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titlemewickedwonderland · 1 year ago

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Fan Service (Sleep Token oneshot)

Summary: Elena had been a fan of a lot of bands over the years. Her favorite had been Ghost and Sleep Token since she'd discovered them over a year ago; unfortunately, though she never had the opportunity to meet the band or go see them live before. What she didn't expect was for Sleep Token to have a show playing live just a few hours away from her city! Jumping at the chance to see them finally live she never expected how her night would turn out!

Pairings: Platonic!Vessel x OC, Plantonic!iii x OC

*Please note that I am aware Sleep Token does not interact with fans like this at concerts! One could only dream; this is just a silly little oneshot for you guys! I have not seen them live either and I know the interactions may seem oc considering what kind of band they are and their lore. Bear with me, it's just imagination just like all the other fanfics of bands out there! Hope you enjoy. This is not to portray their actual personalities or interactions! SIMPLY FANFICTION! Please don't come at me....I DO respect the band and their privacy to keep their personal lives and personalities out of media; I love them dearly and mean no disrespect to them as people or as a band. This is just something silly I thought up; experimenting, if you will...If you haven't seen them or listened to them; boy honey you're missing out!

My Workshop

She was jittery. Bouncing on the toes of her black hightops as she waited in line. The ticket clutched tightly in her hands as she scanned the rest of the crowd that lined up to the venue to get in. The excitement and anticipation for tonight's show were palpable on her tongue as she took a calming breath to stop the scatter of butterflies in her stomach from exploding from her body and out of her mouth. There were so many people here and although Elena was not fond of large crowds like this, she knew she'd regret it immensely if she didn't come tonight. The very idea that she could have, even by her own volition, missed out when her favorite band was so close to her performing made a knot form in her stomach; not helping her out at all with the nervous energy her body carried.

She'd been in love with the music this band created since she first found them out a little over a year ago. Sleep Token had bumped her love for this kind of music higher on her list - making her more obsessed with the addictive blend until she'd played playlist after playlist on endless loops through her speakers at her small apartment. And tonight, she drove a few hours from her hometown just to see them.

When her turn came at the line she handed over her ticket to get punched before being allowed entry. Her green eyes widened at the scene around her. Countless booths lined up with canopies advertising merch sales for everything under the sun. From T-shirts to sweatshirts, wristbands with the band's logos, to copies of their latest albums on CDs and so much more. The girl found herself standing near the barrier of other fans who were browsing the tables; staring down at the items displayed for purchase and bit her lip. It wasn't as if she didn't have the money; she'd saved up months from her job at the music store she worked at just for this chance to get a souvenir from the band she loved the most.

But despite her eagerness to snatch something up like a sweatshirt she refrained with all her willpower; she wasn't going to blow her whole paycheck until she'd seen everything there was to see. A slight breeze blew through the open venue causing her to shiver a bit and glance back at the stall showcasing the black zip-up sweaters only partly regretting not buying one since she didn't expect the weather to get cold tonight. She was dressed in a pretty dress. Black with white dragons all over it and the collar was high - like a turtleneck without the extra fabric and it hugged her body perfectly while a pair of hightop black shoes cased her feet for comfort. Her long brown hair was hanging down her back unhinged by the tie that was wrapped around her slender wrist. It wasn't like she was trying to dress to impress. She certainly didn't seem like she fit into this sort of environment while others dressed more for comfort or wearing varies of bandwear. But she'd just bought this dress and figured today would have been the best to wear it; even if it didn't go lower then the middle of her thighs. She got cold easily and she was beginning to regret not bringing a jacket to wear.

She'd followed the crowd towards the large open field where a large stage was constructed for the band to play and she weaseled herself to the front with ease; being so small at only 5'2" kind of helped. She wouldn't have been able to see Sleep Token on stage any other way not that she needed to - their music spoke more than the show they put on but man did she really want to see Vessel doing his adorable dances as he unhinged from the world and allowed the music to guide his body. She'd seen videos of other fan's uploads of his hopping and jumping on stage as he danced and she really wanted to see it live. So she took position at the iron railings that bracketed the fans from the stage at a safe distance and watched as tech people got the stage ready.

The sun was already low in the sky, the show going to start very soon - it was better experienced at night with all the light affects and strobe lights. Simply watching the way the tech people worked on stage made her heart race a bit as she knew in just minutes the show would begin and she would be right there at the front watching.

More people gathered behind her and Elena rested her arms against the railings as she watched; purposefully ignoring the fans behind her and on either side as they wanted to get the front row as well. If she dared to look behind her at all the people she would probably freak; she hated being at the front of any line let alone in the middle of a crowd so she didn't. Simply watched with anticipation and bated breath as the techs left and the lights began to come on. The show was beginning.

It was magnetic. It was addicting. It was like a shot of adrenaline through her system. Vessel's voice was like dark silk as he sang his lyrics and she was practically in a trance as she watched him perform. A big smile crept onto her face as she watched; her heart aching so much with adoration as she watched him get lost to the music; watched as he interacted with the fans through his signature hand movements and fruitiness with iii on stage. She loved it all and knew if she were to die right now she'd die with a blissful smile on her face. The crowd behind her was just as enthralled by him. Jumping up and down, dancing, and swinging around like crazy people behind her as they got lost in the music.

But then Elena felt her body slam forward into the railings in front of her when a fan not paying attention to his surroundings practically decked her in the back with his wild arms making her lurch forward aggressively against the metal. Her arms seared with pain as they jammed against the harsh cold railing causing her to hiss in pain; she would surely bruise come morning. And then just as suddenly a strong arm grabbed her arms and she looked up startled as security was quick to lift her tiny frame over the barrier and away from the danger. She yelped in surprise and clung to the man's shoulders as he carried her away from the railing and to a chair at the side of the stage causing her heart rate to spike when she realized where she was.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" the man asked scanning her over as she clutched her arm.

Elena laughed nervously and began nodding. "I am! I just hurt my arm a little bit on the railing there's no need for-" she began to protest feeling so very wrong for being on the other side of the barrier; feeling like a child that isn't supposed to be somewhere but before she could get the sentence out a figure jumped off of the stage as the music began to change into its melodic melodies instead of lyrics. Her gaze lifted up to find one of the guitarists coming her way still holding his instrument to the side of his body as he made his way over.

At first, Elena expected to be yelled at or told she needed to get back to the crowd but instead, her eyes widened when they met the familiar blue of iii's eyes as he came to stand beside her. One large hand rested on her shoulder as he did so.

"Everything okay here?" his voice was a little rough around the edges; probably from screaming out to the crowd to hype them up some more but there was no anger in his voice from what she could tell. She cleared her throat and shook her head a little as she pointed to her ear as if to tell him she couldn't hear him very well; which honestly wasn't a lie, being this close to the stage the music was a lot louder than in the crowd.

The bassist's black mask with the familiar Sleep Token symbol shifted as if he was smiling beneath his mask before he was bending down to speak in her ear; his larger frame tall and imposing seemingly less intimidating this way.

"Are you okay honey?" he asked near her ear allowing her to hear him better.

Elena blushed slightly at the proximity and nodded slightly as she laughed nervously. "I'm okay, it's just a misunderstanding really-" she began but the guard cut her off.

"Another fan behind her was being a little rough and she got injured on the barriers."

iii's eyes softened in concern as he looked her over and Elena quickly waved her hands in front of her. "It's okay really. I'm not bleeding or anything, just gonna bruise. It's not that big of a deal really. I appreciate the concern but I mean it is a concert; something was bound to happen." she tried to protest.

iii was already grabbing at her slender arm and examining the redness of where her skin had been hit against the railings minutes earlier and his head tilted a bit.

"Damn. I'm sorry sweetheart. We want our fans to have fun but not to hurt each other even by accident." he said and Elena shook her head again as she glanced over her shoulder catching Vessel's figure as he walked closer to their side of the stage; his head tilting towards them but because of the mask covering his face and the mic close to his mouth as he sang, she couldn't tell his expression.

She ducked her head; allowing her hair to hide her expression as she felt the embarrassment heat up her face. "It's really not that bad. Nothing that involved me being whisked away. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to distract you from the show. Please, go on and finish! I'll be back out there cheering you guys on." Elena began to stand but a pair of warm hands covered in black pain suddenly gripped her knees and she looked up to find Vessel crouching in front of her.

She sank back into her chair with a start and looked up at him. She couldn't see his eyes through the slits in his mask but the lower half of his face and jaw were exposed. Good god this man was beautiful even without full features being shown; she could tell by the shape of his lips and the half smile on his face - the strong neck and jaw coated in black paint that was starting to wear off from the light sheen of sweat that coated his naked torso.

"Are you hurt, honey?" Vessel's normal speaking voice was just as beautiful as his singing one. Deep and raspy from singing but beautiful causing Elena to feel as if her tongue was made of cotton instead of flesh and muscle as she dumbly nodded to him.

"She was injured by another fan during the show." iii mentioned and Elena shot him a look from the corner of her eye.

"I told you. It's not life-threatening! I'm okay really!" she protested before looking at Vessel and then the nearly empty stage behind him.

"Shit the show! You guys better go before people think something's wrong," she said frantically; her hands raising without though to gentle press at Vessel's shoulders as if to push him back towards it.

"Hey hey, calm down sweetheart." Vessel's hands gripped her wrists and his bright white smile was on display. "Don't worry about that right now. Tell us what's wrong, are you hurt?" he asked.

Elena's gaze dropped to his mouth so that she didn't stare at his naked torso instead and nodded. "I'm fine! Seriously!" she laughed a bit at their persistent concern for a random fan; god she loved them so much but they did have a show to finish and she wouldn't allow some scandal to happen over a few little bruises.

"I'll probably have a bruise but nothing bad. Now go!" she willed herself to gentle shove at Vessel's shoulders again even when all she wanted was to wrap her arms around him and give him a massive hug; she refrained and tempted down the fangirl within her.

"Aw, so sweet aren't yah?" iii cooed playfully causing another hot flash to creep up Elena's neck.

"Seriously?!" the girl covered her face but then there was the gentle caress of lips against her ear as Vessel drew nearer to be heard over the crowd of the fans several feet away.

"I'll tell you what, princess. Stick around after the show and come find one of the security for a personal escort to a VIP. Deal?"

Her eyes widened as she stared over his shoulder at the stage; petrified as much as thrill raced through her. "I-I can't do that. I can't let you guys do that! Come on it's not that bad of an accident. You're overreacting...it's not something you need to worry about let alone give me a personal VIP-" she protested turning her head slightly.

Vessel's grin was on full display now as he cocked his head to meet her gaze behind his mask. He smelled like sweat and body paint but also something that was either some sort of body wash or deodorant; something that was all Vessel.

"We want to take care of our fans, honey. It's partly our fault for the crowd being like this so let's make this right. It's the least we can do." Vessel said and Elena stared up at his masked face as he withdrew.

The red details of his otherwise white mask were beautiful up close and she could tell there was a lot of artistic love put into it. Blinking up at him her lips turned into a frown and they parts as if to decline but the singer only shook his head playfully and placed a finger to his lips.

"I won't go finish this show until you agree. We'd love to get to know you a little better." he offered.

She knew he was bluffing. Why would he just shut down the entire show for her? but wasn't this what she dreamed about since the moment she found his band? She never expected something like this to happen; it was like some kind of dream. Swallowing thickly she finally nodded with a shy smile on her face.

"If I'm not going to be a bother...I don't want to cause trouble for you guys."

Vessel's laugh was adorable as he leaned over and pressed a sweet kiss to her cheek. "You're not a bother at all, honey." he replied pulling away.

"Elena." she corrected on impulse causing both Vessel and iii to tilt their heads at her.

"My name's Elena." she smiled slightly at them.

"Nice to meet you, Elena. We'll see you soon, darling." Vessel grinned at her as he backed up towards the stage again.

"See you soon, angel!" iii winked giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze before he and his friend darted back up the stage to continue the show.

Elena let out a shaky breath; practically reeling from the unexpected interaction. She rose from the chair as if to make her way back to the crowd but she glanced back up the stage only to find Vessel pointing at her as he sang; his head tilting towards her playfully and she could practically hear his voice in her head with his directions without even him speaking them into the mic.

she laughed a bit; the sound lost in the fray of blasting music as she sank back down into the metal chair and crossed one leg over the other as well as her arms over her chest as she stuck her tongue out at him playfully; feeling the familiar heat of a blush on her face as she caught the last second of his pearly smile of approval as he turned back towards the crowd; belting out the lyrics to 'Chokehold' as he did so.

A/N: Thank you all for reading this! I hope you enjoyed it! Please let me know if you'd like for me to continue writing for this band. Again, Sleep Token has stolen my heart for a while now and I love them dearly I can't put it into words so I'd be more than happy to write some more if you'd like to read it! <3

#sleep token #sleep token band #vessel #vessel sleep token #iii sleep token #oneshot #sleep token oneshot

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zodiakuroo · 3 years ago

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Envy

EreMika is the villa’s top couple. Reader is hoping to turn one of their heads.

Pairing: Eren Jaeger x Mikasa Ackerman x Fem!Reader

Contains: 18+ characters, a good ol' fashioned love triangle, possessive behaviour, dom/sub dynamics, lil angst + lotsa pining, threesome, the sex is kinda messy but so is everything else

Word count: 10.5k (yes it's proofread but it's also kinda not)

Notes: For @doinmybesthere’s love island collab! happy pride month 🏳️‍🌈

Lush, mediterranean forests, thick with leaves and the wonder of adventure hidden inside.

Snow white, sandy beaches

Cerulean waters that sparkle in the sunlight and stretch to the edge of the horizon

The view from the infinity pool really is magnificent.

“You and Armin look good together.”

“You think so?” You murmur nonchalantly. The dark shades that cover your eyes dim your surroundings, making it all the more easy for you to see the brilliant figure in front of you.

“You don’t?” Mikasa cocks her head to the side, jet black bangs sweeping across her forehead.

“Armin’s a great guy. He’s my type on paper but… I dunno… I guess I wanna keep my options open.” You chew on your bottom lip, hoping she’ll change the subject. You can’t help the guilt that sits heavy on your heart.

The ‘you’ on the outside would never do something like this. Lead on some poor, innocent soul so you can stay close to the true object of your affections, biding your time until you can confess. Only when you’re certain that said love interest is free to be yours.

“Well, I still think you should lock him down before the recoupling. I don’t want you to get sent home.” Her gentle voice chases away any shame, kind eyes reminding you how you ended up in this situation in the first place.

“Oh you’d miss me?” You adjust your sunglasses, propping them atop your head, slowly wading towards her

“Of course you idiot.” She deadpans, kicking at the water, splashing in your face a little. You squeak in surprise and retreat a little. “You’re my best friend in the villa.”

If guilt is gnawing at you from one end, on the other end is bitterness, frustration slowly building towards a fever pitch.

Still, you don’t want to think about that now. You’ll only sour this moment for yourself. It’s rare that you get her full attention like this these days.

In the beginning, you two were inseparable almost from the jump. Both of you were a little more on the reserved side, especially stepping into such unusual circumstances. Naturally, you gravitated toward each other. Simply being in each other’s presence was enough to bring both of you out of your respective shells. That was the chemistry between you and Mikasa.

But when he dug his claws into her, your crush became one half of the strongest couple in the villa, leaving you behind to bury your own feelings.

Normally he’s stuck to her like a leech with his arms hanging around her like chains as if he’s afraid she’ll make a break for it any second. Like he’s afraid she’ll realise she’s too good to be catering to his every whim, too good to put up with his moodiness and too smart to fall for his charming front.

“Are you hoping someone new will come into the villa?” Someone ‘more your type’?” She uses air quotations to copy your words.

“Not exactly.” You start, distracted by the way she adjusts her bikini top, the soft flesh bouncing ever so slightly underneath her red bikini. The skin on her nose and on the apples of her cheeks are branded a similar shade thanks to the summer sun.

Your heart thrums against the ungiving wall of your chest, as you drift slowly towards her again, this time until you’re so close you feel her feet, drifting underwater at your waist. “I already have my eye on someone.” You answer as truthfully as possible.

“Are you gonna tell me who?” She furrows her brows curiously as you wrap your fingers around her ankles, slowly moving them up to rest on her calves. You use the position to pull yourself closer to her, until your chin rests on her knees. She leans down, as though she expects you to whisper the name of your crush into her ear.

You press yourself on to tip toes, to meet her halfway. Time seems to slow as you try to figure out what to do.

Lie? Confess? Kiss her?

But time doesn’t slow and-

SPLASH

You don’t get a chance to respond after your moment is ruined with an icy splash from behind you.

“Fucking hell!” You scream swatting water in his direction.

Right on cue.

“Eren what the fuck!” Mikasa scowls at him, clearly not amused either.

“I was just messing with you guys.” The sound of his cheery laugh may as well be nails on a chalkboard to you. “Sorry babe.” He pouts.

He takes up your spot by nudging you out of the way ever so subtly. Except it’s not really subtle. Not to you anyways. It’s pretty reminiscent of when he pushed you to the side when the two of them got together. He’s telling you to remember your place.

“Grow up Jaeger.” You roll your eyes.

With his arrival, discomfort sets into your bones. She accepts his apology almost instantly as always, easily placated with simple kisses. Innocent enough at first, starting over her knees but bit by bit his lips move further and further up her thigh, until she’s pushing him away murmuring “Not here.” As if he cared…

Watching them together, the picture of lovestruck, from a distance is nauseating enough, today you don’t have the willpower to experience it firsthand as a third wheel.

You’re about to excuse yourself when you hear Sasha yell from the opposite end of the pool. “Hey guys! I’ve got a text!”

Everyone shuffles closer, awaiting the message with quiet apprehension. When Sasha opens the message she gasps before reading it, making everyone’s anxiety grow tenfold.

