#and the only way to avoid being treated like the scum on the bottom of their shoes for weeks and weeks is to just fucking shell out 500 of

[vaginadentatacas]

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[charliesplumbing]

5 Preventative Plumbing Tips to Avoid Hiring an Emergency Plumber

Home maintenance can often feel like a daunting task, but taking small, proactive steps can save you from future headaches. This is especially true when it comes to maintaining essential systems in your home, like the water system. Many people only think about it when something goes wrong—when a pipe bursts, a sink clogs, or the water heater fails. However, these sudden issues can often be prevented with the right care and attention from plumbers North Brisbane.

The following list details some essential plumbing maintenance tips that can help keep your home running smoothly and minimise the risk of unexpected breakdowns.

Regularly Inspect Your Pipes

Pipes are the backbone of your home’s water system, and over time, they can deteriorate due to wear and tear. Small leaks and cracks can quickly turn into significant problems if not caught early. Regularly check under sinks, around appliances, and any exposed piping for signs of moisture or corrosion. These early signs might include discolouration on the pipes, rust, or damp spots around the area.

Be Careful What You Flush or Dispose of

One of the most common causes of clogged pipes comes from improper disposal of waste. Toilets and drains are often treated like trash cans, but this can lead to significant blockages. Items such as wipes, paper towels, feminine hygiene products, and cooking grease should never go down the toilet or sink.

Maintain Your Water Heater

A water heater is often the unsung hero of the home—working tirelessly to provide hot water for showers, cleaning, and other household tasks. However, this appliance requires regular maintenance to continue functioning efficiently. Sediment buildup at the bottom of the tank can cause it to overwork, resulting in inefficient heating or even damage to the unit.

Monitor Your Water Bill

A sudden spike in your water bill could indicate a hidden leak somewhere in your home. Even a small, unnoticed leak can waste a significant amount of water over time, leading to unnecessary expenses. Keeping an eye on your monthly usage and comparing it with previous bills will help you detect any irregularities.

In some cases, you may not be able to see or hear a leak, especially if it's behind a wall or underground. In these instances, unexplained higher water consumption may be your first clue that something is wrong. Investigating and resolving the issue early will save water, prevent further damage to your property, and avoid costly repairs.

Install Drain Screens

Drain screens are a simple yet highly effective way to prevent hair, soap scum, and other debris from clogging your pipes. These inexpensive devices sit over your drains and catch unwanted materials before they enter the system. Over time, these small blockages can build up and cause slow drainage or even complete stoppages.

Installing these screens in showers, bathtubs, and sinks is a proactive step in keeping your water flowing smoothly. Cleaning the screens regularly ensures they stay effective and helps avoid the buildup of hair or soap residue, which could otherwise lead to blockages and potential overflows.

Being proactive about home maintenance can make a world of difference in preventing unexpected issues. While it may seem like minor tasks or routine inspections, these small actions add up to create a well-maintained system that’s less likely to fail. The inconvenience and cost of urgent repairs can be avoided with a little foresight.

By incorporating these preventative measures, you reduce the likelihood of having to deal with emergencies that disrupt your day-to-day life. It’s easy to overlook your water system when it’s functioning properly, but regular attention will pay off in the long run. You’ll not only protect your home from potential damage but also ensure that your living space remains comfortable and efficient.

A few minutes of preventative care can save you hours of hassle and hundreds of dollars in repairs. Whether it’s taking care of your water heater, monitoring your water bill, or installing simple drain screens, these actions go a long way in preserving the integrity of your home’s water system.

[chippedaxe]

I love your writing and i was wondering if i can request how mcyt would react to a demon s/o also if you want you can make it nsfw if your ok with that :)

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

Title: Demon s/o Hc's

Warnings: NSFW is included, there will be a warning when it comes up in the fic. Demons mentioned, maybe a bit of religion, praise, degrading, sub reader (dom reader for George and Karl) , maybe a bit of dumbfication idk

Pronouns: They/Them, non specified genitalia.

Synopsis: The reader is a demon and this is how their s/o (the mcyt's) react to that.

Word count: 1.3k

Note: I am not doing requests in order btw, I'm just completing the ones I feel like doing first.

- I LITERALLY HAVE A DRAFT OF THIS EXACT IDEA BUT IN REVERSE (SO THE READER IS MORTAL AND THE MCYT'S R DEMONS) great minds think alike! Don't they, :) anon?

The reader has demon horns, a spiked demon tail and fire powers.

. ⋅ ˚̣- : ✧ : – ⭒ ⊹ ⭒ – : ✧ : -˚̣⋅ .

SFW

c! Dream

- He finds it cool and amusing to have you as his demon partner, he appreciates how warm you keep him in the winters too by the way.

- He would probably flick your tail randomly while you two are just chilling together.

- You'd use your fire to warm you two up in the winter, your body heat would be enough to warm Dream up normally however.

- He would miss that warmth very much when he's in the prison, he would feel somewhat comforted by the prison's lava however as it reminds him of you.

c! Sapnap

- He would drag you places by the tail if you were refusing to go, he would also pull on your tail to get you out of bed.

- He would snuggle up with you and collect your body heat whenever he's cold, he would be pushing you away and avoiding you when he's hot though.

- He gets so hot and sweaty around you sometimes and it'll come to the point where he has to kick you out of the room and it'll upset you.

- He of course feels bad and invites you back in immediately after, but you refuse since he made the room smelly :,(

- You can basically turn a whole pool into a sauna and he loves that, not when he's trying to cool off though.

c! George

- I feel as if he wouldn't really notice at first to be honest, he'd only figure out that you're a demon when he wakes up and you've destroyed his pillow with your horns "When'd you grow horns?" George asks.

- He will cuddle up with you at night to keep warm, his body just curling up around you and sleeping peacefully.

- Your tail sometimes rips the sheet so you have to tuck it into your pants when you go to sleep.

- You have to be extra careful while sleeping or your horns will ruin the pillows again and George won't be very happy with you..

c! Eret

- She treats you like a little pet, he will have you sitting beside their throne and will ignore you unless they need something. She will glance over and give you a bit of affection by petting your head.

- "I'm a demon! Not some pet!" you growl "Of course, dear" Eret smiles "Don't patronize me" you cross your arms and pout. Eret really does warm your fiery demon heart.

- You will obliterate and burn all that he wishes, if someone is up to be executed then you will set hellfire on them.

- Eret enjoys the way your tail wags like a puppy when you're happy "you're absolutely adorable, dear" Eret strokes your cheek "I'm not cute! I'm a brute! I'm a demon!" they laugh at you.

c! Karl

- You milk your demon privileges to the maximum "I can't go near water, I can't wash the dishes!" you lie and he believes you "I can't wash the clothes, I never learnt how to do all that in hell, sorry!" you get yourself out of many chores by doing this.

- He would probably touch the tip of your horns and then cry immediately when it pricks him, you then kiss his boo boo better "why'd you touch them?? They're sharp!" you wail "They looked shiny!"

- You're literally immortal so Karl could visit you at any point in time and you'd be there!

c! Punz

- He’d probably find you dangerous at first, worried that your fire would also be something he needed to take caution if but he calmed down when he first spoke with you.

- Your fire would be splattered uncontrollably, things would be set ablaze by accident and Punz would need to put it out (or leave it to burn if he simply didn’t care about it)

- Both if you are usually very warm people in temperature so you two being together would create some weird type of infinite heater (this also means that you two get very sweaty very often however)

NSFW

c! Dream

- He would grab onto your horns and use them as support as he thrusted into you, he would also flick your tail to tease you since it’s so sensitive.

- He would have burn marks and scratches all over him by the time you two are done, you will also almost always be leaving a trail of smoke when you’re done cumming.

- He’d enjoy the large bloodied marks he gets from your teeth sinking into him during sex.

c! Sapnap

- He would use your fire and body heat to indulge in some of his temperature play fantasies.

- He would stroke your tail and kiss your ears while railing into you, he’d be praising you and telling you how good you’re being.

- if you prefer degradation than he’d be pulling on your tail and shoving it between your teeth as a gag to keep you quiet while he fucked you dumb “dumb little slut.. aren’t you meant to be a demon?”

c! George

- You know how I said that the bed would get ruined from your demon features? Yeah a lot more than just the bed would be broken by the time you two are done fucking.

- You’d ride George when he’s feeling tired, his hands would be groping your warm flesh and he’d whine at the feeling of your sharp fangs just gently gliding over his skin and nibbling on his collarbone.

- He’d probably grab your horns if he wanted you to either slow down or go faster.

c! Eret

- She treats you like absolute royalty in the sheets, their hands will be all over you and praising you “you look so gorgeous, so perfect for me darling~”

- if you prefer degrading than he’d be tugging on your horns and pulling at a collar around your neck, they’d pull you to the floor and have you suck her off “you’re demon scum. You think you’re above me? Get down and suck.”

- He’d be petting your hair/ pulling on your hair while either fucking into your or having you ride them.

c! Karl

- Karl would touch your tail one day and then wonder what happened, he was tossed to the bed and was now getting fucked by you.

- Your tail coiled around his body, your hips shuddering as you rode his cock. “Oh god!” Karl moaned out “I’m a fucking demon; not God” you’d remind him.

- There’d be many marks on you, your arms and shoulders would be covered in scratches, your neck would be covered in small bites and your lips would probably be a bit sore.

c! Punz

- SUCH A BIG MESS. You think that being a demon automatically makes you the dominant one? Punz doesn’t fucking think so at all.

- it’s a constant fight of who is the top or bottom in your relationship. You’ll be riding him and then he’ll suddenly be trying to ram into you, there’s never a clear winner!

- Tie his hands up with your flexible tail when he’s being naughty, let him grab onto your horns and fuck your face, spit fire at him when the pleasure gets too much and you’re just not able to control it anymore <3

[youryanderedaddy]

Lady Luck (pt. 1)

I was so hyped to write this lol. Heavily inspired by Kaiji <3

Tw: mafia mention, unrealistic potrayal of mafia, mentions of threats, implied obssessive behavior (will get more hardcore in the second part tho), mentions of gambling, kidnapping /not reader/

 You knew that you were a scum, a lowlife, a miserable loser without much hope in life - that’s exactly why you had no problem joining the deadliest underground paradise and following under the steps of the Lucciano family. They controlled everything - the casinos, the drugs, the guns, the whores, you name it - they provided it. And you had nothing - neither a past, nor a future. But everything changed when the oldest son Thomas decided to help you get out of the mud and step onto your legs - he gave you a home, a friend to return to, a shoulder to cry on when reality felt too painful and harsh, just too much to bear on your own. “Why would you do that for a stranger?” You had asked him once while tipsy, sitting by the hearth, a slight blush adorning your soft cheeks. “That’s easy.” The man had responded right away without giving it much thought. “You remind me of myself.”

 You spent long nights thinking about his words but never came to a conclusion - he was born into a powerful, wealty family, so it made no sense for him to have experienced rock bottom the way you had. And his small black eyes displayed such a variety of terryfing emotions - bloodlust, greed, sin and so much sadness. Why would a monster ever feel scared, you wondered. 

 Working for the Luccianos wasn’t especially hard or even dangerous - you ran small errands for them, took care of the younger kids, helped with insignificant deals, acted as a croupier when their staff was sick or missing or had to be taken care of, but one thing you were thankful for was how they never tried to force you into doing something you would never be able to forgive yourself for. Thomas was kind to you -  always so considerate, willing to listen, to understand how you felt even when the worlds you two lived in differed so greatly. He was supposed to be villain of the story, big and scary, demanding, taking whatever he wants without asking and never feeling an ounce of regret about it. And for a while, you were suspicous of the man’s every move - you were desperately waiting for the mobster to fuck up and show his true colours so you could let yourself hate him, despise him. And yet the sweet, sweet moment of revelation never came. You knew, of course, of the many evil deeds the criminal bestowed upon thousands of innocent people each and every day, but you never witnessed it with your own eyes and when the man was treating you like a part of his family, holding you close and giving you chance after chance to prove yourself, it was slowly getting impossible to view him as the bad guy. Perhaps you should have waited just a little longer.

 It happened during a warm, spring day. You didn’t expect it, you couldn’t. You had just finished your shift at midnight in the small shop you worked in, which belonged to Thomas’ mother, and were heading to the Lucciano mansion. It had been a particularly long and exhausting day, so you wanted nothing more than to feel the soft, silky, white sheets down your half-naked body while the quiet classical music took you to dream land and back. But upon opening the heavy wooden door, you quickly noticed something was different - there was no music, the big black TV in the middle of the hall was set to camera mode instead of the normal one, and it was awfully quiet. “They must have had to leave the country for a while.” You rationalised. “It has happened before after all.” You kept reassuring yourself while taking a tiny step towards the centre of the room where light was the strongest - it could uncover every hidden little detail.

 And then the TV was turned on. You shifted your gaze up, paranoia eating at you from inside out. Soon there was clear image on the massive screen, but what you saw left you speechless. There were hours of footage from your personal life - working, hanging out with friends, eating, bathing. What made the shivers down your spine run cold was a scene where a guy, your boyfriend, was kissing you, touching you, undressing you with his praying eyes. It was nothing unusual for a young woman to have a love life, but this broke the only rule Thomas had told you upon entering the house - you were forbidden from having close relationships with men, especially dangerous ones, and for the longest time, you had no issue living by that as long as you came back to the luxury and warmth the mobster provided for you. Until you met him - a charming, clever member of a local gang. You knew it was wrong and could cost you more than you were willing to sacrifice and yet you still gave in. It was your first time experiencing the highs and lows of love, so who could blame you when it was such a magical feeling, a mixture of adrenaline and opium. Alex made you feel like a real human being instead of someone just existing, leeching off the stronger, wealthier species.

 There was a shadow moving out from the corner, playing into your delusions. But soon enough you realised it was all a reality as none other than Thomas walked slowly towards you, clapping his hands dramatically, a sly smirk on his beautiful, scarred face. Did he...

 "Congratulations." The man started off, dark eyes set on you, slowly coming closer and closer like a big black hole, ready to swallow you whole. "You went and got yourself a little boy - toy." The criminal chuckled viciously under his breath, making you cringe at the crude nickname he used. The situation felt surreal and yet the fear and panic were already suffocating you, making you dizzy wish regret. "I wish you would have told me though... I never thought someone I hold so important would lie to me." The mobster kept rambling, waving his arms in the air theatrically, while holding a lit cigarette, but never moving it to his lips - it was just a prop, a way to create a thick smoke mist in your eyes. It was finally the hour of judgement.

 "What do you want?" You asked, faking confidence, desperate to take control of what was happening. It was a bizarre thing to see your dearest friend act in such a eerie, frightening way, almost treating you like one of his victims - nothing more than an indebted bastard or an unfortunate bystander, unlucky enough to catch a deal unfolding right behind the scenes. It hurt but you had forced this upon yourself and you had to fix it.

 "Nothing much, really." Thomas replied, finally inhaling the deadly smoke into his open mouth. He played with his collar for a while, as if you weren't standing there, scared for your life. "I just want to teach you a lesson in obedience, doll." The mafioso continued, circling you slowly, his heavy gaze never leaving your body. You felt awfully exposed even when all your clothes were present, covering every inch of your skin. With a swift snap of his fingers, the man summoned most of the gorillas that worked under him. Two of them were dragging your kicking, screaming boyfriend towards the centre of the room, but a quick punch in the guts managed to quiet him down. He looked terrified, his face bloody and injured, covered in dust and misery. But he was still alive and only that mattered to you.

 "I wanted to make this entertaining for all of us." The oldest Lucciano spoke out, his husky voice echoing trough the golden ceiling. He moved over to your lover and harshly pressed the cigarette butt against the exposed skin of his unprotected arm. The man cried out in pain, silently pleading you to help with his big, terrified eyes. And here you were, as helpess as he was - if not even more. "So I decided to initiate a little gamble of sorts, ya know?" Thomas winked at you, smiling with malice. You couldn't help, but recall all the times you two had played poker together, betting less than pocket change. You never understood why the man always got so excited despite winning such small sums, especially when his casinos already did well. But now you could see it clearly - he got off crushing his opponent, taking the victory under their noses. Money meant nothing. As long as he was able to ruin your mood, your life, the man was pleased.

 Soft white light lit up the furthest corners of the hall and you saw dozen square boxes, arranged in a circle. It looked harmless enough on its own, still they were stamped with Thomas’ symbol - a dove. You used to wonder why someone in the most dangerous depts of mafia would choose such an innocent, sweet signature pf representation and now the answer was right in front of you - that way it was easier to trick the enemy into thinking they were safe. And how wrong were they. 

 “As you can see, there are nine wooden boxes in total. They look exactly the same and on top of each one there is a hole.” Thomas stopped to point at them, the raw anticipation flooding his otherwise dull pupils. “Six of the boxes are empty. In the other three though, there are placed some of the most poisonous snakes in the world. One bite and you are dead.” The madman gave a loud, breathy laugh while your boyfriend squirmed uncomfortably in place, restrained by the strong arms, holding him down. “Both of you will take four turns putting your hand in the boxes. After every round the box would be closed off and you would be able to choose only from the remaining ones. ” The mobster grinned widely, looking at your horrified expression. You couldn’t believe that the man was willing to put your lives on the line simply because you had neglected one of his orders. “Now you may be wondering where the suspence is - after all you would probaby manage to hear the hissing from afar and avoid the place it comes from. Rest assured, my foolish little friends. Right now the snakes are heavily intoxicated and absolutely silent - which doesn’t mean, of course, that they won’t attack any soft flesh they see. If you die, that’s on you, but if you survive, you will be rewarded.” Thomas clapped his hands together and his man let go of your lover, resulting in his falling to the ground with a heavy bang. Thomas pursed his lips together.

 “Shall we get started?”

[thunderstormsandmagic]

Caged Animal

“Hey, scum, get up,” a guard yelled as they banged their wand against the bars on the door of his cell. “Your presence is needed once again.” Draco Malfoy waited for the guard to walk away, and then slowly sat up from his cot. He wasn’t sure what day it was. Sometime in April or May? The year was 2003, he knew that for certain. He ran his hands over his face, getting ready for what would be another torturous day of life as Death Eater “scum”, as the guard had so eloquently said. 

After Harry Potter had beaten Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts, the Wizarding world had slowly started to go back to normal. All three members of the Malfoy family had gone back to Malfoy Manor, waiting for the inevitable day when they would be arrested. They all stayed in the same room, as they had when Draco had nightmares as a boy, having their house-elves deliver food and whatever else they needed to them. They never said much, just relished in the fact that for the first time in years, there was not a dark wizard sitting in their home and threatening their lives. Then one day, the Aurors came and all three were arrested. They went willingly, knowing it wasn’t worth putting up a fight. They were all placed in holding cells in Azkaban, himself and his mother in one, and his father in another. His father was quickly tried by the Wizengamot and found guilty, sentenced to life in prison. He passed away shortly after that, his body not being able to handle the poor conditions of Azkaban and knowing he would never see his wife and son again. When Draco and Narcissa were told the news, he held his mother as she cried, praying to Merlin that his mother did not receive the same fate as his father. 

His mother’s trial had gone on longer than his father’s, not as clear cut of a case. Her sentencing had required all of the Malfoy vaults to be drained and the money “donated” to rebuilding Hogwarts. That only left his mother with her inheritance from the Black side of the family. Despite the fact that he was upset at her situation, he was eternally grateful that she avoided Azkaban. He had been told by the guards, taunted more like it, that the great Harry Potter had testified for his mother. 

When it came time for his trial, he knew that there was no way he was going to leave Azkaban. His father had died and his mother had gotten away relatively unscathed. They had wanted to make an example out of his family and he was their last chance to do so. When he had been carted from Azkaban to the Ministry, he didn’t say anything. During his trial, he listened as the various members of the Wizengamot recited his war crimes, embellishing them to be more than they were, but he didn’t argue. He deserved everything that was coming to him. Bloody Harry Potter testified at his trial, just like he had done for his mother. But Hermione Granger also showed up and he couldn’t believe his eyes when her name was called and she went up to the witness stand. He was still in disbelief as he listened to her share her story of how he wouldn’t identify her and her friends when they had been brought to his home. He watched the way her right hand constantly grasped over her left forearm, knowing full well what was under there. He wanted to shout from his cage that she was wrong. Draco didn’t identify her or her friends because he was a good person. It was for his own selfish reasons. The Dark Lord was out of the house and he and his parents tried to enjoy any moment they could without him there. He just did not want him summoned back yet. He had only just left their home. 

He couldn’t look her in the eyes, although he could feel her staring down at him in his cage. He just sat there for the rest of the trail, trying not to let the memory of her torture overwhelm him. Even though two-thirds of the Golden Trio had testified on his behalf, he was still sentenced to life in prison. Not only that, but any money that was his from the Malfoy or Black inheritance was to be “donated” to rebuilding causes from the war. “It’s not like he will be needing it in Azkaban,” he had heard one member of the Wizengamot mumble to another. And so, a week after he turned 18, Draco Malfoy had accepted his fate of life in prison, being someone who the Ministry locked up and forgot about. He had no wand, no magic, no money, and no one thinking of him except his mother.

However, the Ministry did not forget about him. Just about a week after he had been sentenced, a guard had banged on his cell, waking him up, and told him he was wanted at the Ministry. He had been thoroughly confused but was in no place to fight it, so he went. He had been led by two Aurors to an apparition site that went straight into the Ministry. When he arrived, he was placed in a holding cell. After waiting for a while, a member of the Wizengamot arrived and told him that he was here to testify against other Death Eaters. In return, he would receive some time off from his sentence in Azkaban. Draco wanted to scoff at the man, like time shaved off a life sentence would make a difference, but kept his mouth shut and nodded. He did as he was told, testified against Corban Yaxley, and was taken back to Azkaban. This would happen every few weeks, during the height of the Death Eater trials, and then it became every few months when there were fewer Death Eaters captured or the lesser-known ones that needed more preparation to face trial. Although testifying got him out of a cell for a few hours, he still hated going. 

It seemed it would be another day of answering questions and doing what he was told. Another few years of his life sentence knocked off for testifying against a rogue Death Eater. “Yes, I do recognize him.” “Yes, he did sit around my dining room table with the Dark Lord at the head.” “Yes, I did watch him torture and kill innocent people.” All while she sat there and watched him testify. It wasn’t seeing his former “colleagues” that upset him about these trips, and it wasn’t that the guards treated him as if he was the dirt in the bottom of their dragon-hide boots. It also wasn’t that his nightmares were always worse on those nights because he had to relive the horrors of the accused. It was seeing her sitting in the stands, looking at him curiously. She was always there and he had no idea why. Maybe she got off on the fact that he was stuck in Azkaban for the rest of his life and came to see him locked in a cage like an animal. Maybe she was there to gloat, although neither of those reasons seemed like her. But then again, he didn’t really know her. He was just the boy who called her names at school. He was just the man who willingly took a mark that branded him as a villain for the rest of his life.  He was just a man who couldn’t look her in the eye because he was too much of a coward. Perhaps she was able to sleep better at night knowing that the man whose home she had been tortured in was locked up for the rest of his life. He knew if the roles were reversed, that would make him feel safer. 

Draco pulled himself together as best as he could and waited by the cell door for the guards to come back and get him. When they did, they gave him some stale bread and then led him down to the apparition point where they then took him to the Ministry. Draco knew the routine by now and just did what he was expected to do. After the guards locked him in the holding cell and left, he finally let out the breath he had been holding and sat down on the floor, facing the door so he could see if anyone came in. He leaned back against the metal bars of the cell, which was more like a cage than he cared to admit to himself. He took a piece of the stale bread and placed it into his mouth, trying not to eat it too fast. 

He was halfway done with the bread when the door opened, and Draco stood up quickly, ready to be taken by a guard to the courtroom. Much to his surprise, it was not a guard who opened the door but Hermione Granger. 

“Malfoy,” she said, watching him and waiting for him to do something. Draco nodded at her and responded with a “Granger.”

“I’m sure you are surprised to see me. You are not here to testify today. You are here because I need to talk to you,” she told him and he raised an eyebrow, curious. “First, would you like some tea? I brought some biscuits too.” He wanted to sob. He hadn’t had either tea or biscuits in years and the thought of eating something more than stale bread or cold soup was practically making him drool. But he couldn’t be weak in front of her, so he politely nodded, feigning disinterest. 

“I know it isn’t much, but more than you would get in Azkaban. It’s nice to celebrate and I figured you hadn’t done so in years,” Granger said to him as she opened the tin of biscuits she had pulled out of a bag and held it out to him. He tried to think about what could be so important to celebrate, important enough that she would pull him out of Azkaban. She could see his puzzled expression so she clarified. “Today is your 23rd birthday.” His hand froze as he was reaching for a biscuit. His birthday? It was already June?

“You didn’t know,” Hermione said, having noticed his reaction. He slowly shook his head no, embarrassed that he did not know it was his birthday, and resumed picking out some biscuits from the tin, avoiding the fruity ones, and selecting the ones with chocolate. How was he supposed to keep track of time in Azkaban? 

She summoned a chair from the other side of the room and sat down, pulling out a thermos full of tea and some mugs from her bag. She poured the tea and handed him a mug. “I apologize, I don’t know how you like your tea,” she told him. 

“Not to worry,” he muttered, afraid that his voice would break if he spoke louder. He wrapped both hands around the mug and took a small sip. He hadn’t felt anything this warm in almost five years. He let out a shuddering breath and held the mug right under his face, letting the steam drift up and tickle him. He knew she was sitting and watching him, but he didn’t care. He had forgotten what anything other than cold felt like. He took another sip of the tea and felt the warmth move from his head, downwards as he swallowed and it settled into his stomach. He then held the mug in one hand and picked up one of the biscuits with the other. He took a small bite, worried that a big one would make him sick, and closed his eyes. He couldn’t remember a time when biscuits tasted so good. It was shortbread with a chocolate drizzle on top and he had to stop himself from shoving the couple he had grabbed into his face. After a few minutes of simply enjoying his birthday delights, he looked back up at her, ready for her to say what she needed to say.

“As you know, you have been testifying against Death Eaters for the past few years in exchange for time off your sentence to Azkaban. I have come to let you know that you will be free from that horrid prison in one week.” Draco was thankful he had not sipped the tea again because he would have surely spit it out. 

“What?” he asked, not believing what she was saying. One week left? That would mean he would only have spent five years? There was no way the Wizengamot would let that slide.

“I have been working for the Wizengamot Administration Services in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I made it my job to get you to testify in as many trials as I could. I was able to get you into enough that you essentially have no time left. In fact, the Wizengamot should owe you, but I figured that battle wasn’t worth fighting. They didn’t realize how many testimonies you gave until I wrote up the paperwork, and trust me, they weren’t happy, but they couldn’t ignore it, so ta-da!” She looked very proud of herself for all she had done, but he wasn’t happy.

“Why? Why would you do that for some Death Eater scum?” he asked, frustrated. “You’ve certainly ruined your career, whatever it might have been. What about your friends? I’m sure Potter and Weasley were ecstatic to hear that you have gotten me out of Azkaban. I’m sure they believed I got what was coming to me. What will the world think when they find out their precious Golden Girl got a war criminal out of jail, Draco Malfoy no less? You are mad Granger!” He took the mug with tea and threw it out of the holding cell. He instantly regretted it, having wanted to finish the tea, but he was annoyed and this was the only way he could show it. The mug clamored to the ground by her feet but she left it there. She was shocked, and for a brief second, she let her surprise show. But then it was gone and was replaced with determination.

“I’m not another one of your pity projects,” he yelled at her. “You can’t win me over with tea and biscuits! I’m not a house-elf in need of freedom. I’m not some caged animal.” But the irony was not wasted on him as he leaned back and felt the cold metal bars press against his skin. He looked at her, trying to muster as much hatred as he could into his stare, but just didn’t have the energy to do so. The yelling and frustration had drained him and now he was trying to catch his breath. He realized it was no use fighting when he was malnourished. “I got what I deserved. I didn't ask for your sympathy,” he said to her, this time more quietly and looked down and away from her.

