yo

The past couple of years, I've been pretty M.I.A. I'd feel bad if I'd have any remaining folks who cared about me are left in the dark (as much as that anxious part of me will try to convince myself otherwise, I did build genuine connections on here 🥰). There also just might happen to be old inactive friends of mine who might randomly wonder where that random raspberry girl on tumblr ended up only to come back to see that she might've disappeared,,, or been sold on the dark web 🧐. There could also be any eventual new people to our small community to wonder that. So y’know what 🤔 I'll keep a little post up top so people can know (also, it'd be nice to give a speech once more to my imaginary audience c:)

With that said, I'll ramble about sum up under the cut:

So, where ya been, Rasp?

Well, to start things off, I'm doing really good :D looking back, I might've given people the vibe I was majorly depressed and that might've woried some people 🥲 it was never anything major, but I was still dealing with some teenage girl stuff, and this blog and ship and the fanbase I joined because of it became my mini safe spot. Simply put, I didn't have any sources to be able to properly word that to. I have that now and feel much more grounded and capable, and that's all I could've wanted years ago :)

You might've already guessed, but I've been busy lately, with adult stuff specifically. Yup, the fandoms resident little sister is grown now. She's working!! And she's in college!!! Wow!!1! I HAVE BASICALLY NO MORE FREE TIME!!!!!!!11! :DDD That, and a bunch of other reasons have made it harder to focus on one thing at a time, which is why I've been pretty scarce on this app, and online on general.

Soooo how ya been then, Rasp?

Uhhh... good question. Fine, I suppose 😗 kinda just existing right now. I have a feeling a lot of that has to do with me being unmediacted at the moment, so I haven't been able to do a lot of the things I love the past few years. Sooo... if you're wondering why I never posted those fics I teased in the past, that's why 🥲 I have a feeling I will one day, though. Just a matter of time. Speaking of, let's go into my last point:

Does that mean you're abandoning this account, Rasp?? ☹️

Mmm not quite. I've been popping in every couple of months, and I might keep doing that. But I definitely won't be as active as I used to. Couple reasons:

I mentioned a lot of reasons why, but I've been. Very busy 🥲 being online hasn't been at the forefront of my mind lately, so I've decided to not stress about it right now. Like I mentioned before, I'd like to come back to all this one day, but that's not now. Speaking of:

As much as I feel bad saying this, once the show ended, the ship and its fandom got really quiet. For me that makes it harder to participate in things if there's not a large community. I've joined other fandoms cuz of that, but not like this one... this fandom was special...... *looks off into the distance*

Bonus reason that ties into the last one: a lot of my friends are inactive with me not having any way to reach out, and that makes meeee very sadddd 😔 So if anyone I've met happens to see this:

...heyyy 🤪 I hope you got something out of this post,,,, like I said before, I'm unmedicated and have been very scatterbrained recently, but I tried to make this as cohesive as possible 😭 guess to end this off I'll link some other socials:

My side blog: rasp-passion-two

(Also pretty inactive on there, but if you wanna see what I've been into lately, that's the spot (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ I'm pretty sure I never ended up sharing it fsr lol)

My discord: rasp-passion tea#5877

(I'm not active in servers anymore cuz I think I grew out of using discord, but if you wanna chat? Let's chat (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ we could also do it on here but vsiwjsisvqisgwu)

...that's it lol. I think I'm kind of an enigma on here now, but thats alright. Uhhhh not sure how to "close" this off, so I guess I'll just say: if you read this whole thing?

🤍🖤🩶

^me rn

I'll see you all when I see you, but I'll always be here!!

~Tayah, AKA Rasp (and yes, it's pronounced "Razz" 😤👋🏽)

[silver-rings-and-rabbits]

Open Heart 2 - Chapter 19

Hopeful Hearts

Two weeks later, at the beginning of February, Matthew and his friends were relaxing in the residents lounge. They were putting on brave faces, but it was difficult to ignore the increasing urgency of the financial situation. Some doctors – like June – were already jumping ship, but there had been lay-offs already. Some interns had even already transferred.

“Looks like they finally stocked this place with some half-decent coffee,” Matthew sighed, watching it flow from the machine into his cup.

“Yeah, just in time for the hospital to close.”

“Jackie…”

“But if we go down, we go down in style.”

“Some of us do everything in style!”

“That’s true. Of course, Bryce isn’t one of those people but it’s worth remembering.”

“Hey, I’ve been looking for you guys!”

Kyra – still working part time admin – strolled into the lounge and flopped onto the couch as if she owned the place.

“Someone’s pleased with herself,” Bryce smirked. “What’s the news?”

“I suggest you check your emails.”

The doctors collectively took their phones from their pockets and refreshed their email page to be greeted with an intriguing subject line: You Are Formally Invited to Edenbrook’s Hopeful Hearts Gala! It detailed a formal gala hosted by Edenbrook to raise money for the hospital. With live music and the dress code announcing evening wear, they were going all out.

“Wait…how on earth did you put this together? It’s this coming Friday!”

“Yeah, I kind of wanted to have it on Valentine’s Day but it was a bit short notice and…honestly, there’s no time to waste.” Kyra shook her head. “I’ve spent all week on nothing else. Everything’s gone into planning, and I’ve already secured RSVPs from some of the richest people in Boston.”

Everyone exploded into excitement and hammered Kyra with more questions about how she had convinced the attendees, and who specifically was coming. She giggled and refused to spill the beans on that.

“How did you come up with the idea?” Matthew asked her.

“Actually, it was what you said about the kindness of strangers, the other week when we went out for gelato. It got me thinking about people in general and charity events…but also, I want to save the hospital as much as you guys. Edenbrook saved me so many times, the least I can do is try and save it.”