“You don’t have to be a math genius to know that 1+1+1 = a crowd. It’s time to simplify the equation. Eren and ______ , get ready for a date! #LoveTriangle”

All eyes are on you in an instant and you resist the urge to duck down under the water to hide from the cameras. You wonder briefly if it would be easier to breathe down there, rather than up here where the tension is suffocating. Your fellow islanders are murmuring amongst each other but the words are indiscernible, muffled by the blood rushing to your head, face burning hot with embarrassment.

Everyone around you is wearing variations of the same expression; confusion. Sure they all had theories about you and Mikasa. Not that you were exactly subtle about it. Often touches that would linger for just a little bit too long, you would always lean in just a little too close when helping her with her makeup and many a time you’d been caught staring at her from afar. It’s just a little too intimate to be completely platonic but not intimate enough to be considered anything but a friendship. Then again, you never even had a chance to take it further because the only person who didn’t seem to notice was the ever oblivious Mikasa, not when she couldn’t see past the brunette boy with the striking jade eyes.

Now, looking at those very eyes you notice how they’ve lost their usual playfulness. As the exception to the bewildered expressions around you, he looks cold and unreadable. Then the corners of his lips twitch up into a small smile, one that doesn’t reach his eyes but big enough for him to flash his sharp white canines at you.

Mikasa has her eyes fixed to her hands in her lap, picking at her nails (a nervous habit she once told you). She refuses to look at neither you nor Eren.

You want to explain but the right words are nowhere to be found. Right here and now, in front of everyone (including the person she’s currently coupled up with) is not how you wanted her to find out. But you have to say something, anything to take away the melancholy that is so obviously weighing her down, but the words are stuck in your throat and before you can swallow that lump, he interjects.

“I wanna talk to Mikasa real quick.” He addresses you directly. “Why don’t you go ahead and get ready?” He phrases it as a suggestion but it’s more of an order. And just like that, your emotions flip to irritation. Who is he to tell you what to do? Even now, he wants a monopoly of her time and attention. As if your relationship (even just as a friend) might not also be damaged because of this.

And it’s not fair. You have to speak to her as well. You need to tell her that-

“It’s fine.” Her mouth pulls into a tight smile, being mindful of the cameras. It’s obviously not genuine, you can tell but you also know that she’s not one to show her true feelings, especially not publicly like this. But this feels too much for her and that brave face has never been more transparent.

Still, her slate gray irises meet yours. “I’ll be inside to help you get ready in a minute.”

You give an equally artificial smile and then swim across to the other side of the pool, where Sasha lends you her hand to pull you out of the water.

The car ride was awkward at best, insufferable at worst. You and Eren weren’t on friendly terms to begin with. Aside from the fact that he was coupled up with your crush, it was safe to say that being alone with him is not something you would ever have done willingly.

Where you found him loud and obnoxious, Mikasa found him excitable and bubbly. Where you saw him as stubborn, Mikasa saw him as driven and headstrong. Where you thought him impulsive and reckless, Mikasa thought him brave and spontaneous. When you said that he was rude and crass, Mikasa would say he was opinionated and outspoken.

It wasn’t as though she couldn’t see the bad sides of Eren but it was that she cared for him in spite of those things. Loyal to a fault she was. You let out a heavy sigh, thinking how much worse that makes all this. She must feel as though the loyalty she felt towards both you and Eren had been spat back into her face.

Silently you stare out the window, head turned away from him. A rare moment when you don’t feel the presence of camera lenses watching your every move.

Your brain is constantly replaying the last conversation you had with Mikasa. True to her word, she did help you choose an outfit and style your hair. But that natural comfort was gone.

No. That’s not true. The bond may be strained but it’s not broken. You can still do something to fix it. But neither of you were willing to address the elephant in the room.

Well, that's not exactly it.

It’s that neither of you knew how to.

Stood in front of the full length mirror, you took one last look at yourself, smoothing out the front of your sundress, but caught her sad gaze in the reflection behind you.

“Hey ____. Earlier, when you said you had your eye on someone. Were you talking about Eren?” Her voice was hushed but you feel it in your viscera, like a sharp kick that leaves you winded

You know what she’s thinking. What everyone is thinking. That you were going to swoop in and steal your best friend’s partner. And you can’t blame her because that’s exactly what it looks like.

But you didn’t betray her, you would never.

You want her. Not him.

It’s almost as though you’ll never get a chance to set the record straight. Before you could even try you were being shooed out the door.

Now at the table, you fiddle with the stem of your glass, resisting your body’s command to down the whole thing. Sitting here in silence with him for 2 hours may as well be torture if you were completely sober but it sure as hell would be better than talking to him.

Eren doesn’t seem to share your sentiments and is the first to break the silence.

“I know you don’t like me.” He says before taking a sip of his drink. “All this bullshit about a love triangle is ‘cause you like my girlfriend. Right?”

He flashes you his signature cocky smirk, one of the many things about Eren Jaeger that seem to irk you to no end.

“I mean she’s technically not your girlfriend.” You say as a feeble retort.

You are right. She’s not his girlfriend because he’s never asked her. Life in the villa was harsh like that. If your relationship wasn’t official, anyone was fair game. Really the only thing that had stopped you from making your move was the painful gnaw of your insecurity. The deep-rooted belief that she would never choose you over him. Just the idea of public rejection, in front of your friends, family and god-knows how many other people, puts the bitter taste of bile in your mouth.

“Like that fucking matters.” He leans back in his chair, long legs spread wide. At least you didn’t bother denying it, he thinks. But why would you, Eren is many things but he isn’t stupid. The way you stare at Mikasa all dreamy eyed, following her around like a stray puppy. When you two are together, he doesn’t like how you sit so close, always whispering and giggling at god knows what. You’re entirely too comfortable, letting her lay her head in your lap while you play with her hair. Small things like that add up, it’s not hard to fingers out what you true intentions are.

He’s not jealous. He’s not. Why would he be jealous of someone who doesn’t even have the balls to go after what they want? You just… bother him. You could have your pick of literally anyone in the villa but no. Instead, you’re always hovering around, waiting for him to fuck up so you can play the role of comforting best friend.

“What’s wrong?” Extra bravado backs your voice. You know this act. He’s trying to intimidate you. You always thought Eren saw himself as untouchable but the way his jaw ticks makes you wonder for a brief moment, is he threatened by you?

“Scared of a little competition? I think you’re on the wrong show.”

“Oh please.” He scoffs before picking up his glass again. “You’re no competition sweetheart.”

“Famous last words.” You hum condescendingly, before bringing your fork to your mouth, letting the food pass your lips.

He clenches his jaw tighter. Being able to push his buttons in this way is something you’re very proud of right now.

He lets out a deep exhale through his nose and says. “You know. I actually had my eye on you in the beginning.”

The bite of food seems to lodge itself in your throat, eyes bugging out of your head. You cough and sputter, quickly gulping down your drink to try and move the lump into your stomach.

“Surprised?” His voice takes on a much deeper tone.

You don’t reply, too busy fumbling for a napkin to wipe down the edges of your mouth so he continues. “Yeah. You’re hot, obviously. But also real feisty. Fun to tease and ease to get a rise out of. My type. But Mikasa…. I could tell she wanted me from the start and if I wanted to stay in this competition, I couldn’t waste any time grafting on someone who was playing so hard to get.”

“So this is all a game to you then?” You say through gritted teeth, both hands squeezing tightly around the cutlery you’re holding. All your anger is bundled up by a thin thread, ready to snap at a moment’s notice.

“I think you’re a little confused. Isn’t that exactly what this is?” He rests his chin on his palm, wearing that same chilling smile from earlier.

“You’re a real piece of shit. You know that?” You don’t want to lose your temper. Doing that means that you’ve given the upper hand back to him. Too bad you’re doing a terrible job of keeping it under control.

“Oh come on.” He laughs as if any of this is funny. “Its not like I’m leading her on.” Sharp as a dagger, those words jab themselves right in your gut. They’re a painful reminder that you don’t deserve to take the moral high ground. Thinking about what you’ve done to Armin, you may even be worse than he is.

“If I didn’t like her, I wouldn’t be bringing her tea in the morning, or making sure she ate.” Eren leans across the table, voice low and gravely. “Or making her cream all over my fingers every night while you and everyone else are fast asleep.”

You pick up the wine glass with the intention of covering his smarmy face in the blood red liquid.

Eren quirks brow at you, watching and waiting to see if you have the nerve. Because he knows that you don’t. If you did, you would have told Mikasa how you feel already. If you did, you would haven’t have latched on to the sweetest person in the villa as a fail safe. If you did, his pristine white shirt would have been stained burgundy by now.

Eren thinks you’re a coward and there’s nothing he hates more than that.

“Could have been you.” He sits back again. “Sorry I beat you to it.”

Your reception upon return to the villa is fairly mixed. Everyone is already dolled up with a drink in hand, the party in full swing.

Some people are glad to see you guys back, eagerly asking questions about the date. They might be genuinely curious as to how it went, interested in the development of new relationships or the survival of the villa’s power couple in the face of this challenge

Or they might just be in it for the drama, looking for gossip fodder. Wanting to know the details so they can go to the confessional booth and talk about how terrible of a person you are and how they would “never do anything like that to a friend”.

Other people greet you with disdain, people who would have been friendly with you mere hours ago. Armin is well liked in the villa, boyishly handsome with a kind heart. He’s a bit of a flirt at times but has never done anything with bad intentions. Of course everyone is fond of him. It’s only natural that you would look like the villain for stringing him along all this time, while he was developing genuine feelings for you.

Armin himself was angry of course, but it’s nothing if not deserved. You thought he would rage at you, call you selfish and cruel but he didn’t. Because Armin is a better person than you. You wanted to explain to him that you never meant to hurt him, but that wouldn’t mean anything because you did. In fact it would probably upset him more to hear that he was just an accidental casualty. A meek “I’m sorry” was the best you could offer. A nod and an impassive expression is all he offered in return, walking away to join Jean and some others on the daybed.

As for your date, you can feel his glare from all the way behind you as you make your way across the lawn to the bar. Mikasa is sitting on one of the stools with Sasha.

“Hey.” You interrupt Sasha’s animated chatter.

“Oh hey.” She turns to face you. While you’ve been gone she’s had time to build her defences up again, appearing stunningly neutral, not a hint of listlessness she couldn’t hide earlier. “How was the date?”

The first thing you think is She looks gorgeous tonight. But she always does.

The second thing you think is It’s time to grow a pair. Now or never.

You can still remember the sad look in her eyes from this afternoon. The thought still has your heart sitting in the pit of your stomach. The idea that it was a hurt you caused makes you want to throw it back up.

“It was…” You pause to find the right word. “Fine.” you decide on. You could have lied and said it was good but that’s probably not what she wants to hear. You could have been honest and said you would have had a better time removing your own wisdom teeth with a butter knife but that’s not the point. The date was irrelevant anyways, simple misunderstanding that you need to clear up right now. “But actually, I was wondering if I could pull you for a chat?”

Sasha hops off her chair, wobbling a bit as she lands. “Why don’t you guys stay here? I'm gonna go find Connie.” She places her hand on your shoulder, her own way of giving you a little courage.

You mouth a thank you that she meets with a wink before leaving.

You wipe your sweaty palms on the front of your dress, taking the seat across from her. Your mouth is dry and once again you can’t find the words to tell her how you feel.

Why can’t you just say it?

“So Armin is pretty mad at me. I’ll probably crash on the daybed tonight.”

You colossal idiot! You scream internally.

Once again you’re dancing around what you truly want to say.

Mikasa digs her clipped fingernails into her palm, struggling to keep her emotions at bay, dam threatening to break at any second. After everything, that’s what you came here to say? She knows it’s not your fault that you two didn’t get to talk before you left but you don’t think she deserves an explanation now?

At least Eren had the decency to come to her after. He didn’t say much except reassured her that nothing happened and he wasn’t interested in coupling up with anyone else.

Still, it didn’t quell Mikasa’s insecurity.

She’s never been jealous before in her life but this must be it. It feels like someone has dug into her chest and is squeezing, squeezing, squeezing until her poor heart is nothing but a crumpled mess.

If it had been anyone else, maybe it would have hurt less. Now she’s so afraid that she's losing you to Eren and she's losing Eren to you and in the end, she’s the one left with nothing.

“Yeah he was pretty upset when you left.” With her elbow on the counter top, she rests her chin in her palm. You’re used to her stoic expression because you know if you look long enough, carefully enough you’ll see how soft she is. But this is different. There is nothing but cold, hard steel behind her eyes.

“I deserve it though. I shouldn’t have strung him along like that.”

“Yeah I’d be mad too.” The bitter edge to her voice is one that you’ve never heard her use towards you. You try hard not to take it personally, she’s only mad because she doesn’t understand. You have to set the record straight.

Now or never right?

“Mikasa look. I have to tell you something. I-”

“I’VE GOT A TEXT!” Jean announces, getting in the way of your confession.

“For fuck’s sake.” You mutter under your breath.

It’s pretty obvious at this point that the producers have you on their hit list but as Jean reads aloud the message, it only becomes clearer that they must have some personal vendetta against you.

“Eren, you get to spend the night in the hideaway with the islander of your choice. #DecisionsDecisons”

It’s an easy decision so Eren doesn’t give it much deliberation.

But his choice shocks everyone.

“_____. It’s you and me tonight.”

Even after what transpired this afternoon, your relationship with Mikasa was salvageable but this… you don’t think it will survive

Without a word, she hops off her seat, storming into the villa without sparing a glance at anyone else.

It might have been the final nail in the coffin for his relationship with her as well.

Alone in the hideaway, you nervously tug at the silk sheets, bunching the fabric between your fingers.

You’ve been waiting here for 15 minutes, sat in your pyjamas, a simple t-shirt and cotton shorts. The possibility that Eren would stand you up becomes more and more likely. Why he would do all this instead of just choosing Mikasa is beyond you but you know better than to waste precious brain cells trying to figure out Eren Jaeger. If he did plan on leaving you alone here for the night, it was probably for the best. At least you could sleep in a room by yourself for the first time in ages. A small consolation.

Just as you start to contemplate turning off the lights and calling it a night, you hear the door of the room creak open.

Eren walks in still dressed in his jeans and white linen shirt and kicks off his shoes.

“Look Jaeger. I don’t know what you want from me but I’m not interested in playing your games. I-“

The rest of your sentence evaporates when Mikasa appears from behind him. You jump to your feet, fully prepared to leave. Did he bring you here just to humiliate you? If that’s the case then he’s had more than his fill, you won’t let him have any more fun at your expense.

“Not interested you say?” Eren raises his eyebrow, as he gently nudges Mikasa forward.

You should go but your feet just won’t move when she stands square with you. “What’s going on?” You ask, as your chest grows tighter, with every second that ticks by.

“Do you-” she pauses, after a silence that dragged on for much too long. “Do you like me?”

Everything about it is innocent; question, the tone, the way she looks at you. But now your heart is beating so ridiculously loud that you can’t think straight. She asks you so bluntly that you feel stupid for how long you’ve spent agonising over how you would confess. Unlike you, she’s never struggled to get to the point.

Behind her, Eren wears a poorly concealed smile and that’s confirmation of the obvious. You don’t know what he told her but it’s obvious she knows this much. There’s no reason to deny it now.

“Yeah.”

You had rehearsed it countless times, thought about all the flowery words you would use to tell her how you feel. Yeah is not as eloquent as what you had in mind but it would have to do.

“Oh.” Her blush deepens, blending perfectly with the red and pink hues of the dimly lit room.

Mikasa is still shocked, she didn’t really believe Eren when he told her. Granted, at the time she wasn’t really interested in what he had to say seeing as he had just publicly humiliated her. Hearing you say it now makes her rethink everything, from those early days up until now.

She’s seen people chop and change partners with every new face that comes in and out of the villa but that was never her. To her, she already had Eren so there was no need to consider anyone else. But now that she knows how you feel, things are different.

“Hmm. Oh.” You mimic followed by a dry chuckle.

It’s not the response you had dreamed about but what did you expect? Yes you’ve confessed but this wasn’t your moment. It wasn’t the one you’d been waiting weeks for. Ultimately, that moment never came and maybe that was a sign that you and Mikasa just weren’t meant to be.

The big room now feels too small for three people. There's not enough space. There’s not enough air. You need to leave. You need to-

“Well, why didn’t you say anything?” She steps closer to you. There is no malice in her tone. A simple question with a simple answer but you can’t pick up if this is a rejection or not.

“I didn’t know if you liked girls.” You mumble, taking a step back.

It’s not the reason. Maybe it’s one of them but you just needed the space to think. To breathe. But the back of your legs hit the bed and once again your backside is on the soft cushion of the mattress.

She moves even closer until her knees knock against yours.

“That doesn’t matter to me.” She shakes her head and cups your face with both hands so you look at her face, her smile (even though it’s only slight) alleviates the tension in your chest. “If I like someone, I like them and… I think I like you.

The relief that you feel meets an untimely demise when Eren approaches the bed. He pulls her body flush against his chest.

You truly were something. Here he was making it easy for you but you still can’t say what you want. A coward.

He whispers something inaudible into her ear and now you have both of them looking down at you. This is the smallest you’ve ever felt, wanting to shrink even further under their scrutinising gaze. Still, you feel a familiar tingle just buzzing in your lower belly as they size you up.

She tilts her head to the side, granting Eren access to her neck which he accepts. He plants soft wet kisses across the expanse of pale skin. Pink tongue and white teeth appear every now and then as he leaves bruises and bite marks on the, once flawless, canvas. Her eyes fall closed as she writhes in his hold, grinding her rear on to his crotch. His hands wander, underneath the hem of her short dress, exposing more of her milky thighs, black lace panties just barely visible. She hums, finally opening her eyes, to look at you, her thumbs rub circles onto your cheeks.

