#and please don't end the manga too soon | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kujiba · 9 months ago

Text

¡MAY THE LAND CONCEAL YOU, DEAR GRACE!

୨୧ — ꒰ gn!reader | they/them prounouns | Sagau | cultish behavior

A/n: I made this while drunk /jk

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 5

PART 6

Were you high? Possibly.

Did you feel like you were floating? 50/50

You stared directly at the glowing screen plastered infront of you, with your eyes full of focus.

CHOOSE YOUR ELEMENT: ELECTRO, HYDRO, PYRO, DENDRO, ANEMO, GEO, CRYO

'Ah.. This will be hard' You thought to yourself while nodding and looking away from it. Gazing your eyes back on the screen you either were highly delusional right now or...

You had been gifted the ultimate weapon! A system!

You're not a dumbass you've seen those novels, tv's, Mangas, animes, manwha, all that kind of stuff! So you had some bits and pieces on how to roll with this new kind of power.

Back to the main problem... Which element should you pick? Every element in the game is highly valuable and could be used with many different ways. The question is what would benefit you more in the situation you've been put upon.

Currently you had been locked in a cell by whoever knocked you unconscious, but your suspicion leaned more in the knights of favonius. You shaked your head telling yourself to deal with the problems one by one.

"Damn.. Which do I choose" You clenched your lips together tightly and scratched your chin with your own finger. Being indecisive and having a bit of a problem to choose from the choices given to you by the system.

You knew you had to pull your ultimate move.

"Innie, Minnie, Miny, moe..." You mumbled while your finger hopped it's way to each element on the screen "Catch a tiger by its toe if it hollows let it Go, Innie, Minnie Miny, moe." Your finger slowed down by the second and finally took a halt when the song ended.

You looked at the element carefully too see what the fate has given you!

"DENDRO"

YAHOO!!

Your excitement honestly didn't come from the element you choose but the thought you could have your own powers and vision!!

"Gimme DENDRO!" You declared to the system with a prideful voice, A systematic noise rang through your ears in a unpleasant way, soon after the noise came to a halt, a small glowing jeweled amulet began to descend from the air.

"Holy..!" You stared in awe as the jewel gently dropped to your hands. A familiar glowing green vision with it's outer areas decorated uniquely in a high quality silver material.

Quickly enough the system box appeared in front of you yet again.

"CONGRATULATIONS, LEVEL UP TO UNLOCK MORE SKILLS, POWER, AND ITEMS"

The system then showed a long box filled with words and numbers that you immediately understood from your long gaming experience.

[NAME]

Lvl 1 / 20

Max HP: 929

ATK: 34

DEF: 21

Elemental Mastery: 0

Max stamina: 240

Crit rate: 5%

Crit DMG: 50%

Energy Recharge: 300%

"..."

GODDAMN! Why was your energy Recharge so high?... Actually no- that isn't a bad thing, it'll be good for you to just keep spamming your burst till the enemy drops dead.

Your thoughts were interrupted when a pair of footsteps made their way too where you currently are, you quickly hid the vision behind your back, afraid they might try and take it from you if they ever found out about it.

A familiar blonde and brunette made their way in front of your cell, you gripped your vision tighter remembering clear as day what had happened, your suspicions not even faltering for a second.

"(Name)." Jean called out, she placed her hand on her chest while looking at you calmly. Amber was by her side looking at your every movement, Jean continued "Were not here to hurt you. It's the opposite really" Jean's eyes looked soft and humble...

But that doesn't excuse them for knocking you out so harshly.

You deathly wanted to talk back to her but kept your mouth shut, only biting your lip harder so that nothing would come out and spill something important.

"Please, don't be wary of us.. We're your friends" Okay now she was spouting bs. Sure you've met amber for ONLY a bit but Jean was still technically a stranger to you!

You sighed to yourself "How long are you going to keep me in here?" you asked with a tad bit of impatience, you leaned your head back on the solid wall while narrowing down your eyes at them.

Amber responded to your question "Its..it's for your own good (Name), please trust us. We're keeping you safe" Amber's tone was yet determined but also worried. Jean placed her hand on Amber's shoulder and nodded.

"We'll explain to you everything later" Jean was about to say something till you cut her off "Why not now?" You asked tilting your head to the side.

Jean looked at you then down at the ground "There.. Are still some important things we had to arrange. But even so don't try to escape, this is for your own good (Name)"

"Ha? What do you-- AND... they left" You grumbled seeing them leave you all alone in here again.

✿

"Hey system." You called out to it while playing around with your vision. The system appeared again by your side "What is it?"

A Google translator like voice came out of the box, you had this thought for a while now. "Will something happen to me when I escape this place?" You questioned it.

It took a while but the Ai voice returned "Judging from my information I have gathered. You are currently a 'GOD'."

Ha?

"What!? What do you mean, God!?" You exclaimed in a panicked voice. You? A God?

You were snapped out of your frenzy when you heared it's voice again "There is currently a popular and confirmed tale plus ballad that you are the creator of Teyvat. People began worshipping you after you had abruptly dissapered without any warning, so they prayed and worshipped, hoping to bring you back"

You were even more bewildered but also... Understanding? I guess? I mean you are the player who basically built everything in the game. But isn't also Cai Hauyo (Mihoyo) basically the creator of what had been created? You'll dive deeper into that later.

"So.. They're all after me now?" Your tone had a clear hint of worry. You didn't want to be on the run and just wanted a normal life! The system replied saying "Not quite yet. I belive only the knights of favonius must've known. But Im sure it won't be long till the whole mondstadt or even Teyvat will find out about your presence"

You grimaced at the thought of being hunted down by multiple people, especially if those beloved people that you used to grind hours on end for!

You shaked your head in disapproval "Yet I can't really stay here either can I, it seriously sucks" you stretched your legs out on the cold cement flooring, the exterior of the room you had been trapped in was definitely not suited to live in.

"Why are you eager to escape?" The system sought to find the answer, you gave it a long frown "First of all, I am not going to be trapped here for the rest of my life! I'll die of boredom before anybody could even reach me" The system responded with only small glitching noises, it seemed like it was trying to process the outcome of your actions.

You took that as a cue to continue your rant "Secondly, I'm not really trusting the Knight's of Favonius yet nor anybody in general here. When you said I'm a supposed 'God' that's already trouble going to bite me in the ass" You breathed heavily to catch your breath, letting that all out of your chest felt pretty good to be honest.

"I know they're up to something"

!?!?

Jean stared down at the stack of papers and files scattered around her desk. She took a deep breath and began to tidy things up around the office, a vivid memory flashed through her mind, a memory that wasn't that long ago.

Amber had gone out to continue her Outrider duties leaving Jean to take care of their business for the time being. Her lips trembled ever so slightly like a leaf being blown by the wind, so she quickly bit her lip with her eyes full of worry and dread.

A god was in a cell. A cell she placed them in. Or.. So she was assuming

Back then, Barbatos and the creator had a small fondness of each other. Tales and Ballads would often say they were friends, even with the gap between their ranks and powers, the creator treated everyone fairly no matter what rank. They adored their creations and thus, the creations adored them back.

If only they hadn't left so soon that Teyvat began to slowly crumble, leaving a nation to fall down, a nation to lock itself away from the rest of the world, a nation having their own Archon sacrifice themselves for their people.

If only...

Jean had her doubts. It wasn't the first time that a supposed 'Creator' stepped up only for them to experience demise and pain for their foolish actions.

The creator didn't have a confirmed face or appearance since they often changed what they look like, the creator did had 'Aura'.. That was only visible to vision holders. But of course, the humankind has evolved and people began to come up with a 'Fake Aura' that was the exact replica of the creator's.

Her feet paced back and forth through the room, deciding on what to do with the supposed 'God' that was locked away in a cell.... Should she eliminate them now? False identity was a crime. And when it comes to the creator, no one is spared nor given mercy.

"...Their too suspicious, Why only now did they appear? They must've been like the others." She whispered to herself, her thoughts running wild about them.

A 50/50.

They were either the actual creator

Or they are a fake.

And Jean's choice began to tilt towards the one most logical.

"Tomorrow. We will arrange a public execution"

!!!

"GAHHH!! AGHHH" You desperately tried to concentrate on your mind to activate your vision powers "What the heck how does this work!?" You gripped the amulet tighter with your left eye twitching violently. Your annoyance only filled more as the messages of the system flooded in your face.

"Try concentrating more calmly. What are you doing? Taking a shit?" The system taunted you while also sending some emojis.

"I'm trying okay!? How do you..." You trailed your words off, having a random flashback of when you still were at earth for some reason.

"Hey how are you always so calm?" You asked your friend filled with curiosity, they looked up at your eyes. Seeing your curiosity they hummed "Well I mostly think about my happy memories and things that I like. It's like day dreaming you know?" They answered your thoughts calmly.

"What?? You sound like one of those cliché characters in shows lol."

You blankly stared at the wall after the flashback had ended. Your head turned to the system "That was your doing ain't it?" You deadpanned seeing that the system had completely ignored you and instead sent whistling emojis.

You groaned finally giving in since you had no other ideas anyway. "Agh... Fine, worth a shot" You grumbled giving in to the cliché idea.

You relaxed down your body as your shoulders began to lower along with your guard, you cleared your head, thinking nothing but a blank space for some moments. When you felt ready you had began to imagine all the joyful things that you deeply favored for the past years. All of that gathered into one moment inside your brain.

The vision glowed brightly in your hands, it's viridescent color taking up the whole dimly lit room, even the system kept quiet with the messages so that you could concentrate better on finally unlocking some skills.

And just that, in a short while the vision began to lose its light.

Fluttering your eyes open you took a look around your body to see any changes, to your dissapointment there wasn't any difference. "Did it work?" You wanted to know if you were finally able to throw plants or something.

Suddenly, you slightly jumped seeing confetti pop out of nowhere. The systems screen had massive words placed for you to see.

"CONGRATULATIONS ON UNLOCKING YOUR VISION !!

Reward:

+50,000 Mora

+Cake For The Player

+Personal Companion"

'Personal Companion?'

You were curious to see what it was but for now, you had to focus on breaking out of this hell hole. "System! So like uh, what can I do for now?" You rubbed the back of your head still pretty much a newbie to all this powers stuff.

"Throw out your companion. Call out it's name, 'Taube' and break the damn wall to escape"

"Taube?..." You mumbled it's name unsure at first but your doubts had quickly vanished as your eyes landed on a... Dove?

The Dove (Taube) was pure as a snow, it's wings flapping in the air gently with the inner layer of its feathers being a stunning (Color). Other than that, it looked like a pretty beautiful dove soaring in the sky.

"Wait so, what can it do?" You tilted your head at it questionably. "Make Taube attack the wall so you can see" The system answered your calling, you silently nodded your head at the systems words.

If the Dove was basically part of your power, then it could basically read through your mind! then.... 'Taube, I choose you!!'

Like a smooth cut of a knife, Taube had sliced through the wall with their wing, leading to the fresh and flourishing outside.

You were lying if you didn't say you were impressed and amazed by how easily Taube destroyed the wall. A wide smile appeared on your face as you didn't waste a single moment and ran out to the outside and away from that wretched room.

The air was clean and felt good as you inhaled as much as you can, the sweet scent of dandelions being all over the land was just a touch of freedom. The wind blew over your clothes and hair, wrinkling and messing it all up slightly.

"Man..." You muttered while straightening and fixing yourself up to look a slight bit more presentable. You looked around seeing Taube flying over to your vision, confusion hitted you but shock struck you harder for some quick seconds.

Your eyes widened, watching how Taubes body began to get absorbed by the vision, you panicked alot thinking your powerful animal companion is going to dissperse and never appear again but you quickly remembered that Taube is originally made from your vision anyway.

So you could summon them anytime! :D

A sigh of relief escaped through your lips, your eyes lingered on the body of Taube one last time, in impulse you softly stroked it's head before it faded away from your line of view.

Brushing those thoughts aside, you took a look around the vast land of Mondstadt. You weren't used to seeing how clean and green it was compared to earth where everything is in the brink of collapsing.

BUT! that wasnt your problem right now.

You didn't think twice to bolt your ass out of there and find a new hiding place, A cave? A abandoned house? Anything is fine! cause your gut kept telling you something bad will happen if you stay too long in there!

Wow. Who knew that you would be escaping from there when just a few chapters ago you were fangirling about living in mondstat?

Anyways...

'FREEDOM!!'

A/n: Short but active hehe

This is what the Dove kinda looks like btw, you could leave it to your imagination v

555 notes · View notes

daiourage · 3 months ago

Text

That One Arc in Prime Where Optimus Lost His Memory But This AU Makes No Sense Because It's a Mix Between IDW and One

Happy New Years! My drawing app keeps crashing so I decided to draw my ideas on paper, and this took quite a while;;;

As always, press/click for both the full picture and for better quality!!!

["Brief" explanation of this comic:

1. In a previous post I mentioned wanting One to continue into something similar to the IDW continuum because I,,, love IDW, just in general, but the IDW MegOp crumbs are also tasty--//shot 1-2. Also the way the characters refer to each other is intentional please I think I know what I'm doing?? It's been a while since I consumed TF content (until recently) though. This entire comic is a what-if scenario that came to me when I was showering lol-- 2. MegOp is established 👍 (insert "old man yaoi joke" here (I agree with y'all btw, not mocking)) 3. In the last panel, I was debating whether or not to put Elita with Bee in helping Megs call Optimus "Pax", but decided to put Starscream because I feel like it makes more sense non-One wise. 3-2. I wanted to include more dialogue with other characters, but it ended up looking like it was shoehorned in because the concept was very MegOp centered I'm so sorry (me to every other character) Just know I love every one of y'all-- 4. I have crudely simplified the characters by complete accident. My bad;;;; in my defense, every character changes a lot when I'm not looking (I had so much trouble trying to figure out which Bee design to use),,, 5. It is very fast paced on accident as well;;; might sound like a badly translated manga, too;;; I don't know how it turned out but maybe my bilingual self is in that one phase where I'm good at neither language;;;]

It might look a little messy because it's been so long since I've touched colored pencils I'm,,, gonna try to get used to it since my app doesn't seem to be getting fixed anytime soon;;; (I don't know if it's an iPad problem or an app problem;;; Sketchbook get your shit together please,,,)

Also, I used a couple of sparkly colored pencils but I'm not sure it translated well in the scan so I'm a little disappointed but eh,,,

Also also, have this thing I drew of Megs being lovestruck in the last page when Optimus comes back lmao--

My bad for the long post; it's currently 4 AM because I stayed up watching music shows over here;;I hope we all have a wonderful year. I have a feeling my TF phase is gonna last a couple years longer than it usually does jlsdlakjsdlkfja

Let's all have a good time, yeah~?

126 notes · View notes

anime-fan-05 · 6 months ago

Note

can you please do headcanons or a scenario with tanjiro, akaza, kokushibo and male mitsuri and shinobu where reader falls asleep in their arms/against them

Kimetsu no Yaiba ~Falling asleep on them~

Manga/anime: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Warnings: nothing

(Y/N): your name

Male Shinobu: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Male Mitsuri: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

K. Tanjiro

He'll remain still as soon as he feels your head on his shoulder; to not wake you he'll even try to hold his breath so you don't move an inch!

He'll immediately go into "protective boyfriend mode" and start to concentrate himself on being able to sense if someone is coming close to you to disturb your sleep

In fact, if someone approaches, he'll try to make sure they don't make any noise: if they're Zenitsu or Inosuke, he'll shout at them in a whisper to be quiet; if instead it's someone else, he'll speak much more kindly

At some point, he may even rest his head on yours and doze a little, but his senses will always remain alert to any danger

When you wake up, he'll smile sweetly at you and ask you how you slept ("Well woken up, my love! Did you sleep well?")

K. Shinobu

His mouth will open a little, forming a cute o, after feeling your head fall onto his shoulder

If he's preparing one of his poisons or medicines, he'll make you rest your head on his lap and he'll continue doing what he was doing, occasionally running his hands through your hair and looking at you softly

However, if someone finds you two in that position, he'll be very embarrassed and he'll stutter, looking for excuses to justify your position

Instead, if you're in a public place, without much thought he'll take you as a bride and go to your home to put you in your futon, and he'll lie down next to you

So, when you wake up, you'll find him either sleeping next to you or looking at you lovingly and gently caressing your face or cuddling you

K. Mitsuri

He'll have to hold back the scream he's about to let out to avoid waking you up

Awwwwww, (Y/N)-chan is sleeping on my lap, how cute! It'll be all he can think about

He'll be too tempted to play, squeeze and pull your cheeks, but he won't do so since he doesn't want to wake you up and make you angry because of your sudden awakening

He'll try to stay still, but soon he'll start playing, combing and braiding your hair gently, so as not to wake you, all the while cooing at your cuteness (seriously, anyone who walks by him, if you're in public places, will think he's some weird harasser, but he won't care)

If he's called by his crow for a mission, he'll make an adorable pout, crossing his arms and muttering he doesn't want to get away from you

Kokushibo

He'll probably notice almost immediately you're asleep due to your breath, so he'll take you by the waist and drag you so you'll be sitting comfortably on his lap

That way he can meditate, you can rest comfortably with your head against his shoulder, protected by his body from any danger

He's able to stay in the same position he's in for hours, so he'll stay that way until you wake up, unless Muzan calls him

In fact, if he demands his presence, he'll gently -so as not to wake you up- whisper to you a short apology, pick you up and take you to your home (or to Infinity Castle if you live there), and then he'll go to his lord

If Muzan doesn't call him, instead, when you wake up, you'll find him next to you silently watching over you ("Koku? Did you stay here the whole time?" "Yes...")

Akaza

It'll take him about a minute to process you've fallen asleep on him, but he'll recover to position you better in his arms, with his face very slightly flushed

He'll be so happy for your gesture because you'll be showing yourself to him in one of the most vulnerable human moments, and for him that's a great proof of trust

He'll look at your beautiful sleeping face and think about you two, wondering how someone like him ended up engaged to you, until you wake up

He'll pray and plead with all the deities he can think of not to be summoned by Muzan for a mission or a meeting with the other Kizuki (Demon Moons), so that you won't have to wake up

In fact, he'll want that moment of peace to last as long as possible

If you didn't know, futon is the traditional mattress of Japanese culture; it's entirely made of cotton, rigid, thin and rollable. Until the 1900s, the Japanese slept there instead of in bed.

💮 Rules 💮 Masterlist 💮

278 notes · View notes

yuutawe · 4 months ago

Text

TAKE A BITE INTO MY HEART﹕yuta okkotsu. . .

when death strikes down those you love most, a desperate binding vow proves to be the salvation.

ꖛ warnings!‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎(overall) nsfw + angst with happy ending(?)‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎major character death !‎ blood and death (mentions + slightly described) + a bit of gore (hearts) ! cannibalism ! ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎yandere appeals (?) ! mutual obsession ! jjk manga spoilers for the end of the shinjuku battle arc ! i basically threw every rule from the universe out of the window (this is not how binding vows work and im nearly sure of it, lol).

ꖛ about. * reader is gender-neutral. no anatomy specified + they/them pronouns and genderless nicknames.

ꖛ inspired by‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎so, i went back to watching hannibal. blame the homoerotic subtext in the cannibalistic series for this idea.

ꖛ author's note * repost because i can't see my post in the tags (sob). originally posted this in nov 28th.

ꖛ word count ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎1.410 (1.4k)

‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎[ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE.‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎NOT PROOFREAD!]

how do you undo what can never be undone? a person's comfort when someone dies is usually knowing that it was inevitable. this fate awaits us all in the end. soon, in a day or ninety years, we too will be hidden in large wooden boxes, burned and turned to ash, or left to rot in the darkest, most forgotten corner of the world. but death changes people. its touch is not meant for those who remain alive, but it changes them all the same.

as you changed when yuta died.

the flowers seem too alive when they arrive arranged in bouquets, tied with ribbons that are too vibrant. that color bothers your eyes. or maybe he seems too colorless. it's uncomfortable.

that body on the stretcher is uncomfortable. it's unfair and uncertain. when ieiri and the others left the room ── give them a moment of privacy. you know how important it is ──, whispering behind your back as if you were an abandoned stray animal. a homeless animal, with no place in the world. pitiful. like a creature abandoned on the side of a dirty road. everyone stops to look at the tragedy, but not to help. and how they mourn. they cry more than you.

poor things. they were so happy.

swear i don't know how it happened. one minute he was fine, and the next...

i didn't think he wouldn't make it. i didn't expect this.

i can barely imagine how they must be feeling. imagine seeing someone you love die in front of you, like this.

the sound of metal being punched takes you out of your thoughts. the idea of people saying this now, with you right there with his dead body in front of you, just infuriates you so much that you punched the metal tray without even realizing it. simple as that. anger took over your muscles, and several sterilized tools were thrown on the floor. everything so fast. how can something happen so fast?

how did it all happen so fast?

he was fine. he said he was going to be fine. damn it, yuta promised he was going to stay. that he needed to fight, needed to help. your role was to stay here and give support to miss ieiri.

“asshole.” you can hear yourself mumble, your voice choked with tears. “you promised.”

when you touch his hand, searching for a familiar comfort, you find only an empty shell. normally, his long fingers would gently curl to hold yours. those warm hands would hold yours and yuta’s sweet voice would murmur it’s going to be okay, my love. we’ll make it, we always do.

lying son of a bitch. that’s what you want to scream, as the words mix with please, wake up. wake up and look at me. come back to me.

his body is so cold. not cold in yuta’s way ── warm hands and cold body, but cold like death. cold because the blood has stopped running through his veins, icy because his muscles don't move or contract anymore, his organs don't work.

just a few minutes. it's still surprisingly cool for a fresh body, but he's cold in a way that almost burns you. your aching heart can’t take this sight, no.

your body bends, and your lips touch his icy forehead. those closed eyes, those blue and depressed eyes need to open again. it's the only thing that's right. a dark whisper runs through your mind. he could come back, couldn't he? so many sorcerers have already cheated death. why did her scythe need to fall right on your boyfriend?

it wouldn't be like that. not if you're really here to change the course of history. a living and perfect heart beats in your chest — his, static and dead, is still red. it's still possible. it will be messy and completely crazy, but who's going to stop you?

who would try to execute you both? without the higher-ups, the sky's the limit and the new jujutsu society rises from the rubble of the old. and what golden age doesn't deserve its own champion? may he rise from the ashes and become the new champion of a sick society: recovering from the rot caused by the corruption of the old jurisdiction, yuta will overcome death and return to his place, by your side.

only by your side.

the blood is sticky, gooey. the bright red is so grotesque against yuta's pale skin that you wonder if perhaps god created blood to convince humans to kill less. it didn't work.

as the incision is made in his chest, you quickly put your fingers inside his body. a little searching, and with more effort, you hit his heart. great. with some difficulty, you cut a piece and brings it up to your mouth.

gulp. your swallowing is like the ringing of the death bell.

his blood stains your index and middle fingers — and greedily, you raise them to your lips and stain them with red. it's like lipstick. there's a certain romanticism in that.

the price to pay is not a debt that will be collected immediately. this could backfire very quickly, perhaps in a way that no one can stop. but if this gives him back to you—

the doorknob lowers, and someone grumbles behind the door. there's not much time. you don't have any more time. hey, did you lock the door? whoever is speaking, their voices seem like background noise as you lean in to kiss his cold lips.

may you share a life, may you share gifts and curses again. pure, mutual love overcomes every kind of mortal wound and lacerating incision.

you can almost feel a deep discouragement ── no answer. it didn't work? why? do you have to take a life to give another? it would make sense. bam. bam. open the door, they say. scared of what you might do to yourself.

a hand reaches up and grabs the back of your head, pushing you down once more. and yuta leans up, his lips wrapping around your bloody ones eagerly.

the salty tears run down your cheeks, and your hands let go of the scalpel to cup his face in your hands. it’s almost animalistic, desperate, as pure love invades you both.

he leans back, breathing heavily. oh, he is breathing. yuta okkotsu has returned from the dead thanks to you.