She looked oddly emotional. Bryce reached over to squeeze her hand.

“It’s OK, Kyra,” he said, but before she could start sobbing he gave her his cocky grin. “You can just admit this was a ploy to see me in a suit.”

“If I wanted to see that, I’d have just asked,” Kyra teased, playfully swatting him away.

“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” Matthew said. “It’s going to be great.”

****

His voice called out to Matthew later that day, even though he didn’t have a physical therapy appointment.

“What are you doing here? Is everything OK?”

“Everything’s fine,” Raf smiled reassuringly as he awkwardly held something behind his back. “I’ve been looking for you. I want to give you these.”

He brought a small tin out from behind his back and removed the lid to reveal it was full of chocolate-sprinkled candies, nestled in paper cups. Matthew knew Juliana’s handiwork when he saw it and already knew they would taste delicious.

“So what did I do to deserve this?” he asked, looking up at Raf, who was scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Kyra sent me an invite to the gala, so I checked with my doctors and they think it’s OK, sooo…I wanted to ask if you wanted to go together?”

He was oddly nervous, like a teenager asking out his crush for the first time. It was adorable.

“So this is your prom-posal?”

Raf blinked, then breathed out a laugh.

“I guess so, yeah.”

“Raf…” Matthew covered Raf’s hand on the tin with his own. “I would love to go to the dance with you.”

He took one of the chocolates from the wrapper and held it out to him, invitingly. Raf’s smile grew as he took it with his teeth.

“Thanks,” he grinned, handing the tin to Matthew. “But I should probably get going before someone tells you off for being inappropriate at work.”

“Worth it,” Matthew smirked, taking one of the brigadeiros for himself.

He got home from work early Friday afternoon and had a quick meal before getting into the shower. His roommates were arriving home too and they would spend the rest of the evening getting ready before the gala started seven. Sienna was taking Aurora as her plus one, Elijah was bringing Phoebe from across the hall, Bryce was taking Keiki…yes, the point of the gala was to raise money for the hospital but it didn’t mean they couldn’t have a damn good time doing it.

Matthew turned off the shower and pulled back the curtain to find Jackie brushing her teeth.

“You forgot to lock the door,” she said casually, as he yanked the curtain back in to place.

“C’mon, I’m naked here!”

“We’re doctors, we’ve all seen worse.”

“Ooh, are there any band-aids left? I need some for my shoes.”

Sienna rushed in and started rootling through the cupboard under the sink.

“Matthew, have you seen the pomade?” Elijah stopped to hover in the doorway.

“I last saw it on the coffee table,” Matthew said, poking his head round the shower curtain. “I don’t suppose someone could pass me a towel?”

“Call me when you’re done in the bathroom, Jackie, I need to do my hair.”

“Don’t you guys have your own rooms?” Matthew chuckled, making sure the towel was securely wrapped around himself before stepping out the shower and crossing the hall to his room to properly dry off and get ready.

“I’m gonna need your opinion on this one, Spooky,” he said to the chinchilla that had been snoozing on his bed. “Edenbrook needs to make a good impression tonight…and so do I for my date with Rafael.”

Their first official date since the attack, their first in almost a year. Matthew practically bounced with excitement as he searched through his closet and uncovered the tux he was looking for – black pants and bow-tie with a midnight-blue jacket. Sienna and Aurora had insisted they go shopping for the gala where he had been convinced to buy it. He hung it on the door before rubbing the towel over his hair until it fluffed out like a cloud, and brushing it into place. He was overdue for a haircut…still, Raf seemed to like it a little long.

“What do you think?” he asked Spooky, when he was fully dressed. She gave a little squeak, which was good enough for him. He had to admit, when he looked in the mirror, the tux looked very good on him.

The girls were still getting ready, with a playlist blaring from Sienna’s room. Matthew sat on the couch to wait for Raf when Elijah rolled up, wearing an olive green tux.

“The pomade was on the coffee table, under a bunch of magazines,” he said. “Speaking of hair, when did Bryce say he was getting here?”

“’Around six thirty, give or take’,” Matthew quoted, as the girls filed into the living room. “Hey, you guys look nice.”

Jackie had decided not to go shopping and wore the same dress she wore to Vegas. Aurora had a new dress, another red one, with one shoulder strap and an enticing leg slit. Sienna wore a strapless purple gown. Her hair was pinned off her face and it flowed down her back. She looked back at Matthew appreciatively.

“So do you. Told you that tux would be a great idea!”

“Those rich creeps won’t know what hit ‘em,” Jackie smirked, as she held up her phone to capture them all in a candid selfie as the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it…oh!”

Sienna had just answered the door to find Rafael in a black suit and a grey silk tie. Matthew beamed, his cheeks warmed: Raf was looking a million dollars and Matthew was dating him.

“Someone cleans up good,” Jackie said as Rafael joined them.

“I could say the same about you guys…especially Matthew.”

“This old thing?” Matthew joked, casually adjusting his tie, secretly thrilled Raf liked the tux.

“Old, new…you look fantastic. Ready to hit the prom?”

“Prom? You feeling alright, buddy?” Elijah said, looking at Raf suspiciously. Matthew laughed as he slid his arm around Raf’s waist.

“Relax, Elijah, it’s just an inside joke.”

“It’s a little like prom, in some ways. Heh, someone spiked the punch at my senior prom,” Sienna said, nostalgically.

“Two of the prom queen candidates got into a fight at my school, so at the beginning of my senior year they told us there would be no prom royalty this time around. I saw at least three girls crying about it,” Aurora said.

“Sheesh…I didn’t go to my prom and I’m starting to wonder what I missed out on!” Matthew said. Raf kissed his cheek.

“It won’t be as good as tonight will be,” he said, eyes sparkling. “I’ve got a cab outside, unless you all want to go together…?”

