#and most of all i hate that he fired izzie !

[idk-i-just-really-like-tsc]

OH MY GOD RICHARD THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU!!! Alex did not “make a mistake” !! He chose his family !! stop being a little bitch !

[jakedustry]

𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 - 𝐉𝐄𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐎𝐍𝐖𝐎𝐎

You can’t put out fire with fire. But you can combine them, and watch the place burn down in front of your eyes. The demon king realized that when he watched his son dethrone him. He should have never sent him on the mission in the first place. If he hadn’t, he could have kept his son’s fire under control. 

IN WHICH Wonwoo spends most of his time in his room, watching the world around from the comfort of his window. He likes it that way. It wasn’t like the outer world would be something he’d like to see any other way anyway. However, when his dad—the demon king—decides it’s time for him to go out, he can’t say anything in protest. 

As Wonwoo wanders through the mountains to reach the Angel’s territory, the little flame you leave behind yourself catches his attention, and you know you found someone interesting when even the flame you fire into his face doesn’t make him turn around and get to where he came from. 

── .✦

genre– Fluff, Smut

warnings/contains– fire fairy!reader, demon prince!wonwoo, side character death, Wonwoo has horns, tail and wings, some sexual jokes, Wonwoo is compared to a horny teen, drinking, mythical creatures, demons and angels rivalry, love at first sight, forced proximity, lots of plot (especially regarding the demons), arranged marriage (unsuccessful), dom!reader mostly, sub!wonwoo mostly, handjob, unprotected sex, kinda horn play/sensitivity play, they do it once with their friends sleeping on the other side of the cave they are in, oral (f!receiving), face sitting I might have forgotten some

word count– 29.2k

playlist

↪ izzy adds... okay this was so fun. I really enjoyed the world building and playing around the powers and backstory of the demons. I'm so happy to be a part of this collab with my friends and so so so thankful to them. I also want to say a special thank you to @beomiracles because she was the one who organized most of it and helped us all unite. You did so well with it serene <33 This story is barely proofread, so sorry for any mistakes you might come across

Does the world burn because of people, or is it people who burn because of the world they live in? 

Wonwoo thinks about this question daily as he stares out of his window, watching the demons outside scorch the ground beneath their feet. But he knows they aren’t the only ones causing all the mess—the world above, teeming with other creatures, is far worse.

He couldn’t say he has met many of them—he wasn’t even sure if he could say he met any of them (he refused to count the brief eye contact exchange he made with one of the vampires years ago when he was a child)—but those are the things he’s been taught. “We aren’t bad like everyone portrays us,” he recalls his nanny saying, the pause in her words still etched in his memory. “Some of us, at least.” 

A sharp knock on the door pulls Wonwoo from his thoughts. He turns away from the children outside, who are tossing little flames at each other. “Come in!” He calls, and it takes barely a second before the door opens and he meets eyes with the same lady that raised him. “Misoon,” he smiles, standing up. She exchanges a smile with him, hesitantly closing the door behind herself. 

Misoon has served the demon king for as long as Wonwoo can remember. Her face is lined with wrinkles, yet he has never thought of her as old. She is wise, having lived more lifetimes than he could imagine. She has always been there—teaching him how to read, speak, and harness the basics of his powers—everything his parents never cared to be part of. A part of him hates that he sees her as a mother figure, especially since his own mother is long gone, but he has learned to accept it. So, he’s learnt to read her, and he knew that frown on her face—full of worry, wouldn’t bring anything good. 

“Your father will summon you in a few minutes, Sir,” she informs him, taking a few steps closer. “Don’t call me that,” he frowns at the sudden address. “You’ve changed my diapers before, I think it’s only fair to call me by my name.” 

“I already promised to drop the Royal Highness, but I can’t afford speaking so casually to you, Prince.” 

It’s like a reminder to him that she isn’t actually his close family member, but one of his father’s workers, who only happens to care for him. Wonwoo sighs and nods. “Alright then. So, what was it about my father calling for me?” He asks, and the hesitation he catches in Misoon’s eyes makes him worried. “I’m not exactly sure what happened—but I overheard a conversation His Majesty had with one of the knights. They want you to go out with them.” 

“Out?” There is a mixture of feelings in Wonwoo’s eyes as he glances out of his window again. “To do what exactly? From what I know, there isn’t anything happening in the kingdom that would need the knights involved.” 

“Outside the kingdom, Prince. We are talking about the real Aethera.” Suddenly, her worries made sense. The world above was a mystery to him, and he isn’t sure it’s one he wants to unravel. The demon king never mentioned anything about wanting him to help out, prove himself, or even take any responsibilities on, so it was more than confusing to him. It always seemed like he didn’t care, like he’d be happier not having a son rather than having to deal with Wonwoo, so why start caring now? 

“Are you sure?” 

“Positive,” she nods, and he notices her small horns have shrunk. He bites the inside of his cheek, nodding in return.

“Then I guess I’ll have to see it out.” 

“No, Prince, I actually think you shouldn’t–” 

A loud knock on the door echoes through the room. 

“Come in!” Wonwoo yells, turning his attention to the door. The sigh Misoon lets out goes by unnoticed. 

Just as she said, minutes later, Wonwoo is kneeling in the grand hall before his father, listening to him speak. 

“There is time for everyone,” the king starts, clearing his throat. Wonwoo’s eyes flicker up to him for a brief second before he glances back down, almost staring a hole into the floor beneath him. Thanks to Misoon he knew what the conversation was going to be about, but he hadn’t expected a lesson with it as well. “You’re 27 now. It’s way past yours.” Wonwoo stiffens at the veiled insult but holds his tongue. “So, as a way to get back on track and prove yourself worth it—this throne for example—I want you to co-lead a mission.” 

Prove his worth? Did he need to do that? Did he have to take over the kingdom at some point and rule the demons like his father has? He knew it had to come once, but a part of him always thought that the later, the better. He loved the freedom he had now—the ability to exist without the weight of others’ expectations.

A part of him wanted to turn around and run away when he listened to the real reason why he was going but he knew he couldn’t. “You’ll become a true man after that and will be able to find a wife for yourself. It was about time, after all.” 

“Of course,” Wonwoo mumbles through gritted teeth, realizing that maybe Misoon’s worries weren’t so out of place. “Perfect,” his father’s voice comes out strong, and before Wonwoo can look up, there are already two knights on each of his sides, waiting for him to get up so they could escort him out. 

The sudden change is something Wonwoo wasn’t fond of. 

Just last week, his days looked simple. Eat, study, eat, stay in his room, eat, sleep. But now, for some reason, everyone needed to keep an eye on him. He could barely find a free minute to run off to his room and relax before another one of the knights or teachers showed up, insisting on having to teach him something. 

Now, his day looked something more like this; Workout, fight, study, eat, fight, workout, fight, snack, sleep. 

“You’re holding it wrong,” the knight grumbles, walking over to fix Wonwoo’s grip. “Your Highness, it’s important that you learn as much as you can before we leave. When we reach the mountains, it’ll be too late. We can’t keep an eye on the angels and you on top of that.” 

It felt humbling to say the least. Wonwoo was an adult, he should have learnt how to hold a sword a long time ago, not to mention his power control. 

“Noted,” it comes out more raspy than he’d want to, catching the older male off guard. He doesn’t say anything, though, and a part of Wonwoo feels relieved. 

Later that day, when Wonwoo sits alone in the large dining room and his eyes land on the clock that marks already 3pm, he is surprised to see another person walk in, a portion of the same lunch he has in his hands. He feels even more conflicted when the blond boy sits down opposite him. Didn’t he find himself impolite for not bothering with saying at least a greeting to his prince before invading his space? 

Wonwoo clears his throat, loud enough to catch the boy’s attention. Their eyes meet, but all he gets is a smile in return before the blond continues eating. The prince wasn’t sure what was going on through the boy’s head, but he wasn’t one to mention anything, so he simply returned to his lunch. 

It wasn’t for another 3 days before he saw him again. His blond locks cover his eyes, and he looks kind of funny looking up at the other men in armor, but Wonwoo can’t doubt his skills, not after he saw him fight. 

“Oh! It’s you again!” His eyes land on Wonwoo, causing the taller male to widen his eyes. “From the dining room? We had a late lunch together!” He sounds offended when Wonwoo doesn’t automatically act like they’ve been friends for years. He opens his mouth to answer but before he can do so, one of the knights nudges the blond’s shoulder, informing him this isn’t how he should speak to his prince. 

And he’s right. Had Wonwoo been anything like his father, the young boy wouldn’t have a tongue by now. 

“Don’t mind him, Your Highness. Chan just wants to get along with everyone.” Wonwoo turns his head to the side upon hearing the voice, slightly nodding when he notices another knight. If his memory recalls correctly he introduced himself as Seokmin before. “He means no harm, though.” 

There is a sigh that leaves his lips when he notices the blond in a headlock, laughing with another two boys he can’t remember the names of at the moment. Seokmin looks confused upon that for a second until he looks into Wonwoo’s eyes, a smile appearing on his lips as he realizes the exhale is nothing but wishful. 

Spending weeks with a group of men who either think with their dicks or swords was something Wonwoo never imagined doing. Yet, he noticed some of their traits growing onto him as well. 

He wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad thing. 

A lot of people told him he’s gotten more talkative and louder in the past few days, and it always sounded like a compliment, but the feeling of turning into a person he didn’t even know always made his smile fade away. He’d much rather have people avoiding him because they find him weird than them praising him for being someone he isn’t. 

“Hey, prince!” Chan’s laugh fills Wonwoo’s ears, making him turn around. “Are you coming with us? We want to grab some drinks since it’s the last day before the mission,” he informs him, and Wonwoo thinks about it for a bit. Seokmin told him about it earlier, and he said he won’t go but now that he saw how excited Chan was for it, he didn’t want to miss it. 

“Alright.” 

There’s a quiet “Yes!” that leaves Chan’s lips and it makes Wonwoo chuckle. 

“You can go first. I still need to take care of some things but I’ll come,” he assured him, watching him walk away before he turned on his heel, walking through the castle to get to the library for his last lesson with the king’s advisor. 

He had mixed feelings about the situation, honestly. He was glad he wouldn’t need to have his head buried in the pile of books while listening to older men talk his ears off about topics he had no interest in anymore but a part of him knew he’ll miss it in the future nonetheless. Once he’d come back with the knights, his whole world will be changed and he’ll probably want to come back to the somehow-easy times where all he had to care about was making sure he wouldn’t fall asleep while listening to these lessons. 

So, for the first and last time, he walked to his lesson with a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, ready for anything else he still had to learn. 

It’s safe to say Chan is drunk when Wonwoo finally arrives into the pub right outside the castle and joins the table full of knights. He tries his best to ignore the pairs of eyes on him and orders a beer for himself immediately, which follows a loud chant from the others. 

“I thought you weren’t going to join us, Your Highness,” Seokmin comments with a teasing smirk on his face. Wonwoo rolls his eyes at that but a smile creeps up his face. “Wonwoo is fine,” he proclaims, and it catches the younger man off guard. “I don’t think I can–” 

“It’s fine. I promise,” Wonwoo assures him before he can finish, looking around the table. “You are the only one who still calls me by my title. Everyone else dropped it a long time ago, so you should too.” He smiles, nodding. “Okay, then, Wonwoo.” 

A round of drinks goes by only to be met with a new one, and soon enough, the group supposed to protect all of the demons and their empire is drunk in a local pub, singing loudly and yelling over each other. It’s a funny sight for sure. 

“You!” Chan points at the prince, making him blink confusedly. “How come you don’t have a wife yet?” Another one of the knights—Jisung—joins in and everyone’s eyes land on the tall male. “Uhm,” he starts, trying to think of any valid reason. “We keep waiting for you to find someone so you can take over the throne but it feels like you don’t take any initiative to do so!” 

“I haven’t found the right person,” Wonwoo lies. He’s never cared about finding a wife for himself, nor taking over the throne for the matter. Deep down he knew it was something he should think about every second of his day, he took lectures on how to rule a kingdom for reasons after all, but for now, it seemed like something so far beyond his capabilities he’d rather not bother himself with it. 

“I call bullshit,” Seokmin says, nudging the prince’s shoulder. “Surely you hadn’t been single this whole time. That’d just be a disgrace to your little royal–” The owner interrupts him before he can finish his sentence, placing another round of drinks on their table. Wonwoo feels relieved. He’d rather not discuss his (barely existent) sexual journey with them. 

“Okay, I think that’s enough,” Wonwoo laughs it off, finding an escape route. “We still need some sleep before tomorrow. Last round.” There are a few complaints from the others at first, but in the end Wonwoo is the one with the last word, calling it a night when everyone finishes their drink. 

There is a weird feeling that creeps up Wonwoo’s shoulders as he walks through the castle hallways to reach his room, but he tries to pay it little to no attention. Surely it’s all the alcohol he had tonight and nothing else. That’s what he thinks until he senses the presence of another human being. But before he can do anything about it, figure out who it is or why they’ve been following him, two arms wrap around him, dragging him aside into one of the rooms. 

“For fucks sake, you scared the shit out of me, Misoon!” Wonwoo yells when he finally sets his eyes on the person, and she immediately covers his mouth to quiet him down. She has to stand on her tiptoes to reach him, but she is willing to do that if it means getting him to shut up. His words are muffled against her palm but she makes out the words to be something like “What’s going on?” 

She sighs, letting her hand fall back to her side. Wonwoo notices the worry in her eyes first and then the few new wrinkles on her face. He wouldn’t dare to point it out, but she didn’t look the best. 

“Why are we here?” He asks when she doesn’t answer his first question, looking around. It is her room, he realizes. It’s been so long since he’s last been here that he almost didn’t recognize it. “So I know we are alone,” she proclaims, walking past him to sit in her chair. His eyes follow her, but his feet stay glued to the floor, not moving an inch. 

“There have been…weird things happening,” she explains when she sees the confused look on Wonwoo’s face. “Your father is full of secrets, Prince, and I’m not only scared for myself, but mainly for you.” Now he laughs. “Scared? For me?” However, the expression on her face shows she doesn’t find it as funny as he does. He swallows hard, trying to read her and somehow make sense of what is happening. He shakes his head before he takes a seat on her bed. It’s small, the whole room is, and it makes him feel bad. After everything she’s done for his family this is how the king repays her? 

“There are things you don’t know about. Stuff His Majesty decided to bury so deep only he knows about them.” 

“Look, Misoon, I know my father has his issues but no one is perfect. We’ve actually…gotten closer since he decided to put me on this mission. I don’t want to ruin that based on nothing.” 

She closes her mouth again when he says that, trying to think of something, anything, that could convince him. It seemed impossible though when she had no evidence she could hold onto. “Just promise me you’ll be careful? I’m not sure why he decided to send you on this mission, but I know it can’t be anything good.” 

Wonwoo smiles but doesn’t say anything else. He stands up again, walking over to the door. With one last look at her, the words “Good night” leave his lips before he exists, falling asleep as soon as his back hits the comfort of his bed. 

Drinking the night before was a bad idea. They all realized it as they walked through the Darkwood forest, the birds chipping around them making their heads dizzy. How were they supposed to fight anyone like this? 

“Alright, let’s settle down for some time,” Seokmin commands, turning around to face the knights. “I hate saying this but we are not ready right now,” he sighs and without any complaints, the group of men gets comfortable in the middle of the forest. Thankfully, this wasn’t a battle they could win in a single day anyway. Only the walk to the mountains would take almost the whole day, not to mention the stairway to heaven. Climbing up was going to take some time. No one would mind the few extra hours they had to spend outside. 

“My head hurts,” Chan complains, resting his back against one of the trees. “Because you drank twice as much as everyone else,” Jisung comments, slightly kicking Chan’s leg as he walks past him. Wonwoo laughs as the blond raises his hand as if to fight but Jisung isn’t paying him any attention by then. “Here, have this,” he offers him his water bottle. “The sooner you sober up, the sooner we can go.” 

“You and your stupid royal blood,” Chan mumbles, taking the bottle from him. “Why are you not drunk? Is it some super ability you royals have? Not feeling the alcohol in your blood the next day?” The prince laughs at his questions again, shaking his head as he takes a seat beside him. “I’m just lucky I guess.” 

“I don’t get why we can’t just fly over there, it would be way quicker.” The complaint catches Wonwoo’s attention, making him look up to see Seokmin talking with one of the younger knights. “Is that a real question?” Seokmin raises an eyebrow confusedly, giving him another chance to prove he isn’t stupid. “Yes, it is.” 

“Oh god,” Chan sighs. “Do you think he’ll slap him?” Now it’s Wonwoo who is confused. “Why would he do that?” Chan shrugs. “Min slaps me when I have stupid questions. But the more I think about it, the more I’m realizing it might just be because he doesn’t like me,” he mumbles the last part, hoping he is wrong once again. “That’s not it,” Wonwoo assures him. “I actually think it’s because he does like you. He cares, otherwise he wouldn’t get so worked up. Look,” he points at the two guys, watching as Seokmin only gives a brief answer before walking away from him, deciding he isn’t going to deal with him. 

“Did he not listen at all when we planned this whole thing?” Seokmin asks, frustrated as he joins the two guys next to the tree. “You probably tired him so much he slept through it,” Chan jokes, ignoring the dead stare Min sends his way. “Even if he did sleep through it all, isn’t it basic knowledge? If we were to fly up to them, they’d notice us and we’d lose our only advantage.” 

“No need to explain that to us, you made sure we wouldn’t sleep when everything was explained,” Wonwoo laughs, again. It’s weird how many times he’s done that around them. After he reached his teenage years and was forced to learn about the world and all the rules of the demon kingdom, there wasn’t really much to laugh about. It was a nice change. And he appreciated his new friends for it. 

Seokmin rolls his eyes, taking out an old wrist watch from his pocket to see the time. “We should get going again soon. Find water and then get out of here so we are out of the forest before night comes.” Wonwoo nods, standing up and clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Okay, enough lazing around! We need to find a water source and then we’ll get back on track. Now!” He insists when no one moves at first and everyone listens. It’s not like they’d have a different choice when their prince tells them to do something. 

Chan whines, Wonwoo’s words ringing in his head. He was never going to drink again. 

Except for when they get back victorious. 

“Why did I sign up for this again?” Seokmin sighs when he gets back to others. It took forever to find the water source and the sun was already setting down when they all met again. Their plan couldn’t be more off. At least he knew all his knights were sobered up now. 

“Because you love action?” Wonwoo suggests. “And you’re way too loyal to the kingdom.” He can’t disagree, so he simply hums, ordering everyone to start moving. They only get to take a few steps before Wonwoo stops, holding onto Seokmin’s arm to make him halt too. There’s a questioning look on his face, but he doesn’t explain anything, simply looking around the forest, trying to find something. 

“Someone’s out there,” he finally says and within seconds, Seokmin has his sword out. “What’s going on?” The whispers coming from their men don’t make it any easier for them to locate the sounds but that doesn’t stop them. 

“Whose territory is this, Jisung?” Seokmin asks, getting a response immediately. “Werewolves mostly, sir.” The prince and him share a look before looking back at their men. “We don’t want to mess up our relationship with them, everyone understands?!” When they all agree, he continues. “Our time is ticking, so let’s get out of here as fast as we can! No one, and I repeat, no one, will do anything to piss them off! Let’s avoid them,” he glances at the taller man next to him again and Wonwoo nods. “That’s right! Let’s go!” He joins, encouraging them to get going again. 

When they get out of the Darkwood forest, it’s the middle of the night. 

Wonwoo isn’t sure if he’s ever experienced a sunrise before. Down, back at the kingdom, there wasn’t a place he could watch them from, so he only heard about them from stories. He’s never got the hype about them. However, as he walked beside his friends now, watching the clear sky gain colors and the sun come up, he understood it all. It was truly beautiful. He regretted not being outside sooner. Who knew what else he was missing out on. 

“Okay, guys, we trained for this,” Seokmin turns to all of the guys, his feet covered in snow as he stands on the bottom of the stairway to heaven. The stairs are visibly old, and Wonwoo wonders how long it’s been since anyone stepped on them when he sees the dust and rats running around. “Whoever is up there waiting for us—if there is anyone, they won’t see it coming.” 

It goes as planned, every step of their way is peaceful, almost too perfect. Wonwoo follows last, guarding the men from behind while Seokmin and Chan lead the way. He knew the stairs weren’t used by angels but still, something was fishy about how easily it all seemed. 

It’s only when they reach the top that Wonwoo finally senses the presence of another creature. “Wait, guys,” he tries to warn them, stop everyone and tell them to prepare their swords, but instead, he watches a light flash in front of his eyes, slicing through the air. It takes less than a second, just one move and before anyone can react, a light sword cuts through a demon’s flesh. 

Wonwoo’s eyes widen and his whole body freezes. Hadn’t it been for Seokmin, yelling at everyone to focus while he fires towards the light, who knows how it’d all end up. Who knows if Wonwoo would be able to react at all. 

Thankfully, he manages to shake himself off, ignoring Jisung’s body falling to the ground and lighting up a fire with his hand, trying to calculate the speed in which the light—likely an angel—moves in order to fire at the perfect time. He watches the men in the front take out their swords, looking around themselves, waiting for it to strike again while the guys in the back create a fire in their hands just like Wonwoo. 

Wonwoo’s eyes quickly follow all the movements around him, making sure not to hit anyone else as he shoots right in front of Seokmin’s face. Gasps are heard from the guys around but it doesn’t change the fact he hits the right spot, causing the light to turn back into an angel. A wave of relief washes over Wonwoo when the angel falls to the ground but to his luck, the battle has only started. And the war they started by this attack is near. 

Soon enough, before the demons get to collect themselves or mourn their lost knight, there is another light flashing in front of their eyes. 

“I believe we haven’t met yet.” The soft voice catches Wonwoo’s attention. There are three men standing in front of his men and who knows how many are hiding in the back, waiting for the best time to attack. “No, we certainly haven’t,” Wonwoo settles for the safe choice—talk. Whatever gives him time to think of a way out of this mess. “Yoon Jeonghan,” the angel in the front introduces himself, politely reaching his hand towards the demons. Wonwoo doesn’t shake his hand though, and neither does Seokmin. 

“Jeon Wonwoo,” the prince decides to introduce himself, creating a smile on Jeonghan’s face. “Your Highness,” he bows slightly but it’s obviously a sign of mockery. “What brings you here today?” — “I hope…” a chuckle leaves his lips, as if he was finding amusement in the whole situation. “You didn’t come here to fight us, did you?” 

Wonwoo hesitates, briefly exchanging a glance with Seokmin. “No,” he answers through gritted teeth. “But you attacked one of ours.” Jeonghan’s eyes wander to the lifeless body under him. “I believe we are even,” he shrugs and Wonwoo notices how he didn’t pay the tiniest of attention to the fallen angel yet. “Even though…” he starts again with a smirk on his face. “I don’t like being even.” 

Before Wonwoo can figure out what those words mean, another light flashes in front of him and the next thing he hears is a gasp from one of his men. He quickly realizes fighting someone who moves at the speed of light is nearly impossible. Bodies fall to the ground right beside him and it feels like he is unable to move again. Unable to help, save his friends. 

“Prince, careful!” It’s Chan’s voice that brings him out of the trance, making him take a step back, which almost causes him to fall down the stairs. “Behind you, Chan!” Wonwoo yells right back as he takes out his sword, creating a fire in his empty hand. “Prince, I need you to listen to me!” He briefly glances at Seokmin as he swings his sword towards one of the angels that appeared in front of him. “Focus on your powers, search deep in your core!” 

“Now isn’t the best time to give me extra lessons!” Wonwoo yells back as he listens to the comical instructions. “It’s exactly the time!” Min disagrees, trying to help out one of the younger demons. “Do as I say!” He wants to question it, argue with him at least, but he decides to do as he is told, taking a deep breath as he follows. “Imagine lighting your sword on fire!” Any angel nearby could see in his expression that Wonwoo wasn’t confident in what he was doing, and with powers, the key factor was confidence. Believing you could do whatever you wished for. 

But there have been weirder orders he received before, some he questioned more. 

So, even though Wonwoo doesn’t have the greatest faith in himself, he believes in Seokmin. 

“Woah,” he breathes out in shock, his eyes tracing as the sword ignites in flames. He smirks, gazing into his opponents eyes before he steps forward, cutting through the angel’s body in one swift motion. “How did you–” 

“Now is not the time for that!” Seokmin interrupts him, glancing over at Chan to see how he is holding up. “We need to get out of here immediately!” 

Wonwoo’s eyes never worked so much, so fast as they do now. He scans his surroundings, noticing Jeonghan on the top just watching the scene under him with pleasure. It annoys him how above-everyone he thinks he is. But he needs to focus on something else right now, so he counts the heads. There are eight demons still standing strong against who knows how many angels. He sees fifteen for now, but it’d be foolish to think more couldn’t show up any second. 

“Okay, everyone, I’ll keep them busy but you need to leave, now!” Seokmin tries to argue with Wonwoo’s command but it barely reaches the prince’s ears as he practically pushes them down, refusing to hear it out. He swings his sword again when one of the angels gets too close, glaring at the others so they know he means it. 

It takes no time for the angels to surround him, but it takes even less time for Wonwoo to push his wings out and take them down with one swift sweep. If Jeonghan wanted a show, Wonwoo was going to end it before the plot twist. 

“Is he–” Chan starts, glancing back to see the situation as he runs down the stairs with the others, trying to get as far away as possible before they’d resolve to flying away. “Don’t look back,” Seokmin orders, trying not to do so himself. “He’ll manage. He has to.” 

It’s obvious that they are both worried but there is nothing they can do. Now, it’s up to Wonwoo if he finally understands his powers. 

Jeonghan scoffs, taking a step forward to get closer. Wonwoo doesn’t let him, swinging his right wing right in front of him to stop him before he returns it to its original position in order to keep the other angels glued to the ground. “Don’t take another step or else–” 

“Or else what?” He isn’t scared, not a bit. If anything, Han feels intrigued, looking forward to what the prince might show him. “I’ve lived much longer than you did, prince. Fought many more battles.” Wonwoo swallows, carefully observing the situation he is in. He needs a solution, and he needs it now. 

Then it hits him. Imagine lighting your sword on fire! What if he did that with something else? 