“what is going on— i can’t— my head hurts.”

the pain that hits you right after is almost unbearable. it's like being torn in half and then put back together in a completely different way.

he holds you, still trying to shoo away the ringing in his ears. “love— love, what’s wrong?” yuta asks, grabbing your hand to settle you. to push the pain away from your beating heart.

the heart you two now share. two halves of your heart, shared to pump life through your bodies. you’re weakened, but he is alive. it was worth the price.

the door is broken down with a bang, but you can't make yourself care. your arms wrap around what used to be a corpse, but now is back to being your sweet, lovely boyfriend. he hugs your waist, his fingers grabbing at the flesh as if he wants to make sure you’re real. this is real.

“you’re alive, baby.” you sob, and he gently kisses your tears away. “it’s okay. you’re okay.”

and when the others enter the medical bay, all they see is yuta, who was dead less than a minute ago. he has a new scar on his chest, a vertical cut. the scalpel that was used to help you with the process has long been forgotten, thrown on the floor.

your chin rest at the top of his head, and it feels like you can finally breathe after drowning in grief for cold hours. — years, it’s what it felt like. he nuzzles into your warmth, stealing some for his own body.

his blood is flowing again, but he's still a little pale and the temperature is freezing in the medical bay. he rests his head against your shoulder, watching all the shocked and confused reactions from everyone else.

it's like walking straight into a sacrilege, something impossible, something that should never have happened. the breakdown of the natural order happened here, in this room. and yuta is alive.

alive, and staring at them with cold blue eyes for interrupting your moment.

157 notes · View notes

weirdsht · 9 months ago

Text

Cliché - LoTCF & Venion Stan! Reader

notes: ngl i took more time dwelling whether i should make this a series. but i never did two series at once because i can't handle the commitment, so i compromised by making it a long oneshot. ALSO TRIGGER WARNING: I put my psych major to work while writing this fic so...

tags: TRIGGER WARNING PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THE TAGS (dw nothing too graphic for every warning) depression, eating disorder, anxiety, self-loathing, torture and abuse, guilt, like lots of guilt, passive to mild suicidal thoughts, not being able to control your body, catatonic depression, anhedonia, blood, cursing, vague novel spoilers, Taylor Stan being the best brother out there, open ending i think, can be seen as hurt/comfort

English isn’t my first language so there will be grammatical errors

Pls don't repost my work anywhere without my permission

Constructive criticisms and any kind of interaction are more than welcome

Requests are open and welcome

Buy Me Dessert

Navigation Masterlist Platitude (pt. 2)

Tak Tak Tak

The sound of the horses of the carriage filled your ears as soon as you woke up.

…Wait horses?

How could there be horses when you were sure you were inside a lecture hall?

“Young master I’m glad you’re awake. We are nearing Viscount Tolz’s territory.”

Viscount Tolz? That sounds familiar, but you can’t quite put your finger on it as you just woke up.

You observed the unfamiliar place you woke up in. You seem to be inside a carriage, years of reading manhwas, manhuas, mangas and web novels have gotten you familiar as to what they looked like.

Observing the interior a bit more, you notice that the carriage you are in seems luxurious. That and the servant riding a horse outside the carriage window just called you “young master”.

‘Did I transmigrate? I swear I was just nodding off during one of my lectures…’

“You. What date is it? My head feels fuzzy from sleeping in this uncomfortable carriage.”

‘I’ve rotten my brain reading that damn isekai genre. I already know the drill, I should be a villain or something. I guess I should be glad I didn’t end up as an animal, those things have gotten popular these days…’

You silently shivered at the thought of being a bird or a snake.

“I’m sorry about the seat young master. You’re custom cushion should be arriving tomorrow. As for the date, it is currently year 780 of the Felix Calendar.”

Shit

By the calendar mentioned you could already tell what series you transmigrated to. There was only one series you know that uses Felix Calendar.

Lout of the Count’s Family

And it looks like you got sucked into that novel a year before things began.

“As soon as that arrives install it in my carriage. This thing is as hard as a brick.”

Contrary to what you say, the seat is very soft and comfortable. However, if you really did transmigrate as a villain like in all those manhwas you’ve read then you figured you have to act as bratty as possible.

“I understand young master. We are nearing the villa soon, I’m sure young master Neo has prepared your room so you can rest.”

Fuck. You’re fucked.

Out of all the small villains in existence you just had to steal the body of a dragon abuser. You just had to get in the body of Venion Stan.

Venion out of all people. Even Neo Tolz or Adin or Duke Fredo would’ve been better picks.

But no, the gods of this world just had to put you in the body of an atrocious villain that has no use.

Never mind running away in the countryside while enjoying all the inheritance, there’s no way that black dragon is going to leave you alone.

…And for sure the black dragon is already 3 years old, there’s no saving you now. Anger and despair are already planted in that poor baby’s heart.

Everything moved too quickly to your liking. One moment you were in the carriage, then next Neo was greeting you. After you blinked you’re already in the black dragon’s cell.

‘Can I survive a year before Cale comes here to get the dragon?’

The black dragon can’t use mana, let alone dragon fear. But his vicious gaze full of animosity is already enough to make you feel guilt and fear.

He looked so pitiful. The cell might be spacious, but a cage will still be a cage. He was just there, in the middle of the cell. Chained and unable to fight back.

The buffet in the middle doesn’t help the queasiness you feel in your stomach.

“Do-”

‘Don’t bother with it, I won't be visiting the dragon further.’

The words you want to say are stuck in your throat. Some unknown force is stopping you from uttering them out.

You figured it was so that things would still go according to the plot.

‘I know I wasn’t the greatest in my previous life, but was I so bad that I must experience this?’

Tap Tap Tap

Heels of your shoes tapped against the ground as you walked towards the table. You tried to stop your body, but it was useless. No matter how hard you try to stop yourself you just keep moving.

“Start.”

Your voice- no Venion’s voice said and the torturer started whipping the dragon.

Gulp

There’s a bile in your throat threatening to show itself. However, you swallowed it. The scene may look horrendous, but you didn’t look away. You didn’t stop eating the feast in front of you. You didn’t stop laughing at the small dragon’s demise.

More like you couldn’t.

You wanted to cry. You wanted to go back to your world and curl up in your bed. You wanted all of this to be a dream.

‘Is this the doing of the gods? If so then why must they be cruel.’

“Is there anything else you want to do young master?”

“No just go out. All of you. I will follow in a short while”

Following your order, everyone in the dungeon started heading out. After a few seconds, there was no one but you and the dragon in the room.

Bleurgh!

As soon as there was no one else in the room you vomited. Good thing there was a bathroom attached in the dungeon. The bathroom door was wide open as you puked your gut out, showing the black dragon a view of your pale face. Despite that you didn’t care, your only focus was to get rid of the horrible feeling running through your body.

It’s not as if the dragon would care about its torturer.

That night you spent the entire time in your bed tossing and turning. Too tired to sleep but too scared to face the nightmares you have to combat every time you do.

“Go find a magician or something and commission a temperature-regulating device. I want it installed at the cave before we visit the Tolz territory again.”

“As you wish your highness. However, aren’t you spending a bit too much on a mere pet?”

“You dare think I’m buying all these things for that pesky dragon? I’m buying it for my own comfort, you should be aware of how I want to be comfortable all the time.”

“It seems I made a mistake. I shall prepare everything you desire for the next time you visit the villa.”

Six months has already passed since you became Venion Stan. Adjusting wasn’t easy, especially when there are more times when you can’t control your body than when you can.

But still, you persevered.

It wasn’t like you had a choice anyway. You have already taken over this body so you have to live in it. That and there’s also the fact that you want the original plot to go smoothly.

You want the black dragon to experience justice.

So you persist. Even when the atrocities you did make you puke. Even when you want to kill yourself.

You didn’t

It wasn’t right.

You may not be the original Venion Stan, but it wouldn’t be right to take away the revenge the black dragon deserves. That was why you decided to persevere.

Persevere now and suffer at the dragon's hands later before finally dying.

That was your plan.

You didn’t care about other things anymore. Money, territory, power; none of those things mattered to you anymore. Too disgusted with yourself and everything you have been doing to even attempt to enjoy those things.

However

There’s a silver lining in all of this.

After a month of being in your new body, you have found a loophole. You found a way to combat some of the restrictions to your actions. As long as you sound selfish and villainous enough, you can get away with saying and doing most things.

Using this knowledge to your advantage, you slowly made life for the dragon easier. You bought a lot of things such as cushions, a more comfortable collar, and the temperature-regulating device you just ordered. You also used this fact to lessen your hold on both Taylor Stan and the underworld.

“Venion, I heard you withdrew the people watching over your older brother.”

You scowled at Marquis Stan’s words as if the mere mention of Taylor Stan upsets you.

“Father, what can that cripple do? He has no legs, no power, and barely has any money. Putting people to watch over someone like that will only be a waste of resources.”

Luckily, the marquis agreed with your reasoning and let the situation go while praising how smart you are.

‘Hopefully by this Taylor Stan can gather more information now that my people are now hovering over him.’

That night you managed to sleep for approximately 30 minutes. The longest sleep you’ve experienced since coming over to this world.

Bleurgh!!

It was another torture session and once again you were vomiting everything you ate that week after the session.

While you were busy trying to not make a mess on the bathroom floor, you didn’t notice a certain young dragon observing you.

He may be three years old and he may not know much but his still smart because he's a dragon. That was why he noticed the changes in his captor that started around 8 months ago.

The young dragon noticed the hesitation in your eyes whenever you entered the dungeon. How you were puking from self-hatred and not because of how bad the food was like you said. How your laugh is soulless, especially when he’s being tortured.

How you stagger the slightest bit while standing up after those sessions. How your hands shook ever so slightly from guilt. How you tried to make the cell as comfortable as possible for him despite saying you were doing it for your own comfort.

How your eyes look more lifeless each time he sees you.

The young dragon noticed all of it. He may not know what caused the change, but he knows that everything you’re doing is against your volition.

“Fuck I lost my appetite already. I’m going back to my room. Feed those scraps to that dragon.”

You ordered your servants on your way out. Walking as if your entire body wasn’t shaking ten seconds ago.

The black dragon just watches you with observant eyes.

The “scraps” you were talking about were the feast that was barely even touched. It had always been like this for a few months now. You would barely touch your food and give it to the dragon in the guise of treating him like a dog.

For now, the young one accepts the food. He’ll figure out your intentions later.

“Lessen the guards at the dungeon. Remove all the cushions too, I’m going to change them. Do the same thing to the dragon’s collar too. While you’re at it increase the guards stationed at my quarters. Put the guards in the cave to my room.”

It’s the fated day. Time passed and now is already the day the black dragon will be rescued by Cale, Choi Han, and the cat tribe children. You already met them earlier and acted as arrogant as you could.

Hence the preparation. You need to make it look like the dragon was kept in a horrible condition. Of course, he was… but like much more worse conditions.

“Assassins have been increasing their attempts lately. If I see someone assigned to my room not doing your jobs I’m going to feed you to the sharks. Oh, and you.”

You pointed at a random servant passing by.

“Here’s some gold, buy some alcohol from the inn. Don’t tell anyone I was the one who bought it.”

“May I ask what you’re going to do with the alcohol young master?”

Everyone knows that Venion Stan deemed things not noble enough as disgusting. But you felt guilty for pushing that old man around earlier so you made an excuse.

“Depends on my mood. I’m feeling generous so if you all guard my room tonight then I’ll give you the alcohol tomorrow to drink.”

Everyone held in their shock.

“But if you don’t then I’m going to throw each bottle in your heads while drinking real wine.”

With that, you turned around to lie down on your bed.

That night was the same as every other night you spent in this world. Sleepless. However, that night you felt some weight being lifted off your shoulders as you heard the ruckus Choi Han was causing outside.

‘He should be curled up in Cale’s lap while looking at me viciously’

You stealthily peeked at Cale as you walked towards your seat. Just a moment ago he was trying to rile you up by acting obnoxious. It was hard to try and act like you were keeping your composure when you agreed with everything he said.

“What the..!”

‘Shit did I not put enough strength into my acting?’

You barely felt your blonde hair sway as you slapped the table in supposed shock at Taylor Stan’s entrance.

‘Maybe I should’ve forced myself to eat a little bit more before coming here…’

Gritting your teeth, you ignore the black spots dancing in your vision. Today is a vital day, you can’t ruin the script by fainting because you only ate 3 spoonfuls during breakfast.

Luckily, it looks like everything is going according to the plot. Based on everyone’s reaction, you looked like an enraged noble.

Days following that event were even more chaotic. Not only was the terrorist attack in the plaza terrifying but trying to act as if you were trying to hold on to your position when you just wanted to give it to Taylor was even tougher.

As usual, you persevered.

Comforted yourself at the thought that in a few months, you can embrace death’s sweet presence.

“Do I look different without the blood?”

You felt scared and relieved at the sight of the black dragon that now goes by Raon Miru.

Scared because even though you have resigned yourself to your fate, and felt like you deserve it even, you still feel fear for what’s about to come.

Relief because he looks healthy. Chubby even. You were glad that he was living a good life after he got away from you.

Disregarding your feelings, you let the poisonous fog into your body. Resigning yourself to the four days of hell waiting.

Ugh…

Your body feels sluggish when you wake up.

“What the… It hasn’t even begun yet why does that bastard’s eyes already look dead?”

“That’s what I was telling you human! That punk's eyes tell a different story from his actions.”

Soft. Whatever you were lying down on felt soft. It wasn’t like what you’ve read in the novel where Venion was lying down on the hard ground. The magic collar was also soft. It felt similar to the one you bought for Raon a year ago.

You would know because you made sure to pick the softest one yourself.

“His eyes look more dead than when I last saw him at that cave.”

Eyes? Were they talking about yours?

You didn’t know. You didn’t care.

You just want everything to end.

Gasp!

Someone gasped, you think it was one of the kittens.

“T-tears! Why is he crying? I only put paralysis in poison earlier.”

Crying? You were crying?

You sit up. It was hard because of the chains tying your arms but you still did it.

As you look down on your lap, tears are indeed flowing.

‘Why am I crying? Wasn’t I waiting for this day?’

Everything was already planned in your head. You get tortured then you will go crazy. Then you will kill yourself and make everyone believe you did it because you’re crazy.

So why are you crying now?

Why are you in tears as if you don’t deserve what’s happening to you?

Why do you weep as though you haven’t committed several crimes this past year?

How dare you do so.

How dare you act so pitifully when the child you tortured is right in front of you?

Shameless. Till the end, you’re so shameless.

Click!

Thunk!

Beacrox unlocked the magic collar. As he did you saw it falling on the ground.

“Ah, so there really was fur inside…”

Your voice sounded soulless. It sounded so dead that even you were shocked at how you sounded.

But it also felt cathartic.

After two years of trying to act lively. Two years of acting as if you were fighting for something.

You can finally let out your real emotions.

Two years. It took more than two years for you to be granted that privilege.

“Speak. I heard you bought the same thing for Raon.”

“You really named him Raon…”

Beacrox grabbed your collar. He looked furious. If you remember things correctly, he just heard about the dragon’s story a while ago so you understand his feelings.

“He told you to answer. Why did you buy something like that after 3 years?”

“I was getting tired of looking at the hard metal… There was nothing in that cave but stone and metal…”

Your tears are still flowing. It looks like they were crying a whole year’s worth.

Despite that, you were not shaking, nor were your eyes looked sad.

Contrarily, you looked like those creepy dolls with soulless eyes that cried in horror films.

That low-key scared everyone in the room.

“Before, when I was three, I saw you shaking every time you came to the cave. Why was that?”

What’s happening? Why is there a sudden interrogation? You signed up for torture not for a cross-examination.

Still, you answered the dragon.

“I can’t tell.”

“Is it related to how you can’t seem to say what you want at times?”

Just how much did that kid notice in the few times you visited him?

“Yes. When are you going to get started? I need to meet with my hyung after this…”

Meet him and then die.

So please hurry up already.

“Hey punk, you sound like you already know what’s going to happen.”

“It’s obvious. This place looks exactly like that damn cave.”

You were getting tired of talking.

Actually, you were tired. Period.

“But it doesn’t look like how I left the cave when you rescued him.”

“Yes, because that wasn’t how the cave I lived in looked like. It looked like this.”

And the “this” Raon was talking about felt more homey. There were soft lights and a bunch of pillows and cushions. There were even some stuffed toys and blankets.

Was this how you decorated Raon’s cave?

You can’t remember.

Not that you care.

“Can we get started already please?”

“I thought you were a sadist, not a masochist.”

Something snapped inside you at that moment. You didn’t know why it was Choi Han’s comment that riled you up. Maybe it wasn’t the comment but the waiting that set you off.

“Just do it already! Are you dumb?! This fucking plot will not move unless you fucking torture me!”

In that moment you felt a searing pain in your chest.

“Argh!”

Blood flowed out from your mouth.

‘So that’s what happens when I try to push the restrictions.’

Coughing out blood when you’re body was already weak from not eating and sleeping enough was bound to cause you to faint.

And faint you did.

“Young master Cale said you were unconscious for 4 days. The doctor told me you were both malnourished and fatigued. One of your servants confessed that it’s an achievement if you eat 4 spoonfuls every meal. The young master also mentioned how it seems like you were forced to do everything you’ve done… Just what is happening? Hmm? Tell this hyung of yours.”

“Hyung…”

In the end, you didn’t get tortured…

“What’s going to happen now? What’s going to happen to me?”

You diverged from the fate carved out for Venion Stan.

That made you scared.

The restriction placed upon you to prevent you from straying from the plot scared you.

“Everything will be okay. But you need to tell me what’s going on.”

Taylor Stan hugged you, and you felt disgusted with yourself that you dare find warmth and comfort in that hug. Disgusted that you dared cry in front of him when you tried to kill him in the past.

But you couldn’t help it.

You couldn’t help that your hyung was soft and caring even though he was stern and strict.

“I’m scared hyung. I’m a horrible person.”

As you speak you notice Cale in the corner of the room. He was trying to go out to give you two some privacy.

“Please stay.”

‘You deserve to hear the truth too.’

Cale stopped moving at your words.

At that moment you decided to spill everything. Venion Stan’s role was already done. Even if it wasn’t, you already strayed from the path written for him. So you’re pulling all stops now.

“I’m a horrible person that did horrid crimes. I know that, I did them with my own hands after all. But I didn’t want to do them.”

You felt that stinging pain slowly coming back.

“There are times when I can’t control the things I say or do. No matter how hard I try my body won’t listen to me.”

The taste of blood in your mouth is back. You tried to act as calm as possible and nonchalantly spit it out in a napkin as if you were just wiping your mouth.

“I think it’s the god’s doing. It’s fated that I must be a bad guy for everything in the future to work out.”

You wiped your mouth again.

“I couldn’t resist it. But I found a loophole.”

Wipe

“If I make it look like what I was doing is villainous then my movements will not be restricted as much.”

“So when you removed the people watching over my residence..?”

You nodded while wiping your mouth once again.

However, this time Taylor snatched the napkin out of your hands.

“You’re bleeding..!”

“Ah…”

You were wiping so much blood that it already seeped out. Causing for Taylor and Cale to see the blood.

“I should’ve used a darker colour…”

“Stop talking. I’ve already heard everything I need to know.”

“I have nothing else to say to you anyway.”

The two men started walking out of the door when you called out to someone.

“Young master Cale, can you please stay? I must tell you something.”

The marquis and the young master exchanged a glance before one of them left the room.

“What is it?”

At Taylor’s exit, Raon undid his invisibility.

“It’s not fate.”

Cale and Raon looked at you as if you’d lost your head. Honestly, you wish you did. Being beheaded right now is better than living with these horrible feelings.

“It’s plot. You should know what I’m talking about.”

Luckily, Marquiss Stan left the napkin so you could wipe your mouth again.

“I think the universe, not the gods, made a mistake with me. But despite their mistake, they are insistent on going with the plot laid out.”

You discarded the napkin. It’s already drenched with too much of your blood that it can’t be used anymore.

“But don’t worry. This plot is very beneficial to you. You just have to follow whatever you think is right. You can disregard whatever anyone says. Even if that anyone is a god.”

‘Unlike me’

Cale handed you a handkerchief and you wiped your mouth with it.

“Lastly, I’m sorry Raon Miru-nim. My only choice was to either keep torturing you or throw you out. I couldn’t throw you out, because if I did then you wouldn’t meet the young master.”

“It’s okay… I am great and mighty so I figured out long ago that you were being forced.”

“Thank you.”

With that the dragon became invisible again and the two head out of the room.

Cleanup was easy. Of course, it was. Everything was already planned out beforehand.

The previous marquis was arrested and his people were successfully rooted out. You got sentenced to house arrest.

Meaning, you got a slap on the wrist.

It confused you. Why did you get such a light sentence when you did so many horrible things? It didn’t even feel like house arrest because your hyung always kept you by his side and personally took care of you.

“How about you? How are you and your brother doing?”

You heard Cale speaking on the other side of the communication device. But you just kept your head low and stared at your palms, unmoving.

“That…”

Marquis Stan hesitated.

“His been listless since that day. I checked with an expert and they said his in a catatonic state.”

You blur out the rest of their conversation. It wasn’t like there was a need to listen anyway. There’s nothing for you to do now. Your role is done but you can’t die.

You're tired.

So so fucking tired.

Tired of waking up. Tired of moving. Tired of thinking. Tired of breathing.

Tired of living.

So you opted to not move. Tune out the world around you. Maybe if you’re lucky they’ll leave you to rot in that lavish room of yours.

“Your eyes look more lively today. Do you have enough energy to speak?”

You blinked once. Then twice. You don’t know how many days have passed already. All of them look like a giant blur in your mind.

For the first time in a while, you moved your body to look at your surroundings.

As you take in your surroundings you notice that there’s a storm outside. That and Taylor Stan seem to have put you in the wheelchair he used to use.

“Taylor Stan…”

“Call me hyung.”

Did you deserve to? Well, it doesn’t matter since he ordered you to.

“Hyung”

“Yes, my dongsaeng?”

“Why won’t you kill me?”

The wheelchair stopped in its tracks. It was because the one pushing it stopped walking.

“Why would I kill you?”

“Why would you not kill me?”

You had no way of knowing just how scared Taylor was at this moment. Your voice sounded so soulless. As if you were asking about the weather and not about your death. He was already scared that one day he would just wake up to find you dead. Your questions and your way of asking them are not helping his fear.

“I told you, I wouldn’t kill my family.”

“Ah…”

Silence lingered as the two of you went to your room. Inside, the first thing you noticed was the door on the wall.

“That’s a connecting door. It’s connected to my room.”

“Very fitting for a criminal like me that needs to be monitored at all times.”

“That’s not…”

Taylor Stan chose to sigh instead of answering. After he did, he called the servants to help you with your nighttime routine.