She walked up to the barred cage he was in and released an exhausted but annoyed sigh. “I have no sympathy for you. I do, however, have empathy. I know what it’s like to be treated as less than you are. Mudblood, remember?” She pointed to herself and he flinched when she said the word, and he knew she had seen him. “I am here because you do deserve better. You are a human being and you aren’t even being treated as such. Your trial was a show of political power and it wasn’t fair. There wasn’t enough evidence to support such a harsh sentence. They only did it to make an example out of you and that is not right. I will be getting you out of here next week, whether you like it or not. You deserve to see the sun again. You deserve to know it is your birthday and celebrate it. You deserve a well rounded meal. You deserve your magic back. You deserve to be reunited with your mother.” He continued to look at the ground, thinking he might actually cry if he looked at her and he would not cry in front of Hermione Granger. “You only have a week left, so stay alive and have hope. This time next week, I will be back, and you will be a free man.” She took a step back, away from the jail cell he was in, preparing to leave. She picked up the mug he threw and placed it and its counterpart back into her bag. She took the biscuit tin with her too. She made her way towards the door. 

“Thank you Hermione,” he whispered, not sure if she could hear him. Her steps faltered a bit, but she continued to walk out, nodding to the guard who had slipped in when he heard yelling. The guard looked at Draco and left the room, leaving him alone to crumble to the floor and sob.

[lordymaru]

I NEED TO RANT

Let me start by saying this is all my personal opinion and inner monologue being poured into this text. The point of this “little” essay of sorts is to voice out my thoughts on why I think Sesshomaru’s character is being portrayed into something that was never meant to be. Sorry if I make typos and ortography makes your eyes bleed. 

Little disclaimer: I don’t remember much about the manga so I will stick to the anime and bring out something from the third movie. 

Sesshomaru is first introduced to us as this beautiful Daiyokai with an air of superiority, he is sardonic, he’s in every sense of the word the biggest asshole of a Lord who thinks everyone on their mother is beneath him. He hates his half brother (Inuyasha) because their father died protecting him and his human wife (Izayoi) and to add salt to the wound, the old man also inherited Inuyasha with Tessaiga.

Now, he had it in his head that just because he’s the eldest he should have gotten the better sword but Toga decided Tenseiga would be the one for Sesshomaru while the youngest would get Tessaiga. You can say, nah it’s because he hates Inuyasha for being a hanyo but, honestly, he was entitled to believe he deserved the best of the best just because he was a brat. That’s the truth. In the end, Sesshomaru ends up losing his arm because he was such a spoiled little shit with no respect for anyone. If that isn’t enough, his dumb ass kept trying to steal a sword that didn’t belong to him by attaching arm after arm and still, he wouldn’t get the sword. Why? Because it was not meant to be his!

During one final attempt to steal the sword Inuyasha sends his ass flying across the sky and he would have died if Tenseiga hadn’t bothered to protect him from the blow. You know what happens next, don’t you? Yes, he meets our baby girl Rin. 

This sweet child who felt curiosity and empathy towards this wounded demon. As little as she was, she tried her best to tend to him, to keep him comfortable even though Sesshomaru would reject her constant efforts. The thing is he hated humans, he thought of them as roaches, dirt beneath his shoes and yet he wouldn’t even try to hurt this tiny human because she posed no threat to him. Rin had it bad before meeting him, she lost her family, she was traumatized by the whole experience and that trauma resulted in her loosing her ability to speak. The people from the village treated her like scum and this demon, this spoiled Daiyokai felt curiosity for her- going as far as to ask her what had happened to her after noticing the bruises on her face. The guy tried to drown Jaken at the beginning of the series, this was a huge thing for him. Feeling interest and empathy for another creature- for a human. 

Once he’s feeling strong enough to get up and leave, he picks up the scent of Rin’s blood, he goes, sees she’s dead and the first thing that comes to his mind is her smiling face. I don’t know if her smile moved him somehow or he just wanted to test the sword or if he was grateful or feeling merciful to bring her back to life with Tenseiga, the point is he does and she tags along. Sesshomaru shows little to no interest to her being there at first and Jaken ends up turning into her nanny while A-Un becomes her main method of transportation. Naraku eventually kidnaps her, uses her as a way to force his hand and so on, I won’t get into much detail about that part. After the incident, Sesshomaru starts hunting Naraku and occasionally would stumble upon Inugang. Sesshomaru’s sidequests often include helping them and keeping Rin out of harm’s way because she is his one and only weakness and everyone in the darn series knows it. He is careful with how he speaks around her, he avoids fights that may endanger his little travel companion and most importantly he does not kill around her unless there’s no other option. I’ve mentioned before how most of his side quests come from having to save her. 

As the series progresses, we notice a huge change in him, we see he no longer picks up fights just for the kicks and overall he does his own thing but it isn’t until he breaks Tokijin we see the biggest change in his heart. Yes, I am talking about Kagura’s death. There’s a huge difference between the manga and anime in this part, if I remember correctly, in the manga he picks up her scent when his flying around (if not by all means, let me know) and goes to see her. In the anime, he is fighting Moryomaru, who has the nerve to insult her which enrages Sesshomaru and results in Tokijin being broken. In the manga Moryomaru insults her memory, she’s already gone by now. In the anime she’s near death, which is why he rushes to see her. Say what you will but he rushed to see her and you can’t change my mind, he was in a freaking hurry to find her because he smelled her blood and Naraku’s miasma mixed together. When he arrived to meet her his expression was so sad, it was one of those moments that really made me actually feel for him. The fact that he wanted to save her without anyone begging him to do so, the fact that he had no excuse for her and simply say “I knew it was you” was a huge thing for him. 

And he says, you know what? I will be the one to decide if she died in vain or not. That was such a breath stopper, if you ask me. After that Totosai tells him Tenseiga has picked up on the rage he was feeling, therefore it was time for it to become a real weapon. In my opinion, Sesshomaru wasn’t just angry- he was feeling impotence at not being able to save Kagura, his sword had failed him and so he had failed to carry on his own wishes. He wanted to help, he wanted to save her, he wanted to do something for someone else outside of his little bubble.

The second time we see him angry is when Rin dies (again). His little travel companion, who had served as a compass on this journey to find himself had died because he was after a power even greater than him. His sword had failed him once more and the grief he was feeling was so strong he admitted to himself such a sacrifice wasn’t worth it. 

Possessing a greater power doesn’t justify putting those he loves at risk, nothing is worth the lives of those he cares about the most. He had to “lose her” in order to learn compassion. His sword was more powerful now but, at what cost? When he learned he couldn’t revive her a second time, he was shocked and I even dare to say he was scared. If it hadn’t been because his mommy had the stone to revive Rin, I believe Sesshomaru would have gone berserk. 

Now... this is where I wil really start going off: 

You mean to tell me, this God Tier anti-hero with such a fantastic character development fathered two kids and Sunrise is portraying him as a lolicon? You mean to tell me, he is being paired with the little girl he saved over and over? You REALLY mean to tell me there’s people out there who think he would actually make Rin his wife and Sunrise is using that to get the money bag?

I can’t stress enough how ridiculous this whole sequel is for depicting him in such a way. The fact that they would even DARE to spit on his character in such a way angers me to the core. Look at how far he’s come! By portraying him into a darn lolicon they’re making him hit rock bottom, character development completely trashed, they’ve poured gasoline on him and let him burn in the corner. I know nothing is confirmed and is probably just a strategy to make people watch it, but this- this thing they’re doing is just messed up. In my opinion, he wasn’t meant to be a father. I find it incredibly weird for him to be a father. In no way did his character was headed into that direction, not at all. The only romantic interest that would have been fit to father his children in the future and in a far superior sequel would have been Kagura. 

All I can say now is, I am hoping the theories come in clutch and drag Sesshomaru out of this grave Sunrise has thrown him in. 

[walq-chan]

To late to fall in love - Mammon x F! MC fanfic

Hello everyone. Hope you like my little dramatic fanfic. Sorry for the grammatical mistakes. ;-;

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Your relationship with Mammon has always been at least unusual and difficult to frame.

Although he was not willing to help you in the beginning, as soon as the pact was signed, the two of you started to accumulate more and more time together.

And between a "Grr, no touching" and a "Get your hands full of fingers from the MC", where this was usually aimed at any other individual who approached you besides himself, Mammon started to demonstrate, in a general aspect , an incredible ability to be concerned about you.

Although Mammon could be quite reckless and at times very irresponsible, the two of you have built a solid friendship. Well, at least until that extremely sexy and cool demon appeared on the cover of Majolish fashion, and he looked like your stupid friend.

It seemed that a spark had been lit in your heart and that instead of being extinguished, it became a very bright flame. And although you refused to accept the idea at first, as the days went by, you just couldn't see it the same way anymore.

You started to find yourself watching him without realizing it, admiring his deep blue eyes or how he ruffled his hair when he was ashamed. You could see the overprotective friend and the attractive guy in the same person.

As soon as you realized that your feelings were growing, you took courage to start showing signs of your affection. And as you would expect, Mammon never caught these signals, even though they were all over your face at all times when you were together (and that was already clear to everyone around you), even if you wanted to and a lot let him know, the guy was immune to the obvious ... at least, until that fateful Tuesday night.

You were watching a movie, as usual. Miraculously, none of the other brothers were there, probably because the film was a mix of sweet romantic comedy with really macabre terror. Idea coming from Mammon is clear.

Sitting side by side on the floor, you laughed at the horror scenes (although he laughed to ward off his own fear of the macabre scenes) and he made jokes in the romance scenes, even if they did it only to disguise the embarrassment.

In the meantime, you reached out in an attempt to grab a pillow from the bed, just above and behind Mammon. At that very moment, he stretched his arm right in front of you intending to pick up the bucket of popcorn. That was when their faces got too close and their eyes met. Yes, in the most cliché scene of all.

Your heart raced and his face immediately took on the tone of a ripe tomato, both motionless and anxious, attentive to each other's reaction. He leaned slightly towards you and you were sure he could hear how loudly your heart was beating at that moment. He was so close that you could feel his breath against your skin, millimeters separating your lips. You closed your eyes and waited for the sensation of contact between your lips. But she never came.

When you opened your eyes, Mammon's face was turned away from yours, his face was troubled and ashamed. He said just one "I'm sorry" before getting up and leaving your room. You, however, remained on the ground, still in shock.

The next morning, you had dark circles. You hadn't slept and while you spent the morning hours looking up at the ceiling, your brain and your heart were fighting each other to establish an explanation for what had happened. While your heart said that Mammon must have panicked and ashamed, your brain said you had been rejected with all the letters.

And as soon as you arrived for breakfast, your brain gave the first punch to your heart, because as soon as you offered everyone a good morning and sat down, Mammon looked away from you, clearly nervous and ashamed.

In addition to the absurd silence, which was abnormal for someone as loud as he is, Mammon barely touched the meal, leaving the table in a hurry for school, leaving you and 6 other astonished brothers behind.

And just like at breakfast, Mammon avoided seeing or talking to you for the rest of the week, whether at school or at home. Always on the run, always busy or late for something that immediately required him to be away from you.

Your routine as inseparable friends quickly disappeared. Every time you tried to find it in any way, it just got out of sight, out of reach. At this point, if the human heart were made of glass, it would be possible to say that only fragments remained of it.

The last splinter of hope in your heart was shattered once and for all by the countless punches thrown by the brain until the end of that week, when you finally accepted that besides he doesn't like you, maybe things could not go back to what they were before.

And since that realization brought a void that you didn't know how to measure, you unconsciously tried to put your body in defense mode.

Obviously the brothers noticed the apathy you showed the next day, or the absence of your faithful bodyguard on the following week, or how complete you seemed in the weeks that followed.

Clearly, everyone was concerned about his apparent sadness in the weeks that followed, and although everyone wanted to tear off his brother's skin still alive, Lucifer calmed everyone's spirits, leaving them free to "help" in any way they wanted, as long as did not cause even more trouble between the two of you.

And although he seemed really calm in saying that, he held on to himself to keep the little brother from hanging upside down and whipping him until he got tired (not that this was unusual for Lucifer to do with Mammon, in fact you already did had saved that kind of punishment for more times than you could count).

In the meantime, it was as if the voices of those with whom you shared so many moments were muffled, uttered behind an invisible wall that you placed between yourself and the rest of the world.

And although Beel offered his own chocolates to cheer you up, or Asmo proposed a new beauty routine exclusively for you, nothing seemed to instigate your wounded core, which lasted longer than you could count ... until the day you despondency hit rock bottom.

And once he was at the bottom, all that was left was to go up, wasn't it?

At some point, every open wound closes, as long as it is given the right time for this to occur.

When your brain had the time it needed to make peace with your heart, offering the comfort that one needed and the inspiration that the other wanted, you finally seemed to begin to remove the blockage you had installed around you.

Slowly you resumed your shine, perhaps because you accepted two or three tips from Asmo and perhaps because you slept better thanks to the pillow you got from Belphie, who despite being always very sarcastic about all the reasons, was extremely worried about you .

You reshaped your routine and slowly resumed your life inside the House of Lamentations, almost as if that day was just a sad and distant memory in your past.

However, things didn't seem to have found a way out for his best friend. From the day Mammon ran out of your room, he clearly didn't know how to correct what he had done or how to treat you since what happened. Since that day, he had accepted that he was indeed "the scum" among the 7 brothers. But obviously, he would keep that feeling locked behind a smile even more smug than usual.

Weeks after "breaking up" with your best friend, you lived a more hectic routine; going to the gym with Beel, going to the bookstore with Satan and playing more, much more video games with Levy. Still, a void had not yet been filled and you knew exactly why.

And it was thinking about it that the idea came to you, after an afternoon having tea with Satan. He seemed so excited about the idea of ​​one of his books becoming a movie, quickly spreading to Levy, being followed by Asmodeus, who was dazzled by the main actor and by Beel who was eager to eat all the goodies that the cinema could offer. Belphie just wanted to enjoy the atmosphere for a nap, so it was easy to convince him and Lucifer, well, he concluded that he could finally spend quality time with some relaxing activity.

After all, if things started with one film, then nothing better than another to solve everything. Right?!

Thinking about it made the wound in your heart itch, just like when we scratched the knee in childhood and as the wound's skin closes, we feel compelled to remove it, many times, making that wound bleed again.

And it was only when Mammon accepted the invitation to participate in the movie night, that the last surgical point fell from your wound, now completely healed.

Slowly, you approached again, and the smile from before had returned to your face, without you even realizing it. Likewise, he finally seemed to be himself again. Since that day, in your room, Mammon felt ashamed and confused, and inside his own heart, he was lost about what he should do.

He had refused your feelings while he did not understand how his own worked. Furious with himself and clearly unable to cope with what he had done, he decided to walk away from you, although that was the most difficult thing he had done since he decided to fall from heaven, for the sake of his own family.

And as he watched you become more and more apathetic, he felt more and more like a worm and even though he was more and more afraid of you hating him for it, he was less and less courageous to appear in front of you.

Finally when you invited him to join everyone on that movie night, his heart seemed to start beating after a long time.

Seeing your face showing him a gentle smile made him remove the weight he had imposed himself, months ago, the weight of walking away from his best friend, because he just didn't know what to do to fix what he had done. At that moment, your smile seemed to have become more beautiful than he remembered and much more necessary than he thought.

But, along with the relief of having you by his side again, another feeling seemed to be taking over his heart right now. A bitter feeling started to take place inside Mammon, whenever any of his brothers got too close to you.

Obviously, Mammon had always been protective when it came to you, always wanting all your attention to be on him. But now, what he felt was a deep hurt to see them flirt with you while you ... seemed to respond ?!

That was when the record that he was jealous finally fell. He saw his incredible kind friend and the companion of the brilliant schemes he came up with, but there, between the two, there was a third that he had not noticed before. A third MC, who made his heart flutter when he smiled, that made him jealous when he saw you spend the whole night playing with Levy, that made him excited when he saw you use something more provocative ... excited ?! Was he excited about you ?!

Until then he had never thought about it, but now he often found himself awake at night, thinking about you, and not always in a puritan way.

It was when he realized, when he woke up in the middle of a particularly hot night at Devildom, after a dream, also particularly hot, that what he really wanted at that moment was to be able to have you by his side.

Heart and brain had agreed that he had fallen in love with you and for the first time, he gave himself over to it completely. From that moment on, the Avatar of Greed could only think of you and how he would utter the feelings that were growing rapidly.

During the following week, Mammon searched through all possible gift ideas, always trying to get some extra information about you from the other brothers.

Now that he finally understood his feelings, he was concerned that he had lost some important detail that he could use the moment he declared himself to you, something to symbolize how he felt about you.

And although he collected relatively important information about you from the others, nothing seemed to be good enough, at least until the moment he passed the Akuzon window one morning, on his way to RAD.

There it was, a beautiful prop for couples, a pendant in the shape of the mascot that was in your favorite series. They were a pair, perfectly matched and beautifully decorated with white gold and small diamonds instead of eyes. A small fortune, of course, but one he was willing to pay, as long as it was for you. He would buy Lord Diavolo himself if that was what you wanted.

Once Goldie did the job, he left the store carrying a box, wondering when it would be the best time to talk to you about the feelings he was no longer able to handle.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline rush caused by the amount of zeros on that bill, but whatever it was, Mammon decided he would go to confession that same night.

And so, he went to your room, as soon as everyone had dinner and said good night to each other. As soon as silence reigned in the house, Mammon marched towards his room, the box in his pants pocket. Standing there, in front of your door, he felt doubt run down his spine like a chill, and fear took hold of him for a moment.

And it was while fighting him that he opened the door to your room, without even knocking, just so that another chill would go down your spine, this time by surprise.

There, sitting on your bed were you and Levy, your arms around his neck, his hands sliding behind your back, your lips glued together in a fiery kiss.

It took Mammon a few seconds to process what he was seeing, just like you and Levy, clearly taken by surprise.

- Hey Mammon, I didn't hear you coming in ... is everything okay? You asked when you saw what face he had paled.

- Did you also come to participate in the raid in that game? This time it was Levy who had asked. Certainly he had said something about it during dinner, but Mammon had no mind to think of anything but you. If he had only come to your room ... maybe Levy wouldn't have ...

But that thought was cut off by your voice that said "sorry for what you just saw, we intended to make it official in the next few days", blushing slightly as you intertwined your fingers with Levy's while he confessed that you had been together for a while couple of months.

That was when a reality punch hit Mammon hard. Although on the outside he tried to keep his appearance calm while wishing them well, on the inside he wanted to scream. He finally realized that there was no countermeasure that he could have taken to prevent his brother from reaching you before him, because he himself had given up on that option, months ago.

He was too late to fall in love with you. You had moved on and although it hurt more than anything he had been through, he would never demonstrate it in front of you.

Mammon might be Greed in person, but he would never do anything that could upset the brother he loved so much. Levy was shy and withdrawn and he knew that if you were together, it had been a tremendous effort on his part.

And so it was, in the midst of the pain in his chest, the only alternative was to save what little pride he had left.

- Ahh, I would really like to, but I have a unique opportunity to make money tonight and unless you two nerds have a few thousand grimmns hidden in these battered joysticks, I better get going.

And without even hearing your answer, he left your room at a quick pace, towards his own.

Arriving in the room, he deposited the box on the table and mechanically turned on the computer, still shaking, directing his search to a famous auction site, filled with valuable objects from the celebrities on Devildom. In the description of the item he wrote only "pendant of a broken heart" adding "unique opportunity of acquisition" while a sad smile was drawn on his face.

He looked at the box and murmured to himself:

- If it's broken, at least we'll get rich by selling the shrapnel.

The tears finally flowed.

[nagitoandkokichioneshots]

Did you know that it took me the whole day to write for her because I just can’t help but type and type? huhu habsuajwna skip the backstory if its too long for you. Sorry for the late submission!🙏✨

Name: Naomi Hitsuji

----> Naomi means "pleasantness" in Hebrew while Hitsuji means "sheep" in Japanese.

Age: 18-19

Birthday: August 26th

Height: 5'7

Weight: 132 lbs

Talent: Ultimate Police Officer

S/O: Nagito Komaeda

---> Despite being a significant other, their bond is only platonic love. Nagito told her that he never have an older sibling nor a younger sibling, he told her he would never hope of having it all since they will just be affected by his luck cycle. Knowing this fact, Naomi assured him that she will treat him like a sibling. She is always been babied by her older brother so she wanted to offer affection. The fact that he was stuck in a torturous luck cycle that stole his family made her feel like he is deprived of love and affection. Though Nagito declined the offer, Naomi told him that he deserves it. But time past by, Naomi has been more motherly and comfortable with him- she just wanted to see him with a satisfied smile in his face.

Japanese VA: Nana Mizuki (Hyuuga Hinata from Naruto)

English VA: Danielle Judovits (Sumia from Fire Emblem)

Looks:

—-> Naomi has loose and wavy beige hair that reach through the bottom of her breast. She has lavender mono-lid eyes. Her outfit is really hard to express—I am not knowledgeable with fashion so lets just leave it there isnsjwjwn 😔

Personality:

———> Experiencing a man dominated nature for quite awhile, her cheerful, childish and annoying determination shredded into a more sophisticated, formal and gracious persona. She changed to prove to her older brother that she could be an independent and firm person, that she could carry the both of them even if they are bursted by the waves of sufferings.

———> She is a woman that has strong will and broad principles. Despite being in the age of 19, she is very motherly, independent and understanding with her coleagues–but she is still strict when it is really needed. Her good communication and knowledge is what made her deserving of the title "Ultimate Police Officer".

———> She is a firm believer of hope, that hope can overcome this surge of loss and pain. She believes that hope can help her brother, hope can help the Ultimates. Which is why she believes that Nagito has good intentions, despite his eyes swirling from despair, he believes in hope.

Strengths:

———> Her choice of words. Naomi could move a person with her words. She always told her co-leagues with great assurance that they will do great and she always say that everything takes patience and understanding.

———> Her honesty and sincerity. Even though she can be blunt, she could be someone to be trusted!

———> A mother figure. She has a strong passion when it comes to people who needs guidance counseling and always there when you need a word of advice, no matter how annoying you are she could tolerate.

———> Her knowledge. She knows many things when it comes to handling heavy guns, drills, methods and fire coaching even though she is just a police officer—especially in the killing game COUgh. She really is good when it comes to strategizing and cooperation like ??? 😳

———> Her reaction time, agile and defense. (inspiration for this one is Annie Leonhart ✨)

WEAKNESSES

———> Lost of strong intimacy (such as romance). She's not capable of being open when it comes to intimacy like that. Its too out of her reach and she had been deprived from "romance" already—even her honesty have limits and she wouldn't like a topic surrounding that. Of course! she had loved but she will never admit that because it makes her uncomfortable. If someone confessed their love to her, she'll walk away with a small apology. If you ever ask for an advice related to intimacy, just so you know you'll get nothing ✨But don't worry! it just take an effort of assuring her and you'll get what you want.

———> Strength, stamina and power. She had lived for years without the proper nutrition after her family's massacre, she have to endure small amounts of food, famines and floods. The only thing that stop this weaknesses for showing is her knowledge because even without strength, stamina nor power—her knowledge is her weapon. Its not like she doesn't have it! But like its much more weaker than her strengths? Jdnjwjsns

———> Her loss of humor. KYAAA its not like she doesn't know how to get a joke! but if you ask her to tell a joke she wouldn't answer at all. Her humor suddenly walks away after her older brother's obsession in death. Like—humor isn't how she comforts someone, she'll be so awkward andddd in return you'll get her embarrassed and laughing out of it. She will somewhat tell you that she doesn't have good humor.

———> Her rage. Oh no, if you tell her to open up because it will be healthy for her—you'll also experience her anger. She will tell you that she wants to kill that scum who have the burning audacity to tell Megami to kill their family, she was so happy and contented even though they were living in a rural area and then someone comes there to steal it? For what? To have fun? Smh.

———> Meddlesome. If you catch her feels and moved her heart, you better catch this too. She is scared to lose another person even though she was just interested at you even a tiny bit so expect her to come with you even if you just want to look at the night sky and she will probably answer "Well you might get killed though" its not like she doesn't trust you but you guys are at a killing game so– free bodyguard I guess?

———> She is the type of person to put all her feelings in a jar then once it didn't fit her heavy heart—she'll burst and overflow then becomes empty afterwards. The cycle ALWAYS repeats ^^;

Family members:

Yuichi Hitsuji (Father : deceased) ,

Sara Hitsuji (Mother : deceased),

Hiroto Hitsuji (Eldest brother : ???),

Megami Hitsuji (Eldest sister : deceased),

Kenzo Hitsuji (Middle child/brother : deceased),

Nagahi Hitsuji (youngest/twins with Naomi : deceased),

Naomi Hitsuji (youngest/twins with Nagahi : alive)

Backstory (I noticed that there is someone who I almost have the same backstory so I change the siblings and the wholeass plot. It was supposed to be Naomi's twin brother but I found this out so I thought maybe— 😳 but just so you know you can skip this because its so HECKIN long)

The Hitsuji family lived in a rural area where they lived their happiness at the fullest. Even though they were almost hanging low from poverty, they were able to preserve their glee in the household. One day, when the eldest brother Hiroto Hitsuji was teaching the clueless Naomi how to plant crops on one of their lands—a sudden massacre happened inside the household. Blood spurts on the walls , the smell of blood was so strong to his nose that he feel like baffling.

The crime was so sudden and it astonished the residence when it was announced, no one was able to witness any clue or any sound that resonated from the house. Investigators visited but to no avail, there aren't hints of another suspect than the people themselves inside the household. Hiroto Hitsuji was almost suspected from the crime if it weren't for Naomi to be there with him. The case haven't been solved yet, but it was so popular to the public eye, almost as if it is an 'entertainment'—her older brother was so angry when the death of his family was made as a game waiting to be unsolved by people.

After 2 weeks or so, it was declared that Megami, the eldest sister of the Hitsujis was the one who slaughtered the ménage and to avoid getting jailed—she committed suicide along with them. Hiroto believed that it wasn't true and that Megami isn't capable of committing when she was the one who is the most contented out of the family. He believed that someone might've hypnotized or ordered her to kill though the authorities didn't pay mind to his blabbering. Poor Naomi didn't know anything of the slaughter until she turned 12.

She was so confused, Hiroto had to lie to her just so she wouldn't feel so disturbed of the sudden disappearance. She knew it didn't add up—she was trained heavily by Hiroto and the residence have been avoiding her and her brother, she could even hear whispers on her back just as she pass by. Not only that, she could always see him suffering alone as he fixed the crops on the field. It was so lonely, it was so depressing, it was so helpless in the household when only the two members have been there. It took all tears and shame for him to tell her that the others have been long gone.

Years have passed, and Naomi noticed Hiroto's immense hope. He never pay mind to rumors nor let every insult come shoot him. When he saw her so depressed and suddenly lamenting about the massacre, he will assure her with the most gentle smile he could muster. Hiroto was able to have income because lady luck gave him fortune to be able to stand up again. Naomi thought his behavior was amusing and when she opened about how laughable he is, he'll just grin at her way. Naomi adored and loved her brother from the bottom of her heart, he always stand up and always put on a smile even though he was carrying such a heavy load on his shoulders. She was so happy to be blessed with a strong man as a brother.

In years full of effort and recovering, his success didn't falter. The two was able to move on a well-known city (which is where the Hope's Peak Academy has took place). He was able to marry a woman named "Yuna Minato" whom he have met when he was selling what he has in supply. The family started with laughs and obnoxious behavior around the house. Naomi promised to do something for the family which is why she entered the police forces. Yuna and Hiroto welcomed her support with open heart, almost as if there were Naomi's parents. Naomi's new family is what she was sworn to protect and she delivered her determination and motivation to the military that she was able to rise up and get scouted by Hope's Peak Academy. She turned to a very positive, independent and determined person when she was able to engage with new Ultimates. She was so open and so capable of her job as an Ultimate.

The unbelievable blessings that happened also altered to a very horrendous nightmare, Horito and his wife Yuna who was pregnant with their 4 months child have gotten to a car accident after getting crushed by a truck who loose control. The truck driver ran away while swarms of people invaded the car. The family that Naomi have sworn to protect was hit by a wave of bad luck. To her surprise, Horito was able to survive the car accident but his wife and their child have died.

It resulted for Horito to fall in a pit full of self-loathing, he despised himself for never thinking. He thought that the only way he could give his apology with is his own life—its not like he need it anymore, its so pathetic anyways. He was placed on the mental hospital two months after the accident because he was spotted trying to die in public places, spotted by Naomi overdosing and etc. The admirable brother that Naomi rejoiced for, has finally broke and bursted from his heavy load of anger and sadness. With swirls and loops of despair, Horito cannot pass a day without crying and starving himself as he absorbed all the guilt of loosing another loved one with his reckless decisions. He told Naomi that maybe, just maybe—this was the curse of the Hitsuji family.