He focuses again, giving all his attention into his wings. 

“I see,” Jeonghan mumbles, unable to take his eyes off the demon in front of him as his wings slowly turn from black to a deep, warm red and his eyes catch the same color. “You take a lot after your father.” 

The comment goes unnoticed by Wonwoo but it doesn’t matter. At the moment, he wouldn’t be able to make sense out of it anyway. 

“You can run after your little friends,” Jeonghan encourages him with a slight movement of his head. “If you can get out of this state, that is.” 

Wonwoo isn’t sure how long it takes for him to push his wings back in, but he certainly doesn’t like how much the angel seems to know about him. It felt as if he knew exactly what Wonwoo was capable of before he even did. It made him wonder just how much he didn’t know himself or his powers. 

“You what?!” Wonwoo closes his eyes, tired of all the yelling that has been happening for the past half hour. Sure, they weren’t able to fulfill their mission, but was it that important? Was it all worth the lives it took? Honestly, he didn’t think so. 

“We weren’t prepared well enough,” Seokmin mutters through gritted teeth as he glances at the king, lowering his head immediately again when their eyes meet. “I underestimated the situation. I should have taken on more knights. Maybe then…” 

“Fighting on their territory couldn’t go well for us no matter what,” Chan steps in, ignoring his elders’ warning looks and whispers. “With all due respect, Your Majesty, we lost that battle before we even took out our swords.” 

“Get them out of here,” the king commands, and before his personal guards can move to escort the knights out of the area, Seokmin and Chan are already on their feet, leaving as soon as they can. They have done their best. 

“Why are you still here?” The king questions with a frown when his eyes land on his son, who hasn’t moved a bit since he came. Wonwoo looks up, taking a deep breath before he stands up, rethinking his words. “That order wasn’t for me.” 

“You think that?” 

“I know.” 

The king nods just so slightly, glancing at his guards to let them know they can come back to their spots. “You need to go back.” This time, it is an order for him, one he can’t argue with. “They’ve made more mess than what’s worth a few heads you managed to cut this time. We need them to suffer.” We? Wonwoo frowns. It’s more than obvious this whole plan comes from the king’s head, no one else’s, so why is he pretending now that it’d be beneficial for more people? 

“Is that all?” Wonwoo asks after a second thought, unbothered with how impudent he sounds. He catches the shock on the king’s face even though he shakes it off shortly after, sending his son away with one move of his hand. 

“So?” Chan asks immediately when the door closes behind the prince, catching him off guard. He chuckles, glancing at the closed door before he walks away with his two friends by his side. He tells them the absurd order he received and watches as the smiles disappear off their faces. Honestly, it isn’t looking good for Wonwoo, or any of the knights that will be forced to go on the mission with him. 

But, the king’s order is slightly different than what they thought. It isn’t the trained knights that should take on the mission and fight for their king, it’s only the prince who is allowed to go. Everyone knows it’s fishy, and that the king definitely has some ulterior motives, but there is nothing they can do about it. 

And so, after a few days, Wonwoo sets off alone this time, tracing through the dark forest with no hope of returning back home. 

The snow on the side of the mountain still feels the same, and Wonwoo can’t focus on anything but how he wishes to have the same snow down at the kingdom. He is sure the kids would love it just as much. 

But for now, before figuring out how to transfer snow from here to the kingdom, he needs to perfect his powers. He had spoken to Seokmin about what happened before, asked him about how he knew he was capable of something like that, and if he knew what happened when he tried to light his wings on fire. 

“Power strength comes from beliefs. If you believe you can do it, it will happen,” Seokmin explained, drawing something on the board while Wonwoo and Chan sat at the nearest table, listening to everything he had to say. “Then, of course, status also has its values.” — “The moment you explained to me before, when your vision darkened and you felt physical pain on your wings when you tried to apply your powers on them, is something I wouldn’t be able to do. I haven’t seen the king do anything similar, either,” he stopped for a second and turned around to face his two friends. “Honestly, I’m not sure what it was or what you did at that moment, but it might be useful in the future.” 

“I’ll go to the castle library later and see if I can find anything similar,” Wonwoo proclaimed and Seokmin nodded. “No matter if you find anything or not, I believe the best you can do now is try it again. Try as many times as you need until you achieve it again and can see what you’re capable of.” 

Wonwoo wasn’t able to find anything during his search party in the library but it didn’t discourage him from following Seokmin’s advice. If he needed to repeat what he did a thousand times just to get the answers he craved, he would. 

He ends up settling near the stairway to heaven. He knows it’s risky, any of the angels could walk down any minute and he wouldn’t stand a chance, but the truth is, it’s dark under the lamp. 

It feels weird, like something has changed when he watches his wings. They look longer, wider and even though their color has turned back to black, for some reason they don’t feel like they are. But before he can ponder upon it more, his thoughts get interrupted by a little flame fired in his face. 

Wonwoo quickly blinks in shock, waving his hand in front of his face to blow away the smoke. “What the–” Another flame. This time, fired at his right wing. “Chan, if you followed me here–” His left wing receives the next hit. Before he can take another hit, he hides his wings again, annoyed as he narrows his eyes to see, expecting to meet his younger friend. 

“You’re not…” the shock on his face is obvious when his eyes set on a woman, one he doesn’t recognize. “Hands up.” He obeys, carefully examining the person in front of him. He blinks a few times as he takes the image of you in his eyes, trying to figure out what you were doing. 

“Who are you?” You ask, aiming at his left leg this time in case he would want to move. “As far as I know, demons aren’t exactly welcomed here.” You take a step forward, watching as his eyes move from one side to another, probably trying to find an escape route. “Who are you?” You question again, this time harsher. 

His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows and when he doesn’t give you an answer immediately, you fire at his face again. “Hey!” He complains, but your fire doesn’t leave any bruises. You doubt if he even feels any pain from it. “Wonwoo! My name is Jeon Wonwoo!” He admits when he notices another flame appearing in your hand. 

You scoff, “Of course you are.” 

Before he can ask what that’s supposed to mean, you come closer to him, grabbing his right horn and pulling him to the ground. “Your little game is over. You’re coming with me.” 

Wonwoo hisses when you touch his horn, his eyes closing on instinct. The fire before was annoying, that’s for sure, but this hurt like hell, so much that without having to apply much force, you brought him to his knees. “Wait, you–” You tug on his horn, making him look up at you and he shuts up again. “Stay quiet and I might be gentle,” you smile innocently and he gulps, trying to stay as calm as possible as he gazes into your eyes, a part of him finding pleasure in the way you touch him. This wasn’t going to end well.

You feel his stares on you the whole way back to your village, debating if you should slap him out of it or ignore him. Eventually, you decide on the latter, just hoping the fire ropes you created to tie him up would be enough to hold him. 

“What is that?” You turn around when you hear one of the guards’ voices behind you, tugging Wonwoo with yourself. “A demon I found in the mountains,” you explain, glancing up at him. You love how even though you have to look up at him, it feels like you have the upper hand now. “Go on, introduce yourself,” you encourage him proudly. 

When Wonwoo’s name leaves his lips, the guard’s expression changes. His eyes widen before narrowing again as he looks the demon up and down, stopping at the fire ropes you made. “How long will those last?” 

“A few hours, I don’t have enough power to keep it alive for longer.” He nods, calling over another guard. Wonwoo watches everything with caution, trying to remember the village layout as best as he can. “Take him to the cage in the back. We’ll inform your fiancé.” You hesitate for a second before nodding and turning around, refusing to give them enough time to examine your face. 

“Who was–” 

“It’s better you don’t ask many questions,” you interrupt him, not sparing him a glance. You notice a few people looking out of their window to see what’s going on but you don’t look at them either. Involving as little people as possible is the key right now. 

“Is everyone here a fire fairy?” He turns his head towards you, watching the people around. You don’t answer him but he figures out the answer is no when he catches a glimpse of a little boy showing off to his friends by creating a snowflake in his hand. “Where are you taking me?” No answer again. “Why do you know who I am? And why did those guards know who I am?” 

You sigh when he doesn’t give up, stopping in the middle of the road. “How about you shut up, follow me, and then ask questions. If you don’t piss people off, maybe they’ll give you answers.” 

“What people?” You glare at him and he closes his mouth again. He doesn’t say anything afterwards and you learn to appreciate the silence. You wouldn’t have guessed the demon prince known for his closed-off attitude could get on your nerves so much, but sometimes, we can’t see into the future. 

That’s something Wonwoo proves to you a lot in the upcoming days. 

Wonwoo grunts when you practically push him inside one of the cages, locking the door behind him before he can turn around. He sighs and steps closer, grabbing the metal bars and leaning forward to prove how tired he is. You scoff at his action, taking a step back. “Care to give me my answers now?” 

You stay quiet, smirking which creates a grin on his face. “So this is how you want to play?” 

“I don’t need to play anything,” you shake your head with a smile. “As far as I know, you’re the one locked up.” 

There is a hint of amusement behind his smile as he watches you, unable to take his eyes off you. “Who are you?” He questions. You stay still for a second, trying to read him the best you can before you decide to share your name with him, figuring out there is nothing he can do with that information. “And this fiancé of yours?” He continues his questionnaire, making you roll your eyes at the hint of mockery in his voice, almost as if he didn’t believe you could have a partner. “Wait and see,” you shrug, unbothered. 

He continues asking you one question after another, and you eventually give up, sharing with him whatever he asks for. You explain how the angels approached you before and asked for a small help with keeping their territory safe, how Jeonghan himself explained to the selected group of people what happened that morning in heaven, but you leave out the fact you know about his new found powers—the ones he still doesn’t know how to get under control yet. 

“How many people know about me?” You open your mouth to brush him off and tell him you won’t disclose that information but before you can do so, another fairy interrupts you. “I think that’s enough bonding for now, don’t you?” You turn your head towards the voice, your lips curling up into a smile when you land your eyes on the ice prince. “Your highness,” you bow slightly and it makes him chuckle as he comes up to you, cupping your cheeks in his hands and making you look up. “Hi, love,” he smiles, pressing his lips on yours. 

Wonwoo coughs to interrupt you and you scoff. “Prince Wonwoo himself,” you introduce your prisoner and the proud grin on your fiancé’s face makes you smile. “Great job, darling,” he praises you, quickly glancing at the two guards following him to dismiss them. “For sure, darling,” Wonwoo mocks, barely sparing the prince a glance. You don’t react to his comment, ignoring him and letting the fairy prince speak instead. 

“My name is Minghao,” he introduces himself with a slight bow. Wonwoo hesitates for a second before bowing too, deciding to declare respect to the prince even though he is currently keeping him imprisoned. “I hope she didn’t cause you too much discomfort while bringing you here, that would be very unfortunate,” he quickly glances your way at the mention of you before returning his full attention to the demon. 

Wonwoo frowns at how painfully fake Minghao sounds but he doesn’t say anything. He knows if the situation was turned around he wouldn’t behave much differently. 

“She took great care of me,” he grins, slowly looking down at the bars he is still holding onto for the effect before speaking again. “But ever since I came to the village my experience wasn’t the greatest,” he tries to shake with the bars to prove his point but it only makes the fairy prince chuckle. 

“I’m sorry about that, but there is nothing more I can do for you. I fear this is how you’ll have to stay for a while. At least until Jeonghan—or any other angel—comes to take over.” 

“So you plan on giving me up to the angels? I see.” 

Minghao hums, and it tools like he is thinking about something. “I mean, there isn’t much more to do with you, is there?” When he looks at Wonwoo again there is a hint of amusement in his eyes and a smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, as if he knew he has already won. It pisses Wonwoo off. 

“I guess not,” he mumbles through gritted teeth. 

“Love, will you look after him for now? I’ll talk to Jun and ask him to visit the angels as soon as possible. The less people know about him the better.” You nod even though you can’t say you’d look forward to spending more time with the demon. It’s not exactly like you have a choice anyway. If a prince orders you something, you listen without complaining. Even if it’s your own future husband. “I’ll see you later at dinner,” he says, kissing your forehead before leaving again. 

Wonwoo notices he doesn’t look at you while doing so, though. He is looking at him. 

Wonwoo sits on the ground, his back pressed against the iron fence while you sit on a chair near the cage, a book in your hands. 

“What is it about?” He wonders, his arms resting on his knees as he turns his head towards you. “Stuff,” you respond, flipping to another page. “Like?” He prompts. “Whatever you want to think it’s about,” you say, not paying much attention to him as your eyes scan the words on the page. “Hm,” he hums and when you finally think you might get a break from him, he speaks up again. “So you’re reading about a fairy being fucked by a demon.” 

“What?!” You turn your head his way immediately, slamming the book shut in embarrassment. However, the smirk you see on his face turns your flusteredness into frustration. You close your eyes, tilting your head slightly as you try to calm yourself down. He chuckles at your reaction, a part of him glad he is locked behind the bars when he sees you close your fist. He knows if he was outside with you at the moment, you would have punched him. 

“You said you’re reading whatever I think you’re reading,” he shrugs, trying to make it seem like he doesn’t fear you a bit. You sigh, shaking your head at him. 

“So is it not about that?” He asks, laughing when you glare at him. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he raises his hands in defence, unable to constrain his laugh. 

“Who would have thought a prince could be such an idiot?” It’s you giving him a question this time, and even though it’s supposed to offend him, he smiles. “Who would have thought fairies—who I’ve been taught are these innocent creatures—would have the soul to lock up an actually innocent demon?” 

“You attacked the angels for no reason,” you remind him. “And you went there again, this time alone for some reason, to do what exactly?” Wonwoo doesn’t answer, knowing he can’t argue with that. “I was simply following orders.” 

“Alone?” You ask, raising your eyebrow at him. “A bit weird, don’t you think so?” 

“Maybe,” he shrugs. “But you don’t question the king.” You hum, the silence that follows louder than you’d like. 

“You know that was a suicide mission, right?” You finally speak again. He nods. “I’m not as stupid as you want me to be.” — “I’m also not as weak as you want me to be, though. Don’t underestimate me.” He brings a smile back to your face and it causes his lips to curl up too. 

“If you had just slightly over average mana, those fire ropes I made wouldn’t have stopped you from breaking away.” 

“Maybe I just didn’t want to run away.” 

You sigh, the smile still on your lips as you shake your head at him. You get up from your chair, throwing the book to him. “I’ll be back later. Use up your time and learn something so the angels don’t crush you immediately.” You catch his grin as he looks down at the book and when he raises his head to say something, you walk away with a slight wave of your hand. 

Wonwoo picks up the book you left him, his fingers tracing the cover as he reads the title. Fire guide and everything that comes with responsibility, advanced learners. He chuckles. “A story about a fairy and demon would have been more interesting,” he mumbles but still opens the book to see what’s inside. 

You stare at your plate, frowning at the ham and rice. The same thing you’ve been eating the whole week. “How is he doing?” You look up upon hearing your fiancé’s voice and place your fork aside again. “As well as a prisoner can, I assume.” Minghao nods, looking at you from across the table. “Jun promised to set off after dinner, Jeonghan should be here the first thing in the morning,” he informs you, a heavy sigh following right after. “When all of this is done, we can finally resume the wedding plans. Everyone is pushing me to have a descendant as soon as possible.” 

“Yes, of course,” you mumble with a nod. “Whatever the people need.” He calls out your name, a hint of pity in eyes as he looks at you. “I know this isn’t exactly what you wanted but I’m trying.” 

“I know,” you assure him, forcing a smile. “I was never meant to be out in the world anyway.” 

“I promise we’ll figure it out,” he tries to make you feel better, you know he is doing his best, but you can’t help but hate it. The only dream you ever had was to fight. Be useful and prove yourself to the other fairies, prove that just because you were a woman you didn’t need to revolve your life around a family. However, all your dreams came crashing down when you learnt what everyone planned for your life without asking you. 

You were barely five when you met Minghao for the first time. You were confused as to why the prince came down to the training room but didn’t ask many questions, not wanting to be rude. It was your dad who encouraged you to talk to the prince in the first place, but you’re sure it was all the king’s plan from the beginning. It made sense, the royal possessing ice powers and the daughter of the king’s personal knight who showed signs of great control over her powers since she was little. It was a great deal for both parties. 

At least until you showed interest in wanting to lead your life yourself and follow in your dad’s footsteps, offering to be the prince’s personal knight. It sounded foolish to everyone. Minghao never thought so, though. He was the only one cheering you on in your plans, convincing everyone you would do great if they just gave you the chance, even coming to the king to tell him how it would make the two of you closer and make your relationship easier. Eventually, thanks to his help, you managed to get what you always wanted. 

But ever since you became an adult, the public became more and more demanding about what your relationship with the prince should look like and everyone started doubting you again. They wanted you closed inside the fairies’ palace, away from the world outside to do nothing but raise the prince’s children. 

Minghao tried to be supportive as much as he could but once the pressure came down on his back too, he always chose to listen to the king’s orders, following what the people wanted. It was a miracle that you still got to keep your position as the royal knight, honestly. You knew how fragile your place was. One misstep and the next thing you’d know, you’d be locked in between those very four walls you were occupying right now. 

“I’m full,” you proclaim, not waiting for the maid to come pick up your plate or your fiancé to say anything before you stand up. You glance at him, feeling bad when you see the apologetic look he gives you. You want to be by his side, support him on his way to become the fairy king, but you can’t put him before yourself. “I’m going to train and stay outside for a while. No need to wait for me, you can go to bed before I come back.” 

You watch him open his mouth as he wants to argue with you, maybe even ask you to stay inside, but he closes his mouth again when he realizes what he was about to do. He knows he can’t do that to you. Not after everyone else already asked you to do that. 

“Be careful,” is what he settles for at the end and you nod to him. “Good night,” you smile, leaving the dining room and going straight to the outer gym. 

Swinging your sword around and attacking the wooden enemies was surprisingly more helpful than you thought. At first you just wanted to get out of the room for some fresh air, but when you picked up the weapon, you felt a lot more at ease than when you left the palace. This was your true calling, what you were meant to do. You couldn’t let anyone take it from you. 

You weren’t sure what time it was when you left the area, wandering through the village. You were jealous of everyone sleeping peacefully in the houses you passed. But you also felt a different emotion towards them—one just as strong. Anger. They were the cause of your problems in the first place. Hadn’t it been for their opinions on your and the prince’s situation, you might have been in the greatest relationship ever. 

You sigh as you reach the last house, looking up at the stars. You wondered what they thought of you, what they had planned for you. A part of you hoped that it was different from what the villagers intended. 

“Am I being dramatic?” You ask quietly, biting your bottom lip as you look for the answer in the night sky. You kick one of the rocks under your feet and look down again, taking one more lap around. 

“What are you doing?” You ask carefully, tilting your head to see better. You’re unsure why you decided to come here. You were already on your way back to the palace when you looked back, and as if he was pulling you towards him on purpose, you ended up going to check on your prisoner. 

“Is that the book?” You blink a few times to make sure you’re seeing things right, chuckling when you comprehend the situation happening in front of you. Wonwoo used his powers to create a small fire lamp once it has gotten dark and has been reading your book. 

He flinches, the fire going off as he loses focus. “Fuck, you scared me,” he mumbles when he turns his head to you. He lights up the fire lamp again and presses his back against the metal bars, closing the book to focus his full attention on you. “Why are you awake, and here?” 

“‘Cause,” you mumble, walking closer to him casually. “Let me guess, troubles in paradise?” He laughs, making you roll your eyes. “He can’t be any good for you.” 

“Because you know me and him so well, right,” you scoff at his comment, debating why you decided to come here again. You already regretted it. “I don’t need to know you or him. I have eyes.” You don’t say anything and he takes it as his cue to continue talking. “This is all I’ve been doing my whole life. Watching people. I might not know the reason,  but you don’t have the spark in your eyes when you look at him.” 

“I do,” you argue but your voice sounds broken, as if he had hit a weak spot. “You want to,” he corrects. “You don’t.” 

“You don’t know me,” you remind him but he only chuckles. “Fine, then let me get to know you.” 

“Why?” You frown, trying to read his face. It didn’t make sense. His attentiveness, attempts to get closer to you, and neither did his calmness. He was locked up, knowing you were going to bring him to the angels the next day, so why did he look so unbothered by it? You couldn’t quite figure out what was going on through his head. 

“We have the whole night ahead of us,” he shrugs. “And it doesn’t look like you’d want to go to sleep anytime soon.” You stay quiet, trying to think about what to do. He is right, you don’t want to go back to the palace and fall asleep on the bed next to your fiancé, but was staying here and spending the night talking to the person you captured just mare hours ago a good idea? 

“Fine,” you agree, prompting him to start. “If you don’t bore me to death with your talking then I might stay and tell you something about myself too.” 

You soon get reminded the world isn’t just black and white. Wonwoo tells you about why they allegedly went to attack the angels in the first place, about the monster attacks that have been happening in the past months. You recall those. You had looked into them with a few of the other knights and after talking to a few people, you came to the conclusion that it was demons behind those attacks. 

Turns out, you were wrong all along. According to him, it was the angels who caused all those troubles, framing the demons out of spite and nothing more. That was the first step to starting a war, and the demon king didn’t let the change pass by him, immediately planning their next move with his knights. 

“It wasn’t for nothing.” 

“I see,” you nod even though you’re not certain starting a fight like this has been the best idea. 

“I don’t think fighting was necessary, no battles ever are really, but I couldn’t just disobey the king’s orders. None of the guys could,” he mumbles, sighing when he remembers all the bodies the mission caused them to leave behind. 

“You’re right,” you smile slightly. “I get that more than you’d think, actually.” Wonwoo hums, questioning what you mean with his eyes. 

And just like that, it ends up being you talking his ears off next. You tell him about your fiancé, how your parents set you two up when you were little and about how even though you adore Minghao, you have been questioning everything lately. 

“You should keep fighting,” he comments, grabbing your book again. He stares at the title, brushing off the dirt on it before handing it to you through the bars. “You have free will, do what you want to do.” 

“That’s the thing, I don’t have the option to just do what I want,” you argue. “I thought I did, that I could satisfy everyone and still do what feels right, but they exclude each other. I can’t be a mother to the kids everyone wants me to have and fight in the front lines at the same time.” 

“Why not?” 

“It’s not what the people believe in.” 

“Then change their beliefs.” He says it so casually, as if it was easy to do. But it’s far from that. 

“As you see, I’m a prince and yet, I’m being the only one in the front line at the same time.” You’re not sure if it was his attempt to make a joke out of his situation, but it makes you chuckle anyway. “I should take you as my role model then.” 

“Oh, for sure,” his laugh fills your ears and you watch him with a smile on your face. For some reason, sitting here with him in the middle of the night, talking about things you never even mentioned to your fiancé feels…right. It’s casual, neither of you expecting anything else from the other one. It’s a nice chance for once. 

As you continue chatting about nothing and everything, you feel your heart sinking the more time passes. The more time you spend with him, the worse you feel about what’s supposed to happen when the sun rises again. You begin to think you don’t want to let go of him. 

“I honestly didn’t think I could get so close to them,” Wonwoo says, a smile spread across his lips as he talks about his friends. “I guess it’s true that the right people always come into your life when you least expect it.” It sounds cliché and it makes you roll your eyes when you see the look he gives you, but deep down you’re thinking the same thing. A part of you always hoped for someone like that, and now that you were slowly giving up on them, Wonwoo showed up, with his stupid dark eyes that seemed to read you perfectly. 

“I’m sorry, Won,” you whisper when you avert your gaze from him and gaze at the night sky. He hums confusedly, scanning you with his eyes before he shakes his head. “It’s fine,” he answers, the back of his head resting against the metal bars behind him as he looks at the stars with you. “It’s not your fault. You’re only following orders.” 

You bite your bottom lip until it starts to bleed to get your mind to focus on the pain instead of what was going to happen, but when you glanced at the man beside you, the guilt overtakes you again. For the first time in your life, you doubt the orders you received and question yourself. You should have never agreed to talk to him. You never should have come here and let your guard down. Hadn’t you done that, you’d have no problems taking him to the angels. 

“You’re bleeding,” he comments softly, raising his hand up to your face. His thumb brushes over your bottom lip and for a second, he makes you forget about everything. You gaze into his eyes and he quickly pulls his hand back to his side, realizing what he’s done. “Sorry,” he mumbles but you barely register his words. 

There is a moment of silence that follows, the tension building up as you gaze into each other’s eyes, both of you forgetting about the world around you as you wait for the other person to make the first move. 

Eventually, it’s Wonwoo who moves first, turning his body to face you and casually moving closer. The iron fence around him hasn’t pissed him off as much as it did now since you locked him there. 

You try to breathe but it feels like the air gets stuck in your throat as you grab onto the metal bars and he places his hands on top of yours. He looks up at you, still sitting on the cold ground while you stay in your place on your chair. So close yet so far. 

You hear something rustle near you and immediately pull your hands away, finally able to breathe as you bring your mind back to reality. You have a fiancé you love, you remind yourself. Yet, you can’t help but steal glances at the boy beside you. You question what you’re doing here again. There is a handsome man waiting for you in your shared bed, so why do you keep sitting outside with this demon? 

“I should– I should go,” you proclaim, quickly standing up. A wave of guilt runs through you when the whole situation comes crashing down to you and you try to avoid his disappointed look as you walk past him to get back to the palace. 

Still, you can’t help it and glance back once more.

You try to sleep, you really do. You do your best but no matter how much you try, you only keep turning around, unable to turn off your head. You groan, getting up again and staying as quiet as possible so you wouldn’t wake up your fiancé. He seemed to have no trouble sleeping. 

You walk to the nearest window in the room, opening it so the cold air could hit your face. The sun is slowly rising up and as you watch the sky gain more colors, your mind becomes even more of a mess. “For fucks sake,” you curse under your breath, closing the window again and looking around the room to find your clothes. 

“You’re stupid, annoying, bothersome and absolutely screaming trouble,” you babble, your feet rushing towards the cage faster than they ever did. Wonwoo looks confused as he watches you, frowning as he accidentally kicks into the iron fence while stretching his legs. “What are you doing?” 

“I don’t know,” you respond, unlocking the cage. You really don’t. You’re not sure what has gotten into you but you don’t have the time to question it. “Get up,” you command and it takes him a second to process what is happening. He quickly stands up, a part of him hoping he isn’t reading you completely wrong and you aren’t planning on taking him to the angels yourself. 