“You all can go now, I’ll take it from here.”

Servants filed out of your room as your brother took the brush from a servant's hand.

“You know that this is useless right?”

“Why is that?”

Taylor continued brushing your blonde hair that now reaches past your shoulders.

“It’s not like I’ll sleep. There’s never a night where I slept for more than 30 minutes. I think.”

“Maybe if I stay by your side you’ll sleep better.”

You didn’t respond. You just watched in the mirror how your hyung gently brushed your hair. At some point, you pulled your legs up to your chest and started hugging them.

Taylor Stan didn’t seem to mind your movements. In fact, he seems to encourage them.

“Let’s eat dinner now. Do you want to walk?”

“No.”

The mere thought of moving more than you already did makes you feel nauseated.

Your hyung nodded and started pushing the wheelchair again. As he did the sight of the food prepared on your table caught your eyes. It wasn’t a feast like how you were served in the past.

Instead, there were just two simple identical meals on the table.

It reminded you of how you used to eat your meals back on earth.

“You’re eating too?”

“I haven’t eaten yet. I figure we can eat together since Cage is not here.”

She must be in the super rock’s villa or something.

Eat together was what you did. Well, more like Taylor ate while you take a few bites and play with your food.

“Do you not want to eat anymore?”

“No.”

“It’s fine, just leave it there. You already ate thrice more than you usually would. It’s okay to take it slow.”

That’s true. You ate 10 spoonfuls today when you would usually just take a bite or two. Three at most.

Maybe a gentle company and a simple meal did the trick. But you aren’t sure.

After the meal, you brushed your teeth before lying down on the bed. Taylor was sitting on a couch beside your bed as promised.

That night, for the first time since you arrived in this world, you managed to sleep almost the whole night.

187 notes · View notes

11queensupreme11 · 3 months ago

Note

Hii queen

How do you think the other pantheons and their leaders will react to percy trying to run away orrr someone else trying to hurt her will they deem it as an act of offense against their pantheon? will they be protective of percy as well?

i crave some ra interactions pleasseeee🙏🙏🙏

alsooo i can imagine the gods arguing about percy’s way of dressing when attending to a party since she is married into different pantheons everyone especially the yanderes will want her to wear something that associates with themm and she just wants to dress in a different way but they are not letting herrr😭😭

oh i love this hehe. i'm gonna answer ur second part first cuz it's the shortest: the gods would definitely argue about percy's outfits 😭😭😭 the greeks want her to dress greek cuz well, she's greek! but she's got hubbies from different pantheons, so it just gets messy 😂 they settle it by letting her dress in the pantheon who's hosting the party. so, asgardian party? she's dressed in asgardian style. greek party, greek style and so forth! as for every day styles tho.... a new fight begins 😭

now onto the first one!

this is assuming percy managed to nab loki's cloak because there is NO WAY she can hide from the gods when they could easily just detect her

ra: as you all know, he is SECRETLY lowkey fond of her now. but just a smidge! just a bare, teensy smidge!!!!!! if he found out that she ran away, he'd just shrug it off. the girl's life is pure chaos so he understands why she'd run away from it all. he won't search her out, but if he ends up running into her while she's in a tight spot, he's gonna discretely help her sneak away. now if he sees someone try to hurt her? easy! he fries them to a crispy but ONLY because he knows anubis would lose his shit and he doesn't wanna deal with it! psh, he totally doesn't actually care about the demigod, no way!

shiva: LMAO HE'S GONNA TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS SO MUCH. if percy runs away, he's gonna go look for her like everyone else is and when he finds her, he's snatching her up and taking her back to svarga! 😭😭😭😭 meet your new daddy and mommies, percy! 😂 if he sees percy get attacked, he's obviously gonna kill the guy but once he's sure there's no witnesses, he's snatching her up 😂

izanagi: he'd be such a gentle and sweet platonic yan omfgggg 🥺🥺 if he finds percy after she runs away, he'd gently scold her like "little girl, please go home, your father's very worried for you 🙁". might be tempted to snatch her up too, she just reminds him of his adorable youngest child, susano-o! oh, she likes it down in midgard? that's where his son is! perhaps he could set up a playdate? but no, no, he must be responsible! as a father, he understands poseidon's worries so he must do the right thing and take percy back to him.... after he takes her back to the palace and feeds her a little. she's just so tiny, has poseidon even be feeding her? if he sees someone attack her, he would protect her without slaughtering the guy (he doesn't want to traumatize the baby!) and makes sure he's tossed into tartarus

buddha: this dude would NOT send her back to poseidon lmaoooo, he knows the dude's crazy and he pities the kid 😭 if he finds her after she ran away, he'd help take her down to midgard. oh she likes it new york? well, now she's living in a decent apartment, attending a good college and everything! he can tell this girl is desperate for normalcy, so he helps her get it 💖 if anyone attacks her in front of him, he'd protect her without killing them because. well... killing someone in front of a kid is just fucked up, you know? 💀

lugh (he is NOT a canon character of ror or the spinoff, but he's a love interest's dad so expect to see him in my fic soon. he'll probably show up in the manga in the future and my depiction of him will be waaaay off but i don't wanna wait MONTHS to write about a character 😭): oh he'd be so worried. the love of his son's life has run away? being such a GREAT dad, he'll search for percy and snatch her up and hide her away in his palace and plop her right down on cú chulainn's lap who's like "father wtf" 💀. may or may not take advantage of the situation to plan a wedding 😭. if he sees someone attack her, instead of STOPPING IT or PROTECTING HER, he's gonna hastily teleport to wherever his son is and be like "SON YOUR FUTURE WIFE IS DANGER, YOU NEED TO SAVE HER RIGHT NOW!!!!! 😱" and cú's gonna be sooo pissed like "WDYM YOU WERE RIGHT THERE AND YOU DIDN'T DO SHIT?!" 😭😭😭😭😭😭

prometheus (i just realized he and percy are technically cousins, no idk if he's like a first/second or if he's first removed/twice removed, i don't understand that shit sorry 💀): HE WOULD HELP HER! he was the first outer god, HE KNOWS THE GODS ARE SHIT! if percy runs away, he will do his own secret search to make sure she's okay and help her hide away in midgard! he'll be like buddha but more overbearing about it cuz she's family you know??? 🥺 she is literally the ONLY family member he has who isn't shit 😭 (heracles doesn't count cuz he's adopted). if he saw anyone attack her, he's gonna put a stop to it and try his best to not accidentally kill the guy in front of her (titans are known to be physically STRONGER than the gods)

sun wukong: like ra, he won't go looking for her if she ran away but he'll subtly help out if he were to run into her and see that she was about to get caught/seen. he's a little curious about the kid, and all he knows is that despite being poseidon's daughter and despite being raised by him, she's a genuinely good person and he lowkey hopes it stays that way. plus, she's a kid. like c'mon he's not a monster. if he were to see her get attacked, he'd casually kill the person in front of her and then continue walking on by. he's just a Chill Guy.

aphrodite: ohhhhhh percy is SCREWED 💀 she would absolutely join the search to look for runaway percy and once she finds her, she'll hand her over to one of the yans who's most likely to let her watch him fuck her as a "reward" for finding his beloved. she wants her entertainment after all! and what's more thrilling then watching your favorite ship fuck? 🥰 if she saw percy get attacked, SHE. WOULD. GO. FERAL. how fucking dare you attack her precious, adorable percy?! to try and mar her pretty skin?! to ruin her perfect hair?! she would definitely protect percy and teleport her straight back to her palace and as for the attacker... well let's just say they're going to have a hellish eternity 💀💀💀💀

#👸🏻| asks #👸🏻| arsenic blues

58 notes · View notes

shiro-s2e2-erukinzu · 2 months ago

Text

Anime only watchers and people who aren't caught up with the Manga, BEWARE... Cuz I'm about to discuss Spy X Family Mission 110... You have been warned...! 👌

[SPOILERS AHEAD FROM THIS POINT ON]

*Ahem...*

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

THIS CHAPTER WAS CRAZY GOOD & HAD IT ME GOING NUTS BY THE END OF IT...!!! 😵

This was another informative chapter with something that might've just confirmed something ABSOLUTELY BIG...!!! 😲 So let's talk about it, shall we...? 😉

We begin this chapter basically right where we left off last time and Loid thinks to himself that maybe the reason that Melinda claims that Donovan is an alien might be some sort of metaphor for her not comprehending Donovan's way of thinking, so he asks her why she thinks this, and Melinda immediately shuts down Twilight's proclamation that Donovan won't find out about what they've discussed here... While in the waiting room, Melinda's bodyguard over hears Melinda shouting, but before she can do anything, Fiona goes to have a chat with her to ease her worry while also trying to get some info out of her....:

I honestly didn't expect to see Fiona show up and come in clutch to get extra information about Melinda, though I probably should have...! 😅

After that, we cut back to Twilight trying to calm Melinda down and convince her that he stands with her...! So, he tells her...:

I am so glad that Twilight told Melinda to get away from Donovan as soon as possible because I know that some people were worried that Loid was just gonna encourage her to stay with Donovan just so that he can get more information from her, but luckily that wasn't Loid's plan...! In fact as stated in the image above, if Twilight has proof that Donovan is abusing Melinda, it would cause a scandal and possibly lead to him being removed from power...! But before Twilight could her ask anything, Melinda stops him and says that Donovan hasn't done anything to her... This eventually leads Twilight to tell Melinda his observation of her:

Gosh, I feel so bad for Melinda... 😔 She doesn't deserve what's happening to her...

After that, Melinda decides that it's too late to hide that she came here, so she tells Twilight when she started to notice Donovan change...:

And then, Melinda reveals why she thinks that Donovan was replaced by alien...:

OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD! 😱 DID MELINDA JUST CONFIRM THAT DONOVAN IS INDEED A TELEPATH JUST LIKE ANYA!?!? 😵😵😵

I am seriously FREAKING OUT right now because I (and many others) have thought about this possibility FOR A LONG TIME!! 😵 GAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY AT THIS POINT...!!! 😫

After THAT bombshell, Melinda tells Loid about how scared she is of Donovan as well as all of this...:

MELINDA...!!! 💔😭💔

CAN SOMEONE PLEASE SAVE HER AND CHILDREN FROM THIS MAN IMMEDIATELY!!! 😫

Then, Twilight suggests to Melinda that she should convince Donovan to come to therapy as well, which leads to the funniest image in this whole chapter...!!:

🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂

In the end, Twilight did his best to work with Melinda before she left, but he felt that he might have pushed her little too much, so now Loid awaits for Melinda's examination results as he heads home... And of course, someone else learns of Donovan possibly being a telepath...!!:

OF COURSE ANYA WAS GONNA HEAR ABOUT THIS!!! 🗣🗣🗣

And that was Mission 110, it was both fantastic and crazy at the same time!!! 👌😌

This chapter was a very serious one throughout (except for the happy Donovan alien part, that was just so hilarious!! 🤣) Now I'm wondering where do we go from here...? 🤔 Is something bad gonna happen to Melinda because this? What is Anya (hell, even Loid) gonna do with the information that was dropped in this chapter...? 😲

IS DONOVAN MOST DEFINITELY A TELEPATH?!?! 😱 (The signs point to yes for me! 👌)

We are definitely in some deep territory here, so who knows what's gonna happen next...!! But, I am (hopefully) ready for ANYTHING...!!! 😆 So, until the next Mission; take care, be safe out there and be kind to one another...!! LATER Y'ALL!!! 👋😁

56 notes · View notes

eleni-cherie · 6 months ago

Text

agents' secrets ✨ || bts • jjk [ONE-SHOT]

"please, don't shoot me for this."

about two interpol agents assigned to catch a pack of thieves. and a dicey secret to share.

[one-shot in 'the thieves collection' series - can be read independently!!]

»»»

— word count: 10k

— genre: interpol agent au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, sexual tensiON, slowburning, mutual pining, co-workers to friends to lover cw2f2l

— song recommendations/inspirations:

luca vasta - imperial (i don't wanna dance)

hozier - too sweet

alexandra savior - bones

claire - friendly fire

ezi - take my breath away

jungkook - standing next to you

»»»

IDEA/STORY/CHARACTERS BASED ON MY PREVIOUS STORIES: "A THIEF'S ORIGIN" , "AMONG THIEVES" AND "A THIEF'S END".

this one-shot aims to give additional backstory to some incidents from the three main stories from jungkook and skylar's perspective while focusing and adding details to their friend- and relationship.

if you want the full context and also more of the two, check out the other stories as well!

PROTAGONISTS:

JEON JUNGKOOK AS HIMSELF; YOUNG INTERPOL AGENT / FRISKY COLLEAGUE

KIERNAN SHIPKA AS SKYLAR BLAKE; YOUNG INTERPOL AGENT / AMBITIOUS NEWBIE

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

NOT FREE FROM LINGUISTIC ERRORS - ENGLISH IS NOT MY NATIVE LANGUAGE.

DON’T BE A GHOST READER. LIKE, COMMENT & SHARE THIS STORY IF YOU LIKE IT :))

DEDICATED TO EVERYONE WHO’S READING THIS FANFIC!

CHECK OUT MY OTHER BTS STORIES AS WELL: HERE

-Elenixx

»»»

[set between the prequel and main story]

Interpol branch office

Seoul, South Korea

Jungkook had never been someone struggling with mornings. Considering they'd spend the previous days in Shanghai, arresting a counterfeiter they'd been after for months, however, the lack of sleep started getting the best of him.

If he could, he'd have more than twenty-four hours a day. A day alone wasn't enough to fully rest.

With a yawn, he sat behind his desk and switched his pc on. Slight disappointment washing over his features as there weren't any news about their favourite pack of thieves. Perhaps Seokjin would inform them about any hints regarding Park Jimin and his gang in the team meeting later.

His eyes wandered around then, realising Namjoon wasn't at the desk across from his. And he sighed. It was a view he should probably get used to considering his older collegue was leaving the robbery department soon to become the lead at special victims.

Of course Jungkook was happy for Namjoon, but he simply wasn't a big fan of changes, even if they were inevitable. It always took him awhile getting used to new circumstances.

Suddenly a tall figure entered his peripheral view and he saw his supervisor walking towards him with an ambigious smirk. "Jungkook-ah! Good morning!"

"'morning, Sir."

"What are these bags under your eyes? They're deeper than my soul," Seokjin laughed out and gave him a pat on the shoulder, coaxing a tired chuckle from the young agent.

"I know, I know," he mumbled in embarrassment, which his supervisor missed while looking for something in his pockets. Eventually pulling out a USB drive.

"Remember the list of suspects we requested from the bootleg case? We got it here. Make sure to cross-check with the other case."

He nodded firmly. "Sure."

Only when Seokjin left, he let himself sink into his seat again. He definitely needed coffee before the team meeting in less than an hour. So he got up, making his way towards the elevator. As he rounded the corner, he saw Namjoon entering through the glass doors with the sleeves of his blazer rolled up and a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose. An air of refined nonchalance surrounding him.

He was holding one of the double doors open and only then Jungkook noticed he was talking to someone. Catching a glimpse of a person behind his broad shoulders.

"This is our floor and where you're gonna work at next week. It's pretty much the sa- oh! JK!" Namjoon's cheery voice when noticing him made Jungkook pause in his tracks. With a shy smile, he waved and walked up to him. Seeing the person Namjoon was talking to appear beside him.

A young woman, probably not older than him but not much younger either, stood there. Compared to Namjoon's tall stature she looked tiny and when standing in front of her he realised that she was indeed quite short, probably not more than 1.6 metres in height. Her shoulder-length blond hair was falling in soft waves, pushed back by a hairband. There was a sharpness in her brown eyes and a reserved curve on her lips as she locked gazes with him.

Only when one of her thick brows arched, he realised he'd been staring and with a quick blink of his eyes, he redirected them to Namjoon who'd been talking this whole time. "Huh?"

Namjoon gave him a puzzled frown before laughing out. "Say, haven't you fully woken up yet? I said this is your new colleague."

"Starting on monday, so not yet," the young woman corrected with a charming smile, earning a nod from Namjoon.

"Oh," Jungkook finally spoke up, his eyes going round like a child's as soon as he processed the information. And his gaze returned to her. "So you're his successor?"

"Y-yeah, I guess so," she answered tentatively.

"She's gonna be your new partner."

And his lips curled up. "Nice to meet you, then. I'm agent Jeon Jungkook."

He offered her his hand, which she accepted with a coy smile, giving it a quick squeeze before letting go again.

"Agent Skylar Blake, nice to meet you."

The senior agent motioned with his chin for them to continue down the corridor. "I was about to show her around the department before the meeting. You wanna join us?"

"Maybe later, gotta grab some coffee first."

Namjoon gave him an understanding look and chuckled. "Yeah, you look like you could use one."

He eventually met Skylar and Namjoon again in the conference room half an hour later. The two already sitting and chatting at a corner while people started gathering. Jungkook was sipping at his by now lukewarm coffee, occasionally peeking at them from a few seats away as they were all intently listening to Seokjin and the other teamleaders' updates.

The meeting went by rather quickly. There were news regarding some cases but nothing regarding Jimin, Taehyung and Yoongi. The general census being that they were currently laying low and preparing for a new coup after the failed one in Thailand months ago.

It was nearing noon when Jungkook sat back in his desk chair and stretched his neck. Finally having finished going through the list Seokjin had given him and some other evidence. He hadn't looked up from his screens in hours and when he did, his irises caught sight of Skylar sitting at the desk opposite to his. Namjoon's desk.

Her dark eyes concentrating on something in front of her, scribbling down on the paper.

For a moment, he observed her quietly as she tucked a streak of blond hair behind her ear. Tongue slightly sticking out between her red-painted lips. And he got curious of what she was so focused on.

Surely, he hadn't talked much to her yet but she seemed nice. And considering the two would be working closely from now on, he should probably get to know her better.

Skylar scribbled something again on what he eventually saw was a crosswords, too immersed in it to notice him approaching. Only a few blanks were left on the quiz and he raised an impressed brow when standing beside her.

"'Jackass'."

The young woman jumped up in her seat, looking startled at Jungkook above her.

"W-what?"

"'Jackass'," he repeated matter-of-factly, motioning with his eyes to the squares on the paper and tapping his finger on it. "Nine horizontal, 'equid – stupid person': jackass."

Finally understanding, she looked down and indeed, it fit. "T-thanks."

"You bored?" he asked then, meeting her friendly smile.

"Kinda. Agent Kim told me to wait here as he got called in by the other agent Kim and you seemed so emerged in your task, I didn't want to disturb."

He hummed, his eyes briefly falling into a sad scowl. He knew he should get used to seeing someone else, particularly her, sitting behind that desk from now on, however, it was still hard to grasp or accept that fact.

Shaking off that thought, he grabbed the unoccupied desk chair of another colleague then, rolling next to her. "Mind if I join you?" he asked, taking a seat beside her. A whiff of an unfamiliar smell filling his nostrils. It was her, he realised, she smelled nice. Of flowers.

She shook her head then, scooting further away to make space for him. "I didn't want to distract you from your task, though. You don't have to keep me company."

"Nah, don't worry, I finished and besides.." he offered her a smile, "..we'll be partners from now on. I should probably get to know you better since we're gonna spend so much time together."

Her lips folded and she nodded. "Makes sense.."

"So you like crosswords?"

"Mh. And reading. Keeps my mind busy."

"I see. I prefer video games."

"I suck in them," she deadpanned, earning a chuckle from him. At least she was honest.

"And I suck in reading anything with more than twenty pages of text."

"Oh, so you can still read children's books at least."

He huffed a laugh seeing her biting back one herself. He wasn't used to anyone being this witty with him besides Seokjin and occasionally Namjoon and it amused him. Made it easier to get used to her.

"Yeah, but I'd much rather read manga."

He managed getting a small laugh out of her after all and he grinned, satisfied.

They grew quiet, reading over the remaining blanks when Skylar peeked at him with prying eyes.

"Since we're getting to know each other right now.." she began slowly, earning a questioning look from him, "May I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Why do you seem so sad when looking at me?"

His brows rose briefly, before looking away with a sigh. So she had noticed. "Is it that obvious?"

"Oh, sorry, was it supposed to be a poker-face?" she giggled then, pointing her pen at him, "If so, I must inform you, you failed miserably."

He scoffed, laughing again and she joined him.

It was interesting. When she'd first met him a few hours ago he seemed aloof. However, seeing him laugh now had much the opposite effect on her. He looked quite innocent and childlike as his round eyes crinkled and turned into crescents while laughing carelessly.

"Please don't take it personally," he said then, "It has nothing to do with you. It's just.. I'm kinda sad Namjoon's leaving. That's all. He.. he is my role model here. Obviously Seokjin, too, they both are. But Namjoon was the reason I joined this department in the first place."

Memories from four years ago when he'd first joined after graduating from the academy swept through his mind. How nervous and dewy-eyed he'd once been and determinded to prove himself. Looking back at it now, he had to laugh at his past self.

Skylar, however, didn't seem nervous or gullible at all. At least from what he'd seen that day. And he quickly noticed the surprise on the younger agent's face at his confession, feeling himself blushing. "I know it must sound ridiculous and - "

"No, actually.. I get it," she interrupted him, "It was the same for me."

His eyes grew round. "What?"

She only nodded vigorously. "Yeah, I applied for narcotics first but he somehow got my application and convinced me to come here instead. He.. he surely has a way with words. I couldn't refuse." Frankly, she was still amazed by Namjoon's eloquent way of speaking.

Jungkook laughed to himself, nodding in agreement. "He definitely does."

They exchanged a small smile when suddenly their names were heard from the other side of the office. Both their heads turned in the direction of Seokjin's voice, seeing their supervisor standing all the way back at the open door of the conference room, waving at them to come.

"Just got some news from our favourite thieves. Blake, you might wanna join since you'll have to deal with them from now on, too."

They nodded and immediately got up to hurry to the conference room when Skylar accidentally bumped into him. Their gazes locked as she smiled up at him. And in that short moment her cherry lips moved to apologize, his breath hitched and he swallowed hard. His ears began ringing out of nowhere then, as if they'd clogged up and he shook his head in a poor attempt to get rid of it.

He noticed Skylar's puzzled expression, dark brows knitted together and his irises widened, taken aback.

"You two coming?"

"Y-yeah, yes," Jungkook quickly yelled and brushed past her towards the conference room.

And Skylar stood there, eyes resting on his tall figure.

What an odd guy.

»»»

[6 months later, during main story]

Mexico City, Mexico

"I can't believe I let her trick me like that," Skylar huffed, doing her best to fight against the urge of burying her face in her hands. Instead, she only shook her head, disappointment washing over her.

Jungkook gave her an empathetic look. "You're too hard on yourself," he said and settled for the seat across from her. "Seriously, don't let that get to you. Arabella Valentine is a sly one. She'd have tricked anyone and this was the first time you came face-to-face with her."

Despite her appreciating his attempt of cheering her up, her sulky expression only persisted. "I know. But considering I studied these criminals so well the past months and knew how mesmerising she can be to the point even Park Jimin constantly gets wrapped around her finger, I should've been better prepared. She caught me out completely and I know it's unprofessional but I.. I-" Skylar grew quiet before throwing her head back with a groan. "- but I quite profoundly and wholeheartedly dislike her."

Jungkook only bursted out laughing, quite amused by the usual level-headed Skylar losing her composure. "Because she handcuffed you onto the cabinet."