The hurt and fear she felt when Horito looked at her with contorted irritation and despair, when he yelled that this worthless and time wasting life shouldn't be tolerated anymore—that all he had was just false hope. She tried to maintain her composure and tell him to calm down because he is not alone, that she was still here with him. Her paranoia crept up to her as if she looked away, Horito will die the next second. Naomi can never exceed the pain if Horito died and leave her here. She wasn't able to protect the people she cared about, and thats what made her feel so drowned on doses of guilt. She bargained that this time she will carry for the two of them. Just like what Horito did when she was younger, she put a firm faith on hope. She believed that hope can stop this cycle of torture, she believe that hope can change her brother's self-loathing–it just needs some patience. She changed the childish personality of hers to a more sophisticated one, she wanted to prove him that she could carry his load.

Even though she said that, she can never resist fate. As if fate hated the Hitsujis forever, Naomi was transported to a killing game. Leaving Horito to suffer from loneliness and he secretly died after the fire on the mental hospital. He was condemned to ashes with his undying despair-filled life.

HEADCANNONS

-Naomi loves expressing her feelings on a letter, she would definitely put sticky notes on the head of her bed filled with rants and motivational poems!

-Naomi engages alot with Nagito because he reminds her of Hiroto. Like even the luck cycle is almost the same? If ever Naomi opened up about it, Nagito will prolly think that her brother has a luck cycle like him too.

-If Chiaki ever needs a gaming partner, she'll call on Naomi since she knew that she has good reaction time and really good when it comes to strategizing. Naomi will be a very great gaming partner!

-Akane will definitely challenge Naomi if she ever got reminded of Naomi's talent. But only for her to get disappointed because well—Naomi doesn't have that good of a strength at all.

-I really headcanon that Naomi and Nekomaru would be besties or like the mother and father of the group hmhmhm just a thought-

-Naomi didn't know that Horito is dead, which is why she had been believing at hope to something that would never be bound to happen.

AAAA THIs was 2467 words like emmmm, chile- anyways I am sorry its so long wjdnwjwj.

Gina: Welcome to OC fest, Naomi! My name is Gina, the Ultimate Philanthropist. This may sound a bit weird, but I never met a police officer before. But I bet it’s a super cool job. It’s so nice to know the safety of everyone here is in the hands of someone as hopeful as you!

Yukari:..............Gina, you’ve been spending WAY TOO MUCH time with the awesome Nagito

Gina: *blushes* Sorry.....but thank you for taking care of him, by the way. I appreciate it

Yukari: You ever need to awesomely vent about your unawesome trauma, we are all ears! And maybe an awesome game of chess with Oresama can cheer you up *smirks* Gotta warn you though, Oresama never lose~

[misc-headcanons]

Kid telling Minerva "Help is on the way, just hold on a little longer" "don't die on me" (LETS BREAK HIM ◉‿◉ )

Goddammit, goddammit. Of all the times for her to finally do something without thinking it over, why did it have to be to save him? 

His time in Wano had already been hard enough, between being thrown in prison and losing his first mate and best friend. Just when he thought his luck was going to turn, who else would arrive but Akainu himself; not only were the Marines here, but the head lapdog himself had shown up. Between the chaos of Kaido, Big Mom, and the Straw Hat crews all fighting each other, Kid's only concern was getting his crew out of danger so they could focus on getting Killer back to normal. Retreat was never Kid's preferred option, but his nakama took priority over his pride. 

As they were making their way off of the battlefield, Akainu had noticed them retreating and launched a fist of lava at the deserters; pirates were already scum, but cowardly ones were even less honorable. Minerva had thrown up a Myelin Shield just in time, but the force of a direct punch from Akainu sent her flying into a nearby building. For a brief moment, all Kid could see was red. While Heat and Wire rushed to Minerva's aid, Kid used his Devil Fruit to gather every bit of jagged metal he could get ahold of--swords and bullets lying on the ground, in people's hands, stuck or shot through their bodies. He took advantage of Akainu's current fight with Straw Hat and sent a barrage of blood-soaked shrapnel flying through the battlefield, shredding pirates and Marines alike before finally colliding with Akainu's turned back. That bastard had managed to use his Devil Fruit just in the nick of time to avoid being completely turned to hamburger meat, but Kid knew that about half of his shrapnel had flayed him.

Kid sprinted to the destroyed cottage and found his men gathered around Minerva. When they saw he had arrived, they immediately moved to let Kid in to assess her condition. She was barely able to keep her eyes open, and blood trickled from her mouth. Her body was covered with cuts from colliding with the splintering wood of the building, and her body felt disturbingly heavy and limp when Kid bent down to hold her. She realized Kid was above her and blinked. 

"Eu-ah…" She tried to swallow and immediately coughed up a mixture of spit and blood.

"Stop talking," Kid replied gruffly. He quickly turned to Heat and Wire. "Go look for...someone," he ordered. "Law, that fuckin' raccoon thing on Straw Hat's crew, just find someone who can get her patched up. Now!"

The two of them scrambled to find a doctor, and Kid tried to see what he could do to help with his sparse medical knowledge. 

"Chopper's a...a reindeer…"

"I said to stop talking," Kid barked. "Just...just shut up and breathe!" He threw his coat off and set her on top of it in an attempt to make her comfortable. "C'mon, c'mon," he muttered, ripping a piece of his shirt off to stem the blood from a deeper cut on the side of her head. Her skin was unnaturally pale, and Kid felt a pit forming in the bottom of his stomach. "Don't die on me, don't you fucking dare die on me."

Minerva tried to steady her breathing and keep herself from blacking out from the pain. "K...Keep me con-shus," she said, slightly slurring her words. "Got shock…'n symptoms of concuss'n…"

"Okay," Kid replied, trying to think of how to keep her awake. Keep her alive. Just...keep her with him. "O-okay. Help's on the way, alright? Just hold on for a little longer." He glared at her, biting the inside of his cheek so hard it drew blood. "Goddammit, why did you have to do that?"

Minerva spat a bit of blood out of her mouth. "Reactive thinkin'," she said slowly. "Had to find a way to keep the lava from makin' contact with us...b'sides…" She smiled weakly at Kid. "Better to have one person get injured than fer all of us to die, right? 'S simple pragmatics…" She laughed shakily and coughed violently. "Ugh, I'm really displayin' these symptoms of shock, huh…Fatigue, light head, dizzy...blegh, nausea."

"No, this isn't fucking 'better'," Kid snapped. "Anything would be better than you being beat to hell like this." He wiped a bit of blood off of her face. "Minnie, I swear to God, once we're out of Wano I'm going to kill you for almost fucking dying on me like this."

"Th-that…" Minerva laughed weakly again. "That'd be counterproductive, if ya really want me to live, Eustass…"

Kid felt her limply rest her hand on his, and he immediately held it to comfort her. She did her best to squeeze his hand, but Kid didn't return the gesture out of fear of hurting her further. When Law finally arrived at the ruins of the cabin, Kid immediately stepped aside and Heat and Wire helped him to the other side of the room to watch over her while Law treated her injuries. He felt like he couldn't breathe until Law finally turned to him and said she was in a stable condition. "She can be moved, but try to avoid jostling her around too much," he said, heading back to the battle. "If you want to escape to your ship, you need to do it now." He rushed back into the fight, and Kid gently scooped Minerva (and his coat, wrapped around her) into his arms and the crew ran to the coast where their ship was waiting. 

[shineonyoucrazyyandere]

I would love another Giorno yandere post! If you can do love bits and making out then that would be awesome! Maybe a childhood friend who moved away and meets him again when he is a Don? I also love the way you write and I am excited to read what you come up with for any request you get and write for. Have a great day!

Ooh Pbftfbt Thank You and - I just saw this, Don’t mind me haha…It’s a definite  done deal so let’s start this thing! Oh and don’t mind the formatting guess this is a scenario thing, kind of devolved from headcanons into a little story on accident.

Yandere! Don! Giorno Giovanna /childhood friend (Scenario/a few started headcanons) 

-Giorno would likely be very obsessive if you had anything to do with his awful childhood

- His charisma would come off very strongly in a sweet sickly way

-If you’re in Naples you’re likely staying there if he’s there

 Little hope was left for the young Giorno Giovanna. A neglectful mother who spent her free time partying, and an abusive father at home. Bullying from neighborhood kids, it was a hellish scenario for a young boy. Safe to say these events made him think very lowly of himself.

He was slightly surprised when someone didn’t act that way. You. Another neighbor didn’t swing at him in discontent, nor sneer in mockery. No, you were eager for a friendship. Was he not scum to you? He didn’t quite understand at first.

  You didn’t seem to mind that he didn’t talk much, rather you’d try your best and ask about things nearby. You’d point out you liked the color of the ocean, a specific species of flower that a person had been growing, or a peculiarly shaped rock you found messing around on the sidewalk. It seemed something fit for someone younger but he found himself to enjoy it oddly enough.

  Much so it became something that made his heart flutter with happiness. Each and every time he was kicked to the ground, beaten by his father, or bullied he’d think of those moments you’d play with him, or give him a little trinket.

  Though normalcy seemed short lived after those precious weeks.

 He found your mother one day looking around for you frantically. He offered to help since he was around you the most. Yet when he and your mother did find you it…was horrific. The passion in your mother’s eyes as she screamed and came to grab your frail and battered form off the ground. Your hair had been cut by scissors, blood was sleeping down several places on your body.

 Her profuse cursing was drowned out by his rapidly beating heart. Why would someone do this? Innocent. You were innocent. Did they not care? He was the scum they were supposed to beat. What was he supposed to do about it?

After that he didn’t see you, only your mother going in and out of your home  with other people, until even her presence was gone. She must’ve moved you out of the house after the hospital trip.  

 He’d continually look at the small item you gave him after that. Obsessing over it and how you were harmed.

  Giorno even tried to inquire about you after he saved that Mafia affiliated man’s life. You had already left Naples to a rural town in Northern Italy by that point.

 As disheartened as he was he could wait…he’d see you again eventually.

After events that lead to Giorno to Passione and eventually becoming Don of said organization after* (Giorno is aged up to 18 from here on out btw)

 By some sheer amount of ungodly luck Giorno spots you at a restaurant in Naples. He reassures himself that it’s you over and over in his head.

He’d casually introduce himself to your table out of the blue. You would be spontaneously surprised at his presence and the change of his hair color.

  You two would catch up on details of your lives (naturally he wouldn’t let on about him being the Don of the mafia).

 Just about everything that leaves your lips is internalized into his memory. Even your plans when you were intending to leave Naples.

 Giorno would end up paying for your meal and anything extra you wanted. He’d definitely insist on this.

  His heart irrationally races after you leave, finally knowing you were safe and sound. He could finally keep track of you after all this time.

Speaking of he’d find your hotel and mode of transportation that you used quickly.

 Although he’d be very busy with running a Mafia, every spare second he had would be spending time with you. The hotel room you were in would be spontaneously upgraded to the nicest suite in the hotel. 

  Anytime you need refereshers on directions (or just flat out short cuts to avoid crowds) He’ll be eager to guide you. 

   It doesn’t seem all that harmful at first but you’d definitely notice his presence more often than usual the longer you stay in Naples. 

  “Oh Giorno I didn’t see you there…” 

  He’ll give a lovely smile that absolutely exudes charisma, much so chills go down your spine. It was almost creepy how charming he became. 

   “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to frighten you y/n” 

 You could just barely pass that off as him knowing the city real well and you both just bumped into each other. But your mind ate up at you otherwise. 

  Then there was a couple days where you could totally relax simply sightseeing, a few museum visits and such. Though you would end up with a nice treat in between that people seemed to eagerly offer you. 

   On the night before you’d supposedly leave, Giorno ends up inviting you to dinner. Anything you preferred. It was a mere distraction as he was getting anxious at the thought of you leaving again. He could show you much more if you just stayed a little longer.

  He could make you happy, just as the city of Naples had.

 When you return to your hotel room you’d go straight to the shower and change your clothes for bed. By the time your usual routine was over, you were sleeping soundly.

   Without you noticing your belongings, mainly your purse and phone would be turned into animals just small enough to get under the crack of the bottom of the door.

    He’d take any physical passes for the train you had, anything scheduled out of Naples would be canceled. Of course he couldn’t have you abruptly leaving either…so he’d have to keep your phone on his person. Speaking of phones he already made sure the one in the room with you was hidden away from your grasp as well, while you were out earlier in the day.

   Waking up you’d be horribly distraught over finding your phone. At first you wanted to call down at the desk but there wasn’t a phone in the room. Even though you were sure there had been one before. 

   You would be too late for the train that recently left twenty minutes ago. On top of that your passes were missing anyway. 

     By the time you were done searching the room you were panicked if you had been pickpocketed by somebody. Eventually you would bump into Giorno who happened to be very receptive to helping you. 

    He’d suggest looking up in your room one last time before going to the police. 

    About five minutes into searching again the blond claims he found it. You ask where and he responds it was simply tangled up in the blankets as he holds it up casually. Eagerly you asked for it back but he didn’t hand it back to you.

  “Giorno. I need my phone back please” 

 He would merely hold the device towards himself refusing to. You would advance towards him and attempted to grab the phone out of his hand. Only to feel something furry moving in your hand before quickly dropping it.

A mouse.

 “W-where’s my p-phone Giorno?”

 He told you wouldn’t need it right now and you insisted why.

 “There’s no reason for you to leave so soon” 

 You’d be both confused and horrified at what he was saying.

 His grip returns to clutch your dominant hand that once held the mouse. The instinct to tell you to run would be screaming loudly but you just couldn’t. Something told you that he would figure out you’d try and run. 

  Abruptly he’d take your hand that was currently in his own and gently kiss the top of yours. You became even more nervous as you instinctively put your other hand out on his chest to keep him at bay.

  His free hand of course would end up taking ahold of that one you were trying to push with as well.

“I-I…” was all you were able to stutter out 

  It would be the only partial thing you’d end up saying. His face would end up near the crook of your neck. His warm lips would gently fall onto the surface of your skin. Again, and again. All until your lips were almost touching. 

 He’d pause for a moment and directly look at you as you would jerk your head back freaked out.

  ““I only wanted to see what interests you had…just everything about you made me fascinated and well I don’t want to see you hurt by anyone else”

  By some strange manner your head ended up closer to his and eventually his hold on your mouth was too strong to slip out of.

  He’d let you get a breath in here and there since you weren’t used to it. Any moment you tried to fight you’d end up in a deeper kiss. All between your tongue being played with his and yours being danced around, to simple small butterfly kisses. 

  Your arms were at their sides with his hands still gripping yours, lightheaded-ness followed suit. In a short few minutes he had left you breathless.

 The utter yearning in his eyes was a bit frightening.

  “Let me do this for you,hmm?”

[kookingtae]

Hands of Fire (pt. 1)

→ scenario: As the princess of your kingdom, it’s always been your royal duty to have an arranged betrothal, despite your distaste for the tradition. But being in love with a servant might make things more difficult than you even expected.

→ pairing: servant/sorcerer jungkook x princess reader x lord yoongi (eventually)

→ genre: royal au, historical au, fantasy au, arranged marriage au, smut

→ word count: 11,128

→ warnings: mentions of violence

You were in the royal gardens when you spotted him.

The castle you lived in with your father and mother, the king and queen, had an elaborate garden around the front and back composed of intricate shrubbery and vibrant flowers decorating greenery as far as the eye could see. It housed a large staff that worked diligently for the royal family, including a set of gardeners who would tend to your favorite place to get away when you needed a breather from your stuffy life as the princess.

One of those gardeners was Jeon Jungkook.

You met him when you were just seven years old; the kitchen was another one of your favorite places to spend time because the cook always spoiled you with treats before the evening meal, and it was also where you once spotted a young, barefoot boy in raggedy clothing stealing a sweet roll.

“You’re not allowed to do that,” you called out to him, your words accusatory as his round eyes widened to the size of saucers at the prospect of getting caught.

“But sweet rolls are the best!” The boy tried to reason with you, your title unbeknownst to he who only had pure intentions and a heart full of gold. “Please don’t tell Cook!”

You pretended to think with your hand on your chin. “I won’t tell... if you share it with me.”

You didn’t think it was possible for the boy’s eyes to grow any larger. “No way! Get your own!”

You immediately opened your mouth, “Oh, Cook—!”

“Alright, alright!” The boy quickly leapt forward and slapped his hand over your mouth, some of the cinnamon icing on his fingertips dusting your lips. “It’s a deal. I’m Jungkook, by the way.”

You smiled softly to yourself as the two of you walked side by side out the back entrance of the kitchen. Growing up as the princess, no one ever realized how lonely it was. Other kids were either afraid to approach you because of your title or banned from seeing you because of theirs. Though this boy seemed to be different; you didn’t care about the tattered rags on his body or the dirt on his skin. For once, there was another kid who didn’t seem to mind you being the princess, and so you led him through the garden and into a clearing beyond the edge of the trees: a safe haven that would grow to be your second home with the boy over the years.

“I’m Y/N.”

Jungkook didn’t care about your royal title back then. The two of you became the best of friends, playing hide and seek throughout the garden and having imaginary sword fights beneath the trees just like the ones you would read about in the books you’d take from the library into the clearing. You taught Jungkook to read, and over the years those novels filled both your minds with fantasies and your hearts with a wanderlust that couldn’t possibly be cured.

That is, because you were the princess of the five kingdoms living under your father’s rule, and Jungkook was just a servant.

As you grew older, the vast difference in your social classes became more apparent. You couldn’t frolic in the gardens anymore because you had to attend your royal lessons that took place every day, and Jungkook was needed more and more out in the garden once he started to grow stronger. You also began to grow more... aware of Jungkook. The manual labor he performed daily had created muscles in all the right places, and his raggedy shirt would always cling to his chest with sweat whenever he was under the hot sun beating down on him. You tried not to stare when you would watch him work from afar, but it was hard not to notice—the years had been very kind to Jungkook and he was becoming a very attractive young man.

Jungkook, however, became more aware of you as well—or should you say, of your title and his relationship to you as a servant. The cheeky, mischievous boy that you once knew had now grown shy, timid; he would always downcast his eyes when you approached and never failed to make a hasty bow, as if you would reprimand him for being a hair out of place. He never spoke to you anymore either—just a few polite greetings of acknowledgment as all servants would when you’d pass. It was considered rude for a servant to speak to a member of the noble class, and somehow that message became ingrained in Jungkook’s head. It was as if the beginnings of your childhood friendship had all but vanished once you hit your teenage years.

Though that didn’t mean either one of you had forgotten; there would still be times when your eyes locked for a moment too long from across the garden, or you’d share a secret smile when you thought no one was looking. None of the guards ever went over by the clearing that was hidden within the edge of the woods surrounding your castle, so to this day the place was your special escape from the hectic duties and responsibilities that your royal title would shove down your throat. You liked to escape often; your father always wanted a life for you that you did not.

Now that you were well past your awkward teenage years and finally a young adult, your responsibilities were as insufferable as ever. Almost every hour of your day—save for the morning and evening meal—was taken up by your many lessons, and today was no different. Today, however, you were trying to avoid going to them.

Which was why you were currently strolling through the garden with a book in hand when you saw Jungkook knelt over a bed of flowers, his hands tenderly patting and kneading the rich soil with such care that one would think the flowers were his very own children. A small smile involuntarily spread across your lips; you loved to watch him work from afar, loved to observe the way his tongue would slightly poke out between his lips in concentration when he focused on a task with his complete and undivided attention. You watched as he reached up to wipe the sweat from his brows with the back of his hand and a smudge of dirt smeared across his skin, and you let out a soft giggle that ultimately got caught in your throat when he lifted the bottom hem of his shirt to wipe the excess perspiration from his face and revealed his toned stomach and lower abdomen to you. Your eyes couldn’t help but fixate on the sight; the cloth of his shirt had turned slightly see-through, leaving little to imagination and causing the feelings you developed for him over the years to fester like an open wound.

You had long since stopped denying the fact that you were in love with Jeon Jungkook. Only now he didn’t give you the time of day—and when he did, he was so formal, stiff. Nothing like the Jungkook you once knew—the Jungkook you knew was still inside him, buried deep beneath the pressures and struggles of his social status and daily servitude.

You wished there was something you could do to help him. It pained you to watch him overheat in the glaring sun while you were forced to stay within the cool air of the castle studying etiquette and ballroom dance. You knew servants were treated as lowly scum, barely getting enough food and water throughout the day and having to sleep on rolls of stiff straw and hay. You wished there was some way you could make things better.

Which was why you swiftly approached the nearest steward and obtained a goblet of water before approaching Jungkook with purpose.

“Hello, Jungkook,” you breathed out in a light tone, your windpipes suddenly feeling considerably tighter when his eyes fell on you.

He instantly rose to his feet and bowed his head with the utmost respect. “Your grace,” he let out in the same stiff, formal tone that all servants used with you.

You looked over your shoulders at the few guards that were within your field of vision. “Walk with me?” You suggested, knowing you couldn’t offer him the water with so many watchful eyes around—especially when he would get scolded just for being seen with you in a manner that was anywhere close to friendly.

Jungkook gulped, opening his mouth as if he wanted to speak though ultimately closing it and following you along the garden pathway. “Is everything alright, your grace?” He asked in a somewhat worried tone.

“Of course,” you answered, not wanting to worry him. “How is the garden doing today?”

You watched as Jungkook smiled softly at the thought. “Wonderful. It’s the time of year when the flowers are in full bloom, so I was planting some of your favorites for you along the route you normally take for your morning stroll.”

Your heart stopped at his words; he was thinking about you while he was working? “Thank you. They look lovely and I cannot wait to enjoy them in the mornings to come,” you answered with bright eyes.

Jungkook smiled at this, only for his brows to furrow in confusion when you finally came to a stop in front of a place you knew he’d recognize—a place the guards wouldn’t find you. “What are we doing here?”

“I wanted to give you this,” you replied, holding out the goblet to him that he was noticing for the first time was filled to the brim with fresh water and meant for him.

“Your grace, I can’t—“

“Please accept it. I know you must be thirsty after working outside in the summer heat without a break,” you urged him, your eyes silently pleading that he just at least put your mind at ease.

His eyes flickered back down to the cup again before reluctantly accepting it from your hand and taking a sip. After another moment’s pause, he suddenly leaned his head back and finished the drink in three large gulps as if he’d never tasted water before.

A pleased smile graced your lips at the sight. “I brought a book from the library,” you held up the fantasy novel that was lodged within your free hand. “I was hoping... you would read with me?”

A wide eyed, worried expression sprung onto Jungkook’s face. “B-but your grace, I have to work. If anyone notices I’m gone...” he trailed off, seemingly deep in thought as he nibbled his bottom lip. “If anyone sees us together...”

“No one is going to find us here; you know that,” you gently reminded him before taking a seat on one of the large roots above ground that belonged to a giant tree near the center of the clearing. You were desperate to escape—desperate to forget of your duties for even a moment and escape into the riveting story of a good book, and desperate to do it with the one person who made you forget of your title. “Please, Jungkook.”

The boy paused one more moment, two, before finally joining you atop the sturdy root. “Your grace, you’re going to ruin your dress,” he gently pointed out, and you looked down to where the bottom of the satin and mesh crinoline beneath your skirt swept along the dirt floor.

You, however, didn’t bat an eye. Your handmaidens had scolded you so many times over the years for getting dirty that you were immune by this point—it’s not proper for a princess to look as filthy as a gardening servant, they’d say. Little did they know a gardening servant was exactly who you wanted to spend your time with.

“You know you don’t have to address me as ‘your grace’ when we’re alone.” You have him a soft smile as you offered him the book. “Do you want to read it?”

Who knew how long it had been since he’d read? Ever since the two of you started keeping your distance, there had been no need for him to pick up a book. Servants across the land didn’t get an education, though you were sure if they did, Jungkook would love to learn. He always was curious about the world ever since he was a child; it’s the reason the two of you became fast friends.

“Uh... sure,” Jungkook cleared his throat before taking the book from you and smoothing it beneath his touch; the way his palm swept over the binding was mesmerizing.

“Once upon a time...” and then he was off, his melodic tone like melted honey as it poured over your skin, enveloping you in a warm blanket of natural sweetness that licked at the tips of your fingers and the bottoms of your toes. You missed this activity more than you realized, and now that you were here, underneath the tree in the clearing and listening to your favorite person read one of your favorite novels, you hadn’t a care in the world.

Being here reminded you of a simpler time, back when neither of you had to worry about schedules or work or classes. The nostalgia hit you like a ton of bricks, but as you listened to the sound of Jungkook’s soothing voice, somehow it made things better; it made you okay with how things were right now.

When he came to a stopping point, he closed the book and looked up at you, his eyes saying so much yet his mouth saying so little.

“This is where we shared our first kiss,” you blurted out, unable to filter the thought as it sprung to your mind. “Do you remember?”

The two of you had only been about 9 or 10 at that time, a time when questions about more mature things began to pop into your heads and stir your curious minds. Neither of you had had your first kiss, you both soon revealed, and so after quick deliberation you agreed to be each other’s, if only to see what it felt like. It was only a peck; the two of you leaned away just as quickly as you leaned in, and after that it was back to imaginary sword fights and hide and seek beneath the treetops. You didn’t quite realize what that exchange meant until you were older, and you hoped it wasn’t one of the determining factors that drove Jungkook away.

“Of course I remember,” Jungkook finally answered, his voice hoarse as if his throat was suddenly dry after reading so many pages. He quickly cleared it before continuing. “How could I forget?”

It warmed your heart to hear that the moment had left just as much of a lasting impression on him as it had on you; you wondered if this was only because he got to say his first kiss was with the princess, or if it had something to do with you.

You silently hoped it was the latter.

It was in that moment that you both stared at one another; the book was forgotten in his lap, the rest of the world fading away until all you saw was him in front of you. You were so engrossed in the sight of him, in fact, that neither of you heard the rustling of the leaves approaching from the forest. And by the time someone stepped foot past the trees and into the clearing, it was too late.

“Princess Y/N!” One of the guards called out, startling you and Jungkook away from each other. You instantly shot to your feet, a look of worry on your expression as the second guard marched over and shoved the beautiful boy next to you onto his knees. “Are you alright, your grace?”

“I-I’m fine—please, it’s not what it looks like,” you instantly started pleading, twisting and turning in your guard’s grip as you watched Jungkook’s shirt be ripped from his back. It was to your horror, then, that a long, thin whip was drawn from the second guard’s side. “I asked him to accompany me! Please, it’s all my fault, not his!”

It was as if your screams were falling on deaf ears; you thrashed and you kicked and you shoved, cries of “stop” and “please” falling from your lips faster than you could process what was happening, but no matter how hard you tried to free yourself from your guard and rush over to Jungkook in hopes of throwing yourself against his back like a human shield, it was no use. You were being tugged out of the clearing, and all you could do was watch in horror as the whip suddenly snapped against his skin.

You felt sick to your stomach.

You couldn’t eat, couldn’t drink; you skipped the evening meal with your family altogether, instead mumbling a measly excuse of not feeling well to your handmaiden from beneath the billowing blankets you were lodged beneath on your bed.

It was all your fault—all of it. How could you have been so stupid as to not double check for watching eyes as you led him out of the garden? Surely you knew the guards placed around the perimeters would get suspicious; a gardening servant was not supposed to leave the garden, and the punishments were not as lenient as they once were when you were children.

It was because of you that the boy you loved was badly hurt, and it killed you to think there was nothing you could do to help him. You tried to cry yourself to sleep, but the memory of Jungkook’s frightened face as the guard grabbed him haunted you well into the night.

You wanted to do something—anything, at this point. What was the point of your stupid royal title if you couldn’t achieve anything with it? The guards would only listen to you to an extent; they were, in fact, still under your father’s orders, and it was because of him that any servant who dared to get close to you beyond their range of servitude work was punished. This could be stopped by your father, you realized, and so you quickly made note to visit him with the issue in the morning.

But that didn’t ease your concern right now, because what happened to Jungkook had already happened. Every time you pictured his feeble, weak form bloody and broken, sorrow tore through you and a new set of tears washed into your eyes. You just wanted to ease his pain, if only for a little while, and the only way you knew how to do that was by comforting him. And so in that moment, you knew what you had to do.

You had to see him.

It was dark when you crept out of your window and your bare feet squished into the earth beneath you. The only light came from the moon shining above, because once everyone was in bed the candles lining the castle exterior were blown out and the only guards stood at the front entrance of the castle and the main gate. Thankfully, after years of sneaking around these corridors and knowing every nook and cranny that existed here, you were able to stay hidden in the shadows as you scurried across the land and made your way over to the servant quarters.