“Elijah’s going with Phoebe, and we’re still waiting for Bryce…anyone heard from him or Keiki?”

“He texted me ten minutes ago that he had to fix his hair and was on his way. You guys go ahead.”

“Come on,” Matthew said, taking Raf’s hand. “I want everyone to see me with you.”

“Agreed.” Raf looked him over appreciatively as they left the apartment. “I mean it. I can’t believe I get to walk in there with you on my arm.”

Pulling up outside the hospital wasn’t much different than any other evening, except for a considerably larger quantity of nice cars  in the parking lot. Walking up to the atrium doors was a different story, with soft fairy lights draped over the entrance and…

“Is that a red carpet?”

“They really are pulling out all the stops!”

The inside of the atrium had been transformed. Fairy lights – likely the Christmas decorations – were hung in garlands and the main lights had been lowered to mood lighting. Round tables covered in white table cloths and surrounded with velvet cushioned chairs filled the room, except for the far side where there was a bar, dance floor and a live band. Next to the main staircase was a photographer, where Ethan, Harper and Naveen were having their photo taken against a clear backdrop.

“Well, don’t you two look handsome!”

They turned to see Kyra walking towards them, looking stunning in a gold evening gown.

“How did you manage to put all this together so quickly?” Matthew asked as he greeted her with a hug.

“I called in just about every favour owed to me, plus a few more I made up,” Kyra giggled. “I’m so glad you both made it. It wouldn’t have been quite the same without you.”

“I’ve lost count of the number of times Edenbrook saved my life. I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Raf said. “By the way, is it possible to make donations online? Literally my entire family want to help. They’re not millionaires but…”

“Are you kidding? The admin team will take any donations you’re willing to offer!”

Kyra pointed them in the direction of the accounts team, who helped Raf email out donation details to his family members. Matthew sent them to Holly as well, knowing she would want to help, then the two of them looked around the room.

“Looks like our friends aren’t here yet,” Raf said. “What do you want to do in the meantime?”

“Let’s get our picture taken. Gotta have a memory of the big dance, right?”

Raf laughed as they walked over to the photographer and introduced themselves, Matthew as Dr Valentine and Raf described himself as ‘arm candy’.

“You know you’re so much more than that, right?” Matthew said as they stood on the spot they’d been directed to, and the photographer prepared his camera.

“I know,” Raf said. “Now smile. I have the perfect pose.”

He stood them both at an angle, himself behind Matthew, his arms wrapped around his waist.

“Oh, so we’re committing to this,” Matthew laughed, covering his hands.

The photographer looked slightly surprised at their goofy prom pose, but shrugged it off as he took a few pictures…then grinned when he saw the image.

“That’s actually very cute,” he said, taking a business card from his pocket and handing it to Matthew. “Photos should be available in around four-to-six weeks.”

Their friends had arrived whilst they had their picture taken, and stood in an excited cluster marvelling at the transformed atrium. It was picking up now, with doctors filing in dressed in their fanciest clothes ready to schmooze. Guests were displaying various levels of wealth: a woman walked past with her nose in the air wearing a huge diamond necklace. A man at the bar was in a non-descript suit, but wore a chunky gold watch and revealed a gold tooth when he laughed.

“Good to see you all here, young doctors,” Harper Emery said, striding towards them. She looked particularly glamorous in a glittering turquoise gown and silver jewellery. “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you of how important – critical, even – this gala is for Edenbrook. Boston’s most noteworthy philanthropists are here and we need you to convince them of the value you bring to the community.”

“Oh, I can attest to that personally,” Rafael said happily.

“So you want us to booze ‘em and schmooze ‘em,” Bryce said. Harper rolled her eyes but she was amused.

“Well, yes, but preferably less of the first one and more of the second one. Talk to people, connect with them, and remind them of Edenbrook’s value. Now, go do what you do best and make Edenbrook proud.” She beamed at them all and they beamed back in a way that vaguely reminded Matthew of her welcome speech at the beginning of last year. He had been intimidated by her then…and still kind of was now.

“Raf!” Elijah hissed, as soon as Harper’s back was turned. “I’ve just seen the manager of the Marauders baseball team!”

“Brianna Moser? Where?!”

Phoebe stood next to Elijah. Her dark, curly hair was half-up, and she wore a tight green dress to match him. Matthew chuckled at her baffled expression.

“Not a fan of baseball, I take it?”

“No, that’s something Elijah has for himself,” she said. “It’s good to meet you properly, by the way.”

“You too,” Matthew said, shaking her hand for good measure. “Thanks for coming out here.”

“I’m always up for a night out in a fancy dress. Maybe my favourite celebrity will turn up soon.”

Keiki was rolling her eyes as Sienna and Bryce were gawking at Mario Valez, an actor who was now a Channel 8 weatherman. However, Jackie was frowning at her phone.

“What’s wrong?” Matthew asked, and she sighed.

“As part of the investigation prompted by New York Times, they’ve published a list of all the doctors who accepted kickbacks from Panacea. Look.”

She shoved her phone into his hand and he scrolled through a very long list of hospitals, then a very long list of doctors, before he found Jackie’s name.

“Jackie, this is a shockingly long list. Like…they’re hardly going to blacklist every doctor on here, they’ll be short on staff otherwise.” Matthew peered at the figures next to the names. “Did someone really take three million dollars worth of kickbacks?”

Jackie snatched her phone back.

“It’s not like I’m expecting to be blacklisted, but I am expecting hospitals to be studying the list and treating doctors on it with suspicion. Who wants to hire someone who’ll sell out their patients?” She shook her head. “Don’t worry about me, what’s done is done. I said I’d face the consequences.”