"Because she handcuffed me onto the cabinet," she confirmed.

It was the first time she had encountered the female thief and Jimin's 'frenemy' and love interest, and despite the stories and warnings, she wouldn't have guessed to get so easily fooled by her, too.

Quite frankly, Skylar felt her pride was hurt but more importantly she'd embarrassed herself. In front of Jungkook and worse, in front of their supervisor Seokjin. Despite him laughing it off and even joking about the situation.

"Ah, Sky, told you already. You're too uptight, loosen up! No one's judging you for that. I used to be like that, too, you know. I took everything too serious, I was so eager to prove myself.. But there's nothing to prove. You're good, otherwise you wouldn't be here."

In the past months and during long flights all across the globe and endless nights going over evidence and connecting the dots, he'd said the same. In the beginning she was indifferent and simply waved it off, then she got almost comically offended by his advices. By now it only made her exhale deeply, knowing he was right. Yet, it was hard to accept it.

"But she got away.." mumbled and propped her chin onto her hand as she looked out into the sunlit buildings outside the police precinct.

Sometimes, she still felt like the outsider. The rookie. The newbie.

Everyone but her team colleagues looking down at her. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but sometimes it seemed like agents from the other teams and departments were talking about her behind her back. Like when she entered a room and everyone coincidentally stopped talking, people looking away when she caught them staring or hushed whispers around the corners.

It was surely all in her imagination, all these insecurities she'd felt while growing up and later in school, university and the academy, piling up. As if being half-korean and not looking like it at all wasn't bad enough, but with her mother being a diplomat and sending her to private tutors and lessons, it surely hadn't made it easier.

She wondered if any of her colleagues knew about it, wondered if they believed she only got so far because of her mother, despite her always being strictly against her daughter persuing that career and even joining Interpol.

The sound of typing interrupted her train for thoughts then and she saw Jungkook had begun looking over the security footage in the meantime, trying locating Jimin and Arabella's escape route after slipping away in the traffic.

"She'd have anyway," he eventually shrugged a gentle smile crossing his lips when glancing at her, "But you were the only one thinking about checking the archive. You were smarter than the rest of us."

That was true, she thought and it lightened her mood a tiny bit. A genuine smile tucking on her red lips. At least Jungkook never treated her differently, despite knowing about her background.

He was way more positive than her. Not that she was a pessimist, but when it came to herself she was certainly her biggest critic.

Her eyes wandered over the curve of his cheek, and the wave of his hair, and the way his shirt draped over his shoulders.

Shaking her head, she pulled her laptop closer to help him in his search.

"Cheer up, here." His sudden enthusiasm made her perk up from her screen and he turned his laptop to her. "Found where they went to. It's this café."

She arched a brow. "But do you really think they'll still be there? As if."

"Maybe not, but it's at least a clue and besides.." He rubbed his belly with an innocent smile. He got up then and flipped the device shut, gesturing for her to follow. "Come, I'll treat you to lunch. To make up for your hard day."

She huffed out a laugh. "I know you're making fun of me again. But I surely won't decline the offer."

And she gave him a wink before brushing past him.

The floral scent of her perfume staying a second more.

»»»

[a week later]

Jungkook couldn't help but giggle in childish amusement when seeing Skylar struggling matching his speed. They were doing laps to warm up and he'd decided to tease her a little more by speeding up.

"Jung-" she wheezed "-kook! You meanie!"

Another fit of chuckles errupted from his cheeky grin until stopping abruptly and looking behind him.

Her blond waves were in a high ponytail, swaying left and right as she jogged towards him. Nearing him with a scowl.

They were both wearing the same standard field training attire, olive-green cargo pants and black shirts, almost looking like children whose parents' decided to give them matching couple outfits just for fun.

"Did you say anything?" he asked with a shit-eating grin, earning a roll of her eyes.

"We said we'd do a relaxed warm-up!"

He faked innocence at her adorable pout. "Oh sorry, must've forgotten."

Skylar could tell he hadn't but decided she didn't have the energy or will to continue arguing, being too exhausted after running like a maniac for five laps to try catching him.

"Are you two enough warmed up now?" the instructor at the training centre interrupted their bickering, both following him to the actual gym area.

Some would consider it a perk being able to exercise during work hours as field agents had to stay physically fit. Others again might consider it almost a punishment having to constantly work out.

Jungkook belonged to the first kind while Skylar was rather seeing herself in the second category. That day, however, she saw herself in the first one with him.

Defence training was on the schedule which she enjoyed as it was the only time she didn't feel totally inferior to Jungkook's muscular built which was quite the opposite to his sweet and juvenile face. And especially after Arabella having so skillfully fooled her last time, she felt she needed to freshen her skills.

An hour passed, grunts and small yells filling the area as both went through the exercises, either with the instructor or the training dummies. The air got stuffy after some, making the two eventually pause in need for a water break and to catch their breaths.

The instructor suggested for them to repeat the last couple of figures together the . One acting as the attacker and the other as the defender. So they positioned themselves on the training mat opposite of each other. Arms in front of them in a starting position.

"I'm apologising in advance, in case I'll hurt you," she said, causing Jungkook to scoff. He couldn't believe that smug smile on her gentle features.

"That's rich coming from the one always asking me to open her water bottles," he simply countered. Skylar's jaw dropped, about to retort something, when he began moving and she quickly composed herself.

Their movements were quick, she stepped in close to his body so when she turned, her right shoulder brushed his chest. Using the edges of her opened hands, she struck his upper and lower arm. Obviously she didn't do it too hard, it was more about doing the correct movements than using force. After all, she didn't want to actually hurt him.

Grabbing his arm, she twisted it until the heel of his hand pointed toward the ceiling. But then he pivoted, placing his right shoulder under her elbow and freeing himself. He walked backwards, facing her with a smug grin on his full lips. He brushed away the dyed strands that had fallen in front of his eyes with his tattooed hand as he took in the initial position.

Skylar puffed out a breath, blowing off a strand that had loosened from her ponytail. There was determination written behind her long-eyelashes and her fingers gave him a daring wave, gesturing him that she was ready for his move.

Without saying a word, his body spun in an fast movement. Left hand pulled back into a fist, the other arm stretched out for a pretend-punch aimed at the spot beside her. But Skylar grabbed his wrist in time and forced it to stop mid-air while her other hand grasped the collar of his shirt.

And both came to an abrupt halt, staring at each other with heavy breaths. Sweat beads were rolling down their foreheads, hair sticking to their flushed skin. There was a sudden shift in the air between them, it felt tense, electrified even. And for a moment, Jungkook forgot where he was, the wave emerging from her eyes deep and dark, threatening to envelop him as he sunk in deeper in them. Almost swallowing him up. And there it was again, that faint ringing penetrating his ears. Until the instructor's loud clap yanked him back to reality.

"Good! Back to the initial position and repeat!"

Skylar let out a shaky breath and loosened her fist from his shirt. Retreating slowly. Her brown irises fell to the bigger becoming space between them.

And she wondered if he also felt a short pain shooting through every fibre of his body when their faces were only centimetres apart from each other.

»»»

[a month later, set during the main story]

Skylar was laying in her hospital bed. Wide awake.

Hours had passed since Jungkook's visit - after a nurse had lost her patience and pressed him to leave as visiting hours had long ended and Skylar was supposed to rest. Yet, she couldn't just do that. Of course not. Laying there instead with eyes wide open, staring into the darkness.

Waking up there after three days of coma due to exhaustion should have had her shaken up. However, the main cause of her troubled thoughts was rather the situation that had brought this upon her to begin with. The memory of it replaying in her mind's eye in an endless loop.

Just a pinch between her shoulder, nothing more was needed from Jimin for her to succumb after catching him on his escape from the interpol building.

It should've never come this far considering her self-defense skills, then how did it?

Certainly, she wasn't the only interpol agent these thieves kept outwitting, even her own supervisor getting fooled by them and yet, she felt humiliated it happened to her again.

Was Jungkook right? Did she overdo it and overwork herself?

Jungkook.. She should probably consider herself lucky to have such a sweet and caring person as her partner. He was always so considerate of everyone.

She wondered if he percieved her like that as well. As he himself always said, they had to look out for each other and that was what she always tried when they were out in the field. But somehow she felt like she failed. How was she supposed to look after Jungkook when she let herself get tricked by thieves so easily?

She sighed, her eyelids growing heavy eventually.

"Let me guess," Jimin chuckled from behind, "You're into your little colleague, agent Jeon, right?"

Her eyes shot open at the sudden memory creeping up from the depth of her mind.

Jimin's teasing words while disarming her days ago still rang loud in her ears. And she frowned all over again about this random and profoundly wrong conclusion.

Sure, he was known for having excessive psychological skills and the ability to read through everyone, exposing them to his advantage, but even he could be wrong at least once. Right?

"T-that'd be highly unprofessional," she had defended herself back then and she stood by that. But now she regretted not simply denying it.

Yes, he was attractive and cute. Yes, he had a charming smile. Yes, he had a great personality.

No, she didn't have feelings for him. Not because it would've been unprofessional but because she simply didn't.

Right?

Jimin surely wouldn't have persisted calling it a crush if she had just denied it.

She was good in self-defence, she'd trained for this kind of situations. And yet, when he'd brought up Jungkook, it'd thrown her off completely. Distracting her. Of course, that was most likely the reason he had done it in the first place. He had only tried messing with her by bringing up Jungkook and she'd let him succeed.

That was what bothered her the most, the fact she'd failed in freeing herself from Jimin's clasp in time before he'd began distracting her.

And that was also the only reason why he'd called Jungkook to pick up her unconscious self afterwards. He probably thought he'd do her a favour by not leaving her on the cold ground for too long, as amends for making her unconscious.

That was it. Anything else wouldn't make sense because Skylar did not have a crush or any romantic feelings towards her partner.

She couldn't.

And still, she couldn't deny the warmth she'd felt when seeing him there. When waking up in that unknown environment, dazed and confused, meeting Jungkook's excited eyes and bunny smile gave her a wave of serenity.

He always made her feel safe. That was something no one else could.

»»»

Jungkook's gaze kept unconsciously returning to the empty desk in front of him.

It was funny in a way. Seven months ago he had struggled getting used to seeing her occupying the space instead of Namjoon and now, now he couldn't imagine anyone but her sitting there. And seeing it all empty gave him a restlessness he couldn't quite understand.

Truth was, when he'd seen Skylar lying unconscious against the wall, his heart had dropped to the pits of his stomach, filled with panic and fear. The mere possibility of anything happening to her, made his mind cloud with a dark fog.

Lost in thoughts, he kept nervously tapping the pen in his hands against the tabletop.

He secretly worried, he constantly worried for her and he didn't know why.

It wasn't because he considered her weak or incapable. He knew she was more than capable. Her scores at the gun training were always 90% or more. And she was able to defend herself, which she always proved whenever the two trained together. And she was intelligent, the smartest person he knew save for Namjoon, she wouldn't get herself in danger.

Then why was he constantly concerned over her well-being?

Probably because he wasn't blind, he saw her staying up on the plane while everyone was dozing off, going over the case files. Or staying in office after everyone was gone, to finish the paper work. Or how she constantly beat herself up whenever she believed she'd screwed up. Just like now, despite an hospital stay.

His eyes fell on the empty desk across from him again.

The relief he'd felt when she'd finally regained consciousness after three days was beyond description.

It was logical for him to worry, though. Of course it was.

Skylar was his partner. She was his friend.

»»»

[set after the final chapter of the main story but before its epilogue]

A knock on the car window disrupted the peaceful silence. Much to Jungkook's surprise, he saw none other than his partner waving at him from the other side of the glass before opening the door and sliding into the passenger seat. She immedietally took off her gloves to rub her cold hands in the warmness inside. The heating blasting from the dashboard in full mode

"Sky, what -" Cough, cough. "Are -"

"Save yourself from another coughing fit," she giggled and revealed a paper bag. Rummaging inside it before taking out a cup. "Here, drink."

Jungkook blinked, accepting the warm beverage. The steamy aroma of tea filling the car.

He opened the lid and blew on it before taking a sip. "What are you doing here? I thought -" Cough. "- Don was supposed to scope out with me tonight."

The blonde only shrugged, taking out another cup for herself. "I switched. Convinced him that he'd rather want to sit in a warm and cozy office and file the warrant requests than being out all night in the cold."

Her answer only puzzled him more as it rose more questions. "Didn't you prefer being in a warm and cozy office, too, though?"

"Of course," she nodded.

"Then why did you do it?"

She smiled into the dark liquid between her hands. Taking a sip herself and letting it warm her her frozen body. "Because. You know, it's quite boring if you aren't around to keep me company," she admitted casually. Despite feeling her already pink cheeks blushing more. His lips parted, but before he could response anything, she cleared her throat and continued. "And besides, I know it ain't fun doing an observation. Especially not when you got a cold and the other person talks non-stop about themselves."

He chuckled under his breath and took another sip from the tea, soothing his itchy throat. "Guess that's true."

"It's you who should've been in the warm office, your nose is all red," Skylar pointed out then with a raised brow but he only waved her off.

"S'okay."

"You sure?" He wanted to roll his eyes but Skylar's delicate hand suddenly pressed against his forehead. A concentrating look on her soft edges. His breath hinched. His eyes flickering to her lips.

"You're warm, you must have temperature." She sat back, glaring at him with concern. "Jungkook, are you sure you're okay?"

And he smiled. "I am, don't worry."

To that Skylar only huffed and crossed her arms. "You're such a hypocrite, always telling me I shouldn't strain myself but here you are, sitting in a car in the middle of January for an observation while being sick."

"'am not," the round-eyed guy mumbled when an anew cough emerged and he quickly tried suffocating it with the warm tea.

"Fine, be stubborn and worsen your cold," she mumbled then, "But don't expect me to come and bring you soup or something." She shoved the paper bag into his lap then and he saw there were his favourite cup noodles, banana milk and a pack of antipyretic pills.

His lips formed a small grin. He wouldn't mind getting worse if that meant she'd take care of him really. Nonetheless, he swallowed one of the pills along with his tea.

For the next ten minutes they oberved the building in silence. Skylar felt her eyes closing on their own, having to constantly blink to keep them open. She wasn't the best in simply sitting there for hours without doing anything, hence why she despised observations. And Jungkook knew it. Of course he did after two years of knowing and working with her now.

And yet she chose to do an observation just to keep him company.

Most people thought of Skylar of the perfect balance of wit and charm. Fascinating and inaccessible, distant because of her demonstrated intelligence, and possessing such strength of character that she was dismaying and at the same time utterly attractive in an enticing and 'out-of-your-league' way. But to Jungkook she was more than that, more than simply smart, capable and beautiful. She was lovely, she was caring, she was adorable when upset and a real tease when competing with him.

But one thing he had to agree with, she was surely way out of his league.

"You know," he broke the silence, his voice quiter than he intended, "I read that classic novel you recommended."

At that any evidence of sleep washed away from her. "When?"

He frowned. "Why are you acting so surprised?" He sounded genuinely offended by her dumbfounded look and she quickly folded her lips.

"S-sorry, it's just that you yourself said you aren't much of a reader. That's why I've never expected you.." Her voice trailed off as she watched the cute pout on his lips grow. "And how did you find it? Did you like it?"

Jungkook made a thinking expression, biting his lips. "Honestly, I was confused in the beginning, but once I finally got the hang of it and used to the writing style, it was quite good. Less dramatic than I expected though."

She laughed. The lights of the dashboard giving her clear skin a faint blueish hue. "You expected it more dramatic? I found it quite dramatic as it was."

He shrugged with a lopsided grin, lingering on her dazzling large eyes a bit longer before averting his gaze back to the building he was supposed to observe all night long. "Perhaps I'm used to Hollywood-movie-drama. For the people back then it must've been quite dramatic."

Skylar couldn't help but give him a fond look. The fact he read one of her favourite books despite not being into reading, meant a lot. Especially as it wasn't a light read either, she knew.

"If I knew you'd read one of my recommendations I'd have suggested a classic romance novel, knowing you have a weak spot for such stories," she said, not teasing this time but with a nothing but affectionate smile.

"Name me one and I might read it if I find the time and will again."

"Let me think of one, after all I don't wanna be cliché and recommend Pride and Prejudice - although admittedly, it's brilliant."

"Oh, I've heard of the film - can I just watch that instead?" His boyish grin made her laugh out.

"Sure, do whatever you want," she giggled, looking out at the dark streets again. The fluffy snow blanket covering all their dirty secrets. No one had entered or left the building of interest and no one was out at this hour unless they had some dubious business anyway.

"You know," she spoke up after awhile, "I also tried watching the movie you mentioned."

He perked up at this. "'Tried'?" he repeated chuckling, "So you didn't."

"I did!" she defended herself, "But.."

"But?"

She pursed her lips. "I cried."

"Huh?" He looked at her, dumbfounded.

A pout crossed her features and she looked out again. "I cried, okay? A bit. It made me cry."

His lips folded, contemplating whether his memory failed to remember the sad scenes or if there really weren't any. "But.. it's not a sad film," he smiled then.

"Not necessarily sad, but touching for sure," she mumbled bashfully, avoiding his glance so he wouldn't see her eyes tearing up again. She was good in keeping herself from sudden emotional outbursts, but she had a weak spot for plots like this. Although she rarely watched anime films, this one would surely go to the top of her list.

"You're cute."

Jungkook's sudden words made her turn slowly, looking at his smile with utter astonishment. No one had ever called her cute, save for when she was a child. She didn't find her face to be one that would commonly be considered 'cute' nor did she think her personality matched that description. And yet, she felt herself blushing.

Her lips parted, fiddling with her words when he looked ahead again and took another sip of his tea. Clearly missing her lack of words. "Okay, no films that may make you cry then. What about horror films?"

"Horror films?" Skylar asked surprised, glad for the change of topics. "I love horror films! I thought you were only into chickflicks and anime though."

He frowned, faking offence. "Not 'chickflicks' - romance and dramas. There's a difference!"

She giggled, rolling her eyes. "Alright, sorry. But why have you never told me you like horror films in all these years we know each other?"

He shrugged. In all honesty, he didn't expect her to actually be into this genre and was a little astonished over that. "Hm, why have you never mentioned it either?"

And the two shared a short laugh before going back to observing the building in silence. His eyes occasionally side-tracking and watching her instead.

Skylar wasn't just his partner. Neither was she just his friend.

She was the closest person to him.

»»»

[a few months later]

national treasury

Sejong, South Korea

"Team alpha, our man has been seen in the basement, near the left corridor."

"Roger that," Jungkook answered into the transmitter before pointing to their left with two fingers. Skylar gave him a nod and proceeded through the metal door with her gun aiming in front of her. Him following, eyes trained on every corner.

The basement of the national treasury was dim-lit, only security lights being switched. Bathing the corridors in wine-red and creating an eery atmosphere.

Skylar made a handsign, indicating she saw something suspicious. Shining the flashlights which were held right under their guns at the direction. And indeed, the massive door at the end of the corridor, was left a jar. Both exchanged a glance. It could've been a trap but they had to check it out nonetheless.

Carefully, Junkook pushed it open and entered, shining into the darkness. He went further inside, Skylar illuminating the other side of the room. Cabinets, safe deposits but nothing more visible. Reaching its end, they realised the area was empty and lowered their arms with a disappointed sigh.

His partner was about to propose to leave and check other places, only for a heavy noise behind them to catch their attention. They tensed and looked behind their shoulders. Against the red lights, the lean sillhuette of a man appeared and he waved at them. Jimin's laugh echoing through the dark then. "Don't worry! I'm sure the adults will find you soon."

Before they could react properly, he disappeared behind the massive safe door. Letting it click shut and leaving them both with a perplexed look in the light of their flashlights.

"No, no, no. No way," she muttered and shoved her gun into its holster before rushing to the metall door and desperately trying to push or pull it open, in vain. It didn't bulge even a little. Jungkook joined her, both grunting while taking turns in throwing their bodyweight onto it and pulling at the handles in a desperate attempt.

"It's really locked, huh?" he exhaled watching his partner retreat from it with a deep crease set between her brows.

"Seems like it.." She groaned, throwing her head back. "Great. That damn thief.. and what are we doing now?"

"Well," Jungkook shrugged after tapping his in-ear and not receiving any signal, just as expected considering that was one of the main security precautions of that safe. No reception. "I'm pretty sure agent Kim will look for us soon. He must notice we're missing."

Skylar only huffed though, taken aback by how relaxed he seemed. She observed him taking a seat on the ground, propping one arm on his angled knee while letting his flashlight wander around the room. The countless deposit lockers lined up on the walls covering everything in a cold silver.

"What do you think is inside there?" he asked. Brown eyes round from curiosity.

She sighed and walked up to him. Sliding down the wall and taking a seat beside him. She hated having to just sit and wait, not being able to do anything. She felt helpless and that was what they essentially were in that moment. All they could do was sit and wait for their colleagues or any security guards to find them.

Tricked by those thieves once again. She had to laugh at how ridiculous it was.

With a dragged breath, she stared up to the ceiling. Her eyes peeked at Jungkook who was still looking around their surroundings with child-like awe. If it wasn't for the situation they were in, she'd have found it adorable.

Quickly, she shook her head and coughed. She had to stay calm and focus. "I have no clue, Kook."

He hummed and began walking around. Lighting at the walls in search for any well or crack, but unable to make out anything like that. His gaze then went to the ceiling and the glass squares covering the lamps.

"Sky, would you come here for a second?"

"Why?" she asked but still got up, walking up him. Her eyes following his when he faced her with a mischievious smirk.

"I'll give you a leg-up and you try see if you can push in any of the squares. Maybe there's an intermediate ceiling."

She looked at him in disbelief. "Seriously?"

He simply nodded with certainty so she sighed, eventually nodding.

Jungkook was glad that no matter how ridiculous Skylar found his ideas, she'd always agree to follow them. He didn't know whether it was because she trusted him or because she didn't want to put up with his persistence, but he was glad nonetheless.

He crouched down, folding his hands on the ground for her to put her foot on. She grabbed onto his sturdy shoulders as he hoisted her and she climbed onto them. Frankly, she got a fuzzy feeling being all up high on an a wobbly surface but he held her ankles firmly, so she dared an attempt to stretch. Barely touching the built-in lamps.

With light grunts, she stretched more. Eventually managing pushing one of the lamps but with no success. It didn't bulge. "Dammit," she muttered and tried again by subconsciously raising her heels and slipping.

She shrieked out of shock, hands letting go of the flashlight and instinctively reaching out to hold onto nothing but air. In the split second she fell, she saw sporadic memories appear in her mind's eye when feeling strong arms enveloping her.

Jungkook had caught her fall in time, slowly setting her down. Her feet touching the ground of whose acquaintance she'd almost made.

Skylar's heart was racing, chest raising and falling rapidly as she breathed irregularly. And she stared at the soft ages of his dimly-lit face with a bewildered glare.

He was so close, he was so close and she couldn't feel her legs anymore. She couldn't feel her fingers or the cold or the emptiness of this room because all she felt was the warmth his body was radiating, everywhere, filling everything while his arms were still securely wrapped around her smaller frame.

And she couldn't help but recall the memory pieces she'd seen when falling. They all consisted of him. Pieces of them together. Of his sparkling eyes, crinkling when laughing, of his sweet smile, turning mischievious when teasing her and his gentle voice, calling her name.

"Sky, are you alright?"