You can’t imagine how you look right now but you know how you feel. Your head is spinning from the erotic scene in front of you, clenching your thighs to alleviate some of the heat you feel, breathing heavily even though all you’re doing is watch, sitting there in your cartoon pajamas.

Mikasa gasps as he digs his teeth into her neck especially hard, leaving behind the dents of his incisors.

“Focus.” He murmurs into the crook of her neck.

You don’t know what he means but you can’t exactly blame her. If there were hands squeezing and clawing up your thighs, never reaching where you actually need them. If there was a tongue sliding over the sensitive skin of your neck, teeth raking over the same sore spots over and over again before soothing them with featherlight kisses and kitten licks. If you were in her place, you wouldn’t be able to focus either.

“I- I’ve never been with a girl though.”

Your mouth dries up at the promise of her words. There’s no way she means….

“But Eren said he’d help.”

Help?

There’s no chance for you to stop and question once he unzips her dress, letting it fall off her body, leaving her in her underwear in front of you. You can’t stop yourself from shamelessly raking your eyes over her body.

Yes, you’ve spent days with her, lounging around in swimsuits but this feels new. Maybe it’s the way the black lace cups the curves of her breasts, budding nipples just barely visible through the sheer fabric. Or maybe it’s the way the matching fabric only just covers her pussy, that’s just mere inches from your face. She’s so close you can practically smell her. Your tongue dips out to moisten your lips, practically dying to taste her.

Perhaps the biggest difference comes in the smouldering way she looks down at you, it’s the same desire you’ve had in your eyes for weeks, finally being reflected back at you.

Your hands twitch atop your thighs, itching to do something.

Touch her.

Touch yourself.

Anything.

She tugs at the sleeve of your shirt and that's all the instruction you need. You pull your shirt over your head, perhaps with a little more eagerness than necessary. While Eren unhooks the other woman’s bra, flinging it across the room. You feel your nipples harden instantly but you can’t be sure if it’s because it’s due to the cold air of the room or the heat of her stare on your chest.

Mikasa straddles you, stepping free from Eren’s hold. From the corner of your eye you see him unbutton his shirt but you can’t focus on him for too long. Not when your bare chests are pressed together. Both of you shudder as your nipples graze against each other and you feel the heat of her cunt radiate onto yours. You hear the sound of heavy breathing, you can’t tell if it’s hers or yours. You can smell her perfume, intoxicatingly sweet jasmine and amber. Her pupils are already blown wide, only a thin grey ring that lines the pitch black of her iris. You see your reflection of yourself in them and you can only imagine that she is seeing something similar. Mikasa has literally taken over all of your senses, all except for one.

She’s so close to you, she must be able to tell that your heart is racing. Her nose bumps against yours ever so softly. You’re almost too scared to even move. Everything about this moment feels like a dream, what if you close that millimeter gap and it ends?

But you know it's real when her petal soft lips press against yours. It can’t be anything but real when she kisses you, gently as though you might break. You can’t help but want more, slipping your tongue past her lips. And finally you taste her and you don’t think you’ll ever get enough.

You swallow all the sounds she makes as you lick the inside of her mouth, lips sliding against each other. Every whimper makes you hungry for more so you kiss her deeper, massaging her tongue with yours.

Puffs of air escape through your nose, but both of you are much too desperate to stop the kiss for something as trivial as breathing. It’s not worth losing the feeling of her mouth on yours.

Before long, your hands are wandering, trailing over the curve of her ass, rubbing over thin fabric that moulds to her body, tracing the intricate patterns of the lace. Her hand glides up your torso gripping the soft breast in her palms, making you moan into her mouth. She smiles into the kiss, rolling your nipple between her fingertips, sending small shocks of pleasure straight to your pussy.

You maneuver her body, rocking her back and forth on your lap. It’s not nearly enough friction. You’re dying to get rid of the fabric that separates you. You want to feel skin to skin how wet she is for you. You want her to know how unbelievably wet you are for her. You fiddle around trying to adjust the position, trying to get her closer to where you need her.

“Baby.” A deep voice cuts through the tension in the room. For a moment you’d forgotten he was there at all.

Much to your chagrin, Mikasa pulls away from the kiss. You’re both left panting with your lips swollen. Your heart sinks as you come to the realisation that this is as far as everything would go. One searingly passionate kiss and nothing more. You couldn’t imagine a crueler fate.

Mikasa looks over her shoulder for Eren’s instruction.

He crosses his arms over his bare chest, toned muscles rippling with the motion, and stalks over to the bed. “On your knees.”

Obediently, she sinks to the floor, kneeling in front of you with Eren directly behind her. Yes, you just made out with his girlfriend right in front of him but suddenly you’re self-conscious being half naked in front of him.

He’s staring at you and not in the ‘ogling your tits kind of way’. It’s like he’s sizing you up, breaking you down with just his eyes.

“Can I take these off?”

You blink down Mikasa, not believing your ears but you heard the words yourself, clear as day. Eren does nothing but stare, expression unreadable. The room is quiet as they wait for you to answer.

Chewing on your bottom lip, you nod hesitantly.

Mikasa helps you shuffle out of your shorts and panties in one go, leaving you fully naked. Your legs are already shaking, resisting the urge to snap shut out of embarrassment. You can’t hide anything, not when she holds your legs apart, exposing your bare pussy to herself and Eren.

“Look how pretty she is, Eren.” Her voice is breathy. You’ve never heard her sound like this.

It’s because she’s in awe. Day in, day out you two would lounge around in swimsuits and not once did she picture this is how you would underneath them. Perhaps it’s better that she didn’t, because the thought would drive her crazy.

“Real pretty.” He hums in agreement. He can admit, your little display had him rock solid already. But god seeing you puffy cunt, lips already shiny and slick just from making out has him aching.

Mikasa slips two fingers between your folds, barely grazing your clit.

She pulls her fingers away admiring the way your slick webs between them. She holds her hand up for Eren to see. “Real wet too.”

It proves too tempting for him to resist. Eren leans down to suck on her fingers, cleaning them of your arousal.

You wish you could deny how much it turns you on when you hear him moan at the taste of you on her fingers. But it does and you can only hope they didn't notice how you flinched at the sound.

“You wanna taste her?” He teases when he notices her pout. He’s speaking to her but looking directly at you, pinning you under his gaze. “Then ask.”

“Can I eat you out?” She doesn’t miss a beat.

That tilts your whole world. Are you really sure you’re not dreaming? You nod, not trusting your own voice right now. Mikasa spreads your legs even wider but Eren stops her, firmly grasping the back of her neck.

“Nah. Don’t make it so easy on her. She has to use her big girl words.”

If you weren’t willing to take what you wanted, then he would give it to you. Eren is a nice guy like that. But he’s not that nice. If you wanted it, you were gonna have to say so.

“Right.” She agrees. “I’ll ask again. You gonna let me taste this pretty cunt?”

Eren’s throbbing behind his zipper. He doesn’t think he’s ever heard her talk like that. It’s not a monster, more of a little green pest that buzzes around his brain asking him why she’s never said those kinds of things to him.

“Yes… please.” you answer hastily but neither of the two seem to share your urgency.

Mikasa’s touch returns, spreading your lips apart, only for her gawk at your dripping entrance, so close you feel her exhales on your skin.

The buzz in his head goes quiet because she’s waiting for his permission. She’s still his.

“Go on. Taste.” Eren whispers in her ear.

With one broad stroke, she drags her tongue across your cunt making your hips cant up towards her face, both of you searching for what the other has to give.

You will your eyes to stay open, hoping to brand the image of her between your thighs like this into the recesses of your brain. You don’t know if this will ever happen again and in case it doesn’t, you’ll have this memory.

Her tongue laps at your hole with the kind of excitement you can only hope to reciprocate by grabbing on to her silky hair, pushing her tongue further inside you. Not too hard, just enough to guide her in the direction.

She’s close. Right ther-

“Oi.” A smack echoes throughout the room. Eren is now knelt behind Mikasa, massaging the now sore flesh that was reddened by his hand.

Eren hated that you were a coward and he wanted you to take what you wanted but he’d forgotten that what you wanted was his.

Her attention is on him once again and the familiar jealousy starts to crackle in your belly. When Mikasa said that Eren would “help out” you didn’t think it meant him interrupting you two everytime you were starting to enjoy yourself. Of course it was naive of you to think that Eren would let you enjoy anything tonight. Maybe he did bring you here just to mess with you.

You hoist up your upper body to rest on your elbows just in time to see Eren take out his cock. Or rather he makes sure you see it. Gives you an excellent view in fact. It’s fully erect, bobbing against his abdomen while he gropes the flesh of her ass, giving her one more spank for good measure.

“You said you wanted to top right? Stop bein’ a fucking pushover.” He growls.

Her panties are pulled to the side, letting him press the fat, drooling head past her lips. You feel her breath come out in quick puffs against your thighs as she tries to accommodate his impressive girth. Inch by inch he’s filling her up until his hips press up right against her plush cheeks where he rests for a moment .

You look down to where her head rests on your thigh. Her face is scrunched up in either pleasure or pain, you can’t discern which.

Then Eren starts moving, slow and shallow at first and finally her eyelids flutter open. “I’m not done.” She digs her nails into your skin, making you wince. “Put that pussy back on my face.”

Eren lets out a satisfied noise. He really doesn’t know where she learned to talk like that. Even though she’s talking to you, he still feels it so he rewards her by snapping his hips faster, pulling out almost completely before ramming himself back in.

You don’t need to be told twice. Soon you’re back where you were a minute ago, Mikasa hopes to do the same, dipping her head low, already missing the taste of you on her tongue.

Sure she knows her way around her own body but she’s never eaten anyone out. She wonders if everyone tastes this sweet. Doubtful. She’s so eager for more wanting her tongue as close to the source as possible.

But before she can get there Eren chimes in.

“Nuh-uh baby. Go for the clit.”

Mikasa doesn’t argue because she knows that he’s helping her in the right direction. She can’t vouch for his skills, having had first hand experience. If she could learn to eat pussy half as good as Eren that would be enough to brag about.

She parts your slippery folds ever so delicately until she finds the swollen bud, that’s just throbbing for attention.

Her tongue hangs out of her mouth, tentatively flicking against it. She watches your face intently, taking careful note of your reaction. And what a reaction it is. Your thighs twitch beside her head, threatening to trap her between your thighs while you moan something that definitely sounds like her name.

She wants to hear it again to be sure.

“Spit on it.” He instructs her again.

You don’t think she will. The Mikasa you know would never do something so-

She doesn’t question his orders, cheeks hollowing out to collect her saliva that she allows to mix with your juices.

“See how messy she is? Fuckin’ sloppy.”

“So sexy.” She murmurs before diving for your clit again. Her tongue flicks at it haphazardly, she can’t get a good reach because of the way Eren’s thrusts shake her body. It feels good but you need more, shuffling down the bed until she can wrap her lips around the bundle of nerves. Everytime Eren hits just the right spot inside of her she moans against you, and you can feel the vibrations radiate from your pelvis up your spine.

While you’re so entranced by your own pleasure you don’t notice Eren’s lascivious stare. Mikasa being so eager to make you feel good should enrage him. He shouldn’t be this turned on, watching his girlfriend get on her knees for someone else, especially not you. But seeing the way, you’re so desperately trying to keep yourself from rutting against her face, nearly drawing blood from your bottom lip to try and keep yourself quiet. It’s adorable. But Mikasa has been too easy on you in his opinion and he doesn’t think you deserve ‘easy’. He wants to see your attitude breakdown bit by bit.

“Fingers. Use your fingers baby.” He prompts while slowing his thrusts, giving Mikasa more room to work.

One slender finger slides into your dripping cunt, feeling near no resistance on its way. Noticing how easily you take her, she’s quick to add a second, scissoring her fingers to stretch you out. High pitched ah ah ahs fall from your lips matching the rhythm of the drag of her fingers against your walls, the rhythm of Eren’s thrusts into her. It’s agonisingly slow, so she can enjoy the sight of you sucking her back in every time her fingers attempt to leave and admire the way your sticky arousal drips down her knuckles, onto the satin sheets.

Once Eren decides he’s had enough of that he picks up the pace again, meaning Mikasa has no choice but to follow suit. While her fingers pump in and out of you, she crooks them ever so slightly to try and find your g-spot.

When she prods at the spongy spot you go limp for just a second “Mikasa. Oh my god!” You squeal.

“Oho. She likes it.” Eren remarks, leaning over to whisper in her ear. “Keep doing that.”

Mikasa is nothing if not diligent. She consistently aims for that spot while her tongue stimulates your clit, stroking it over and over again. You’re practically rushing towards an orgasm, stomach muscles already tightening up and white spots already clouding your vision.

“G-gonna. Fuck. ‘M gonna cum.” You stammer, teetering on the edge.

“You hear that baby?” Eren asks. “She wants to come for you.”

Eren tugs on her hair, pulling up her head so she can answer him, but all she can manage is a string of needy whimpers.

“What do you say? Hm?” He pulls harder, not satisfied with her response.

“Mm-ah. No.” She slips her fingers out, leaving you empty and clenching around nothings.

“Atta girl.” He praises her, beginning to fuck her in earnest now.

All you can do is watch as Eren fucks her stupid on his cock, driving her closer and closer to her peak while you feel your own pleasure dissapate into nothing.

A hazy fog has descended over her eyes, she’s looking at you but she’s so far gone that she may as well be looking past you.

Eren’s hair is messy, chocolatey strands framing his face, skin dewy with sweat. The heavy plap plap plap of his hips ramming into her ass is deafening. He catches you staring and you can’t even find it in you to be embarrassed although you do regret inflating his already sizeable ego.

“Tell her how it feels.” He hooks his middle finger into her cheek “Tell her how good my cock feels inside you.”

He has no issue with admitting he’s being petty but he wants you to see what he does to her.

No, scratch that.

He wants you to feel it. That deep hunger you have for Mikasa? He wants a share in it too. He wants you hungry like that for him too.

“Feelsh shhho good. Eren’shh cock feelsh sshoo good.” Her words are barely coherent, drool seeping from the corners of her mouth.

“Hmm. Ask her if she wants it.” He grunts.

“You want him to fuck you?” She slurs, words distorted by the obstructing force of his finger.

Do you?

Before you would swear up and down that you hated Eren. You still do. But Mikasa has gone delirious on his cock, mouth hanging open with her tongue lolling out, whining muffled “Eren Eren Eren”s even with him fish hooking her, and you can’t deny that it has you curious. It doesn’t help that you’re still desperate, from being left high and dry, poor empty pussy just begging for attention.

You shake your head yes and Mikasa’s hand comes down hard on your sore puffy clit. “Words.”

“Yes please.” You mewl. Tears prickle at your eyes from the sting between your legs. “Please. I want Eren to fuck me.”

“So well behaved.” Eren mocks you. “Hm?” He stops moving, still balls deep inside her.

“Good girl.” Mikasa practically purrs, lifting her head up once more. The small praise makes you feel flustered, desperate for more.

“Yeah?” His palm comes down hard on her ass. She almost sounds delighted at the pain. “What are you gonna do for your good girl?”

“I’m gonna make her cum on my tongue.” With that she’s back into your pussy, face first, suckling on your clit with quick pulses and pumping into you with three of her fingers.

It doesn’t take long for her to bring you back to that peak. Maybe because she left you on the edge just a moment ago only to let you watch her get fucked within an inch of her life. Maybe it’s you’ve been wanting this, fantasizing about this for weeks. Or maybe it’s because (as per usual), Eren Jaeger doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up, a string of filthy words falling from his lips.

“You're doing so well baby.” He still hasn’t moved, more focused watching Mikasa fuck you open on her fingers. She’s so focused on making you cum, he wonders if she’s even listening but he knows that you are. “Gonna make that sloppy pussy cum so good. Let her make a mess all over your face.”

That’s the catalyst. It’s then that you’re falling into the abyss of pleasure, legs shaking as you writhe on the bed, while Mikasa’s fingers ride you through your high, gradually coming to halt as everything subsides.

When you finally feel grounded again, you open your eyes in time to see Eren pull Mikasa’s face towards him. Tonguing at her mouth, licking inside and around it to clean off the remnants of your orgasm. You watch longly from the bed as their tongues tangle together, tasting the mixture of you and each other.

When Eren has had enough, Mikasa turns to you, spit-slicked face gleaming under the dim lights. “My turn right?” She asks you, still slightly breathless.

Eren answers in your stead. “Yeah, take these off.” He stretches the elastic of her underwear so it can flick back against her skin. He’s trying very hard to sound indifferent because he’d be mortified if you knew how eager he was to see Mikasa rut against your face until she cums.

“Move up.” The instruction is for you this time, Eren patting your knees that still dangle over the edge of the bed. You clamber up until your head lands on the soft, downy pillows, body sprawled on the length of the mattress now. Eren crawls on top of you, slotting himself between your thighs. Mikasa sits next to your head, now sans panties.

He nudges against your tender pussy with the bulbous head of his cock, spreading your lips apart ever so slightly.

You don’t expect a ceremony, closing your eyes in anticipation for the burn you know is coming. It never does.

“Beg for it.”

Your eyes fly open, face immediately moulding into a scowl. He looks down at you with unabashed cockiness, clearly amused at your frustration.

“You fucking bastard! I-“

“_____. “ Mikasa trails her hand down your neck, grazing over your sternum and tracing the underside of your breast and circling your areola. Your nipples stiffen under the light touch. “He said ‘beg’.”

“But I already said it, didn’t I!?” Your irritation simmers when you address her, still deep down you cringe at how petulant you sound.

Eren’s hand comes down hard against your pussy and you let out a loud cry on impact. His hands are bigger, stronger and harder than Mikasa’s and that one spank leaves your whole pussy aching.

“Told you babe. You were being too soft.” He slides his tip through your folds while you twitch underneath the two of them, spreading is pre-cum around, mixing it with your juices. “Now she thinks she can get whatever she wants.”