It was even darker when the rickety wooden door was pulled open to reveal the inside of the barracks. The small building paled in comparison to the sturdy regal stone used to create your castle; this building was made of entirely wood, the boards flimsy and rotting with big open cracks between every piece, making the entire room incredibly drafty. Not only that, but the small space housed nearly fifty servants; their sad excuses for beds were lined in rows.

Thankfully everyone was sleeping, and even if they weren’t, it was much too dark for them to see your face as you slipped inside. You expected it was probably common for servants to come and go as they pleased since there was no indoor bathroom, so the subtle sound of the door opening and closing alerted no one.

You nibbled on your bottom lip and ignored the faint odor in the air as you searched along the beds for Jungkook’s; thank god you’d long since mastered the art of keeping a silent step as you moved. It would be almost impossible to go through all these rows in search for one boy, but thankfully you didn’t need to; it wasn’t too long before you spotted the sight of thick bandages wrapped around a bare torso.

You crept closer to the bed, wanting to make sure it was actually Jungkook before you went about waking them up. And when you crouched down and the sight before you finally came into focus, a new wave of tears washed over you again.

He was asleep but shaking, his eyebrows furrowed and his face twisted into distress as he shivered from the draft drifting in through the poorly made barracks. The bandages were wrapped around his chest to keep them against the wounds that you were sure marred his back, though because he was facing you, you couldn’t get a good look. He looked so helpless and pitiful laying there, and the pain and guilt you’ve been feeling the whole night crashed over you like a tsunami.

“Oh, Jungkook,” you whispered between soft sobs, unable to keep your hand from reaching out and cupping his cheek. Your touch was gentle, faint, as if he could break under the lightest pressure at any moment. “I’m so sorry...”

The young boy suddenly stirred beneath your touch, and when his eyes slowly blinked open you could see the surprise in them. “Y-Y/N?”

You felt a single tear roll down your cheek as you attempted to smile in greeting. “I’m so, so sorry...”

Jungkook quickly sat up, his hands springing to your face and cradling your head between his palms as his thumb swiped against your cheek, feeling your fallen tear soak into his skin. “Sh... it’s alright, princess. Please don’t cry.” He quickly looked around before taking your hand and pulling the both of you to your feet. Then he was leading you out the front door, around the back of the small wooden structure, and into the bundle of trees that shrouded the moonlight and caused its white rays to trickle in through the leaves, casting a shadow against his breathtaking features. “What are you doing here?”

You couldn’t help but throw your arms around him as the tears continued to fall even harder than before; you were careful to keep your hands from touching his back, of course. “I couldn’t sleep... I couldn’t eat. I was so worried about you...”

Jungkook instantly engulfed you in his arms and crushed you against his chest, his bare skin warming your cheeks against them. “Sh... I told you not to cry. I’m okay.”

You pulled away with a sniffle to look up at him; he really was the most beautiful boy you’d ever seen. “What’d they do to you?” You were almost afraid to ask.

“They... whipped me,” he replied with a suppressed wince as if even the memory alone was painful. “It was our leading guard in the gardens who handled me; he said that if I got another offense, I’d be sent away.”

Your expression fell in realization and horror, then hardened with determination. “I won’t let that happen,” you stepped forward, your eyes locking and your hand gripping his as if trying to keep him from slipping from your grasp—and you meant it. You’d do everything in your power to keep Jungkook from being sent to another castle. He spent his whole life here; this is where he grew up with his mother and father and older sister. You weren’t going to let that be taken away all because of you. You’d have to be more careful.

Jungkook stared deeply into your eyes. “I can’t believe you’re actually here,” he breathed, and you weren’t sure if you were imagining the awe that you heard in his tone. But the reverie was cut short when a gust of wind swept through the trees, and the shiver down his back caused his face to twist in pain as he winced.

“Can I... see them?” You asked, desperate to help him in any way that you could even though you knew the sight would break your heart.

The boy paused before reluctantly nodding, and then he was slowly and ever so carefully unwinding the bandages from his frame. “One of the servants here stole these from the infirmary for me,” he admitted, his expression showing embarrassment and guilt as if he did not want to be the cause of another person getting in trouble. You understood the feeling all too well, and when he finally removed the gauze and turned around to show you his back, the feeling amplified tenfold.

You couldn’t help but gasp, and your breath was lodged in your throat, held captive and rendered motionless as the slivers of moonlight reflected off of the wounds that were still fresh and bloody on his skin. There must’ve been more than 20 lacerations, though you couldn’t be sure, because you lost count once your insides began to churn and you felt sick again.

Without saying another word, you went around the side of the shelter and grabbed the wooden bucket you’d seen fleetingly when Jungkook led you past it. It was sitting on the ground, the water within in chilled from the night air and the rag stained with dirt and other grime, though it was fully saturated. You quickly grabbed the handle and rushed back over to Jungkook before he could question where you went.

“Hold still for me, please,” you spoke gently, placing a hand against the slice of untouched skin so that he wouldn’t be surprised when you pressed the damp towel against his wounds.

“Ah,” Jungkook hissed lightly, his body tensing at the sensation before relaxing beneath you. “You don’t have to do that... it’s okay,” he tried to reassure you.

“I want to,” you quickly shooed away his worry, your expression crumbled in sorrow as you gently rubbed the rag across the bloody lacerations marring his beautifully tan skin. You admired the curvature of his shoulder blades and the muscles in his back that flexed harshly every time you went over a particularly sensitive cut. Each time he’d wince, you’d pause, letting the pain subside within him before continuing to clean his wounds.

“I’m so sorry, Jungkook... this is all my fault,” you murmured just barely above a whisper, having to look away from the sight that tore your heart to shreds. “I never wanted to be the cause of your pain.”

“You could never be the cause of my pain, princess,” Jungkook replied, and you were in awe of the fact that he could be so caring as to reassure you when you were the one who had gotten him in trouble in the first place. Even when scars covered every inch of his back, he still comforted you, made sure you were the one who was okay. His kind heart and compassionate ways never ceased to amaze you.

When you were finished, you rung out of the dirty cloth, watching as the murky liquid soon turned a shade of red. You were quick to dispose of the water and put the bucket back where it belonged so that no one linked the blood back to him.

“Please don’t be upset...” Jungkook frowned when you were standing in front of him again, his hand reaching out to cup your cheek and catch any lingering tears. “This has been one of the best days I’ve had in a very long time.”

Your eyes widened in confusion at his words. “What? Why?”

“Because I got to spend time with you,” he answered, and you swore your heart pounded faster than it ever has in your entire life. “It’s not every night that I get a visit from you while in bed.”

His words were cheeky, filled with amusement as they caused light laughter to fall from your lips and dance in the air around you, and you realized that this was your first glimpse of the old Jungkook, the Jungkook who you knew was still in there buried deep beneath the weight and pressure that was sitting atop his shoulders every time he was around you. You wanted to be his escape from being labeled a lowly servant, just as he was yours from the expectations of being princess. You wanted to be the one person with whom he didn’t have a care in the world, and he could truly be himself.

This was why you always insisted that he not call you by your royal title when you were alone. You didn’t want to be the princess and a gardening servant when you were together. You just wanted to be Y/N and Jungkook.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” you admitted, feeling the nerves building in your stomach with each second that passed. “I had to see you, to make sure that you were okay.”

Jungkook’s expression softened at that, and then his mouth opened and closed as if second guessing himself, only to open again. “I can never stop thinking about you,” he finally admitted. “You’re the reason I work so diligently in the gardens; I know you love the flowers.”

Your breath hitched at his words, and if your heart was pounding before, now it was leaping out of your chest altogether. You took a step forward, pressing your forehead against his and feeling the rhythmic sensation of his warm breath dancing against your lips. You squeezed your eyes shut, knowing that if you continue to stare you’d soon succumb to the power that he had over you. “What I love most about the gardens is you,” you whispered, your stomach clenching and your eyes opening to see how he’d react to your confession.

His eyes widened, and his mouth parted, and you were able to feel the cold intake of breath past his lips as he gasped silently at your words. Though once you got a glimpse of his beautiful features so close to yours, his eyes sparkling with surprise and awe and happiness in comparison to the fear and pain you saw in them earlier today, you couldn’t help yourself. You assumed the fact that he hadn’t pulled away from you or laughed in your face was a good sign, and so you leaned in, took a leap of faith, and kissed him.

It was as if the heavens above had opened for you. How long had you dreamed of feeling his lips on yours again after that briefly shared peck that lasted no more than a second when you were kids? How often had you admired him, longed for him, dreamed of having him this way while you were growing from your teenage years into the young adult you were today?

You’d long since lost count, but your guess was every day since the moment you’d met him. You always loved him, as a best friend when you were kids and then as something more when you were old enough to realize what your feelings meant. It was always him.

You pulled away after a moment, heat taking over your cheeks once you realized what you’d just done. “I-I’m sorry, I–“

“Don’t apologize,” Jungkook quickly shushed you, and the grip he had on your cheek tightened as if he wanted to keep you here by his side forever. “I.. I love you too, Y/N. I always have.”

And it was then that you threw all caution to the wind. You were back within each other’s embraces, your lips not able to get enough of one another as you kissed him like his lips were water and you were dying of thirst. Your hands ran up the expanse of his bare abdomen and chest that were toned from years of physical labor before winding your arms around his neck and tangling your fingers in his hair, feeling the soft tendrils that would always blow in the wind whenever a soft gust rolled by. And while your touch ran up his body, you felt his run down yours, from your checks to your neck and down the back of your spine, settling on your waist before locking his hands beneath your bottom and lifting you into his arms.

You let out a sound of surprise as you wrapped your legs around his waist, though neither the sound nor his actions caused the heated kiss to break as he carefully lowered you onto the forest floor. The mix of dirt and fallen leaves beneath you had never felt better now that his body was caging you against the ground, enveloped on all sides with nowhere to go but on him as you ravished each other like starving animals—and in a sense, you were. The two of you had been kept away from each other far too long, and now your love was spilling out of you like a broken dam.

Excitement stirred in the pit of your stomach when you felt his hands start to dance along the hem of your nightdress. “May I?” He asked in a formal tone, and you bit down on your bottom lip as a smile stretched across your lips and you nodded your head yes.

He soon hitched the thin silk material up over your waist and past the swell of your bare breasts.

“Oh my god...” Jungkook spoke on inhale, his voice breathless and movements stalling as he took in the sight of your almost fully naked body for the first time. “You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen,” he marveled, and then his head was dipping down to capture one of your nipples between his lips.

You gasped at the feeling, your back arching and your chest pushing further against his mouth as you squirmed in pleasure beneath him. Never had you experienced a feeling quite so delicious before, and the sight of him devouring your body made the wetness between your legs begin to pool in your panties.

“Jungkook,” you whimpered, and at your voice he suddenly pulled away from your chest to swallow the sound with his tongue instead. You graciously welcomed him inside your mouth, the taste of you on his lips sending another wave of desire and arousal through you that you didn’t even know was possible. Jungkook had you on his tongue, you of all people, and you would never grow weary of it.

Your hands soon fumbled for the waistband of his linen pants, and once he realized what you were doing he quickly leaned back so that he was kneeling over your body, his knees on either side of your thighs and his figure shrouded in the shade of the trees.

“Are you sure, princess?” He asked, his voice full of genuine concern to make sure you knew of what you were asking for and if it was really what you wanted.

You nodded your head without any hesitation and propped yourself up. “I love you, Jungkook; I have for as long as I can remember. I want to be with you, completely.”

Through the slivers of moonlight casting shadows across his face you could see his eyes gleam with emotion, and soon his lips were on yours again, kissing you like his life depended on it and your were his only source to live. You only parted from each other to tug your nightdress over your head the rest of the way, and soon it was forgotten on the forest floor, his pants soon joining them until both of you were left in just your undergarments.

Your breathing grew heavier when you felt the outline of something you only had wet dreams about press against your core. You used to wake up hot from the goose feather duvet covering your body and bothered from the explicit nature of your dreams, wishing more than anything that you could have Jungkook with you the way he was right now. How could you be certain you weren’t having another one of those dreams right now?

With that thought in mind and trepidation in your fingers, you carefully reached forward and touched the bulge that was rock hard beneath his underwear. Jungkook let out a groan at the same time that you gasped, and the sight of his hips bucking once into your hand made you forget everything all at once.

“O-oh,” you gulped, your tone akin to a wavering moan and your eyes wide with awe as you glanced back and forth between the pulsing length beneath his clothes and the erotic expression of suppressed pleasure on his face. “D-does is feel good?”

“Yes,” Jungkook quickly nodded, his fervor giving you the impression that he’s never felt someone else’s touch; you selfishly hoped he hadn’t. “Oh, yes... keep going, baby.”

Your heart jumped into your throat at his term of endearment, and with it came the newfound courage you needed to tug his final undergarment off and engulf his member in your palm.

Your mouth watered at the feeling of his skin smooth as butter in your hand, and you watched a bead of precum slid from his tip. Never had you seen this in person; you lived a very sheltered life here within the castle walls, and you were supposed to keep your virginity until marriage. But in this moment, with the only man you’ve ever loved hovering over you, expressions of love and awe and desire and pleasure painted onto his features, you knew you didn’t want to lose it to anyone else. He was the first, the only person you wanted to give your body to, because you knew he would be your first and only love.

“I love you, Jungkook,” you couldn’t keep from blurting out again; he deserved to hear it every second of every day. “I want you to make love to me.”

Jungkook’s expression changed from that of pure pleasure to a softer one, and without another moment’s notice he gently removed your hand from his member so that he could lean back over you, his body encasing yours and protecting you from the outside world.

“You don’t know how long I’ve imagined you saying those words,” he admitted with a soft chuckle, and it wasn’t long before he was removing your satin panties as well so that you were both completely bare for each other. His fingers danced back up your legs, brushing past your inner thigh and swiping through your slit with one light touch.

You shivered at the sensation, your eyes squeezing shut as if bracing yourself for what’s to come, but after a few moments you still didn’t feel anything. You quickly opened your eyes to see what was happening.

Jungkook was leaned back again, his eyes staring straight at your core as if he was entranced. You felt your cheeks heat up, feeling somewhat embarrassed for putting your most intimate parts on display. “Jungkook,” you whined slightly, trying to get his attention.

Finally the boy looked back up at you, his tongue darting out to wet his lips as if they were suddenly parched. “S-sorry. I just... I’ve always thought about...” he paused before gulping. “I’ve never been with anyone before.”

Your eyes widened at that, though you’d be lying if you said you weren’t elated by the news. “Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve always been so in love with you... I know it sounds crazy since I’m just a servant and you’re the princess, but I’ve always kind of been saving myself for you,” he admitted with a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck. “Not that I ever actually thought it would happen, of course. I just never wanted anyone else.”

Your eyes threatened to fill with tears; never had you been so touched and overjoyed by someone’s words than you were by his in this very moment. “Jungkook... I feel the same way,” you told him, an emotional smile lighting up your features. “I’ve never wanted anyone else like this... and I know I never will. I don’t care if I’m supposed to keep my vows of chastity until marriage. I want you to be my first.”

You watched as Jungkook’s lips trembled, but before he could say anything else he suddenly slammed his lips back onto yours. You welcomed the kiss, moaned into it as your mouths parted and your tongues danced together to a song of love. And when his knees parted your legs and your felt the precum on his tip coat your folds, you knew lucky you were to be the only person to experience this part of Jungkook. You would never take it for granted.

After making sure that you were ready and expecting his intrusion, he finally began to push inside of you, his girth tearing your insides and filling them for the very first time.

“Ah!” You cried out, the unfamiliar sensation startling you and causing your core to clench defensively.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Jungkook was there in an instant, his eyebrows knit in concern and his eyes searching your face for any signs of pain or regret. “Does it hurt, my love?”

The butterflies in your stomach from hearing the term of endearment on his lips distracted you from the stinging between your legs. “A little... don’t stop, though!” You quickly wrapped your legs around his waist to keep him from pulling out for your sake. “It’s just because I’ve never been... f-filled in this way before,” you mumbled, somewhat embarrassed by your explicit words. “You’re so... big.”

Jungkook’s brows didn’t unfurrow. “I don’t want to cause you any pain.”

“It’s a good pain, I promise,” you reassured him, your voice still breathless as your inner walls adjusted to his size. “Please, keep going.”

Jungkook bit his lower lip and gave you a wary look before finally starting to rock his hips at a snail’s pace, not wanting to push into you the rest of the way until you were stretched and comfortable. “I’ve got you, princess.” He leaned his head down to pepper sweet kisses across your face, down into the crook of your neck until he was whispering against the shell of your ear. “You’re doing so well for me.”

His praise and affection eased the tension throughout your body and you felt yourself start to relax against the dirt and his body cradled above you, careful not to run your fingers against the clean lacerations on his back and instead wrapping your arms around his neck while your legs circled his hips.

You felt so safe while hugging him—like even when everything in the world was against the two of you, you’d be okay because you had each other. You didn’t know how you’d gone so long without giving into your feelings for him.

Asking him to share his stolen sweet roll with you when you were seven was undoubtedly the best decision of your life.

“Oh god, you feel so good,” Jungkook groaned, and you could tell he was having trouble holding himself back from pounding into you. “You are—ah!—the best thing I’ve ever felt. Are you still okay?”

You felt your chest swell with pride at his words, and the sight of him barely hanging on by a thread had your core doubling over in desire. “Yes baby, please... let go,” you reassured him, leaning your forehead against his and letting your heavy breaths mingle while you gazed deeply into his eyes. “Make love to me like I know you want to.”

Your words seemed to be the kick that Jungkook needed, and suddenly all of his caution was thrown to the wind. His grip moved to your hips and tightened on your skin; his hips began to speed up and caused an explosion of pleasure to burst within your core. And when the tip of his dick hit the deepest part of your walls and had you seeing stars, his mouth was on your neck biting and sucking your skin as your tossed your head back.

“Oh my god, Jungkook!” You cried out, not even able to think about the servants who were sleeping mere feet away from where the two of you were in the woods. Expletives that you never even knew were in your vocabulary flew from your lips like a symphony with your moans. “Fuck, please don’t stop, it feels so good!”

“Yeah, you like that?” Jungkook grit his teeth as his cock rammed into you, the sound of his hips slamming your ass with each thrust adding to the lewd, wet sounds that filled the forest. “You take my dick so fucking well, baby. Oh my god, you’re perfect.”

His eyes never left your face as he continued fucking into you, lest it was the briefest of moments when he’d look down to marvel at the way his length would disappear inside of you. Even when he would lean down to devour your chest, his lips, nose and face desperate to be against every inch of the supple flesh, he’d still flicker his eyes back up to you, wanting to watch the erotic expressions that danced across your features every time he did something that drove you mad with arousal.

“I... I think I’m gonna finish soon,” he finally breathed out, his voice shaky and wavering from a mixture of the overflowing amount of pleasure coursing through his veins and the nerves he felt from not wanting to leave you unsatisfied. “I want you to come too.”

You focused in on his expression, the way his hair was damp with sweat and hanging in his big eyes that stared down at you like you were the entire world. “I wanna feel you come around my cock,” he continued when he locked your gaze with his and felt the way you quivered and trembled around him. “I’ve dreamt about this I don’t know how many times, and you’re so much better than my imagination, princess.” He let out a pleasured sigh teetering on the edge of its breaking point. “I love you so much Y/N. Come for me.”

And as if cued on command, you suddenly felt the tightly sprung coil that was holding all of your sanity snap within you, and you were coming, coming until all you could register was a white hot bolt of euphoria snapping through every vein of your body like a lightning strike. Your hips bucked and your back arched and your vision blurred with such intensity that you had to squeeze your eyes shut and let the wave of sexual bliss wash over you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Everything else around you grew fuzzier and fuzzier until it didn’t exist at all, and then you were sighing, the world slowly unraveling its spiral as you started to come down from your high.

“Holy shit, Y/N!” Jungkook cried out, his voice hitched to an erotic octave that you’d never heard before there was suddenly a warm, thick substance shooting into your walls, and the pulsing sensation caused your high to climb back into your throat until you were riding the aftereffects of your orgasm that were prolonged well after you had finished.

“Oh my god,” you sighed on exhale, your chest rising and falling with heavy breaths as you started to realize which parts of your body were sweating. Things started to come into focus that had previously been blurred at the edges or just gone completely, and it was with that hyper awareness that you felt the heat of Jungkook’s heavy breaths against your sticky skin.

It was silent for awhile until the boy enveloping your body like a warm blanket finally spoke. “That was... wow.” His voice was breathless, ragged. He turned his head from the crook of his neck so that his eyes could meet yours. “I love you.”

Even though he already confessed to you, each time you heard those three little words fall from his lips felt like the first time. “I love you too, Jungkook,” you smiled, and it was when he rolled onto the ground next to you that you remembered the lacerations adorning his back, because he let out a light hiss of pain and sat up slightly. “Oh god, I’m so sorry—I didn’t hurt them while we were doing anything, did I?” You quickly sat up as well and put your hand on his shoulder in concern. “No, I’m okay,” Jungkook shook his head and winced slightly before reaching up to grab your hand in his and placing a soft, tender kiss to the back of your knuckles. “I actually forgot about them... you’re a good distraction.” His lips curled up into a mischievous grin. You giggled at his words, glad to know that you were somehow able to help after all like you’d originally wanted to when you came down here. You reclined onto your back against the ground only to pull him against you so that he was curled into your body and nothing was touching his wounds, your lids heavy with contentment as you gazed up at the stars peaking above the treetops. “I wish we could stay like this.”

“Mm, so do I,” Jungkook hummed, and the sound of his slowly calming heart beating beneath his chest could’ve lulled you to sleep if you let it. “But we have to be getting back. If anyone were to notice you’re not in your chambers, or if anyone heard us...”

Your cheeks heated up at his words. Even if you weren’t to get in trouble, just the thought alone of someone hearing you have sex made your insides flip with embarrassment. “Were we really being that loud?”

Jungkook shared your sheepish smile. “I don’t know... I was too caught up in the moment to tell. I don’t want anyone else hearing your moans, though... they’re all mine.”

“Mm, only for you,” you smirked back at him as the two of you leaned in for another kiss, this one lasting a bit longer since you knew it would be one of your last for the time being. “Promise me we won’t go back to the way things were when the morning comes,” you spoke again after pulling away, busying yourself by watching the way you played with his fingers.

“The way things were?”

“When we act like the other doesn’t exist.” There was a frown gracing your lips as you looked back up at him. You didn’t think you could take it if he went back to avoiding your eyes and ignoring your presence tomorrow morning. “Of course we have to keep this hidden from the guards and everyone else, but... I don’t want to lose you.”

Jungkook smiled softly while he helped you to your feet, carefully retrieving your panties and nightdress from the forest floor before handing them to you. “You could never lose me, princess.” He leaned down to press a gentle kiss to your forehead. “I’m yours.”

After getting dressed and parting ways around the side of the servant quarters—after sharing an impossible amount of kisses, of course—you swiftly kept to the shadows and made your way back to your bedroom window before anyone could notice you were gone. The darkness of the night sky still surrounded you, though the moon was lower in the sky, as if the faint promises of morning were about to peek out from the other side of the horizon at any moment. Thankfully your handmaidens never woke you until after the early hours of dawn, and so you crawled back into your bedroom, slipped beneath the covers, and finally drifted off to sleep without a single problem.

You awoke to the sound of knocking on your door.

Immediately your thoughts were filled with Jungkook. Had the joys and thrills of last night only been a dream? You wanted to rush over to your bedroom window and look out upon the garden to spot him and see if he acknowledged you, if only to give you some sort of reassurance that you really did make love to him last night, though you knew you had to remain in bed like you did every morning to not arouse suspicion. And so when you called out that your handmaidens may enter, it was no surprise to you that the three of them swept in with as much cheer as the sun on this bright summer day.

“Did you get enough sleep last night, your grace?” One of them asked as they brushed your hair at the vanity you were sat in front of. “You seem to have dark circles under your eyes.”

“Mm, I slept wonderfully,” you stretched with a grin, unable to wipe the expression from your lips since you’d woken up.

Once they were finished styling your hair, you were led behind the ornate paneling where you would change your clothes with privacy. After layers and layers of crinoline to make the skirt of your dress appear round and full and the tightening of your corset that nearly stole all the air from your lungs and crushed your insides, you finally threw on the final dress and stepped into your shoes before making your way outside your chambers. But much to your surprise, the guard who normally stood on the other side of your door waiting to lead you down the corridor was not there.

“Is something wrong?” You knitted your brows and asked one of your handmaidens, but she simply shrugged her shoulders and looked around, seemingly just as confused as you were.

“Get outside!” You suddenly heard someone at the end of the corridor shout to a group of guards that stood outside the dining hall, which is where you were supposed to be heading to break the fast. “We need all the hands we can get!”

You frowned before hurrying down the corridor and towards the castle’s front entrance as well, curious and confused beyond belief as to what could possibly be causing this kind of commotion. But as soon as you stepped outside, your gasp of breath caught in your throat.

Because hanging over the side of the front gate was a thick layer of black, beautifully haunting roses.

You couldn’t believe your eyes. Had you ever seen black roses before? Surely you had read about them in your fantasy story books, but never had you seen or even heard about them existing in real life. And how could someone have the time to weave them together like a sturdy curtain and hang them over the front gate without getting caught? You had been outside almost all night long—surely you would’ve heard someone moving around, or if not, at least seen them hanging it. But sure enough, you knew nothing; it was as if they weren’t here and then they were in the blink of an eye.

“Wow...” you breathed out, stunned at the fantastic sight. “They’re... beautiful.”

“They’re a pain,” a guard, whom you bitterly noticed was the same one who whipped Jungkook yesterday, grumbled as he walked passed. “We were supposed to send out a shipment today, and now all caravans leaving the castle will have to be put on hold. What a waste.”

You watched as he shook his head before stalking off again. Serves you right, you couldn’t help but think to yourself. Maybe this blanket of black roses could serve a second purpose as karma for the lacerations he gave Jungkook yesterday.

Jungkook. Where was he? You quickly looked around only to see annoyed guards and servants alike who all would have to deal with this mess. Surely Jungkook would be one of them since he worked outside with gardening and flowers every day?

Maybe he’s in the infirmary to keep his wounds from getting infected, you thought to yourself. At least, that’s what you hoped as you went about your day, your lessons extending even longer than usual to make up for the time you lost yesterday. By the time you were finished it was almost time for the evening meal, and when you wandered outside for a stroll through the gardens, you saw that the black roses were down.

To your excitement, you finally spotted Jungkook over at the edge of the gardens, almost touching the tree line. You tried to make the pace of your steps casual, nonchalant, so that if anyone looked over they wouldn’t notice the way your heart was practically leaping out of your chest with desire to spend time with the gardening servant.

“Hi,” you spoke with a sheepish smile when you got close enough for him to hear you.

“Your grace,” Jungkook stood and bowed when he saw you, as every servant does, though when he looked back up you saw a gleam in his eyes and a smile on his lips that let you know there was no way last night was just a dream.

You looked around, careful to make sure no watchful eyes were on you before you took a seat on a nearby bench. There was no harm in resting, right? The benches were here for a reason, after all, and nobody would scold Jungkook because he was still doing his work in the flowerbed.

“How are your cuts doing?” You asked, wanting to get your concerns out of the way first before you could relax. “They’re not as bad now; a little sore after last night, but I tend to heal quickly.” He looked over to you with a grin before adding, “I went to the infirmary this morning to keep them from getting infected. See?” He lifted up the back of his shirt, revealing a thick layer of gauze covering the entire expanse of wounded skin. “Good as new.” “Having to wear bandages is not good as new,” you pointed out with a teasing smile, and Jungkook just chuckled in reply. “But I’m glad you’re taking care of them.” “Mm, more like you’re taking care of me,” Jungkook pointed out as he turned back to the garden. “The healer said if I hadn’t cleaned them the night before, they would’ve festered.” You watched as a small smile appeared on his lips while his eyes were trained on the dirt. “So thank you.” Your brows shot up at this news; thank god you snuck out when you did, or else he would be in even more pain than he was at first. “Of course. You know I’d... do anything for you,” you admitted after a slight sheepish pause, still unfamiliar with confessing your feelings to him out in the open since you kept them bottled inside all these years. This time Jungkook did look over at you, and you could tell from the emotion gleaming in his eyes that in that moment he wanted to do nothing but embrace you. “So would I, Y/N. I mean it.” You bit down on your bottom lip to suppress the giddy grin that was spreading across your face and looked down at your lap, not wanting to make it seem like the two of you were having a conversation if anyone were to look over. “Did you see?” You asked after a moment’s pause, changing the subject if only to settle your fluttering heart. “The wall of black roses?”