“You–” 

“Be quiet and follow me,” you order, looking around to make sure there isn’t anyone nearby. “Before I regret it,” you add, finally meeting his eyes. You grab his arm, pulling him with yourself as you try to rush to the forest behind the village. He stops you. “Wait, you can’t.” You try to make him move again but he is too heavy for you. You groan, letting go of his arm. “Can’t you just listen to me for a second? I need to get you out of here before Hao wakes up. I don’t know how much time we have left.” 

He gazes into your eyes, a deep sigh leaving his lips. He wants to go, live, but his head can’t win a fight with his heart. He can’t let you do this. Your name leaves his lips and your heart feels heavy. “Lock me back up. Go to bed and live your life.” 

You hesitate, unable to look away from him. “That’s what I’m trying to do,” you say, grabbing his hand again with pleading eyes. “So, please. Come with me.” 

Wonwoo’s heart skips a beat when your words reach his ears and all his initial worries and plans to make you come back to your fiancé disappear. He tugs on your hand, pulling you closer with ease. Your body presses against his due to the movement and you try your best not to freak out at the sudden intimacy. 

He isn’t sure what has come over him but his hand moves up to your cheek, his thumb brushing over it softly. You gaze into his eyes, trying to figure out what is going on in his mind, but before you can read him fully, he leans down to you, his lips brushing against yours slightly. It’s not a full kiss but your breath shakes nonetheless, sending shivers down his spine. 

You never imagine there would be a time in your life where you’d be kissing someone other than Minghao, yet, here you are, pushing your lips against Wonwoo’s urgently, your right hand moving up to the back of his neck where you tug at his hair slightly, causing a light moan to escape his lips. 

“W-wait,” you pull away, your left hand squeezing his biceps as he holds you close to himself by your waist. “I– I have a fiancé,” you say but do nothing to get away from him. Wonwoo smirks, squeezing your waist tighter. “Oh, yeah?” He coos, watching as your cheeks turn red. “Then why are you here?” Because you make me feel seen and alive. You stay quiet, and his smirk grows wider. 

You try to open your mouth and say something, anything to brush that smirk off his face, but when the muffled voices reach your ears, you know there is no time for that. He nods to you, turning around to try and see how much time left you had. “Wait, I need to do one more thing,” he proclaims, running back to the cage. He picks up your book and throws it your way before flaming at the lock, making sure his escape would look like an accident. 

“Come on, we need to run,” you hurry him, grabbing his hand as soon as he is close enough. You’re not sure yet if this is something you’ll regret later but you don’t care. This might have been exactly what you needed in your life all along. 

The warmth of Wonwoo’s hand keeps you calm as you run through the forest, each of your steps ringing in your ear as a reminder of what you were doing. 

“Can’t we slow down now?” He asks but it feels like talking to a wall. He sighs, squeezing your hand tighter with a slight pull to stop you. You stumble on your feet, sending a glare his way. He laughs quietly, stopping completely. “Come here,” he mumbles and you watch him hesitantly. You step closer to him after a bit of thinking, biting the inside of your cheek as he smiles at you. 

Wonwoo looks down at you, finding himself falling into your eyes as you look up at him. He wishes he could engrave the image into his head and be able to look at it at any time. “We can’t slow down now,” you break the silence carefully. He shakes his head, “We can.” 

“I need a break,” he proclaims and you raise an eyebrow at that. Were his physical abilities that bad? “Something that would take my mind off things,” he adds, the look in his eyes suggestive as he closes the space you left out between the two of you, brushing off a few hair strands off your face with his fingers to see you better. You gulp as you realize what he has in mind, anticipation slowly building up in you. 

“Wonwoo,” you breathe out his name, creating a smile on his lips. “Yeah?” He coos softly, staying in place which somehow drives you more crazy than if he had closed the space between you completely. “You’re terrible,” you curse at him, grabbing the hem of his shirt and pulling him down so you could reach him. 

Your lips crash onto each other within seconds, the kiss full of need and lust neither of you are able to explain with words. His hands wrap around your waist, pulling you closer as he deepens the kiss, his fingers digging into your flesh as he searches for more, anything that could provide him some extra pleasure. 

“We really–” The rest of your sentence gets swallowed as he kisses you again, unable to let go. He smirks against your lips when you leave out a moan, the grip you have on his shirt tightening. You pull away, ignoring his disagreeing whine and pushing him away with all the power you have. “We need to keep moving,” you state, refusing to play this game of his. “Let’s go.” 

Wonwoo mumbles some quiet curses under his breath but obeys, letting you lead the way as you wander through the forest, trying to find the quickest but also most discreet way back to the demon kingdom. 

“Are you sure that is where you want to go?” He asks, hesitant. The king’s orders were clear: don’t come back unless you’ve made a mess with the angels. “Where else would we go? The angels? I don’t think so,” you respond, only looking forward as you follow the road under your feet. He sighs, rethinking his opinions. “We could just stay out here, somewhere. Go to the beach, or maybe blend in somewhere near the humans,” he offers and you stop again, turning around to face him. “Are you serious right now?” 

You sigh, looking around and running your hand through your hair as you try to think. “Look, I know the king sent you on this unreasonable mission but we need to get you back to where you’re safe. The angels might not be actively looking for you, but I’m sure Minghao is. He’ll realize we are together sooner or later.” 

He knows you’re right, that you can’t just stay out here, but the thought of sneaking back into the kingdom scares him more than he’d want to admit. “You’re right,” he nods after a second of silence. “Let’s continue and figure things out as we go.” 

You smile at him, giving him a reassuring nod before you hold his hand again, resuming your plan. 

Wonwoo stops when he hears muffled voices coming from somewhere on his left. You share a glance with him confusedly but he doesn’t explain anything as he tries to make sense of what he hears. “Surely not…” he mumbles, narrowing his eyes and trying to capture the movements nearby. He scoffs, finding it unbelievable as he sets his eyes on two male figures. 

“What is it?” You ask, looking the same way he is. When you spot two men in the distance you quickly create a fireball in your hand, the same one you attacked Wonwoo with when you first met. “Wait, no need,” he stops you before you can fire their way. “These two aren’t dangerous,” he laughs quietly, watching them with a smile on his face. 

“Finally!” The shorter one yells excitedly, running towards the two of you, his friend right behind him. “We thought you were dead!” 

You watch them cautiously while Wonwoo greets them as if they were old friends and then it finally clicks. You redirect your attention to the blond one, tilting your head slightly. “Lee Chan?” You question and he looks your way, nodding. “And that is Seokmin?” You guess and this time it’s Wonwoo that nods, his grin growing wider at the thought of you actually listening to what he was talking about before. 

“And you are…?” Seokmin asks carefully when he reaches you, sending a knowing look towards Wonwoo before you can even answer. You introduce yourself shortly, also explaining how you found yourself here with the demon prince when they ask you. “I see,” Seokmin nods, chuckling a bit when he looks at his friend again. “Looks like you’ve had fun while we were searching for you.” 

“If your view of fun is being locked up in a cage then of course.” 

“You didn’t seem to complain much before,” you tease him, finding amusement in the way Wonwoo can’t hide his smile when he looks at you, memories of the previous night vivid in his head. “How could I when I had this pretty fairy next to me?” He teases you right back, watching your cheeks turn red. 

Chan clears his throat to remind you they were still there and you avert your eyes from the prince, embarrassed. “Uhm…” Chan starts when he has your attention again, quickly exchanging a glance with Seokmin. The switch in the atmosphere is immediate, and your smile disappears off your face even quicker when you notice the pitiful look in the blond’s eyes. Whatever he wanted to say next was going to hit. 

“There is something you should know about,” Seokmin proclaims and Wonwoo’s eyes quickly flick between his two friends, his eyebrows raised in confusion. “The king…” he hesitates, trying to find the right words for the message he was bearing. “Shortly after you left yesterday, he ordered for Misoon to be killed,” he admits, the words barely above a whisper. Yet, Wonwoo hears them better than anything else before. She was– She– He froze, starting to feel dizzy as the words ring in his ears. Everything around him becomes blurry, the voices of his friends muffled as he tries to regain his composure. 

“We were all shocked, some of the guys asked too many questions and he–” Seokmin pauses, the pity in his eyes changing to worry as he catches the switch in Wonwoo, debating on if he should continue or not. “He dismissed all of us, said the knights won’t be needed for a while now. He told the public our latest mission was successful and there was nothing to worry about now. And as far as we know, Monsoon’s death was…masked as an accident,” he continues even though he isn’t sure Wonwoo is still listening. 

You catch the change in the demon’s eyes as well, carefully squeezing his hand in yours, trying to find the right words to say. Wonwoo turns his head towards you slowly, blinking as he tries to make sense of the situation, figure out what was the reasoning behind all of this. “I’m…I’m fine,” he says, shaking his head slightly as if it could help him shake off all the information too. 

“It’s okay not to be fine,” you assure him, your thumb moving in slow circles on the top of his. You watch him bite the inside of his cheek as he holds himself back, his eyes flickering to his two friends next to him and then back to you. You nod, somehow understanding the small movement. You know it’d be a lot easier to comfort him if they weren’t around, if you could just pull him into a hug, but you know Wonwoo doesn’t want that. Not now with them watching the two of you. You understand, and don’t push him. 

“It’s been a mess,” Chan mumbles carefully, staring at the ground beneath his feet. “And we thought it’d be better to let you know that before we get back.” The demon prince nods, the grip he has on your hand becoming tighter as if he searched for your support through it all anyway. “Thanks,” he whispers, doing his best to hold up. Not only in front of them, but also you. 

The thought rushes through him so fast he barely gets a chance to catch it, but when he does, it’s like a reminder of what he is doing at the moment. Why were you here again? No matter how strongly drawn to you he fell, he didn’t know you. You didn’t know him and yet, here you were, holding his hand and trying to help him accept everything his friends just told him. He glances your way, the sincerity piercing through your eyes as you exchange eye contact with him before turning to the two knights beside him, saying you should get moving again. 

They both hesitate, as if they weren’t sure if it was the right thing to do. “She is right,” Wonwoo speaks up quietly, remembering what he was hiding from. “There is an annoyed fairy prince somewhere behind us that wants to give me to the angels and watch me die,” a chuckle leaves his lips as he finishes but he isn’t sure why. There is nothing funny about it, he knows that. Yet, he can’t control it. 

Seokmin and Wonwoo share a brief glance, telling each other everything they need with their eyes before the younger man wraps his arm around Chan’s shoulder, forcing him to walk first with him in order to give you and the prince space. 

You stay silent at first, not sure what you should say. You didn’t know who Misoon was, or why it mattered so much to him that she was dead now, but you didn’t have the heart to ask either. You didn’t know how to comfort him, tell him everything would be okay again without sounding off. It felt like it wasn’t your place to do so. 

Wonwoo seems to catch the hesitance you feel as he walks with you, following right behind his friends. You seem tense no matter how he looks at it. A sigh leaves his lips, causing you to look up at him. “She…raised me,” he whispers softly as if he was reading your mind. “Misoon was like a mother to me, especially after my biological passed away,” he admits and your eyes widen, suddenly feeling worse about the situation. 

“I’m sorry, Won,” you whisper, giving his hand a firm squeeze. A smile tugs in the corner of his lips as he watches you. He doesn’t question why you’re there anymore. He might not know you fully yet, but he knows he’d be a fool to let you get away. 

“I just wish there would be a way for you to make me feel better…” he leans down to you, his hot breath landing softly on your ear and sending shivers down your spine. He glances at his two friends again and then back at you. “Something that would really take my mind off things.” 

It’s more than obvious what he’s suggesting and you have to bite your bottom lip in order not to give him the reaction he wants. As much as you’d love to help him out, you’re not sure if it’d be a good idea. Not only because of the guys accompanying you, but also the current state of his. You couldn’t just give him your body as a tissue. 

“Wonwoo…” His name leaves your lips and you turn to him, examining his face. You stop after a moment of hesitation, sighing. “Don’t do this.” 

“Do what?” He asks, the smile still on his lips. Yet, it feels forced the more you look at it. 

“Turning off. That’s what you’re doing right now.” He blinks a few times, trying to make sense of your words. “You’re turning off your head, your emotions just so you wouldn’t have to deal with the pain.” 

“I’m not doing that,” he disagrees and you exhale again. “Yeah? Then explain why you’re behaving like this? It’s okay to be sad, to be emotional over this,” you remind him and he frowns. “You can’t just act like nothing happened and fuck your emotions into me.” 

He hears you, he really does. He knows you’re right and can see where you’re coming from, but the moment you finish, he can’t help it and imagine how good that’d feel. With you bent over one of the large stones on the side of the road, your pants with your gear on the ground as he slams his hips against yours, his mind on you and you only. He imagines the pretty sounds you’d make under him, screaming his name while he bites your shoulders from behind, leaving love bites all over your body. 

His dick twitches at the mare thought of it and he is sure to lose his mind soon. 

“Are you serious?” You ask, your eyes falling to the growing bulge in his pants. “I’m sorry,” he groans, averting your eyes as he looks for his friends to make sure they aren’t looking your way. “But it really isn’t about my head turning off, or avoiding things,” he proclaims, his free hand coming up to cup your cheek. “I want you so bad, and I’d want you no matter the situation.” 

The words mean nothing but horny blabs as he searches for some pleasure, you know that, and yet, they make you feel some sort of way. He looks somehow sincere as he gazes into your eyes, the words feeling like a confession when they leave his lips. 

You shake your head slightly, trying to think of a solution. You just can’t let him walk around the forest with a boner, can you? “Stay quiet,” you warn him, pointing to the side of the road to signal for him to go there. He tries to find answers in your eyes, anything that would help him figure out if you were going to fulfil his fantasies or let him suffer by himself, but he sees nothing. Still, he nods, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows. 

As if he knew something was off, Seokmin turns around to talk to Wonwoo to get his mind off things, but when he doesn’t see him or you behind them, he stops. He looks around, closing his eyes in realization when he notices you running off to the forest, somewhere where he or Chan couldn’t bother you and play the third wheel. 

“What is it?” The blond turns around as well, confusedly looking at his friend when he doesn’t see you or his prince anywhere. “We better wait for them, this might take a moment,” Min sighs, exchanging a look with Chan before he points to a fallen tree on the other side of the road where they could wait. 

You don’t say anything as you push Wonwoo on one of the trees, pressing your lips on his before he can complain, his arms wrapping around you in an instance, the bulge in his pants pressing against you as he pulls you closer. His hands wander under your shirt, quickly squeezing your breast as if you were to disappear any second. 

You whine into the kiss, unbuttoning his pants to give him what he was craving so much. He tries to do the same, his hands moving to pull down your pants but you quickly press your palm on his chest, stopping him. “You’re not getting everything,” you proclaim and something in his eyes switches. “Don’t be too greedy and just let me take care of it, alright?” He nods, too lost in the moment to be able to argue with you. 

He imagined this differently—he thought it’d be him taking the lead, guiding you through everything as he had no hope for your fiancé to be anyone who’d know how to show you any pleasure—but he couldn’t say he’d mind how things turned out. Honestly, he’d let you take the lead anytime if that was what you wanted. 

You tease him through the fabric of his underwear, proudly smiling as you listen to his moans while squeezing his cock softly, his pre-cum starting to leak through the thin layer that was still covering him. “You look a bit broken,” you mumble, smirking as you watch him throw his head back, trying to keep the sounds leaving his mouth as quiet as possible. “Your—fuck—your fault,” he manages to say between broken moans. 

“Oh yeah?” You tease him, finally pulling down his underwear and letting his hard-on breathe. “My fault? Weren’t you the one basically begging me to let you fuck me?” He asks, palming his length slowly. Too slow. He quickly catches your wrist in his hand, leaning down and resting his forehead on your shoulder. You chuckle, your free hand running through his hair. “‘S okay,” you coo, resuming your movements when he slowly lets go of your hand. 

It’s that moment when he realizes he was so incredibly wrong. About you, your experience, but also about himself. Because now that he has you so close, gliding your hand up and down his cock, he admits to himself something he thought he’d never do—he didn’t want to take the lead. He wanted to obey you, do whatever you tell him to and be good for you. 

Oh god. He closes his eyes as he slowly thrusts his hips towards your hand, chasing for more. He was in so much trouble. 

As you walk back to meet with Seokmin and Chan, you feel a bit awkward. You’re not sure how long you’ve been there but you know it changed your whole view on Wonwoo. Somehow, you wanted him even more than before now. Something about him, the way he clung to you, whined at your touch and now followed you as if he was your puppy, made your head spin in a way you didn’t know you could feel. 

Wonwoo clears his throat, avoiding making any eye contact with the guys. “Sorry we– We thought we heard something so we went to check it out, turns out it was just a wild animal.” 

“Oh yeah?” Seokmin starts, not letting him brush it off so easily. “What animal?” Wonwoo hesitates, trying to remember what animals lived in this region of Aethera. “Don’t worry,” he shakes his head, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “I think I know what animal has gotten wild,” he jokes and the way both of you turn red is embarrassing. 

Chan laughs at the sight, shaking his head as he stands up. “Let’s keep going, we need to get as far as possible before the sun sets.” You nod slightly, swallowing a lump in your throat as you quickly glance at Wonwoo before averting your gaze again, focusing on the task at hand. 

As the sun sets down and you reach an empty cave, you all agree to settle down for the night. “Min, can you help me out?” Wonwoo asks as he stops at the entrance. It’s not a question towards you but you still feel curious, your eyes flicking from one boy to the other as they leave the cage together, not bothered enough with explaining themselves. 

Chan seems to catch your glances because as he helps you make a fire that will keep you guys warm through the night, he speaks up. “Don’t worry about them, whatever it is that they are doing I don’t think it’s anything to be scared of.” You hum with a nod, brushing your hands together as you stand up again once you’re done. 

You hesitate as you watch the blond, biting the inside of your cheek and wondering if the question you’re about to ask isn’t too insulting. “Uhm…” you start and he immediately looks up at you, his eyebrows raised in question. “What is it?” He wonders, his voice soft. “The demon king…” you furrow your eyebrows as you try to find the right words. “Don’t you think he’s a bit, well, unreasonable? Cruel? I mean, why would he send his own son on an impossible mission? Alone on top of that.” 

Chan’s eyes soften when you finally ask what’s been bothering you, his eyes trailing off to the ground again as he thought about his answer. “I can’t disagree with that,” he mumbles, raising his head again. “Honestly, he is probably worse than what you think, but we need a king no matter what. And since Wonwoo hasn’t shown any interest in taking over…we never had a choice. It is what it is, I guess,” he shrugs, standing up slowly. 

“I’m not sure what goes through His Majesty’s head, no one does, I think, but I’d like to look at it from the brighter side. Now that Wonwoo found someone, it’ll be much easier for him to become our king when we come back,” he smiles, so genuinely you don’t even register his words at first. 

But then it hits you. Now that Wonwoo found someone. Your eyes widen when the words ring in your ears but before you can say anything, Chan is on his way out to find the other two. 

Has he found someone who was going to help him take over the throne? Did you manage to run away from your fiancé who was holding you back on your every step just to fall into the same thing all over again, this time, with a demon? You hated just the thought of that. The suffocating feeling of having to deal with that—the limitation, all over again made you sick. 

You looked around the cave, debating if this wasn’t your sign. Everyone was gone, no one would notice if you just left. Maybe you should, maybe you’d be much happier if you ran away again, somewhere where no one knows you and you could do whatever you want. 

The thought crossed your mind, staying there until you shook your head and took a deep breath in an attempt to make it go away. Because as much as you know you’d love the freedom it would get you, you can’t. You don’t have the courage to just leave without a single word. Wonwoo had you wrapped around his finger without even knowing, and for some reason, you didn’t even mind. 

“Hey,” Seokmin’s voice makes you turn around. You raise your eyebrows confusedly, “Hi?” You watch him hesitate and glance behind himself before he speaks again and it makes you even more curious about what he and Wonwoo were doing. “I think we might need your help, he can’t focus,” he says simply, waiting for you to leave with him without saying anything else. 

You follow him out, your eyes widening immediately when you see Wonwoo’s full form, his wings out with his tail slowly swinging in the back. You’ve seen a few demons before but there was something different about him. His wings touched the ground and his horns were suddenly longer than before. Yet, it wasn’t the first thing you noticed. The biggest difference was in his eyes—they had turned dark red. You furrow your eyebrows as you try to see through them, only being met with the same hunger he’s been looking at you with since earlier. 

“What’s–” You barely get to blink before Wonwoo interrupts you with a sigh, saying he can’t clear his head well enough. “Okay but…what are you doing?” 

“Exploring his powers,” Seokmin answers instead, walking around you to grab one of the small rocks on the ground. “Chan,” he says softly, and as if on cue, the blond fires at the stone, breaking it apart with ease. ���This is something most of—if not all—demons can do but Wonwoo…” he trails off, picking a bigger rock this time and throwing it at the demon prince. He catches it, lighting it up on fire with ease. The rock doesn’t break in his hands, it just keeps flaming. “This is nothing compared to what he is fully capable of, but it’s still better than a lot of demons can do.” 

“And you acted so immersed when you read through my book,” you scoff slightly, watching as his lips curl up into a smile right after. “It showed me what you were capable of,” he shrugs simply and you shake your head at him. 

“So, let me guess,” you start, walking closer to the demon prince to fix his shirt. “You guys are attempting to do what he did when he was fighting the angels before? That weird state?” Seokmin and Wonwoo blink a few times, confusedly exchanging a look together. “How do you…” 

“Jeonghan,” you explain, softly smiling at the boy in front of you before you take a step back again. “He told me and three other fairies when he came to ask us for protection from the demons. I was curious what it looked like.” 

Chan steps back while Seokmin gets closer to the prince, carefully touching one of Wonwoo’s wings. “They grew a lot after it happened,” he says, pushing his own wings out of his body. “They were as big as mine before we left the kingdom.” Your eyes widen at the difference and you confusedly shoot a glance towards Chan. “That’s not…they’re twice as big now!” 

“And his eyes,” he points, continuing. “You noticed the chance, right?” You nod, carefully examining his body as you look for any other changes. Your eyes stop at his crotch, your cheeks slowly heating up as you begin to wonder if he had grown in other places as well. 

“You’re blushing,” Wonwoo points out and you immediately curse him out in your head. “No, I’m not,” you argue, clearing your throat as you look at the guys before you. “Okay, let’s see then,” you change the conversation immediately before he can have any more comments. “Show me this state you were in and maybe we’ll be able to figure it out together.” 

Wonwoo smiles at you, his heart skipping a beat as you lean your back against the tree behind you, carefully observing him, actually wanting to help out. 

He closes his eyes for a second, his wings twitching as he tries to light them up on fire, just like he tried back then when he fought the angels. You notice his tail swing with full force into the ground, almost as if it was protesting against it. You hum, trying to think of a solution. 

“Guys, can you leave me and Wonwoo alone for a bit?” You ask, causing them all to look your way. You feel all six eyes on you but don’t take your eyes off the prince, barely registering the two guys leaving. “They are gone,” Wonwoo says quietly and you hum again. “What was that for?” 

“I think you need to fire yourself up before you try to fire up something as large as,” your eyes flicker between the end of one of his wings to the other, “that.” 

“I’m doing that, though, no?” He questions and you take a step forward. “Just stay quiet and use your senses, okay?” He frowns but nods nonetheless, his eyes following your every movement as you walk closer to him. “Hearing,” you start, motioning for him to lean down so you could reach him. “Remember my hand on your cock,” you whisper, your breath landing just above his ear. He quickly turns his head to face you, almost embarrassed. “Trust me.” 

Wonwoo can’t quite understand what you’re trying to do or how it’s supposed to help him but he listens, closing his eyes again as his memory travels back to a few hours ago. He can still feel your fingertips on the tip of his cock as you teased him, the coos you whispered into his ear slowly coming back. No matter what you wanted to achieve with this, he couldn’t complain about your methods. 

He groans quietly, opening his eyes again when his dick twitches in his pants. “I’m getting hard again,” he mumbles, his breath catching in his throat as his eyes land on your half naked figure, your breast on full display for him. He swallows, hard. “What are you…” 

“Sight,” you whisper softly, smirking. “Oh, yeah?” There’s a smirk on his face now as well as he slowly realizes what you’re doing and he cups your cheek, leaning down again to place a kiss on your lips. “And what about touch?” He asks and you immediately guide his hands to your breast, letting him squeeze them however he wants. The groan that leaves his lips makes you feel hotter than it should, and you almost lose your mind when he mumbles into your kiss again, “and taste?” 

You pull away from him, hesitating for a second before you slowly trace your fingers under your pants, a moan escaping your lips as you push two of your fingers into your cunt, collecting your wetness on them as you finger yourself, watching his mouth fall open, unable to take his eyes off you. 

“Taste,” you say, bringing your fingers to his mouth. He doesn’t waste a second before his lips wrap around your finger, moaning as he gets the taste of you. You will be the death of him at some point, he was sure of that. “So fucking good,” he mumbles, his saliva dripping on your fingers as you pull them out. 

“You smelled my fingers too, right?” You blink at him innocently and his head spins as he nods, his clothed dick begging for release. “Now, then, close your eyes again.” He listens immediately and for a second you think about how easy it would be to play with him. He trusted you, maybe more than he should after knowing you for so little. 

Your eyes fell down to the bulge in his pants, certain that his body was on fire by now. “Try again. Focus on your wings, on what you want them to do,” you guide him softly, pulling your shirt back on as you start feeling the cold air hit your skin. 

He stands still, it might have been a few seconds, minutes, or even an hour. He wasn’t sure, honestly. But when he opened his eyes again, noticing Seokmin watching him with his eyes widened, he knew he had accomplished what he wanted to. He looks around, almost swinging his wing into you by accident. Thankfully, you manage to dodge it and laugh, your smile proud as he watches his wings—now flaming—in awe. 

“How did you know?” Chan turns his head to you and you shrug. “Jeonghan said senses–” you pause, tilting your head and closing your eyes as you realize what your next move needs to be. You turn to the small lamp hanging on the tree branch that lights up the place for you all to be able to see and then back at Wonwoo. “I know this might seem a bit insane, but I think we should go see Jeonghan in the morning.” 