She takes your nipple between her fingers, tugging on it gently. “Is that true?” She twists it hard, making you wince. “ I thought you were a good girl.”

She soothes the sore nipple by laving her tongue across it but the reprieve doesn’t last long as she sinks her teeth into the hardened nub.

“I’ll be good!” You whimper.

You're dizzy from the teasing; Mikasa playing with your tits, mouth around one nipple while her hand gropes the other one and the torturous drag of the full length of Eren’s cock up and down your pussy. It’s slow enough for you to feel every ridge and vein around him, always stopping to tease your entrance, but never giving you the stretch you’re craving.

“P-please.” Your voice is hoarse. “Please Eren fuck me. Pleasepleaseplease.”

He’s content with that; hearing you beg for him. He would never admit out loud that he’s jealous but there is a certain envy that sits heavy in his bones knowing that you want his girlfriend and she wants you just as bad. That's why it helps to know that, at the same time, you want him and he wants you too, just in a different way. It's messy and twisted, perhaps a little too complicated to unravel now. Because right now he wants to fuck you until you cry.

Yeah, that’s the way he wants you

In one quick, smooth motion he enters. You let silent scream and just as you feel full enough to burst, he reaches his hilt.

Mikasa lets go of your nipple with a pop and murmurs, “There’s my good girl.” Against the shell of your ear.

Without warning, Eren starts to move, impossibly deep thrusts, moulding your walls to the shape of him. He prods against a spot inside you that has your back bowing off the bed but he holds you down by planting one of his large hands firmly on your stomach.

Soon, he’s fucking you hard and fast. He can’t help it. The loud sound of your sopping wet cunt squelching every time he slides home, dripping down his hefty balls as they slap against your ass with each brutal thrust, was just egging him on.

That, combined with the sweet-sounding quiet moans of his girlfriend with her hand between her thighs, rubbing quick, quick circles while she’s seemingly unable to take her eyes off of the both of you.

She perches up on her knees to get a better look. Wanting to see exactly where he enters you, wanting to see your pussy stretched out way more than her slim fingers could do.

The creamy ring that encircles the base of Eren’s cock makes her shudder. She feels a sense of pride, knowing that translucent strands of your cum was because of her. Part of why you’re so sex-drunk right now is because of her.

“Eren.” She purrs. “You’re fucking her so good. Making her feel so good.” She uses her free hand to tweak at her nipples, eyes flitting frantically between you and him.

“F-fuck!” You cry out as Eren bottoms out and stays there. He leans over you, face hovering just above yours, the strands of his hair brushing over your cheeks. His pelvis is against your clit, providing delicious pressure but not much else.

“Open.”

It takes a moment for you to process that he’s giving you an instruction. But then, you slacken your jaw, lips parting.

“Looks like you can listen huh?” He sneers. “Stick out your tongue.”

And you do.

It’s all so Eren can drop a glob of spit from his mouth into yours. He makes sure he does it slowly, so that the string of saliva can stretch and stretch and stretch until it plops unceremoniously on your waiting tongue.

“Don’t swallow. Keep it there.”

He gives you another one, coating your tongue in his spit while your own begins to pool in your mouth.

“Hey babe. You didn’t get to cum.” He addresses Mikasa. He gives you one shallow thrust of his hips, the tip of his cock nudging against your cervix.

“Yeah?” She perks up, catching the meaning behind his words.

“Yeah.” He grunts, one more of those thrusts that puts him so deep you feel like he’s fucking the air out of your lungs.

She leans over you too now. Two pairs of eyes, look down on you from above. You blink your eyes shut, trying to escape their scrutiny.

“Open your eyes, sweet girl.” Mikasa coaxes you out of your sheepishness. She purses her baby pink lips, as if considering her next words. “Make me cum. Can you do that for me?”

For the third time that night, you have to question if you’re dreaming or not.

You nod your head a yes, feeling your own saliva pool in your mouth.

“So, so good.” Mikasa tells you.

“Shit.” Eren’s hips jerk against you, when. you squeeze tight around him when she tells you that. “Say that again.” He grits out.

Mikasa is positioning herself, facing Eren with her knees next to your ears, soaking wet pussy just an inch or so above your face.

“What?”

Their conversation is nothing but a faint buzz in the back of your mind, how could you focus on anything except what was right in front of you. Her pretty pink pussy, all wet just for you. The smell of her is heady, rich and sweet. The kind of thing you would get addicted to. God if she would only….

“——, you're such a good girl.” She sighs as she finally sinks down, resting directly on your face.

You moan involuntarily, finally getting to taste what your mouth has been watering for. You let your tongue stay still, letting her grind herself down on it. She tries to roll her hips in fluid motions but they stutter every time her clit rolls over your tongue as she lets out the most melodic moans.

You know that you’re being greedy now, but you can’t help it, the more she gives you, the more you want. Your hands fly up to her thighs and hold her in place. The tip of your tongue catches the rim of her leaking hole, trying to draw more of the sweet honey.

Eren clicks his tongue behind his teeth. “There you go again, letting her do whatever she wants.”

She pays him no mind, slipping her hand between her thighs to play with her clit, while your tongue massages the inside of her walls. “You’re just mean. She just wants to make me feel g-good r- ah right?” She rubs Her other hand tweaks one of your nipples, signalling to you that she wants an answer.

You moan a yes, muffled by the weight of her. You’re darting your tongue in and out of her pussy, unintentionally matching the pace of Eren’s unyielding thrusts.

She rolls the pulsing numb under her fingers, round and round. Her breathing quickens as she tries to bounces on your face; shallow up and down movements.

You can tell she’s close and briefly lament the fact that you won’t be able to see her face when she cums. You wish you could see what she looks like when that wave of pleasure finally crests. But when her knees dig into the mattress beneath her and rooting her firmly against your face, moaning your name as the waves of an orgasm rock her body, you can’t bring yourself to regret a thing. You’d let Eren have that. Getting to swallow down every drop that spills from her is more than a fair trade-off.

You clamp down on Eren’s cock, quickly approaching another orgasm of your own. Mikasa rides out hers by rutting against your tongue, her moans gradually fading into gasps.

“Make her real cum real hard okay ‘Ren?” She still hasn’t fully regained her bearings before she climbs off your face, (much to your dismay). “She really earned it.” She sighs giddy with bliss, plopping down beside you, turning her body to face you.

Eren huffs. “Your wish is my command.” His reaches your raw clit, rubbing it in harsh circles, setting your nerves alight like a livewire. There’s no way you could have held off your orgasm. Your muscles pull taut as you cum around his cock while he pummels your g-spot throughout your climax. As soon as you’ve come down, he pulls out of you. You whine, despite yourself, disappointed at the abrupt emptiness.

Eren mutters various expletives as he strokes himself over you. He’s coated in your cum and it makes the most obscene noise with every flick of his wrist. He releases onto your stomach hot, white ropes of cum shooting out, streaking from your belly button right down to the mound of your pussy. He milks his cock, desperate to get out every last drop, jolting his hips with the aftershocks of his orgasm.

He collapses on your other side, leaving you sandwiched between the couple.

For a moment the room is filled just with heavy breathing, the three of you recovering from your recent activities.

Mikasa drags her fingers across your torso, smearing Eren’s cum over your skin.

Your body is sticky all over, a mess of sweat and sex. All of you are. But you’re not able to get your muscles to move, just yet.

As the lust that fogs your brain clears, nagging questions start to rear their head.

‘What does this mean for us now?’ being the most pertinent.

You roll over, to face Mikasa.

Perhaps now isn’t the time to ask, but you’ve learned your lesson about waiting until the right time. It’s in everyone’s best interest to clear it all up as soon as possible.

“So um- agh!” you choke around a sudden intrusion and a salty taste spreads across your taste buds.

“Not now.” Mikasa gags you with two of her digits that are coated in Eren’s cum.

“Yeah.” Eren jostles behind you. His sinewy arm snakes around your waist pulling you into his chest. At the small of your back you can feel his dick pressed up against you, already at half mast. “We’ll talk later.”

#love island collab #dyk it’s mandatory for islanders to go to therapy after the show #i think my subconscious took that info and ran #CAUSE THEY ARE ALL SO BAD AT FEELINGS???#and have 0 communication skills #eren yaeger smut #eren x reader #eren jaeger smut #aot x reader #aot smut #eren smut #mikasa x reader #mikasa ackerman smut #eren yaeger x reader #mikasa x eren #mikasa x eren smut #tw spitting

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babyjamiebarnes · 4 years ago

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Build-A-Bear

Part One

Featuring: Bucky x Stark!reader, dad!Tony, Peter Parker (platonic), background MCU characters

Warnings: [chapter] language; [series] language, smut, violence

Summary: The only people who knew she was actually a Stark were her dad, her step-mom Pepper, and her “uncles” Happy and Rhodey. A promotion within Stark Industries takes her from an already-sought after position in the Weapons Anaylsis Unit straight to the Avengers as a Weapons Enhancement Specialist... which means her dad is her new boss. There’s only one rule at work: no fraternizing with coworkers. There’s one more rule at home: no dating any Avengers. So what is she supposed to do when a grumpy super soldier becomes not-so-grumpy around her? At 25, do her dad’s rules still apply? Or is her entire livelihood at risk?

Author’s Note: I’ve written a decent portion of this but know I won’t keep writing it or post it unless I hold myself accountable and get it out there in the first place 🙈 I haven’t written much for Marvel yet but I’ve read plenty and have written for other fandoms in the past (not to mention the writing degree on my wall lol). I’ll try to post every 2-3 days to keep this moving! And if you like it and want to, buy me a coffee!

No one knew Tony Stark had a daughter. No one but Tony Stark and his daughter. Well, and her step-mom Pepper. And her godfather Rhodey. And her uncle-not-uncle Happy. But no one in their everyday lives knew. She was given her mother’s maiden name and kept a secret, even when she turned 17 and moved to a small apartment near NYU’s campus (with Happy stationed right next door, of course) to start life as a truly normal adult, or as close to normal as an undercover Stark could be. When she graduated with her PhDs in robotics and electrical engineering at 25 — proving brains really do run in the family — she moved into her own apartment in Manhattan, funded by her father under the pseudonym “Michael Myers.” Subtlety was never his strong suit.

Fortunately for you, growing up without the Stark name let you live a relatively normal life. It also allowed you to apply for a position within Stark Industries without being ushered past any red tape because of who your father is. Outside of the financial advantage you had, you worked for your spot in a STEM career. You suffered through every man in your field belittling your work despite knowing less than you. You dealt with the constant interruptions and “well, actually” because of your gender. You powered through late nights and early mornings when your mind was flowing too smoothly to quit.

The last thing you wanted to do was have all that work disregarded because you shared a name with genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark. So you filled out the application, sent in your resume and cover letter, and attached three letters of recommendation from your professors. You went through hours of interviews, background checks (conveniently redacting your father’s name), and polygraph tests until that offer letter showed up in your email. You even had to sign the Non-Disclosure Agreements that would bar you from discussing *anything* work-related with anyone outside of your department.

You spent your first year in the weapons analysis department, evaluating alien weaponry and determining how it worked and how to disable it. You had your fair share of mishaps, of course. Holes blasted into walls, fried robot dummies, even burnt animal carcasses. By the end of your first year, your supervisor sent a commendation and proposal for you for an undisclosed promotion. After Pepper Potts “thoroughly examined your resume, cover letter, and accomplishments during your tenure with Stark Industries,” as the letter read, you were awarded a position working on the Avengers’ weapons as a Weapons Enhancement Specialist. You’d never see a fight in-person, but you were assigned to work on advancements and post-battle repairs for everyone, from the Winter Soldier’s arm to the Falcon’s wings to Vision’s... everything. The only heroes you wouldn’t work on were Iron Man and War Machine (those were your dad’s territory) and Spider-Man.

On your first day in your new position, the one and only Pepper Potts showed you to your new lab on the 47th floor. It took all your willpower to look your step-mother in the eye and say, “Wow, Miss Potts. This is amazing. It’s such an honor to meet you,” with a straight face to convince any passerby that you had no outside affiliation with her. Even if her eyes stayed steady on you, you could see her mentally rolling them.

Once you were alone behind the doors of the elevator, conversation changed course.

“You’re going to be sharing a lab with someone else,” Pepper said.

“Sweet. As long as they’re competent, that’s fine by me,” you shrugged. Part of earning your degrees was learning to share a workspace with others, even those who bumbled and fumbled with no idea what they were doing. You’d had more hair singed by nearby explosions than you’d like to admit.

“He’s still in college so he’s not here as often as the others. Most of his work will be on Spider-Man’s gadgets and suit, but you can use him for any help you need.”

Walking past the familiar faces of Dr. Banner and Dr. Cho in their respective labs, Pepper ushered you into your lab, where you were met by your father and put on the same excited facade you did with Pepper.

“Oh my god, you’re Tony Stark! This is incredible! It’s such an honor to meet you, sir!”

He shook his head at you and reluctantly accepted your outstretched hand. Oh, the jokes you’d be making at family dinners.

“Yeah, anyway, this is your new lab, Miss [Y/L/N]. Make yourself at home. This lab rat over here is mister Parker. If you have any questions, he can at least bullshit an answer for you.”

The young man on the other side of the lab perked up at the sound of his name. He tugged the goggles off his face and set down his soldering rod to rush over to you.

“Hi. Hi, I’m Peter,” he said, reaching his hand out to you.

“I’m [Y/N]. It’s nice to meet you, lab partner.”

He looked to be a bit younger than you and at least relatively smart, if the MIT sweatshirt peeking out from under his lab coat said anything. If your dad gave him an internship like this, you knew you shouldn’t question it. He had to be a genius.

The kid just smiled at you, continuing to shake your hand past what most would deem socially acceptable.

“Okay, enough of that,” Tony said, pushing on your joined hands to separate you two. “Mister Parker might be in and out of the lab from time to time. He joins the Avengers on the occasional recon mission for immediate repairs but since he’s on break from classes, you’ll see him more often than not. Play nice.”

When he noticed you surreptitiously looking Peter up and down, he added, “Remember, no fraternizing with coworkers.” He pointed a finger directly at you before he spun and pointed to your fellow lab mate, realizing he should warn Peter too to save face.

“All the blueprints you need for the Tin Man’s arm are in the system. We’ll have you start on that and see what you can do about minimizing the sound that thing makes. Any other questions, give Pep a call.”

“Thank you, mister Stark. I really do appreciate everything,” you said genuinely.

“Yeah, well… don’t let me down,” he replied, patting you on the shoulder on his way out. Pepper followed close behind, leaving you alone with Peter Parker.

“So Peter,” you started, sliding onto the lab chair next to where he remained standing, “tell me about yourself.”

“Uh… what do you want to know?” he asked as he shoved his hands into his coat pockets.

“How old are you?” you asked immediately.

“I’m 21.”

Only four years younger than you. So you’d probably get along just fine.

“I assume you’re at MIT?” He nodded. “What are you studying?”

“Biomolecular and mechanical engineering.” He said it so casually, you’d think he was talking about the last song he heard on the radio.

“Damn,” you responded, eyes wide. “I thought robotics and electrical engineering was wild but fuck, that sounds like hell.”

He laughed and nodded, letting a bit of the tension in his shoulders fall. “Yeah, it’s not easy. But it’s worth it.”

He shot you a small smile before gesturing back at his project. “I should probably get back to work and let you get started.”

For the rest of the day, you familiarized yourself with the Winter Soldier’s arm to figure out how to… turn the volume down? You assumed it was the gears inside causing the noise, but part of you wanted to outfit an audio jack and speaker just to fuck with your dad.

You and Peter worked in relative silence, aside from the playlist he had quietly playing through the lab sound system. When lunch rolled around, however, you finally spoke up.

“Hey Peter,” you called, his eyes flicking from the chemical beakers in front of him up to you. “First of all, what are you doing?”

“Um, it’s Spider-Man’s web fluid. Just trying to find more durable combinations.”

“Interesting.” As much as you wanted to touch the stringy substance, you knew better than to fiddle with someone else’s lab work. “Okay so second thing, in my last position, I’d just order food and have it brought to my floor but now that I’m on an exclusive floor, what do you do for lunch?”

“Oh, there are a couple security guys who have clearance to come into this floor. They just can’t get into any rooms so you’d have to meet them at the elevator. But I usually find something in the kitchen down the hall.”

“Oh, sweet. Thanks!” you said as you made your way out the door. Before you could fully exit, you turned back to see if Peter wanted you to grab anything. Once he promised he’d take his own break ‘once I get this one thing figured out,’ you continued to make your way to the kitchen.

As you drew closer to the doorway, you could hear three voices speaking over each other. They didn’t sound angry, but they were definitely arguing. You opened the door anyway and almost immediately froze in your tracks. The Falcon stood with one hand on his own head and one on the Winter Soldier’s head while Captain America rolled his eyes before those same eyes landed on you, along with the rest of the room.

“Perfect,” Sam started. “Hey new girl, between the three of us,” he said, pointing to himself, the Soldier, and the Captain, “who has the best hair?”

“First of all, my name is [Y/N]. Second,” you continued, making your way past them to the fridge you hoped your dad kept stocked with goodies, “that’s an unfair question.”

You grabbed a soda and popped it open before turning back to the three men. “Your hair suits each of you. Cap wouldn’t look good with Winter Soldier hair and Falcon wouldn’t look good with Cap’s hair.” You took a few steps closer, leaning against the island counter between you and eyeing each of them. Your eyes settled on the Winter Soldier, unashamedly flitting across his face and admiring the sharpness of his features. “You,” pointing at him, “could probably pull off either of their looks, though.”

Bucky smirked at you, but his rosy cheeks gave away a hint of embarrassment at your compliment. Steve and Sam, on the other hand, weren’t taking it quite as gracefully.