She blinked, realising he was actually calling her. Concern engraved on his partly illuminated features due to her silence. "Y-yes." However, her fingers curled more around his biceps. Ensuring he wasn't an illusion of her imagination from hitting the ground after all. "Please," she whispered then, "Please, don't shoot me for this."

And before he had the chance to ask what she meant, she let go of all her self-control and instead, kissed him.

She kissed him like it was her only chance to ever do something so reckless and bold again, because it most likely was, and she had to make the most out of it.

His lips were softer than anything she'd ever known, soft like a first snowfall, like biting into cotton candy, like melting and floating and being weightless in water. It was so effortlessly sweet. But perhaps the best part of all that was that she, guilty of constantly analysing the world around her, stopped thinking. And it was amazing.

At least, until she started thinking again.

"You.. wow.." he breathed against her flushed lips then. If his pupils weren't already wide from the darkness, they'd surely been after that unexpected move.

"S-sorry," she stuttered, feeling silly and awkward when realising what she'd just done in the brief moment her logic was switched off. "I shouldn't - I mean, we're colleagues. Partners! We should not.. it was unproffessional. Let's forget about it." Her feet moved to step back, when she felt his hands holding her forearms firm in their place.

"Sky," he simply said and she immediately stopped in her tracks. "If you regret it because it happened in the heat of the moment, without any meaning to you, I'll forget and never mention it again." He paused. Her soft skin shining faintly in the light of the flashlights on the ground. His hands moved from her arms, to her shoulders and eventually came to a halt on her neck. And Skylar held her breath, unable to move her gaze away. "However," his voice deeper now, "If the only reason you regret it is out of fear what anyone at work might think, I'll remind you that no one's around."

Skylar swallowed. Unable to suppress the rush in her chest. "And.. and what about you?"

"Me?"

"Y-yeah, what do you.. think about it?"

He smiled before pulling her in. His lips finding hers again. She didn't even try to fight it, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling Jungkook closer. His hands wounded her hair, as he'd wanted to do since the first time he'd seen her. It curled around his fingers, silky and fine. Her lovely scent filled his nostrils. His heart was pounding hard, creating a rushing sound in his ears. It wasn't a ringing this time, though, it was like beating wings.

Until it was replaced with the jarring noise of the opening door, catching them off-guard.

They practically pushed each other away, taking several steps back when multiple sillhouettes appeared at the frame of the opened door and they recognised Seokjin with security guards standing there. Bliding them with their flashlights and the two flinched.

"There you are! Jimin only left a note to look after 'the kids'," their supervisor laughed, seemingly highly amused by the situation. He turned around then, gesturing for them to follow. "Come, you two, there's no time to waste. He's still around the building."

"Y-yes, sir!" Both exclaimed in unison, peeking at each other before rushing out. Almost bumping at each other when trying getting through the door at the same time.

She nudged him then when the others were several steps ahead.

"You got lipstick around your lips," she said in a rushed whisper before picking up her pace and joining Seokjin, who was giving them new instructions.

And Jungkook smirked, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

It was good the security lights were still switched on and no one could see their flustered faces and excited smiles. Or her own smudged lipstick.

They surely had a long night in front of them.

»»»

[two months later]

Interpol branch office

Seoul, South Korea

"I'll do it - should I do it? I'll do it. No -"

Skylar turned around, ready to head back to her desk when she bumped into something hard. Stumbling back, she came face to face with her boyfriend who was arching a brow at her.

"What are you doing?"

"I- nothing," she said firmly, "Going back to my desk." She was about to brush past him when Jungkook grabbed her arm, pulling her back.

"Why aren't you going inside?" he asked. His voice was calm and it sounded like a genuine question, yet there was a judging tone in it. "You should go in and talk to him, just like we practiced."

A sulky expression crossed her face and she looked away. "I- I forgot what we practiced. I mean, I got a blackout okay? I can't, let's just-" Her anew attempt of leaving once again prevented by him.

"Sky, why are you so nervous? You'd be perfect for the position. Just give agent Kim your official application and explain why you want it."

She sighed, peeking at him with a meek smile. "You know.. I don't like when people have such high expectations of me.. I usually like to crush them." It was one of her personality flaws, she supposed. Just like she had done by not following the plans her mother had made for her life.

"Is it expectations if I'm certain that you'll succeed though?"

"That's so cheesy of you," she whispered with a giggle, "But if we weren't at work I'd kiss you for that."

"You can kiss me later at home," he chuckled, tucking a stray streak of hair behind her ear and cupping her cheek briefly before letting go. Knowing she didn't want to risk anyone there finding out and hence always reminding him to keep any display of affection at bay.

With Jimin's gang suddenly retiring in Taiwan, one of the few countries Interpol had no jurisdiction at and agent Seokjin deciding to get married to his girlfriend, Yongsun from the organised crime department, and stepping down from a field agent and the supervisor position in favour for an office one, a supervisor position in the robbery department would soon be vacant.

And Skylar wanted it.

After four years there she'd quite many success stories to list, from leading a joined unit with the narcotics department to discovering several hideouts of bootleggers. But still. "They won't consider me for the position anyway," she said, bitterness lingering in her words, "I'm only thirty and too young, it'd be against the usual custom for an agent this young to become a lead. And I know some are side-eyeing me for my family background. If I really ended up getting the position, people would probably say mother pulled some strings. And besides.." She briefly glanced up at him, before her eyes wandered around the area for any unwanted ears. "..what about us?"

A crease formed between his furrowed brows. "What do you mean?" he whispered, matching her hushed tone.

"I mean," she said, wiggling her index finger between them, "It's already bad enough we're secretly dating despite being partners. But dating while me being your supervisor? That'd be ten times worse."

His lips parted, exhaling deeply. "Oh," he slowly began then, affliction evident in his eyes, "I don't wanna be the reason for you not getting your dream position."

"No, no, you wouldn't, Kook," she quickly objected, shaking her head as she touched his hand. Giving it a soothing squeeze, "As I told you, they wouldn't consider me anyway."

"I'm sure they will," he smiled, "As far as I know, agent Kim was even younger when becoming the team lead. He'll surely put in a good word for you to the higher ups. And I'll also do so, if asked. So?" he nudged her then, "Will you stop being a coward and go to his office now? Otherwise I'd feel forced to carry you inside there. And you surely don't want people talking, right?"

She groaned at his bright grin, knowing he would absolutely do as threatened if needed. It should annoy her, but she knew it was only for her own good. So she eventually sighed. "Fine, no need for your dramatics."

"Good girl," he nodded and turned her around by the shoulders, giving her a light push towards the door. "Good luck, although I know you won't need it."

"You're way too certain about this and I don't like it. You'll get more disappointed than me if I don't get it."

Jungkook straightened himself, staring at her with firmness.

"I know you will though."

»»»

[six months later, set during the sequel]

"Sorry for making you wait."

Skylar smiled when seeing her boyfriend nearing her with hasty steps. Pushing herself off the wall of the underground parking lot to greet him when he pecked her lips as soon as he reached her.

"Iew!" she scrunched her nose with a giggle, hitting his chest playfully, "You're all sweaty! Didn't you take a shower after work out?"

"Ah, no. Since it took more time, I didn't want to make you wait any longer than necessary," he explained, throwing his gym bag over his shoulder and pushing back the raven strands that were stuck on his forehead. "I'll just shower at home."

The blonde hummed, brown eyes shifting towards the ground. "Besides, we said not at work.." she mumbled with a light scowl, causing him to roll his eyes.

"It's literally past office hours and no one's around." He let out an overly dramatic sigh, pretending being disappointed. "And here I thought I finally rubbed off on you.." He held his hand out for her which she accepted with no hesitation and he tucked her towards their cars.

He never took her concerns personally, he knew where they came from after all, especially these past months. However, sometimes she exaggarrated and was a tad too paranoid. At least in his eyes.

"Mine or yours?" he asked then with a raised brow, seeing her shrug.

"Let's go to yours. I don't have any food left in the fridge."

His brows wiggled at her. "Who says there's any in mine?"

Her lips parted, laughing as well. "Didn't you go grocery shopping two days ago?"

"Yeah, and I already ate it all," he grinned, "I burn lots of calories after all."

Frankly, she should've learned in all the years knowing him that this man could eat three full plates of food on his own and yet she still got surprised every time over his metabolism. "Fine, let's order something then."

"Did you finish off all the paper work by the wax?" He unlocked his car and slid inside. Skylar following him by taking the passenger seat.

"Yeah, I did. Wasn't too much after all." She dragged a breath while putting on her seat belt. Propping her cheek on her fist. He started the engine and drove the car out of the underground parking area. Taking a turn, heading west to his apartment. The sun hadn't set completely yet, tinting the sparsely spread clouds in warm evening colours. "She really didn't seem to have any clue about where all the stolen goods might be hid at.."

Musing over her words for a moment, Jungkook eventually nodded to himself. "I'll do a background check on eventual hidden bank accounts and rented places tomorrow."

She hummed, biting down her lips as they curled into a soft smile. "What a diligent subordinate."

Without averting his eyes from the road, he reached for her hand and gave it a light squeeze before leading it to his warm lips. "Gotta impress the boss after all."

Jungkook watched her blush from the corner of his eyes and chuckled under his breath.

It had been four months now since she'd got promoted and he never tried hiding how proud he was of her. Sometimes she pretended getting annoyed, but he knew that she secretly enjoyed it very much and simply wasn't used to it. Especially considering she wouldn't hear these words from her family. At least not her mother who Jungkook had the displeasure to meet, way before they'd started dating. It was only once but it had been enough for him to determine her personality, since Skylar herself wouldn't talk much about her - let alone speak ill of her.

He'd never admit it to her, not wanting to hurt her pride, but he pitied her a lot for that. He couldn't imagine not having both his parents' support hence why he made sure to be the one giving her lots of affirmation instead.

Particularly now with Jimin and his gang suddenly making a comeback in thievery after only half a year of retirement and everyone in the team, especially Skylar as the team lead now, being in a tizzy because of it. Even Seokjin having returned for extra support for this occasion. Not that they minded, they had missed their senior colleague's cheeriness and bad humour.

They eventually reached Jungkook's apartment and ordered food, him ordering a double portion obviously, before settling in front of his big flat-screen. Watching a survival show Skylar didn't really care about, but it was Jungkook's favourite so she didn't mind. It was too warm for her to concentrate on anything anyway. She was at her second scoop of ice cream, unable to cool herself. Not even a shower having helped.

She was sitting beside him, cross-legged and focused on her dessert. Her damp hair was flowing over her shoulders, slightly wetting the collar of her tanktop. A few small streaks framing her high cheekbones. He observed her dark brows knitting together then, struggling with a brain freeze before recovering and going back to digging into her ice cream. And he breathed out a smile.

He was helplessly and irrecoverably in love with her. Probably was from the very first day, even if he'd ignored the signs back then.

"Sky, say.."

She looked up from her caramel ice-cream, leading the spoon into her mouth with a frown as he'd stopped mid-sentence, making him huff out a chuckle. His arm stretched and he wiped away a bit of the cold sweet from her chin. A dragged sigh leaving his lips then, he shifted uncomfortable in his seat.

Uncertain of whether to repeat himself or simply letting go of the knowingly difficult topic, his eyes focused back on the show they were watching.

"Nothing.. just forget about it."

Maybe it was easier to pretend that he didn't want more out of this, always wanted. From the very beginning eight months ago, Skylar had been very clear and he had promised to respect her wishes. And yet, his heart couldn't help but crumble each time they worked on cases together and had to suppress even the smallest display of affection in fear anyone would sense there was more between them than just being team members.

However, despite him playing it off, as he usually did for her sake, Skylar couldn't help but notice the affliction in his eyes. She always did.

It wasn't like she didn't sympathise with him. It wasn't like she never got just as frustrated as him. It wasn't like she didn't feel the same. However, she was scared of losing everything at once if she dared saying anything.

She was one of the youngest team leaders in the history of the South Korean branch office. And a woman and half-foreigner on top of it all. She couldn't risk having her colleagues discrediting her or their work and scrutinise every little decision she made when knowing she dated her former partner and now subordinate.

And yet. there were also times when she thought none of that mattered anyway, because it was him. Because it was Jungkook. The sweet goofball who always had her back and had saved her ass more times that she could count.

Slowly, she put the bowl aside onto the coffee table where his legs were spread onto. Untangling her own legs, she knelt next to him on the couch.

"Hey," she poked his cheek with a pout, tilting her head. "Don't ignore me."

"'Am not," he chuckled and caught her wrist before she could poke him anew. "Just watching the show."

"I know you ain't actually paying attention."

Rolling his eyes, he held her gaze. Unable to dismiss the sorrowful sparkle in her big eyes. "Sky, it's.. it's okay." He forced himself to smile with his lips pressed together. Redirecting his gaze back on the flatscreen before he even had the chance to say something absurd and irrational like suggesting to make their relationship public.

The screen suddenly turned black and his brows arched at her.

"Let's talk about it."

"Is there anything to talk about though?" His voice holding genuine confusion. "I get your reasons and you know I'm supporting you no matter what. I just.." His voice trailed off. Shy eyes found hers again as she was intently listening to him. A faint smile on his face as he cupped her rosy cheek. "I'd love if this thing between us was real."

"It is real to me," she frowned, covering his hand with hers. "Just 'cause we keep it a secret from our colleagues doesn't mean it isn't."

Skylar knew she wasn't as good in showing her affection or romantic nature as he was, but she thought that by now he'd know her feelings for him and that their relationship was more than just a fling or a little after-work affair to her.

The crush she once had - and which that thief had perfectly deducted years ago even if she hadn't acknowledged it - having developed into way more by now. She knew she loved him.

The corners of his lips tucked into a wider smile. Hearing that made his heart-flutter, the validation that this meant more to her as well. "Alright, let me replace 'real' with 'official' then," he said, making her smile as well. And she drew closer to him.

"Alright."

His grin faded, taken aback. "Alright?" he repeated, unsure.

"Yeah, alright. Let's do it. Let's make it official. No secrecy anymore."

"I didn't say that to pressure you. I wouldn't want us to get in trouble at work a-"

"Honestly, screw them!" she cut him off, sitting back with folded arms. "I'm sick of having to fear losing my position just because I love you. It's not like we'd be making out in front of everyone or bicker while interrogating a criminal. We wouldn't even have to tell everyone."

"We wouldn't?"

"No, I checked that."

His grin returned. "You.. you did?"

"Yeah, we'd only have to tell my higher-up and sign some papers. Son from the other team told me a week ago. He had to do it once when dating an agent from division 3. Did you know that? And agent Kim literally married Yongsun from organised crime, so.." Adry laugh left her lips. "I better not catch anyone talking about us."

Jungkook remained silent for a moment, humming as he let her words sink in.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he spoke up then. He didn't sound mad, just curious. And Skylar exhaled deeply, peeking at him before her gaze drifted into the warm night.

"I wasn't sure if it'd be as easy for us, you know.." she admitted truthfully, not being as riled up anymore. "We're not just co-workers and we don't work in different departments or teams. I'm your supervisor. And a woman, so I have to prove myself and all that bullshit." She frowned at her words. "But I'm tired of it all. And it isn't fair to you nor me. We shouldn't have to hide. We're not the criminals here."

Another deep hum followed from him and he glanced at her. She was still turned away, her waves flowing in the night breeze as she was staring out the window. A pensive expression on her features.

"Sky?"

"Hm."

A beaming smile found its way on his lips then.

"You said you love me."

"And?"

"That's the first time you did."

He watched her freeze. In her upsetness she hadn't realised those words slipping out of her lips. She turned around with shocked eyes and he couldn't help but burst out laughing. Her expression instantly softening at the sight. She wasn't regretting saying it, she only regretted the way she had.

"Stop making fun of me!" she whined then, grabbing his tattoed arm and pulling at it in an attempt to make him stop, but it only worsened it. "Jungkook!"

"I'm- I'm not!" he breathed in between of laughing. It was always a hilarious thing to him whenever his collected girlfriend slipped like that.

"I'll take it back if you don't stop."

"Oh yeah, make me?" he challenged her with a smug grin. Seeing her huff, crossing her arms again.

"You're so childish."

"And yet you love me."

Her lips parted, about to defend herself when instead, she got silenced by his kiss. He knew it was the only way to end their bickering.

He pulled back then, brushing a streak of hair away that smelled after his shampoo before placing both palms on her cheeks, squishing them lightly. He was beaming from ear to ear and it was a breathtaking sight.

"Don't worry, if anyone tries messing with you, I'll talk to them. You know how convincing I can be."

Skylar giggled. Yeah, good looks and an easy-going personality made him 'Mr Popular' and he knew when to use it. "I can defend myself," she pouted, "But thank you."

He nodded and was about to lean in again for another peck, when he abruptly paused. Staring at her with a firm yet tender look.

"I love you, too, by the way. In case it wasn't obvious all these years."

THE END

»»»

- hope you enjoyed the one-shot, giving more insight to Skylar and Jungkook and to some events during the three full fanfics

💜check out the whole "thieves collection" series or my main bts masterlist for other members' stories in this universe or in general💜

And don't forget to like, reblog & leave feedback!♡ It motivates me to keep writing :)

93 notes · View notes

kyokutsu-sama · 4 months ago

Text

"I'll meet you in another life, my love"

🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍

Sanemi x f!reader| angst/fluff

Plot- The scary and fearful wind hashira ends up meeting a new hashira (the reader) and from the first day he saw her, he fell in love with her and she with him. This love was so strong and so reciprocal that the memories still prevailed in the reincarnated souls.

A/n: I don't know where this idea came from but to be honest I think I ended up being inspired by the scene between Mitsuri and Obanai in the final fight and because of that my eyes are now dry from crying so much😭🥹 Don't worry I'll be writing something happier for him soon😅

Tw: There is a nsfw scene but not fully detailed, suggestive, mentions of violence and death, character death and some little manga spoilers.

🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️🤍🔸️

You were the newly arrived Hashira, the one your comrades were ready to welcome and the one that Master Ubuyashiki would also be happy to welcome and accept into the hashiras meeting.

You were a little nervous because that was your first day as a Hashira and you didn't know exactly how the others there would react. But apparently it was better than you expected.

"It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to the new Hashira who will be joining you from today onwards." The master spoke in his usual calm and formal voice."Y/n, please come and introduce yourself to the others."

You then crossed the wide porch of the house, bowing to the master and the others who were in the garden looking at you.

"My children, this is Y/n. I hope you can collaborate and work together so we can defeat the demons. It's always a pleasure to welcome another person to this place." He smiled at you and you smiled back

"Thank you, master. I am very proud to be here too." You bowed again

Each hashira carried an idea about you and everyone seemed to share good thoughts about you.

Shinobu-"She seems really pleasant. Maybe I can have a chance to talk to her later."

Rengoku-"Her posture is serious and her smile is very kind. It's a pleasure to welcome you, young Y/n."

Tengen-"A flashy and cheerful appearance. And she has nice hips by the way."

Tokito-"She's cool but I'll probably end up forgetting about her soon."

Gyomei-"She has a gentle voice and even without seeing her I can tell that we're going to get along well. I'm going to say a prayer for her."

Tomioka-"Humble and calm. I hope we get along well."

Mitsuri-"Another girl too? She's look so pretty and so cute. I want to be her friend!"

Obanai-"She also seems to be strong. She also has a confident air."

Of all the Hashiras' opinions, Sanemi was the one who didn't want to say a word. After all, he didn't have any. He was speechless.

He thought that feeling was just some idiocy on his part, but with time and the interaction between you two, he realized that it wasn't. And that same feeling only grew bigger and stronger when his eyes met yours by chance during meetings or when you called him to train.

You always approached him without fear, which also caught his attention since everyone was afraid of him. Your kind but very silly attitude, the jokes and provocations where he pretended to be angry with you when deep down he was loving it all.

There was even a day when Obanai caught him looking at you so much that he was even forgetting to blink, and his friend quickly realized what was happening and decided to tease him a little about the subject.

"Is she that pretty?"

"What?" Sanemi turned to him, "coming back to reality"

"You're completely focused on Y/n that you were almost drooling. You like her?" Obanai said, and Sanemi immediately changed his expression to his usual threatening one

"What are talking about? Don't bring Y/n up, and besides, stop seeing things that doesn't exist." Sanemi said, turning his back on his friend

"Oh really? Because I'm sure that you're feeling something for her."

"Oh shut up, why don't you go after Mitsuri? You like her too, don't you?"

"Don't bring her up either, Shinazugawa." Obanai's expression also changed when his beloved was mentioned in the conversation

And so things started like this. Obanai was the first to suspect and later Gyomei himself, who even without seeing, knew about all the tea between you and the wind hashira and he mentioned it to Mitsuri, who went to tell Shinobu and who later also told Tomioka and Rengoku, who also happened to tell his best friend, Tengen. And so everyone started to raise suspicions about a possible relationship between the two of you. But no one dared to confront you or Sanemi about it, limiting themselves to just waiting for something to prove it and then applauding the good news (which everyone already knew but didn't say).

That night, Sanemi decided to go to your house to "check on you." Everything seemed like a normal, casual encounter, but for a few months now, things have been getting tense between the wind hashira and you. Tense in the sense that both eyes were already speaking louder than mouths and the hearts were screaming louder than both minds.

Sanemi was a tough nut to crack. Who would have thought that he would be head over heels in love with you since the first day he saw you? He wanted to have you, he wanted your whole form and essence. Not just physically but to have your whole heart, to love you completely.

And there he was, going to your house knowing that now he would have you once again. Just as he had always wanted. And so had you.

You were getting out of the shower wrapped in a towel when you heard someone knock on the door. You went there with a smile on your face, already knowing who you would find on the other side. You opened the door to see the wind hashira right in front of you.

"Did I come at a bad time?" He looked at you up and down, holding your waist

"You could have at least let me get dressed." You smiled before kiss him, turning around and going to the bedroom to get dress

"You're talking as if I didn't already know what you look like under that towel." He entered the house and closed the door

You heard his words from the bedroom and couldn't help the immediate blush on your face and a certain shiver as you remembered the scenes that had happened inside that room. And in other corners of the house too...

"Where have you gone?" He asked, looking for you

"I'm in the bedroom, just give me five minutes and--" You stopped talking when the bedroom door closed and you realized that you were now both in the same room and that he was now right next to you

You looked up to meet his big eyes that looked scary when he was out of his mind. Of course he tried to make an effort not to seem so scary around you. He liked you and he didn't want to push you away, he wanted to keep you close. Forever.

"Are you going to stay there, cowered in shame?You always seemed so bold when we were alone. What's wrong, princess?" He bent down in front of you, grabbing your face with one hand, squeezing it lightly, and you held onto his wrist

"That's what I ask, my dear. Did you miss me, Shinazugawa?" You gave him a teasing smile

"I've been thinking about doing a lot of things with you since I saw you enter the meeting room, and believe me, you don't want to hear even half of it." He said, his eyes unable to focus on anything other than your eyes and lips

"Your mind is quite creative, I see." You pulled his hand away and brought your lips closer to his, almost touching. "Why don't you do it then? That's why you came here, right?"

Sanemi pulled you into his arms in a sudden movement and kissed you hard, leaving you breathless. Everything about him was breathtaking, by the way.

It didn't take long for his strong hands to rip the towel off your body and throw it aside while his lips devoured yours. Your trembling hands still managed to remove his haori and uniform together and throw them aside with the towel.

The need and hunger to be fed by that love and by his touch was growing inside your chest.