“Oh, yeah.” Jungkook paused to rub the sweat from the back of his neck, the dirt on his hands leaving a brown smudge across his skin. “What did you think of them?”

“I thought they were beautiful,” you sighed, unable to hide the somewhat dreamy tone from your voice as you thought about the rare spectacle. Nothing out of the ordinary every happened within the castle walls, so waking up to the dark curtain was more excitement than you’d had in years—excluding last night, that is. “Who do you think did them?”

Jungkook smiled, seeming pleased by your answer. “So did I. They reminded me of you, since roses are one of your favorite flowers.” Your heart fluttered as you exchanged a wistful glance before he continued. “I don’t know. Maybe someone who wanted to stop the shipments for the day, since they’re back up on the schedule and won’t get sent out til who-knows-when now.” He shrugged as he continued to pat the rich soil around a sprouting peony.

“But... how?”

“Probably magic,” Jungkook paused to glance at you over his shoulder.

You raised your brows in shock at his answer. “But magic is outlawed! Who would possess the power to create a whole wall like that; and so close to the castle, too?”

You didn’t know much about magic, since the practice of it was outlawed when you were just a baby thanks to an evil sorcerer they called the Necrolord. Legend has it that he grew mad with dark magic and almost wiped out the entire kingdom; thanks to your father, he was killed and a ban on magic was put into motion, and now the kingdom was nearly restored.

That would mean whoever casted a spell that covered the front gate in a curtain of black roses not only had to practice magic often enough to get their power that high, but also did it somewhere near the castle—somewhere near the man who outlawed magic in the first place. Surely the guards would’ve noticed something like that going on?

“I don’t know... but whoever it was, I’m thankful for them.” Jungkook’s words surprised you, and when you looked back over at him he had a soft smile on his lips. “I overheard the guards this morning talking about sending me over to another castle’s land. If anything, the roses distracted them enough to completely forget about me. Not to mention I helped take down a majority of them; I’m hoping that will convince them that I can be useful here.”

You hated that he associated his self-worth to the amount of work he did around here; you hated it. But unless you possessed the ability to destroy all roles of social class and people’s opinions of it in their mind, there was no way Jungkook would think otherwise. After all, to everyone else, he was just a servant. But to you, he was the world.

He went back to watching his hands knead beneath the dirt as another gardening servant passed by, waiting until they bowed to you and walked out of earshot before he continued. “But, I did get you one of these before they were all thrown away...” He paused to lift up the hem of his shirt, and just when your heartbeat was about to pound out of your chest at the sight, Jungkook pulled out one of the black roses that he hid within the waistband of his pants. “For you, my princess.” His voice was barely above a whisper now as he sat the flower on the walkway so that you could pick it up when you left.

Your lips parted in surprise, awe. Had he really risked stealing one of the roses and getting in trouble just to give it to you? “Oh Jungkook...” you trailed off, emotion swelling in your chest. You fought of the urge to run up to him and kiss him. “Thank you so much. I love it.”

“I knew you would,” he scrunched his nose up in a grin, the sight tugging on your heartstrings as it always did. “Hopefully it never dies; you can put it in your room and think of me.”

“It’s going right by my bedside,” you replied reverently, double checking to make sure nobody was listening in as you said your next words. “I love you.”

Jungkook glanced over at you, careful not to make his gestures to grand though his expression lit up at your words. “I love you too, Y/N.”

You felt much better about going to your evening meal tonight than you did last night.

After reluctantly leaving Jungkook’s side in the garden since you knew your handmaidens would arrive at your chambers at any second to get you ready, you swiftly picked up the black rose he left for you on the ground and stuffed it into your sleeve so that none of the guards would spot it on your way back. You stopped by the kitchen to grab a tall, thin glass vase and filled it up with water before heading back to your room and placing the flower inside and on your nightstand. When your handmaidens noticed it and asked you where you’d gotten it from, you lied rather bluntly that you’d stolen one from the pile before the guards could throw them out. They knew you were always getting into things you weren’t supposed to, so it didn’t come as much of a surprise to them.

The guard who normally led you to and from your meals in the dining hall was waiting outside your door this time, unlike this morning thanks to all the chaos that ensued. You bowed your head in thanks to the older man before taking your usual seat next to where your parents would sit at the head of the table.

They were always last to arrive, and so like every meal before this one, you stood for their grand entrance and kissed their cheeks respectfully before sitting back down. Everything that happened at these dinners was all a formality for show; in actuality you weren’t very close to your parents. You’d been a part of one too many arguments to repair your relationship with them about how they wished they had gotten a more responsible, well-behaved daughter to rule the future kingdom. You just never saw eye to eye on anything.

That being said, these evening meals were usually rather tame, with gossip within the royal court buzzing around concerning certain lords and ladies that you usually didn’t care enough about to be interested in. However, when your father remained standing after everyone else had taken their seats, you realized tonight was going to be different.

“If I may have everyone’s attention please,” your father’s booming voice echoed through the dining hall. “Everyone knows my daughter, Princess Y/N, has finally become the age that one must start thinking about a betrothal.”

You stiffened as all eyes turned to you, though you were used to the attention by now. You had all eyes on your father, brows knit and confusion written all over your expression. What was he on about now?

“So I am happy to announce that I have found someone suitable to rule as future king at my daughter’s side, and I’ve arranged for him to take her hand in marriage,” he calmly explained.

Your vision started tunneling. This had to be a mistake, right? Surely he was playing some cruel practical joke on you. Your father would never arrange a betrothal for you without speaking to you about it first.

“His name is Lord Min Yoongi, and he will be arriving here tonight.”

[unsent-voicemail]

Didn’t Mean To (Lance Tucker x Female!Reader)

I'm sorry, baby.

warnings: sexual content, cursing

* inspired by this song. * comments and feedback, as always, are welcomed

The night was pitch black and silent, save for the hooting of owls here and there, and the soft moans and sighs coming from a luxury car parked in front of a simple house situated in a quaint, suburban neighborhood, making the area look even more simple than it actually was. Unbeknownst to its residents who were deep in their slumber, the sordid, vulgar acts they have been working so hard to keep their children away from was happening right in the lone sports car parked on their humble little street.

Lance Tucker, their hometown hero and god of gymnastics, sat in the driver’s seat as his hot date made herself comfortable on his lap. In spite of her dress limiting her movement, she did the best with what she had to straddle his toned thighs in order to capture his lips from a better angle. Her actions were very much welcomed as he moved his warm hands from her waist to her ass, cupping and squeezing the plush flesh he found there. In response, she jolted up a little and moaned into his mouth, further pressing her body into his, wanting to feel more and more of him.

“Fuck, baby.” Lance whispered when they pulled away to breathe, lightly pinching and squeezing her gifted backside. “I can’t wait to just fuck you.” he muttered gruffly, gingerly taking one of her hands in his and moving it towards the tent that had formed in his pants. Caught in the moment, she let out an impressed gasp and grinned widely at him, her hands moving to cup and massage his clothed member.

As high as she was on the sordid pleasure, reality started to dawn on her once she remembered just who her date was, while he took the liberty to creep his fingers up her dress. Lance treated her like royalty the entire night while being his smooth, sexy, and hilarious self, and she sure had a lot of fun– so much so that she was certainly looking forward to seeing him again. However, she neither deny nor ignore the fact that he didn’t have the best reputation when it came to relationships and dating. Her friends have warned her about five hundred times on the days leading up to her date with Lance about how much of a “fuck boy douchebag” he was, but she didn’t listen– she didn’t believe in forming conclusions about people up until she experienced it firsthand.

“Um...” she broke the heated moment awkwardly. Abruptly but slowly leaning away from him, resting her back gently on the steering wheel as she made sure she wouldn’t apply enough pressure for the horn to go off. “Hey... Lance. Hey.” was all she was able to say, feeling her throat run dry and her jaw tightened while she carefully pondered on how to be frank without being rude or ungrateful.

The brunette gymnast merely cocked an eyebrow in response as he waited for her to spit it out. Sensing that she seemed to be disturbed with the way she wiped off the lipstick that had smeared on the sides of her mouth whilst she avoided his gaze, he reached out to gently place a hand on her cheek. “What’s wrong?” his voice was low and calming, a far cry from the arrogance and superiority his tone usually carried. It seemed to help her nerves from further going haywire, but she needed way more than that for her to convey her thoughts like a proper person.

“I, uh... I’m... I...” she stammered like an idiot, feeling her jaw tremble with anxiety with each word that escaped her lips. Lance frowned slightly in worry and curiosity upon seeing how bothered she seem to be. Seeing how his patience was seemingly wearing thin, she inhaled deeply and rested her hands on his chest, mentally preparing herself for the most idiotic monologue of the century that would definitely cost her the chance of getting with the man she actually enjoyed being with and talking to. “I think... I think we could save where this is going for some other time.” she said in one breath, immediately screwing her eyes shut upon doing so before opening them again as she avoided his gaze. 

“What do you mean?” Lance was genuinely perplexed; their date was going great, and he deliberately pushed his ego-starved, asshole persona aside for the date because he really, really liked this woman. For once in his playboy life, he could actually see himself getting serious and going far with her. God, I hope I didn’t mess up.

“I mean... You... What I mean is...” there it was– she seemed to have lost her ability to articulate herself like an actual adult and make a fool out of herself. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, she tried her best to keep eye contact with him to prove her sincerity. “Lance... you have this reputation for being a hit-it-and-quit-it kind of guy. It’s not that I believe what people say! I just... you know...” she trailed off and her voice died down upon seeing how crushed he look with her statement. Fuck, I should have just feigned a migraine!

“I know.” he answered somberly, slightly ducking his head in shame. At that moment, he regret ever adapting a big-headed, smug fuck boy persona and even indulging in it at times given that it was starting to catch up with him, and now the prospect of ever having a serious, long-term relationship was as good as reaching for the stars. He doesn’t blame her, though, as he would be just as wary if he were about to sleep with a man rumored to irresponsibly father multiple children and probably had an infection or two– both rumors were completely false and ridiculous, and not to mention insulting. “I get it, and it’s totally cool.” he added, faking a smile although the hurt was very much evident in his eyes.

Clearing his throat and shifting to get her off him, he tried his best to keep a collected facade, though she knew better than to buy into it. Refusing to budge, she gently cupped Lance face in her hands and mustered all the courage to look him in the eye, her gaze softening upon seeing the insecurity and dejection deeply set in those pretty eyes of his. Smiling softly to encourage him, she took a deep breath for what seemed like the nth time that night and slightly parted her lips in preparation of what she was about to say.

“Lance, what I mean is that I don’t give a fuck about how many women you’ve been with or how many diseases you’ve allegedly caught along the way.” she almost ate her words out of fear of sounding ridiculous, but she just had to speak her mind or further fuck this up by withholding the truth. “I just... I guess I just don’t want you to quit just yet. I don’t want you to quit on me or on this– whatever this is we have right now.” she realized that was starting to ramble as her nerves bubbled in her throat and gut, making her hurriedly shut her mouth, and turn to tracing random patterns on the front of his shirt as she looked down and avoided his gaze.

Lance felt a wave of relief wash over him as he was thankful that she didn’t think he was the scum of the earth, unlike what every other rumor-believing person thought of him, along with gratitude and warmth as he finally met a woman who was willing to stay with him in spite of his flaws and shortcomings. Smiling sincerely and gently, he reached up to intertwine his fingers in hers, bring her hand to his lips to press tender kiss across the back of her hand. With a blush painting her cheeks, she looked up to momentarily meet his eyes before looking away and grinning like a lovestruck fool.

“90-day rule, then?” Lance broke the silence they basked in as they registered how into each other they were. Feeling a bit bolder with the way things turned out, she playfully smirked and tapped her chin as if she were deep in thought. “Oh, come on, sugar.” he chuckled out, lightly pinching her bottom.

“Well, let’s see where this takes us.” she replied with a sweet, sincere smile. “I would agree to that, but I honestly don’t know if I’d last.” her confession was accompanied by a bashful giggle, followed by her burying her heated face in his chest. Lance chuckled in amusement, wrapping an arm around her and pressing a kiss to her hair to let her know that there was nothing to be shy about– he would have said the same thing after all.

After a few moments of comfortable silence spent wrapped up in each other’s arms, she felt her eyelids grow heavy and her body slowly succumb to the drowsiness that washed over her. Suppressing a yawn, she moved to pull away from Lance’s embrace and sit up. "Well, I think it’s time for me to say goodbye, Lance.” she said, shooting him an apologetic smile as she would have loved to just stay in the cramped driver’s seat, comfortably straddling his lap as she basked in his embrace. 

“Aw, man.” was all that Lance was able to say, feigning a pout that made her giggle and lightly swat his arm. “I’ll see you on our next date, then, babe.” he huskily said with the smirk that got her hooked at first sight. Grinning widely at his implication that there will be a second date (and presumably a third and fourth), she nodded in affirmation before moving to gather her purse and slide off his lap. 

“I really had fun tonight, Lance.” she said with a whole-hearted grin once she got herself together. He simply smiled back at her, eyes crinkling at the sides while his cheeks felt like they could burst with how wide he was smiling– it was a sincere, love-drunk smile he rarely showed people. “I’ll see you on our next date, yeah?” she asked as her voice was reduced to a shy, soft tone, while he simply nodded in response as he kept his eyes fixed on hers.

Whispering a “bye”, she moved to exit his car, only to immediately turn back and press a big kiss on his lips. Once she felt him reciprocate and snake his tongue out to part her lips, she immediately pulled away and waved coyly, wasting no time in getting out of the car and running towards her front door. As much as he was taken aback, Lance couldn’t do anything but gaze at her with such admiration as he sighed contently.

Shamelessly adjusting the newly-formed bulge in his pants (who knew that it didn’t take much for her to turn the Lance Tucker on?), he proceeded to start his car and pulling out of the parking space, driving into night feeling like he was on top of the world because my God, she got him.

[aiikawarazu]

Hourglass Chapter #19

Title: Serendipity

Rated: M

Summary:  Armin fought to prove Mikasa’s innocence, while Mikasa and Eren both tried to find a way to overcome the incident between them, and come to term with their feelings.

FFNet here

Disclaimer: I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin (I wish I did... then I wouldn’t make them suffer as much...)

- All of this isn't a coincidence

Just just my own feelings -

It was, to put it short, a very beautiful day for winter.

It was chilly still, just several degrees above zero. But Mikasa checked the weather forecast in her phone early that morning before heading to school – and there should be no rain nor snow today. It was, finally, a winter day full of sunshine.

However, Mikasa could feel nothing in her heart except dark, gloomy, out-of-the-mood irony.

"Mikasa! Breakfast is ready!" She heard her mom calling her from downstairs. "Coming!" she answered. But she didn't budge from her place in front of the mirror. Carefully, she took out a hairbrush and started brushing her hair, trying to find any strands to detangle, staring at her reflection absent-mindedly.

Actually she knew, her smooth black strands required no more brushing. She was just trying to put off going to school for as long as possible.

"Mikasa!" Her mother called the second time. Mikasa heaved a deep sigh and put down her hairbrush. She took a pair of fresh socks and started putting them on, taking her time to do it much more slowly than usual. She counted until five minutes had passed. Then she ran down the stairs just as her mother was about to call her the third time.

"Finally," she said. "What took you so long…?"

"I woke up late, sorry," she apologized and took her seat on the table. Her mother had cooked her some eggs, along with fresh vegetable salad. Mikasa began scooping rice into her bowl and grabbed her chopsticks, while Kyoko helped her with two pieces of sunny-side up. "Eat your veggies," she reminded her daughter. Mikasa nodded wordlessly and started digging in.

Truth was, she really didn't want to go to school. Maybe she should pretend that she had a fever. But her mother would know as soon as she checked her temperature.

Mikasa let out another sigh before she knew it. Her mother raised an eyebrow.

"Is something wrong?"

Yes, Mikasa wanted to answer.

If she remembered correctly, a boy just kissed her yesterday.

Out of nowhere.

In the middle of the street, in a public place where anyone could have seen them.

And then, as though not to make matters worse, he left just as suddenly, saying that he 'was sorry' because he 'didn't mean it'. Mikasa didn't know how anybody could have kissed another person like that and not mean it. Was that supposed to be normal? Or was she the one too inexperienced at these things?

She needed answers. But she was too afraid to initiate anything, so she hadn't talked to Eren again since then. The boy hadn't contacted her either.

As a result, she almost couldn't sleep the night. Even now, Mikasa found herself torn in between. Half of her really didn't want to see that boy (she didn't even know what kind of face she was supposed to make when she saw him) – but another half was dying to see him, just to ask what was going on between them yesterday.

She took another deep sigh.

"I'll be going now," she said, finally realizing that the latter side had won. Staying home will only exemplify the magnitude of questions she already had in her head right now – and sooner or later she would have to see him – so why not now?

Mikasa rose from her seat and gave her mother a peck on both cheeks.

"Bye mom."

- The whole universe was different from yesterday

Just just from your happiness -

Mikasa was half worried that she might have run into Eren accidentally in the station. Trying to not make eye contact with anyone, she quickly swept her way past the exit, joining the crowd of students in Shiganshina North High uniform, all heading toward the same direction – up the hill, and past the front gate of their school.

Some students stopped to chat or greet their friends. Others who were walking in groups took their time to walk slowly. Mikasa slipped past a group of male students from 3rd grade – who were discussing loudly about the football game last night – bowed politely to a teacher who stood near the entrance to school building, grabbed her slippers from her shoe locker and quickly left. As she climbed the flight of stairs and took a right turn toward the end of the corridor, Mikasa slightly prayed that her expressions wouldn't betray her when she finally saw him.

Which was, she realized, near impossible.

The buzzing sound of early morning conversation reached her the moment she opened the sliding door. No one uttered a single greeting to her – not even a simple 'hello' or 'good morning' – but Mikasa was used to the silent treatment by then. She proceeded to her table, only to find that her bullies simply didn't take any rest. She stared straight, unblinking, to the word 'TRASH' formed by capital black letters, which glared at her silently from the shiny surface of her table.

Of course. She had come to school too late today – much later than her usual early morning schedule. As a result, she now felt the prowling glances of her classmates on her back, waiting to see her reaction. As if. She wasn't going to ever give them the satisfaction. After a few moments of silence, Mikasa carefully put down her book bag and started the routine – which was slowly becoming like a habit – of cleaning up her table.

Her lack of reaction seemed to disappoint her eager classmates. Reluctantly, they went back to chatting – resuming their previous discussion which was cut off due to her arrival. As she continued cleaning her table – Mikasa felt a strange tug in her heart. It wasn't pain. She wasn't hurt. She didn't care that she was being bullied by the whole school. Surprisingly, what she felt in her heart was pure, unadulterated pity.

She pitied all her classmates, all the students in school who commenced the bullying toward her. They wanted her to feel lonely. They tried their best to treat her like she was invisible, the scum of the earth, like someone who never belonged in their society.

But they never knew. She had felt that way since a long, long time ago. All the time she spent enduring the abuse in her house had made her change, though not for the better. She'd lost track of how many times that bastard of a stepfather had made her feel like a trash. There were countless times when she felt empty – pained, and hurt, she almost thought of taking her own meaningless life. But she struggled, through and through. And the only way she found to keep clinging to this life was to desperately hide her scars, her insecure self, by pretending to be someone she wasn't.

She wanted to be everyone's definition of perfect. Because she knew – it was the only way for her to ever get along with people – to make friends. Had she shown even an inch of her weak and pitiful self to anyone – no one would ever want to approach her.

And now – these people thought that they managed to exile her, made her suffer. They were terribly wrong. Their abuse was nothing compared to her past horror. It was like child's play – it didn't affect her one bit. But of course, Mikasa couldn't bear herself to tell them the truth.

She finished cleaning up her table, and put away her washcloth. Now sitting on her chair, she stared listlessly ahead.

It wasn't that she felt she didn't belong with them now. She'd never belonged there since the beginning.

- I'm afraid, just as much as my heart flutters

Because fate keeps being envious of us -

His chair was empty.

Mikasa tried to keep herself from looking – but found her eyes helplessly darting between Eren's table and the door. A million thoughts were racing in her head.

When is he going to come? Is he absent? Is he avoiding her? Is it because of yesterday? And then…

What the fuck is she going to do if he really doesn't come? She couldn't possibly endure this pain for another day!

She was distracted for a while when the morning bell finally rang – and Mr. Levi entered the classroom for homeroom period. The students rose from their seat, bowed politely to him, and sat back down, waiting for him to make a call roll.

Mikasa's name was the first to be called. She rose her hand. And Mr. Levi went on the next names on the list. One by one he called the student's names to check if they were present. And as he got closer to the bottom of the name list – Eren's chair was still empty.

Mikasa started tapping her fingers impatiently to the surface of her table. If the bullies wanted her to feel pain – this was the real pain. Waiting on him to show up (not knowing if he ever will) was torture, and telling her mind to shut up was even more agonizing. She tried to find other focus, but it lasted only for several seconds before her mind was back to him.

Will he ever show up?

Fortunately enough (or unfortunately), she heard the classroom door open a few moments later.

"'Sup."

Mikasa's body froze. He's here. She couldn't have mistaken that voice.

"Is that how you apologize for being late?" Mr. Levi's steely gaze greeted the boy, as he walked, ever so casually to his seat behind Mikasa. She didn't dare to turn.

"My alarm clock's dead," said Eren, slamming himself to his seat. "And homeroom's not over yet, so – guess I'm safe?"

"Sounds like you need me to get you a new one," Levi remarked, to which Eren replied lightly, "Sure Sir, could you get me a new TV too…? My old one's broken as well."

Several students gasped, probably horrified at how cheeky Eren could be toward a teacher – but Mikasa heard several others scoffed into their textbooks to hide their laughter. Levi's cold gaze swept the room, effectively silencing the class. Sometimes Mikasa still got the impression as though her uncle was secretly trained as a humanoid weapon. How else did he learn to give such cold, murdering gaze?

"And with that dramatic arrival from Yeager – our homeroom is over," Levi said dryly, clapping his attendance book closed with his left hand. "Ackerman, Yeager, report to me once the school is over for your detention duties."

"Yes, Sir," said them both in unison.

The room was once again abuzz with conversation once Levi slid the door closed. Usually, Eren would have reached straight to Mikasa, sitting directly in front of her – just to see her face, her smile, and talk about anything – or nothing – in particular. Today, however, he simply couldn't do it. From his seat, Eren could see that Mikasa had opened a grammar book and was reading intently. He got a strange feeling as though she was only pretending to read the content. But he didn't want to make her face this way.

He lied to Levi about his alarm clock being broken. He arrived late on purpose. As cowardly as it sounded, he really didn't want to face her after the mess he made yesterday. Hell, he didn't even know how to explain himself – or to apologize. He just kissed her. And left.

Kissed her and left! It sounded even worse every time he repeated it inside his head. He cringed every time his memories brought the fresh details of the events yesterday afternoon vividly. She was warm, and fragrant, and her lips were so… soft. Damn it. He was such a goddamn pervert! But seeing her in front of him now – her back to him, ever so calmly reading her book while he could see glimpses of her profile and her delicate shoulders – really didn't help him erase that memory.

His face burned. The heat was severe, he almost thought he had a fever. Hopelessly, he buried his face in his palms.

He just wanted today to pass quickly.

- I am just as afraid as you are

When you see me, when you touch me -

"Ayako, I need to talk to you about something," Mikasa said as soon as the bell rang, marking the start of lunch break. The brown-haired girl stared at her friend curiously. Mikasa really didn't seem like her usual composed self. She looked… urgent. Like she might explode if she had to wait another second before spilling her thoughts.

"Sure," said Ayako. "I'll just go grab something from the cafeteria for my lunch, and then let's head to Home Economics lab to meet with the others."

"NO," Mikasa pressed. Her tone caused Ayako to raise her eyebrows a bit. "Er… just today, I don't want to have lunch with the others. Let's have lunch, just the two of us."

"Okay… then let's buy something and eat our lunch here."

"No," Mikasa said again. "Let's have our lunch… outside."

To Mikasa's surprise, Ayako really didn't complain about her idea of having their lunch outside, in the garden, although the weather was freezing cold.

"Y-y-you'd better explain," Ayako's teeth started clattering. She was desperately holding her warm canned coffee with one hand and grabbing her pocket heater with the other hand to stop the cold from creeping in. "Before us both caught h-hypothermia for standing here too long in the cold."

"I'm sorry," Mikasa said automatically. She kind of felt bad toward her friend, but she really didn't want to risk anyone eavesdropping on their conversation. Thankfully, the garden was deserted (absolutely, because no one in their sane mind would have wanted to go outside in this cold).

"Why are we not having lunch with Yeager and Armin? Did something happen again between you and Yeager? I think I'm starting to get used to it," said Ayako, trying to keep her tone from being too sarcastic.

"No, it's just that… I have something I need to talk to you… privately."

Ayako looked curious. "And Yeager and Armin absolutely can't know about this? Wonder what's so important."

"That's why I'm telling you now. Ayako… I know you have more experience than me about boys…," Mikasa's intro caused Ayako to raise her eyebrows again, not quite following her friend's point. "And umm… I just wanted to ask…" for a moment Mikasa was uncomfortably playing with her fingers, clasping and unclasping them again, trying to arrange her thoughts into something comprehensible.

Waiting on her friend to finish her sentence, Ayako clicked open her canned coffee, and started sipping it. Her curious light brown eyes were on Mikasa all the while – trying to guess where the black-haired girl might have wanted to go with the topic of their conversation.

"Can boys really kiss someone without meaning to do it?"

Ayako almost spit her coffee. She was coughing rigorously for a few seconds – Mikasa patting her back all the while – as she tried to regain her train of thoughts. Whatever Ayako had expected Mikasa to say - she totally did not expect this question.

"That depends," Ayako said, after her coughing fits had passed. Cough cough. "I think they certainly can. Even I kissed a lot of people without really meaning it. Sometimes just because I was bored, or because I was curious how it would feel like. But then that's that – like you said, there really was no meaning to it." Mikasa's expression suddenly turned grim.

"I see, then," she said flatly.

Mikasa really didn't seem happy, that Ayako had to ask her what was going on. After a while, the former finally started again.

"Say you… say you know a boy. Just imagine that you have this boy you're really close with – but he's not your boyfriend."

This was getting weirder, but Ayako said nothing. She nodded. "Okay, done."

"Then," Mikasa continued, "One day this boy just… suddenly kissed you, out of nowhere. You were surprised, and it looked like he was surprised too. But then he left, saying he was sorry. He said he didn't mean the kiss." Mikasa paused. Ayako still stared at her strangely.

"What do you think it's supposed to mean? Was it just a one-time thing? Or… was… I mean, could there be any other meaning to it – to that kiss…?"

For a long while, Ayako stood without uttering any response. Mikasa's story went from weird to downright bizarre in a matter of seconds – and she was left with connecting the dots.

"Wait," said Ayako, trying to slowly shed some light in her friend's story. "Are you saying that a boy kissed you…."

"Not me," Mikasa protested, "It was my… my friend."

"Okay, so your friend was kissed by a boy who said that he didn't mean the kiss."

"Yes."

"And he said he was sorry?"

Mikasa nodded.

"And… what happened after that?"

"Nothing. The boy didn't say anything to her at all after the incident, and she was too afraid to ask so that's why – that's why I'm asking you right now." Mikasa flushed slightly at the end of her sentence, so she turned away quickly before Ayako could see her.

Ayako processed the facts in her head for a while before asking, "Were there feelings involved?"

Mikasa didn't answer, only her face was turning slowly - into a more obvious red.

"I don't know," she said finally. "He might be tipsy or something, or just lost in the spur of the moment. He might just have a slip-up, or like you said, just wanted to try something different. That might be why he –"

"Did Yeager kiss you yesterday?" Ayako asked. It was kind of a lucky guess, but she learned the truth the moment her friend's expression change from bemused to mildly shocked.

"Oh My God!" she squealed. "I was right, wasn't I? Did you kiss? Did you really kiss? How did that happen…? I can't believe you tried to hide this from me!"

Mikasa sighed, looking into Ayako's grinning face. She totally gave herself away.