“What?!” Sam shouted. “Okay, now I know you’re lying. I could pull off Cap’s hair for sure.”

“You know, I think shaggy hair would really suit me,” Cap said, only half sarcastically.

You giggled to yourself as the three of them started talking over each other again, all dead set on their own hair being the best of them and positive they could pull off the others’ looks. While they bickered, you searched the pantry until you found a snack to at least get you through the remainder of the day.

“Alright boys, it’s been fun but I have work to do,” you said as you walked past them again. “Actually, wait. Bucky — can I call you Bucky?” He nodded even though you continued anyway. “If you could stop by lab six today, I’d love to check out your arm in person. The digital renderings aren’t quite the same.”

“Uh, okay. Sure. I’ll find you,” he said quietly.

“Sweet, thanks!” And with that, you skedaddled back to your lab.

#bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x Stark!reader #Stark!reader #bucky x reader #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes series #bucky x Stark!reader

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literate-simp · 4 years ago

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BEING BESTIES W/ SOME JJK CHARACTERS; Yuuji, Megumi, Nobara, Gojou and Sukuna.

Notes: Look. I know we all simp terribly for our husbandos/waifus but I just wanted to write a simple hc about what it's like to be their besties

Warning(s): slight cursing. I indulged too much on Sukuna.

Includes: gn! reader, fluff, chaotic energy, mentions of romance (just light)

Itadori Yuji

He's friends with everyone, says hi to strangers and probably would be besties with every old lady he meets so it wasn't hard to be friends with him.

But the second he becomes besties with you, shit's gonna get borderline chaotic.

3AM and y'all can't sleep? McDonald's parking lot with an abandoned shopping car would sound damned fine. You both remember the moment as 'Chicken Nuggies and the Wind' since he t-posed on the moving cart whilst eating nuggies (you both almost scratched a Ferari).

If you weren't a jujutsu sorcerer in training, he'd still try to sneak you in his room to watch some movies. You with the snacks, leaving Yuji in charge of the movie picking (you can't decide to save your life)

Cuddles! Nothing wrong with besties cuddling. He's extremely respectful to your s/o (if you have one) and are probably good friends with them too!

Though the second you come to him crying, they were already being patched up in the hospital. Won't hit a woman, against his morals, but he will make sure she never speaks to you again.

Understanding, chaotic besties! An arm around your shoulder when someone's obviously making you uncomfortable, he's the one barking when he sees someone slip something into your drink.

The friend to help you find your way out of a frat house. Makes sure you're getting touched with your consent and sober. All you need to do is give him a sign that you're alright and he'll give you a thumbs up before leaving.

Definitely the friend you'd open up to (about anything) and not be treated differently after so.

You told him about your problems a few minutes prior. It was quiet, a bit too quiet. And you were worried he might leave you for it.

"Ey, Y/N. Wanna go to McDonald's again? I think they have that burger you like," He blurts, catching you off guard. You raise your eyebrows before smiling gratefully.

"Sounds great, Itadori."

You guys talk about women with butts all the time. Not out of thirst or anything, it would just be a random thought that comes up and one of you would contribute to the other. You once mentioned something about Jennifer Lawrence and he would not stop talkinf about her. It was hilarious how much he was drooling.

You wear his hoodies and he's fine with it. Thinks you look good in them. Sukuna teases you both about your relationship and Yuji slaps his mouth shut before he says anything more.

"You look great in them, Y/N," Itadori grins, rummaging through his closet to find more hoodies.

"Thank you. They're pretty comfy," You mention the fabric and the fluffiness. He listens to you intently before Sukuna pops out from his cheek.

"Ehhh? This is the one you think about everyday--," Itadori has never slapped his cheek so hard before in his life.

Megumi Fushiguro

Honestly, pretty chill dude.

He has a small group of people he trusts, and a smaller one to which he considers to be his good friends.

So to be his best friend, you must've gained a huge amount of respect from him; saved him, maybe even overheard something you shouldn't have and kept quiet about it on your own accord.

You would have a 'you aren't comfortable with it, so I'm not forcing anything' vibe to which he would be relieved to know. Though even so, you are the more hyper one in the platonic relationship.

Outings would consist of trips to libraries or quiet nights on the couch with your legs entangled together with lo-fi music playing in the background.

Not much talking, Megumi likes to keep to himself and you have no problem with the comfortable silence you both bring together.

Though sometimes it gets too quiet so you annoy the hell out of him to get his attention; cheek poking, soft arm punches, slight pushing.

Megumi ignores this, finding your actions a bit cute. If it gets too annoying, he will get up and leave, having you trail behind him, whining like a child wanting candy.

Yuji would join in. Definitely. Nobara too if she was bored enough.

"Megumi~ I want your attention~," You whine, running after the raven-haired man.

"Yeah! Yeah! Pay attention to Y/N!" Yuji supports you. You clap your hands together, only to be hit with a shoe by Megumi.

He would never do anything outside of your comfort zone. If you had an s/o, they both would be neutral with each other.

If you were to get hurt from said s/o, they would leave your house with a bloody knuckle. He wouldn't hit a girl, but he definitely will destroy whatever life she has outside of your relationship with her.

Parties are a no-go for him, unless his friends force him to. He's the designated driver with three other drunk children (Hint; Yuuji, Nobara and you). He wouldn't carry anyone else but you back to your room.

"Jeez, Y/N. You should know how to handle your alcohol," Megumi sighs, laying you on top of your bed gently and pulling the covers up.

"Nngh. Didn't know it was alcohol," You groaned. He smiles, patting your cheek before getting up to leave.

"I'll get you some painkillers in the morning, alright?"

You can wear his sweatshirts if you annoy him about it (he secretly likes how comfortable you are around him). He thinks you look charming in them, Yuji never shuts up about your friendship. It's the few times he's seen Megumi genuinely smile.

Nobara Kugisaki

Radiates bad bitch energy.

It isn't easy in the first stages since she has standards with friends but the second you both find something similar about each other, it's an immediate ride-or-die friendship.

You would need a major backbone, 'I'm too hot for this bs' kinda vibe (it's canon that the reader is a bad bitch, periodt). You would have arguments with her but it's pretty basic stuff like the perfect colour for nailpolish or whether Maki deserves the Earth or the universe (you both agree it's the universe).

Outings consists of shopping malls and popular cafes. You take selfies everytime you see something relatively new.

Talk about anything under the sun -- newest trends, new food to try out, Maki -- but her favourites are hearing you talk about your day. If you weren't a jujutsu sorcerer, she'd visit your apartment, give you a hug and sit on the couch to listen to you blabber away about something that isn't related to curses or death. She needs time to rewind and you never mention how vulnerable she looks when she's tired.

"Uh-huh and what happens next?" Nobara asked, carressing your hair as you lay on her lap.

"He wouldn't stop following us! It was so creepy! No means no right? Like why would you waste your energy following a group of friends who aren't interested?" You ranted on. Nobara simply nods in agreement, smiling at your annoyed face.

She doesn't mind your s/o, probably would just say hi before leaving you two alone. She doesn't have a problem about her friends having a relationship, she does, however, gets pissed that she isn't in one.

If you come to her crying about them, she would slither in some 'fuckin told you they were gonna do it' or 'I told you so'. Though it makes you upset, you know she's gonna trash their house the second you leave the room.

Your (now) ex would suddenly be cancelled beyond belief, you wouldn't know what happened to them.

Despite the bad bitch personality, you are the more patient one.

Parties is a yes. She comes in as a self-confident woman and will leave self-confident and drunk. She's the life of the party and pulls you into conversations to keep you company. Even if you don't contribute much to the conversation, she makes sure you aren't out of her sight. She's not the type to bring a friend to a party and leave them the second after. She cares about you even if her way of showing was a bit too pushy.

You share clothes with her and she'll give you comments about it.

"The shirt doesn't fit. No, no. The other one. Yeah, that one."

"Who cares if people say you aren't supposed to wear skirts? Your ass rocks better in those than mine. Just take them."

Personally likes dressing you up, doesn't like dressing you up for dates though. Still doesn't know why.

Gojou Satoru

God, the willpower you have to even tolerate this man is immense.

It's not hard to be his friend, all you have to do is do something that amuses him and he'll keep teasing you about it.

In this platonic relationship, you're the more calm one. People call you to take care of Gojou constantly, and you're the only one he allows to scold him.

He goes for missions half the time so it's rare to see you both go for outings. The most you've been together outside of Jujustu Tech and work hours was in a bar with Nanami (you both bond over the fact that Gojou is terrible to work with). He got too drunk and started slurring his words.

"Y/N~ stohp flirting with Nanamin and talk to meee," He whines, pinching your cheeks as you sigh.

"We are simply talking about your bad work habits, Satoru," Nanami answers whilst shaking his head, downing another drink before he gets up to leave. "I'll take him home, rest well Y/N."

"Noooo, I want Y/N!"

A needy best friend. Constantly asks for attention. If you ignored him, he would only make the situation slightly more annoying -- similar to Megumi's Y/N, the basic cheek poking and whining.

Your s/o would probably hate him, he's a bit too flirty and likes to hug you in public. People mistake you both for a couple rather than the s/o at hand. Don't be surprised if it's the main reason your relationships don't end well.

If you come to him upset because of them, he wouldn't waste a second to zoom to your shared apartment and 'deal' with the person. Would come back with a smile and some takoyaki. No blood on him since he used his infinity.

Parties are alright with him. He's the cool flirty dude everyone seems to fawn over. Would accompany you for half an hour, only to leave with another chick to a nearby bedroom. You never end up partying with him after opening the God forsaken door and he's never stopped trying to make it up to you.

Other than the traumatic event, he'd a bit of a douche but still tries to look for you in the crowd. He waves once he sees you and flashes a reassuring smile before continuing his talk with the others.

You don't share clothes with him simply because it's Gojou. Who knows when the last time he washed his clothes.

Though he's willing to share. You're just more reluctant, really. Finds it cute when his shirts are slightly bigger than you. If you're built bigger than he is, he would like how tight it looks on your body.

"Starting to think you look better in my clothes than I am. And that's a pretty good compliment." He grins.

Hates the fact you never take his compliments seriously. Says it from the bottom of his heart, he really thinks you're charming.

Ryomen Sukuna

God, was it hard trying to befriend this curse of a man. An asshole, he stuck his feet out to trip you over multiple times before cackling like a damned demon (which he is).

Though you're always genuine with him. You liked having conversations with him and listen to him boast about himself for hours. Guess that's when he saw you as a close acquaintance.

Would never tell you you're his best friend. Never. Not once. Him simply acknowledging you was enough for everyone to know he favored one person.

Being friends with Sukuna meant being friends Yuji. Itadori always apologizes on his behalf and you would always laugh, telling him it's alright. Sukuna gets annoyed by this though.

"Stupid human. Who do you think you are being all mush with this useless vessel of mine?" He sneered the second he could pop out. You shrugged, taking some popcorn to feed him.

"He's a pretty good guy. You should cut him some slack," You answered, stuffing some popcorn to your face as well

Will constantly threaten to kill you but you never paid heed. You know you're his only friend. You don't agree with his actions but you find the curse interesting.

Literally the only person who's allowed to tease him. You get away with things most curses would get killed from. You once hand him super hot sauce for his pancakes and he glared at you for the remainder of his time being conscious in Yuji's body. You found the plate broken with a fork stabbed through it.

You aren't allowed to go on outings with Sukuna (obviously) so you both spend your time within Yuji's room. Not allowed to go out since everyone'll freak out seeing Yuji with tattoos resembling the King of Curses.

"Humans are so boring," Sukuna groaned, his head on the bedstand. "All they do is just sit around doing nothing but scroll through their stupid boxes." You smiled at him.

"Not my fault you commit mass genocide for fun. I'd say we're pretty passive."

He would literally never care about your love life. Still has the old man mentality that romance meant sex and that was about it. If they were to meet, the curse would just roll his eyes and turn the other way.

Getting hurt by your s/o results to hurtful teasing and bloodshed. No in-between, no nothing. He wouldn't know how to comfort you properly so he'd send Yuji in his place. Would sit at the back of Yuji's mind getting pissed that he was hugging and rubbing your back gently as if he couldn't have done it himself (literally sent Yuji only to judge him).

Not allowed to go out so parties is also a no-go BUT since this is just a headcanon, let's imagine it's college AU.

College AU Sukuna would love parties -- he throws them, orders his friends to invite hot girls and frat guys. And invites you himself. No one would know you were friends since he never mentions it but will literally choke anyone who looks at you like you're a piece of candy.

Gets way too drunk and probably have railed 3 people to cloud 9 in a matter of 2 hours but still go out just to check up on you. He doesn't necessarily care but he hates having the sick feeling that you were in possible danger somewhere he wouldn't be able to see you.

Stare at you for a good 3 seconds before leaving you alone. You'd never know he was there.

Clothes! His clothes are Yuji's and he barely even keeps his shirts in tact. Does he care whether you wear it or not? No.

Is he pissed? Slightly.

This took me two days, I'm not sure if it sounds canon anymore. Anyways, thank you for reading!

♡︎ literate-simp

#jjk #jjk headcanons #jjk headcanon #nobara headcanons #megumi fushiguro #nobara kugisaki #gojo satoru #jjk gojo #megumi headcanons #gojo headcanons #itadori yuji #itadori headcanons #jjk nobara #ryomen sukuna #jjk sukuna #sukuna headcanons #jjk fluff #jjk fluff headcanons #jjk hc

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elleclairez · 4 years ago

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Cassian x reader - Cas is your mate, but he doesn’t know it yet

I finally wrote it! I am so sorry for the wait and thank you so much for your patience. The last month and a half were a bit crazy and I didn’t have much inspiration. I hope you like it!

Request: Can I request for cassian where the reader knows he’s her mate but cass doesn’t and he goes around flirting with nesta, hurting his mate without knowing and azriel notices that she’s hurting and comforts her, until cassian realizes and makes it up? 💙

The night was quiet. Not a dead quiet but a peaceful one. Which clearly was a nice change after all the horrors that we've been through. The war is over and yet you couldn't feel happy. At least not completely. Yes, you were happy that your friends, no, family, was safe. Happy that the bloodshed and the pain are over. But no matter how much you tried to fight it, the sadness in your heart wouldn't leave.

You couldn't bear it. Couldn't bear to see your mate flirting and following Nesta like a lost puppy. Especially tonight.

The Inner Court decided to throw a party to celebrate the end of the war. Everyone wanted to at least for a night forget about the nightmares of the past. You, yourself, wanted to have fun, get drunk with your cousins Mor and Rhys, maybe even annoy Amren to tease her. But all of those plans went down hills the moment you saw Cassian practically beg Nesta to dance with him.

You couldn't bear it, not tonight.

Which is why you found yourself on the huge balcony of the Wind House, staring at the beautiful city of Velaris that you've called home for more than a few centuries now. No matter how sad you were, you couldn't deny the beauty of the city you grew up in.

You considered yourself lucky, you, unlike your friends, grew up in a loving family. Your father, brother of the late High Lord, was very much unlike his family, he was like his sister-in-law (Rhys's mother), a dreamer. Which led him to fall a similar soul, a woman from the Autumn Court. They both fell in love, found out that they were mates, flew to Velaris and had you. They knew the price for their happiness, not everyone understood their way of thinking, and unfortunately, your father paid the price, he gave his life protecting yours and your mother's. You loved her dearly, but since his death, your relationship wasn't what it used to be but you were always by each other's side. And while you chose to live a life full of adventures with the Inner Circle, she chose to live a peaceful life in the Summer Court, something that you respected and even agreed to. She went through way too much and deserved some peace. But no matter how much time has passed you always remembered how in love your parents were and you always dreamed to have that one day. But unfortunately, fate had other plans and while the love of your life, your mate, was clearly having fun with the woman that he adored, you, on the other hand, were silently trying to stop yourself from crying.

The Mother did have a strange sense of humour, you thought. You were in love with a man who was in love with a woman who was in love with... Books maybe?

Your sad thoughts were interrupted by the presence of a not so sneaky shadowsinger. No matter how hard the Illyrian male tried to sneak up on you, he never could.

"I thought sulking in the shadows was my job." Started Azriel. You and Az were always the closest, actually, you already called each other "Platonic soulmates" (even though you were very drunk when it happened). Some people even thought that you were mates, but those rumors were shut down immediately. As was also the only one who knew about your mate's identity, and even though he told thousands of times to admit to Cas everything he still respected your decision and stayed by your side every time you weren't feeling good.

"Sorry, but tonight I'm stealing it." AZ chuckled at your response, but quickly stopped when he saw your longing stare. A stare that was clearly looking at Cassian and Nesta bickering and everyone was laughing at them... Actually, two persons weren't...

"Rhys and Feyre know." Az said as if reading your mind. "Rhys already had doubts, but they were confirmed when the Suriel decided to show up during one of their getaways and tell them everything." Explained Az while trying to decipher your face.

"What a gossiper. Remind me to beat his ass if I see him one day." You weren't sure if shock was good enough to describe how you felt right now. If Rhys suspected then it could mean that anyone else could and you certainly weren't ready for Cas to know about all of this.

"Very well." A comforting silence fell and you stayed like that for a few minutes until Az decided to break it. "I am the last person that you should listen when it comes to love, but I think you should tell him. But then again, it is up to you, I'll be there for you no matter what." He said with a smile and surprisingly hugged you, something quite unusual for Az.

"Thank you Az. I'll think about it." You answered truthfully while hugging back your best friend.

Little did you know that back inside the house, a not so drunk Cas watched you two angrily, Nesta long forgotten. For a few minutes Cassian couldn't quite understand where that anger came from until suddenly, it clicked, you were his mate. And at that moment the Illyrian male couldn't be happier, secretly he always hoped that you two could be mates, but centuries passed and nothing, so he decided to try to move on and keep you out of his mind by distracting himself with other women.