Both of you were now in each other's arms, his hands running over his favorite curves and yours running over the scars of someone who had been through a lot. Each one of them had a story and you knew each one of them.

When you touched them or kissed the scarred skin, he felt loved and this also led him to tell you a little about their origin. Most of them had been the result of his fights against demons. And even the more personal ones that had been left by his mother when she also became one of those creatures, he had told you.

He trusted to tell you everything because he loved you and this was a way for both of you to maintain intimacy. It wasn't just about the nights when you had more than just conversation, it was about the way everything that was done there was done with reciprocal and true feeling.

"Sanemi..." You moan in his ear, arms hugging his body closer and grabbing his hair as his strong hands gripped your hips as you rode him faster

"You really miss me too, don't you? My hands running you, the way I fill you...All of that?" He asked with his hungry lips kissing down your neck and shoulder

"Yeah... I did." You whimpered, pulling his head away from your neck to find his lips again and kiss him roughly

He was not a man of words but of actions and if he had to say that he loved you through actions, he would probably hold you in his arms until he died. He would never abandon you, never run away from you. He would always protect you from the dangers of that world full of nocturnal and deadly enemies. He would train whatever it took to become strong and to keep you safe.

He was rough, stubborn and complicated but his heart was good and he never lied when it came to feelings. He was very honest and direct. Even though he was embarrassed to say many things because he had shyness in his heart that was hidden by his rough and tough personality.

He wasn't ashamed to tell you he loved you, or to grab you by the waist in the hallway of the mansion and take you to your room to take a "short break" from training.

The times when you would sneak out during the day and no one would know your whereabouts, the times when he would look at you suggestively during meetings. Or sometimes when of his hands "accidentally" slip under your skirt when no one was looking and you would blush and hold his hand so he wouldn't do anything stupid in the middle of the meeting. But of course that was only when you weren't in the presence of the master, then he would just exchange looks. Looks where your love was written and your souls met.

But deep down you knew, you knew that playing that game was a risk. A love story like yours could not be lived in that world, not when both of you could die on any mission you were subjected to. There was hope but there was also fear.

You rested your head against his chest as you caught your breath, his fingers tracing imaginary paths on your back, caressing the sweaty skin. He kissed the top of your head and rested his chin there for a moment.

He wanted it to be like this forever and you would also undoubtedly choose him over and over again without thinking. His strong arms were your shield, the place you went to feel safe and warm.

"Nemi?" You called in a low voice

"What?" His eyes went down to where you were

"Don't you want to lie down for a bit?"

"Yes."

The wind hashira lay down on the futon with you on top of him, hugging you tightly. The fingers of one of his hands played with your hair as you looked into his eyes holding one of his hands, caressing it. It was that touch he needed to feel, the gentleness that contrasted with his nature.

"Are you going to keep looking at me like that because you think I'm pretty or is this your way of inviting me to the second round?" He teased and you laughed softly, leaving a kiss on his lips

"You really are an idiot, aren't you, Nemi? No, I was just admiring you, is there a problem with that?"

"None."

"Good." You smiled, kissing him

The long make-out sessions always made him even more eager to have you. He was slowly going crazy with the sweet and soft texture of your lips.

You, on the other hand, had a something to ask him for a few days but hadn't had the chance to do it yet, and before he put you on the futon and got ready for the second round, you reluctantly pulled away from his lips and decided to ask him.

"Can I ask you something?" You whispered

"You're really annoying, you know that, brat?"

"Aren't you going to call me princess now?" You smiled, patting his chest

"Not if you don't shut up."

"Please Nemi, I really need to ask you this."

"Are you going to ask me if I wanna go again? Let's do it then, dear."He raised his eyebrow and you rolled your eyes

"No, it's not about that."

"What is it then ?"

"Nemi, what would be the first thing you would do after we defeat Muzan?" You asked, looking into his eyes, which seemed to have changed expression at that moment

He wanted to answer a lot of things, one of them was to ask you to marry him, run away from there, live with you forever in any place, have children and make you the happiest woman in the world.

He wanted to say so much, but the words wouldn't come out, he couldn't. He was afraid that none of it would come true.

Being a Hashira wasn't for everyone and the worst thing that could happen was to love someone, to get attached to someone, but love is a feeling that no one can control and that's a fact.

Sanemi couldn't help but fall in love with you, he couldn't help but look at you when you when you passed by him and he saw how beautiful you were getting every day, how much he wanted to run away with you. He couldn't help the intensity of his emotions. And as much as you wanted to have him too, to have a future with him, the fear of losing him was always there. Fear of being alone if he died in the battle against Muzan or the upper moons. You would probably never have a day of rest again and you would probably never fall in love again in your life like you fall in love with him.

You also wanted to know more about his feelings towards you, even though he was evasive about the subject.

You had been dating for months but sometimes it seemed like there was still so much to discover about each other. You wanted to know everything about him, you didn't want to lose him without knowing every single thing about him.

"So? You're not going to answer me?" You combed the white strands of hair that were still stuck to his forehead because of the sweat

"I..." Sanemi got a little confused between his words and his thoughts. "I'd probably dance on that idiot's grave, does that sound good to you?"

His joke definitely served to break the tension and get a laugh out of you. He then smiled, seeing you laugh like that but felt bad for having run away from his heart once again.

"Did you really just say that?" You said, still laughing. "You're unbelievable, Sanemi."

"What? Are you going to tell me that you don't want to get together too, after everything he's done? And keeps doing?"

"Well, he destroyed thousands of lives and is still causing a lot of problems, so yeah. I would join you in this dance."

"What about you?" He ran a hand over your face, looking into your eyes. "What would be the first thing you would do after we defeat that son of a bitch?" You felt your heart race when he asked you the same question

The urge to tell him...

The urge to tell him that you wanted him as your husband and as your man until you die.

But the fear was there once again, preventing your feelings from coming out.

"I honestly don't know. I have so many things on my mind that I can't decide."

"Besides being an idiot and annoying, you're also indecisive. What a great wife I got." Sanemi felt his heart race with anxiety after realizing what he had said just now

"Wait a minute, what did you say?" You paused for a moment, processing to see if you had heard correctly

"What?"

"Just now, what did you say? A great what?"

"I didn't say anything." He looked away, trying to change the subject even though he was already burning with blush

"Yes, you did. I heard. Come on, what did you said?"You slapped his chest, insisting

"I said a great girlfriend." He lied

"That's not what I heard."

"Go to sleep." He said, adjusting himself and closing his eyes, and you looked at him, waiting for him to repeat it

"Nemi... Say it again, please." You shook his body, but he was determined to stay silent. "Look, I'm going to sleep in the living room, you hear?And you're going to sleep alone tonight." You threatened, trying to get off of him, but his arm pulled you close and kept you quiet

"Listen here! Just shut up and go to sleep or I'll shut you up some other way, understand?" He put his hand on your lips, and you rolled your eyes, taking off his hand

"What a beautiful husband I got." You murmured, laying on his chest

"What did you say?" He lifted your face looking at you

"Nothing, go to sleep." You repeated his words, and he let out a sigh

You were mad at him for not repeating those words, but deep down you knew that it wasn't by chance, it was his feelings speaking louder and he couldn't control them. You felt a wave of emotions, but deep down you cried with joy, knowing that he also wanted to live the same life. That both of them walked side by side with the same love even if the ways of showing it were different.

*One day before the Hashiras entered the Infinite Castle*

"Sanemi, where are you?" You called out to him in the middle of the tall trees in that forest. "Nemi!" You shouted and suddenly the wind blew stronger, indicating that he was closer.

You then continued walking until you reached a large weeping tree near a river that crossed the forest. There was also a small bridge that led to the other side where there was a ruined gazebo next the large tree.

You crossed the bridge and found your boyfriend sitting on the stones of the small wall of the gazebo and looking at you as you approached. You climbed the small stairs and then he stood up to face you and you smiled at him.

He approached you and pulled you by the waist to kiss you hard as usual. You wrapped your arms around his neck and gave in to that passion. It was just the two of you there.

Crazy in love and far from the world out there...

"Where have you been? I've been calling for you this whole time and I haven't gotten an answer." You said, pulling away from his lips for a moment

"You're too annoying that's why I didn't answer." He bit out before kissing you again, silencing any answer you were going to give

"Nemi." You called him in the middle of the kiss and he pulled away, biting your lower lip

"What?"

"How did you find this place? It's so beautiful."

"I didn't think I'd find this, but I kept walking and I ended up here by chance." He said, looking around."It's a really nice spot."

"It's quiet and very pleasant. I'd give anything to live in a place like this." You hugged him and he hugged you back. "If we make it out of this battlefield alive, I'll definitely live in a place like this. A modest home and a happy marriage..."

Sanemi looked at you and thought about everything you had said. He would definitely give you all of that. The house, the wedding, everything.

"Everything..."

"My dear wife and also, the mother of my children."He thought." My everything."

*Moments after Muzan was killed*

Sanemi was so exhausted and injured that he almost died at that moment. But as soon as he looked around and didn't see you, the anxiety and the need to look for you increased.

"Where is she? Where is Y/n?" He asked himself as he ran in circles, looking for you.

"Y/N!!!" He shouted trying to find your whereabouts

He then found your body, lying on the floor, covered in blood. Deep punctures, open cuts and scratches, tearful eyes, sobs, moans of pain and sadness. You didn't want that to be the end, not without at least seeing Sanemi one last time.

"Y/n!!" He ran to you, kneeling down and taking you in his arms, hugging you and crying like you had never seen him cry before

The crying of a desperate and passionate man. He didn't even have words to describe what he was feeling at that moment he saw you there on the floor, on the verge of death.

"Nemi! You came!" You smiled almost weakly and he pulled you away for a moment to look into your eyes

"Of course I would come, my love. I will always come for you." He spoke nervosly, with words you never thought you would hear. "I'm going to call the paramedics." "No, you don't have to, Sanemi." You grabbed the collar of his uniform and he looked at you. "I've already lost a lot of blood and I can't barely feel my body. I'll just...l'll just use my last bit of strength to tell you something and you'll have to listen to me. Please, just you and me." You begged, feeling the tears running down your face

He felt tied hand and foot, knowing that this was where everything would end and that he couldn't do anything.

"Sanemi, from the first day I saw you, I fell in love. I fell in love even though I knew that this life wouldn't give us a chance to be happy, I never wanted to give up on you I tried hard and fought for your love even though I knew that this could happen. I'm so grateful to have a man like you in my life. You loved me like no other man could love a woman. I love you so, so much." You said whimpering and sobbing and he cried along with you in his arms

"I love you so much too I just wanted to see you happy and protect you. You know, that night I really meant it, I really called you wife that time because I love you and I want you forever, I want to be your man, your husband and make you happy. I want to take you to a calm place like you told me before and live with you. I want you to live, so please..." He took one of your hands and squeezed it, sobbing."don't close your eyes. Don't do this to me."

"So... You really wanted me as your wife... That's good to know." You smiled, bringing your hand to his face to meet his eyes."Your wounds will open if you push yourself too hard." You warned him, watching his blood run down his abdomen

"No, don't worry about me, my dear, it doesn't hurt, it's nothing."He comforted you by hugging you and kissing you several times on your forehead and head."Your husband is strong."

"I know...That's why I love you" You said proudly

Sanemi felt his heart tighten with anxiety more and more when he saw his hands completely covered in your blood due to the deep wounds. No one there could heal you from those wounds, too much blood had already been spilled, many of your bones had been broken, your uniform was torn, covered in blood and dust.

Sanemi looked at you and saw that that image contrasted completely with the beautiful girl with a bright smile he saw on the first day, next to the master. He blamed himself so much for not being able to protect you and now having to watch you die slowly in his arms.

"Love?"

"What?" He looked at you

"Can I ask you one last thing?" You murmured, feeling your last strength

"You can ask me whatever you want, but it won't be the last. You'll live much longer." He said optimistically, with a little hope in his heart

"Nemi...Kiss me one more time. With all your heart." You said, slowly approaching his face, and he nodded

He held your face and kissed you deeply. The tears on your faces mingled, both hearts beating fast, and the eyes closed, which were the windows of the soulmates there, hugging each other.

His lips always carried passion and roughness when he kissed you, but on your deathbed, everything seemed more gentle and pure.

When you pulled away, you caressed his cheeks and sniffed, opening your eyes to find those that did not leave your face for a moment.

"If I reincarnate and meet you in a next life, I will be your wife and I'll carry your children." You promised, holding his hand

"And I promise that I will come to you wherever you are. I will find you in the next life, my love. I will make you mine again, no matter how long it takes to find you." He promised, kissing you once more because he would never get tired of kissing you

You stayed in his lap, your arms hugging him and he hugged your body tightly. All those pain you felt earlier now seemed to be falling asleep after the heat of his body surrounded you.

He cried and cried the whole time he was there with you. That would be the last moment by your side and you yourself admitted that you did not want anyone else there so that you could stay in a quiet place with him. No one could interrupt you two there.

The wind hashira was also feeling weak at that moment, even though he didn't care, the open wounds and bleeding were taking away his strength.

Knowing that he would still have a few more years without you by his side would be painful. His mark would be his death at 25 and he was still 21. he would still have four painful years without you. He wouldn't face his own death in a sad way but rather happy, knowing that he would have to meet you. Looking for his princess in another life.

"Are you still there, princess?"He called out to you

"Forever..."An almost inaudible whisper left your lips to say your last words

"You're going home with me now, okay? I'll take you home safely and you'll live." The tears wouldn't stop flowing as he pretended that everything would be fine again

He put his hand on your chest and felt your heart stop completely. The wind hashira shook his head in denial, not accepting the death of his beloved.

"No...No...NO." He screamed in frustration and suffering."NOT YOU, PLEASE!!! I've already lost my family, I can't lose you too."Sanemi cried in despair, begging and sobbing

It didn't take long for the kakushis to arrive and come across the scene of him with your dead body in his arms.

Everyone there didn't dare get close to him, some even cried because they also knew you and mourned your death. Sanemi felt his heart being torn into pieces. There was no one left. He had put so much faith that today he would get back together with you to finally asked you in marriage.

The truth is that he ended up doing it, but it wasn't the way he had thought. In his dreams, you lived together. His hand caressed your hair and went down your face, closing the eyelids of your still open eyes.

When one of the members of the Demon Slayer Corps finally decided to get close to separate both of you, he immediately grabbed his wrist and pushed him back.

"Don't touch her." Sanemi threatened and the other immediately moved away. "I'm the one who will take her back. Don't you dare get close to her." Sanemi then stood up with you in his arms

*4 years later*

He remembers the place where you were together for the last time. He decided to bury you in the ground of the weeping tree. He knew you loved that place and so he decided to let your soul rest there after that fateful day. A calm and peaceful place. The same place you wanted to live after that mission was over. He never left you alone, he always visited you every day, he brought you fresh flowers when the others were drying, he brought you incense and he even ate all his meals there so he could be with you.

Sanemi was turning 25. That would be his last day alive and he decided to sit one last time in front of your tent, crying as he looked at the stone

"Today is the day. I'll be looking for you, my brat." He smiled even as he felt the tears flow. "I'll look for you and my brothers. We'll be a family again. There will be no more demons to separate us. And..." He took a small box from his pocket and opened it, revealing the silver ring. "We're going to get married. I was supposed to give it to you on our last night but I didn't have the courage."

He left the ring next to the flowers and lay down on the ground, slowly closing his eyes and feeling his body slowly die. His life ended there, by your side.

*Current life*

You were leaving home that day to go for a walk since it was your day off and you wanted to have some fun. You got ready and left the house.

There was a large garden in front of your house, with a large weeping willow tree in the middle that was really beautiful and many people liked to spend time there. You also liked to spend your time there, reading some book or just to get some air.

You entered the garden but were so distracted that you ended up bumping into another man who was coming from the opposite direction. He ended up grabbing you on impulse so you wouldn't fall to the ground and you clung to him, almost hugging each other.

You looked at him in the eyes and he looked at you, a strange feeling ran through your body. It was as if you had seen him somewhere else.

In another life...

A hazy memory of having kissed a man just like him appeared in your head, but when he spoke to you, you quickly came back to reality, leaving these memories aside.

"Hey! Are you okay?" He asked, looking at you, who was still a little shaken

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." You said, slowly moving away from him

"You seem a little scared, are you really sure?"

"Yes, thank you for holding me and for worrying." You smiled. "What's your name by the way?" You asked

"Sanemi, and you?"

Another memory appeared in your head of being in the arms of a man where he said,

"I'll meet you in the next life, my love."

"What's happening to me? What are these memories?" You thought, increasingly confused

"Nice to meet you! My name is Y/n." You extended your hand and he shook it

At that moment, the man had a memory where he was hugging a woman just like you and where she said, "If I reincarnate and meet you in the next life, I'll be your wife and I'll carry your children."

Both you and he froze for a split second that seemed like it would never end. A connection so strong that it had once been cut off by an unfair outcome.

But here you two were, meeting as you both had promised in past, although now you could only remember the past as vague memories and strange sensations that you never imagined you would feel.

"Be careful not to bump into anyone else out there." He said and you gave an embarrassed smile

"I'll pay more attention next time. Have a good day." You bowed slightly and left

He looked at you as you walked away, his expression one of confusion and curiosity at the same time.

"Who is that brat? I feel like I've seen her before but I can't remember where." He then went back on the path, still with that idea mulling over in his head

82 notes · View notes

hestzhyen · 18 hours ago

Text

Chapter 73 Sob Posting

Head in my hands, heart crushed, brain only sending sad signals. Let's go dear void- it's time to cry again.

Editor's notes: First Page: 破られた記憶の封印... [yabura reta kioku no fuuin...] "The seal on (their) memories has been rent asunder..." This doesn't specify whose memories, exactly, are unsealed but we can infer based on what's been happening the past few chapters that we are seeing both Samura and Iori's memories at once to tell a cohesive story. The audience gets to know everything even though the characters have things only they know and all that. It's my interpretation at least. Last Page: 国重殺害により現実味が増す"蠱"座村は... [Kunishige satsugai ni yori genjitsumi ga masu "kodoku" Samura wa...] "With Kunishige's murder, the "Malediction" becomes much more real to Samura...

Thank goodness VIZ translated the text on the colour page for once so I don't have to. Congratulations to the contest winners! Also, 925 entry submissions for a manga without an anime for this kind of contest is pretty crazy. Kagurabachi is definitely going to be a WSJ mainstay.

Small note before we begin: the title of the chapter in Japanese is 黎明 [reimei], "Daybreak", same as in EN. It can mean "dawn of a new age" as well, which I think has some connection to what happened this chapter. There are plenty of words for dawn/daybreak in Japanese (明け方 [akegata], 夜明け [yoake], 暁 [akatsuki], etc.) but reimei was the one chosen, y'know? My guess is due to the Hishaku successfully engineering what seems to be the beginning of the end...

Iori

Oh my god this poor kid.

It's not, but it's also not your fault at all...

She's so strong trying to bear the bullying on her own. She's smart, too, for realising that her dad will send her away if he catches on to what she's trying her best to endure. So she lies with a smile to protect the little bit of happiness she has.

Iori loses her mom to something no one can control, then tries to control what she can to keep the dad she came to love after all by her side. She only wants to live with him no matter what it costs her. How can a person's heart not break for Iori? She's being bullied by her classmates, the adults are enabling it, people are trashing her home all the time, and she still wants to stay so she doesn't have to lose someone else.

No kid should have to suffer like this and I want to give Iori a huge hug for doing her best under supremely shitty circumstances. Once again, much like Hakuri and Chihiro, we see a kid suffering the consequences of bullshit going on among the adults. Kagurabachi is many things and "a story that examines the impacts and consequences of older generations' issues on the younger ones" is one of them.

The interesting thing to look forward to now that my heart has been thoroughly minced into fine particulate matter: who is Iori's aunt in the Kamunabi? Is it the woman she was living with, or since it was specifically her mom's younger sister, could the theories of this lady being her aunt come true?

NAME, PLEASE?!

She's the only one of the three folks who sealed the Shinuchi we haven't seen pop back up yet- Prince Nez got a surprise showing last chapter, Beard guy was in the panel of the treaty being signed. I like the theory of her being the aunt mostly because it would help us segue back into checking on the folks we left off at Kamunabi HQ. We simply don't know yet though, so... more waiting.

Poor Iori, though. Separated from her parent again and she couldn't do anything about it in the end. But I can't really blame Samura for his decision to upset her so badly.

Before we move on, though... the first of more-than-usual TL notes.

Iori...! You'll find happiness again soon, I hope!

"Six months" is incorrect, it should be "year and a half". Iori lived with Samura for a year while her mom was in the hospital and this chapter takes place roughly six months after Inori died. The JP was correct, as was French and Spanish, so this is an EN-only error apparently.

Samura

I sure as hell woke up when I got to translating this part at like 4 am.

He fears for her so much that he's worried she'll fucking hang herself. His anxiety is definitely overblown here, but that's a parent's worst nightmare isn't it? To find their child committed suicide... unless they're Kyora, who wouldn't have minded much if Hakuri's suicidal leap in ch. 24 had succeeded. Fortunately (or unfortunately) Samura's got different failings as a father and he makes the most rational decision he can: he removes Iori from his home to live with her aunt. To spare her from his issues and having to suffer consequences she doesn't deserve. If anything, Samura doesn't deserve her.

There are some extremely cool comparisons we can make between Samura and Kunishige now. Both war veterans with literal skeletons in their closet who didn't necessarily want their kid to emulate them. Both teaching their kid their craft despite some having some reservations. Both loving their kid a hell of a lot. But where Kunishige wanted to walk Chihiro through every step of learning about the world -including the "not so bright and shiny stuff"-, Samura tries to shield Iori by sending her away and abandoning her again.

I can't be mad at him for doing that even if it's such a heart-wrenchingly painful thing to see happen to Iori. She was crying herself to sleep and being worn down by the resentment towards her father echoing down to her as well. Living with her dad was a kind of happiness for her, but it was a huge risk too. Even if she didn't hang herself like he feared she would still be deeply affected by so much negativity aimed at them both. So Samura did the responsible thing by sending her away to somewhere safer even if it broke his little girl's heart. Part of being an adult is making difficult decisions like that and credit to him, he did it.

I can't fault him for any of his actions that he took before he went off the deep end in the present either. I mean, really:

Protect the father for the sake of the son... sorry, Shiba, I know you tried your best.

Samura didn't try to keep this burden to himself! He talked to his superior and informed him about everything John told him, who spread the word to at least a few other folks who could do something about it. He asked Shiba to look after the Rokuhiras. And he tried to be a proactive presence in Iori's life even if he was awkward around her.

Samura did everything right and still lost.

My personal theory is that the Hishaku targeted Samura for this plan because he'd be the easiest to manipulate. His negative feelings are strong- anxiety, grief, guilt, self-hatred, etc. That makes him easy to predict. Maybe telling Samura was vital to the plan because all these dominoes needed to fall and he was the right piece to push first. In other words, they knew he'd inform everyone and relied on that to make this catastrophic prediction come true.