The guys try to argue with you, telling you how badly that would go, but you brush them off with one shake of your head. “For some reason, he knows about Wonwoo and his powers more than any of us. If we want to figure this out…we need to.” They exchange a glance, knowing you are right. When no one says anything, Wonwoo extinguishes the fire again and hides his wings, his tail following right away with a sigh. “Let’s do it,” he agrees, nodding slightly. “Even if things go left, we have an addition to our team now,” he smiles at you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder. He doesn’t wait for his friends’ opinion, simply leading you back inside the cave. 

The night is cold to say the least, so it’s no surprise you find yourself cuddled up in Wonwoo’s arms while his two friends lay on the other side of the cave. You were confused why at first, but when Wonwoo sent them one glare that explained everything, you didn’t ask anymore. 

“This is…weird,” you mumble into his chest, his breath landing on the top of your head as his fingers make small circles on your back. You couldn’t remember the last time you laid like this with your fiancé, barely remembering what his touch felt like. It’s been weeks since you had the time for each other—he always blamed it on being either too busy or tired—and even though it felt like the spark between the two of you was disappearing, a part of you felt bad for lying like this with a different man now. 

“Hm?” Wonwoo hummed. “What is?” 

You raise your head slowly to look at him, your eyes softening when you gazed into his. Despite all that, the moment you see his face you can’t help but feel like it’s right. Like you’re exactly where you belong—in his arms. 

“Us,” you whisper, biting the inside of your cheek. “Don’t you think so?” He groans in response, watching you through his eyelashes. “No?” He waits a second, his eyes wandering all over your face, and you blink confusedly, trying to see what he is thinking. “This feels good, actually.” 

“Or do you really think otherwise?” He questions and for a second you think you might see a sign of vulnerability in his eyes. It takes you a second to think about it, but you shake your head in the end. “You know,” he clears his throat, pulling his hands away from you and resting them behind his head as he lays on his back, staring into the darkness. “Chan told me what you talked about before.” 

You don’t answer, so he continues. “I’d like to think I found someone,” he mumbles softly and Chan’s words ring in your ears again. “I don’t know what we are doing here or what it is between us, but it does feel good.” — “But that’s just how I see it,” he looks your way again, swallowing hard as his eyes drop to your lips. “That’s how I felt since you dragged me by my horn to the ground.” 

“That felt good?” You tease him, taking the chance to ease the atmosphere a bit. You aren’t sure if you want to hear what he says next, too scared to go through the same thing you did with Minghao again. “So fucking good,” he admits. You raise your hand to his head, your fingers softly running through his hair and then making their way back to the horn on his head. You wrap your hand around it, your breath shaking when you hear the groan that leaves his lips. 

He rolls over so he is on top of you, a smirk tugging in the corner of his lips. “The guys are just over there,” you say, the words barely above a whisper. “They are asleep,” he shrugs. “Wonwoo.” It’s meant to make him hesitate, realize that you shouldn’t, but instead, he leans down to your ear. “If you want me to stop so much, why are you still pulling at my horn?” 

He smirks when you don’t say anything, your cheeks gaining the color pink. “Maybe I don’t want to,” you mumble, watching as his eyebrows twitch every time you squeeze. It looks like he is trying to hold himself back, biting his bottom lip so no sounds would leave his mouth. “Good, because I don’t want to either,” he says, and before you can add anything else, his lips brush against yours. 

You pull him close, returning his kiss without hesitation. Your legs wrap around his waist, the space between you disappearing. “Can you stay quiet, though?” He asks and you smirk, giving his horn a tight squeeze again. “Can you, baby?” 

The nickname alone sends shivers down Wonwoo’s spine, not to mention the way you begin to pull his clothes off, your eyes needy. He really wants to be in charge, prove himself to you, but he already knows there isn’t a big chance at that when you switch your positions, sitting on top of him instead. 

“You’re quite desperate, don’t you think?” You tease, leaning down to his ear so he can know what it feels like. “First you get a boner just at me mentioning you fucking me and now you’re trying for it again? One might think you’re just a horny teenager.” 

“Or is it the demon genes?” You ask, kissing his neck and slowly moving down to his collarbone. “Do all demons have a high sex drive? Maybe just the royal ones?” 

He moans at your touch, quickly closing his mouth again in an attempt to keep it down. He can’t risk the guys waking up in the middle of this. Not only did he know he’d get teased about it for the rest of his life, but he also wouldn’t let them see you. Your naked body, wrapped with his, was for his eyes only. 

“Doesn’t matter, you won’t get to explore any other demons,” he says, making you chuckle. No matter how hot he is, you find him cute. You grind your hips on top of him, your hands resting on his chest. His eyes follow your every movement, his cock growing harder under you. You smile to yourself as his fingers tug at your shirt, begging for you to get it off. 

He moves quickly, getting rid of all your clothes as soon as possible so he could feel you fully on himself. “Please,” he whispers. You lean down again, catching his lips in yours as your hand wraps around his base, aligning him at your hole. As you slowly sit down on him, biting your bottom lip to keep yourself quiet, his hands find your waist, helping you get comfortable. 

Soon after you start moving again, your hands on his chest again for better control. You went slow, wanting to see his reaction. It was painfully obvious what he thought of that when you looked him in the eyes, his whole fighting with himself not to thrust his hips up against you. However, when you don’t speed up even after a while, he squeezes the flesh on your ass and thrusts you down onto him, harsh and fast. You gasp, your mouth falling open as he controls the speed, hitting the right spot. 

“You don’t–ngh–have to do anything you don’t want to,” he says suddenly in between groans, causing you to look down at him. It was a weird thing to say while you bounced on his cock. “What?” Your arms give up at the same moment and you fall onto his chest, glad he took over earlier. “We don’t have to–” he swallows the rest of his sentence as your nails dig into his shoulders, a whine escaping his lips. “Do the whole king and queen thing,” he continues, mumbling quiet curses in between. “I want you to do what you like, fight, sword-train, anything.” 

Your eyes widen as you realize what he’s talking about. He is coming back to your previous conversation. Your breath shakes as you bury your head in the crook of his neck, letting him talk. You’re so glad this is the position you’re in right now. You wouldn’t want him to see how watery your eyes get all of a sudden when he shows you he cares. 

“I just want you to be there with me. Us, together,” he thrusts his hips up after each word, sending you over the edge. You clench around him, another moan leaving his lips as he gets closer to his climax. “Al–Alright,” you agree, gasping when his cum fills you up and collapsing fully onto him afterwards. 

He rests his hands on your back, turning around so you’d both lay on your sides. “Alright?” He coos and you nod. He closes the gap between you again, pressing his lips on yours again while also forcing his wings up, covering your bodies with just one of his wings. He’ll worry about the clothes in the morning again. 

You snuggle closer to him, resting your head on his arm when he offers and closing your eyes. You can’t wait to find a river in the morning and wash yourself. 

You ignore the teasing glances from Chan and Seokmin as you leave the cave, Wonwoo right behind you. You have clothes on now, finally, but you can’t say it would have been the same when the two woke up and walked to you and Wonwoo to wake you up as well. Thank god Wonwoo covered you with his wing last night. 

“Wonwoo, are you coming with us?” Chan questions. Wonwoo immediately glances between his friends and you, trying to see what you thought. Going on a hunt for food with his friends or finding a river with you and then watching you shower? He had his preference clear, there was no questioning that. 

“Actually, I think I’m–” 

“Go with them,” you encourage him, chuckling when you see the hurt look on his face. You step closer to him, making him lean down as you go to whisper into his ear. “I know we established that you have a high sex drive last night, but I need to shower alone now to have enough energy for you later.” His breath hitches. You bite back your smile when he quickly turns his head to face you, sending him off with the guys. 

Seokmin wraps his arm around Wonwoo’s shoulder, saying something about going to take him under his wing. You’re not sure if he means it metaphorically or literally, but you chuckle anyway. You wave them off quickly, telling them to catch something delicious before turning around, setting off into the forest. 

“So,” Chan starts, a smirk on his face. Wonwoo frowns, already worried about what he would say next. “What’s up with you two? I mean, I knew there was something but that much?” 

He sighs, raising an eyebrow at his younger friend, as if to see if he was being serious with his question. “Why don’t you care about yourself more, hm?” Chan rolls his eyes, chanting, “Boring!!” with a laugh. Seokmin chuckles, shaking his head at him. “It’s your fault,” he comments and Wonwoo shifts his attention to him. “How so?” 

“If we didn’t see your buttcheek on full display this morning, he probably wouldn’t have brought it up at all,” Min explains, watching Wonwoo avert his eyes in embarrassment. “I don’t know why on earth you thought it was a good idea to come wake us up anyway,” he mumbles, looking at them again. Seokmin shrugs, unable to give a clear answer to that. 

“No, but seriously,” Chan pipes up again. “Should we be looking forward to, I don’t know, seeing her with you a lot when we get to the kingdom? Are you guys going to…you know, do what we’ve been all waiting for?” 

Wonwoo sighs. The thought of ruling the demons isn’t something he’d call exciting but he knows he has to. He can’t hide for much longer, stay in his room and pretend the throne doesn’t exist. Especially not when everyone seems to be counting on him so much. And, if you’re by his side during all that, maybe it won’t be that bad after all. 

“And he’s smiling,” Seokmin laughs, patting Wonwoo’s back. “If just the mention of being with her makes you this happy, you shouldn’t hesitate.” 

“We’ll take it at our own pace,” he proclaims eventually. “Well, considering you guys slept together after only knowing each other for like, what, two days, I think we can expect the wedding next week,” Chan laughs and Wonwoo rolls his eyes. 

He doesn’t say anything else after that, refusing to respond to his friends’ teases and questions about how the night with you was. The fact it was the best night of his life is something they don’t need to know. 

“How exactly do you want us to get there without running into any fairies or different angels?” Chan questions, leaning forward on the stone in front of him. “Well,” you start and Seokmin takes out his map of Aethera, telling his younger friend to move away so he can set it down. Chan groans but obeys, taking a step back. “You see the Little village? While I was on a mission last month, I stumbled in and that was where I saw Jeonghan for the first time. I’ve heard he’s got a lady there.” 

“So we’re just assuming he’ll be there? What if someone reports us? This isn’t only about us as demons attacking the angels, they probably couldn’t care less if we go visit the Little village or not, but you ran away with Wonwoo,” Chan points out. “For all we know, the fairies might think he kidnapped their future queen and are on a hunt for his head now.” 

“I’ve got a friend there, he’ll let us crash at his house and I’ll ask him to let us know when Jeonghan comes around,” you assure them, looking around to see if they are all still up for it. “Alright then,” Wonwoo nods, leaning on the stone, not caring about covering half of the map with his body. “We have a plan, so let’s not delay any longer.” 

And so, the four of you set off again, cutting the road through the forest to get to your destination as soon as possible. You walk in the back with Wonwoo again, carefully holding onto him every time the road ahead looks just a bit tricky. You didn’t think it was needed at first, but after you almost tripped over a tree root, he insisted. 

“So, this human friend of yours?” He starts and you raise an eyebrow at him confusedly, the twigs on the ground cracking under your feet. “What about him?” You blink and Wonwoo has to fight the urge not to kiss you immediately again. You’re too beautiful for your own good. “I mean,” he clears his throat, “how do you know him? Who…Who is he?” 

You chuckle as you watch Wonwoo nervously awaiting your answer. He is kind of cute when he looks at you like that, with a mixture of jealousy and genuine worry. 

“I met him when we were teens. I tagged along to one of my father’s missions and we ended up needing a place to stay, so his parents offered. He yelled at a bug because he was scared, and when I set the bug on fire, he cried and said he owes me his life,” you laugh at the memory. “It was my first interaction with humans as well and his whole family made me feel really welcome. They never cared about us being fairies, and if they did, they hid it damn well.” 

Wonwoo hums as he listens to you, somehow feeling relieved. Still, that doesn’t mean he won’t make it obvious to everyone that you’re not available. 

Thankfully, it doesn’t take that long and shortly after four—as Seokmin informed you—you find yourself in the back of the village, listening to the muffled voices nearby. You point to the left, going first as you lead them. It’s been a while but you still remember the exact place of the house. It wasn’t the first time you sneaked in like this. 

“Are you sure it’s okay for us to just–” Before Seokmin can finish his sentence, you throw a small rock at the back door of the house, catching everyone off guard. “I take it back, it might have been better to just come in like you wanted to at first.” You roll your eyes at his comment and turn around to explain your action, but before you get the chance to do so, you hear footsteps coming closer and immediately turn on your heel again. 

“Firefly?” You smile as you hear the familiar voice behind the door before he can even open them, pointing it’s way. “That’s why I threw that rock,” you explain. “We used to do that when we were younger whenever I needed to escape from, well, life.” The door opens and your eyes land on the tall man. You feel like he might be even bigger than you remember him. 

“What’s with that nickname?” Wonwoo whispers quietly with a frown, making Seokmin laugh as they watch you come closer to the human, pulling him into a hug. “Alright, man, good luck with not setting his face on fire,” Min pats his back, walking towards you to introduce himself. 

Wonwoo quickly catches up, and just as Seokmin offers his hand to say hello, he holds the human’s hand instead. “I’m Wonwoo, nice to meet you,” he says through gritted teeth, barely registering Chan laughing behind him. “Mingyu,” the taller man smiles, quickly glancing at you before shaking his hand. “What are you guys, uhm, doing here?” 

“Min, I need your help,” you practically push Wonwoo out of the way, which only causes another way of laughter from his friends. “Anything,” Mingyu encourages you and Wonwoo immediately frowns. “Can we talk about it inside?” You suggest and he doesn’t hesitate, stepping aside so you and your group could walk through the door. 

“So, let me get this straight,” Mingyu starts, his eyes flickering between all of the guys before setting on you again. “You finally ran away from Minghao,” he says as if it was a praise, and it makes you wonder if your relationship has been that bad all along and you just didn’t realize. “After you realized you might like a demon that you imprisoned the day before?” This time, there is a hint of irony in his voice, almost as if he was judging you. You frown, “That’s not important.” 

“Alright, I’m just making sure I got everything,” he raises his hands to prove his innocence and you roll your eyes. “Well, anyway, and now you’re here to, what, track down an angel and force him to help you uncover the prince’s powers?” 

“Well, when you say it like that it sounds bad,” Chan comments, his words catching in his throat when he sees all of you turn your heads towards him. “We know it’s risky,” Seokmin proclaims, making you all turn to him instead. “But it’s the only option we have, really. And we know it’s a lot to ask, but we’d appreciate it if you could help us.” 

Mingyu smiles, nodding without a moment of hesitation. “I’m in,” he agrees, looking at Wonwoo. “Hopefully, it also means getting the future demon king on my side.” 

Wonwoo glances at you and then back at him, agreeing. “I don’t see a reason not to.” 

“In that case,” Mingyu stands up, opening his arms with a smile. “Make yourself at home.” 

You lay on the couch in the living room later that night, your legs resting on Wonwoo’s lap while Mingyu sits on a chair near Wonwoo. Seokmin and Chan had fallen asleep on the old mattresses Mingyu prepared for them earlier after getting out of the shower, so it was just the three of you now. 

“I’ll talk to Haewon tomorrow and ask how things are going between her and Jeonghan, maybe she’ll know when he’ll be here again.” You hum with a nod, smiling gratefully at your friend. “Thank you again, for everything.” 

“No need,” Mingyu shakes his head, his smile warm, comforting. Wonwoo doesn’t buy it just yet. “I told you you can turn to me whenever you need help,” he assures you before glancing at Wonwoo, chuckling when he sees the warning look. “So, Your Highness,” he mocks, finding pleasure in teasing him. Wonwoo exhales sharply. “You’re the second prince our little firefly took an interest in. I should probably take your title as a red flag after the first one, but something tells me to give you a chance.” 

“Mingyu,” you try to interrupt him, trying to stop him from some unreasonable questionnaire or an argument he might start. It doesn’t move with him the slightest bit though and you sigh. 

“Maybe I should be the one worrying about you instead, though,” Wonwoo hisses. “I mean, why exactly are you calling my lady your little firefly?” Mingyu seems caught off guard when Wonwoo fires back against him, but his smile doesn’t disappear. You, on the other hand, can’t keep your expression when the tone of Wonwoo’s voice reaches your ears. He is jealous. He’s questioning your friend because he is jealous. 

“No need to attack me,” Mingyu chuckles, shaking his head slightly. “I take no interest in your lady, you have my word,” he assures the demon, glancing at you to see your reaction to the situation. There is a blush on your face, one that can’t pass by unnoticed, and your lips are curled up in a smile, your eyes set on the black-haired demon. 

“I think I’ll leave you two up to it then,” he gets up, still smiling. “Good night.” 

The two of you sit in silence for a second before Wonwoo turns his body to face you, staying on the opposite side of the couch. For now, at least. “You’re jealous,” you whisper, grinning. He frowns, shaking his head in disagreement. “Me? Jealous? Over some human boy?” 

“His name is Mingyu.” 

“I know,” he answers through gritted teeth and your grin grows wider as he practically confirms your accusation. 

“It’s fine, Won. It’s hot, actually.” You watch something in his eyes switch, but he still doesn’t admit to his behaviour, telling you he isn’t being jealous. “Yeah? Then what was that? You worry about firefly? It’s a nickname his mom gave me when we were kids.” 

When you explain it, his eyes soften. Oh god, was he being jealous of Mingyu’s mom? He sighs, running his fingers through his hair. Of course it was a nickname his mom gave you. Misoon probably would have done the same if she met you. She would have loved you. 

When the thought runs through his head, something in him breaks. He isn’t sure what it is, but he is certain it’s noticeable because the next thing he knows, you are pulling him into a hug and wrapping your arms around him tightly. 

You don’t ask, you don’t have to. You just give him what you think he might need the most at the moment. “It’s okay,” you assure him, placing a kiss on his cheek. You move to sit on his lap, still holding him as he buries his head into your shoulder, wrapping his arms around your waist as well. “She would have loved you,” he whispers and you sigh, drawing circles on his back with your fingers. “She would have created some stupid nickname for you too.” 

“I’m sure she was an amazing woman,” you whisper, feeling him nod against your neck. “And she raised an awesome boy too,” you proclaim, leaning back to make him look at you. When he does, you cup his cheeks. “You are allowed to miss her and feel sad,” you assure him, pressing your lips on his. The kiss is soft, calming. “Let’s hope Jeonghan comes by tomorrow so we can get this over with as soon as possible and then get you back to the kingdom so you can say your goodbyes in person, yeah?” He nods and kisses you again, holding you close to himself, almost as if he was scared you’ll disappear as well. 

Wonwoo lays you two down on the couch, his arms never leaving you as he rests his head on yours and you snuggle closer to him, falling asleep in his arms shortly after. He holds on for a while longer, listening to the rhythm of your breath and closing his eyes, slowly drifting off. 

The room is loud when you open your eyes again, your friends’ voices mixing in together as they argue over how to have their eggs, and if they should make some for you and Wonwoo as well when they are at it or let you prepare your breakfast on your own. You groan, burying your head in Wonwoo’s chest again in protest. You don’t want to wake up just yet. 

He shifts slightly under you, carefully sitting up and looking around the room. You take a deep breath and sit up as well, trying to get your eyes to focus as you stare at your friends, their eyes on you already. “Good morning,” Chan chuckles, holding up two eggs in his hands. “You guys want some?” 

“Sure,” Wonwoo nods, his morning voice sending shivers down your spine. “Yeah, I’ll take some too,” you answer and the blond turns around again, handing the eggs to Mingyu who is cooking. 

“Did you even get any sleep on that couch?” Seokmin chats, joining you. You hum, ���better than the cold ground yesterday.” He smiles, nodding. “Surely it doesn’t have anything on the royal beds the both of you have been sleeping on your entire lives,” he jokes and you frown. Wonwoo seems to catch it because he leans closer to you, his voice low. “I can assure you our beds are better. Probably make less sounds too.” 

You glance at him, biting back your smile. The idea of sleeping with him in his bed doesn’t seem bad at all. 

“Okay, lovebirds,” Mingyu interrupts your conversation after a while, handing you and Wonwoo your breakfasts. “I’m going to go out in a bit. I’m not sure when I’ll be back but I’ll definitely talk to Haewon today,” he assures you. “Where are you going?” You wonder, taking a bite of your eggs—they agreed on scrambled in the end. 

“Uhm, just so,” he mumbles, turning around to plate the rest. You raise an eyebrow at the lack of answer he gives you, exchanging a glance with Chan. “Oh? Does this going out include a lady by any chance?” He teases, watching Mingyu’s ears turn red. Your eyes widen, weakly hitting Wonwoo’s knee in excitement. “What? Since when do you have a girl?” You yell immediately. 

“I don’t, I don’t!” He tries to argue but it’s already too late, and before he can think of a way out of the situation, he is cornered with questions from all of you, asking who she is and how long they’ve been together. For a second, Mingyu regrets taking you in yesterday. 

“There has been a slight change in the plan,” Mingyu announces as soon as he walks through the door, making all of you look his way. “What did you do?” 

“Nothing! Don’t worry,” he shakes his head, walking straight to his kitchen corner. “I think I might have made it easier for you to approach Jeonghan actually.” 

“Do tell,” Wonwoo encourages him. “Did you find out when he’ll be here again?” 

“Yes,” he nods, looking at the clock on his wall. “In fact, he’ll be here in like…thirty five minutes,” he proclaims and you blink a few times, as if to find out if it’s just a dream you’re having. “What? How–” 

“Long story short, I ended up inviting them over for dinner because I thought it would be easier than you guys busting into Haewon’s kitchen to ambush him but then I got caught up and lost track of time, so I need your help making this dinner as quickly as possible. Now. That was your cue to get up,” he says impatiently, opening his fridge and taking out a few things. 

It takes you a second to comprehend what is happening but when you do, you jump up from your place on the couch, the three guys beside you following shortly after. “What do we need to do?” 

“Come here, I’ll give everyone a job.” 

You’re not sure how it even works, four grown guys in the kitchen somehow not standing in each other’s way. They move quickly, listening to every word Mingyu says so the food is ready for when the pair arrives. 

As the loud knock on the front door reaches your ears, you flinch. “That’s our sign. Let’s go,” you quickly say, going into Mingyu’s room with the guys to hide. Mingyu needs to set the scene first before Jeonghan sees you. 

“Alright,” Mingyu takes a deep breath, opening the door with a smile. “Hi,” he greets them warmly, pulling Haewon into a hug before shaking the angel’s hand, trying to search for any evil in his eyes. “Come in, I just finished cooking,” he steps aside and the two walk inside, looking around the house. 

“It’s similar to mine,” Haewon comments with a slight nod, smiling. “They weren’t very original while designing these I guess,” Jeonghan says, narrowing his eyes when his eyes set on the number of plates in the sink. “You live alone?” 

“I do,” Mingyu nods. “I mean, technically I do. But you know how it goes, Haewon also technically lives alone,” he jokes, leading them to the table. “Speaking of which, a lot of people are wondering what’s going to happen to you? I mean, should we expect to have an angel in our village full-time?” 

Haewon nervously glances Jeonghan’s way as she sits down, but he only shrugs. “That’s nothing they need to worry about. We are fine as we are.” Mingyu hums but he isn’t sure what to think about it. It’s been years since he first started showing up in the village, wasn’t it about time they tried to figure out something stable? 

“That’s all that matters,” he nods, setting the plates. “What about your lady, though, Gyu?” She asks with a grin. Mingyu chuckles as he sits down, rubbing the back of his neck. “It hasn’t been that long since we started going out but we are doing great,” he says, a hint of a blush on his face. 

As the dinner goes by and the conversation flows more naturally, Mingyu finally finds the courage to ask what he needs. He clears his throat, making both of his guests look up from their plates. “So, I know this might be a little sudden or inappropriate, but to be honest, I invited you here tonight because I need help,” he admits and Haewon tilts her head confusedly. 

Jeonghan scoffs, putting his fork down and giving his full attention to the man opposite him. “Just because I’m an angel, it doesn’t mean I can magically give you whatever you need.” 

“I know that,” Mingyu shakes his head. “But you do have some knowledge, don’t you?” Before the angel can open his mouth again and ask what it is that he wants to ask him, you come out of the room, your footsteps catching their attention immediately. Jeonghan smiles. “We haven’t seen each other in a bit,” he greets you and you return his smile, stepping forward. 

“Do you know your fiancé is looking for you?” You nod. His eyes soften, you think. It might have been a figment of your imagination, but you could swear you saw a slight change in his eyes. “My king was excited when he heard you had captured the demon prince, but also very disappointed when he found out he escaped.” 

“I understand.” 

Jeonghan shakes his head, stopping you before you can continue. “He wants his head now. A way to get back at the demon king. Your finacé has taken on the mission, he is leading his men as they look for him.” You swallow hard. Getting out of here might be harder than you had expected. 

“But I never agreed on anything like that,” he assures you all of a sudden. “So your new boyfriend can come out of the room and ask me what has been bothering him himself, I don’t see any reason to hand him over to my king.” 

You hesitate for a second, trying to figure out what his deal is, if he is being sincere. But before you can, the three demons are standing behind you, staring at the angel. “Okay,” you breathe out, stepping aside so Wonwoo can get closer. He takes a seat next to Mingyu at the table while you and the guys stay aside, carefully observing the situation. Haewon, unlike Jeonghan, seems to have no idea what’s going on. 

Wonwoo doesn’t hesitate as he gazes into the angel’s eyes, resting his hands on the table. “How do you know so much about me? About how my powers work?” 

“I don’t,” he shakes his head in disagreement. “I don’t know how your powers work, not really. But I guess you could say I know more than you.” 

“How?” 

Jeonghan chuckles at his impatience, turning to his girlfriend. She sighs, understanding what he wants to say after a simple eye contact. “Don’t be too long, I’ll be waiting.” He nods with a smile, leaning closer to kiss her. “I’ll try to be back as soon as possible,” he assures her and without a moment of hesitation, she says her goodbyes to all of you, saying how she wishes you good luck with whatever you need to deal with before leaving. 

“I used to know your father,” he explains, making Wonwoo frown. “Seokmin said he has never seen my father do anything like this. I mean, lighting my wings on fire? I’ve never heard of anyone being able to do that.” 