She tucked her phone into her purse with a resigned air, then stood tall and strode towards a pair of rich guests. It was impressive how calmy she could face her future. There was something to be said for taking back control.

He turned back to Raf and touched his arm.

“Wanna come with me and convince your baseball team’s manager to donate to the hospital?”

“Heck yes! Just…give me a second not to be a fanboy,” Raf grinned. “Man, Lucas is gonna be so jealous if I get to talk to her…” He adjusted his collar, shook his hands out, and exhaled deeply. “OK, let’s go.”

Raf led Matthew to the bar, towards a brunette woman in a light blue gown who was sipping a glass of wine. She smiled politely as they approached.

“Ms Moser? My name’s Rafael Aveiro. I’m a big fan of the marauders.”

“It’s a pleasure, Mr Aveiro.”

“This season they’ve been…so great…”

Raf faltered as his need to be nice clashed against his truthful nature. Brianna Moser’s smile tightened a tiny bit.

“See, I know you’re lying. This season’s been a nightmare for everyone. I’m glad to meet fans but you won’t get around me with flattery.”

She turned back to the bar, taking a longer sip of wine. Matthew leaned over to talk to Rafael privately.

“Tell her what you really think.”

“That her team sucked?”

“Not in so many words, but you know more about baseball than I do. I don’t think many fans would be willing to have an honest discussion with her.”

An idea crossed Raf’s mind. He cleared his throat and returned to Brianna at the bar.

“What’s Pedro Cruz’s schedule like? He doesn’t seem to be pitching with as much strength as before.”

Brianna turned to him, her eyebrows raising in curiosity.

“You’ve noticed it too, huh? He says he’s following his nutrition and exercise program as usual but there’s definitely an underlying issue.”

“He’s played every game this season, maybe he’s just overexerted himself.”

“Possibly, but he is the pitcher. I’ll make sure he gets a check-up soon, and maybe some extra coaching for some of the others…”

Matthew smiled to himself as he watched Raf and Brianna trade ideas. Raf might have once worried about whether he could live up to Matthew (Matthew still highly doubted he was worth it) but no one else would have been able to sit with a major-league baseball manager and chat as naturally as he would with a work colleague. Just himself would always be enough.

“You have no idea how refreshing it is to hear an honest perspective, especially from a fan,” Brianna laughed. “How about a pair of season tickets, Mr Aveiro?”

Raf’s jaw dropped.

“Are you kidding? Uh, I mean…thank you so much!”

“How about you, sir?” Brianna asked Matthew, her eyes twinkling.

“Dr Valentine,” Matthew greeted, shaking her hand. “I’m more of a casual fan, but we appreciate anything you might be able to donate to the hospital.”

“After talking with your partner, it’s the least I can do.”

“Ms Moser, before you go…could I get a picture?”

Matthew snapped a photo of Raf and Brianna posed side-by-side before she made her way to the donations board. Raf was exerting particular effort into not leaping with excitement.

“Can you believe it? Season tickets! Oh man, that was the best advice you’ve ever given me…”

“I’m sure I’ve given you better advice than that,” Matthew laughed. “Just hide those tickets from Elijah, he’ll fight you for them. And don’t underestimate him just because of the wheelchair.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. Maybe he and I can come to an agreement. Lucas too…and would you like to see a game or two with me?”

“As long as you’re there, I wouldn’t miss it.”

Raf couldn’t wait to tell Elijah about the tickets. Matthew teamed up with Sienna to convince Mario Valez to make a donation. He spent several minutes waffling about his own achievements, and then another several minutes talking about a rivalry he had with Richard Hornsby from Channel 6. Apparently they had once auditioned for the same part in a musical and had got all the way to the final callback before they both lost to the third auditionee. Now they both worked for the same TV network and things hadn’t got much better.

“I think Richard Hornsby was invited. He may be making donations of his own…”

“At least ten grand I think I heard someone saying…?”

“Well, he’s not going to get one over me this time! I can donate just as much as him, if not more!”

Mario beetled off to make his sizeable donation, leaving Matthew and Sienna giggling behind him.

“Can you believe it? That would be like us constantly trying to one-up someone we met in our first year of med school!”

“I barely remember most people from my class. I guess being rich doesn’t always mean being smart.”

He spent another hour meeting and charming various philanthropists, some seemed to genuinely want to help, some just wanted the glory that came with being charitable, and some didn’t seem to even want to be there.

“Matthew!”

Ines was waving him over from where she was chatting with Baz. She looked lovely, a literal sunshine in a strapless yellow dress and her curls bouncing loose instead of being in her usual bun. Baz was in a grey suit with a deep purple tie. A small flower was pinned to his jacket for decoration.

“You look handsome! It’s good to see you here,” Inez said, greeting him with a hug as Baz clapped him on the back, cheerfully.

“It’s good to see you too. I feel like I don’t see enough of you these days. Is Zaid here too?”

“God, no,” Baz laughed. “Can you imagine Zaid getting dressed up to kiss ass?”

“He specifically took a double shift so he wouldn’t have to be here, but someone needed to be working with the interns anyway, so it’s all good.”

“I bet the interns don’t see it that way. Although Esme might. Sometimes I wonder if she prefers working with Zaid.”

“Don’t say that. Esme has a lot of respect for you. She was extremely worried when you were sick.”

“Weren’t we all,” Baz said. “Actually I’m glad to see you and Raf here together. You’re thriving after experiencing a tragedy. I love to see it.”

“Thanks, Baz,” Matthew said. A deep appreciation for Baz and Ines – similar to how he’d felt seeing his friends for the first time after he’d been cleared from the attack – was building inside and he worked to keep his face smooth. “It’s taken a lot to get here, and we’re still not totally a hundred percent. Sometimes we don’t sleep, I’ve only recently been able to work in the patient room, Raf still isn’t back to full strength—”

“Hey, hey,” Baz said quickly. “You both being here is something to be celebrated.”