Regardless of what we learn, it's hard not to feel for Samura when he was genuinely doing everything he could to protect the people he cares for. He made responsible moves based on what he knew and didn't try to tackle it alone. The reason for how he came to be so misguided in the present is bright and clear now- each step he's taken in his life so far has been logical, responsible, and with good intentions. But losing so much despite doing the right thing at every turn amplified all his negative traits and feelings. So he decided -again, with clear and sober reasoning- that he needed to tackle the root of the issue by himself. Kill the Master Swordsman, kill the Kamunabi's mole, kill the other Bearers, kill the Hishaku, kill himself. Kill everything that's causing problems and restore peace. He's drowning in despair over this Malediction prediction coming to pass and will stop it by any means necessary. That's my impression anyway.

An observation before we move on:

Bad news...

The change of seasons here gives us a rough timeline of when Chihiro and Shiba visited before Kunishige's murder. In the preceding page they're all wearing clothing for spring or autumn- long sleeves but no coats (other than Samura's unkempt suit) and the plants in the backgrounds are full of foliage. Then we transition to this page with a bare branch to show us that it's late fall/winter when Samura gets the news. So anywhere between a month to about six passed and Kunishige died late in the year or early in the next one.

Aaaaand a small TL note because this is impossible to really bring across in EN:

Heckin' punks.

Glasses guy says the same thing in the second panel in Japanese: あっ座村 but this is giga turbo maximum disrespect towards our favourite blind guy. Not using a -san honorific for someone older than you is incredibly rude, and it speaks volumes for how these kids see Samura even before the other guy gives his little speech.

It's related to this scene:

Samura I can't believe I'm saying this, but you have nothing to apologise for.

These guys in the background watching Samura fall over himself to apologise for Iori fighting with his student's kid don't have a great impression of him. And neither does the guy he's teaching and apologising to! The kids bullying Iori heard all that slander from their parents and are using it to torment her. The adults are being duplicitous and respecting Samura to his face since he still has that War Hero status, but they've got doubts and issues with him in private that their kids are picking up on. Iori's getting all the blowback since she's just a child who can't slice them to ribbons and Samura fucking hates that, as he should- which only amplifies those guilty feelings he never quite got rid of.

Lastly, just one small thing I found amusing:

Samura, eternally Going Through Some Things

Samura refers to Yura as 奴 [yatsu], "that guy (derogatory or familiar)". Since Samura's not exactly chums with Yura it's more like "That bastard's been spreading that story?".

The Hishaku

I wanted to murder John and Hatshaku myself after translating wall of text after wall of text this chapter. May God rest the official translator's soul.

So, first up, a translation note... 民族浄化 [minzokujouka], "ethnic cleansing" never appeared in John's explanation here in the original. There wasn't even verbiage alluding to the incident in that way. The text in the bubble was:

町にばら撤いたのは条約と剣聖の事件の一連を記した文書と条約の調印式の偽造写真 "We scattered leaflets around town... detailing the treaty and the Sword Master incident, as well as forged photos of the treaty signing ceremony." I wonder what the official EN TL was going for here. 事故 [jiken] is a neutral term simply meaning "accident/incident" or "circumstances"- the official Spanish and French translations also didn't include the "ethnic cleansing" terminology. That's a pretty loaded concept to include by mistake, you know?

At any rate, John's been carefully laying the foundation for years now. We still don't know exactly why he's doing this but he's patient as hell and willing to do things slowly so they're done right. I'm all in on bets for him using Samura and telling him about the prediction to ensure that the Malediction event happens- dollars to doughnuts he's going to be the one who causes it, assuming it's not thwarted by Chihiro et. al.

I appreciate the writing for this nefarious plot quite a bit. Hokazono-sensei understands how these plots usually unfold through careful manipulation instead of an obvious misinformation campaign that somehow totally wins over the populace. What's important isn't to get the truth out right away but to plant seeds one by one- first sow doubt, then build mistrust, so on and so forth. This is very true to life and honestly just as scary as whatever the Sword Master's got going on with Magatsumi. The Hishaku are deadly serious about this plan with the patience to see it through.

Okay, dear void... no idea what we'll see next, but I'm comfortably strapped in and ready for whatever it is. Hopefully I can reassemble my heart in time for it to be shattered again. Take care of yourself this week and give yourself a little praise, just as a treat.

#kagurabachi #Hakuri I love you I miss you please come back #Iori please stay too I love you and I will never forgive the author if you are written out at some point #long post #My unfinished draft count is ballooning and I want to add another with a Kunishige-Kyora-Samura comparison essay #Someone stop me please I need to finish other things first #kb ch73

39 notes · View notes

aritsukemo · 5 months ago

Note

Hello! I was so happy when I found out you writing for Yona of the dawn, and now I would like to make a request. Can you please do sfw relationship headcanons with Hak? Female reader is also in a team. I know it's not original, but since we have so little Akayona content, I think it fine. Thank you in advance!

Relationship Headcanons | Son Hak

Warnings: None.

A/N: So, so sorry this took so long to complete!! I was trying to hold off until I finished the manga to make this, but as recent events have gotten me really into the Windbreaker anime and the Black Butler manga, it uh...doesn't seem like that'll happen anytime soon. Nevertheless, despite going off a pure memory for this ( as I haven't picked the manga up since, like, last summer ) I hope you enjoy this little piece I put together!

↪ No matter if you're the medic, the cook, or one of the fighters on your team, Hak will always try to protect you in any and all situations.

↪ He's very sensitive when it comes to certain things with you so if you ever got hurt, no matter the circumstances of how it happened, he will blame himself for not jumping to your rescue.

↪ Very sarcastic. All lighthearted jokes between you and any of your team members, of course. He'd fall head over heels for you all over again though if you ever joined in on his antics or had a similar sense of humor. ( None of your or his teammates can share that sentiment though )

↪ He's a gentleman when he wants to be and if he sees you struggling unnecessarily with something ( ex. carrying a bunch of twigs or logs or something ) he'll be by your side to help you in an instant whether you want to be helped or not. ( Depending on how you react to his help though, he may add a snarky comment or two. )

↪ Loves to rile you up. At times when there's nothing dire going on, he tends to poke fun at you until you just blow and start screaming at him. ( Or however you react when your mad ) He finds it cute when you huff and puff at him, but if his comments genuinely hurt your feelings, let him know ( or don't and let him find out on his own ) and he'll tone it down.

↪ If you can fight, he'll spar with you on a good day. Not that you probably want him too. You see, Hak can be pretty..irritating. First off, he tends to hold back out fear of hurting you ( especially if you're a woman ) so if you expect some no holds barred fighting like he does with Kija or his enemies, you're out of luck. Secondly, if you're a novice, he'll nitpick every little thing you do wrong. He means good by it, wanting you to see those mistakes before an enemy shows you and you end up wounded or worse, but just the way he goes about it would get anyones blood boiling.

↪ Does the hottest things at the most random times. You two can be out on a task given to you by Yun or simply sitting by the fire and enjoying the scarce peace and he'll do something like bite your neck or profess his undying love for you out of nowhere. What makes things worse is that he'll pretend it never happened afterwards, leaving you to use context clues to figure out what the hell just happened.

↪ Irritating to deal with when it comes to arguments. Hak is a very stubborn person and when you're arguing, especially if the topic regards your safety ( or really anything that envolves you and your wellbeing ), chances are that he won't back down. He's also blunt to boot so some things he says could easily be taken the wrong way.

↪ That leads us to apologies! While Hak isn't the type to go on some long winded ramble asking for your forgiveness, he will reach out at the very least depending on what he'd be apologizing for. ( Depending on what happened, he may not apologize at all ) Moments like that are the few times you get to peer inside him and see that genuine side that he tends to cover up with sarcasm and nonchalance.

↪ You're his top priority at all times. He's always thinking of you. especially on the battlefield! If you're not in his line of sight, he gets antsy and his mind wanders everywhere. Stuff like "Are you safe?", "Are they injured?", "Are the others with you?", and much more are going through his head with every swing he takes with his glave.

↪ Vulnerable moments with him are short and fleeting. It's in his nature to keep this unbothered persona of his going until the end because he doesn't like it when people are worried about him. He may say things in those moments that'll completely contradict his whole character only to immediately wave you off afterwards, leaving your mind racing as you try to pick apart his words and find the true meaning behind them.

↪ He's not one for cuddles, but if you are, he doesn't mind letting you curl up against him and lay on his chest. He tends to play with your hair at times like that, but only when you're fast asleep and can't feel it or whenever he's trying to tease/fluster you.

↪ Your first kiss will catch him off guard at first no matter who initiated it because, if he were to be transparent, he didn't believe he'd ever actually get to this point with you. That said, after the first kiss, he can't go more than a day without feeling the security of your warm lips on his! That means goodbye, good morning, good luck, and any other excuse he can pull to get a kiss from you is a must from then on!

↪ Can get real jealous at times. I imagine this being a big issue moreso prior to you two getting into a relationship rather after, but Hak can get really possessive when he's jealous. He's def not the type to see everyone as a threat, but I do imagine him being preturbed by one of your team members showing some kind of hint of harboring romantic feelings for you. And in that case, he may act a bit meaner to them ( still overall light hearted though like when he's interacting with Jae-Ha ) and possibly even petty enough to find ways to get you to avoid them. ( Like, for example, asking you to help him out with something that he can definitely do on his own specifically when he notices you conversing with the person causes him to feel so jealous )

↪ Basically he can be bit emotionally constipated at times, but he's not the worst boyfriend one could have. Not in a million years, in fact!

Dividers were made by me, pictures used are from Pinterest, post formatting is inspired by @xxsabitoxx

68 notes · View notes

nightstarbutterfly · 6 months ago

Text

Demon slayer manga spoiler!!

So when mitsuri and obanai die in each other's arms and mitsuri tells obanai that she wants to marry him in the afterlife can you imagine that except it's you and gojo fighting sukuna and you guys die in each other's arms while you say that to him 😭

"Satoru-san did we win?" You said tiredly "yes... We won sukuna is dead" gojo responded holding you in his arms "I'm glad to hear that I don't feel any pain so I guess I'm dying" you said with a heavy heart not wanting this to be the end "I'll probably die soon too you aren't alone" gojo said looking down at you

"Satoru-san don't die yet I wasn't that much use in the fight I'm so sorry" you said shaking a bit for the cries you wanted to let out "no that isn't true please don't say that" gojo said nodding his head "ah... Satoru-san do you remember when we first met? I was actually lost and you helped me" you said smiling at the memory

"no it was the other way around you were such a normal girl when we first met that you saved me you got excited over the smallest things and your laughter was like bells ringing you must have struggled on your way to become a jujutsu sorcerer but you didn't give any indication of that I enjoyed talking to you and was happy to feel like a normal teenage boy" he said smiling with you at those memories you guys shared together

"Your bottomless, cheerfulness and kindness has saved many people so you should be proud I'm sure the others felt the same way I would never let anyone say otherwise" he said his grip on you never loosened you felt extremely happy hearing that from him that your tears came back and fell like a waterfall this time

"Waaah! I'm so happy I care about you so much Satoru-san! The meals always tasted best with you Satoru because you look at me with so much affection! Satoru-san please if we're reborn and we're reborn as humans can I be your bride?" You said in between sobs "yes of course if you will agree to have me and this time I will make you happy and protect so you don't die something I couldn't do in this timeline" satoru said holding you as tightly as possible not wanting to ever let you go

95 notes · View notes

lightlycareless · 7 months ago

Note

I’m curious, how would you think Naoya’s canonical first appearance would be like if he was married to Y/N during the events of the manga? I wonder if he’d still maintain his role as antagonist(maybe he’d turn ally?) or if he’d just be nonexistent because him and Y/N decide to leave Japan post shibuya(he can’t let y/n get caught up in that) XD

Hello anon!!!

Well, I actually wrote a little something detailing that hehe. Kind of. I hope it still answers your question :>

Also, because this is the perfect opportunity to do so, why not write something sad/angsty for a change. A "what would happen with Y/N and Naoya during Shibuya" :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) but somewhat taking into consideration the post above? Hmmm more at the end.

warnings: slight mentions of character death. mentions of pregnancy. angst. sad overall I believe. :') Naoya loves you and has done things differently than the jerk we all know of course. Or not? Also, I don't remember much of Shibuya anymore so forgive me if something is odd about it.

Happy reading!

I would say Naoya would quickly decide to get you out of danger. No questions about it; he doesn’t even consider otherwise. As soon as he hears what is going down he intends to send you far away in some remote safe house where he thinks you and the kids will be ok—perfectly tended for, as he’d always made sure.

You, on the other hand, aren’t too enthusiastic about leaving everything behind, simply because your family was right in the middle of the crisis! And of course they would be, always rushing to serve the noble cause, you were not surprised to learn that they were doing their best to prevent the situation from worsening.

But this was no ordinary task, that much obvious by a simple glance. And if not through that, then by the growing uneasiness settling in your heart. One that demanded you to stay… or at least remain attentive to what is to follow.

“But I don’t think that’s even necessa—”

“We’re not discussing this anymore, Y/N. You are leaving, and you’re doing so tomorrow first thing in the morning. I already made all the preparations, you just need to have the kids awake and ready.”

“I don’t want to leave my family.” You insist. “I shouldn’t! They—They need me. They’re putting their life on the line; I can’t just leave—”

“Our children need you more. I need you more.” Naoya frowns, frustrated that of all things you’ve decided to refute him on, this had to be the one. “As I said, I won’t discuss this with you anymore—you are leaving.”

“But Naoya—!”

You’ve only seen this firm side of him on scarce occasions; either when reprimanding your naïve kids when accidentally doing something that might hurt them, or when putting his family in place after saying… well, the things they normally did.

And since you obviously don’t like pushing him over the edge, having more than enough with the weight of being the heir of a prestigious clan, as well as all his work as a sorcerer, you tend to just go with what he wants.

But not this time around, you simply couldn’t act like there wasn’t something bothering you. Something looming over your mind, a frightening omen that involved someone directly involved with you.

It could be anyone. Either your family, or… Naoya.

Both chances you did not wish to take.

“…Please.” Naoya would quietly insist after seeing you grow silent, regretful of the domineering way he seemed to take over the conversation, for after all was said and done, he loved you more than anything else in this world and would rather die than hurt you.

He wasn’t happy about this arrangement, no, in fact he despised it.

Hated the fact that he had to be the one to come up with it in the first place—but after what he heard from Shibuya, alongside his father being summoned for support, it was nothing but clear that he needed to act.

“You’ll be stationed in a nice place. A quiet little village with a nice, ample house and access to a relaxing beach for you and the kids to spend time on. Now, doesn’t that sound nice, mochi?”

Had it been literally any other occasion, you would have been ecstatic. Happy to have the opportunity to spend time with your family without worrying about anything, simply what you and your kids were to do next.

But it wasn’t meant to be this way, so much that even the kids were unusually calm about the so-called holiday. Having sensed their mother’s anxiety and preferring being by her side than thinking of having fun.

“And school? What about their friends?” You eventually ask, of course, one of the many ways to stall him.

“I don’t believe you will be away for long, but I arranged everything in the meantime. They will be homeschooled.” Naoya explains, you frown. “As for friends… I guess I can consider occasional visits. Though they’ll more likely make new ones over there.”

“…And you? Will you be… coming with us?” You know that wouldn’t be, assumed so either way. But still, you hoped he would surprise you otherwise.

“…You know I can’t.” Naoya responds, your heart sinks to your stomach.

“Why not? Your father is already there for support. Why do you have to go?” you scowl.

“I have to stay at the estate to oversee it while he’s gone.” He explains. “I wish I could go, or that you and our kids could stay but… it’s too dangerous. If anything happens at Shibuya and things decide to escalate, it’s only logical that the estate will become a target and I won’t risk it.”

You press your lips together, understanding his words, yet disappointed that it had to be that way. A part of you tried to accept them, let it go, for you knew exactly what you were getting into when you married him.

And the other…

“I can’t… I don’t feel comfortable being away while you and my family are in danger!”

“This is no different from any other mission I’ve gone to, or that your family has.” Naoya attempts to console you, but both knew that wasn’t the trutht. “What is it? What is it that has you like this?”

“…I…I don’t…I don’t know.” You begin slowly, hesitant to admit your thoughts in fear that they might become true. To painful to even consider it! “I just… have this awful feeling that something bad is going to happen soon.”

“Like what?”

“Please don’t make me say it.”

Naoya didn’t need more to understand, and such, leans closer to you, enough to wrap his arms around you and gently place a kiss on the top of your head.

“…Nothing will happen. I swear. I will contact you whenever possible so you’ll be at ease. And if there’s any change, I’ll let you know as well. I promise.”

“…Please?”

“Of course, princess.” He smirks, now kissing your cheek. “I wouldn’t even dream otherwise.”

“You haven’t called me that in a long time.” You silently admit; his words lift some of the burdening weight from your heart.

Not enough to free you, but enough for you to slightly jest at him.

“Well, our little Naomi kind of inherited it, didn’t she?”

“She’s well deserving of it. It fits her.”

“Technically you’re my princess, and she’s our little princess.”

“…I guess so, if you put it that way it kind of makes sense.”

Silence engulfs the two for a brief moment soon after, motivating Naoya to hug you even tighter.

“Everything will be fine, Y/N. It’s nothing but a situation that… got a little bit out of hand, but nothing I can’t handle. That’s all.

Just remember that my father is involved too. And…” as much as he hated admitting it, the old man was a very talented sorcerer. A good decision was made by considering him. “Gojo-kun is also there too, and everyone knows there’s no one stronger than him. As for your sister… well, she’s quite a force to be reckoned with too.”

“I never thought I’d come to hear you compliment them, ever!” You tease, he scoffs, slightly embarrassed.

“I just want to make you happy.” Naoya silently admits, placing his fingers underneath your chin and lifting your gaze to his. “You mean the world to me; I don’t know what I would do if you—if you… I can’t lose you. I can’t.”

“Then hurry up back home.” You pout, a tear sliding down cheek. “Please, for me. For the kids.”

“Promise me to always send me pictures of you and the kids. It’ll serve me as motivation as to why I even bother doing all this…” He frowns. “…And to let me know if you’re ok. You’ll be secured there with some of my men, but I still wish to hear it from you.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll send you so many, you’ll ask me to stop!”

“Now, mochi, no need to say fallacies we know won’t happen.” He teases back, which you respond with a giggle before quieting down, the realization that his impending departure is near.

“May the gods bring you back safe to me.” You silently pray, pressing a kiss on his lips to seal your protection charm, the one you’ve previous on prior occasions and has always worked—or so you believed.

The same one you desperately hoped would work this time around as well, especially after beginning to hear the horrific loses Shibuya had brought along.

From the death of your beloved friend Nanami to Gojo’s unprecedented sealing, you remained on edge as you tried your best to keep constant communication with Naoya, trying to figure out if any of these happenings had affected him one way or the other, praying that nothing would befall him.

Eventually cursing yourself when realizing you had unknowingly called a bad presage into reality when Naoya one day, without previous warning, directly and sternly, sends you the following message:

“My father died in Shibuya. I am now clan leader.”

To congratulate him given the circumstances of his death felt out of place, if not incredibly imprudent—even if this was his biggest dream.

It just came to you so… unexpectedly, though some would say that incidences would occur in such conflict. Perhaps it was Naobito’s time to leave this earth.

And yet, another part of you decided to take this as a warning, a reminder that this was no common attack. Not if it was capable of claiming the life of someone so skillful as your father-in-law.

…

What did any of this mean for Naoya? Is he safe? Is he ok? Has he been injured? Where was he right now?

But most importantly, what is he going to do now that is Leader of the Zen’in clan?

Did this mean that you were finally able to return with him? After so many days of homesickness, would you be able to see your husband in person?

…

Or… or did this just made things even worse for your family, forced to remain away until things cooled down, because you were now a bigger target?

“It’s still not safe. With Gojo-kun’s sealing… the clans have been nothing but a mess; and apparently that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There seems to be a deeper plan unfolding in the background—We still don’t know what for, but I know for sure one thing: I wouldn’t dare endanger you.”

“…Ok. I understand” You dejectedly agree, forced to remain behind as you lonely mourn the death of your friends, or the unknown fate of one of them.

Well, at least your family was relatively safe. Your siblings sustained injuries, but nothing they wouldn’t be able to heal in due time. You could only wonder the stresses your father had to deal with now that the Gojo clan was rendered nonexistent… Was someone trying to nominate Satoru’s replacement?

…

You wished you could do more. Longed to not feel as useless as you did nowadays, more so since Naoya’s messages turned to be fewer and fewer as time passed…

But at least he still responded. Took a little bit of his time to let you know that he was fine. Busy, perhaps a partial lie, but ultimately alive.

Just a matter of days and you’ll be back in his arms, with your children, and the little bundle growing inside you. Where you belonged.

Unless… fate was to cruelly decide otherwise.

“Naoya, I… haven’t heard from you in quite a while. I just… hope you’re ok and not overworking yourself. Naomi, Naori, Naoko and Naoyuki miss you. Please let me know how everything is doing as soon as you can. I love you”

…

“I don’t want to bother you, nor distract you from your duties. But I’m very worried about you Naoya, you haven’t answered any of my messages or calls. And… and I can’t shake this feeling that something horrible happened. Please answer me, Naoya, I can’t take the thought of you mot—

Just let me know if you’re ok, please. I love you.”

…

“Please, just give me a sign that you’re alive. I beg you, Naoya. I can’t take this anymore. I feel so lonely without you. I always do, but today… today it feels worse. Please, if just a letter, you don’t even have to write a whole message. Just a dot or something. Anything!

Just… anything so I can know you’re fine. Alive. Please. I beg you”

…

“Please. Please. Please. Naoya, answer me. Please. We love you.”

…

“Please. For our baby. Please.”

…

“…Naoya?”

Obviously I wanted to make it tragic and say that Naoya died; but how did he die? By being in Shibuya? Maybe. Maki? That means he still would've been a jerk! akjgkags

Also, I believe he didn't tell Y/N that he wasn't actually clan leader because... I don't know, pride. It's what he wanted all his life, after all! Maybe he hoped to fix that before meeting up with you again, and that's how he died :) OOF

Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed this little "what if" piece. I still have another Shibuya-centric oneshot to write 😏 maybe that could add on to this one? Thankfully, the good things about these prompts is that they're not really connected to one another, they could all essentially be read individually hehe nice.

Now, thank you so much for sending in this ask; take care and hope to see you soon!!!

#naoya zenin #naoya zen'in #naoya x reader #naoya zenin x reader #naoya zenin x you #jjk naoya #naoya zen'in x reader #jjk x reader #jjk angst #jjk x you #prompt series: jujutsu kaisen

65 notes · View notes

cyber-dump-171 · 8 months ago

Text

Chapter 2: Weirdos

Objection! Stand your ground! Marvelous! (Twisted Wonderland x Reader)

← Chapter 1 | Masterlist | Chapter 3 →

Word count: 5.4 k.

WARNING: N/A

Note: sorry it took me a while to upload, I had to get a uni project done but now I'm almost finished with it! Thank you for the likes, reblogs, and comments! This chapter is based on chapter 2 of the manga “Disney Twisted Wonderland - Episode of Heartslaby

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

“LET ME GO!” the gray creature screams in response, trying to escape from the arms of the crow man, who has no intention of letting him go. As their figures become smaller and smaller, the room seems to return to normal, the students talking in whispers about the chaos that happened just a few minutes ago and making jokes about the little monsters' “pathetic or laughable wish.”

You don't want to talk about it, much less think about what's going on around you. You've long passed the stage of denial, the things in front of you are concrete evidence that the crow man's speech was not a lie.