The angel examines Wonwoo’s expression before humming, as if he had figured it all out. “Has your mom ever got the chance to tell you about her first love?” He asks suddenly, making Wonwoo blink confusedly. “No?” 

He hums, glancing at Seokmin and Chan. “You are all too young to know, but there used to be a demon knight that caused a lot of troubles to us angels. He possessed the same powers you do, and we never really figured out how to fight against him.” You frown when he starts his story, cringing at how cliché it sounds. As if there was supposed to appear an animated story in front of your eyes about this mysterious knight that would explain everything. 

“Even though we were on opposite sides, we became friends for a while,” he continues, something in his eyes changing as he remembers the man. “And he told me about the girl he was supposed to marry—the demon princess.” 

“Wait,” Mingyu interrupts him, the picture Jeonghan was painting with his words disappearing as you blink to look his way. “This must have been decades ago, how old are you for fucks sake?” The angel laughs, and you realize Gyu is onto something. There was no way this twenty-something looking angel could have lived through that. 

“I’m twenty eight,” he shrugs casually. “Will be for the rest of my life.” 

“What do you mean?” You furrow your eyebrows. Jeonghan leans back in his chair, looking around the room before answering. “I’ve had an…encounter with a witch once and let’s say it didn’t go that well,” he says, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips again. “But it did gain me immortality, even though I’m not sure if it’s a curse or a blessing.” 

“That’s the worst curse of all,” Wonwoo comments, his words barely above a whisper as he carefully glances into the angel’s eyes. He shrugs again, brushing it off. 

“So, this knight?” Chan asks cautiously. “What happened to him? I don’t– I don’t think I’ve heard of a king like that before.” 

“That’s because he never became the king. He never married the girl he loved,” Jeonghan explains, his eyes trailing off to the plate in front of him. “He died before he could, and she had to continue living without him while his descendant grew in her belly.” You catch the small change in the tone of his voice before he can put a smile back on again, sharing his all-knowing glance with you again. 

You know it isn’t that easy for him, though. One dies, the other has to out-live them. Wonwoo was right, immortality is the worst curse of them all. Because no matter how unbothered Jeonghan wants to look, you know the thought of everyone around him dying scares him. There is no way it doesn’t. 

“Okay, what are you implying?” Wonwoo finally asks, the vulnerability in his eyes noticeable from far away. He hesitates, the words catching in his mouth. He glances at you for a brief second, taking a deep breath before turning his attention back to the angel opposite him. “Who…was this baby?” He wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the answer, too scared of what it could all mean. 

Jeonghan stays silent, gazing into the prince’s eyes. He doesn’t need to say it out loud, so he doesn’t. Wonwoo’s breath shakes as he slowly takes the story in. You see his leg bouncing under the table and come closer to him, resting your hand on his shoulder. “How did he die?” You ask quietly, squeezing his shoulder tightly. 

“Fratricide,” he admits with a sigh. “The current king was never supposed to rule the kingdom. But I have to give him something, he did well with covering everything up. He married your mother before people found out she was pregnant, so it was easy to say you were his child.” 

“I���m sorry,” Wonwoo pushes his chair back, barely looking at any of you as he quickly storms out to the backyard, needing some time off. You sigh as you watch his back, glancing at Jeonghan. “Thank you.” 

“I’m not sure if you should,” he shakes his head, his eyes wandering to the back door. “I can’t help you with his powers and I doubt there is anyone who could. He’ll have to figure it out on his own.” You hum, thanking him once more anyway. “One more thing,” Jeonghan starts as he gets up. “Even though I don’t exactly know how his powers work, I know his mother was what helped his father the most. So, just stay by his side and I’m sure he’ll do big things.” 

“And if we are lucky enough, with him in the lead of the demons, the unnecessary rivalry between our kind can be solved,” he smiles one more time, briefly thanking Mingyu for dinner before he leaves the house without another word. 

“Should we…” Chan hesitates, glancing at the back door. Before he can ask his question, you are already shutting the door behind yourself, though. He sighs, looking at the two guys still in the room with him. “We should just clean up then, I guess.” Seokmin nods, helping Mingyu take all the plates and offering to wash the dishes. 

“What is the next plan after this?” Mingyu asks as he hands Seokmin one of the plates. He hesitates, watching the water fill up the sink. “I’m not sure,” he admits. “Do you mind if we stay one more night?” Mingyu smiles and gives him a reassuring nod, saying they are free to stay for as long as they need. “Wonwoo needs some time, but I’m sure once he processes everything, he’ll want to go back to the kingdom more than before.” 

“Are you sure?” Chan asks, doubting him a bit. Wouldn’t it make more sense to avoid the place from now on? 

“Yeah,” he nods. “Now that he knows the truth, he’ll want to dethrone the king more than ever. Take back what belongs to his family.” Chan hums, understanding what he means. 

“Wonwoo,” you call out after him, sighing when you see him sitting on the porch. You carefully sit down next to him, wrapping your hand around his waist as you hold him close. You don’t say anything and neither does he, relaxing in the warm silence. He rests his head down on your shoulder, closing his eyes with a deep exhale. 

“My dad is dead, and I never actually got to know him,” he whispers, his voice breaking in the middle. “I don’t…I don’t remember my mom much, but I don’t have a single memory of her alongside my fath– the demon king,” he corrects himself, almost spitting those words out. You rest your head on his, just listening. “It makes sense now why they were never together.” 

“There was no way you could have known. You heard Jeonghan, he did a great job masking it. Who knows if there is even a single person who knows he isn’t supposed to be on the throne.” Wonwoo hums in response, the sound so quiet you almost don’t catch it. “Misoon probably found something. It would explain his…his order to kill her.” Your eyes soften. You don’t think you could understand the pain he’s feeling even if you tried to. 

“And now I know as well, and it’s pissing me off.” 

“Then let’s do what we can do to take it from him,” you proclaim, squeezing his bicep. You slowly raise your head and he follows right after, glancing at you. He leans closer, cupping your cheek as he presses his lips on yours firmly. “Together,” he whispers. You nod, capturing his lips on yours once more. “Together.” 

This time, you spend the night on an actual mattress. After you and Wonwoo came back inside and told everyone your plan, Mingyu offered to lend you his bed, saying something about how you need to sleep well before you set off in the morning. You didn’t argue and ended up wrapped in Wonwoo’s arms in the bed, Seokmin and Chan on the floor beside you. 

And you have to say, Mingyu was right. When you wake up the next morning, you feel a lot more energized. You’re not sure how everything will turn out today, but at least you have enough power to try to fight whatever the demon king throws your way. 

You say your goodbyes to Gyu shortly after breakfast and he promises to introduce you to his new girlfriend the next time you come to visit, not forgetting to mention he hopes that by then, you’ll be the demon queen. You chuckle, squeezing Wonwoo’s hand in yours. You don’t promise him anything, but a part of you hopes for the same thing. 

“How exactly do you want to do this? They are going to notice us if we just walk in,” Chan questions, a step behind everyone else. Seokmin slows down slightly to join him in the back so he wouldn’t have to walk alone, awaiting for Wonwoo’s answer. It’s something he has been trying to figure out as well. 

“Who’s going to notice?” You hum back, a smile on your face. “Didn’t you say the king dismissed the knights, saying they won’t be needed?” Seokmin scoffs in disbelief, shaking his head. The king has made it so much easier for them without even knowing what was coming. 

“Okay, we get in, what’s next?” 

You turn on your heel with a smile, making all of them stop in the middle of the road. “Chan, I’ll need you to find the other guys, anyone you can in the shortest amount of time possible,” Wonwoo orders and the blond immediately nods. The demon prince then turns to Seokmin. “Even though the knights got dismissed, I’m sure he still has his personal guards with him so we’ll need to figure out a way to get through them, make sure not even a cleaning lady notices us walking in the hallways.” 

“We don’t have to walk, remember?” Seokmin grins, pushing out his wings. “It’s about time we stop walking all the time,” he says, encouraging them to do the same. Wonwoo chuckles, nodding. 

The next thing you know, Wonwoo holds you tightly around the waist, keeping your body pressed against his as he flies through the sky, his friends right behind him. You fight the urge to scream your lungs out as you look under you, your eyes widening when you realize just how high you are at the moment. 

They are lucky it’s actually faster when you fly because otherwise, you’d beat them up for almost causing you a heart attack with their way of transportation. 

When you step into the underworld, shivers run down your spine. It doesn’t feel like Aethera down here anymore, and you question if you can really live here for the rest of your life. However, when Wonwoo takes your hand in his and leads you through the alley, you know it’ll be okay. 

You look around as you go, your eyes falling on every one of the holes or smudges on the houses caused by fire. You’re not sure if those places caught on fire because of the location or demons but you don’t ask either. You figure there’ll be enough time for that later. 

Chan leaves the three of you alone shortly after reaching the town, running off to the local pub. He wasn’t sure where they were now, but he knows that when they were leaving, most of the knights settled down there to drink off the disappointment that came after the king’s announcement. If he was lucky enough, most of them were there again tonight. 

“Ready?” Wonwoo asks when you reach the back of the castle. You hesitate at first but end up nodding nonetheless. You came here, there was no backing down now. “Ready,” you agree and his hands wrap around you once again. He shares a glance with Seokmin before they both jump off the ground, a yelp leaving your lips as you tightly hold onto the demon prince. 

The window breaks immediately when Wonwoo slams one of his wings against it, quietly groaning when the shattering glass ends up in the same wing. He tries not to pay it any attention, though, focusing on the task at hand. “This way,” he says when his feet hit the ground again, dragging you through the hallway to get to the main hall. 

Wonwoo doesn’t hesitate as he pushes the door of the main hall open, his eyes immediately landing on the king, eating fruits from a plate one of the maids is holding up. You watch the king’s eyes widen as looks at the three of you, quickly glancing at his guards, a sign for them to get ready. 

Before they can take a step forwards, Wonwoo swings his wings forward, causing everyone in front of him to close their eyes as the strong wind combined with the dust from the room hits their faces. “No one moves from now on,” he orders and your eyes soften as you watch the maid tramble in shock. 

“You, right there,” you call out to her, making Wonwoo glance at you confusedly. He quickly turns his attention back to the king, though, trusting your judgement. “Come here.” She looks at the king, her head falling down when she notices the dead stare he gives her. She shakes her head slightly, obviously scared. You’re not sure if it’s of you or the king himself. “It’s okay,” you assure her, and after a moment of hesitation, she finally walks over to you. You give her a reassuring nod before you create one of your fire ropes, tying her up. “I’m sorry,” you apologize quietly. “But it’ll be safer on this side, I just can’t leave you free.” She nods, still shaking. 

You come back to the two demons, tilting your head as you take in the scene in front of you. You’re in advantage right now, you think, but you’d still feel a lot better if Chan and the knights were here as well. 

“What is going on here?” The king questions, waiting, observing before his next move. Wonwoo tilts his head, smiling. “Ambush, attack, an argument, call it whatever you want, dad,” the word feels poisonous on his lips, something he wasn’t supposed to eat but did anyway. “Or wait,” his smile falls, the disgust in his voice obvious. “Actually, I should call you uncle, shouldn’t I?” 

His eyes widen but he doesn’t move. Not yet. “What are you talking about?” 

You scoff at the sudden lack of confidence in his voice, your eyes landing on one of the guards who has been staring at you. You frown. “Can we move quicker?” 

“Alright,” Wonwoo clears his throat. “This can go either one way or another. We know you killed my father, who also happens to be your older brother, so there is no need to pretend otherwise. Don’t worry, the rest of the demons you led in a lie this whole time will know soon as well,” he assures him and you can see the way the king’s jaw tenses. “What do you want?” He asks through gritted teeth. 

The prince smiles, chuckling. “What you hoped I’d never ask for. The throne.” When he doesn’t answer immediately, Wonwoo continues. “I’m the sole legal heir and I even have my queen alongside me now, there is no reason for me not to take over. So, either we’ll do this nicely, you’ll leave without a word and I will never hear of you again or…” he trails off for dramatic effect, and as if on cue, the door swings open again. 

“Or we will join your little party,” Chan’s voice echoes through the room, creating a grin on your face. You glance behind you, exchanging a proud glance with Chan when you see all the knights behind him, ready to fight. A few of them look unstable, almost drunk you’d say, but that’s not important right now. You just need the numbers. 

The king grits his teeth and his eyebrows furrow as he thinks everything through, trying to figure out what to do next. “And if I fight back?” He signs for his guards to move, but before they can take a step forward, Wonwoo swings his wings once more. You hold his hand tightly, giving him the strength he needs so he can ignite them again. The king’s eyes widen when he sees what the prince can do, swallowing nervously. 

“If you want to fight back, we can do that,” Wonwoo proclaims calmly, stepping forward. “But we both know why my father was in the front lines while they never let you into a battle. Good thing it seems like I take a lot after him.” 

“You take after him too much,” the king mutters, his fingers digging into his palm as he hits the armrest. “You’re not suited for ruling the kingdom, neither was your father! I only ever did what was the best for the demons.” 

The grip Wonwoo has on your hand tightens. You squeeze back, assuring him it will all work out. “That will be for the people to decide, not you. Your time here is done. I’m taking the throne back.” 

“You can’t force me–” Before he can finish his sentence, you fire his way, the smoke in his face occupying him enough for Wonwoo to create a fire rope, a stronger one than you could ever achieve. You smile at him proudly, sending another flame at the king so the prince would have enough time to tie him up. “You can’t just force me out!” He argues, trying to fight against the ropes around him. He fails badly. 

“I gave you the opportunity to disappear. Now, though,” Wonwoo trails off with a sigh, as if he actually cared about what was going to happen to the king. “You give me no choice. I need to live in order to take care of the demons, and the angels want a head thanks to your actions.” 

“I’ll take care of it,” Seokmin says, patting Wonwoo’s back slightly and taking the king from him with a reassuring nod. “You’ve done enough and have a lot of work to do here.” The prince smiles at his friend, mumbling a quiet thank you before he turns to face you. “You can untie the poor lady, I think we are done here.” You nod without any questions, squeezing his hand again. “Am I right, guys?” He turns to the king’s guards and they agree without a moment of hesitation, their Adam’s apples bobbing as they swallow. “Yes, yes, of course, sir. We are at your service.” 

“Great,” he smiles. “Gather all the demons then, I need to have a speech.” 

Chan and Seokmin laugh as they pat their friend’s back, congratulating on his change of title. You shake your head at them but can’t hide your proud smile. 

“Your Majesty, you were quite impressive up there,” you tease when you are finally alone, following him as he leads you through the castle hallways, showing you around. “So were you, my queen,” Wonwoo smiles back, leaning closer to capture your lips in his. It’s gentle, soothing. There’s nothing more than you could want at the moment. 

Well, maybe except for one thing. 

You kiss him back, pressing your lips against his harsher, with more need. His eyes widen in surprise but he quickly closes them again and cups your cheek, bringing you closer. “How about you show me those beds you were speaking so highly of before?” You suggest and he doesn’t hesitate, holding onto your hand tightly as he pulls you forward, finding his bedroom in the mix of the doors. 

Just as the door closes behind you, before you can get the chance to look around, he pushes your body onto the door, his kiss hungry. You smile into the kiss, hooking your arms around his neck. His hand slides up and down on your thigh, his fingertips digging into the soft flesh as his kisses move lower, down to your collarbone. 

“Your Majesty,” you breathe out, sending shivers down his spine. You place your hand on his chest and push him away with ease, the grin on his face never disappearing as he backs to his bed until his legs hit the frame. He sits down, his eyes wandering from your face to your body. “You should celebrate your first day as the king.” 

“Oh, believe me, I have plans,” he holds your hand, pulling you closer. He positions you between his legs, tightly holding onto your waist as he looks up at you. You scoff at the sight, running your fingers through his hair. He looks almost desperate. Yeah, you could imagine looking at him like this for the rest of your life. 

“Mhm?” You hum with a smile as he presses a kiss on your lower belly. “Are you sure? Because I have my own plans.” 

“Yeah?” He questions, his kisses going lower. He doesn’t look at you again, entirely focused on your thigh now. “Tell me about them.” You smirk, your hands wrapping around both of his horns and pulling on them, causing him to raise his head as he whines. “They involve this pretty demon and his really nice cock.” 

He swallows, his breath hitching as he gazes into your eyes. “You’re going to drive me insane,” he mumbles, twitching slightly under your touch. “How about I ride you insane instead?” You suggest and you can see his mind short circuit under you. You chuckle, pushing him down onto his back. He moves up on the bed so his legs aren’t hanging out of the frame while you sit on his lap, leaning closer to him again. “All of you, in your real form,” you whisper, the hot breath on his ear making him shake. 

“You want to…” 

“Everything,” you nod, your hands sliding under him. He prompts himself up on his elbows, watching you curiously. You roam his back until your fingers find the scars from his wings. “Are you sure?” He asks quietly, his words barely above a whisper. “So sure,” you assure him, sitting back up again. His eyes wander all over your figure, trying to see what you wanted to achieve with this. 

Still, he listens, pushing out both his wings and his tail. He shifts uncomfortably at first but gets used to it soon after when you kiss him again. He wraps his hands around your waist, holding you. When you pull away, there’s a smirk on your face. He narrows his eyes as if to see through you, trying to figure out if he should be excited or scared. 

“I want to try something,” you say and he raises an eyebrow at you. “Don’t worry, it’ll feel good,” you smile, your hand softly brushing over his clothed boner. He groans, his hips instinctively thrusting up. “What do you think?” You coo, kissing his cheek. “Do you want to taste me?” 

There’s nothing he could protest about. You, on top of him, asking him if he wants to taste you? He’d be a fool to refuse something like that. And so, he lets you do whatever you want, not saying anything as you make a pair of your fire ropes and use it to tie his hands to the bed. He stays silent even when you take off your clothes, his eyes glued to your body. He wasn’t in hell anymore. No matter how he looked at it, this was heaven. 

“Come here,” he whines impatiently, making you chuckle. You move up, carefully positioning yourself on top of his face, sitting down when he gives you a nod. Your eyes roll back almost immediately, his tongue sliding between your folds and sucking on your clit as if his life depended on it. You grab onto the bed frame at first, grinding your hips on top of him. However, as his whines reach your ears, you get a better idea. 

You look down at him, moaning just at the sight. You let go of the bed and hold onto his horns instead, the loud moan that leaves his lips after a pure pleasure to your ears. You continue riding his face while occasionally squeezing or pulling at his horns, driving him just a bit more crazy each time. 

“Fuck–shit, Wonwoo,” your movements slow down as you get closer to your climax. He has to fight everything in him not to break the stupid ropes apart and force you onto his face harsher so he could drive you over the edge when he notices how you shake, resisting the urge by chasing after your clit instead. “So good,” he praises, moaning as his cock twitches in his pants. “Taste so fucking good, baby.” 

Your breath grows heavier as you finish on his tongue, moving back to sit on his chest instead as you try to catch your breath. When your eyes fall to his face, he is smirking. You feel your heart skip a beat as he licks his lips, shaking his hands impatiently. “Come on, baby, untie me now.” You chuckle, shaking your head at him. “I don’t think so,” you whisper into his ear, pulling on his horns again, enjoying the way his brows twitch and he closes his eyes. He moves his hands again, with more force this time. Still, he doesn’t actually try to get out of the ropes. 

Wonwoo groans as he watches you, throwing his head back as soon as you collect yourself and start exploring his body. It starts with his horns, watching to see his reaction every time you touch them, then you slowly move across his face to his chest, tracing his bare skin under his shirt. His eyes widen again when you move to touch his wings, the feeling of your cold fingertips sending shivers through his body. 

You pull down his pants next, scoffing at how messy his underwear is by now, his precum leaking through the fabric. You grab his tail, gently moving your hand over it until you get to the end and pull, making him gasp. “You’re so sensitive,” you tease him, watching his dick twitch. “What are we going to do about this?” You coo softly, brushing your hand over his crotch. 

“Baby, please,” he whines, thrusting his hips up against the air. You shake your head, pulling down his underwear with ease. He breathes out in relief when you free his cock, watching as you wrap your hand around the base. “I said I’ll ride you insane, didn’t I?” You ask innocently, aligning yourself above his cock as you slowly sit down, a whine escaping your lips. 

Wonwoo watches you move on his cock, your mouth wide open as he thrusts his hips into you as fast as he can, almost as if it was revenge for teasing him before. You try to slow down, pull out or anything, but every time you’re only met with a harsher trust, full of need. “Wa-Wait, let me,” you say in between moans, his lips turning up into a smirk. “After you untie me,” he says, thrusting into you after each word. 

You gasp, shaking your head in protest. “N-No,” you disagree, quickly finding his tail and pulling on it to get the upper hand again. He groans, grabbing the ropes around his hands and pulling on them fiercely. You grin again when his thrusts turn sloppy and he glances at you. “Please,” he begs and your head goes blank for a second. “Want to touch you, feel you.” 

Your eyes roll back at his words, bouncing on his cock slowly again. You sigh as you gaze into his eyes, leaning down and pressing your lips on his. “Okay,” you whisper, and without another second of hesitation, he tears the rope apart, freeing his hands on his own. He holds your ass, his fingers digging into the soft flesh as he helps you move up and down, his lips never leaving yours. 

The room is shortly after filled with the mixture of your and his moans, the smell of your sweaty bodies filling the air. You don’t care at all, ignoring the sweat on your forehead as his cock slides in and out of you. You kiss his collarbone, muffling your whines against his skin as you leave love bites all over his neck, marking him yours. 

“I’m gonna–” he doesn’t even get to finish his sentence as you speed your movements, driving him over the edge. Your mouth falls open as he fills you up, slipping his cock out after a few more trusts. You fall right beside him on the bed, trying to catch your breath as you feel his cum running down your body. He prompts himself up on his elbows quickly, pushing his wings back into his body so there is enough space. He turns to you, cupping your cheek and pulling you in for another kiss. 

You smile, kissing him back without hesitation. He gazes into your eyes, giving you one of his grins. The same grin you’re slowly falling in love with. He presses his forehead on yours, breathing heavily. “This was great,” he mumbles and you hum in response with a smile. “Can’t wait to repeat it,” you chuckle, kissing him again. 

Just as he turns you so you would be under him and places wet kisses on your neck, a sharp knock on the door interrupts him. “Your Majesty, are you in there?” He closes his eyes in protest, acting as if staying silent could help him avoid whoever was outside the door. “We need to discuss a few things regarding your duties. We should also talk about what we’re going to do with the knights, sir.” 

Wonwoo groans when the voice doesn’t leave, plopping back down on the bed beside you. You laugh at him, encouraging him to get up. He tries to argue, but the man behind the door only insists more and he is left with no other choice. He’ll just have to enjoy you again later. 

10 years later 

The laughter of your husband mixed with your daughter’s fills your ears and you watch them run around the forest while you walk behind. You know you could have taken the carriage or fly, but there was something nostalgic about walking through here. 

“She has him wrapped around her little finger,” Chan beside you laughs, watching the scene ahead. You chuckle, glancing at him and his wife. “If your son didn’t have a lesson with Seokmin today, you would be out there running with them, “ you point out and he rolls his eyes. He doesn’t argue, though. 

“Mom! Are we almost there?” Your daughter runs to you, leaving Wonwoo forgotten. He scoffs in disbelief as he watches the two of you, crossing his arms over his chest. You shake your head at him, picking up the little devil. Literally. 

“You see those houses ahead?” You point and her eyes follow your finger. “It’s right there,” you smile. She nods, resting her head on your shoulder. “Come on, let’s get you to dad so he can carry you, yeah?” She shakes her head in disagreement, making you chuckle. “How about uncle Chan then?” You suggest, watching as she raises her head to look at the blond beside you. She thinks for a second and then nods. 

“Alright, come here, princess,” he takes her from you and you walk to Wonwoo, wrapping your arm around his. “She can’t honestly prefer him over me, right?” He asks, hurt. You laugh at him, shaking your head. “She’s a kid. You’re going to bore her from time to time. Let her play with Chan and Jisoo for now, it’s no big deal.” 

And so, for the rest of the walk, your daughter stays with the two while you lead the way to the Little Village, a smile spreading across your face immediately when you get closer. It’s been years since you’ve been here. 

“Ara! Be careful!” Wonwoo calls after your daughter as she jumps off Chan’s arms and runs around the moment you reach the center, examining every corner she can. He sighs and you shake your head slightly. “I’ll go find Mingyu and you look after her,” you proclaim, kissing your husband’s cheek. However, before you can turn around and do as you said, a strong voice interrupts you. “There’ll be no need for that, firefly.” 

Your smile grows wider as you land your eyes on the tall man, pulling him into a hug immediately. It’s only when you pull away that you notice the little human hiding behind his leg, crouching down to be at the same height. “And who might this be?” 

“You have a son?” Wonwoo’s eyes widen and he comes closer to greet the man as well. “For six years now,” Mingyu nods with a small laugh, looking down at him. “Siwoo, it’s okay. Those are my friends.” He carefully steps forward, watching you and Wonwoo. “What are you doing here?” He asks, glancing back at Wonwoo. 

“We came to visit,” you shrug, calling after Ara to come join you. “You still have to show me the mother of your son, remember?” 

Mingyu chuckles, nodding. “Come join us for lunch then,” he offers and without a second thought, you agree. 

His house is still the same it was years ago, except for a few new toys lying around and his son’s clothes everywhere on the couch. You have to smile. “I’ve heard a lot about all of you,” Mingyu’s wife introduces herself, tugging her brown hair behind her ears. You shake her hand immediately, saying how lovely it is to finally meet her. Who would have thought it’d take you ten whole years to come back here? 

After Mingyu quickly cleans up all of the mess in the living room, you all gather on the couch, leaving your kids to play on their own in Siwoo’s room. Ara was quick to befriend him, showing off her powers to him. He was scared at first, hiding behind the table, but when she made a fire snowflake in her hand, he peaked out again, curious. 

“So, the demon queen,” Mingyu starts, leaning back in his chair as he watches you proudly. “And a famous knight,” he adds, creating a smile on your face. “You heard?” 

“Jeonghan seems to know a lot of things,” he shrugs casually. His eyes flicker from Wonwoo back to you, smiling warmly. “I’m glad you got to be everything at once like you wanted.” 

You feel your eyes water at his words, the memories of the past ten years running through your mind. You did do everything you wanted. You managed to balance people’s expectations with what you always dreamed of and made the best of it. It couldn’t have been any better. 