"Fine," she said, scowling a little. "You won."

"So it was true…?" Ayako asked, slightly jumping upside-down on her spot, barely trying to conceal her excitement. "Did you and Yeager just… kissed yesterday? How did that happen?"

"We didn't kiss," Mikasa said in a half-groan. "Well, technically it was a kiss, but… Anyway… we were on the way home from school, and we stopped by the convenience store, and we were talking. And then it just – stop squealing, it wasn't like that! It just sort of… happened. But it's more like… he was the one who kissed me. And I was too surprised to do anything."

"Wow."

(Damn it, Yeager)

"And after that, he said he didn't mean it."

"What….?"

(Yeager, you fucking idiot)

"I just… I don't know…," Mikasa covered her lips. She could still feel him. His taste of coffee, and the smell of cigarette – even his soft breath on her skin was too real to ignore, and it's driving her mad. "I don't understand…. is that how boys are…? Can they really kiss someone without meaning it?"

"Umm…" Ayako contemplated for a while. Truth be told, Ayako did know Eren and his previous track records – she knew that the boy have had flings and make out sessions with girls left and right – girls he didn't even properly date. He probably – no, positively – had even gone further than a simple kiss or two with the girls that he dated (and the girls he did not). But Mikasa was unlike any of them. She was too pure, not to mention inexperienced.

And now Eren just treated her like she was one of those simple-minded girls out there. The girls he met at a blind-date events, in a bar, or in a karaoke. The girls he could make out with and bring home and see if he could get lucky with them. That made Ayako even angrier. She continued her inward cursing, trying to remember every single bad words she'd learned and direct them toward Eren. That idiot really couldn't read the circumstances. She didn't know if she should slap him on behalf of Mikasa – or kick him in the groin. She wanted to do both.

"Well – I don't know either," Ayako said finally with a shrug. "If you want to know what he meant – then talk to Yeager. I'm not a psychic. I can't understand his thoughts."

"I don't want to," Mikasa said, half-panicked at the thoughts of facing him directly. "Ayako, I can't. I can't face him. And I certainly can't ask him if yesterday's kiss meant something."

"Wow, Mikasa. For once in a while, you are totally human." Ayako wanted to laugh, but she restrained herself after a close look at her friend's upset face. In spite of everything, Ayako did know Mikasa very well. At this stage, she could see through her friend's mind as easily as though she was seeing them from behind a glass window. Nevertheless, she tried her best to repress further teasing remarks that were on the tip of her tongue.

Because this was such a simple matter. And Mikasa's inability to make sense of things somewhat amused her, if not making her more exasperated. Sure, Eren did make things difficult for her - but the answer was so easy. Mikasa, of course, will still struggle to find answers in matters concerning the heart, instead of the brain.

Ayako decided to give her friend a little extra hint.

"Why are you so afraid to ask Yeager now?" she asked, eyeing her best friend closely for her reaction. She could almost hear Mikasa's brain thinking.

"Why? There's no specific reason but – is it supposed to be normal to just ask him casually 'why did you kiss me'?" Even Mikasa could feel her insides blushing at that prospect. "That sounds silly to me, or even more – it's embarrassing."

"Look here, I can't help you to understand what Yeager thought of that kiss," Ayako continued, rather carefully. "But at least, I can help you to not lie to your own feelings. Or," she contemplated for a few split seconds, "I can help you come to terms with them."

"Come to terms with what? You're not making any sense now."

Mikasa slowly turned to look into Ayako's furtive smile, and immediately, she felt strange. Her best friend looked like she knew something about Mikasa, that she herself didn't.

"Hey, Mikasa. Just… give me your honest answer, okay?" Now it's Mikasa's turn to be confused by how serious her best friend sounded. Ayako heaved a deep sigh.

"Did the kiss actually mean something… for you?"

"For… me?" Mikasa blinked at Ayako's question. "How is this connected? I thought we were talking about Yeager." Ayako gave a tired sigh. Surely, there was a limit to how thick someone could be.

"Summer is going to come before you even realize what's going on with yourself," Ayako let out a desperate laugh, slightly covering her face with one hand. "Or… we will both be rushed to the hospital in a few hours, because we caught hypothermia. Well, I don't want to continue standing here in the cold, so… I'll make this quick. Lend me your ears now, Mikasa," she pulled the other girl closer and leaned forward to whisper in her ears.

"Hey, what the -?" Mikasa tried to pull away, but Ayako impatiently yanked her back, shus-ing.

"Shut up! I'm only going to say it once, so listen carefully." She looked satisfied when Mikasa finally gave her the undivided attention.

"You are…"

- You are my Penicillin, the one who saved me

My angel, my world -

Armin knew something was wrong. The moment Eren stepped inside the Home Economics lab on his own, announcing that Mikasa and Ayako won't be joining them today – Armin eyed him with his typical scrutinizing look. He didn't say a word and nodded calmly at Eren's explanation – of why the two of them were absent - but then, ever so lightly, followed it up with a killer question.

"So what did you do this time, Eren?"

Which made Eren wonder if Armin was actually a psychic in disguise.

"Why do always you suppose I did something?" he asked rather defensively. He hoped he sounded innocent, and a little bit hurt. "Like I said - they just told me they wanted to have girls' time, so they're not coming today – that's all I know."

"You're lying though," said Armin lightly. His blue eyes were tinkling with some sort of wicked amusement.

"I didn't –"

"Your ears are red when you tell a lie," Armin pointed out, grinning. That shut Eren up completely.

Fucking non-cooperative ears.

"So – just admit it," Armin asked once again. "What have you done this time? I have a feeling you've done something stupid again. Don't tell me you're throwing away all your hard efforts to get along with Mikasa until this point."

There was a complete silence, only to be broken later by the sound of Eren clearing his throat.

"Well… like you said… It's just something stupid. So… not worth mentioning." His right hand jumped to ruffle his hair awkwardly – a gesture he tend to perform every time he got nervous. "Anyway – things will be all right again soon. I hope." There was a pause, and Eren could hear his inner self doubting his words.

"Well, they might not, but – I hope they do." He swallowed.

And suddenly, he felt all feverish again.

"Whoa, you're all red," said Armin, stating the obvious. "Are you – are you okay…? Do you want to go to the nurse's office?"

"NO! No, I'm… I'm fine," said Eren, sounding way more agitated than usual. When will that scene stop replaying itself inside his head? When will his stupidity stop slapping him in his face?

And when, just when will he stop imagining the taste of her sweet, soft lips?

He wanted to know if he could ever stop himself from feeling like he wanted to kiss her again, hold her inside his arms, bring her somewhere just the two of them – and make out with her for days on end.

Because that was wrong. That was completely inappropriate of him on almost every moral ground. He wanted her. He'd realized that since the first day he'd known her – although it turned out ugly, because he was too busy stereotyping her with certain people he had met from his past.

He might not like her back then, but still – he was attracted.

It was a complex mix of emotions, really – he wasn't even sure what he was feeling toward her back then. She was pretty and attractive, and that prompted his interest. And then he got to know her a little more – and she wasn't at all like he expected. From then, his interests only deepened with time – until he realized that she had been occupying such a large part of his mind.

When he spotted her sitting in silence, calmly reading her book – he started wondering what she might be thinking. When he knew she was abused but she didn't do anything – the pain in his heart was beyond any physical pain he had ever felt. There was sort of an uncomfortable prick that he felt in his chest every time he saw her then – anger, pain, exasperation, impatience, and all other sort of displeasure that killed him slowly – but the more he felt them, the more he realized that his attraction toward her wasn't a simple feeble interest.

He cared a lot about this girl – about Mikasa Ackerman. Of course, having been through those bitter experiences in his past – Eren knew how disappointment could come from betrayals by the people he deeply cared about. But that didn't stop his feelings toward her. He mistook it as anger once, but it was a strong, burning, feverish passion. It was such an exceptional emotion, slowly consuming and drowning him. The more he tried to repress them – the stronger those feelings came back to him.

If he was to be completely honest, he'd really been trying to keep himself on restraint these following months. Didn't he succeed…? He didn't do anything to her when she was staying in his house. At least, he didn't want her to think that he was taking advantage of her. He didn't want her to see him as such a lowly human being.

But yesterday… it seemed that he's already restraining himself for long enough, that somehow it just… broke.

And he let his desires control him. He succumbed to his wild thoughts. He let himself kiss her, following the very basics of his instincts.

How very very like him, he smirked inside.

"Well, to put it simply," Eren sighed, his head a little hurt from thinking too much. Armin's eyes were still eyeing him closely. "I… lost my control again."

"Okay…?" Eren knew from Armin's expression that his friend needed further details. So he covered his face and sighed.

"I did something crazy."

"Won't be your first or last time at it."

"This time, it's completely crazy."

"Tell me what it is, and I can attest to you then."

"I kissed Mikasa."

He turned to look at his blonde friend. Armin's mouth was gaping slightly, either to protest, or simply because of utter disbelief. Slowly, he repeated Eren's words, "You… were…."

"I kissed Mikasa, yeah."

"You… kissed her…," Armin looked like he had a difficult time pronouncing the words out loud. "And – and how did it go?"

"Well, it was great, obviously. If she ever lets me kiss her again, I'd do it…"

"I mean," Armin interrupted before his friend could go into too many details. "Did she say anything?"

"Nothing, actually. I ran away as soon as I came to my senses. She just looked shocked." Armin said nothing, still trying to digest the facts.

"I – I wasn't thinking right," said Eren, more to himself than to anyone in particular. "I was possessed or something – I don't know. I had a gazillion mad thoughts at that time, and – and then it's just – she was so pretty. It's driving me mad. And the next thing I know, I was kissing her." The more he said that out loud, the more horrifying it sound. Even Armin was at loss for words to say. Once again, Eren hid his face deep between his palms.

"Just fucking say it, Man. I'm an idiot," Eren moaned. A few moments of silence. Then:

"You sure are," Armin shook his head. "A big, fucking idiot."

"Nice to hear you use profanities for once, Armin."

"And I give you a 15 out of 10 rating for your craziness."

"Shut up."

"And now you need to make things right with her again." Armin stretched his hand and patted Eren's back on a somewhat mock concern. "Good luck, I don't envy being in your place this time."

"You little devil," Eren mumbled unpleasantly. "I know you're not sorry at all. You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Armin's grin only grew wider at Eren's words, but the boy said nothing to affirm or deny the accusations.

"I have to make things right with her again – fuck this. I know that! But I just…"

"Don't know how…?" supplied Armin helpfully. "Yeah, certainly it's not like you can just go to her and apologize and tell her to forget everything. That's not how human brain works."

"You reckon she even wants to speak with me after this…?" asked Eren, looking somewhat miserable that Armin decided not to tease him further.

"Well," the blonde boy said carefully. "Let's be honest… I think she's been through even more horrible versions of you – and she still speaks with you. So… I guess it's a yes…?"

Eren looked a little relieved. "You're right," he said. "So… do you think I can just…"

"But still…. You owe her an apology." Eren's face fell. He knew Armin was right. The latter frowned his nose. "You owe her an apology… yet again. I felt like this is a deja vu. I'm sure something similar happened in December…"

"Shut it, Armin," Eren groaned. "You know what, you can be such a little jerk if you want to."

"I think that rubbed off on me from a certain someone I know," Armin replied, grinning in satisfaction.

- I am your Calico Cat, here to meet you.

Love me now, touch me now -

Eren was walking along the corridor between school buildings when a pair of hands suddenly grabbed him and forcefully dragged him aside.

"Ow! Hey! What the hell…?" he protested, but a voice silenced him. "Shush! Shut up!"

"Ishijima?" said Eren, mesmerized. The girl with fluffy light-brown hair was standing beside him, and it was indeed her who very roughly manhandled him. "What's the big idea here?" He rubbed his arm, which slightly hurt from the way she yanked him aside.

Ayako crossed her hands in front of her chest, suddenly looking stern. "First of all," she said. "How dare YOU."

"How dare I what?" asked Eren, confused.

"You know what I'm talking about," was her only reply. She sounded stiff, and from the way her eyebrows taut together, and the look she gave him - it all suddenly clicked inside his head.

"Well….," he said in a long sigh, ruffling his hair awkwardly and staring to the floor. "Yeah. Right. So I guess… Mikasa told you…?"

"Damn smart, "Ayako chimed. "I can't believe you did that to her, by the way."

"It wasn't intentional –" Eren tried to defend himself, but Ayako wasn't listening. She started talking, and her screeching pretty much drowned all of Eren's response.

"You're wrong if you think she's like one of those easy girls you find out there…"

"It's not like that, I didn't –"

"Kissing her out of nowhere like that, come on, Yeager! That could be considered sexual harassment by the way…"

"I didn't… I mean I wasn't… Oh come on, listen to me here!"

"If you dare for one second think that you can play around with Mikasa, then…."

"THAT'S WHY I'M TELLING YOU –" Eren raised his voice over hers in order to be heard. "THAT I'M NOT PROUD OF IT!"

Ayako stopped talking immediately. Her eyes were now focused on the boy standing in front of her.

"What?" she asked, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean… so you're saying... you regret it?" Ayako implored, but Eren shook his head.

"I said I'm not proud of what I did," Eren repeated, not looking directly into Ayako. The girl's look started to turn unpleasant, but Eren continued. "Look, I know I was wrong, I get that. Mikasa's not like those girls, she's not even like you. But I regret nothing."

This put a smile on the other's face – though faintly.

"I thought we're both over that one," she said.

"There is nothing to get over with," Eren sighed. "It was just us both – being bored and – trying to do something different. We only made out once – that one time."

"Yeah," Ayako agreed, "It was really nothing big. I suppose that's why you didn't remember me when we first met in this school." Eren burst out laughing.

"To be honest, I never remember all those… girls I've made out with. There are way too many – names and faces – or sometimes I don't even need names. You know how it is. They just come and go. It's not meant to be memorized."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Ayako muttered, frowning. "To be honest, I probably don't either. I just do things and forgot." Eren grinned.

"But I was only teasing you that time," he said. Ayako looked up to him, rather surprised. "I actually remembered you, cause of the vibes you gave at the blind date. Your hair was black, much shorter, and straight back then. I got the impression you were trying to sell yourself as a girl with innocent charm. Either way, you were definitely not innocent." Ayako scoffed.

"Neither were you."

"Yeah, I think I was half drunk when we made out," Eren frowned, trying to remember. "Anyway, that's all in the past. I've certainly done… things. But that's before I – moved here and…."

"Before you met Mikasa, I get it," Ayako finished for her, nodding slightly.

"Yeah," Eren stared up to the ceiling, in a desperate attempt to contemplate, "She kinda made me wish I could start over clean. With everything. With her."

"Stop being dramatic," Ayako teased him, and the boy smiled.

"You won't ever tell Mikasa about us, will you…?" Eren asked Ayako, his eyes were still staring at the ceiling, as though there was an invisible drawing there. She scoffed.

"You think I will go so far to hurt her feelings, Yeager? I'd never do that."

"Yeah, thanks," she could hear his smile. "I know you won't. That's why I trust you. I mean… I do want to tell Mikasa about me, or what I used to be. And how I've come to get such a shit rep here and there. Hell – she sure knows I'm not a good person, otherwise I won't be expelled."

When he said the word expelled, Ayako shifted awkwardly in her place. "Yeah, I heard a thing or two about that," she began, and Eren's face suddenly hardened.

"I expect you would. My old school try their best to fend off the scandal, but they can't silence people nor stop the story from spreading. Guess you're afraid of me now…?" Eren forced out a smirk.

"I don't believe it entirely," said Ayako, restlessly playing with her fingernails. "And don't get me wrong – it's not like I'm afraid of you. I got to know you these 6 months and I don't think you're as bad as what people say. Although I can't help but… question if it's true."

"What did you hear…?"

Ayako chewed her lips nervously. "Well…," she started.

And she told Eren of what she'd heard. About him – and how he got expelled. The boy listened to her in silence. When she finally stopped to take a breather, he let out a sour laugh.

"That," he said. "Is not far from the truth. But you didn't hear the entire story. I guess the school did a good job to ensure the most horrible part of the story never goes out."

"And that's the part that you're going to have to tell Mikasa yourself," she said quietly.

"I know," he sighed. "I'd probably scare her away though. That's why I'll wait until I'm sure I can tell her. I've made such a mess of my life."

Ayako leaned on the wall, hands on her pocket, looking at the boy with a rather gentle sparkle on her eyes. "Well… if you think you should start over for her, why don't you do it now…?"

Eren turned her way, looking pained. "Ishijima, I'm not even sure she wants to talk to me right now. Plus I don't even know what I should say to her – to make me not look like such a jerk."

"Just say whatever you want to say. Don't think too much. You know you're not good at it."

"Yeah, right on point," Eren muttered, sounding annoyed.

"I mean…," Ayako tried to slightly revise her words. "That's not my point, Yeager. Point is… the longer you put this off – the more chance Mikasa will slip out of your hand. She might think you hate her – or worse, by not talking to her like this, you're actually giving off vibes that you don't care about her, like you're just playing around." Eren suddenly looked horrified.

"Damn it. You're right." He seemed to be deep in thinking. Ayako didn't disturb her. She observed the boy calmly, but she knew he was taking her point.

"You know what, Ishijima – you gave such good advice sometimes," he finally said. Ayako looked rather pleased at the compliment. "Well, I am her best friend, after all."

"Yeah. She's lucky to have you – considering how her other best friend turned out to be."

"Actually, that's my second point," said Ayako, suddenly looking serious. "I and Armin have decided that we're going to catch them in action."

"Them who…?" Eren blinked.

"Nanako, of course. And her accomplice."

"What, she has an accomplice?"

"Yes! So we're going to –"

"And you've found this accomplice already?"

"Yeager, one more interruption from you, I'm going to cut your balls," said Ayako, sending her most dreadful look to Eren.

"Sorry, go on," he said, slightly grinning.

"Anyways," Ayako took in a deep breather. "To answer your question, yes – Armin has found her accomplice. He's been hiding in photography club all this time. Most obvious hiding place, right…?"

Eren let out a low whistle.

"So how did you smoke him out?"

"Well, technically, Armin did it – I can tell you later about it too. But we're monitoring him closely now. Armin managed to corner him yesterday, so he's bound to report this to Nanako soon. Things are going to escalate quickly from there. And… that's how you come into our plan."

"I'm all ears."

- The universe moved for us, there was nothing out of place

Our happiness was expected. Cause you love me, and I love you -

(Yesterday Afternoon – Shiganshina North High School, Club Room Building)

Ayako had gone to spy on Nanako. Mikasa and Eren had also left school after their detention was over. It was now Armin's turn to do his part of the deal with Ayako – investigate the photography club.

Saying it was easy, but executing the idea was way more complicated. He couldn't possibly waltz in to the club room and ask if anybody there possessed a strong paparazzi lens and had been using it to stalk anyone recently. Tactics, he reminded himself. He needed to be tactful, otherwise his target just won't show up. The problem was if he could ever get to fire the right questions, in the right directions.

Thankfully, he had got something up his sleeve this time. It's time to put his plans into action. He wasn't sure it's going to work the way it should, but at least it's better than nothing.

Armin went down to first floor and walked along the inter-building corridors to reach the row of club rooms located in the other building. He stopped for a while in front of the building map – and found that photography club room was located on the second floor. Following the map, he went up the flight of stairs, found the door bearing photography club name on it, and gave it a sharp tap – twice.

Knock knock.

"Yes, come in!" said a voice on the other side of the door.

It's time, Armin thought. Silently, he slid the door open, and made his way in.

"Excuse me," he said. Walking in, Armin had quite an expectation of how the club room will look like. He had imagined it to be somewhat messy – a cramped 30 square meters space where artists constantly meet to discuss and bring their creative ideas to fruition really didn't sound tempting for Armin – especially since he'd experienced the mess he made of his own workstation, every time he produced another piece of art. The more creative he got, the messier he tended to be. He only found the will to clean his room once in a while – and living alone with his grandfather certainly didn't help him becoming tidier. His grandfather didn't care whether Armin left his room in a neat state or in a mess, as long as he knew how to take care of himself.

Which was why – Armin was quite surprised to find a bright, airy room with a lot of breathing space inside. The walls were painted white, and there was a mini photo studio in the back of the room, complete with two softbox lightings and a diffuser setup. Armin guessed they must have been doing portrait shoots before he came in here. The mini studio's background was interchangeable. It was set to white, but Armin saw one black screen, and a green screen for special effects. In the farthest corner, away from the door – he saw a closed room with tight curtains. Though somewhat impromptu, that must be the dark room.

Not bad at all. In fact, this room looked more like a professional photo studio rather than an amateur high school photography club.

"Can we help you?" the question brought Armin back to his senses. He looked ahead, to the four curious pair of eyes that were staring at him. One girl and three boys.

"Are you here to join our club?" asked a boy with a serious face and a bowl-cut black hair, stepping forward. He seemed to be their leader. "That'll be the first one in a loo-ong while," said the girl from behind him, grinning widely. She had wavy blonde hair that sported a bob cut, and a cheerful, almost carefree personality that seemed to be in stark contrast compared to her peer. The boy with bowl-cut black hair sent her a sideways look, telling her silently to hold her tongue, but the girl didn't seem to mind it. "What is your name?" she asked Armin.

"Armin Arlelt," he answered automatically to her question. "I'm from class 2-3."

"I'm Hitch Dreyse, but everyone just calls me Hitch," she said. "Class 2-5. I don't believe we have met."

"We haven't," Armin replied. "I came here today just to take a look. I have been doing photography, you see – but I never had anyone to discuss it with. So… I just thought I might stop by."

"Really? What kind of photography are you into…?" said a boy with silver-grey hair, suddenly joining the conversation. He stepped up toward Armin from the corner of the room. "I did a little bit of street photography," said Armin. "But mostly… I just photographed anything that caught my interest. Here is my portfolio, if you want to see." He pulled out a clear folder from his bag, filled with photographs taken, not by him, but by his friend. Armin didn't do photography of course, that was just his cover. His friend didn't ask him why Armin would want to take home some of his photo prints, and Armin didn't tell either. Some things better remained undisclosed.

The boy with the silver-grey hair leaned in closer with interest, reaching out to grab the pack of photographs from Armin's hand. "You have talent," he said, after examining the photographs closely. Hitch, who had been eyeing the photographs from behind his shoulders, nodded too. Armin pretended to be happy and nodded as well, thanking them for the compliments, though of course he knew they would praise the photos. The author had his work shortlisted for display in Shiganshina Christmas Townhall, after all.

"I'm thinking of doing something different this time," Armin began, after the boy with the silver-grey hair returned the photos to him. He raised his eyebrows, eyeing Armin carefully. "What's that?" he asked. Armin inhaled.

"Lately, I have heard people talking a lot about… Telephoto lenses," said Armin, carefully closing in on the subject of his interest. "You know, it is good to zoom in from long distance and… that means you don't need to get too close to the object." He caught Hitch and the silver-grey haired boy exchanging glances.

"Well, we don't deny it," said the boy with the silver-grey hair. "But to be honest… we don't really know much about that kind of lens."

"It has the infamous reputation of being a paparazzi lens, or a stalker lens," said Hitch, shrugging. "Unless you work in entertainment industry and have to take photos of artists, professional photographers rarely use it."

"Wrong, Hitch," said the boy with the bowl-cut black hair, turning everyone's attention to him. "There is someone in our club who uses that lens." Hitch looked lost for a while, but then her face lighted up.

"Oh, you're right!" said Hitch. "Tachibana uses it. But I don't see him use it that often, I kind of forgot about it. He is in the dark room now, but let me see if we can bring him out. Hey! Tachibana!" Hitch knocked on the dark room door.

"What?" said a voice from inside, sounding rather annoyed.

"Hey, we got a visitor! Come on out!"

"I'm not finished!"

"Finish it later then, I know you can be there for hours if we don't ask you to come out."

Nothing can be heard for a while. But then, Armin heard the dark room door click, and it swung open. From beyond the door, a boy with average height stepped out. He would have been handsome, had he not look like someone who forgot to take proper care of himself. His body was thin and fragile, his hair was unkempt, there was a stain on his uniform shirt (probably from coffee), and his face was expressionless, without any hint of smile. His eyes swept the entire room, and immediately found Armin, who gave him a half-hearted grin. "I'm sorry to interrupt your time," said Armin immediately, suddenly feeling compelled to apologize. He knew how annoying it was to be disturbed when he was concentrating on doing something. The boy, though, didn't say anything in response. It almost seemed like he didn't hear Armin. He turned to Hitch. "What is it?" he asked.

"Don't be so tense," Hitch took the boy by the arm and brought him forward to Armin. "We got a visitor. Armin, here is Tachibana – Tachibana, meet Armin." Armin politely bowed and said "Nice to meet you". He could see Tachibana doing the same, out of politeness, but Armin could tell that the boy was dying to go isolate himself inside the dark room again rather than listening to him. Armin tried to shake off his uncomfortable feeling, like was intruding on something, and instead telling himself quietly that this was his chance to dig up the perpetrator. If not now – he might never get another chance. He didn't want to go home empty handed.

"I want to ask you…," Armin began, telling the same story he had told the other three members before, "About telephoto lenses. I've been doing street photography, and my friend told me a Telephoto lens might be good to step up my game, so…"

"I don't have a Telephoto lens," said Tachibana, curtly interrupting Armin. Four pair of eyes stared wonderingly at him, confused by his words.

"But… you do have a Telephoto lens," said the boy with the bowl-cut black hair, sounding more probing than assuring. "Right?" he asked, when Tachibana didn't respond to his words.

"I used to have it, not now," Tachibana answered shortly. Armin felt like Tachibana avoided their eyes on purpose. Hitch raised her eyebrows at this statement. "What happened?"

"It… I broke it. I was careless and it broke down. It cost too much to fix the lens. So I just left it." There was an awkward pause at the end of his sentence. Nobody had guessed this kind of outcome, it seemed. Armin looked around and everyone seemed to be on the same, stunned silence. He sighed deeply.

"That's sad," Armin finally broke the silence. "I'm sorry to hear it. But… can you still give me advice? I'm looking to buy a Telephoto lens and…"

"That kind of lens is expensive," Tachibana finally stared at Armin now. "What are you going to do with it? Normal photographers wouldn't use it."

Armin could almost hear it in his words, though Tachibana didn't say it out loud.

Only stalkers use it.

"Wildlife photography," said Armin quickly. He had prepared a response in case questions like this came up. "I can't get too up close to my objects, or they will flee. I'm going to photograph birds. But as you said, that lens is expensive, so…" Armin locked his eyes intently with Tachibana, "I'm actually looking to borrow. Too bad you broke your lens…"

Tachibana averted his gaze slightly away from Armin, effectively breaking their eye contact. "Yeah," he said, without looking directly to the blonde-haired boy. "I'm sorry. I can't help you." Armin's heartbeat slightly went up. The movement might be subtle, but to Armin, it was the moment he had been waiting for. It was the movement that gave him away. Armin could feel that rush of anticipation now. This must be what hunters felt like, when they waited all day for their prey to show up, and finally spotted their target.

"I have to go back in now," Tachibana said after a moment of silence, politely implying to Armin that their business was over. Armin looked back at him, and saw an unexplainable emotion in the boys' clear dark eyes. He looked annoyed, sure, but… did he also spot fear?

Not being able to say anything else, Armin nodded. "Thank you for your advice. I'm sorry again to interrupt you."

Tachibana didn't say anything as he walked back in to the dark room, and clicked the door closed behind him.

Sorry we weren't able to help you, said Hitch, and she really did look sorry.

Come back anytime you want, maybe we can hang out and take pictures together sometime, said the silver-grey haired boy, who was apparently named Boris. I and Marlowe here will be glad to help you if we can, he pointed at his friend with the bowl-cut black hair, who also nodded. Armin smiled and told them it was no problem, before leaving their club room.

He pretended to go home, but he didn't. Instead, Armin went around and up the flight of stairs of the main building. He went into an empty classroom, where he could get a clear view of the photography club room. His business there was not yet finished. His gut instincts told him that yes, Tachibana indeed had something to do with the stalking incident and the poster, but he couldn't be sure just yet. He needed another one, the last key, last piece of evidence.

It had been over one hour, the sky was getting darker. Marlowe had come out of the clubroom, his school bag in hands, and then Hitch and Boris, but still Armin hadn't seen Tachibana going home. Armin waited, patiently, eyes never leaving the photography clubroom door in case he would miss the target.