“I saw you getting your photo taken earlier. No one could have guessed you were both so ill a few months ago,” Ines said. “I’m proud of you, for everything you’ve overcome. Don’t beat yourself up for not bouncing back straight away.”

“And now we get to convince rich people to keep our hospital open to help more people who get poisoned,” Baz said, then he winced. “I’m so sorry, was that in bad taste? I didn’t think.”

To Matthew’s own surprise, he laughed, dissolving the heavy atmosphere. Trust Baz to make things feel better with an accidental joke.

“I won’t report you for it,” he said. “But if you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna find Rafael.”

He bade them goodbye and started moving through the crowd, but caught sight of Aurora looking upset and had to stop.

“Hey, are you OK?”

Aurora rolled her eyes and indicated a quieter corner. Matthew nodded and followed her. She was marching past people, impressively fast considering the heels she was wearing. She didn’t stop when they got to the quiet spot, she started pacing around in agitation.

“It’s happening again!” she groaned. “I’ve been trying to talk up Edenbrook, even though I haven’t worked here for months, but that doesn’t mean I want it to close, and I am trying, but no matter what I do, people ask about my aunt! Three times in a row I start talking about the clinic and they divert the conversation to surgery and the great Dr Harper Emery! I’m sick of it and I don’t know what to do anymore!” Her eyes welled up and she rootled around in her purse. “Dammit, I don’t have any tissues.”

They walked down the corridor until they got to a bathroom to grab tissues. Matthew was hesitant to speak, not sure what Aurora wanted from him as she dabbed her eyes.

“Sorry,” she said after a minute. “It must seem like this is all I complain about.”

“You haven’t mentioned it happening at Kenmore…”

It did, but Tobias didn’t know who I was when he hired me so I’ve been able to shut it down. I guess tonight just reminded me that I’ll always be in my aunt’s shadow.”

“Aurora.”

They both jumped. Harper had found them.

“Aunt Harper? How did you…oh god, was I too loud at the gala just now?” Aurora looked slightly embarrassed but Harper didn’t seem angry. Concerned was a better word.

“You didn’t cause a major scene, but I heard the last part. I thought perhaps if you want to talk about it, now would be a good time…?”

Matthew made to leave, thinking it was a conversation best had in private, but Aurora held on to his arm; she needed moral support. He leaned against the wall, trying to appear casual as Aurora faced Harper.

“Before you say anything,” Harper said. “I want you to know that Tobias offered me a position at Kenmore if Edenbrook closed. I wanted to talk to you about it first.”

“Wait…really?”

“Yes. I pushed you into accepting Edenbrook, and I kept pushing you throughout your intern year, and it almost damaged our relationship. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again, and from what I overheard, I think I was right.” Harper raised an eyebrow. “You were so excited to be moving to Mass Kenmore, I couldn’t help but be extremely proud of you. You were right that you were offered the job because of your actions, not your name, and from what I’ve heard, you’ve been doing very well. So I am a little surprised that you’re letting your old insecurities get the better of you.”

“It’s not that simple, Aunt Harper,” Aurora protested, though she suddenly looked a tiny bit ashamed. “All through med school I’ve been ‘Dr Emery’s niece’, and I’ve just started to break out of it, but here I am being pushed back. I don’t expect you to understand.”

Looking stern but sympathetic, Harper walked over and put her hands on Aurora’s shoulder.

“Listen. You are many things, Aurora, but self-pitying is not one of them. Furthermore, I have it on good authority that you’re thriving at Kenmore and I couldn’t be more proud, so don’t let some old men make you believe otherwise. But…a mistake that I’ve made was not explaining that medicine always means working in someone else’s shadow.”

“What do you mean?” Aurora asked, and Matthew straightened up, properly listening again.

“Every doctor lists who they did their residency under on their resume. It gives an insight as to what kind of doctor they are. Maybe some people are interested in you right now because of the family name, but someday I may screw up huge. If that happened, would you keeping your job have anything to do with me?”

“Uh…I guess not?” Aurora answered like she was taking an exam.

“You’d have proven yourself as your own doctor, separate to me. But now that you work for Tobias, it will be true of his mistakes and successes. Even now, I meet doctors and I can tell who some of them have studied under, simply because of how they talk or work. Fair or not, your mentor’s  choices will reflect on you.”

“Ethan constantly worries about how his choices reflect on Naveen,” Matthew blurted. Harper started, like she’d momentarily forgotten he was there, then chuckled.

“That doesn’t surprise me one bit. And I’m sorry to say Matthew, you’ll be carrying the weight of Ethan’s decisions throughout your career.”

Matthew wasn’t too bothered by that prospect, but he couldn’t help feeling sorry for Esme. If what Harper said was true, he hadn’t given her the fairest start to her career.

“OK, but…what do I do with that now?” Aurora asked.

“You be the best doctor you can be and prove to them that you’re a standout on your own.”

“You’re one of the best doctors I know,” Matthew said. “If I hadn’t realised Ethan was hiding Naveen last year, you would have easily won the fellowship competition. I was the one who almost did chest compressions on a pulmonary embolism.”

“And I maintain that you’d have figured it out a second later,” Aurora said, with a small smile. “And I’m sorry, Aunt Harper. I don’t mean to sound like a broken record.”

“Don’t apologise. I’m sorry I kept pushing you too far last year.”

Harper opened her arms and Aurora hugged her tightly. It was the first time since he’d met them that they looked like aunt and niece.

“You know what?” Aurora said, as Harper released her. “You should take the job at Kenmore, if you want it. Realistically we probably wouldn’t work together that much…and we can tell people that you were hired because of me.”