“Hadn’t it been for her, the kingdom would be a mess,” Jisoo nods. You groan, closing your eyes in embarrassment as praises start to leave your friends’ lips, extolling you as if you were some sort of goddess. “It’s nothing like that,” you quickly shake your head. “Oh, no, she’s right, it’s not,” Wonwoo agrees, wrapping his arm around your shoulder. “It’s so much better.” 

And so, you chat throughout the whole afternoon with your old friends, talking about everything that comes to mind at the moment. You mention how much Ara takes after her father, and Wonwoo adds that she has your eyes. Chan talks about his son as well, ranting about how he and Seokmin’s son never leave each other’s side, bothering all of you with their crazy ideas. 

Mingyu also tells you about his son, daydreaming about his wife while she sits right beside him, and you have to smile. You know he’s found a great woman just when you look at them. You also find out Jeonghan had finally moved into the village as well, even though he often leaves to visit heaven still, staying civil with the rest of the angels. 

It feels good to know everyone is doing well. 

You rest your head on Wonwoo’s shoulder, nodding as you listen. He smiles, pressing a kiss on the top of your head before he focuses on Chan’s old story about how he and Jisoo met again. When he finishes, Wonwoo can’t help but tell the story of how the two of you met, calling it the best day of his life. 

⋆✶ izzy's tags @beomiracles @adel222 @liaatiny @cherrylovescheol @bamgeutsz @codeinebelle @luvsicktyun @xylatox @usuallyunlikelyfox @zi-vian @brrytears @stormy1408 @dontwannacry04 @soobabby @nshmrarki ✶⋆ want to get notified? join taglist here!

[tizzyizzy]

Izzy-Misunderstanding Ed-Apologist: Ugh, I hate it when people ignore all of a character's flaws and demonize their victims.

Normal Person: Oh man, I hate that. What's this about?

IMEA: So there's this character called Izzy, and he's constantly abusing Ed, but people keep taking Ed's actions out of context and blaming Ed.

NP: What did Ed do?

IMEA: He forced Izzy to eat his own toe, well, toes, but—

NP: WHAT

IMEA: No, let me finish! I was saying he only didn't it because Izzy threatened to kill him if he wasn't a tough pirate.

NP: I...I guess that makes sense if they're pirates. He didn't have a lot of other options.

IMEA: It was such a messed up scene. Izzy said he should have let the English kill him, Ed had better watch his step, and that he'd only serve Blackbeard.

NP: So this Blackbeard guy was Izzy's boss?

IMEA: Ed's Blackbeard. Well, Izzy FORCES him to be Blackbeard.

NP: Ed's...Izzy's boss? Why didn't he just fire the guy?

IMEA: Izzy might have come back and hurt him!

NP: Well, I guess it's better than killing him? Feed Izzy his own toe so he's so scared he never comes back to hurt him.

IMEA: Oh Izzy's still there.

NP: Wait, he's keeping this guy around? Like, in the brig?

IMEA: Izzy is Ed's first mate.

NP: ...Ed was so scared of this guy he forced him to eat his own toes to keep him at bay, but he still acts as second in command?

IMEA: He had no other choice! Remember, Izzy threatened to kill him!

NP: Okay, so why didn't Ed kill him?

IMEA: Ed doesn't kill. Except for the time with the fire and when he steered the ship into a storm and killed most of his crew and everyone he killed in S2.

NP: Couldn't he have the crew kill Izzy?

IMEA: It's Izzy's fault his relationship with the crew is so bad! Izzy made him fell so unsafe that poor Ed went on a brutal, murderous rampage across the ocean, driving his crew to the brink. And then Izzy, who was ultimately responsible, had the gall to whine about the atmosphere on the ship and the crew being stretched thin, like it wasn't all his fault.

NP:...

IMEA: Frankly I think Ed feeding him his own toes and shooting his leg off was reclaiming his agency.

[canonizzyhours]

“Istg if I see another moron making an edit that overlaps Izzy's speech about piracy and belonging with images of Stede and/or Ed or even using the whole crew while deliberately excluding only Izzy from it I'm going to fucking set something on fire”

“It’s about belonging to something” is one of the thesis statements of OFMD. It doesn’t belong to Izzy alone and it doesn’t just apply to his story. Community is what the show is about.

Stede, a man who was isolated and in every way a misfit at home, really did find a family at sea. He brought his crew together, and his kinder ways of pirating changed them and served as a catalyst for their radical kindness and forgiveness in season two. This man created a safe community in an environment that usually fosters fear and violence and mistrust.

Ed was also isolated, not just from others but also from himself. He didn’t have friends. His closest companion was Izzy, someone whose sole purpose in life was keeping him trapped in his Blackbeard persona. In the course of the show, he learned who he was, embraced a community, and then had to work to earn that community’s forgiveness after a grave misstep. 

Jim abandoned a life of revenge for a life of love. They carried on Stede’s work in his absence and helped keep the Kraken crew together and sane. The Kraken crew held on to hope that Ed would recover. They helped Izzy even though they had every reason to hate him. 

And Izzy delivered our thesis statement because, more than anyone, he was impacted by the power of a community. The crew was kind to him even though he rejected them at every turn. They made him a prosthetic leg. Wee John taught him to apply makeup and everyone celebrated his drag moment. This community was good to him because that’s what they DO, and that kindness transformed him.

It’s not about glory. It’s not about being the most successful, competent, or terrifying pirate. It’s not about being hailed as a hero. It’s about belonging to a community that accepts you and allows you to make mistakes and grow. 

Izzy was not given this line because he’s the most important character. “It’s about belonging to something” is about everyone. No one’s stealing Izzy’s words, and it’s actually okay to take the core message of the show and use it in any way that feels fitting. 

It’s a beautiful message! I hope that you all feel like you belong to something, whoever your favorite blorbo is.

#430.

[blueikeproductions]

No trailer yet as of typing, but EarthSpark’s final (?) seven episodes synopsis have dropped.

Well rather six episodes, as the first episode just uses the “Terrans raised by their human family” stock jargon.

Spoilers obviously.

Just eyeballing what we have, the main story seems to be the Quintessons making their move with a spy planted on Earth, and possibly using the Hate Plague to cause trouble.

Prowl seems to crash land on Earth aboard a ship, so I guess he wasn’t already on Earth to begin with despite the G1 prologue suggesting he was. The seven episodes make zero mention of Cybertron so unless it’s explored briefly via Prowl or Cosmos, I’m leaning towards any sort of Cybertron plot having been cancelled.

I don’t see Terratronus or the Decepticons having a satisfying pay off either as the “Decepticon Dome” is only brought up once, and never comes up again, as most of the synopsis only talks about the Autobots, Terrans and Quintessons.

I’m going to hazard a guess Terratronus may be freed in the first episode but the Decepticons are still bubbled like Corrupted Gems, but I don’t know how that works as Terratronus is never mentioned otherwise. She could be used to fight the Quintessons again, or she’s just permanently immobilized stupidly like Trypticon was in Cyberverse at series end.

Unless there’s a mega happy ending that sees them revived, I don’t see Spitfire and Aftermath coming back. Animated Starscream got his Allspark shard ripped out and died when the Allspark reformed, and he would’ve stayed dead had Slipstream not reluctantly used a piece of her shard to reactivate him in a deleted scene. With the Emberstone dust now, there’s no conceivable way those two Terrans are back up and running, and if they are anyway, living in the Dome as if nothing happened, then that’s just bullshit writing. Besides I don’t understand why some fans were horrified at the Decepticons killing the Chaos Terrans. Let me make this absolutely clear: the Decepticons are the main villains of the franchise, their actions decimated Cybertron, killed millions of robots on their own planet, and saw the Transformers come to Earth in the first place. Starscream ripping out the life force of younger Transformers for a cheap power grab is absolutely in character for him. His entire role in Cyberverse saw him casually kill his own troops, and then try to kill his entire race multiple times for petty slights against him. This Starscream is revealed to be just as petty, nudging him closer to his G1 and Marvel G1 self. If they try to fix him again in the finale, that’s gonna be more bullshit writing. A perfect example of not picking a lane and sticking to it.

So @monocle-teacup and I have discussed this off and on, how the show seems hellbent on isolating the Maltos and not giving them any meaningful human interaction. Case in point: Izzy. The synopsis lets slip Izzy is working for the Quintessons, with the previous episode mentioning a shape shifting creature the kids encounter with a shocking secret. This suggests Izzy was an alien plant by the Quintessons, and isn’t human at all.

-rubs temples-

Why.

This is the same staff that made Prime, RiD15 and Rescue Bots (most of the S1 cast were fired and replaced with Aligned veterans), and Jack, Russel, Denny, Cody & his siblings had healthy human friendships outside of the Transformers.

Why is the show forcing the Maltos to be Transformer nerds so wrapped up in their hobby they’ve cut off other humans? It felt like they were fixing that with Izzy, but now she likely isn’t even human? And for that matter, why not just make Izzy a Transformer anyway via a Pretender. This show is so for hard core fans in the middle than casuals and kids anyway, so why not? Have her be a Pretender Shell, with the inner robot being Overcharge, a mass produced Triple Changer drone built by the Quintessons in Japanese media. That would be more sincere than whatever they’re gonna do in the end. It reminds me of the Irma being Krang Sub-Prime reveal in 2012 TMNT and I wasn’t fond of that either.

I’ve seen other fans bring up Hasbro’s inability to fully let go of G1, and I think that’s hurt EarthSpark, due to confusion in using the G1 art style to explain the show’s backstory. People still think it’s supposed to be a sequel to G1 despite it clearly not being one in execution. The old writers initially calling it “G1.5” absolutely did not help. And now we have the Hate Plague back. The Hate Plague hasn’t really been a popular concept writers feel compelled to go back to, with it seeing a brief return in Beast Machines where Megatron used it to make a point. It appears to be weaponized by the Quintessons here, and in G1, it famously was defeated by unleashing the ancient wisdom of the Matrix. Here, it sounds like Twitch is going to solve it, but how we don’t know yet as of typing, though I’m leaning towards Beast Machines’ more simplified “We put aside our differences and work together” approach to cancel it out.

So if these are the final episodes, it only being seven, that should tell you how Hasbro and Paramount were feeling about this show towards the end. They seem much more satisfied with One, which while tanking and toy sales not looking great that I can tell, is widely regarded very positively by fans and some casual audiences that DID watch it. So barring what CyberWorld does, and Lorenzo openly talking about doing more with One in a recent interview, it’s looking like EarthSpark’s era is truly at an end. A series that started off ok but went off the rails immediately, and no attempt at course correction has managed to put its train back on track.

Hopefully I’m wrong and these final episodes are more like RiD15’s own Weaponizer arc, a stronger story with fewer episodes, but EarthSpark’s track record speaks for itself…

[im-out-of-it]

part 6 of season 2, episode 19 “hail and farewell” continued THE HEATED STARES ARE OVER MAGNUS OUT ALEC MAD

80. the Queen really said “you can’t talk to Magnus” with her eyes and said you shall address me instead Mr. Lightwood I GET IT BUT STOP ADDING FUEL TO THIS FIRE

81. this scene is so heated and no argument has been said. Malec is capable of lighting up the room with zero words and all the stares

Magnus: I’m out

Alec: and I’m mad

82. the seelie Queen: I said no, bye

83. Alec: MAGNUS YOU HAVE MY APOLOGY

84. I really do think that Alec is targeting his words towards Magnus. he does care about the downworld but it’s Magnus he most feels regret and shame for. he knows that by not telling Magnus about the sword, that Alec in a way lost some trust there. even with how he says it, it’s still Magnus he looks at

85. I love seeing Luke be cordial and friendly with Alec. Magnus is the only downworlder to leave right away lmao Luke is like I’m sorry but she scares me and I need her protection

86. Luke: if the Queen has a heart, I don’t know of it

87. Clary thinks if she begs Luke not to take the queens side that he won’t. BITCH HE HAS A PACK TO TAKE CARE OF

88. HE IS FINALLY PUTTING HIS PACK FIRST SO SHUT UP CLARY

89. for the first half of season two, Luke put clary first so excuse you clary if Luke decides to be a leader and take care of his people. reason #72882992 why clary would make an awful leader. she would just do what she wanted

Luke doesn’t want to join forces with the seelie Queen but he’s thinking of his people and the protection they will need if an all out war ensues. Raphael says “if the downworld continues to refuse to cooperate with the clave” (basically) that it’ll lead to war (IM FOR CHANGE)

90. yes everyone stop sacrificing yourselves for clary

91. nice to see a gentle father/daughter moment

92. SO GET TOGETHER ALREADY

93. I don’t see why they didn’t at least attempt to have Raphael and Izzy date. they know it’s more than being high and they have feelings for each other

94. I think Izzy looks best in red ITS A FACT

95. Izzy and Raphael looks during the meeting

96. I’m sorry but why aren’t they together????? they don’t put Simon on Izzy until the end of season three. they wasted so much time teasing Izzy and Raphael to just not do anything about it?????

97. I’m not saying they have to last but at least put some effort in and see how they do as a couple

98. I’m honestly convinced that the writers were like but he’s asexual, they can’t date!!!!! I’m sort of looking into the whole aspect of being asexual but you can still have a relationship and a bond without having sex. do straight people assume you can’t build a relationship without sex????? some people only want that emotional connection so what’s wrong with that?????

99. (this is more for the writers and my irritation with them) I know Alec is mad and probably heartbroken from Magnus but I wish he would talk to Izzy about it and let us see that. because I want Alec to understand why Magnus made the decision he did. AND I WANT HIM TO TALK ABOUT THAT BLODY SWORD. yeah we get “that bad” from Izzy and Alec not talking but it would’ve been great growth to see Alec talking to Izzy about it

I think for me it’s wanting Alec to admit the actual problem- the clave. he knows the clave and what they’re capable of but it’s like now that he’s in charge, he doesn’t want to admit or tries to. he used to be “screw this” like Alec sweetheart, you wouldn’t have gotten that promotion if jace who shouldn’t have had it in the first place gave it to you. they hate that you’re gay and that you’re with/were/will again be with Magnus. I just want to know that Alec isn’t mad at Magnus but the actual situation itself. some of the clave members want people as Magnus Raphael Maia gone and Alec would do well to remember that

but also I understand why he’s upset. Magnus is on the opposing opposition now and not on team alec. but put yourself in his shoes alec and understand why he feels the way he does. at least they mend their hearts and love next episode

I want him to go against the clave and watch him make those changes instead of it being skipped over at season three because they cancelled the show. I just wanted to see and witness Alec making change. he shouldn’t trust them and I feel that he knows this in his heart

I’m stopping at 100 and this is for real the last one for today but I’m picking up tomorrow. I’ll be finishing the Izzy and Raphael content and then moving onto the Maia stuff ✨ I got 12 ish minutes done today so I’m very much proud of my skills

[skyefullofdaisies]

I ran across a tweet this morning that said

‘What was one Grey’s Anatomy couple that just didn’t make sense?’ It had a picture of Izzie and George underneath it. Which is true. Those two were horrifying with no chemistry.

I wrote in the replies that Maggie and Jackson were a close second. It’s getting quite a few likes so it’s definitely a popular sentiment. Many others listed them as well. Mostly because of the stepsister thing. That’s not hate to Maggie’s character at all, though. She really got the short end of the stick at the end of the day.

Let’s be real here Jackson was using her to get over April and convince himself he wasn’t still in love with April. The fans wanted Japril. The two actors wanted Japril. The Montana episode was supposed to be their reunion for good until Krista (pretty sure that was the show runner at the time) bulldozed it because, I swear she had beef with Sara Drew and took it out on Japril. She shoehorned Maggie and Matthew in there. Fired Sara Drew, had April marry Matthew which made 0 sense for her character and tried to have Jackson act like Maggie was the one he wanted.

Just to turn around and bring April back during Jackson’s goodbye arc to undo the damage she wrought for Japril and pissing off us shippers, who never let her rest until she properly fixed Japril btw, then to bring both back again to drive home that they were back together as they should’ve been to begin with in the Montana episode. All that work just to do what we wanted in the end anyway, lol. Idk if there was actual beef there but the way Krista handled Japril and then fired Sara was weird.

Maggie got the shit end of that stick. It was so clear who Jackson really wanted to be with. The fans didn’t like the couple for the most part and the step sister thing was weird.

Anyway, Japril supremacy 💜💜 (because we ended up getting what we wanted anyway)

[tayas-words]

Shadowhunters Headcannons!

Hi! So this is like my first post post and I hope you like it and feel free to share some of your own head cannons!

——————————————

- first off not a head cannon but Simon Lewis is by far one of the most underrated characters in the books and in the show. He is my absolute favourite character and I love how Alberto Rosende plays him

- Within the Sizzy or Climon or Saia relationships, I think Simon would be the one to like read out loud to them if they’re just relaxing (rlly unpopular opinion I actually really liked Clary and Simon together)

-Simon will refuse to drink blood from Clary, no matter how hungry he is, he absolutely refuses to drink from her even if it’s just her wrist. He also doesn’t like doing it to Izzy, it was a one time thing when he almost died.

- When Simon and Clary were younger they would make Jocelyn and Luke play hide and seek, one time Clary dragged him up into a tree and he got a nosebleed from his cute little puppy love crush on her, and that’s how Luke found them in the tree.

- despite his flashy style, Magnus hates wearing suits

-on the contrary, he LOVES seeing Alec in suits

-Luke hates cats, but Jocelyn always wanted one so when he moved in with them, he bought her one. The cat hates him and he hates the cat, they fight when Clary and Jocelyn aren’t around.

- When figuring out his sexuality, he was caught staring at some of the older shadowhunters training, mouth wide open, Izzy walked up to him and went “close your mouth or you’re gonna catch some flies big brother” (she knew way before he did)

-After Jem showed up at the institute, Will found himself unable to sleep unless he heard Jem playing his violin

- Charlotte often found Jem, Will, and Tessa all asleep in the library; Tessa in a chair with a book fallen on her lap, Jem on the couch his hands protectively (cuddling basically) his violin, and Will sittin on the floor in front of the couch near Jem passed out drooling

-When Tessa decided she wanted to drink at the institute for the first time, Charlotte made sure she was there to make sure she didn’t over drink, they ended up basically having a girls night.

-As Magnus watched new shadowhunters train and as they came to bug him, as much as he denied it, he loved them all. He saw their ancestors in their faces or their personalities.

- Jace tried to teach Izzy how to cook, they almost set the institue on fire.

——————————————

Let me know what you think and if I should do more of these?

[neilandtodd]

Shared Heartstrings

summary

Clary was sitting on the edge of the roof’s railing, her feet swinging and dangling into the air. She looked out towards the skyline with a crease in her brow. Alec took a couple of steps towards her, trying to step louder with his feet so he didn’t startle her. He came up right next to her before she said anything. “Hi Alec,” she said, the hands in her lap suddenly very interesting. “I activated my equilibrium rune. Don’t worry.” “I wasn’t worried. You know your runes better than a lot of us,” Alec replied, taking out his stele and running it over his own equilibrium rune behind his right shoulder. 

Alec was quick to catch Magnus before he left the Institute. The context of their fight was important, and something they would need to talk about eventually, but with everything going on with Jace, he couldn’t handle fighting with Magnus, too. 

He had known, with every fiber of his being, that Jace had died at Lake Lyn. There was only one explanation for his rune disappearing. But actually hearing it from Clary was like losing him all over again. He had felt that familiar sting in his side that he did that night. It was still there, like a rock stuck in his shoe. Whether that was from the trauma of reliving the memory of Jace’s death or something going on with Jace right now, wherever he was, he couldn’t tell.

He couldn’t possibly be mad at Clary for using the wish. If it were Magnus, Izzy, or Max lying dead at his feet, he wouldn’t hesitate. But if it was Jace, Alec would offer that Raziel kill him instead. Being without him, even for only the few hours before his rune reappeared, were the worst moments of his life. He would do anything, anything, to never feel that way again. 

He wasn’t even upset that Clary hadn’t told him, at least not after a few moments to sit with it. Of course, Jace would tell her to keep this a secret. Clary had broken the Clave’s most fundamental law, had used the one wish from the Angel, all to bring Jace back. Jace couldn’t let the Clave execute Clary for something she did to save him. Clary also understood the horrible position this news would put Alec in with the Clave, and would never ask him to keep a secret like that. And it did. This put him in a horrific position, challenging his loyalty to his family and the importance of his job. The decision was simple, however; Alec owed it to Clary to keep a hold on this secret as long as possible. He would let the Clave continue to believe Clary preserved the wish for her safety. 

(Though, if he was honest, he was kind of glad the wish was gone. Its power to destroy anything and everything was too great a power for the Clave to have. Especially when it had almost been used to kill all Downworlders.)

After Magnus left, Alec had instructed all available personnel to watch the scanners for signs of Jace. He had also sent fire messages to those on patrol, asking them to keep an eye out in the field. Isabelle was researching demonic possessions to see if they would give us a clue on how to free Jace from Lilith’s influence. Scanning the Ops center, he didn’t see the flash of red hair he expected to.

He walked over to where Isabelle was pouring through the archives. “Where’s Clary?”

“Not sure. I saw Magnus give her another once over with his magic and then she disappeared after that. Do you want me to find her?” She said, not looking up from the screen.

“No, it’s fine. I have a pretty good idea of where she is,” Alec said.

The roof of the Institute was a popular spot for quiet contemplation, or, for Alec, secluded enough where he could send arrow after arrow exploding into Brooklyn’s skyline. It was also where Shadowhunters always seemed to go when they thought they had done something so irredeemable that only the call of the void could settle their screaming soul. He knew Clary would be there.

Alec wasn’t angry at Clary, nor blamed her, nor hated her, but she didn’t know that. She didn’t believe that. Pushing the bar on the door to the stairs, Alec was right.

Clary was sitting on the edge of the roof’s railing, her feet swinging and dangling into the air. She looked out towards the skyline with a crease in her brow. Alec took a couple of steps towards her, trying to step louder with his feet so he didn’t startle her. He came up right next to her before she said anything.

“Hi Alec,” she said, the hands in her lap suddenly very interesting. “I activated my equilibrium rune. Don’t worry.”

“I wasn’t worried. You know your runes better than a lot of us,” Alec replied, taking out his stele and running it over his own equilibrium rune behind his right shoulder. 

He had placed a lot of his runes under the assumption that Jace would always be there to activate them, thus making them more effective. That was fine; Jace normally was there. Now, his stomach hurt with that thought while trying to reach around blind. He felt the angelic energy imbue his veins with power. The little unconscious adjustments the muscles in his ankles and thighs made to keep himself upright stopped, and he moved with ease as he threw his legs over the railing to match Clary’s position. 

“Well, when you can draw new runes, it’s kind of important to know all the others,” she said, moving the hand that was on the railing closer to her body to accommodate Alec. 

“How are you?” Alec asked, mentally kicking himself. It was a stupid, bland question to ask, but every conversational script he had started with it. He was editing as he went.

“What? You mean sitting on the edge of the Institute’s roof hours after Jace threw me off one?” Clary said, wincing slightly when she moved. 

“Something like that.”

“I thought I’d be afraid of heights or of falling, but I’m mostly just angry. And I’m still sore, even with Magnus’ healing magic,” she said. Her voice had this uncharacteristic cynicism in it, which, while understandable, was extremely disheartening to hear.

“It wasn’t him,” Alec said simply. Clary already knew that, Alec was sure, but a reminder couldn’t hurt.

She inhaled sharply while shaking her head. “Yeah, but it looked like him. It sounded like him. As far as my nervous system is concerned, it was him. Laying on that car, my entire body screaming, I really thought that was it. And I was fine with it. I killed Jace, it was only fair that he killed me, right?” 

This took Alec by surprise. He had never heard Clary talk like this. Misplaced guilt was normally Alec and Jace’s thing, or maybe just a Shadowhunter thing in general. Hearing how little her life mattered to her, if only for a moment, was also uncharacteristic. 

“You killed him? What do you mean?” Alec asked. 

“I should have known Valentine would be there. He’s my father, of course he would have a plan like that. And now Jace is…what he is because of me. Because I’m selfish.”

“You’re not selfish,” Alec started, seeing Clary’s face shift in disbelief. “You’re not. I can’t live without him. I’ve already tried.”

“The only reason you know how that feels is because of me. I’ve caused nothing but trouble since I got here. Maybe my mom was right to keep me away.”

Had it been a few months ago, Alec would have agreed with her—he said as much to her face once. Now, though, hearing her say this actually hurt him. Clary was misattributing the chaos of the last few months to her arrival. It was true that all of them had been through a lot since she arrived, but that wasn’t directly Clary’s fault. It was Valentine’s and now Lilith’s. But more importantly, all of them were better since she arrived. Jace wasn’t living exclusively for the hunt anymore. Izzy had the best friend she had always wanted. Magnus had the girl he watched grow up in his life now. Alec himself likely wouldn’t have had the courage to accept his feelings for Magnus without her open-minded nature. Things were different since she arrived, but they were better. 

“Your mom wasn’t right. We’re Shadowhunters, trouble would have found us with or without you. Jace, too. Danger finds him easily. One of the major drawbacks to being his Parabatai.” Alec gave her a noncommittal shrug. Shadowhunters died young; Jace had always seemed intent on proving it. Alec had accepted that a long time ago.

“Why do it?” Clary asked. Alec gave her a puzzled look. “If being a Shadowhunter is so dangerous, why choose to tie yourself that close to someone?”

Finding a Parabatai was actually a rare thing for Shadowhunters; something easy to forget when Alec’s own father used to have one before the Uprising. Parabatai were a tough concept for people to grasp, even for those raised as Shadowhunters from birth. It made sense why Clary would be confused.

Alec, like always, saw fit to answer with a story. “It’s based on the biblical tale of Johnathan and David, two warriors whose souls were knit together by heaven. They loved each other as their own souls. The first Parabatai, Johnathan Shadowhunter and his companion David, took this idea and made the ritual. It made them stronger, much stronger than Raziel’s blood in their veins alone. Their bond was broken after David became the first Silent Brother, a pain so keenly felt by Johnathan that his screams were reportedly heard over miles.” Alec paused, the sharp pain in his hip making him wince. “We do it because it makes us better. Because finding someone whose soul is knit with yours is magic in itself.”