But with happiness came anger. Seeing you in the arms of another man, even his brother (best friend technically, but more like a brother), made him furious. He knew he had no right to be jealous, especially since he himself was running after Nesta like a puppy, but he couldn't help himself.

A few hours late, you found yourself back in your flat, makeup off, comfy clothes on, a nice book in your hands. Everything felt peaceful and then someone knocked at your door.

You swear if it's a drunk Mor, you will murder her.

Much to your surprise when you opened the door you didn't see a wasted Mor but a very sober Cassian. You couldn't understand what was he doing here and you didn't even try to hide your shock.

Seeing your expression Cas quickly started talking before he could start getting scared of you rejecting him and him being left broken-hearted.

"You are my mate."

You were too shocked to even comprehend what he was saying. You couldn't form words, your brain was literally exploding. Taking all your willpower in your hands in put on a serious face and said.

"I see that Nesta rejected you again. Didn't know that you would get that drunk because of it that you'd start imagining things." You didn't want him to know. Yes, you wanted to be with him, more than anything in the world, but not if another woman was in his heart at the same time.

"What?! No! I am not drunk and no she didn't reject me! I mean, yes she did but it doesn't matter because we're mates!" And before you could object Cassian put his hands on your cheeks so that you would at each other right in the eyes, he was so close that you feel his breathing on your face. It was silent for a few seconds and then Cas took a deep breath and whispered. "Y/N I have loved since the moment I met you. The moment I saw you, walking side by side with Rhys I knew that one day you would mine and I would be yours. Never could I ever imagine that you would love me, let alone be my mate, so I decided to move on, keep you out of my head but it never worked. No matter who I spent time with, deep i my heart, I would always think of you and tonight seeing you in Az's arms, when the bond clicked I told myself that I will stop being an idiot and that I will finally win you over. And that one day I could call you mine, my mate and you could do just the same. Y/N I am yours like it or not and I hope that one day you will let me call you mine." By the end of his speech both of you had tears running down your cheeks and the only thing that you could think about was how much you loved the man.

A few minutes has passed with him still holding your face and you his arms. Complete silence surrounded you with only your heart beats as sounds.

Then at one moment a wide smile grew on your face and you uttered.

"You are so lucky that I am the only good cook in the Inner Circle. I was thinking of cooking something right now, what do you think?"

At your words Cassian smiled like he never did before and took you in his arms causing him to lit you in the air and the finally kissing you.

The two of you couldn't happier. You have finally found each other. You were finally together and no one to get in between the two of you.

The next morning the whole Velaris could hear Mor's angry shouts at how was she not aware that her friend and cousin were actually mates. Those shouts were then soon followed by Rhys's laugh who quickly became silent when his cousin sent a shoe at his face for keeping that information to himself and his mate. It's a good thing that she doesn't know that Az was the first who knew.

#cassian x reader #acotar cassian x reader #acotar x reader #acotar #imagine #x reader #feyre archeron #rhysand #azriel #morrigan #amren #acomaf #acofar #cassian

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nostalgic-pancakes · 3 years ago

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Watching the starlings as autumn draws in

Summary: Tommy and his friends try on some skirts, and he reflects a bit on how they all got here. (It's a happy story) Title from September by Sparky Deathcap

Pairings: None! Platonic everyone (esp in irl fics_)

Read on AO3 (preferred place to read)

Word count: 2570

Warnings: None, except for surface-level references to the exile/prison arcs, but not much.

Other notes: I wrote this in a fit of madness last night in like three hours at 2 am, so i’ll probably edit it honestly but for now, enjoy! (If the CC’s ever display discomfort with this type of fic I will take it down)

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"WELCOME BACK TO THE STREAM, BOYS!" Tommy exclaims, rubbing his hands together as he starts rapid-fire answering questions about the stream, and the stream title from chat. It's funny, how over time, Tommy's come to see Chat as this one entity- an old friend. The nervousness of answering questions as a fifteen year old with nothing but a big personality, a twitch account and a copy of Minecraft is all but gone now, nineteen years old and happier than he's ever been.

Dreadfulzombie19: what are u doin this stream

"THANK YOU FOR ASKING, Dreadfulzombie19, today is gonna be a bit different, innit Tubbo?" Tommy raises his voice a bit at the end of his sentence, just loud enough for one of his flatmates to hear him. When Tubbo yells back an affirmative, Tommy turns back to his setup. Chat's gone a bit wild again, even though he, Tubbo and Ranboo have been living together for over a year now.

"Okay, okay, calm down chat- so recently I was at university, as usual right? And I had an eight AM class again, and… yeah I can see you all can relate."

"BUT! BUT! On my way back to the flat, I saw something really cool." Tommy hesitates in his speech to take a sip of coke again- his blood pressure's been acting up lately and watches Chat to wild again, asking him what he saw.

"Okay, so there was a shop- new place, which doesn't happen often this is fucking Brighton- and they sold skirts and dresses and stuff with adjustments for AMAB sizes!" Chat goes a bit bonkers, but Tommy's mod team- a little smaller than it used to be, now that he isn't the centre of YouTube or Twitch attention anymore, none of them are- are handling it, and pretty well.

"So I had to go, right? As many of you probably know, last year, I made the astounding discovery that gender-based stereotypes and expectations are, in fact, fake and I should not give a SHIT. And so I go in and look through the stuff- it's a really poggers shop by the way, and I find the perfect thing- it was the most poggers skirts and shit, okay? So, today's stream is going to have me wearing this pogchamp shit and wearing it right, with the help of…" Tommy ends his monologue by picking up the joke shaker-things that Phil had gotten him as a housewarming gift last year and indicates for his first two helpers to enter the office.

In walks his mother, face obscured from view as always, waving to the camera, and Wilbur, also wearing one of his only skirts for this occasion. Eret had taught him, on a phonecall in the skirt shop that week about the different types of skirts with a handy diagram. Wilbur's was a pleated circle skirt, brown to offset the bright yellow of his sweater and beanie, the same colour as his hair. It's very swoosh-y, so he's wearing black leggings with his regular shoes too. Motherinnit's also wearing her favourite skirt, a baby blue prairie skirt, Tommy thinks, and it's one he's seen fairly often.

Wilbur ducks down in order to show his face to Chat, and ruffles Tommy's hair while he's at it. Tommy's taller, but not by much, so Wilbur still fucking makes short jokes, That fucker.

Chat is now going so fast that he simply cannot read anything but some of the all caps messages and can barely make out some of the emotes.

"Okay, OKAY, CALM DOWN CHAT! WE HAVE TO GET TO FUCKING BUSINESS!" Tommy yells into the mix, like he did when he was sixteen and used the 'many people find me annoying at first' intro. Nowadays he just lets the content speak for itself. Anyone who wants to be here already is, by now.

Wilbur laughs a bit, and that hasn't changed at all. "Tommy, how is chat supposed to calm down if you're not calm?"

"I am their god!! They will obey via sheer digital willpower!" Tommy replies back, pretty zealously (What? An English Literature class is mandatory for his film degree, and The Great Gatsby by Zelda Fitzgerald is a good book, as are most of the other assigned ones. He's had entire conversations with Techno with just lit quotes and it drives everyone insane. Tommy loves it.) Chat seemingly has listened to his godlike abilities, with a few OG's spotting his half-quotation of one of Dream's last lines in the Dream SMP. The rest are spamming 'MOTHERINNIT'.

"If having a shitty magic trick book from a washed-up politician makes you a god, then what does that make me?" Wilbur replies, with one of Foolish's lines and swatting his hand at Tommy. Tommy swats back.

"Bitch" "Arsehole" "Shithead" "Fuckface" Wilbur finishes cheerily, as if this happens all the time. It does. Chat's used their antics now, four years of consistently making content together will do that for you.

Eventually Motherinnit reminds them both to get back on Topic, and Tommy goes back to facing the camera, addressing Chat directly.

"Today, my beloved mother, and my idiot brother-" "hey!" "And maybe my flatmates will be joining me to show off some cool as SHIT skirts! And a dress or two. We all have our selections, right?" Everyone nods in affirmative, even Tubbo and Ranboo. Though the camera can't see them. Ranboo's just come home from his final class, then. He should probably take the first hour back off, and judging by how Tubbo is forcefully judging Ranboo to the shower, he probably gets it. Tommy signs an affirmative to both of them, and gets back to the camera, where Wilbur's showing off all of his (very poggers) very stupid brown or yellow skirts. Tommy's are in cool colours, for fuck's sake.

"Oh yeah, Puffy just confirmed she'll be on stream! She'll be here in about twenty minutes, accounting for fucking traffic, and Niki' going to get onto VC after her own stream, what game is it this time?"

"GRIS." Wilbur answers.

"Poggers- she is the SHIT and will join us soon! So expect some QUALITY QUALITY content this stream!! Remember to not spam her chat to finish faster." Exclaims Tommy, even if it ends up as a light warning, as he picks up his own very poggers skirts from the extra armchair in his office to show the camera.

One is the classic red and white, mostly white but with bright red on the waist (elastic) and the bottom, and it reached to about Tommy's knee, if worn at the hip. It had no pleats, but the red bits were a very nice velvet texture, and while the skirt was heavy, it still had very much swoosh value, and pockets!! Big ones!! He slips the skirt on top of his jeans before entering camera view, the skirt visible in all its classic Tommyinnit glory, as he takes his place right next to Wilbur, who just took. a quick spin at the behest of several dono's., Skirt spying out from his lower shins all the way to his knee, making visible one of his (many) petticoats. ("What? It's cold all the fucking time here, Toms.") Tommy also makes a quick little spin, skirt flying outward, not upward, so it looks like he's hula hooping for a moment there. Lastly, Motherinnit spins around too, and while her skirts do not swoosh, she looks opulent, like she was about to go to waltz with the enemy, for whom she has a dagger in the back of her dress for. (He finished Anna Karenina and the Six of Crows duology within the same week and has not yet recovered. Jack Edwards is laughing at him as he thinks in his English Lit Graduate glory.)

It's fun, trying on different skirts- he and Wilbur accidentally bought the same dress at one point, which they paired up to wear, darting off into their respective changing rooms while giggling like idiots with their checkered blouses and the grindl skirts that Niki had sent over when she heard of this stream idea, laughing the whole time. Tubbo enters as dramatically as possible with Puffy, and while Tubbo looks really fucking good in his handkerchief skirt with embroidered bees and plain white shirt, it's Puffy who steals the show with an exact, real life version of her red banquet dress.

Fans from way back in the SMP, before Tommy had started branching out start going insane and are bringing back emotes Tommy wasn't sure were still available, but she is fucking stunning- deep shades of red and crimson, with slits on either side of her waist and all the detailing. She'd gotten the contact for her dressmaker through Bernadette Banner, Tommy recalls- she was so fucking cool when she streamed with him once, and gotten him to swear less and supplant those world's with bigger ones to intimidate instead. While he still curses like a sailor as part of his persona, it's less so and he does way less in real life these days, unless the situation calls for it. It's also just rude, especially in uni libraries, where he spends too much time these days wondering why he didn't read more as a kid.

Puffy's stolen his audience for a WHILE, and Niki coming on hasn't helped any, so Tommy exits camera view for a while to hug Ranboo really quickly- he's had midterms and has basically been dying all month.

Everyone on this stream- Tommy, Wilbur, Motherinnit, Tubbo, Puffy, Niki and Ranboo enter the camera frame after entering their dressing rooms for the last time on this particular stream, Puffy with full in-character wigs and makeup, Tommy in an Edwardian-Gothic reminiscent black and red dress, Ranboo in something he bought when he gap-yeared in Japan, punk lolita or something, Niki flaunting her pink in a Marie Antoinette style show of finery, Tubbo dressing in all green this time, something like a very deranged biology teacher who hasn't slept in days (Tubbo hasn't-Tommy has to get into that), Wilbur like a forest-nymph, all earthy tones and swishy fabrics and nature highlights, and finally Motherinnit, who hasn't changed but is here to take pictures as they all lean in together to fit into frame, as drastic as their height difference is. Niki is going to be edited in later, and everyone on the 'Dream SMP but nobody does Dream SMP and we're all fucking nerds' discord server is going to get a copy.

The stream wraps up there, after about two hours, and it's only about six in the evening- a far cry from the late nights and long hours from the beginning of Tommy's career, so everyone runs to their changing areas for the last time, into pajamas now, and packs away all of the clothes they wore, properly, as to not incense Karolina Zebrowska, and Jemma, Dan's wife, who would look at them disappointedly and nobody wants a sad Jemma because that means no cooing at their son. Also it just feels shitty.

Everyone huddles in Tommy, Tubbo and Ranboo's living room, and they out on UP for like, the millionth fucking time (they still cry when Ellie dies), and Tommy is leaning into Wilbur's side and feeling his mum play with the hair in his very small, stubby ponytail he's developed by being in Uni as he and Tubbo intertwine their legs together and Ranboo rests his head in the tangle of limbs, playing with his fidget cube. Puffy stays on Wilbur's side, intently texting someone and smiling the whole while, and Tommy takes a moment to reflect (something he's been getting better at doing) on how the actual hell they all got here.

The Dream SMP was always going to end- everyone knew it, if course, they were the fucking writers. But by the time they did, not only were their respective brands too closely intertwined to just… sever that quickly, but they'd become too close to even want to. So the SMP discord never shut, even though Dream and George had planned it months ago, and they continued supporting each other with their interests. Wilbur made a lot more music solo, with his band and even just random ass streams where he practiced guitar for an hour. He kept playing Minecraft, but it wasn't his main focus. A bunch of people left. More stayed. YouTube left him alone.

Dream, George and Sapnap are still Minecraft streamers, but their YouTube channels are mostly blogs of them being poor excuses of adults with other former SMP members joining in sometimes. Tommy and the Dream Team were closer than ever, even though the seeds of their friendship had been sowed when they used to linger after heavy streams together, reassuring each other that none of that was true and that nothing like… that would happen in real life, because Dream had used real abuse tactics, and those still hurt unless immediately taken care of. So they were. It was a running joke that Dream was stuck at 99 million subscribers since nobody really wanted the face reveal anymore. The other Dream team members were doing peachy.

Phil and Techno were also still primarily Minecraft streamers, but they also released things like advice videos and mental health stuff, especially for relationships. They had a new scripted series where Tommy was a minor character. The dadza jokes were still as real, and yes, outside of streaming, both of them were lovely people and responsible adults (mostly). They collaborated with DanTDM and co a lot more now.

Puffy and Niki kept doing games, but did lots of different ones, testing point and clickers to triple A titles, and making it all fucking hilarious while they were at it.

So where had that left Tommy?

After the Dream SMP, he'd kind of had no idea what to do, and he was going to University for the first time, so he just… did whatever he thought would be fun. He learned about vintage fashion from the queens themselves- Mina Le, Bernadette Banner and Karolina Zebrowska and had fun learning how to sew for the first time, fixing and making his own clothes for the first time, clunky as they were, Wilbur had cried, genuinely, when he saw the Lovejoy shirts that Tommy had made for the band. He'd found a genuine love for literature in university, so Tommy started talking to booktubers and studytubers like Jack Edwards and Noelle Stevenson. Tubbo and Ranboo had joined him, fucking around in any YouTube niche they found even remotely interesting. Eventually, they all found a happy medium- a bit of everything.

Some people obviously weren't happy with that but Tommy was happy as he was, making what he liked with his best friend's, living together close enough to most of their friends (family) to have fun and drop in on one another at ass-o-clock in the morning to comfort, to laugh. His sub count hasn't gone up in a while- most of his audience is static, with about 80-90k online on a stream at any time.p

It was a nice feeling, to have carved out a space for himself and the people he loves, and be is so, so glad that he got this chance.

Looking at his mostly asleep family, Tommy thinks 'yeah. Life is good.' as the last thought before he sleeps.

#dream smp #mcyt #irl fic #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #tubbo #nihachu #ranboo #vee's writing #2021

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alphaketoglutaricacid · 4 years ago

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@onehithero said: also we know theres at least some actual animals besides gadoll liek the scorpion n cows tht show up for a sec in ep 1 so tankers hav tht going for them re: food sources ..SORRY FOR RAMBLING SO MUCH deca dence essay got sleeper agent activated

onehithero said: i rly like what usaid abt kabu from natsumes pov too but i cannot form a half cohernet thought abt tht one

onehithero said: ALSO ALSO i think its interesting how the ep 8 conversation w minato is i think the only time kabu talks abt being jealous of humans being able to choose their own paths

onehithero said: also how minatos convinced hes like a good lil cog in the machine yet hes done 50 things tht wuld get him labeled as a bug but he just ignores all tht. the both of them can be so disconnected w reality

onehithero said: like minato didnt know abt 1)natsume 2) how the system has made kabu so severely depressed n he culdnt put up w it anymore.n minato continues pushing the just go along w the system shit he doesnt understand tht he was contributing to kabus misery.. n bc of tht kabu doesnt trust minato enough to tell him abt natsume for so long but then he goes n asks smth so big of him as go against the system

onehithero said: thinks abt how kabu n minato r obviously so important to each other but minato understands him less n less over time & kabu kinda already knew its risky to confide in minato like minato did know abt pipe which was a long time ago but he didnt know abt natsume til kabu was already sacrifing himself for her sake. n yet kabu then goes n tries to get him on his side anyway cuz he wants tht so badly..

onehithero said: OMG OMG CHEWS THESE WORDS SLOWLY N THROUGHLY SO DELICIOUS THANK U THANK U u get it u understand i love reading n writing essay lengh responses abt deca dence & again u just hit the nail on the head w this

Please let me know if this @ u 8 times and sorry if it did. I will reply under this readmore but i love this enthusiasm! I like discussing this stuff so if u want keep it coming. I wanna understand deca dence better and i think i will by sharing ideas w other ppl.