Harper burst out laughing, throwing her head back.

“We really could, couldn’t we? I haven’t decided yet, but you’ll be the first to know.” She kissed Aurora’s cheek and smiled warmly at Matthew. “I have to get back to the gala so I’ll leave you two for now. Enjoy the rest of your night.”

She walked tall, back into the party. Aurora approached Matthew.

“Sorry for sort of dragging you into that,” she said, sheepishly.

“Don’t worry about it. Do you feel better? It felt like some of those things needed to be said.”

“Oh yes, I think it was a long time coming. But it’s given me a perspective I hadn’t considered before and now I kind of want to go back to the gala and talk to rich people.” She giggled. “Is that weird?”

“No, it’s why we’re here!” Matthew said. “What are we waiting for? You need to impress.”

The two of them walked into the gala, side-by-side, and Aurora was immediately pulled over by a group of donors. She was all big smiles and firm handshakes, but Matthew had had enough of schmoozing and just wanted to find Rafael. He couldn’t find him in the crowd, and he wasn’t at the bar either.

“Enjoying the night?”

Ethan was at the bar, looking weary. Matthew had barely seen him all night. Rubbing elbows with high society was one of Ethan’s least favourite hobbies, and he wore the same tux from last year’s Miami formal.

“I am. Are you?”

“Ask me when I get a drink.”

On cue the bartender slid a glass of whisky towards Ethan, who downed it. Matthew winced.

“How did it come to this, Matthew? We should be solving cases, not kissing the asses of smug idiots in bow ties.”

“It’s what we have to do if we want more cases.” Matthew wasn’t sure what else to say when Ethan had spent a good amount of time shooting down alternative ideas to bring in money.

“I always thought I’d do whatever it took to save lives…until I didn’t. My morals got in the way. But you managed to do whatever it takes whilst sticking as close to them as you could.”

“Just because someone’s rich, it doesn’t mean they don’t get sick. There’s nothing unethical about what we’re doing. The point of the gala is to help everyone.”

Ethan sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before ordering another whiskey.

“I suppose what’s really weighing on me is how I let Naveen down with my inaction. If I hadn’t been so stubborn, could I have actually helped the hospital? Would the situation be as dire as it is now? How do I tell Naveen his legacy fell apart because of me?”

“Well, I suppose you would say exactly that.”

Ethan paled as he faced his close friend, who had drifted over without either of them noticing. Naveen didn’t look angry or disappointed, in fact, he looked like someone who had been expecting the conversation.

“You know it’s rude to eavesdrop,” Ethan finally said.

“I could never resist gossip. Besides, it sounds like it concerns me,” Naveen said, strolling to Ethan’s other side and leaning against the bar. “Ethan, do you remember what I said when I first built the diagnostics team? That it was never about my legacy, or even about Edenbrook. It was only the mission.”

“For the people with nowhere else to go.”

“Precisely. I have every faith that you’ll carry on that legacy with you for the rest of your career, regardless of what happens to Edenbrook. As will you, Dr Valentine: your dedication to your patients is one of your greatest strengths.”

Matthew smiled a little at the compliment, and even Ethan seemed reassured.

“Well…I intend to be a thorn in the side of every stuck-up board director I know.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less, my friend.”

With a chuckle, the two older doctors hugged each other tightly.

“Ready to keep fighting the good fight?” Naveen asked.

“Lead the way. By the way, Matthew,” Ethan added. “Someone’s here for you.”

“What?”

Matthew turned to where Ethan had indicated, only to see Rafael standing there. He was fiddling with the end of his jacket sleeve, but when their eyes met he smiled and held out his hand.

“May I have this dance?”

“I’d love to…wait, are you sure you’re up for it?”

“As long as we take it at half-speed, I’ll be OK.”

“In that case there’s nothing I’d like more.”

Matthew took Raf’s hand and they walked over to the edge of the dance floor. They kept it simple, just swaying together on the spot.

“Sorry I just disappeared. I’ve been a pretty lacklustre prom date…” Matthew sighed.

“No, you’re great, and you have a duty here. Besides, I ran into some of my old paramedic friends and I’ve been catching up with them.”

“That’s great.” Matthew paused. “Do you miss them at all?”

“I miss having them around, but I don’t feel the need to go back to that kind of work, if that makes sense?”

“I get it. Maybe you can meet them for after-work drinks sometime.”

“Maybe. For now though…”

Raf pulled Matthew closer. Matthew smiled, sliding his arms around Raf’s neck and propping his head on his shoulder. This was precisely where he wanted to be, and he didn’t care if anyone might be staring at them.

He raised his head to gaze up at Raf and was surprised to find his eyes had gone distant.

“Hey.” He gently rested his hand on Raf’s cheek. “Everything alright?”

“Hm? Oh. Yes, sorry,” Raf said, blinking back into the room. “It’s just…I have these moments sometimes where I think about everything I’d have missed out on if things had gone…differently. Everything I’d have missed out on with you.”

“Rafael…”

Matthew reached up to kiss Rafael on the lips, softly and sweetly, hoping to keep him in the present moment. Raf rested his forehead against Matthew’s. His eyes were burning in an old, familiar way.

“Is there somewhere private we could go?” he asked. “I really want to be alone with just you right now.”

Thrilled excitement started building deep in Matthew’s stomach. He slipped his hand through Raf’s and led him away from the gala, down a nearby corridor. He passed several patient rooms until he found the first empty room: the on-call room.

“Where else but the hospital dorm?” Raf chuckled, looking around. “You don’t have a hospital RA likely to break up the fun, do you?”