Now, you're scared, a feeling of doom mixed with nausea twists your stomach into pretty bows as you slowly make your way toward Yuuken and the coffin man. You're pushing down and drowning feelings that are meant to be addressed, but honestly, right now, what else are you supposed to do?

You convince yourself that the best option, for now, is to swallow the bitter pill, find a way to get out of this situation as soon as possible and return safely home. Furthermore, you can have an existential crisis later.

You kneel down in front of the man, getting a better look at his features as you do a preliminary scan of his body for any noticeable injuries. ‘Could this be?’ Despite the commotion and the fall from a considerable height, his slicked-back blond hair is completely intact, not a single hair out of place. His breathing is even, meaning there are no deep internal injuries or anything too dangerous to worry about… for now.

There is no blood on his cream-colored satin shirt, except for a few specks of dirt and dust from the debris, and the only injuries are a few scratches on his hands, some of his fingers adorned with expensive but tasteful jewelry, the same goes for his ears and neck.

'He looks like he stepped right out of a fashion magazine.' Your hand gently grips his chin as you lift his head, moving it from side to side, his eyes still closed. His left cheek has a cut two fingers below the eye, but fortunately, it's not too deep. “Enma, please hold his head up, I'll treat the wound,” you gently release his chin and reach for your bag, quickly finding a small white plastic box.

Although you are not clumsy, your classmates are, especially two of your middle school friends who are always fighting or pulling pranks that ended in bruises, cuts, or tears. The school nurse was never around for some reason, and after the third injury, which ended with a particularly nasty cut on your forehead, you made sure to carry a small first-aid kit in case of emergency. While your friends have moved away, you've subconsciously kept it with you, even though you rarely use it. You appreciate your overthinking and safety precautions.

Yuuken lets go of his gym bag, the items inside clattering rather loudly as they hit the ground, drawing the attention of some students sitting on a nearby bench, though they quickly return to their conversation. The Kendo student softly grabs both sides of the young man's head, who groans in response, before holding it in your direction, just in time for you to open the package and take out a small alcohol wipe.

“This will sting a little,” you quietly warn before gently pressing the wet cotton against the wound, the young man wincing in response as he inhales, though his eyes remain closed. Passing the swab a few times, you remove most of the blood and dirt from his face before reaching for the box and pulling out a bandage, placing it on top of the cut.

“Thank you kindly,” he whispers in return, as you roll up the trash and stuff it into one of the inside pockets of your bag. You'll find a place to throw it away later. Exchanging a single glance, you and Yuuken stand up and take each of the man's arms and swing them over your shoulders, helping him to lift himself off the ground.

“Let’s get out of here while we can,” the Kendo student nods at your quiet words, and the two of you prepare to make your way out of the building before the crow man returns, which was your original plan before the monster wreaked havoc. Unfortunately, before you can take another step, you're stopped by the redhead whose name you learned is Riddle Rosehearts, as he angrily points his pen at you.

“You! How dare you insult me just now!?” he asks, irritated, his gray eyes fixed on your bewildered expression. “What!? How did I insult you? We barely interacted before!” your brain sorts through every single memory since the very moment you awakened in this cursed place, trying to figure out how you could — wait…

“Are you offended that I didn't let you get hit by that giant fireball!?” you ask, dumbfounded at the audacity of this man. Riddle's eyebrows furrowed in response to your question, a scowl etching his pale face. ‘What an insufferable dude! I didn’t mean to steal his stupid thunder.’ “Let me make this very clear to you… This is the same as insulting the Queen of Hearts, and I will have your head for it!” have your head!? He’s going to kill you!? Before you can even retaliate to the insane comment, a dry laugh at your side interrupts the confrontation.

“Insult? Heh, you’re quite sensitive if you believe that my friend removing you out of harm's way is an ‘insult’,” the blond man chuckles before lifting his head, icy blue eyes staring mockingly at Riddle.

The redhead's confidence does not waiver as the piercing eyes stare back at him, Riddle only tightens his grip on the pen. You believe that the light is more likely playing some tricks, because, why is the house warden’s face turning redder? The blond man simply barks a laugh at his actions. “What? Cat got your tongue, 'queen'? You seemed eager to rant to my friend just now. What happened to your self-confidence?” his head lulls to the side as if he were a doll, a Cheshire grin decorating his lips.

Quickly, the blonde man slides his wrists out of your and Yuuken's grasp before lazily standing up and shoving his jewel-adorned hands into the front pockets of his pants. You have a bad feeling, even though he's mocking the redhead, you feel a murderous intent emit from the blonde man as he suddenly straightens his back and cracks his neck, a loud "pop" reaches your eyes and you automatically cringe.

His movements are slow but taunting as he makes his way over to Riddle, a cold smile on his lips, and the atmosphere becomes heavy and tense. The rest of the nearby students notice it too, quietly yelling at the rest of the people in the back to "shut up," and the people sitting on a nearby balcony lean forward to pay close attention to the scene. You've just noticed them. For his part, the house warden slowly backs away, and you can tell he's beginning to feel intimidated, though his face doesn't waver.

“Go on, I’m interested in finding out how you’re going to cut their head off. Will you use a knife, a cleaver, or will you point that pen at them and cast a spell like you did at the cat? Or perhaps… you spill nothing but empty threats?” the students beside you whisper excitedly at the confrontation, some even pulling out their phones to record, the spectacle before them must be amazing.

As the little man opens his mouth to retaliate, two figures suddenly rush forward, one of them a young man with green hair and a small black clover on his left cheek, placing a firm hand on the house warden’s shoulder. “Riddle, why don't we all calm down and wait for the Headmaster to return?” finally! Someone in this room with some common sense!

At the sudden appearance of these two figures, the blond man rolls his eyes and backs away, deciding to stand right next to you, the smile now turns into an amused grin, and he chuckles darkly next to you. “Pfft, what a boring show,” he mutters lowly, his sharp eyes briefly connecting with yours, but his gaze returns to face the tiny tyrant.

The murderous aura is now gone, and you feel a shiver run down your spine. ‘This guy… Yuuken and I have to be careful around him, he feels like a ticking bomb, poking at others for his own amusement.’

"Calm down? Why should I, when these three have done nothing but cause trouble and ruin the entrance ceremony!? They're guilty of misconduct,” Riddle sneers, his eyes focused on you. Did he forget that the chaos was caused by some random creature that broke through a window and proceeded to set the entire room on fire? Also, the concept of 'calm' or 'rationality 'is completely absent from this guy's vocabulary.

The green-haired man sighs, gritting his teeth at the redhead's reaction. However, despite the obvious frustration toward the house warden, his expression quickly changes to one of warm nervousness as the man laughs in response. It's almost like a mother's reaction to an upset child, attempting to quiet him down before he throws a tantrum. ‘Interesting.’

“Still, this is the first day for these guys, they don't know all the rules of this place,” and you're back to square one. You're momentarily distracted when the second figure, a man with orange hair partially pulled back into a ponytail, squeezes between you and Yuuken and places a warm hand on both of your shoulders, side-eyeing and avoiding the blonde man. “Yep! Soooo, can you maybe let them off the hook this time?”

You just shake your head, a tired sigh leaving your lips. “Please, we're not here to enroll, this is a mistake. We want nothing to do with this, we just want to go home!” you sound like a broken record at this point, mentally exhausted by the stubborn people who seem to be completely deaf to your words. The orange-haired man gives you a small, pitiful smile as he gently pats you on the shoulder.

“Why do you keep spouting such nonsense? The black carriage wouldn’t pick up a person who has no magical abilities,” as soon as Riddle finishes his sentence, a booming sound resonates within the walls of the room as you notice some movement in the background. In the mirror, which bizarrely shows no reflection, a sea of green flames appears, dancing fervently, and moments later, a stoic theatrical mask comes into view. “It is as you said.”

You stop dead in your tracks, the world around you momentarily comes to a halt as the monotone words spoken by the mirror reach your ears. ‘That voice… it was the one that was speaking to me before I got run over by that horse.’ It seems that you're not the only one who recognizes it, as when you turn to look at Yuuken and the blond man, their faces are ones of shock and surprise.

“You… you were the one inside my head,” Yuuken, who had been relatively quiet throughout the entire confrontation, mutters under his breath, his owlish gaze glued to the magic mirror. Though the mask pays them no mind, continuing with his monologue. “No color, no shape, nothing.”

The entire room falls silent, several eyes now staring at you, watching and examining your every move. They feel like vultures, waiting for your reaction as if you three were vulnerable prey. But, you ignore them, more focused on looking for the answers to the questions that have been eating at your brain for the entire evening.

“Did you bring us here? If so, why us?” you make your way towards the towering mirror, the warm hand that was previously placed on your shoulder now falling back towards the orange-haired man’s side. Yet the soulless, dark eyes of the mask just stare back at you without answering any of your questions.

A pair of footsteps make their way towards your right side and the smell of expensive sandalwood and cinnamon cologne reaches your nostrils, as the unknown blonde man scoffs. “What? You too as well? Are all of you this rude or are we just simply not worthy in your presence?” behind you, Riddle gasps in shock and you can feel the incoming verbal attack from the redheaded even if you’re standing so far away from him.

“My goodness! Tonight has turned out to be quite a night! First, that monster raccoon wreaking havoc, and now this,” the room turns to face the voice that speaks from the entrance. The crow man has returned, this time without a certain noisy monster in his arms, long gone after he went out to throw it off the school grounds. “But if that's the case, then we will have to send you three back to your homes. After all, we cannot accept magicless students here.”

Yes! Finally! Thank whatever god or entity has heard your pleas! As the crow man walks towards the mirror, passing Riddle, and the other quiet students, you can't help but almost cry tears of joy at the thought of finally being able to return home and leave this nightmare of a day and place behind.

As soon as you get home, you'll tell your dad to shove that part-time job at the police station where the sun doesn't shine, and you'll lock yourself inside your bedroom for the rest of the summer, completely forgetting that this day ever happened. You’ll never set foot near the police station unless it’s necessary.

The crow man, standing in front of the mirror, stretches his arms out to his sides, a powerful aura suddenly emanating from his body as a mysterious wind shakes the crystal chandelier and the charred curtains. “O, Mirror of Darkness, guide these children back to where they belong!” you close your eyes in anticipation, waiting to wake up somewhere in the streets or inside the police station. ‘Just get us out of here!’

Yet, there’s a terrifying silence, one that takes what feels like hours to break, but in reality, it’s a few seconds. “It is nowhere to be found. Nowhere in this world does there exist a place where these three souls belong,” the voice booms the terrifying reality and the whispers of the students come back at full force.

You can't describe how you feel right now, the only word that comes to mind is "dread." You want to cry, scream at the sky, curse whoever dragged you to this place. You place a hand on your chest, feeling your heart beating a mile an hour, your breath coming in short gasps as you try to calm yourself internally. 'Now is not the time, I have to keep a cool head, I have nothing to gain if I just start to panic!'

“That can't be true! If our place doesn't exist, how is it possible that the carriage picked us up!?” Yuuken appears on your left side, his face drained of color, and you notice his chest rise and fall rapidly, experiencing the same emotions as you. The blonde man on your opposite side is eerily quiet, however, you feel him nod at the black-haired words.

It’s true what Yuuken says, how can the mirror possibly claim that the world you’re from doesn’t exist? Unless you’ve somehow been living inside a simulation, your body once occupied a physical space back in your world where you experience sensations like touch, smell, and taste.

You suffered from injuries, a broken finger, scraped knees, knife cuts, burns, and even two rejections. You’ve laughed, smiled, cried, been angry, felt proud, scared and so many other emotions in places that you remember clearly in your memory.

At this point, you’ve come to accept that you’re nowhere near home, you’re stuck in a place where magic is real and palpable, perhaps you’ve somehow ended up in a different plane of existence, but, for your world to not be even real?

No… that can’t be… claiming that your world does not exist is a blatant lie! Whatever is going on here, either somebody is hiding the truth and playing dumb or your captor has decided to play a cruel game and involve other people in it. ‘That mirror is by far the most suspicious one out of anyone in the room, but it looks like he won’t let up easily, so how can I get answers from him?’

“Where are you three from again?” you’re snapped out of your thoughts by the gentle voice of the crow man, who in your stupor, failed to notice him has turned around to face you three. His golden gaze is a lot softer as he addresses the three of you, most likely taking pity at the words of the mirror.

“We're from a town called Kotohira, in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan,” the faces of those in front of you are painted with puzzled expressions, the red-head even closing his eyes in an attempt to rack his brain attempting to remember if there even is a place with that name in this world. Unfortunately, judging by the crow man’s expression, your hometown doesn’t ring a bell.

“Where exactly is this? Many of our students come from all over the world, but I've never heard of this place,” suddenly, as if an idea had dawned on him, the crow man's eyes narrowed as a hand scratches his chin. His soft eyes quickly switching to a scrutinizing gaze. “Are you... please don't tell me you three are lying to me.”

‘I wish I had selective hearing like these guys.’ You're tired, you're usually good at debating and dealing with stubborn people, experience from school and multiple part-time jobs have blessed you with those skills, but it seems the exhaustion of the day coupled with an existential crisis has completely drained you to the bone. You just want to go home.

A tired and purposely loud sigh leaves your lips as your hands dig through your bag, looking for your wallet. “Believe me, we have nothing to gain by lying to you. Here, you two... if you have any kind of identification, we should show it to him to clear our names,” you don't wait for the others as you hand two small cards to the crow man: one is an Individual Number Card and the other is a motorcycle license. You point a finger towards the residency line, as the crow man examines the small object with great interest.

The other two dig through their pockets as well, Yuuken hands over his high school ID, while the blond man almost hands over three cards, but chooses at the last minute to give only one to the crow man, a Japanese driver's license. Though he quickly tucks it away, you manage to catch a glimpse of the other two IDs, noticing that each is a different color and even has a different language.

The extravagant man examines the cards, yet shakes his head after a few seconds. "I see... my, this is quite puzzling. I'm terribly sorry, but I've never heard of this place before, so if the mirror says it can't return you there... I'm afraid I can't do much either", the crow man hands you back your IDs with a disappointed yet perplexed look.

So this is it? You're stuck here with no way to get home? You feel the color draining from your face as your legs suddenly turn to jelly, the headache increasing in intensity as countless thoughts swirl in your mind. No matter how hard you try to suppress your emotions, you have run out of ideas on how to get home, as such, panic has made itself home in your cognition.

Fortunately, you don't fall into your dark thoughts when Yuuken suddenly grabs your wrist and looks at the crow man with a fierce gaze. “If the carriage found a way to get us here from our world, we can find it ourselves. So we'll make it back on our own. Thank you very much for your help!” you don't get a chance to protest as the Kendo student begins to drag you towards the exit.

His grip is rather gentle on your wrist, the complete opposite of the harsh tone he used to address the rest of the people in the room. Yet you can’t help but go into overdrive at the idea the kendo student proposed. “Wait, Enma, how is that going to work? We don't even know what path the carriage took!” you whisper to him, worried about where to start looking.

Yet Yuuken simply turns to you, a small smile on his face, switching his grip from your wrist to hold your left hand, those sharp eyes giving you a warm look, as if to comfort you. “Sorry, but it's better than just standing here and dealing with these guys, right?” well, he has a good point.

The blond man, amused by the whole confrontation, doesn't spare a glance at the stunned crowd as he quietly follows you two, the pain from the earlier fall not affecting his movements at all. You make a mental note to check for bruises on his torso once you're in a safe place away from all these people, as you highly doubt that falling from that height would leave him unscathed.

“Goodness! You three! Hold on a second!” as if snapping from a dream, believing that the words declared by Yuuken were nothing but a product of his imagination, the crow suddenly shouts, his voice now sounding far away.

At a fast pace, you and the other two men finally reach the gigantic oak doors that shield this room from the outside world, ignoring the command of the extravagant man. Yuuken uses his free hand to push the doors open, a gust of wind invades the room, in its invisible yet short path, it ruffles and messes with the hair and clothes of those sitting near the entrance and blows out the candles on a candelabra that managed to survive the monster's attack.

The air feels very good on your skin, which still suffers from the high temperature caused by the beast's fire. It's a momentary relief from the turmoil that has taken place in less than an hour.

“My, this landscape looks like something out of a fantasy book. What a breathtaking view,” the blond man's voice startles you as he suddenly stands at your right side, causing you to turn your head to look at him in surprise. The man chuckles softly at your reaction before his slender fingers gently grasp your chin, forcing you to look at what lies before you.

Your cheeks turn slightly red and warm at the sudden contact but you have to agree with his statement, as in front of you stretches a magnificent huge land filled with trees and night lights, and nestled among the lush greenery are various gothic-style buildings. At the edge of the horizon, you notice the majestic and ever-expanding blue deep sea hidden behind pointy rocky mountains, while the beautiful moon hangs over it, its warm yellow light reflected in the ripples of the water.

‘We are either on an island or somewhere near the beach. In either case, we might be near a port. The crow man did say that the students from this school come from all over the world, perhaps the carriage or our coffins were transported via boat.’

However, Yuuken isn't as mesmerized by the view, and he drops his gym bag while looking up at the sky in utter shock. Following his gaze, you notice several cloaked students floating in the air as they mount antique broomsticks. "Dude, Misato's gonna fucking flip out when we tell him what happened at the entrance ceremony," two students laugh as they fly off, most likely to harass their friend.

The Kendo student rubs his eyes hastily, as if he had just woken up and thought he was still dreaming. “I’m not seeing things, right?… Pembroke, where are we?” he sounds so desperate and lost as he questions what he sees. Your stomach twists in knots as you can’t find a feasible answer to give him, you just shake your head with a solemn look.

If the thought that your home doesn't exist and that you're somewhere you can't recognize is driving you to near despair and madness, you can't even begin to imagine how your other two companions feel. They were ripped away from their families, friends, and their lives, ending up in an unknown magical fantasy world with hostile people and no current way to return.

The blond man, however, seems more curious about his surroundings than worried, perhaps that is his way of dealing with whatever is going on. He begins to walk down the massive flight of stone stairs, pausing momentarily to turn to look back at you two with a mischievous smile yet his eyes are warm. “Weren’t you the one who suggested we find our way back? Let's go, we lose precious minutes just standing around.”

The man extends his hand towards you, the jewels on his fingers shining beautifully against the moonlight and this whole scene reminds you of the end of a fairy tale, where the protagonists set out on their way to the unknown destination.

However, there is something that has been eating at your brain out of pure curiosity since the moment the blond opened his eyes. The description of the two policemen inside the file room repeats itself over and over again every time your sight lands on the man. “Excuse me, before we go, I want to ask you a question,” you walk down a couple of stairs to stand in front of him, having to tilt your head up a little to be able to look him in the eyes. He nods, a flash of curiosity momentarily lighting his eyes up at your question.

"You are... Figaro Koskela, right?" upon hearing his name leave your lips, you notice his face darken, and what seems like a scowl etches on his face, but it is a reaction that is practically fleeting, being replaced with a mocking smile. “Oh my, what a lovely surprise! Are you perhaps a fan of my work?” you can clearly hear that his cheerful tone is completely forced, compared to the way he mocked Riddle earlier which seemed a lot more natural. You don't understand why his name brings him such disgust, but you won't pry on it.

“Unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of witnessing your works. Actually, I know you because you disappeared two days ago while returning from a party,” his eyes widen and you notice his elegant air disappear the moment the words leave your mouth. You turn to look at the Kendo student, who is now paying close attention to the conversation between the two of you. “Yuuken... you too have been declared missing, after you left the gym.”

You don't waste a single breath as you tell them everything you know: the information you gathered at the police station, the bizarre sound, and the corrupted CCTV footage. You also quietly accept that you've most likely suffered the same fate as your two companions have.

Yuuken's face turns pale and his lips tremble as you recount his grandmother's sobs and worried face, he quickly ducks his head and hides his face from you as a hand shoots up and harshly wipes away his tears. Fígaro, on the other hand, looks somber, lost in his thoughts as he stares at the horizon.

You didn't want to hide any of this, as it might be important information to explain why you suddenly appeared in this strange world. But seeing their reaction, your stomach twists into knots as you scratch your fingers nervously. "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," you apologize softly, but your voice snaps both men out of their thoughts. Yuuken sniffles, painfully trying to hide his feelings from you and puts on a strong front, though his red and swollen eyes betray him. “No, it's okay. Thank you for telling us,” Fígaro nods at the black-haired words, and his dark expression changes to one of warmth. “We should still follow Enma's original plan, it might lead us back home.”

But before you can nod in agreement, a pair of hurried footsteps catches up with you and you turn to face the crow man, who is standing at the giant doors, slightly out of breath and clutching his staff to his chest. “You three... my, you walk fast... it's dangerous to walk around at night in a place you don't know! Especially since you three have no magical abilities,” the crow man chokes on his breath as he speaks in a rather shrill tone. His expensive shoes click loudly on the stone steps as he walks towards you three, his decorated fingers ruffling his feathered coat, dusting off any dirt, and adjusting his mask.

He clears his throat as the tip of his wooden cane thumps loudly on the floor. “But since I'm so gracious, I have a suggestion!” you cringe quietly at his self-complement, but Fígaro and Yuuken seem more interested in the latter part of his sentence, paying close attention to the extravagant man. “There's an empty house that was once used as a dormitory. It would break my heart to kick you out, so you three can stay there in the meantime!”

The suggestion sounds good, in fact, considering your circumstances, it sounds almost too perfect. He was so adamant just a moment ago that non-magical students can’t be here, and yet, he suddenly offers a home? Even though the crow man seems more than excited about the proposal, you still have your doubts, and it seems that your companions do as well.

“Wait, wait, don't be too hasty, there's a catch, isn't there? I highly doubt that you're just offering us a free place to stay out of the goodness of your heart…” There are kind people in this world, you don't doubt it, but something tells you that this man isn't just going to let you stay here for free, even if he's aware of your circumstances.

Of course, you hit the nail right on the head as the crow man closes his eyes and smiles at you with a wide grin. "Ah, you would make such an exemplary student! Why, yes! I can't just let you mooch off me, so, food and clothing will have to come out of your own pockets," he walks by the three of you, his cape flowing with the wind, and quickly turns to face you, though, you can't help but feel slightly intimidated by him.

“As such, I would like you to do some jobs around the campus. Don’t worry the pay is good” - you highly doubt that- “Oh my, my kindness truly knows no bounds!” you cringe at his abundant self-love, but thankfully, the crow man doesn’t notice as he heads down the stairs with a slight bounce. “Now, come along, children!”

As the night wind blows caressing your skin, you look up to face the dark sky that’s decorated with small silver stars and the comforting moon. Somewhere out there, is your world, your home, slowly rotating. There, in Kotohira, your family must be worried for you, desperately searching for you in every nook and cranny. Yuuken’s grandparents and Fígaros guardians are most likely conflicted and distressed as their children are nowhere to be found.

‘Will we… be able to return home one day?’ After all, the proposition of a place to stay and a job is a sign that you won’t get out of here any time soon.

Yuuken, sensing your distress as you failed to move from your spot, gently intertwined your hand with his and slightly tugs at it, directing your attention from the never-ending void to his eyes. A warm gaze comforts your nervousness and you can’t help but return his kindness with a small smile. “Come on, let’s go.”

You nod and follow along. However, you fail to notice a pair of green eyes watching you.

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Tag list:

@rotknox @agaygothicmushroom @sherryclover @mielle-estelar @yuriluvr2000 @Shironakuronatasa @yourlocalhot-simp

101 notes · View notes