“Why did you do it?” Clary interjected.

“He makes me whole,” Alec said simply.

“What was it like? When he died, I mean,” Clary asked.

“Do you remember that blizzard that hit the city a few years ago?” A freak weather event that had turned out to be entirely mundane. She nodded. “After the excruciating pain of his actual death passed, it was like I was in the middle of that blizzard. The snow swirling in every direction, causing the landscape to look completely white. I was so unbelievably lost. Not being able to feel him anymore was even worse. A part of me was gone. Jace took it when he went. I have never felt that empty.”

He had thought about following Jace to wherever Nephlim went when they died in battle. If Magnus and Izzy hadn’t been there, he probably would have. Other people needed him and he vowed to be there for them in that moment, even if it meant living as a hollowed out version of himself.

“Alec, I am so unbelievably sorry. For not protecting him. For not noticing that something was wrong until it was too late. For not telling you about the wish. For causing you to know what losing a Parabatai feels like. For everything since I got here. I’m so sorry,” Clary said, eyes shining.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. I meant what I said. I would have done this same thing,” Alec said.

Clary didn’t respond, nodding and looking out towards the skyline instead. He saw a few tears escape the corner of her eyes that she hastily wiped away with the back of her hand. 

Glancing down at Clary’s hands in her lap, Alec saw her picking at the skin on her thumb. Without giving himself time to overthink it, he grabbed her hand and wrapped it in both of his. He stroked the side of her thumb with his. She was receptive to the gesture despite her thinking herself undeserving of it, Alec knew. Alec’s mind began to wander.

He didn’t know what to think of Clary when she had first arrived. His feelings towards her were so intertwined with his feelings for Jace that once he had let go of those, he wasn’t left with much to work with. She was a girl who wasn’t Izzy—he didn’t have a script for that. Things got even more complicated after he killed Jocelyn. 

(Or, after the demon killed her, as everyone kept telling him.)

Clary was inhumanly forgiving towards Alec. It had made him feel guilty to the point of nausea. A part of him was relieved when Iris Rouse’s spell made him hallucinate Clary being furious with him. He needed that. He needed Clary to call him a monster. He needed someone to tell him it was his fault. He didn’t deserve her forgiveness. Then the ruse was revealed and Alec felt even worse, if that was somehow possible. Again, Clary expressed her forgiveness, absolving him of blame. It made him want to tear at his chest like he, the demon, tore at Jocelyn’s, but it also helped him form some conceptualization of how he felt about her. She was kind, genuine, compassionate, unboundedly forgiving, and generous. He began seeing her as an ally and a friend; the sting of his guilt around Jocelyn lessened through her grace. It was still there, and likely always would be, but it was easier to manage every time Clary looked at him with a light in her green eyes instead of contempt.

Their relationship was like that for a while. They had each other’s backs. The script changed when Clary told him about the wish—about what she did for Jace. He realized Clary was the only other person in the world who understood the lengths he would go to for Jace, because she would go to them too; she did go to them. His family was the most important thing in Alec’s life, and Clary protected his family. She was family now, too. That was the only thing she could be to Alec after what she did. She was his little sister with the same ties that made Jace his brother; by something much stronger than blood.

The new realization hadn’t hit him until he was looking down at their hands, his eclipsing hers. The scene looked identical to his memories of doing the same with Izzy. He was a big brother before he was little else. 

Alec lost track of how long they sat like this while he was lost in thought, but it was apparently long enough for Clary to grow uncomfortable because she yanked her hand out of Alec’s grasp and swung her legs around to start pacing the roof with her hands on her hips, agitation clearly building.

“Yell at me,” she blurted, turning towards him as Alec got up. Her expression was tense.

“What?” Alec asked. He approached her slowly, like she was a bomb that needed defusing. 

“Scream at me. Tell me it’s my fault.” Her hands curled into fists at her sides as her chest heaved.

Alec knew what she was after—he had once sought the same thing from her. “I can’t, Clary.”

“Please. Please,” she begged.

Alec hated seeing her like this, but he couldn’t give in. Her forgiveness set him free; now he had a chance to do the same for her. She was beginning to collapse in on herself, her guilt and grief threatening to overwhelm.

Alec placed his hands on each of her shoulders gently, dipping his head down to meet her eyes. “It’s not your fault.”

She started beating against his chest, trying to push him off of her, but there was no energy in it. “Alec!” She shouted, trying to make him listen.

“It is not your fault,” he said, emphasizing each word.

With one final punch, she collapsed into his arms. Alec adjusted his arms to wrap around her shoulders. He rested his chin on top of her head while she grabbed onto him like a life-saving device, sobbing into his chest.

“Alec…” she muttered between hitched breaths.

“It’s okay. Just breathe,” he said comfortingly. “I know what you’re asking me, and that’s why I can’t do it. You forgave me once. Let me do the same for you. Let me be your big brother.”

She didn’t say anything for a few minutes; her sobs likely made it too hard to speak even if she wanted to. When her breathing had returned to a near normal speed, she started shifting in Alec’s hold, clearly uncomfortable. Alec let her go somewhat reluctantly. It was obvious from the pained look still on her face that she needed the comfort.

“You don’t need to do this,” she said after a while.

“Do what?” 

“Lie to me. I know we’re friendlier now than when we first met, but you don’t have to pretend that I belong here.”

This legitimately hurt Alec to hear. Alec knew he had been unfairly cold towards Clary initially, but he hadn’t known Clary thought he still felt that way. Their interactions with each other had defrosted lately and Alec thought that would’ve been enough for Clary to know he felt different now, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Even worse, Clary’s belief that she didn’t belong was Alec’s fault. He said that to her once. Jace had been missing, of course, and it was easier to blame Clary than blame himself. He wasn’t proud of it, especially because he never actually apologized. Jace came back, and they moved on—or, at least Alec thought they did.

He looked at Clary then, really looked at her. There were dark purple bags under her eyes that weren’t there a few weeks ago. Her hair was tangled from the earlier wind. He looked for any remaining marks from her counter with the Owl but there were none. His attention was drawn instead to the Iratze on her neck—the first mark she ever received. Drawn to save her life when she encountered her first demon without a single mark. The one drawn by the very person who caused its most recent use.

He saw in her eyes a defeatedness that he couldn’t recall ever seeing, and it tore at his heart.

“Clary,” Alec started, closing his eyes for a beat. “I’m so sorry for the way I treated you when we first met. There was a lot I needed to work through and I took it out on you. You didn’t deserve that.” He meant what he had said to Magnus; he really was working on his apologies. He just hoped he was a little better at them by now.

 Clary shrugged. “It’s okay. I could tell you were hurting.”

“I didn’t know how to love somebody outside of my family until Magnus showed me how. Something that never would have happened if not for you. Everyone I love loves you and considers you family. It’s about time I do, too,” Alec said. 

“You mean that?” Clary asked in a small voice.

“Of course I do. I’m sure after today.”

“Today?” She asked, tilting her head.

“You understand how far I would go to protect Jace. You’ve lived it. The rest of our family would do anything for him, too, but they don’t feel it the way you and I do. My instinct to protect him is as strong as my instinct to breathe. You understand that. No one else ever has,” Alec said.

Clary exhaled in a kind of laugh. “You know what Jace said to me after I made the wish?” Alec shook his head. “He said ‘you could have had anything else in the world, and you asked for me.’”

“You didn’t want anything else in the world,” Alec finished for her.

Raziel could have given Clary anything. World peace, the end of hunger and thirst—even her mother. But she didn’t. She asked for Jace. Anyone else would have judged Clary for that, even hated her, but Alec didn’t. Alec couldn’t. He understood what she must have felt that night, better than anyone else ever could. 

“You know, I never realized you’re the only other person who knows how it feels to love Jace like this. In the way that feels…”

“All consuming?” Alec finished again. Being tied to Jace felt like it could engulf him if he wasn’t careful. Like Jace was a star always moments away from supernova and Alec was a planet tied to his orbit.

They stared at each other for a moment. In all the jumbled mess that were his feelings for Clary, he never realized how similar they actually were; both exceedingly stubborn, protective and maybe even a bit excessively self-flagellating.

“I really do mean it, Clary. If you’ll have me, I’d love to be the big brother you deserve,” Alec said once their staring contest seemed to end.

After a few moments, Clary opened her mouth a few times, trying to collect her thoughts. “I think I—” Her breath hitched as she swallowed the lump in her throat. “I think I really need that.”

Alec’s own throat started to pang sympathetically. He met her eyes for silent permission before wrapping her in another tight hug. Clary’s family wasn’t like Alec’s; both of her parents and her brother were gone. Her father and brother were irredeemable monsters, and her mother died before they ever really had a chance to reconcile Jocelyn’s decision to hide Clary from the Shadow World. All she had left were the people she chose to let in, a circle that had gotten progressively smaller lately. He was beyond grateful to be granted this kind of trust.

“Then you’ll have it. You’ll have me.” And it really was that simple.

Alec tightened his hold and placed his chin on her head again. Clary sighed wearily as her body relaxed.

“We’re going to fix him, Clary.”

“We have to.”

There was an unspoken implication in her words, but Alec knew it. Neither of them had any other choice. They had to save Jace, or that was it; there was nothing else. Alec felt better knowing neither he nor Clary had to do it alone. As long as they did this together, Jace would come home safe.

[enteringdullsville]

Statistics, Facts, and Opinions About Total Drama Eliminations (SPOILERRIFFIC)

Harold probably would’ve been eliminated in The Big Sleep had Eva not had her meltdown.

Noah and Trent were probably the only Island contestants to be voted off near unanimously.

There’s no way Cody didn’t vote for Trent in Not Quite Famous.

I love the implication that Katie was eliminated before Sadie solely because everyone says her name first.

Likewise, given that Beth wasn’t in the bottom two in Paintball Deer Hunter, Lindsay went against Heather to vote for either her or Cody. Additionally, Trent (and Gwen, but that’s beside the point) had to have mercy-voted for Cody.

Izzy probably would’ve been voted off regardless of what happened in Up the Creek.

Many people assume Tyler was eliminated due to his comparative weakness in challenges prior, but more likely Duncan just stopped the others from voting Courtney.

Beth’s elimination makes more sense when you remember all her teammates are either superstitious, actively hate her, are at risk for elimination, or Leshawna.

Bridgette, despite being Courtney’s best friend, seemed oddly blasé over her elimination. Given that they’re still friends as late as Hawaiian Style, I think the writers/animators just forgot.

Either Harold, Courtney, and Sadie were in the bottom two in every ceremony they attended before their back-to-back eliminations.

We never find out who Trent voted for in Search and Do Not Destroy. I think the wiki claimed it was Owen, but it was probably Lindsay, who poisoned him a few episodes back.

On that note, I find it hard to believe that they couldn’t think of a better way to eliminate Lindsay, given that she wasn’t exactly popular with the other campers until after this episode. They could’ve easily just voted her out to remove Heather’s one ally. Action rectified this to a degree, since Duncan is constantly being targeted for this exact reason.

Speaking of Duncan, it rubs me the wrong way that he got the Guys Alliance to eliminate Bridgette, Geoff’s girlfriend, when his own girlfriend got eliminated only a week earlier (maybe he thinks he was lying about not voting Courtney). I elect to believe Geoff didn’t vote her off and that Izzy (who stops working with Heather around this point) just betrayed her own alliance to spare Owen.

I heard theories saying Geoff voted himself out in the triathlon episode due to not having fun anymore. Doesn’t explain why Gwen was in the bottom two, though.

Why wasn’t Leshawna eliminated in Camp Castaways instead of Haute Camp-ture? If they agreed to vote Geoff, they probably could’ve done so here. Although, given the events that happened two episodes ago, Duncan might not’ve gone for it.

Mr. Coconut was the first case of a camper being fired from their role, before Owen, Sierra, and Max later on. Granted, he wasn’t a competitor to begin with.

Building on that, we never find out why Geoff and Bridgette voted for Leshawna in Alien Resur-eggtion.

If Izzy was allowed to return because E-Scope was the one eliminated in her place, could Mike continuously dodge elimination by having his alters take his place and swimming back to camp each time?

The Lame-o-zine is the only exit Izzy has ever been seen using, the Boat of Losers is the most used, and Flush of Shame is the least used, beating out the Hurl, Cannon, and Drone due to Duncan’s arrest. The Drone of Despair’s naming structure is a remnant of how the Island/Action exits’ naming schemes, “of Shame” referring to how one gets there. World Tour blurs the difference by only having the Drop of Shame without a true elimination exit, and all further seasons of the original run followed suit.

Owen’s first elimination was technically fair, since it’s his team’s own fault for wasting their votes on an immune Courtney, but he probably should’ve been medically evacuated beforehand anyway. Cody too, for that matter.

I don’t think the Grips fairly won a single elimination challenge.

Beth would’ve beat Duncan by a landslide had everyone actually gotten to vote, although I really don’t think either should’ve won Action.

Izzy’s vote for herself to win was never actually declared invalid.

Up until Scary Girl’s elimination, Harold in Super Happy Crazy Fun Time Japan was the only character to try to vote themself off and fail to do so.

Had Chris stuck to the singing rule, Heather would’ve won anyway.

Had Izzy not returned last season, all three teams would’ve had their lowest ranking members achieve that on multiple teams.

DJ probably sets the record for most consecutive times on the chopping block.

Contrary to popular belief, Alejandro is only tangentially related to Tyler’s elimination. He presumably voted for Owen.

Blaineley was wasted potential, especially since they could’ve brought back a fan favorite in her role, although that’s mostly because the merge was so egregiously late in the season.

Staci’s elimination is unfair for the exact same reasons as Noah’s.

As we all know, Anne Maria never cast or received a vote during her tenure as a contestant.

There are two very different ways to interpret how Scott was eliminated, but what’s certain is that Zoey voted for him.

Cameron’s the closest thing we have to a canon winner, assuming Priya’s ending isn’t the only one for her season.

Lindsay clearly chose to vote herself off and you’re dumber than everyone in All-Stars combined if you think otherwise.

Chris was probably intending for Mal to get voted off in Moon Madness when he made their loser move to the Villainous Vultures.

Alejandro’s been voted off three times despite only getting eliminated once.

In spite of everything that happened in Sundae Muddy Sundae, Gwen still didn’t vote Courtney out, and I respect that.

Gwen, Cameron, Heather, y Alejandro technically reached the finale twice each.

Zoey is the first character since Island to be a finalist but not speak in every episode of the season, having remained silent in Food Fright. Likewise, Mike is the only finalist in the main series to not appear in every non-Aftermath episode of his season, not appearing in Zeek and Ye Shall Find.

It’s unclear if Leonard helped vote for Ella in I Love You Grease Pig or not.

It’s equally unclear if Amy formally returned to the competition.

How Scarlett wound up on the chopping block is never explained, since it’s incredibly out of character for Rodney to vote for her. Maybe Sammy’s still salty about Scarlett ignoring her plight in the last episode.

Given that Dave got one more vote than Sky, courtesy of himself, Sugar (who was uncharacteristically sympathetic to Dave here), Max (who wouldn’t care about Dave’s elimination campaign) and Scarlett (out of pure pragmatism) voted for Sky.

Max was robbed, but given that he had dodged elimination once before, I can forgive it.

Caleb’s elimination is the first time the earliest boot is directly caused by the antagonist.

Like DJ before him, Ripper is on the chopping block every ceremony he attends before his elimination.

Scary finished 13th and was the 4th camper out. Because of course she was. Ironically, between her, Sierra, Anne Maria, and Max, she’s the only purple haired contestant whose elimination was entirely fair (key word being “entirely”). RR has a better track record with Stephanie, Ryan, and Lorenzo.

After Zee’s elimination, Chris owes Courtney and Tyler their revotes.

Aside from Priya and Ripper, one can assume Bowie voted for Millie in the eating challenge, seeing as he said some people were getting too comfortable and Millie had forfeited the challenge immediately.

I find it funny how more boys made the merge than girls, only for them to get eliminated all in a row with the sole exception of Bowie.

Chris’ reaction to Julia’s elimination makes me wonder how often he reads the votes before the ceremonies, seeing as he clearly set up the new tiebreaker rule specifically to screw Millie over.

[justamessedupdisneyprincess]

Lost in labyrinth mall! An onward fanfic! This fic focuses on Izzyley, a SI x Canon ship!

Part 3!

Izzy and Barley happily chatted during the drive to the mall. Along the way they had exchanged music, which was a little activity they tend to do during any road trips. Barley may introduce Izzy to a song he likes whilst Izzy would do the same. The elf was quite surprised to learn about Izzy’s preferred genre. He didn’t know exactly what she might like but it certainly wasn’t something so loud and full of energy and melody. Her love of dubstep was quite ironic given how she tends to hate most loud noises around her. She even introduced him to a new type of genre he has come to really like, even purchasing some of those songs for himself! Metalstep. Which is exactly what it sounds like. Izzy enjoyed many of his songs as well, she liked rock and metal as well. But she has a weak spot for a “sick” drop. Which would be the last thing one would expect from her.

“So ummm…I’ve actually been having some weird dreams where I can make music.” Izzy started at some point in the conversation.

Barley laughed a little. “Pretty much anyone can make music if they pour their heart’s fire right into it.”

“Yeah, but I mean like with mind powers. Like I can make my own dubstep out of thin air.” Izzy added.

Barley laughed a bit harder, he can see what she meant by weird then. “Now that would be one heck of a skill! Y’know I would listen to anything you make.”

“Well they actually sounded super good! Which kind of makes me wonder if I could become a DJ or something…but then I try to make music and it’s so much that I don’t have any idea what to do.” Izzy sighs. “I can hear the drops perfectly in my head but I can’t figure out how to make them a reality. It gave me a newfound respect for musicians.” She sounded a bit frustrated. In some cases Izzy had dreams where she wished so hard for it to be real, these types of dreams were one of them. Of course there are ones she is grateful that are not only real but she hopes to never ever have again, such as anxiety dreams about her teeth falling out, those ones always unsettle her.

Barley shrugs a bit. “You might be able to one day with enough practice. Actually ya know what. I know you totally can do that.”

Izzy chuckles a bit. “I dunno, it all seems pretty complex to me. I guess one day I might try and learn more about it.”

Her creativity, that was just one of the many things Barley loves about her. She is talented with quite a few things, such a writing, drawing and even sculpting. But the main thing that made her stand out were her ideas. She had so many of them, so many it can get overwhelming for her at times. She would often describe how she doesn’t get art block or writers block, but rather she gets so many ideas she doesn’t know where to start. She calls her brain a factory for concepts and that it’s both a blessing and a curse. Because of how bizarre and unique her ideas are though, Barley has grown obsessed with hearing any stories she may come up with.

They finally arrived at the mall and managed to find a park as well. Izzy looked on ahead and noticed a large tree just in front of the entrance, but this was no ordinary tree…it was alive! But alive in the sense it was sentient and aware. She saw the movement but this was her first time seeing anything like this! “Barley…Is it just me or is that tree moving?” She says nervously, worried if it may be a sign the ancient mall was haunted. Then she thought…’wait…this place could totally be haunted if it was literally a bizarre labyrinth where hundreds of explorers died in horrific ways!’

Barley nodded her head and couldn’t help but giggle as he saw the unease on her face. “Yep, he sure is!” He says.

Izzy looked over at him with a puzzled expression on her face. “He?”

“Haven’t you ever met a whispering elm tree before?” Barley replied with a little teasing smirk.

The imp’s blue eyes shot wide open. “No, I haven’t met one before! I did see them in movies before though- to be honest I actually thought they were fictional.” Izzy says, clearly amazed.

“Yeah, they are actually pretty rare now. They were rare in the olden days but now…it’s like shiny Pokémon sorta rare.” He says, just to give Izzy a better idea.

The couple began to walk towards the entrance. “I…kinda feel sorry for them though. Do you think they ever get bored or lonely being stuck like that?” Izzy asks, as usual she was the type to overthink things but in this case she did have a good point.

The grin on Barley’s face grew larger, as he had more knowledge to share. “For saplings maybe.”

As he had expected, his inquisitive girlfriend cocked her head to the side like a puzzled dragon pup. “Eh?”

As usual, Barley was happy to enlighten her, after giving her a little teaser for it first though of course. He just lots to see her little reactions! “Old elm trees can pull themselves out of the earth and use their roots to walk around.” Barley stated. “However, they can’t walk too far for too long because of how big and heavy their bodies are. So basically, they prefer to be sitting in the soil but they are not bound to it…or at least most of them are not.” He looked a bit saddened as he said this. He then leaned down to Izzy and whispered into her large pink ear. “Don’t bring it up but…the stupid idiots who decided to modify the place built tiles all around this guy and now he can’t move anywhere at all…he is a bit touchy bout it…rightfully so…but best to keep quiet.”

Izzy’s blank expression changed into an extremely exaggerated look of utter rage. Little wrinkles could be seen around her frown and eyebrows, her scowl was that intense. “Those thoughtless, inconsiderate ****s…!” She says with a growl, she has a very dirty mouth and tends to curse without even releasing it.

It actually took Barley a while to get used to her unique language. “Ok, I think ****s is a bit much. But I pretty much do agree with ya.” He says, smiling as he came to admire her feisty personality. She had a real strong sense of right and wrong and he loved that about her as well.

Although upon arriving it seems like Izzy completely forgot about Barley’s warning to not speak of this topic around the old tree, she was just too worked up! The whispering elm looked over to her in shock as she suddenly asked him a question that came from the heart. “Ummm…excuse me? Are you feeling ok?” She asked, worried for the tree’s mental health.

Barley gulped as he immediately clings onto Izzy, almost protectively. “Haha…pssst…don’t provoke him…” he whispered.

The tree spoke in a loud and booming voice, which caused customers who came and go to stare intensely as they pass. “Well if it isn’t the poor excuse of a knight! Think you can whisper around a whispering elm, can you?” He says, sounding angry.

Barley smiled awkwardly. “Aha…so you remember that do ya?” Izzy looked puzzled as her head flung back and forth between the two.

The talking tree had not only a mouth but eyes and a nose as well! His little face scowled, like an angry bitter old man. “How could I forget the man who broke my favourite branch?!” He says bitterly.

“Aww, c’mon, buddy! That was just an accident!” Barley pleaded.

Izzy looked more and more puzzled but the negative energy was starting to make her anxious. She was desperate for answers but had been cut off by the furious old tree. “Um- what’s-“

“If I tore off an arm of yours will you say it’s an accident?” The tree swayed around, a few leaves fall down to the tiles that were placed over him, locking him in place forever.

“Well that depends. If you tore off my arm with the intent to do so that sure as heck won’t be any accident…but-“

“Don’t play games with me! I’ve had enough of you youngsters! Always treating us elm folk as if we were nothing more than mere objects.” The tree sways more, the creaking wood echos around the parking lot in an unsettling manner.

Poor Izzy’s head kept snapping between the two who seemed to have been arguing. She got more and more anxious as she is still left in the dark. Barley continued to defend himself as best he can. “Hey, I was the one trying to help you, remember?”

The whispering elm scoffs. “Some help you were.”

“What is going on?!” Izzy suddenly shouted out. Every living soul quickly glanced towards her, but she ignored the unwanted attention from strangers who passed by, she was just desperate to figure out what was happening.

That is when the whispering elm finally seemed to acknowledge her. “Well young lady, this man here decided to sit his fat rump on my favourite branch and he broke it right off!”

Barley frowns a bit. “I told you it was an accident! Besides…it’ll grow back.”

The tree laughed sarcastically. “Grow back you say? That branch has been part of me for over 50 years! Do you really think it will even grow back the same? It will look completely different! Not only that but for it to simply “grow back” would be decades worth of waiting! Might I remind you time feels even slower being stuck in this retched gloomy place forever?! Why, with the lack of sunlight I am surprised I haven’t even died by now from malnourishment.”

As the tree angrily went on a rant Barley grabbed ahold of Izzy and dragged her inside the mall. Izzy looked back at Barley, still confused. “What was that all about?” She asks, she knew there was more to the story than that. Barley may be reckless but she can’t imagine he would climb all over him and break branches without a valid cause for it.

Barley groans a bit, seemingly embarrassed. “It…wasn’t my finest moment. I was trying to dig out the tiles and help him escape but…the mall cop got to me and I tried to climb away from him and uh…you can probably imagine the rest….argh! I should have done it by nightfall!”

Izzy angrily glared back at the direction where the tree is. “You were just trying to help…Hey, when a whispering elm’s branch breaks off does it hurt them?”

Barley looked quite surprised to hear her ask more questions so soon. It was not like her to move on so quickly. “Erm…well it doesn’t not hurt, but it sure as heck isn’t like getting an arm torn off. From what I have studied it’s more like a small sting, like a paper cut if you will.” Barley says, he smiled a little at the little joke he made towards the end. After all, paper is made from trees.

“Did he need that branch as an arm to grab things?” Izzy asked next.

Barley thought for a moment. Whispering elms can use their branches to swat at things but they could hardly be used as extra limbs to assist them. “Eh…not really. I mean he can move it for a bit but he can’t actually use it for much of anything other than swatting enemies away in Quests of Yore.” Barley stated casually.

Izzy suddenly turned around and stomped her way back towards the grumpy tree. Barley quickly realised why she asked such questions, to try and figure out if he had any right to be angry or upset. She was already furious to see the way he spoke to her boyfriend, but she needed more answers to try and see his point of view. As she had suspected, the tree was just vain about the branch’s appearance, nothing more, nothing less. “Oh no…Izzy! C’mon, just leave it alone!”

[dragon-queen21]

Empires + hermitcraft Halloween agere fic <3

Mumbo and Joel are in charge of helping the server’s regressors carve pumpkins

Just pure fluff :3

~~~

What was the worst that could happen with the two groups of players meeting up with each other and having a little fun? There were enough authority figures, that surely nothing that badly could happen. Right?

Wrong.

It started with Mumbo helping to carve pumpkins.

He’d been asked by Xisuma to watch over some of the smaller hermits to help with carving.

Which was fine except for the fact that Mumbo was not prepared for the sheer amount of pumpkin guts and seeds that would be everywhere despite his best efforts.

“Rawr!” Sausage pulls out a glob of the pumpkin insides, orange gunk and pumpkin seeds dripping from his fingers as he pretended to be some monster.

“You’re gonna get that everywhere.” Mumbo tried to say, to little avail. Only he can’t dwell on that fact for too long as soon he hears a frustrated cry from False. The girl trying to carve out what looks to be… something. Maybe a ship? It’s kind of hard to tell, but she’s got wooden rods, and pieces of carved pumpkin strewn across the table, and pumpkin on her skin and in her hair.

“I hate this, it’s not working at all!” she shouts, hands pounding a couple times on the table.

“You want help?” Mumbo asks, only to be met with a frustrated cry and a “I don’t wanna do this anymore.”

Mumbo, honestly had to agree with the teen regressor there.