I think kabu and minatos relationship is as good as it is because theres clearly a lot of mutual love and respect between them even when they don’t understand each other and thats why minato still runs after him when he hears kabu going suicide mission lets go baby. I think its interesting that minato was like ready to lie down and accept getting mass scrapped until he hears kabu go im about to be hilarious and hes like actually living and staying alive sounds great actually forget what i said about it being over. you are so right about kabu and trust and natsume. I will always cherish episode 5 where kabu gives this big rousing speech about how natsume inspired him and saved his life and minatos there like ..who? ..what?? I think they may not be used to hiding things from each other. Also I think them drifting apart mirrors natsume and feis drifting apart tho I think while feis the instigator on that side kabus more on his side and minato like natsume is like wondering what in da world is going on. I think someone else wrote about this better than I can.

I do think minato does know kabus severely depressed because theres this line in ep 4 where he puts his hand on kabu and says like you’ve toiled enough at that awful job. and also in episode 11 when he and kabu talk and kabu says he was in a similar place as minato now in that he was waiting every day to be scrapped minato has no reaction until kabu says but that bug saved me. I think he knows kabus very depressed but he does not know how to address it cuz the system never gives either of them the tools or options for it. Though also I feel the system discourages meaningful relationships between the cyborgs so I think what minato and kabu have is likely pretty rare. Kabu donetello and turkey also fought together for a long time but turkey turns on donetello in a second even tho they fought together, he was his number two, and they were in prison together, and were pretty much all they got and donetello kills him in turn. I also think minato probably knew because he’s empathetic. Like I’m not sure about compassion but he’s very good at understanding where other ppl are and how to meet them in the middle so both parties get something they want. That’s how he got all the gamers to collect the old deca dence parts. Not by cashing in on ppl doing the right thing but by framing it as the final mission. He gets his lgbt community center coworkers for fight with him one last time by appealing to their sense of duty. He got the system to put kabu in jail instead of getting scrapped when Mikey got scrapped for a lesser offense. The list goes on. A tangent but I think the fact he acknowledges the living conditions of the humans are gonna get worse if nothing’s done even tho he’s apathetic at best towards them shows even when the system tries to mold the cyborgs into the roles it wants, sometimes the traits they have just keep on going despite themselves. I’m gonna stop myself before I go into jill and this theme but I’m gonna talk about it someday. So I think its more likely than not he knew but he didn’t know how to navigate around it also because it’s heavily implied he’s going thru the same thing and I think kabu might genuinely have no idea Bc kabu lacks empathy but his heart... is huge. When he hears minato express his feelings of not knowing what he wants he instantly tries to reach out and explain minatos not alone in what he feels. This is why they’re good foils. while kabu moves past where he was in the start where he states he does not intend to oppose the system and his compliance while also trying to do the bare minimum drives him to suicide, and finds the willpower and a reason to live and rebel against the system through his connection to other people (first natsume , he hangs out w kurenai sometimes too, and then with the jail robots). Meanwhile minato whos stuck in his literal ivory tower (it’s a Metaphor) never makes any of these connections. It’s the irony of kabu working at a armor repair job giving him some ability to connect w others vs minatos higher position isolating him from everyone else. I think kabu living amongst the ppl he harmed drove him to give up on life quicker, while minato being far apart shielded him from rlly having to see the effects of his actions I think he was headed a lil slower in the same direction. I think we’re led to believe minatos okay where he is but I think towards the end it’s clear minato has spent most of the series also in a bad place. I think he views things very similarly to kabu in that he wants to use what power he does have to protect the ppl he cares about similar to how initially kabu tried to just convince natsume to quit several times and he was like whatever at the rest of the humans who are natsumes comrades dying but he chooses to put it all on the line and try for some systemic change when he sees natsumes determination to fight. Also I think minato holds very little loyalty to the system cuz he doesn’t only like breaks 1000 rules for kabu (the hypocrisy) but he also looks the other way a lot. For example, when he overheard the top rankers talk about limiters he’s like I’ll pretend I don’t hear it also turn on private mode next time and he doesn’t berate them for considering cheating. Also donetello has been using an illegal avatar to climb to S rank again (isn’t it interesting that even after the ranked system is abolished something similar took its place). And his avatar looks the same as it did when minato worked with the guy. There’s probably like not that many ppl in s rank. And he calls himself donetello. Minato knows he’s supposed to be in jail but does he tell anyone? He’s like well.. that looks like someone else’s problem if they notice *goes and vapes* it’s so funny how little minato cares but it’s also not funny Bc some of minatos cruelest actions and things he’s complicit in are born not outta malice but apathy to everything. I think it shows (tangent number 4?) how the systems use of excessive force is counter productive cuz neither minato nor kabu are willing to report anything to disrupt the order Bc neither of them think the level of punishment is warranted. I also think that minato is probably the first person kabu really opens up to about why on a personal level he feels the system needs to be destroyed after Ep 7 is really interesting. It really speaks to how deep their [mutual and not platonic relationship I don’t know how to label ] is. I also think that he admits to minato that he envies human is rlly interesting and would like to hear what u have to think! I think it’s interesting that what really sets minato off is kabu saying he wants to choose for himself and also wants other cyborgs to have that freedom and I think it’s one of the few times we see minato get genuinely angry and have it not stem from worry. Tangent 5 I’m really extrapolating here but I think it’s very likely given how high up minato is that he likely knows of several cyborgs that rebelled against the system for similar reasons as kabu and knows how it ends and I think it probably feeds into his defeatist attitude. I think his role in the system must really kill whatever grasp of whatever minato has cuz he constantly has to act like it’s almost the end of the world and he’s strapped for resources all the time for like decades and decades of having to fake that type of desperation to entertain ur player base and cuz ur also on tv to entertain the general populace to distract them from their soul sucking jobs. I think that’s gotta mess with his perception of himself and also his ability to see that struggle as real and genuine. I think that’s also gotta be hard cuz he seems like out of his whole fuck we r under attack persona he seems like he’s a lil closed off but generally chill and somewhat upbeat to ppl who know him and he just wants to be isabella from animal crossing. I got really off track here. I think what really gets me is their relationship is built on knowing each other so well and so long , and how it’s managed to survive and persist through all this tragedy. They really mutually respect and love each other and that’s why kabu let’s minato walk away from his revolution even tho it compromises everything he works for. It’s why minato ultimently accepts kabus willingness to die for a tanker even tho he really doesn’t get it at all and it means it’s goodbye forever. But it’s still not enough to save either of them. Minato can’t save kabu from trying to passively starving himself to death and I’m not sure if kabu even knows where minato is at mentally. Sometimes no matter how close u are to someone there r things u miss and things u can’t help each other with. Even tho the two resolve to fight and then die together cuz this seems like the best choice Bc the system they were born into offers no alternatives, the deca dence doesn’t even activate without the help of other ppl. I think it shows one relationship cant support all that weight. In the end it is through their bonds with other ppl that gets them to an ending where they both survive when they decided alone their only option is death. Also u are so right about the other animals existing I totally forgot ty I cannot believe I forgot about the scorpion which calls to natsumes hairstyle which is a visual gag on how natsumes a bug and how like a scorpion, although unassuming, and fucking kill u, just like how her trying to get her boss to open up eventually leads to the whole thing toppling down. I also have a lot of thoughts about natsume but I’m still thinking of them and thinking hard Bc sometimes she becomes kabus inspiration Pinterest board and I don’t like that. When she shines she really shines but it starts getting sloppy towards the end so I have to think a lil longer about it. Okay I’m done. Also it’s kinda hard for me to look like I’m agreeing to ur points and nodding in this format but I really appreciate ur thoughts and will try to convey this. Maybe by formatting as a response to each of ur replies next time

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redrobin-detective · 5 years ago

Note

*sees your posts on Zukka* You. Keep talking. (Listen I love this a lot)

Listen, the Sokka/Zuko friendship was always one of my favorite platonic relationships in the series but in my latest dip into atla, my brain suddenly decided to focus on Zukka.

The boys start out shy, neither really willing to admit that they may be feeling that sort of thing for another boy, for a friend, for a former enemy. But as time passes and reality that they may very well die fighting the Fire Lord closes in on them, they decide to take the risk and take the plunge. Their love is subtle, it’s found in extended sword practices that end with gentle touches to bruised skin, its seen when Sokka grabs Zuko’s hand to show him something and “forgets” to let go, its that comfortable, slightly dreamy eyed look Zuko gets when Sokka begins going into one of his crazy plans. Despite the threat of looming death over them, they feel happy and content in each others company.

But then Sozins Comet blazes, Fire Lord Ozai falls and Fire Lord Zuko rises. Suddenly they’re not two dumb runaway teen boys in the woods where no one else can see them, now they’re leaders and war heroes standing there on the world’s stage. Now the gentle relationship, one that’s just getting onto its feet, is no longer a source of comfort but of stress and anxiety. Zuko only wants what’s best for his Nation and falling in love with a Water Tribe Chief’s son is not what was needed for stability in a wartorn nation. Sokka feels strangled by Zuko’s new position (a painful reminder of Yue’s own entrapment prior to her death) not to mention his terror when he realizes just how many people want to new Fire Lord dead.

They bicker back and forth about what to do. Sokka, for once, is the emotional one. He loves Zuko and he won’t let war or peace or anything in-between keep them apart. “I’ll just move to the Fire Nation and be your Fire Lady” Sokka says flippantly but his eyes are dead serious. Zuko is torn apart because the idea of waking up every day to Sokka sleeping next to him tangled in silken red sheets is as close to heaven as he can imagine. But the Fire Nation needs to be united now more than ever, he needs a noble woman by his side and legitimate heirs to secure his position. As much as his heart wants to be with Sokka, he knows it cannot be. “Maybe if it were a hundred years ago, or a hundred years from now,” Zuko responds exhausted from carrying the weight of disappointment in his heart. “But things are delicate right now, we can’t start another war.”

They go back and forth for months, Sokka slaves over a betrothal necklace made of volcanic glass and offers it to Zuko on bended knee. With all the willpower of someone who is all too used to self-inflicted suffering, Zuko turns down the offer but keeps the necklace. He stores it in the locked drawer by his desk and pulls it out during moments when he can’t help but ask ‘what if’. Eventually it comes to a head, both men sit down and take each others hands and discuss their future.

“I know you want this now but imagine in 2, 5, 10 years,” Zuko pleads, stroking his thumb across Sokka’s tanned hands. “You’ll see the Fire Nation as it is, with all the warts that have grown in the past 100 years without the fond tolerance of someone who grew up there. You’d remember that we are the people who killed your mother, tried to kill your entire culture. One day, you’ll look at me and remember that I am one of them and suddenly find yourself trapped in a country you hate but promised to serve and all because of me. I can’t let you do that, to yourself or to my people.” It’s a heartbreaking but eye-opening conversation. Zuko cannot leave his position and Sokka would be miserable as a Lord in the Fire Nation. They hold each other one last night, their last kiss long and meaningful to imprint the taste of each other on their lips and then pull back for the final time.

Zuko marries first, a woman he really likes and can help solidify his nation. Sokka is there the whole time, sad but also weirdly happy at the dopey loving look on Zuko’s face that used to be only for him. He thinks its called healing. They imagined the break-up being so much worse but they simply shifted back to their sword fighting without kisses afterward and gentle teasing though not draped across one another. Suddenly it was less of a burden to be together, no more worrying about being caught doing something compromising or the fate of their future. They were free to be Zuko and Sokka again, people who really, really enjoyed the others company.

They remain the best of friends for the rest of their days. Sure they look at each sometimes with more heart than they need to and sometimes Chief Sokka will still reach for Fire Lord Zuko’s hand and “forget” to let it go for an extra few seconds, as if his muscle memory still thought they were dirty kids in a dirty war. Their wives and friends will exchange fond looks when these slip-ups happen, love that strong never quite goes away, simply finds new ways to blossom. So maybe the servants are extra attentive to the Southern Water Chief when he visits and former Chief Hakoda slaps the Fire Lord warmly on the back as he would his own son.

Zuko is there the day Sokka dies, young and far too soon. The Lord of Fire cries as he hadn’t since his Uncle had passed not too long before. He tries not to cry too often, not just for appearances but because the tears that run from his burnt eye sear and sting with unimaginable pain. But that pain seems paltry compared to the beating ache of his heart as his best friend and one of the loves of his life lays dying.

“I thought you bent fire not water,” Sokka quips, still following their usual script even at the end. He suddenly breaks pretense and holds Zuko’s pale hand to his cheek, leaning in to kiss the worn and wrinkled palm. Its a ghost of what could have been and even decades later both men still wondered what would have happened if Zuko had chosen to wear that necklace instead of hiding it away in a drawer. “Thank you for letting me love you.”

“I’m sorry I turned you down, I wanted it so badly, back then you were all I ever wanted-” Zuko says through shaking sobbing tears, all breath control, and control in general, lost in the face of the inevitable.

“You walrus-seal brain,” Sokka smirks, “I loved you when we were friends, when we were lovers, when we were fellow rulers, when we were husbands and fathers; I love you now when you’re gross and dripping snot everywhere. We didn’t lose anything Zuko, we still had each other and we were still happy. Not a bad way to live a life.”

“No, I guess not,” Zuko responds, leaning down to brush his lips against Sokka’s forehead. He no longer had claim to the other man’s lips but it felt less like a tragedy compared to the decades they’d had side by side as friends. One form of love wasn’t superior to another, it just meant you got to be with someone in a whole new way. “I’ll send your wife and daughters in. Goodbye my love, say hi to Aang and Uncle for me.”

He spent that night huddled beside Suki, Katara and Toph as another of their own left them. He grieved the loss of large hands grabbing his arm, the clang of clashing swords, that sarcastic southern drawl Sokka never quite grew out of. But he did not lament the past. They had, in the end, made the best choice for themselves and their respective countries. When they’d been young, love had been about giggling kisses and wandering hands but love, real love, was not defined by its physicality. It grew when two souls drifted together and in the space between them built a home. And so long as he breathed, that home he’d made in his heart between himself and Sokka would always be lit and warm.

#Zukka #holee fuckballs #what just came out of my keyboard #it started out as a 'hey I've been thinking on Zukka' and turned into a mini fic almost?#I end a lot of fics with zuko crying over dying loved ones #anyway but zukka is great they are ultimately star crossed lovers #zuko cant live at the south pole and sokka would be so miserable devoting himself entirely to the FN (why i dislike zutara)#so they go of physical love and go back to ultra best friend love and its JUST AS STRONG AND MEANINGFUL #listen I know LaLa Land had its problems #but the message of 'not all breakups are tragic sometimes you need to let people go to live your best life' is great #thats what i envision for Zukka #they cant be together together #but they can sword fight and talk about life and have swearing contests and be dumb boys together and thats just as good #as long as they can be together #fuck fuck fuck im really emoitonal fucking chrsit

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caraidean · 6 years ago

Text

Parting Words

Participant(s): Catria, Alm ( @jasperlion)

Words: 4,403

Type: Support Conversation

Summary: Catria shares a few words with Alm before leaving Valentia for home that turn out to have a greater impact on her life than she could have expected.

Notes: Indirectly starts the Catria/Marth AU

The caravans were almost loaded for the move, as far as Alm could see, double-checking the roster for those who would leave for Zofia and those who would stay behind in Rigel until things were taken care of proper. It had been but a scant few weeks since Duma’s defeat, but there was no time to rest. Wheels would have to be set in motion for the reparations of the kingdoms as well as their eventual unification and he felt, frankly, pretty darn swamped. He was sure his childhood friend felt the same, but that was neither here nor there.

Eyes roved onto the names of three whom were listed as neither, with a note by Celica that they would be departing back to their homeland soon enough, and so where they’d be headed now would be entirely their choice. Brows rose as he wondered where exactly they had come from, a thoughtful hum leaving his throat. Looking around him once again, it was lucky coincidence that he spotted one of them, the middle sister, pretty nearby.

He had some time.

Rolling up the parchment pieces he had been reading over, he strapped them onto his belt and jogged over to Catria, offering a mild wave with his left hand as he approached.

“Hey—, uh. Salutations, Catria.” Inwardly, he smacked himself upside the head for being so informal, he really had to work on talking the part he was supposed to play now. Clair would have his head for mouthing off like the commoner he was raised as. “Have you and your sisters decided where to go next? I hear you’re pretty far from home.”

Well, the same could be said for himself, but at least he was still in the same landmass! “And, well, if you don’t mind… where are you guys from, exactly?” The question was sheepish, and it took all of his willpower not to rub the back of his head or do anything else of the sort.

Gods, but this was going to be a very long and complicated discussion when she got back to Macedon. She already knew what the plan was - that she would be heading straight to Minerva to give her report, while Palla escorted Est back to her husband and shop in Altea before heading back to reunite with her. Which meant that she’d get the burden of explaining where she’d been for the last two years with very limited letters being sent back to their ruler in the occasional snippets of time when they’d been near a port.

Well, a functioning port not torn apart by wars, at least. Which had gotten increasingly rare towards the end, even as the war grew more and more insane. The fact that this made two evil and insane dragon-gods she’d helped face down made her snort a little as she fastened the saddlebag, glancing up at Alm as he approached and finishing her train of thought.

Maybe we could request that the Whitewings motto be something along the lines of ‘helping to kill dragons since Arch 605 / Valentia 399

“We’ll stop by the capital for a few days, say our goodbyes and resupply. Likely collect a few official missives from Celica and yourself once the coronations are over, in case you want to open communications with Queen Minerva or King Marth.” She said lightly, standing up and addressing him formally. When she realized exactly how poorly he’d been told about Archanea she flickered an eyebrow before shaking her head in bemusement, chuckling.