Another hour passed, and it almost became completely dark around him. Just as Armin was wondering what he could have done with the low visibility, he saw the photography clubroom door opened, and his target emerged.

Tachibana turned around, pulled out a ring of keys from his pocket, and locked the door. Armin held his breath in anticipation. Now! he could hear a voice inside his head. Now, or you'll never get the evidence at all. Armin stood up abruptly and left his post, pausing slightly to see where his target was headed. Tachibana had turned toward the stairs. Armin bet on the possibility that he was heading toward the school gates to go home. He needed to be quick.

The blonde boy rushed down the stairs, toward the shoe locker, and waited. If Tachibana was indeed going home, he'll pass by this place soon enough. He crouched behind the rows of shoe locker, making sure it was far enough from Tachibana's locker. A few minutes later, he heard footsteps approaching from the inter-building corridor. Armin held his breath and listened quietly. There was a sound of locker door opening, followed by something being put on the floor, and then fabrics rubbing against each other. The person was putting on his shoes. Then it was another sound of locker door closing, and then the footsteps headed toward the door. Armin didn't dare to look, for it might give him away. He counted carefully to ten, then raised his head slightly. He saw Tachibana, just out of the school building – crossing the front yard, and headed toward the school gate.

Now what? Armin thought to himself. He cursed at his own stupidity. There was a good one hundred meters out in the open – space between the building and the school gate – in which his target is walking leisurely in now. He couldn't possibly tail him out there in the open like that. Tachibana would definitely spot him and get suspicious. So he had no choice but to wait, until his target was safely out of the school gate.

Tachibana made a left turn. It was toward the train station. Could he possibly go home by train…? There was only one way to find out. Armin got out of his hiding place and dashed, as fast as he could, crossed the empty front yard, until he was almost out of the school gate, and then glanced to his left.

Bingo.

His target was still there, several few meters in front of him, walking in leisure pace. Trying to catch his breath, Armin considered himself lucky that Tachibana wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere tonight. If he made good use of the shadows and alleys around them, Armin could follow him without a problem. He slightly felt his adrenaline rushing. His heartbeats continued to pound in his ears like drums, despite his best attempts to calm them down. He knew his face was flushing red, because he could feel the heat radiating. Carefully he stepped forward, from shadow to shadow, making good use of the low visibility to cover himself. He felt like one of those spies from suspense movies, tailing the suspect with caution. It could all end up in his favor, or he could completely blow his cover. It was all up to him now.

Armin focused all of his senses into following Tachibana and making sure that he did not get caught, until, at one point, he realized that they were indeed headed toward the train station. Armin sighed in relief. It might be harder to keep an eye on his target now that they were in a public place crammed with people. But on the positive side – now Armin could approach him without arousing too much suspicion. It wouldn't be weird to bump into someone you know on the train back home.

Realizing this, Armin quickly picked up his pace, tapped his commuter card on the gate, and followed his target down the stairways, toward the West Line. Armin's house wasn't on that part of the town – but he could easily say that he was on the way to a friend's house, or somewhere he had a business to. Even if he was suspicious, Tachibana wouldn't be able to verify it.

His target now stood firmly on Platform 5, waiting for his train. Armin made his way, around him the train station was buzzing with the usual commuter noise. Footsteps, mingled with conversations, and people rushing toward different directions, alone or in groups, listening to songs with their earphone, looking straight ahead or down, with face masks on to fight against influenza virus or scarves to protect themselves against cold.

Train in Platform 5 is approaching, please watch your steps and stay behind the yellow line.

Armin knew he only had a few minutes to gather evidence now. He stepped forward, and called out.

"Tachibana!"

The boy turned around. His face changed when he saw Armin. "What are you doing here?" he said, his tone obviously was not friendly. Armin stayed unbothered, approached him, and answered, "Are you taking this train? I'm taking the train after this," he pointed toward the timetable. He was about to mention that he's visiting a friend's house – just like his original plan. But then he got a much better idea. "Mikasa's house is in that part of the town. I'm visiting her. Do you happen to know her…?"

It was there only for a split second, but Armin spotted it immediately at the mention of Mikasa's name. He was wary at best, or at worst, scared. The name had invoked something within him, truth that he didn't want to admit – but he knew he had no choice except to answer – exactly as Armin wanted him.

"Don't know her personally," Tachibana finally admitted, gazing down to the station floor, his tone close to an inaudible murmur. "I heard her name a lot though. She is our model student, isn't she?"

"Not lately," Armin launched his next attack. "Not after, you know, all the posters attacking her." Tachibana bit his lips. Armin watched him closely for his reaction. If Tachibana was indeed guilty, he would reveal it now, in some kind of way. Armin had given him enough push. The next thing he said, or did – would determine Tachibana's involvement in this whole incident. It could be a slip of words – a change of facial expression, or any other nonverbal clues. Lying, hiding, and pretending had never been easy. It was a mental strain on the person. Just like hunting for preys, a liar will leave their traces, their scent along the way. And it was up to the hunter to pick it up. Now, Armin was the hunter, following closely on the trail of his prey.

"I don't know anything about it. What happened?" asked Tachibana. Clever, Armin admitted quietly. He wanted me to explain so he had time to prepare to react.

"You must have not been one for gossips," Armin gave him a slight smile. "Actually, there is not much to tell. Some two weeks ago, someone spread posters around the school, accusing Mikasa of sleeping around with boys. Ever since then, the whole school seemed to conspire in bullying her."

"That is low. I'm guessing someone must be jealous of her," said Tachibana, his tone unchanging.

"That leaves plenty of people as suspect," Armin laughed. "I'm more concerned because… Mikasa told me, the day before the posters spread – that she felt she was being followed. And she was certain someone took her pictures." Tachibana raised his eyebrows, his body stood still and wary of Armin's next words.

"As I recalled…," Armin gave a slight pause. "You know… on that day, I was with Mikasa. I came around to her house, and I was with her when she started to panic." It was a lie, of course. Armin was not there with Mikasa. It was Eren. But Armin did it deliberately to fish him out. If Tachibana took his bait, and accused Armin of lying, then Armin will know immediately that he was there.

But Tachibana remained impassive. He didn't take the bait, although Armin could see colors gradually leaving his face. This was bad. The boy was tougher than he expected. He couldn't be sure. He needed one final push.

"Now that I think about it…" Armin paused again on purpose, pretending to be deep in thought, eyeing Tachibana's reaction.

"Were you somewhere around the area that time, Tachibana? I think I remember seeing you."

Unlike previously, the change on Tachibana's face was instant this time. His face went red and his breathing immediately became heavy as he blurted out, "That is not true!" several decibels above his normal tone, causing several passersby to stop and look. Tachibana seemed to be aware of the scene he caused, because he immediately lowered his tone.

"Don't speak unnecessary things," he said to Armin through clenched teeth. The other boy stood his ground, despite the quiet rage radiating silently from his conversing partner. "If you are accusing me of following her, you…. you are mistaken."

Armin opened his mouth to reply, but at that time, a train came into the platform, howling and screeching, steel against steel, and drowned his words. Several moments of silence passed between them – as Tachibana continued to look closely at Armin with a quiet rage, and Armin attempted to remain calm.

"Don't come near me. I don't ever want to see your face again."

With those final words, Tachibana entered the train, and disappeared from Armin's sight.

- Ever since the day the Universe was formed, everything has been decided

Just let me love you -

(The Day After, Classroom 2-1, After School)

You are…

Don't say it.

You are clearly…

Stop! Stop!

"What's that? A new type of theatrical act?" A sass, crass voice resounded in hear ears, and Mikasa looked up to see the familiar face of Eren Yeager looking at her from beyond the classroom door, grinning. She was about to say something witty back at him, make him swallow his own words, but nothing came out of her mouth. Instead, she just opened, and closed it again, feeling like an idiot.

"You have been squirming a lot in your seat, didn't even hear me calling, did you?" Eren moved in closer and sat next to her in the empty classroom. "You were like this." He covered his ears and began to wriggle around in his seat, like a worm tied by invisible set of strings. Mikasa's face reddened.

"You're joking." She must have looked completely ridiculous.

"I'm not," he grinned. "Is that the kind of thing everyone is into lately?"

"Stop mocking me," said Mikasa, flushed red. "I'm just… I was thinking."

"No wonder. Is that how smart people think? Maybe I should try it, see if it can up my grades."

She slapped him on the shoulders. "Fine, mock me all you want if it makes you satisfied. Jerk," she put emphasis on the last word, which made him grin even wider.

"Don't be mad. I'm just here to offer you a walk."

"To the station?"

"No, to the palace. Of course it's to the station, where else?"

And have you kiss me again along the way and pretend there was nothing about it, like now? Mikasa almost said it, but she quickly bit her lips. Her mind rolled back to the scene just at lunch break, when she and Ayako stood side by side, and she desperately asking her best friend for advice on how to act. She remembered Ayako, clutching her warm drink to stop herself from freezing, and her desperate laugh, at Mikasa's lack of knowledge, and lack of experience.

She remembered Ayako's frustration when the brown-haired girl finally pulled her closer by the arm, and whispered to her ear.

You are in love with Yeager.

Mikasa had heard a lot, read a lot, about blank spaces between memories, a period where human brains completely blacked out and refused to make memories, caused by a total shock. But she had never experienced it herself, never known how it felt like, until that afternoon.

She didn't remember how she reacted to Ayako's words. She didn't remember what she said, or did. It was all a complete blank. When she returned to her memories, she was already sitting back in her classroom, with Ayako by her side, looking very concerned.

"What..?" she asked. And Ayako was suddenly very relieved when Mikasa finally showed some reactions to her.

"Thank GOD. I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…," she chirped, squeezing Mikasa so tight she almost couldn't breathe.

"What happened?" asked Mikasa, lost between her friend's strands of fluffy light-brown hair.

"I'm so sorry, Mikasa… Don't be angry to me…please?"

Mikasa, of course, didn't know what to say. She didn't even remember. But according to Ayako, Mikasa just stopped responding to her – got up, and immediately went back to the classroom. She wouldn't respond no matter how much Ayako called her and apologized. Ayako really thought Mikasa was so angry at her that she refused to speak – and the girl was pretty much in the same state of shock as Mikasa, when she found out that her friend didn't actually do it on purpose – she really didn't remember anything.

Contrary to that, though, Ayako's last words – ones that she remembered, at least – rang again and again in her ears, echoed inside her brain, until at some point she could almost feel like they were tattooed inside her mind.

You are in love with Yeager.

No, I can't be.

How can you know? You've never been in love, her mind spoke again to her, annoyingly, in Ayako's voice. That's why the kiss meant so much to you. That's why you're desperate to know if it also meant something for him too. It all makes sense.

No, it doesn't!

Just stop resisting. We all know it.

"Oi, Mikasa!" Eren gave her a tap on the shoulder. "You're really not listening to me, are you?"

She blinked a few times, trying to bring her mind back to the present. "I'm – I'm sorry," she stuttered. They were halfway to the station, and again she couldn't remember how they got here. Her mind was too busy replaying the scene with Ayako, and fighting with the annoying voice. She needed to stop this. She'd had enough living a day – let alone her entire existence – like this, filled with questions. She had to make sure.

"I – I have a question to ask you, Eren." Her tone was firm. And at that Eren knew, what was coming had to come, sooner or later.

"I know," he replied, unexpectedly managed to sound calm, though his insides felt jittery, like all his organs suddenly were alive and started jumping around. "I have something to say to you too."

It was one of those moments, when they both perfectly knew, there was something unspoken between them. It was one of those moments that Mikasa would call a milestone, one day in the future when she looked back at this memory with some kind of fondness. They both knew what to say, and that they had to say it – they just didn't know how. Mikasa never struggled so much with words until now.

Because the moment she stood facing him, slightly looking up toward his pair of emerald green eyes and his crooked, furtive smile, nothing else seemed to come to mind. She never knew, that out of a billion words that existed in the dictionary for her to use, it could be this difficult to find the right words.

For a few seconds, it started to feel like a recollection of yesterday's event, they were both standing in the street toward the train station, bathed in pale winter sunlight. He didn't smoke this time, but she stood close enough to him that she almost could feel his body heat. She remembered that feeling again, being entangled in his arms, close enough to feel his breath ghosting on her skin.

And suddenly, just as abrupt as the way that memory had invaded her mind, Mikasa felt that it didn't matter. Not now, at least. Because there was only so much words could convey. And this time, words couldn't carry the weight of her feelings at all. It was something beyond words, something that both she and he knew, but couldn't describe. And she didn't feel the need to ruin it.

At this thought, she felt much lighter. Her smile emerged, and Eren was a bit surprised to see her face lighting up.

"Never mind," she said playfully. Her sudden change of attitude, from serious to cheerful, seemed to confuse him. "What?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"I said, never mind," she laughed at his confusion. "Eren, I…. I think I know what you're going to say," she locked her pair of stormy grey eyes with him. He was slightly stunned. "And I think you must know my question too, but… for now… I'm not going to ask you to explain anything. I'm just going to keep it… the way it is. The way it's supposed to be," she thought slightly to herself.

"Some things aren't meant to be explained," she continued. "At least… that's how I feel now."

"You're not…," Eren paused. "Not angry? At me…?"

"If you give me a reason to be angry, of course I will," said Mikasa, eyeing him carefully. "Do you want me to be angry?"

"Of course I don't," he answered before he could help it. "But… let me just say this," he clapped his hands in front of his chest and bowed to her. "I know I was wrong yesterday. I shouldn't have done that. It was extremely, extremely, impolite to you." She was at loss for words for a while. "It's fine, Eren… I told you, there's no need to explain."

"But I want you to know that I'm not sorry," he finished his words. He lifted up his face to look at her, and was somewhat satisfied to find her blushing red. "Next time I will do it properly. I promise."

She could feel her face reddening. How did he find the courage to say such thing, straight to her face, without even a single moment of doubt? But then again, it was very much like him to go after what he wanted, only looking forward, not letting anything ever stop him. It was the reason why she fell for him in the first place.

And, she realized now, that Ayako was right about her.

She was in love.

She had been in love with him, for a long time. She didn't know when, she didn't even realize it. But as she tried to trace her memory back, through both the dark and sweet times, the first thing she remembered was always him. He told her to fight, when no one else would. Pulled her out from darkness and gave her another home, though only for a short while. Sure, he could be a jerk – but there were countless times that she could feel his heart, his warmth. And he left her with a memento – a red scarf now tied securely around her neck. An epitome, and forever a memory, of his warmth. A piece of himself that he left with her.

She inhaled, and, once again, a smile formed on her lips.

"We shall see about it," her eyes twinkled slightly with happiness. Her free hand jumped to play with the end of her red scarf. He returned her smile, grinning sheepishly. Guess he was kind of embarrassed with his declaration, after all.

"So…," they both started, but then paused. She flicked her glance to her right hand side, and he gave a slight laugh.

"Loser pays for lunch tomorrow?"

"Deal," said Mikasa, flexing her muscles. Eren faced forward, ready for what's coming.

"Okay, ready… set…"

"GO!"

And they both raced toward the station, amidst the crisp weather and the last streaks of orange sunlight rays in that winter afternoon.

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Ojalá - Cede

Chapter Update! FFN and AO3

Cede

It had been a bit strange, adjusting to their flat being short two residents. It had always had four residents. First, it was the Marauders, ready to start at university. Then Peter took a position in Canada after graduation leaving Remus in the second room on his own. Then Remus took a position two hours away, and despite how much Sirius insisted the commute was fine, Remus moved closer to his work.

James and Sirius probably would have been able to make the rent on their own, but it definitely would have made things tight back then. So Remus offered to help find someone to take the spare room. His friend Lily happened to be looking and her friend Marlene had needed a new place as well. So when Remus moved out, Lily and Marlene moved in.

But now, James and Lily moved out as they continued to plan their upcoming wedding. And that left Sirius and Marlene to finish out the last four months of the rental agreement.

Sirius sat at the kitchen table, eating a sandwich as he scrolled through flat listings on his phone. He heard the lock turn and sighed, McKinnon was home.

Don't get him wrong, Sirius liked Marlene, a lot, and you'd have to be blind to not see how drop dead gorgeous she was. Marlene was brilliant and sexy and clever and could sling insults better than anyone. But since Lily and James moved out, Marlene had been a nightmare.

She was sharp-tongued with him in ways she'd never been in the nearly three years they'd all lived together. The ways they had joked and laughed when Lily and James had locked them out of one or the other's room seemed to be gone now, and Sirius was confused as hell as to why. They had been mates - at least he thought they had. Now she couldn't seem to stand being in the same room as him.

"McKinnon," he didn't look up from his phone as she went straight for the room she used to share with Lily. She didn't respond, she never did anymore. Sirius wished he knew what was going on. He realized he'd need to talk to James about it at some point. He was James' best man and Marlene was Lily's maid of honor. How were they going to function at their best mates' wedding if she couldn't even bother to look at him, let alone say hello?

Sirius tried to put it out of his mind. Obviously, she wanted to be difficult and he'd best let her be for now. If she really loved Lily, she'd put on a good face at the wedding and then be done with it. He went back to scrolling through flat listings, saving the ones that he wanted to email about and finishing off his dinner.

He'd just about decided to go for a ride on his bike when Marlene came out of her room. Her eyes met his and Sirius saw ice in her stare. But rather than the c'est la vie attitude he'd been choosing to take, Sirius felt a fire of anger light in his chest. What right had she to make him feel unwelcome in his own fucking flat? He paid both his half and James' half of the rent, just as she paid her's and Lily's. He had just as much right to sit at this table as she did.

He met her stare and let his anger seep into his expression. Either she didn't notice or she wasn't intimidated. He liked that about her, Marlene didn't let anyone push her around. She walked purposefully to the kitchen and opened the fridge, which pinned her against the wall. Sirius wasn't sure what he was doing, but he was tired of her treating him like a problem. So he walked right up against the open fridge door.

"You know, adults usually don't take their problems out on their friends."

Marlene didn't look at him, instead, she kept staring straight ahead into the fridge. "I don't have a problem."

"Bull shit," Sirius spat back at her. "James and Lily move out and all of a sudden you don't look at me, you don't talk to me, you even try to avoid being in the same room as me. If you don't have a problem then tell me what the hell is going on, because if I wanted to be treated like fucking scum I'd go back to my dear mother."

It flashed in her eyes then, sympathy. Normally he'd hate that, but right now he took it as a hope. If she still could feel something for how he grew up maybe she didn't think of him as the scum of the earth after all.

"Sirius..."

"What did I do, Marls?"

Marlene laughed, a sardonic sound as it fell from her lips. "What did you not do, Sirius?"

"Fuck, Marlene, you can't just tell me everything I do is wrong!" Sirius wanted to shove the fridge door shut but Marlene beat him to the punch. The old machine rattled as the door slammed into it.

"That's just it," she shot back, "you don't do anything wrong! You do everything right!"

Sirius' confusion only fueled his anger and he stepped into her space. "Then why treat me like I'm some sort of pest? Why are you acting like we haven't been friends for the last three years?"

He put his hand against the wall behind her to steady himself. She was staring up at him with wide eyes and Sirius couldn't stop himself from dropping his eyes to her lips. He almost forgot why he was angry. How had he ended up this close to her?

Sirius had been attracted to Marlene from the moment he laid eyes on her, but she'd been in the middle of a relationship then, and when she'd called it off with what's his face he had just started dating someone; and while they'd both been single for the last year or so, they were friends rather than strangers sharing a flat, and Sirius wasn't sure he wanted to risk their friendship by bringing feelings into it. Now, though, looking down at her with their bodies a breath's distance apart, he felt like he had nothing to lose.

"You aren't a pest," Marlene's voice had gone quiet and she couldn't seem to look away from him.

"Then why," Sirius closed the distance between them, causing Marlene to press up against the wall, "are you pushing me away?"

She was so close to him their breathing caused their chests to touch and Sirius refused to stop staring her down. She had made him feel like trash the last month or so, but right now she was making his skin burn. The feelings he'd buried when she first moved in had sprung to the surface and he was almost ready to give into them and kiss her.

"I, I'm sorry," Marlene's voice was quieter still but she continued to hold his eyes. "I didn't mean to, I was only trying to get myself to not ruin everything."

"To ruin what?"

She didn't answer; just pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. But for the first time since he pinned her to the wall her eyes left his just long enough to drop to his lips before snapping back up to look at him.

Sirius was losing his grip on the situation. He officially couldn't remember what happened to get them to this point. They were entirely too close. Sirius couldn't help himself. His free hand came up to her face, tucking her hair behind her ear and running his fingers down her curls. Her breath caught as he did and that was probably what did him in.

Sirius lost control.

He brought his lips to hers and his hand came down to grip her waist. She tasted better than every dream he'd had of her, and his body moved of its own accord as he pressed her back into the wall so that his body was flush against hers. But what spurred him on more than anything was how she responded to his kiss. Marlene gripped the front of his shirt, pulling him closer as she pressed on her toes to kiss him further. She parted her lips with a moan as her hands moved over his chest. Her touch was electric and it short-circuited Sirius' logical brain. Everything revolved around this woman, feeling her body against his, kissing every inch of her skin, hearing her sigh his name as he moved against her. He wasn't thinking about after this moment, he was hoping to be consumed in this moment.

The rush he felt when she started pushing them back towards the bedrooms pushed him over the edge. He picked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist, and carried her back into his room.

"I've wanted to do this for fucking ever," Marlene sighed as she pushed her hands under his shirt.

"Well, then we're both idiots," Sirius pressed kisses down her neck and the deep collar of her shirt, "because I have too."

Marlene arched into him and brought her black nails to his scalp. "Wait," she panted, "swear we don't tell James or Lily that part."

"No shit Sherlock," Sirius laughed, "I quite prefer taking the Mickey to being roasted, especially when it concerns James."

Marlene laughed, a breathless sound, that quickly became a moan as Sirius deliberately turned her mind back to him and away from their former flatmates.

Much later, Marlene's curls splayed out on one of his pillows, Sirius ran his hand lazily over her curves.

"When?" Sirius asked. "When did you know you wanted me?"

Marlene's soft smile was relaxed in a way he'd never seen before. "The day Lils and I moved in."

Sirius couldn't keep the smirk off his face. "You wasted a lot of time. I was going to ask you for a pint that night before Lily mentioned your boyfriend."

"Fabian wasn't a bad guy," Marlene sighed, but her smile, soft, sexy, and sated, was all for him as it stayed planted on her face. "But he wasn't you."

"I should have dumped what's her name the moment you dumped Fabian." Sirius scooted forward to kiss her, pulling her body flush against his.

"Her name was..."

"She wasn't you, Marls," Sirius cut her off, "she doesn't matter."

He chuckled at the way Marlene's expression shifted from shocked to pleased to that earlier soft smile that was all for him, because of him.

"Find a flat with me," her voice was strong and it lacked the inflection of a request.

While Sirius would normally tease her, he found the feeling in his chest left him incapable of doing anything but grinning like an idiot before nodding once and kissing the fucking daylights out of her. Because he never thought he'd have more than dreams when it came to Marlene. Yet here she was, in his bed, telling him she wanted to keep living together, while she kissed him like he was the last remaining source of oxygen and she was suffocating.

And if Sirius could find more excuses to keep that soft smile on her lips, he was going to exploit every single one of them.

[neoblogcrying]

“Let’s Play a Game” pt. 3

Due to me deciding, ‘heck, let’s make this an actual project,’ i’m celebrating by writing the next part of this series. I guess you could consider it a bonus scene? Thank you to all who are reading and enjoying this! Also thank you for all those who have voted!

-

The System Temp chose ‘Shen Yuan’ to main in this life simulation game!

Tch.

Though subtle among the reverberating sound of a chime playing upon the game acknowledging a choice being made, someone made a sound of displeasure.

“Oh? What was that, #1? Are you upset the Temp alluded the route laden with death traps?”

“As long as they chose every single option properly, it wouldn’t be laden with death traps. Don’t scare the temp, they’ll start fearing any option I throw out in the future.”

If it wasn’t obvious by now, System Moderator #1 was the one who was at the forefront of wishing evil upon everyone, whether they be other system moderators or the novel characters. In fact, it was #1’s doing that resulted in the System Temp being summoned to play this Life Simulation game.

Anyone who could plan such a thing shouldn’t be trusted.

“Anyways, pay attention to the screen. A new scene is starting.” The begrudging voice of #1 reminded the temp to pay attention to the screen to see: ‘Bonus scene!’ appear on the screen.

Shen Yuan opened his eyes to hear a tired voice asking him how he felt. In his surprise, he almost jolted up, but a hand pressed down on his chest, effectively keeping him down.

Though the hand kept him grounded, the hand was gentle, as if worrying he’d be harmed in the process. This gentle hand belonged to none other than Qian Cao Peak’s Mu Qingfan! His peak specialized in medical skill and medicine production.

Seeing him here, Shen Yuan sighed and shook his head. “Who was it?”

“Why don’t you guess? Guess correctly and you may get something out of it.”

Despite how cold he was, Shen Jiu cared a lot about him, to the point of being over protective. When one thought about it, it made some sense? Shen Yuan always rationalized it with:

‘If you have such a strong distrust for everyone around you except for one person, they’ll be like your life line and you’ll be damned before you let anything happen to them.’

Of course, he didn’t hate the idea that Shen Jiu trusted him and regarded him as important, but he did wish that his elder twin would relax a bit. There was many a time he would have Mu Qingfan secretly visit their peak to give him a check-up.

Whether it was because he truly worried, or he was trying to appeal to Shen Jiu, Yue Qingyuan had called for Mu Qingfan to give Shen Yuan a look over on more than one occasion.

Given their track record, he’d be willing to guess Shen Jiu… but… a gut feeling was telling him that Yue Qingyuan was the culprit.

As any logical thinking adult, he made his decision. “I’m willing to guess it was the both of them.” Shen Yuan sighed, casually searching for his fan. It was a force of habit to hide his face behind his fan, but it wasn’t next to him now, how unfortunate.

“Correct.”

While Yue Qingyuan made a request personally that he go visit Shen Yuan, the older of the two twins sent word for Mu Qingfan to look at his sickly brother. If he didn’t visit and Shen Yuan died because of it, he would be sure to curse the doctor for years to come (IF he lived that long, that is).

It was true that Shen Yuan fell ill easily when he reached a certain threshold of stress, his immune system wasn’t so compromised that he’d fall seriously ill at random. From what he could tell, most of the time Shen Yuan collapsed, it was due to heavy stress and him overworking himself.

He wished to tell the younger twin to relax, but it wasn’t so simple. He lived his life in secrecy, and he had a slower cultivation speed than his brother, so he always felt stressed to keep up. When Yue Qingyuan visited him in person, he was told about how the secret was out for the disciples of ‘Shen Qingqiu’.

That meant, aside from Yue Qingyuan and Mu Qingfan, only the disciples of this peak knew the truth. No one else knew the truth, but it was only a matter of time before the other peak lords learned the truth.

‘When the time comes, I will cover for them. I won’t let anything happen to Shen Qingqiu.’

That’s what he said before he left. Shen Yuan had an agreeable personality when you caught him alone, but Shen Jiu was difficult to deal with. He couldn’t understand why Yue Qingyuan was so considerate towards the twins. There had to be some hidden history between them, but he could never get enough information out of any party to gain an understanding of their situation.

“As requested, I’ve prepared some ‘medicine’ for you as your prize for guessing properly.” Mu Qingfan slid a small packet towards Shen Yuan, who in turn cast an evasive eye to the medicine.

Look, the medicine was super bitter, and he hated having to take it! He only collapsed from exhaustion! He wasn’t sick! There was no need for medicine! Feeling desperate to escape from being forced to take the medicine, his heart sank when he heard quick, but steady footsteps approaching the room.

As if on cue, he’s coming. Two faces dimmed with resignation as they waited for Shen Jiu to open the door casually. “Are you okay?” Shen Jiu asked, ignoring Mu Qingfan’s existence for a moment.

“I told you, I was only exhausted. There is no need to make me take medicine. I’ll be fine.” Shen Yuan grumbled, avoiding Shen Jiu’s piercing gaze. He was doing so much avoiding today! His neck is getting tired!

Stepping into the room, Shen Jiu picked up the medicine packet and sat himself down next to Shen Yuan imposingly.

The room went cold from Shen Jiu’s domineering pressure. “Listen to the Peak Master’s orders and take your medicine.”