“Well, we have Zaid, who is working a double shift…better safe than sorry.” Matthew quickly locked the door, then turned back to Raf, taking him in. His smart suit, his curly brown hair…his kind, gentle eyes that were looking at him eagerly…hungrily…

“Raf, kiss me already!”

“Gladly.”

It took steps for the two of them to meet in the middle of the room and start passionately kissing. Matthew ran his hands up Raf’s arms and down his chest as Raf’s hands tangled in his hair. They kissed with a passion that made Matthew’s toes curl and his cheeks flush. When they finally broke apart, they were both breathing hard.

“How does it still feel that amazing every time we do that?” Raf murmured.

“I was just wondering the same thing.”

Once the dam had broken, they couldn’t stop. Raf kissed him again and again, all the while pulling them down onto a bottom bunk where he suddenly slowed down to leave a long lingering kiss on Matthew’s lips.

“Mmm…I’ve missed this,” Matthew murmured.

“Believe me, I know exactly how you feel.” Raf cupped his face tenderly. “Before we go any further though…I know it’s been a long time so are you OK with this? I don’t want to pressure you into anything.”

Matthew took hold of Raf’s hands.

“I want to go all the way with you, as far as you’re willing. I didn’t bring you into a room full of beds for no reason,” he added with a wicked smirk.

“I hoped you might say that.”

Encouraged, Matthew started undoing Raf’s tie, but he was extremely flustered and couldn’t get his fingers to move right. Raf laughed, and took over with ease; within seconds he was stood over Matthew and his suit was on the floor. Matthew held his breath as he looked him over. Raf was slowly starting to build his body back, but Matthew’s attention was caught by the faded surgical scar that ran down the middle of his torso: his souvenir from the subway crash, the surgery that Matthew had joined to save his life. He reached out, stopping his fingers a few inches away from Rafael’s skin. Raf took his hand and placed it gently over the scar. His skin was warm.

“Does it ever bother you these days?” Matthew asked.

“It itches sometimes.”

Matthew stood up, keeping his hand on Raf’s stomach.  

“You look good…may I join you?”

And within seconds, Matthew’s tux had joined Raf’s suit on the floor and they were back to lying entangled on the bottom bunk. Seeing his scar had reminded Matthew of certain things, and he started kissing Raf with reckless abandon – his neck, his cheek, his shoulders, his stomach – as though he might disappear at any moment. That is, until Raf caught hold of his chin and looked him in the eye.

“Matthew…you know I’m not going anywhere, right?”

“Ssh,” Matthew grinned, blushing under Raf’s hand. “I’m appreciating you.”

“Well, I’m feeling very appreciated,” Raf sighed, sinking back onto the bed. “You’re incredible, you really are…”

Matthew wondered if he would ever stop feeling such a rush when Rafael complimented him. He hoped not.

They kissed again and again, and then their hands were going here, there and everywhere. Matthew particularly enjoyed driving Raf into a frenzy by his touch, then he saw stars as Raf returned the favour.

“I want all of you,” Raf moaned.

“You definitely have me,” Matthew gasped. “But make it last as long as you possibly can.”

“I’ll do my best…”

Raf’s body felt as strong and warm as Matthew remembered, and suddenly it was as if time didn’t exist. Whether it was their first time having sex or their twelfth time, it was not any less amazing. Raf’s touch was reverent as ever and Matthew enjoyed every minute.

Raf pulled him into his arms as he came down from his high and they cuddled close under the covers, still sweaty and breathing heavily. Raf pushed the hair off Matthew’s damp forehead with a grin.

“That was so worth the wait.”

“It really was.”

Raf propped himself up on one arm, gazing at Matthew thoughtfully, still idly playing with his hair.

“Matthew, I want to thank you.”

“What, for that?”

“Not quite what I was thinking,” Raf chuckled. “More like…I just want to thank you for being a part of my life. You’re really important to me and I…well, I just wanted you to know that. Sorry if that’s corny,” he added, shyly. “Guess the whole near-death experience thing made me…sentimental.” He lay back down, resting his head on Matthew’s chest and closing his eyes. Matthew breathed in his scent; he had to take a minute to steady himself.

“Maybe I’m getting sentimental as well, but I’m glad you’re a part of my life too. You’ve been there for me every step of the way and I can’t tell you how good it feels to have you in my corner.”

Raf looked up at him with a smile. His eyes were suspiciously shiny…and then he wiped at them with a sniff.

“Are you crying?”

“A little. But in a good way, I promise!”

There was so much that Matthew wanted to say if his throat weren’t tight with his own emotions. He slipped his hand through Rafael’s and buried his face in his hair, appreciating him more than ever.

****

They casually slipped through the doors to rejoin the gala. No one seemed to have noticed that they had slipped away.

“Do you mind if I sit a while?” Raf said. “I should probably take it easy after that.”

“No problem. Can I get you a drink?”

“If they have iced tea that would be great. Nothing alcoholic.”

Raf settled into a chair at an empty table and Matthew headed to the bar where he ordered an iced tea and a lemonade. Jackie sidled up to him as he waited.

“Hey you.”

“Hey yourself. You seem to be having fun.”

“I’m doing my best. I’m trying to pay back what I did with Panaea…but I’m also trying to have fun where I can. Speaking of…” her eyes travelled over his slightly rumpled clothes and scruffy hair that was still slightly damp along the hairline. “You got laid, didn’t you?”

“Jackie!”

But Matthew’s smile told Jackie all she needed to know.

“It’s about time!” she crowed.

“Well don’t talk about it here…”

“Hey, don’t be embarrassed! I think it’s great for you!”

“Quiet now!” Matthew sniggered as he accepted drinks from the bartender and brought them back to where Rafael was sat. He had been found by Bryce, Sienna and Keiki who had been tearing up the dancefloor.

“Hey guys. If I’d known you were coming, I’d have got more drinks!”