~~~

Lizzie watched from behind Joel, scowling.

She had originally agreed to carve pumpkins because Sausage had wanted too and both him and Joel had claimed it would be fun. And it did sound like fun. To try and carve shapes into pumpkins and make elaborate designs. She didn’t know however, that in order to carve a pumpkin you had to touch all the gooey insides first.

She had tried to but her first reaction was to get the stuff off of her and never let it touch her hands ever again.

“You don’t like the texture?” Joel guessed, watching her face as it flashed through a hundred emotions in under a minute, most being unpleasant, while the little started shaking her hands about franticly.

“Yucky! Is ‘ucky Joel.”

He only laughed. “Well, what you want me to do about it?”

Lizzie didn’t answer and instead stuck her tongue out at the orange fruit, wiping her hand clean on the front of her shirt.

This was the exact moment that Sausage decided to pretend to be a pumpkin sludge monster.

“��Izzie rawr!”

“Yuck! Don’t bring that near me!”

“Imma get chu!”

“Joel!” Lizzie yelped, scrambling to the mentally older, to sit in his lap and stay there until they were ready to move on to another activity.

~~~

Scar’s pumpkin was carved to look like a cat. A slightly lopsided cat because of how he placed the ears on top using toothpicks, and maybe one eye was bigger than the other, but it was still, undoubtedly a cat.

“Are you done Scar?” Joel had asked, peeking over his shoulder. Lizzie stood behind him, trying to keep away from Sausage, who had still refused to go and wash his hands clean.

The little nodded, making jazz hands towards his creation. He was one of the last people to have finished, False having come back only momentarily along with Mumbo to fix her pumpkin, Sausage having more fun messing around, and Lizzie not daring to touch anything.

Joel ruffled Scar’s hair, pulling out a small match box from his inventory along with a wax candle.

“You ready to see what it looks like lit up?”

“You’re gonna put fire in it!” Lizzie gasped, coming over to get a closer look at what she hoped to be the destruction of the gooey mess.

Meanwhile Scar was appalled. “You can’t light my Jellie pumpkin on fire!!!”

“But that’s what you’re supposed to do, that’s the whole reason you carved the pumpkin in the first place. And you don’t light the whole thing on fire, just a candle that goes on the inside.” Joel tried to explain but the little was having none of it.

“No!” Scar cried, picking up the pumpkin, and running away to presumably Mumbo.

Joel just sighed.

[roadtogracelandx45]

Unexpected|1| Webgott

This was originally supposed to be a one-shot but the more I started getting into the more I realized it needed to be a two-shot. This is the first time I am really writing Webster, so forgive me if anything is too wrong with him. I am still learning his character. (and reading his book.)

This is also going to be a part of Courage Under Fire.

Crossposted on wattpad, and ao3

3 months after Easy Company

 returns to the States

San Francisco, California 

Liebgott Residence 

David Webster didn't know how he ended up in San Francisco or how he ended up with Joe Liebgott's address but here he was standing on the porch that wrapped around the house. A porch that had a porch swing with pillows on it and planted flowers on either side of the door. 

 Olivia's touch, he assumed, the Joe, he knew would never do anything like this. Her family must have funded the house and their lifestyle. 

Joe was a barber who sometimes moonlighted as a cab driver and Olivia from what he understood from the clipped answers he got from Bill Guarnere was working with the VA.

  No way they could afford all this. 

 He swayed back and forth raising his fist to knock on the door causing a dog to bark and lights to flip on. 

Shit, they had a dog. Of course, they had a dog, they were on the path of having the whole goddamn American Dream. 

The war hero who fought in the European theater and his sweet-as-pie Southern Belle wife. And not to mention a baby. 

A baby that they found out about right after Olivia was attacked and Grant was shot. An almost final nail in the coffin of hope that Webster had built up since he returned from the hospital. 

The door swung up and the familiar click of the hammer of a gun being pulled down shook him out of his bitter thoughts. 

Standing on the other side of the door was a sleepy, shirtless Joe Liebgott with a handgun in his hand pointed right at him. His visibly pregnant wife appeared at the top of the stairs rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Joe? Who is it?"

"Webster! What the fuck are you doing here?" His voice was hard and cold like it had been when he first put his barracks bag in the back of the truck after returning from the hospital after missing 3 months of action.

David didn't answer him, instead, he just swayed on the spot, his eyes going from the man to the pregnant woman who had come down the steps, pulling a cotton robe closed over her nightgown, hiding the swollen belly from sight. Something he was thankful for, he hated that he got so jealous that Joe and Olivia were both getting the life that he wanted. He had come to a startling realization the night that Chuck Grant and Olivia both got hurt, that he wanted to be the one with Joe and the feelings he thought were mutual between them, and then the night after they spent together after VE day things changed.

Joe gravitate more towards Olivia again.

"Olivia." He hiccupped up.

"It's Mrs. Liebgott." She sniffed, her own bitter anger showing through, 'Let him in the house love, we don't want the neighbors talking.'

 Flicking the hammer of the gun back up Joe stepped aside and motioned for him to step into the house. 

Through the blurry vision,  he saw framed pictures in the hallway, the most recent one being taken in France after the war was officially over was of the couple at Izzy, Olivia's step-sister's quick wedding to John Egan, one of the bomber pilots from the infamous Bloody 100th. Even then, he could see the ghost of the dopey love-sick creatures they had been even with everything tearing them apart and spitting them back out.

"What're you doing here?" Joe repeated, his free hand winding around his wife's waist pulling her close to his side. 

"Fuck if I even know." He returned as he stumbled towards the armchair and flopped down onto it like he hadn't been a pretentious asshole throughout the three years they all served together. "Well for starters you can start by saying you are sorry for letting Olivia get into that Jeep with Grant." Joe's voice gradually got louder causing Webster to flinch, he had regretted letting Olivia, who had been sick and fighting a severe case of shell shock go outside and then climb into the jeep with Grant and the two replacements.

 Grant had been shot in the head and Olivia suffered an attack that almost cost her life and the life of their unborn child.

"Joe." Olivia soothed turning into him, her nose nudging against his jaw, her hand fisting into the band of his pajama bottoms, soft words being exchanged. The guilt that Webster had built up suddenly turned violent and the whiskey he had drunk started working its way back up his throat.

The love between the two was undeniable, he saw it that night when they were sent out to find the guy and Olivia and the way that Joe pulled her into his arms and how she clung to him and cried. Repeating her nightmarish attack. Joe and Bobby, Olivia's twin brother, had left her with a

 murderous Lewis Nixon and Dick Winters to go after Mac and Webster out of guilt and not wanting to see the damage that was done to her followed them and stood outside of the door watching Talbert and Luz play cards.

"I am sorry." He finally said, raising his blue eyes to look at them. "I shouldn't have let her go out with Chuck, I should have stopped her from going outside." "You are god damn right you should have." Joe bit out. "Why did you let me go if you knew that women were being targeted by the replacements and by the Krauts?" Olivia questioned at the same time.

"Because."

"That's not a good enough answer David." She snapped, "You do realize that I could have died! My baby could have died! Joe's baby could have died. Come up with an answer, or get the fuck out of my house.' 

"Because I was jealous." He raised his glassy eyes to look at the couple, he could tell that Joe was going to back his wife up and decided to just come out with it, “I was jealous because I am in love with you, Joe and you chose the social norm and her over me.” 

Surprised Joe led his wife to the couch to sit down, he was thankful that Olivia insisted on getting up when Webster knocked instead of staying in bed like the doctors wanted her to.

Too much excitement wasn't good, Joe blamed the attack and the fact that their mother had been running around in active shellings and patrols to save the men and he tried to enforce it but it was hard.

 She couldn't even take it easy after she got hurt, they had to sedate her to make her rest. He hated to do it but it was the only way that she was going to rest and in turn the nightmares were horrible. 

She woke up in cold sweats or screaming.

If she hadn't insisted on coming downstairs to see what was going on he would have laid David out. The anger outweighed that fleeting crush he had. 

The more time Joe had spent around Webster, the more he understood why Olivia spent so much time with Lewis or even Dick. It was a different kind of relationship than what they had and sometimes they craved it. 

"You are what?" She questioned with a surprised laugh, her hand gripping his hand in hers, honestly, she wasn't surprised by it. She had spent a better part of two years in close quarters with Nixon and Winters and saw how they were with each other and understood, "You know what," Olivia started as she squeezed her husband's hand and started to stand up, "You two need to talk and I don't need to be present.' Joe tightened his grip on her hand to make her stay seated next to him.

"Babe, you need to work this out, I will be upstairs with Peaches." Peaches was their beagle, a pup from her grandfather's dog Addee. "You know that it's going to take forever for me to go back to sleep."

David felt even more guilty, he should have thought this through all the way. But when it came to Joe Liebgott, he never seemed to think properly.

[georgekirrin]

Alright I'm nosy so here's a lot, kfjsks maybe choose a couple you'd like to answer most :]

6.what role do you play in your group of friends?

13.best compliment you've ever received?

15.favorite font?

19.what's been keeping you up at night lately?

28.if you could travel back to any one point in time, where and why?

52.what the best anon hate you've ever received?

68.what's the most recent entry in your notes app?

77.what's your plan for the apocalypse? (don't pretend you haven't thought about it a little bit.)

97.what's your lucky number(s)?

Have a lovely evening 🌌

Hi!! This is hilarious omg, I am also incredibly nosy so I feel you. I'm going to answer the ones that have the correct vibes rn and maybe come back tomorrow

6) I'd say I'm the advice friend. i think i look at things too logically most of the time but my friends keep coming back and saying they appreciated what I said so I guess that's good?

15) I usually do all my writing in calibri, but I do enjoy bell mt when I'm trying to make something look a little fancy

19) THE FIRE ALARM. WENT OFF AT 4AM TODAY. I STOOD OUTSIDE IN THE FREEZING COLD FOR AN HOUR

52) I got one a while back that was just like "Izzy isn't autistic don't be stupid". Like anon I hate to break it to you but... he isn't real. calm yourself.

97) 36!!! I also like 6 :)

[its-lovelyhappycollection]

I've made a start on my Dino Fury/Superhero au, it needs some editing here and there, but I want to hear what you think so far! (and also see if anyone wants to help me write this as I have way too many WIPs)

‘Over 100 hundreds years ago, a meteor crashed into the town of Pine Ridge, although there were no casualties, many people were injured, and taken to Hospital, it was there that it was discovered that these people had been given superhero abilities, ranging from flight to superspeed to superstrength to fire manipulation and so much more. Word got out that many other people around the world were also displaying superhero abilities, and from there were the birth of not only superheroes, but supervillians. However, a few years later, earth was under attack by an alien named ‘Lord Zedd’ who claimed to be the owner of the superpowers gifted to several humans. He threatened to destroy the earth in exchange for these humans to come forth, but thankfully these brave humans put their lives on the line to protect our earth and end Lord Zedd once and for all. Many years have passed since then, the human race has classified as one of two classes; the supes and the norms. The supes are those who are born with superhero abilities, the norms are those born without superpowers. The supes go to a special school where they can train and enhance their abilities and the norms are sent to a normal school on the very edge of most cities for their safety.

Many supes inherited their powers from their parents/families, it was uncommon for a supe to not inherit a Superpower, it was very rare for a supe to be born from a family full of norms, and it was even rarer for a norm to be born from a family of supes. In this case, many supes send those who are norms to live amongst other norms as they as expendable in their eyes’

Javi shut the book with a furious snap, tears threatening to fall as he clenched his hands against the Cherrywood table in the library he was sitting in. he hated being reminded of what he constantly was, a liability, expendable, useless, worthless, it was all stupid! Norms were just as capable as Supes, but they were too full of themselves to notice, not that it mattered, Norms admired them too much to take much noticed at being treated equally, some Supes seemed to flaunt their powers infront of Norms whenever they had to rescue them from a villain, especially if it was a norm villain such as the common mugger.. To be honest, most of them would be happy if they were even acknowledged by a superhero, whether by name or citizen. 

However not all supes were like that,  some did see Norms as equals and treated them slightly nicer than other Supes, Javi knew that some supes did infact see norms as equals, but he often thought they only treated him that way because they were his sister’s friends. His (half) sister, Izzy Garcia or Lightning quick as she called herself had the power of SuperSpeed, a power she had inherited from her Grandfather, attended the Superhero Academy that was in his city Pine Ridge, which was run by his father. His sisters friends were Zayto or Eagle had the Power of Flight, Ayion or Storm had the Power of Electrokinesis, Ollie or Helix had the power of telekensis and finally Amelia or Lady Warrior had Superstrength and Javi? Well, that was the thing, he didn’t have any superpowers. 

He was the first person in his family to not be born with superpowers, to his father, he was one of the greatest shames in the family as his family was one of the original superheroes, the ones who had defend the earth from Lord Zedd. the only reason he was able to know that izzy was his sister was because his father thought ‘it would be bad for his reputation if he let his non-powered son live away from the superhero academy’ considering his family’s legacy and all. Javi also thought that it would hurt his father’s ego if he couldn’t protect his own son, considering he was the superhero Pheonix and had fire manipulation/ 

It wasn’t like it mattered, Superhero Academy had no classes suited for Norms, so Javi was forced to go to the School for Norms all the way on the other side of the city, luckily the Train stop was right infront of the academy, meaning that Javi could easily take the train to school and back in under 30 min. however the Norm school was very different from the academy, for one thing it had very limited facilities, such as it had one toilet for each gender, a small gym and an even smaller library, and don't get him started on the locker situation. the reason they had very limited facilities was because the government believed in funding in the supes education over the norms education. 

Javi glanced at the book he was reading ‘a history of Supes and our greatest heroes’ and pushed it away, he hated this new history assignment. His teacher had assigned them all to write a report about the history of the Supes, but also how they changed the world, in 200 hundred words. Then in his Social Studies class he had to write a report on a famous superhero. Javi already had enough Superhero talk at home, whether it was Izzy talking about her Superhero training or his father talking about his latest mission and for him, it was a constant reminder what he could never be. A superhero.

i have no knowledge of what amercian classes are like, so hopefully I got the assignments right  

[christaspirit]

Izzie Blake- wait no, Indigo Screen, she was technically on duty, even if she wasn’t in costume- frowned at her phone screen.

Her private Discord, the one used for school friends (she hadn’t seen them in a year now…) and family, had been added to a new server. It appeared that Jamie, her younger sibling, had added her.

But why was this server called ‘villain team ups or something idk’?

Letting out a huff, Indigo made it so she appeared offline even though she was looking at the chat, and entered the server. Scrolling through…

Plans of attack, from a few villain team ups, and even some solo plans, with cooperation… a villain group chat. She grimaced, recognizing some of the past plans. There were several future plans as well, and Indigo jotted those down on a post-it. But the latest conversation under ‘planning-thread’…

.

Poison_not_fire: tips on blackmailing the rich to get money?

I just hated Jack and Rose: get something scandalous on them

Yes fire: kidnap their child

No_I’m_not_your_mom: don’t go after a target closely associated to the heroes

No_I’m_not_your_mom: that’s a good way to get caught and get nothing but a beating

No_I’m_not_your_mom: also whatever you do don’t go after Viper

No_I’m_not_your_mom: he’ll kill you

Totally_not_catwoman: just steal from them

Poison_not_fire: I think I’ll stick to some scandalous

Poison_not_fire: could I get continuous money from them that way?

No_I’m_not_your_mom: possibly

No_I’m_not_your_mom: a bit risky

No_I’m_not_your_mom: who’s the target?

Poison_not_fire: don’t know the name, but my sister is living with some rich girl

Poison_not_fire: I’m after the rich girl

I just hated Jack and Rose: I thought you liked your sister?

Poison_not_fire: …

Yes fire: you could kidnap your sister

Poison_not_fire: I could…

Poison_not_fire: but she’s closely connected with the heroes in her city and an adult hero

Poison_not_fire: but the adult is a bit dumb…

PurplePaint: hey remember that time you kidnapped me?

Poison_not_fire: I said I was sorry!

PurplePaint: remember what we agreed to?

Poison_not_fire: no more kidnapping, I know

Poison_not_fire: sorry…

PurplePaint: why are you blackmailing her mom anyway? Is it the attention thing again?

Poison_not_fire: No.

Yes fire: punctuation she’s mad~

Poison_not_fire: >:(

.

There hadn’t been anything more recent.

But PurplePaint… that was Jamie’s handle. Why were they associating with villains? Poison_not_fire must’ve been Lady Arsenic, why was Jamie working with her?

Had… had Jamie gone evil?

Indigo took a deep breath, and hacked the private messages. There were some between several of the different people- villains- but she was most interested in the one between Lady Arsenic and Jamie. Locating it, Indigo scrolled to the top, and started reading.

.

Poison_not_fire: this working?

PurplePaint: yes!

Poison_not_fire: :)

.

Poison_not_fire: Gonna short out all tech in the downtown area

PurplePaint: thx

.

PurplePaint: u ok?

PurplePaint: you haven’t done anything in a few weeks

Poison_not_fire: fine just planning

PurplePaint: nothing too sinister I hope

Poison_not_fire: no one will die

Poison_not_fire: well, no one should

Poison_not_fire: I’m teaming up with some others

PurplePaint: don’t go overboard

Poison_not_fire: I won’t

.

PurplePaint: that was the definition of overboard

PurplePaint: 1 death and 20 injuries?!

Poison_not_fire: …someone died?

PurplePaint: you didn’t know?!

Poison_not_fire: I got dragged away from the action early on

PurplePaint: why did it go so far?

Poison_not_fire: the others kept making it worse

PurplePaint: don’t work with them again

Poison_not_fire: I won’t

Poison_not_fire: I’m sorry…

.

Poison_not_fire: Jamie…?

.

Poison_not_fire: Jamie, I’m really sorry

.

Poison_not_fire: please, talk to me

PurplePaint: you kidnapped my brother

PurplePaint: when they finally rescued him he had a broken arm!

Poison_not_fire: I’m sorry…

PurplePaint: sorry doesn’t cut it!

PurplePaint: you promised to tell me if your plans affected me!

Poison_not_fire: …the others told me to do it

PurplePaint: the villains you told me you’d stop associating with?

Poison_not_fire: …

PurplePaint: don’t talk to me

.

Poison_not_fire: can we meet up?

Poison_not_fire: in person?

Poison_not_fire: I really want to apologize

PurplePaint: you planning to come with the cat mask?

Poison_not_fire: no I’ll be in normal clothes

PurplePaint: where do you want to meet up?

Poison_not_fire: there’s this little coffee shop in the downtown area

.

Indigo stopped reading there. The date on this exchange… two months ago?

“Jamie said they were getting coffee with a friend we didn’t know…” Indigo muttered. “Why…?”

Lady Arsenic… she seemed off. She’d been off since coming back from the dead…

She seemed like a teenager.

Indigo’s stomach dropped.

There was a new message in the private chat, and Indigo scrolled down to it.

.

Poison_not_fire: who’s the new person in chat?

PurplePaint: you think I know?

Poison_not_fire: any of the others would’ve introduced them

PurplePaint: fine

PurplePaint: it’s my sister

Poison_not_fire: why?!

Poison_not_fire: which one?

PurplePaint: because clearly you’re having some issues

PurplePaint: a hero keeping an eye on things might keep you from doing something more sinister

Poison_not_fire: or maybe I’ll stop talking about things to these guys!

PurplePaint: your plans barely worked before

PurplePaint: I’m just worried about you

Poison_not_fire: you could’ve told me ahead of time

PurplePaint: sorry not sorry

Poison_not_fire: I will block you

PurplePaint: no you won’t 😎

Poison_not_fire: …I won’t

Poison_not_fire: which sister?

Poison_not_fire: I seem to recall you having 3

PurplePaint: I’ll just say she’s probably active right now even though it says she isn’t

PurplePaint: and probably reading this chat

Poison_not_fire: seriously?

Poison_not_fire: Indigo?

PurplePaint: look

PurplePaint: she’s the most likely to keep this a secret and she’s the only family who still talks to me

.

Indigo’s stomach churned. No, they talked to Jamie… right?

…when Jamie had been kidnapped it took them until the ransom video came two days later to realized they were gone.

.

Poison_not_fire: honestly not that different from my upbringing…

PurplePaint: promise me you won’t go overboard?

Poison_not_fire: alright

Poison_not_fire: I won’t go after the girl raising my sister

PurplePaint: why did you want to anyway?

Poison_not_fire: I…

Poison_not_fire: I came across Kitty the other day and she just seemed so… happy

PurplePaint: so you are jealous

Poison_not_fire: …maybe

PurplePaint: you need to talk to her!

Poison_not_fire: she wouldn’t want anything to do with me

PurplePaint: I promise she will

Poison_not_fire: she hates me

Poison_not_fire: and we haven’t had a proper conversation since before she was expelled

Poison_not_fire: there was a fight…

PurplePaint: at least consider it

PurplePaint: anyway I got homework to do

PurplePaint: ttyl!

Poison_not_fire: ttyl

.

Indigo continued to stare at the screen, even when both members of the private chat went offline.

Kitty? That was a name…

There was a young teen hero in a nearby city. It didn’t have much crime, but there was a small band of heroes who took care of the crime all the same, Kitty often acting as leader. She’d also worked with Fern’s team a few times. She must be the sister…

Lady Arsenic was a teen. That much was clear.

If she could figure out who Kitty was, she could figure out Lady Arsenic. The League could finally take her down-

She was Jamie’s friend.

…could Indigo tell the League?

What did she know about either? Not much about Lady Arsenic… she’d had three henchmen but they’d vanished not long after Jamie had been rescued. Her plans had been failing, but they’ve been successful more recently.

Kitty… among Ferns team she was closest to Silverwolf (L’ynx, alien shapeshifter) and Cardinal (unknown, no info). She certainly acted closer to Silverwolf, but…

Silverwolf wasn’t dumb. If anyone on Fern’s team had earned that descriptor it was Cardinal. Unless there was another hero she wasn’t aware of, it had to be Cardinal that Kitty was mentored under.

But Cardinal wasn’t active in the same city… usually she stuck to where Fern was based.

It would help a lot if she knew Cardinal’s identity, but her mask scrambled every facial recognition software. It was great technology usually, Indigo knew which suit designer always put it in. But for a hero with so many unknowns…

Fern didn’t even know.

She was getting off track.

Indigo stared at the post it note. She knew more than the others…

This felt wrong.

Indigo- Izzie left her room, going down the hall to knock on Jamie’s door.

“Come in!”

Izzie twisted the knob, and opened to Jamie’s room.

The room was painted beige, but anything else that could be purple, was purple. Bed, dresser, all of it. Jamie had an eisel with an unfinished painting near the window, getting natural light. Their tablet was sitting on the dresser. Jamie themself was laying on their bed, laptop open to some kind of assignment. Music was blasting from speakers, and Jamie was laying on their bed casually doing homework.

“Izzie!” Jamie grabbed their phone and paused the music, before assuming an upright position. “Thought I’d see you soon.”

Izzie smiled weakly. When had she last come to visit her sibling?

“I’m assuming this is about… well…” Jamie held up their phone, vaguely gesturing at it.

“Why didn’t you have to add me?” Izzie asked. She shut the door and sat on Jamie’s desk chair. The desk itself was never used for homework, but there were a variety of different types of sketchbooks on the desk.

Jamie grimaced.

“I’m just… worried about her.”

“Why are you friends with her to begin with!” Izzie said, “She’s a villain, working with other villains-!”

“She doesn’t actually want it.”

Izzie stared at her younger sibling.

“What?”

“She doesn’t want it,” Jamie repeated. “She thinks she does, and I can’t convince her otherwise, but… she just wants the attention.”

Izzie swallowed hard and looked to the floor.

In another life… maybe even in this life… Jamie could‘be gone down the same path.

“Why?” Izzie asked. “What… made her think this was the way?”

“If I tell you, will you tell the league?”

…she should. She was a league of heroes member, she was supposed to tell them everything.

But…

Jamie had added her personal account. This wasn’t a matter brought to Indigo Screen.

This was a younger sibling, asking for their sister’s help.

“I won’t tell.”

Jamie nodded.

“Her… her mom is the original Lady Arsenic. The one the league… offed.” Jamie looked uncomfortable.

Izzie had been 11 when the decision had been made. She wasn’t told the details for why… she’d only barely joined the league, and she wasn’t even a full member. But mom had been the one to do it.

“I didn’t know she had kids.”

If the league knew, they didn’t say anything.

“She wasn’t a great mom,” Jamie said, wringing their hands in their lap. “Always busy doing villain stuff… the two kids were neglected. Leilei… the current Lady Arsenic that is… she wanted her mom’s attention. She was desperate for it, and thinks that if she acts like her, her mom will finally be proud of her.

“I’ve tried to tell her that it’s not worth it. She doesn’t have the stomach for anything actually bad. But… I can’t convince her.”

“What about her sister?” Izzie asked. “Kitty, was it? Isn’t she a hero?”

“From what I can tell, she wants nothing to do with their mom,” Jamie said. “Leilei and her got into arguments a lot at the boarding school they were sent to after their mom died, and after a big fight they never reconciled, and then Kitty got expelled. I don’t know much about Leilei’s time at the school, but I don’t think it was good… especially considering they got sent to the School for Future Villains.”

Izzie muttered curses under her breath. The League knew of the school, but without a location, they couldn’t do anything to shut it down.

“Please, can you just… promise me you’ll keep an eye on her?” Jamie asked.

Izzie clenched her hands together.

“I will, promise.”

She owed that much to her little sibling…

You’ve just figured out what the bad guy’s plans are because you were accidentally added to their group chat. You’ll go out and stop them, but reading through the group chat couldn’t hurt, right?