Screw the image. He’s not ‘Shen Qingqiu’ right now! He gripped the edge of the blanket and covered the bottom half of his face in a silent show of defiance. You keep forcing all this medicine he doesn’t need to take on him. He doesn’t want it! “It’s my turn to be the Peak Master, and I don’t want to take it. I’m not sick, so this medicine will be worthless on me.”

When he says it’s bitter, you don’t understand how painfully bitter it is! It’s so bitter… that… that he feels like his tongue could fall off at any moment! It took everything he had to not throw it up! Have you ever tried chewing a pill of pain reliever? You would know how bitter that tastes, but this medicine was much worse!

It was grainy, bitter, tongue numbing, and it was so Ungodly disgusting!

They say the more effective a medicine is, the more bitter it tastes- well this really takes the cake!

“Who is the older twin?”

“…” You always use your age against him in matters like this! If he still lived on Earth, he would have loved to retort with something along the lines of ‘your mother!’ but they shared the same mother.

“Well?”

“… You are.”

“Good. Listen to your brother and take your medicine obediently.” Shen Jiu reached into the blanket to fish out one of Shen Yuan’s hands and placed the medicine in his hand.

DAMN IT! How about you eat it!? You are only 30 minutes older!

Resigned to his fate, Shen Yuan sat up, a ghost of a pout appearing on his face. He was really hoping to get out of it this time. He opened the packet and took a deep breath, downing the entire thing all at once and trying his best not to gag from the taste alone.

It wasn’t until he harshly exhaled that the other two in the room knew that Shen Yuan took his medication. “You did well.” Mu Qingfan patted Shen Yuan’s shoulder as a show of praising him, and he had his hand slapped away by Shen Jiu, and this hit was accompanied with a warning glare.

That was Shen Jiu’s way of keeping his twin safe ‘from harm.’ What’s the point of protecting your brother from the very doctor you called to check up on him?

Really, Shen Jiu is so unlovable and uncute. In comparison, Shen Yuan was quite lovable, and he had a likeable character. “Fine, I apologize.” He sighed, rubbing his temples in exasperation. “I’ll tell you how his body is doing, let’s go for a walk.”

This was a heavily implied, ‘give him some air,’ and Shen Jiu went along with it because it was for the betterment of Shen Yuan’s health. If you wanted the stubborn Shen Jiu to agree to anything, it was easier done if you applied it to Shen Yuan somehow—and the opposite is true for Shen Yuan. Both brothers could easily be twisted if you used their brother against them.

The two left the room, and Shen Yuan was left alone in the room to think to himself.

“What are his resentment points at now?”

[System: Luo Binghe’s resentment points are at 1050.]

FUCK!

Shen Jiu took the time while Shen Yuan was recovering to bully Luo Binghe again! He wanted to cry over how his brother seemed to love courting death. Is being a cannon fodder scum villain that deeply ingrained into your DNA? Will it kill you to be nice to Luo Binghe?

You’re cruel to everyone that crosses you, and even those who don’t do anything to you! Your jealousy is too much!

Shen Yuan cried deep in his heart. If he continued this path, Luo Binghe will turn Shen Jiu into a human stick and maybe look to him for round two!

That’s too frightening! Someone save him! He had to quickly remedy this and hopefully survive the blackening of the protagonist!

He had to treat Luo Binghe better (first he had to get better), and then he had to find a way to increase the protection guard of ‘Shen Qingqiu’. If he remembered correctly, Liu Qingge hadn’t died yet… so he would be an excellent guard against Luo Binghe!

Yue Qingyuan was an obvious member of the Shen Qingqiu protection squad. He was the Vice-president while Shen Yuan considered himself to be the President! Luckily, he was almost at 100% so he could soon start trying to reconcile with Luo Binghe!

You may think that Shen Jiu is overly concerned with Shen Yuan, and that it’s a one-way street, but that wasn’t the case at all. They were both very concerned about the other. If Shen Jiu ever returned to his room injured, Shen Yuan would nervously flit about him, asking him what happened.

Who dares to hurt his brother? Let him catch you outside and he’ll show you what happens when you touch his brother!

Shen Yuan was the type to directly attack someone by humiliating them, but Shen Jiu was the type to fight back with underhanded means. You would rue the day if you became the enemy of them both and they came at you with full force.

Sometimes, it seemed like Shen Yuan was a psychic because he could foresee things happening and prevent them from harming his brother. No one knew it was because he was a transmigrator who read the novel, so he knew what sorts of events to look out for and how to deal with the situation.

Of course, not all things could be stopped, but he did manage to put a halt to a few dangerous scenes here and there.

It wasn’t as though the brothers were blind to what the other was doing, but it did cause them to worry more, ironically enough.

Just like how Shen Yuan was willing to risk his life to safe Shen Jiu, his older brother felt the same way. If you asked Shen Yuan, he wouldn’t let Shen Jiu to throw away his life for his sake, and Shen Jiu would answer the same way about Shen Yuan.

Would they listen though? Absolutely not. Both of them were as stubborn as they come and were fiercely protective of those they cared for.

What? Was Shen Jiu jealous about the consideration Shen Yuan had towards Luo Binghe and bullied him because of it?

No, he wasn’t jealous. He hated the fact that Shen Yuan cared for Luo Binghe when he was trash. Caring for a potential-less disciple would only smear the honor of his brother. WHO DARES DISHONOR SHEN YUAN? You better wash your neck and hope he gives you a swift death!

If not for the fact that Shen Yuan had already told him, ‘If you kill any of our disciples on purpose, I won’t talk to you anymore,’ then Luo Binghe would have lost his life already by his hands.

His brother was such a goody two-shoes, but it wasn’t really a bad thing? If anything, one of them had to have a good character.

It was the brotherly feelings the two of them shared that made Shen Yuan think about his time on earth with his real family. He had two older brothers and a younger sister.

The family he had in this novel almost matched the family he had at home, except he only had one brother.

At least, that’s what he thought until he found out he had an older twin brother who was missing.

He missed his earth family. They must’ve been shocked when he died so suddenly. What an unfilial son he was to die so soon. He offered a silent prayer to his family, apologizing to his parents for his early passing.

Shen Jiu had finished talking to Mu Qingfan and he returned to the room to see that Shen Yuan was staring at his hands, deep in thought, almost unaware of what was going on around him. His younger brother would slip into these episodes of him dissociating if you left him alone for too long, and it worried him.

He always had the misunderstanding that the family he left behind in search of his missing twin brother had bullied him, resulting in him occasionally staring off into space, but the truth was that he simply missed his real family and was overwhelmed with regret.

It hurt knowing he couldn’t do anything to help his brother, and it further spurred his protective feelings towards Shen Yuan.

What neither of them knew was that because the System had split ‘Shen Qinqiu’ into two characters, they were connected by an emotional link. Both were impacted by what the other person was feeling.

So what Shen Jiu thought was a gut instinct that someone was bullying his brother was simply him being worried, or sad over something. That was why he would always come to swiftly question whoever was in the room with Shen Yuan as to how they were bullying his brother.

Even though Shen Yuan was raised by a loving family, he never got close to them, and he kept a cold disposition. It was because his older twin brother was going through such an arduous ordeal, he didn’t have the emotional strength to find happiness himself.

The reason why he’d often get sick was because Shen Yuan had the higher emotional bank of the two twins, so he felt emotions much stronger than Shen Jiu did. It was as if he was drawing in the excess emotions to keep Shen Jiu from going insane and murdering everyone in his path.

He would get overloaded from these intense negative emotions and he’d fall ill.

Those rare moments when Shen Jiu would show compassion to others, or strongly wish for family relations with another person, that was because those emotions came from Shen Yuan.

Their emotions linked them together and so they were easily impacted by the other. Shen Yuan’s dissociation hurt Shen Jiu not entirely because he knew he couldn’t help, he was getting the excess spill over from Shen Yuan.

Hearing his brother speak to him, Shen Yuan stopped dissociating. “I was just thinking about some things, don’t worry about me, brother.”

“Tell me what it is. Perhaps you’ll feel better if you talk to your elder brother about it.”

“I…”

DING!

Shen Jiu has asked what Shen Yuan was thinking about! He cannot answer honestly and say he was thinking about his life on Earth, so he must come up with another answer! How will he answer? Your choice will have an impact on what events will follow in the future! Do choose wisely, because the fate of the characters in the novel are in your hands.

                                               [Thinking about Peak Lords                                                 Thinking about Luo Binghe                                                 I was just thinking about the past...]

                            [Previous Segment] [Table of Contents] [Next Segment]

A/N: Yay! A question that won’t be a life-or-death situation (for Shen Qingqiu)! Each question asked will impact the story in some way, and some have more impact than others. It would be unfair for me to say just how important each question is, but every now and again the System Moderators may give you very subtle hints to help you decide! Good luck and hope you have as much fun with this project as i’m having!

[quillovesdbz]

Submission for week 4 of @tpthvegebulmayhem (1/3)

Clandestine Downfall

Chapters: 1/2/3/4/5/6/7

Chapter 5: The Lavender Lie

Rating: M

Genre: Cloak and Dagger, Fantasy, Fairytale AU, Dark Fiction, Mystery, Smut

TW: Violence, psychological abuse, physical abuse, light smut, homophobic ideology, depiction of intellectual disability.

Summary: Bulma continues her investigation, and she finds a lead. Vegeta pushes Bulma further and further away, but does he mean to hurt her so? Or is he trying to keep her safe? Bardock orders the arrest of Bulma.

Nearly two weeks later was the first time she talked to him again. She had been on a pointless mission, investigating and sticking her nose exactly where it didn’t belong. She had befriended some of the kitchen staff, namely Fasha and Marron, two chatty girls who she confirmed had a crush on her. Bulma spun this to her advantage, playing hard to get or rather, impossible to get. But they didn’t have to know that. As long as she toyed with them, they fed her information. As useless as that information had turned out to be, it was information nonetheless.

From the girls she had learned of a servant who had come as a cook, but had recently disappeared, leaving the kitchen matron, Mai, in charge. This happened on the exact day the prince and Nappa had left to arrest Bulma. So Mai became suspect number one, and Bulma had to share the news with the prince. She felt almost too excited to talk to him again, and nearly danced to his chambers in the middle of the night. As she knocked, she unconsciously grinned toothily, anticipating being able to speak with him.

For two weeks he avoided her. He now knew that becoming king meant he could never have her. It burned him deeply, but over the course of the two weeks he was beginning to let go of her. His heart had begun to heal, and he realized the mistake of falling in love with her.

“You come with good news, I hope. Because if not, leave my presence.” Vegeta spit harshly at the disguised Bulma. She was wearing a blue jacket with knee length coattails over a pale yellow doublet. Her trousers were a very plain beige, and her boots slightly darker leather. Her sword hung at her hip now, she had refashioned the belt to fit her slight frame instead of hanging loosely at her back. She was a vision of regal style, though not overly fancy. He eyed her up and down suspiciously, awaiting her answer.

“No news, my prince. However I have a lead,” she glanced past his shoulder and inside his chambers where it appeared he was enjoying tea… alone. “Perhaps I could join you to discuss?” She suggested, dropping her smile and adopting a more serious expression.

He said nothing, just rolled his eyes to the ceiling and turned to make his way back toward the table. A very uninviting welcome, if Bulma had ever seen one.

The Prince’s chambers were over triple the area of her own, and contained several extra pieces that hers did not. He had a lavish bed with a full violet velvet canopy, tied to each of the four bedposts with golden rope. It had a plethora of fat purple pillows, and a thick purple comforter. Bulma was beginning to think his favorite color might be purple, but the rest of his room did not reflect that. He had a nearly identical desk to hers, though his was pristine, not a speck of dust upon it, and it looked decades newer. In the northern corner of the room there was a large grey brick fireplace. There was no fire burning at the moment but she could tell it had been recently used. It was nearing fall now, and the nights were getting ever colder. A small part of her hoped Yamcha was making sure her siblings stayed warm with lots of blankets.

Beside the fireplace was a large mirror, so large in fact it was on the floor and nearly reached the ceiling in height. It was framed in extravagant gold detail, delicately carved vines with dozens of golden roses. Each leaf had visible veins that must have been painstakingly shaped by a real artist. It was magnificent. On the floor near the mirror and the fireplace was the biggest brown bear pelt she had ever seen, three or four people could lay upon it comfortably without touching. It looked so soft, her hands begged her to touch it. But she withheld those urges, and took a seat at his small four chair dining table. The centerpiece was an exotic Asian vase, filled with fresh Lavender blossoms.

Without saying a words the prince sat adjacent to the blue haired girl and gestured for her to pour herself some tea.

She obeyed by taking the warm teapot in her hands and filling the small teacup closest to her.

“Milk?” she questioned, figuring that when in Rome, she may as well spoil herself. She eyed the handsome prince with reserved interest.  Lately when she had seen him about the court he had been dressing much fancier. In fact, ever since the announcement of his coronation, he had his small crown equipped every day. It suited him well, mostly covering up his large forehead and deep widow’s peak. Not that she minded those unique features, but it did well to accent them. Today he wore a dark doublet, almost coffee colored. It had golden embroideries running vertically from the base of his neck to the bottom of the shirt. His trousers were white, matching his gloves, and boots a deep and shiny black. His matching gold cloak was draped over one of the unoccupied chairs.

“No, I don’t usually take mine with milk, so they don’t include it when they bring the setup from the kitchens.” he explained.

“Well you should, there is nothing better.” Bulma replied, swirling the translucent brown liquid in her teacup.

Vegeta was beginning to get angry, she was wasting his time. She invited herself into his chambers, after two weeks of… nothing… and now she stalls by making small talk about tea! It was infuriating to say the least.

“And what is the information you wanted to discuss, woman?” he shouted, his voice and inflection fiery. Bulma was taken slightly aback by his sudden slide to extremes. He had avoided her for nearly two weeks, even though she had done absolutely nothing to deserve such treatment. Granted, she had been busy herself, but this sudden outburst was no way to treat her.

“Just what is your problem, Vegeta?” she retaliated, eyes wide and brow cinched.

“My problem?! What is your problem? I didn’t ask you here, you barged in, invading my private tea time, and you dance around telling me the information you promised in exchange! But I am the one with a problem?” his face began to flush with anger, and he slammed his gloved fist on the table with the end of his question.

“Why have you been ignoring me?” she plead, her eyes suddenly welling with tears. She liked him, genuinely, and maybe she loved him, so why did he distance himself from her?

He positioned himself closer to her, his face was inches from hers so that she could feel his hot breath. His face was twisted in a furious scowl that told her he wasn’t going to kiss her, but instead was attempting to intimidate her.

“Listen, whore, I want nothing to do with you, I only keep you here so you fulfil your duties and then I will throw you to the prisons like the scum that you are.” His words pierced her heart and brought the torrential fall of her tears to fruition. She gasped lightly at his attack, covering her mouth with her hand.

“You are but a low class harlot and your  infatuation spell has broken. I will be the king, and there is no chance in hell you will ever be worthy of me.” He stood from the table, looking down upon her. He placed his hand at her neck, and grabbed the collar of her doublet. His fingers ripped right through the delicate lace as he gripped the edge and picked her up from her chair.

She let out a small yelp in surprise mostly, but also in pain of her collar tightening on her neck.

He jerked her body toward himself, before throwing her down on the floor. She landed on her hands and knees, and she choked out an involuntary sob. She flipped herself over to look at him, and to speak.

“The maiden Mai was serving breakfast the day Nappa was poisoned,” Bulma informed him, letting out a small cry afterward. “I think she is a prime suspect, although I have been unable to gather concrete evidence.” she breathed hard, a side effect of the shocked crying she had been doing.

“Useless,” he uttered low and angry. “She has worked for the regent for as long as I can remember and she would never harm his most high ranking general.”

It was then they both had a thought.  

“Bardock…” Vegeta muttered under his breath.

The regent, Bulma thought at the exact same time.

“What motive would he have had…?” Bulma trailed, deep in thought.

“The treaty. Is it possible that Bardock is working with Frieza to ensure the downfall of our kingdom? Why else would he eliminate our most powerful and experienced general?” Vegeta pieced together small fragments of his theory, but he wasn’t fully convinced himself.

“He had no reaction when you announced Nappa’s death. However, he seemed to he surprised at the actual event of his death, because it didn’t match up with what he knew to be true, poison.” Bulma recalled from her first morning staying at the castle.

Silently the two young people stared at each other. They had a very solid suspect now, only a few doubts about it, but a dangerous suspect to be sure. And if indeed the idea that Frieza was behind the whole plot, puppeting the regent to gain control of the kingdom, the situation was far worse than either of them had ever imagined.

…

Broly was the son of a now disgraced ambassador, who was exiled for his crimes against the crown. When his father, Paragus, was exiled, the young boy stayed in the castle under the care of the regent. It was frowned upon by most of the other lords and ladies in the court, but Bardock didn’t believe that he was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. So he hired the boy, then ten years of age, to be the dungeon keeper. He was a large boy, all muscle and tall as a horse. He would have easily passed for eighteen back then. Now, at twenty, he was a literal giant. He towered over every man Bardock had ever seen. He’s cursed, they would say. He talked simply, and couldn’t hold a conversation too long. He’s slow, they would say. And sometimes, he would get angry at their whisperings, and lash out violently. He’s dangerous, they would say. So, to protect Broly and himself, he confined the boy to only the cells and the kitchens. Occasionally Broly would be able to go outside to the stables where he enjoyed the company of the horses and one raggedy barn cat, but only after the court had gone to sleep, and the moon was high in the sky. He didn’t mind his confinement, in fact he felt pride in his occupation, and did his best to make Bardock proud of him too.

On this evening Broly had been ordered to clean out one of the empty cells, and dress it with less moldy hay for a new prisoner. To properly punish the criminals, they slept on hay, which would often become moldy in the dark and moist dungeon. Especially on nights it rained, which had been happening rather often lately.

So Broly prepared the new cell. He was almost giddy that he would have a new mate to talk to, as the last few prisoners had recently been executed. It always made him sad that his friends would be taken away from him, but he knew it was necessary, even if he didn’t know why.

…

Bardock paced his chambers restlessly. He now knew the mysterious squire to be none other than the blue haired girl, but he could not determine why she would be disguised, as a male of all things. The kitchen matron Mai, had informed him of certain lewd acts between the prince and his friend, and Bardock was able to piece the rest together when he recalled the boy’s hair color. He remembered that day that she sat in Nappa’s chair. It was the only time Bardock had seen her in her nearly two weeks of stay, but he remembered it vividly because of her audacity to take such a seat.

Immediately following Mai’s accusation, Bardock had Broly prepare a cell. Although he didn’t plan to imprison her immediately. He needed concrete evidence to support the servant’s claim. And if it were true it had the potential to damage the Prince’s reputation or at the very least, his trust in Bardock. So he needed to play his cards very carefully, to ensure the best possible out come.

…

Bulma had convinced her chamber maid to allow her to bathe in solitude, though it took some time. Finally, when she had gone long enough, the maiden agreed to it, if only because the blue haired squire was beginning to really reek. The maiden wondered what kind of deformity he had to be cause for such self consciousness. But she got used to their agreement and said nothing of it to anyone.

But her bathing time needed to be quick, because she was vulnerable to discovery at any moment. In case of intrusion, she lavishly filled the tub with bubbles, so as to cover her breast and kept a towel within reach. But what she wasn’t prepared for was a intrusion that she didn’t mind. The prince.

He came in as she was nearing the end of her bath, scaring the daylights out of her. Luckily it was the prince, because she yelped like a little girl before ducking her head beneath the water. He promptly closed the door behind him, and turned away from her.

Bulma knew she could stay under there forever. Plan B; apologize profusely and submit to the punishment she had incurred for her crimes. But when she came up she saw him. He respectfully faced away, allowing her to privately finish.

“Oh, your majesty…” she said with a tilted head and furrowed eyebrows. She wasn’t expecting him, but it was a welcome surprise either way.

“I’ve come to release you.” he nearly whispered, and Bulma sensed a small amount of pain in his voice.

“What does that mean?” she questioned.

“It means I am done with you. And it isn’t safe for either of us, to have you here.”

She rose from the tub and wrapped the towel around her body. Her arms and most of her legs were bare, and dripping soapy water.

“Do you mean I can go home?”

“Yes! Stop asking so many questions.” he comanded in a fiery tone.

“Just one more; can I ever come back?”

There was silence as thick as the snowstorms in winter, and just as cold. Vegeta thought it was a trick. She was teasing him. But the sincerity in her voice said otherwise, and what reason would she have now to trick him? He just gave her everything she wanted. The best possible deal for a harlot and scoundrel like herself. He turned to face her, his first mistake that evening.

Before she knew it she was directly behind him, close enough to touch him with an outstretched arm. When he turned to face her, she thought about what to say. Nothing was probably the best thing, but instead she said his name. And that was her first mistake that evening. And one mistake led to another and another, until they were breathless in each others arms. He had taken his pure white gloves off and thrown them to the side. The better to grab me with, Bulma thought as she quivered in anticipation. Nothing covered their bodies now; save for the maroon blanket that once only covered her mattress.

There was nearly no space between their bodies now; and what space there was, was hot a humid like the peak of summer. They were connected, one being. They said no words, it was far to heated for such nonsense. The quiet rang in their ears, only interrupted by the occasional sigh or moan. Their lips locked, and held there, each too afraid to let the other go. She held him, her nails digging into the skin of his back, her legs wrapped tightly around his waist. Every inch of her body craved him, and could never satiate the hunger. He felt the same,  one hand holding her thigh closer to his body, the other hand supporting himself.

They made love like it was the first and last time. Pressed for time, but trying to learn every crevasse of each other’s bodies. They both savored and rushed the act, the prospect of an intruder at any moment making them go as fast as possible.

She was close, on the edge of an explosion. She bucked beneath him, wanting desperately to be closer. Her voice betrayed her, letting out audible cries of passion as she got nearer and nearer to her end. He noticed her involuntary noises and clasped the thigh holding hand over her mouth. The action sent her over the edge. His control over her had excited her, when she herself had no control over her body.

When he felt her convulse beneath him, a sure sign of her orgasm, he relaxed, and came in sync with her.

“Vegeta! P-pull,” she began, but shuddered in ecstasy.

He thrust with a final grunt, releasing his seed deep inside her.

“Out…” she finished. Oh well. She lamented at his naivety, hoping this didn’t lead to her being with child.

He huffed, breathless, and moved to dismount her.

Then the door opened.

…

Though they had been caught, it was only Bulma’s chambermaid. Marron. She figured the squire had been bathing long enough, and it was time to dump the tub. She was shocked to find him in bed, clad in nothing but their natural skins, seemingly finishing their carnal sin. With the prince, of all people. At first she was flustered. And then she feared for her life.

Vegeta sprung from the bed as fast as lightning, and held the door closed with the maid inside.

“You’ve seen nothing here, peasant.” he growled lowly, lips pulled back like a threatening wolf. She dared not look at him, and took her chance to bow so lowly, she was almost laying on the ground. She stuffed her head down, between her knees, her small hands clasped together above her head. She groveled at his feet, crying uncontrollably. She didn’t want to anger the prince, he could have her killed!

“Vegeta!” called the familiar voice of the squire, though much softer and higher in pitch than usual. “She will be quiet, you have my word.” Bulma looked at the girl, and gave her a knowing look. Then she dropped the sheets from her breast, revealing herself as female. Marron became wide eyed as she looked up at the blue haired squire. She was at a loss for words, but it all began to make perfect sense.

“Of course,” the maiden said, piecing the puzzle together.

“I will not hesitate to kill you if this ever got out. Know that in two weeks time, I will be king, and this woman will be my bride.” he declared.

At first Bulma hadn’t heard his words. Or rather, she did, and her head chose not to hear them. And then her head did this silly thing where she played the words back again in slow motion.

“I- what?” she questioned, entirely taken by the surprise of this declaration. Was he asking her to marry him, or telling her? And… what would that be like? Would she see her family, would they live in the castle with her? The hooligans would tear it up. Or would the people even approve of a marriage between a lowborn like herself, and the King? All of these questions were contained silently in the single “what" she had vocalized. And the prince knew it because he too, had the same questions.

“Do you agree to this?” he was asking Marron if she agreed to stay silent, or die. But both women spoke.

“Yes,” they said in unison, though Bulma had a different idea of what his question meant.

“Oh,” she said, realizing her mistake.

“Oh,” Vegeta said, acknowledging that she accepted his odd proposal.

The maiden said nothing, only cowered on the floor, wishing for a swift exit.

“Begone,” he said to Marron, opening the door slightly to allow her to leave.

“Yes, your majesty,” she said meekly, as she rose to her feet and exited the room. It was then Vegeta turned to Bulma and began laughing.

“What’s so funny?!” Bulma demanded, her face an angry scowl. The prince just continued to laugh as he found his trousers. “What?!” she demanded once again. Her face became red hot, like fiery oven.

“Nothing, its just,” he paused to cackle some more, “I only said that because she might think it a sin if we were laying together with no promise of marriage!” he bursted out with laughter at the end of his explanation. “B-but you thought,” he giggled, “you thought I was serious!”

Bulma felt a sharp stab in her heart. He wasn’t serious? Her heart nearly shattered. She felt her throat become thick and her eyes wet. How absolutely cruel, she lamented silently.

“Oh no,” he said with almost a slight joy in his voice. “You thought… you thought I was in love with you?” he said with an evil smirk. She couldn’t bare to look at him. She was so entirely embarrassed and heart broken, all she could do was keep her head down. It felt like she was floating as her head began to spin.

“Like I said before, I release you. Go home to your tribe of savages, and never come back.” He was actually disguising his goodbye with more hostility than he actually felt toward her. But the more ugly he was, the easier it would be for her to forget him. The truth was, he cherished the memory they had just made, and more than anything, he wished more than anything that she could stay. But it would never work, the kingdom would never accept her. And he would be going to war soon with the French, and he couldn’t bare to think what may come of her if they lost. Frieza would surely kill her, but not before torturing her. Afterall, his father had done that very same thing to the late empress. Or so Frieza thought…

The truth was that the late King Vegeta fell in love with the woman who was promised to Frieza. He staged her kidnapping, but she was more than willing to go, for she loved the king as well. And she married him, and bore him two sons before her death. But to Frieza, he believed the marriage to be against her will, and the procreation a product of rape.

Yes, it would be gravely dangerous to marry her, in more ways than one. So he hurt her, to let her go. And when she was fully clothed once again, she left.

…

Marron and Fasha were chatting in the kitchen when the blue haired squire zipped past them. She had a long dark cloak on, that seemed to purposefully conceal her face. She was holding her hand to her face, muffling her light cries.

“What’s with him?” Fasha poked, when Bull had exited the kitchens, headed toward the stables.

Marron felt she could trust her friend. They had known each other since they were very small children. Their mothers still worked in the kitchens together. Marron made the grave mistake of trusting her friend, and confiding the secret with her.

“Is that so,” Mai appeared behind the two girls, startling them.

“Oh, um yes, I was it with my own eyes Miss Mai…” Marron said meekly. “But the prince made me promise not to tell anyone, on pain of death. Mai’s eyebrows raised with intrigue.

“Then he shall not know,” Mai replied, her voice sly, with malicious intent. “Follow me.” she comanded of her subordinate.  And Marron did.

They made their way to the Regent’s chambers, on the far east end of the castle. It was a long walk, and silent. Marron had the feeling that Mai was mad at her, but she couldn’t be sure.

When they arrived, the Regent was leaning on the wall outside of his chambers. It was odd, but Marron thought nothing of it.

“Is that so?” the Regent purred. His voice was deep and smooth, like a creamed cup of tea. Marron liked her tea with cream, and she really liked the regent’s voice. That and his body. Though he was probably twenty years older than her, she felt instantly attracted to him. It could never be, she lamented with an audible sigh. “I saw it with my own eyes, but the prince cannot know. Please, protect me.”

Marron’s big doe eyes looked up at the much taller than her man.

“Very well. No consequence will come to the prince. And we will hold her trial on the same day as his coronation, that way he will not know.” His guarantee comforted the young maiden.

Bardock motioned for one of his guards to come closer. “M'lord?” the armor clad knight asked.

“If Marron is to be believed, the blue haired girl should be on her way to through the forest to her home. She lives in the old hospital, though you probably won’t have to go that far. Just arrest her and take her directly to the cells, I will keep the prince away from that area so that he is none the wiser.”

“Yes sir!” the knight saluted, and made his way toward the other end of the castle.

Marron had a tiny pang of black, dirty, guilt in the pit of her stomach. She hoped to God that she did the right thing.

To be continued…