“Don’t worry, we can help ourselves,” Bryce said. “You guys looked happy earlier. Though we couldn’t find you for ages.” He raised his eyebrows. “Getting reacquainted, were we?”

“Eeew, guys,” Keiki groaned. She looked very pretty in a knee-length pink dress. “I thought grown-ups were sensible or something.”

“Can you blame me?” Raf grinned as Matthew sat down beside him.

“C’mon, I had to deal with comments from Jackie just now,” Matthew groaned. “Can’t a guy just enjoy his night?”

“I’m not judging,” Sienna giggled, as they all sat down at the table. “Does this mean I won’t need headphones tonight?”

“Eeeew!”

“Oh my god!”

Matthew thumped his forehead on the table as Keiki cringed into her hands. Raf laughed in delight, Bryce and Sienna laughed along with him. Matthew found himself grinning when he raised his head…but when he turned to Sienna, he noticed her eyeliner was smudged.

“Are you OK?” he asked, gently touching her arm as Bryce apologised to Keiki for the mental scars. “You look like you’ve been crying?”

“I’m OK now,” she said. “I, um, actually got talking to some of the donors about the diagnostics team and how they tried to save you guys after the attack, though I didn’t mention it was an attack. It won some sympathy and people were willing to donate, but I started thinking about Danny and kind of…spiralled. If we’d be here together, if he were still alive…or if he’d be disappointed I was using the attack for clout.”

“You weren’t using it for clout, you were talking about diagnostic work,” Mathew said, rubbing her back. “Take it from me, I’ll accept anything good that comes from the attack. If it gets more donations…so be it. It’s better than being pointless. And I think Danny would be glad to help out somehow.”

“I just hope you’re right,” Sienna sighed, leaning into him for a hug. “I miss him. Some days I think I’m doing good and moving forward, but other days all I can think about is ‘what if’.”

“Grief does that to you.” Matthew murmured. “It’ll come in waves. I don’t think you ever really ‘get over it’, you just figure out how to ride the waves.”

“Mind if I join you guys?” Kyra asked, approaching their table. She had a small notebook in her hands.

“Not at all. How’s the night going?”

Bryce, Raf and Keiki were pulled from their conversation and looked at Kyra eagerly, but the sadness behind her eyes told them she didn’t have the answer they wanted.

“It’s…not enough. We’ve raised an impressive amount but it’s just not enough.”

“…How much?”

“We’ll be able to pay off most of the hospital’s debts, but there won’t be much left to keep the hospital running after that. Departments will be closed. Honestly, you guys should consider your options.” Her eyes welled up. “I’m so sorry. I thought I could help…”

“You did help,” Bryce said firmly. “You put this whole thing together in the space of two weeks. You got the rich folk of Boston to pay our bills. That’s more than what I did.”

Sienna put her arms around Kyra reassuringly.

“Bryce is right…mostly. If we hadn’t had this party, we’d just be closing sooner. It’s not over until it’s over.”

Kyra wiped her eyes and hugged Sienna back.

“What happens if your hospital closes? Aren’t you guys still having health check-ups here?” Keiki asked.

Raf had gone quiet, but now he reached over to take Matthew’s hand.

“Dr Mirani said that when the time came he’d pass my case to Dr Carrick at Mass Kenmore.”

“My medical file has already been passed to the Kenmore oncology department,” Kyra said. “I’ll still be here accounting though. Until Edenbrook kicks me out, of course.” It was a rather weak attempt at a joke, but they smiled all the same. Matthew squeezed Raf’s hand.

“The hospital’s not closing yet,” he said. “Can we…not worry about it for the rest of tonight?”

“Heh. Sure we can.”

Matthew leaned closer.

“So…you’re sleeping over at mine after prom, right?”

Raf’s eyes lit up.

“Just try and stop me.”

Carriages were at midnight, and as the rich were chauffeured away in shiny cars, Matthew and co shuffled off the T and back to the apartment. Raf called guest privileges to use the bathroom first, and then there was another scrap between Matthew and the girls as they all wanted to use the toilet and brush their teeth, and the three girls wanted to take their make-up off. Elijah was OK; he was spending the night at Phoebe’s apartment.

As Raf waited in Matthew’s room, he folded his suit carefully over the desk chair, looking around with interest. It felt like ages since he had actually spent the night here, and he took in all the little differences. A bigger selection of work clothes hung in the wardrobe where the door had been left open. An abstract red, gold and blue painting was carefully hung on the wall. The stack of medical textbooks on the desk was taller, the notes were more frenzied. And yet the sketchbook on the floor, the family photos on the desk, and the cozy glow of the bedside lamp were exactly the same.

“At least when you move to the North End you won’t be sharing a bathroom,” Matthew sighed, finally coming into the bedroom and starting to hang up his tux.

“I thought I might be sharing a bathroom sometimes,” Raf said pointedly. Matthew chuckled as they slid into bed. They cuddled up close, the long night taking its toll. Matthew focused on the warmth of Raf’s skin.

“Hey, Matthew?”

Raf looked seconds away from falling asleep.

“I had so much more fun tonight than I did at my actual prom.”

“I’m glad,” Matthew said, content, as he kissed Raf goodnight.

His eyes were closing too, but as Raf drifted off, he thought about prom. He had nothing to compare the gala to, but Raf probably would have gone to prom with Sora. Matthew thought about what Raf had just said to him, the look in his eyes when they danced together, and the way Raf had wept when Matthew told him how glad he was to have Raf in his life. He hadn’t given Sora a second thought since they’d got back together, but as Raf slept with his head on his shoulder, Matthew couldn’t help feeling a smug sense of satisfaction.

Tags: @sazanes @rafasgirl23415 @ceruleansnake0