“My sisters and I are from Macedon, one of the many countries on Archanea. It’s mostly mountains and forest, along the south-western end of the continent.” She explained. “Our former commander in the military, Minerva, became queen at the end of the last war. My sister Est actually retired to Altea instead, but that’s not important.”

Now his ignorance was really hitting him, and Alm had a vague notion of regret of being unable to really look into a lot of what he technically should know of royalty during the short period they had been in Castle Rigel. It wasn’t any of those ‘to do later’ things, either, considering it was a ‘right here and now’ sort of thing.

So, Queen Minerva and King Marth. Got it. He nodded to Catria, committing the names to memory so he could, maybe later, look up what he can and write up a decent enough draft for a missive. It would do them all good to set up peaceful relations from the start, especially since Catria and her siblings seemed to know both royals.

Absorbing the information given to him, he gave her his full attention, then beamed. They had plans, at least, and a general idea of where to go, so that was good. He was sure they’d be missed, but the sisters had a home, and he was more than happy to let them return to it.

“Hm… I see. I think I’ll take you up on those missives. I’d like to start off on the right foot with Archanean royals.” Alm said with a laugh, offering a grin, then gave himself pause.

“That you all served in a war before this one, well… thank you very much for helping us here too.” He bowed his head slightly in thanks, grin turning into a thankful smile. From what he knew, they were just looking for their sister, and could have left once she was saved, but chose to stay and help. For that, of course, he was grateful. “And, of course, you’ll always be welcomed here if you need help, no matter what.”

Hm… might even be a good idea to escort them all the way to the port. It was the least they could do.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to hear a little more about them. Nothing too personal, though! Just to, ah…” His left hand rose to his cheek, scratching at it idly. “… Get an idea of what they’re like.” Sending a generic sort of missive didn’t seem like a good idea to him, but he’d probably have to run the idea through Clair, Celica or Zeke… maybe Catria or her sisters? “If it’s a good idea to send personalized missives to open negotiations, anyway…?”

It was probably no secret that he was stumbling in the dark at this ruling and nobility thing.

“It’s not them that you’ll be spending most of your time with, I expect. Technically, the majority of your messages will likely be with Emperor Hardin or Empress Nyna. They have a sort of…level of control over the other nations.” Catria said after a few moments. She was the most diplomatically inclined of the three sisters, if only because of her unofficial status as Minerva’s favored messenger.

Unofficial since Est was retired and Palla…frequently didn’t enjoy leaving Minerva’s side for reasons that went far beyond the platonic, she’d admit, but still the messenger none the less. Still, she supposed she could give him and Celica both a more in-depth explanation of Archanea’s politics at a later date. “I can explain the grand scale of it all more at a later time, if you do not mind us putting our departure off another day or two, I suppose. And please, do not worry about us - we were glad to help Celica after she helped us rescue Est in turn. As far as we are concerned, any debts have been repaid.”

She paused, and then decided to throw her sister under the proverbial cart for a moment. “Then again, with how frequently Est has gotten captured in recent years, an escort to the harbor would be appreciated. Just in case.”

Then he asked about the two other royals in a personal context, and Catria almost dropped her bags. She paused and fumbled with them, hoping he wouldn’t notice the temporary but blatant loss of her fabled professional dignity, taking a deep breath through her nose and closing her eyes.

Damn that thought. She’d hoped to at least get past this continent where nobody even knew before she gave this away. So instead she focused on Minerva first, using the time to try and get her thoughts together for talking about him.

“Queen Minerva of Macedon is…well, she was our field commander for many years. She has very principled values, and would do anything for her little sister or her country.” She was very, very careful to leave Michalis out of the discussion. “She can come off as harsh, but I assure you, she can be a kind person once you see past her bluntness. As for King Marth of Altea-”

Unable to stop herself, she let out a deep sigh that ached of longing. She doubted even someone as…romantically challenged as a few had told her Alm could be on occasion could mistake it.

“He is…remarkable, truly. Kind, brave, and just - but could just as easily be relentless if pushed.”

Huh, an Empire, was it? Alm canted his head to the left in curiosity, but otherwise listened as well as he could. It was hard to grasp the concept, but for the moment, until he could actually get some studying done, he decided to view it akin to how Rigel and Zofia had monarchs both, but they both also had to defer to Duma and Mila respectively. “I should probably prepare missives for the Emperor and Emperess, then.”

And thankful he was for Catria to offer such an opportunity to learn more! With a grateful smile, he gave a nod. If all was to go well for Valentia as a whole, he would have to learn as much as he could, and quickly. “I’d appreciate it. I hope this delay isn’t too bad… I can wait until you ask your sisters about it, if you want.” Of course, the middle sister was not here by herself, and so he did not want to pressure her into making a choice that might cause a sibling spat. Speaking of… “I’ll handle the details for an escort party, consider it done!”

If it came to it, he’d go there himself. They did need to assess the damage to both kingdoms to decide how to handle things henceforth, so it wasn’t like anyone had a good reason to tell him no.

His expression shifted from an easy smile to raised brows and a contemplative expression when Catria fumbled, but said nothing, merely taking in what he was told of Minerva of Macedon and Marth of Altea. They both sounded like good people, people he’d personally love to meet someday if they drew such admiration, and yet…

Well, anyone would have to be a fool to miss the way the woman before him seemed to just float on air without the help of her mount at the mention of the latter.

A huffed sort of laugh left him then, shaking his head. Alm’s eyes sparkled with a slight hint of mischief, and yet looked almost all too serious when he said, “I’ll be sure not to keep you too long from going home, then.”

Bad as he may be to express himself sometimes, Alm knew that look when he saw it. It was hard not to when it was one you wore far more often than you had any right to. At least he had enough self control to stamp the thought out and, instead, offer a thoughtful nod. “Thank you. I’ll be sure to mention your sisters and yourselves on the missives, too. If anything, it’s most appropriate.”

“The missives would be a good idea. While they have no real say in how Altea or Macedon perform their internal affairs, they will still intervene in any outside contact - but they are both fair people, I assure you. Emperor Hardin in particular is undoubtedly fair and understanding, I would not fear whatever his response is.”

Catria vaguely explained her own understanding of Archanea’s political dynamic, aware that she was far from the best person. Perhaps he could speak to Palla about it, she should be able to take him in the right direction a little easier. She was just a courier, most of the peacetime. “The escort is appreciated as well. As I said…when it comes to my sister, it’s better safe than sorry.“

She let a spark in her eyes flicker for a moment, chuckling a little as she pictured Est’s face on realizing that Catria - the serious one of the three - had finally pulled a rib on her after ten years of avoiding them. And she’d used a King to help set it up.

”…mentioning us is not necessary.“ Catria wondered if she managed to hold herself back, or if Alm was just too polite to mention that he’d seen the look on her face. She clicked her tongue, shaking her head after a moment with a smile. “Although it would be appreciated. I imagine Queen Minerva is just about ready to scream at us — we were meant to return almost a year and a half ago. She gets so riled up when it comes to concern for her friends, after all.”

Okay, so it was definitely different than what he had in mind at first. It definitely sounded like a different system altogether than he’d seen just yet, which made it all the more interesting, if a little odd. There was likely a lot to learn from them, however, if Emperor Hardin was a fair man despite his position over other nations in Archanea.

Gods, he really owed Catria a debt now, vague explanation or not. “Right!” So, outside contact. Trade negotiations and such would probably have to be talked about with the Emperor and Empress at first, then! “I trust your word about Emperor Hardin. I just have to make sure to start off on the right foot.” And not put his foot in his mouth while he was at it.

Still… something nagged at him that he had to ask now, since Catria had brought it up twice, even if the second seemed a little like a teasing jest. With a quirked half-smile, he turned the idea over in his head a couple of times before finally giving it voice. “I hate to ask, but does Est just… get in trouble a lot?” He didn’t mind the escort, it’d give him more time to sort out thoughts he doubted he’d be able to process the moment he was sat down for political talks, but, come on. It couldn’t have been that bad. Could it? … Never underestimate anyone’s talent for disaster, he supposed.

And then a thought struck him, and he merely sighed and shrugged… with a dramatic aplomb and a small quirk of the lips. “I guess it should just be called an Estcort.” Hehehe. Estcort.

And, perhaps, Catria says it’s not necessary, but it certainly sounds like it, especially when it came to Queen Minerva. Not that he could blame her, if his own friends were due back that long ago, he’d be worried sick too. “Well, hopefully a good word in will take some edge from the scolding, although I can’t imagine it’d stop it from happening.”

… Might as well just sneak good word in with the King of Altea while he was at it, but he’d keep that to himself. “On that note, though, think something should be sent ahead of your arrival? Just to make sure folks back in Archanea know you three are alright.”

“This is the second time we’ve had to save her from being captured in the middle of a war.” Catria rolled her eyes at the question, letting out a slight laugh. “Outside of that, well…she has been fairly accident prone. Apparently she once trapped herself in the storage room of her shop for several hours before her husband found her. While she’s always shown a lot of promise, it’s had a tendency to be held back by things like that…and I don’t think her heart’s particularly in being a Pegasus Knight, either. She just…copied us.”

She shrugged a little, before letting out a brief bark of laughter at the name he offered. “Oh, gods - if you call it that she’s going to throw a fit. Please, just pretend it’s a mistake of the pen when you put it together on your letter - Queen Minerva would be quite amused, I think. Naga knows sometimes it felt more like she was protecting us than the other way around. Not that any good words will save us from her tongue upon arriving - which I’ll probably get the worst of.”

She frowned a little at that, her forehead creasing underneath her headband. “…yes, if Est is going back to her husband and Palla escorting her there once we cross the ocean…damn it, it is going to be my job to explain this mess, isn’t it? Catria the damned delivery girl strikes again.”

Alm’s brows raised once Catria made it clear that it had not been the first time — moreover, Est just seemed to be prone to incidents, period. It was probably not very fun for her… but how did things like that just happen to one person? More than once? Hoo boy.

“That… sounds like cause for alarm.” He says, then offers a small, helpless grin and shrug, soft chuckle leaving his throat at the idea of Est being angry at the pun. Well, best not upset her, if anything. She seemed like a nice person, odd streak of bad luck aside. “Here’s to hoping this is her last kidnapping, at least.” There was no use praying to the Gods now of all times, all he had to do is hope her bad luck didn’t hold out for a third.

Oh, Queen Minerva might enjoy the joke? How about that? “Alright, a good chuckle never hurt anyone. Let’s just keep the fact that it’s on purpose between us.” His lips tug into a wider smile then as he offers a secretive wink, right hand akimbo against his hip now, a little more relaxed now that it felt like he knew Catria a little better. “But a try doesn’t hurt, provided it doesn’t make things worse. I’d hate to trouble you guys after all you went through.”

And oh man, imagining the tongue-lashing himself, even without knowing Queen Minerva, was already shudder-inducing! He couldn’t imagine being in Catria’s place, much less envy the position.

But then the other’s words give him pause. Of course one of the letter senders would have to be them, it’d make no sense to send Clair out on a sortie when she’d have to just fly on back home afterwards, then send the three sisters on their way. Sending a letter over boat would just take longer than it’d take the sisters to return home, too…

“You know what? If it’ll have to be like that, maybe it’s just best you three show together, instead of letting you take the whole hit. That doesn’t really feel fair to me.” His left hand rises to his cheek, giving it a nervous sort of scratch. “Just forget I said that.”

The sudden movement around them reminds him of his task, and he fumbles with his list before giving Catria an apologetic look. “I should, uh, finish this up. How about we talk once our convoy stops for the night?”

“Of course. It’ll be easier to discuss the, ah, formalities of that later anyway.”

Catria nodded politely, accepting his dismissal. For a moment it made her linger, lips pursed as a question danced across her lips. Was it proper to ask him about something like this? Then again…well, odds were she’d never see him again after this was all over. He would be the closest thing she’d get to a true confidant for years, at least for something like this. Perhaps he’d even understand.

“Can I ask you a personal question, first?”

She hesitated again, before sighing and inclining her head. Well, best out with it. Gods knows once she was away from Valentia she’d go right back to hiding it.

“If you had feelings for someone, and they were…above your station. Would you stay quiet about it, or speak up even if it meant being rejected?”

He nods his head and offers a small bow, even knowing that he really shouldn’t, stations considered. And so, he almost hurries off to continue his task, only to notice Catria’s hesitation as he raises his head. She… Hm. Posture turning from that of one about to walk to standing once more at her request, he gestures for her to continue, taking a breath. Personal question, huh?

It comes soon enough, and it’s… a surprise, somewhat. His brows raise, then furrow in concern. Clearly, this was about her— and about that prince, if he was understanding things correctly. Marth, right? But, well, she wasn’t saying names, so he had to keep in mind to do the same.

“Well, I personally never gave one’s station as much thought as I probably should.” He admits, holding onto the list with his right hand as his left rises to tap his chin thoughtfully. “So this is… probably advice from the strangest of places, but I’d… I’d speak up.”

Right. What if he had been the villager he always thought he was? The commoner? Would he have hidden what he felt from Celica? Alm couldn’t imagine doing so, even if she told him no or that she liked someone else — he could hardly imagine keeping that to himself without at least knowing what the other person thought.

“Maybe they don’t care much for the station of their partner.” He suggests first, offering a tiny smile. “Or maybe they do— but I wouldn’t know until I try, right? You won’t know if someone likes you back if you never tell them, too. You just… always keep wondering, you know?”

He steps closer, nudging her shoulder gently with his own. “Nothing’s more painful than aching for what could have been. And, well, maybe I’d get rejected in this hypothetical situation — one I thought I might find myself in until, uh, recently, mind you.” Because, well. Yes. “But if it’s out there and I’m told no, at least I tried, and at least I know it wasn’t something they were interested in. And, well, it’d hurt to know, but at least you know, right?”

“And, well, just because there’s a chance for a no doesn’t mean there’s no chance for a yes, right? So isn’t it better to let those feelings try to fly than cage them away?” At least, he thought so. There’s a certain peace with knowing something will definitely not work out or be true, even if it’s tainted with pain. And it wasn’t just when it was about… feelings for someone, but that wasn’t what was important right now. “Who knows, maybe they’ll soar to the skies.”

“I see…”

Catria listened to Alm’s words with a kind of rapt attention, a small frown crossing her face at first. Could she speak up, if her back was against the wall? If her options were to say something, or run away and regret it for the rest of her life like she had been so far? But a smile flickered across her face at the honesty and conviction in Alm’s words, all the emotions in his advice resonating with her strongly. Maybe …well, thinking about it, Marth didn’t seem like he’d complain about the station of his partner. The nobles around him were another story but, well, maybe she could challenge that as well. Minerva would support her if nothing else. She hoped.

“At least I’d know.” She agreed, quietly. Her gaze seemed to fix itself on her own hand for a moment, fingers splayed across her saddle as she stared at it critically. What would it look like with a ring around her finger? She used to never be able to picture something like that even in her wildest daydreams, the little details that would make them more ‘real’ always refusing to fix themselves in place.

She could see it this time, though. How odd.

“It might not be my place to say this, but if you haven’t already you should have a conversation like this with the girl from your village as well.” She said, hesitating a little as she steered the conversation away. “Trust me - I can tell when someone’s pining. It’s hard to miss the same sort of looks you used to give.”

She forced the subject away from that again, hands shifting from her saddle to behind her back as she nodded at him and smiled, genuinely for a change. She felt a little more hopeful about the entire situation now.

“Thank you, Alm. You’ve given me a lot to think about on the flight home.”

There seemed to be a strange sort of look in Catria’s eyes, as if the goal was suddenly closer within reach than it ever had been before. It makes his chest swell with pride — if anything, he hoped for the best for her. And, if it didn’t work out, that at least it set her heart free to find another.

Her suggestion brings a smile to his face, and to it he offers a nod. He already had plans, to speak to her during the march. Properly catch up, maybe even spill everything and see how it went. Catria seemed to have a general idea and, well, a good feeling about it — and so did he, if he was honest! So, well, he might as well reach forward and try to catch that arrow on the fly.

“I will.” He promises with as much conviction as he can muster, raising his hand to gently bump his fist against her shoulder. “And here’s to the two of us! I hope it works out.”

With that, he offers a nod, smile widening. “Don’t forget to write!” It was an open invitation, if anything — a penpal or two didn’t hurt any, especially not with what he felt was a friend. A good one at that.

And so, with a wave, he hurries off, a slightly concerned expression on his face. Oh gods, he took too long — hopefully he hadn’t stalled the march any!

#Macedonian Dreamer;Catria #I wish I was selfish enough to have you;Catria & Marth #jasperlion #History Had Its Eyes On You;Thread Archive #Whitewing Archives;Catria Thread Archive

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xserpx · 6 years ago

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So we all know I am the Captain of the S.S. "Fuck Susan Rodriguez," but as I was driving home today, a thought occurred to me that I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on: What did/does Thomas think of Susan? Do you think he likes/dislikes her or is entirely indifferent to her? Do you think if the whole Red Court thing had happened he'd get along with her?

ok wow, I never saw this message in my inbox until now (you posted it a month ago apparently), so sorry for the super late response x__x;;;

I think Thomas was fairly indifferent towards Susan. Mostly it’s because he just never had much time with her, he didn’t get to know her the way he knows all the other important people in Harry’s life. It’s always bugged me that the fact Thomas threw Susan to the vampires in the first place was never addressed. Did he ever apologise? Did he ever feel guilty? What did Susan think of him? By the time Death Masks rolls around, they seem ok for the brief moments they’re around one another - or at least, there’s no angst or awkwardness - but I can’t help thinking there should be some bitterness on Susan’s part and guilt on Thomas’s.

I also think Thomas is best around people who can bounce off his humour. Molly’s great at that due to her peppy attitude, and I really like the dynamic between Thomas and Murphy - they have a pretty strong platonic friendship at this point, which is thanks to how they are both ride or die for Harry. I think with Susan, things would have been a bit weirder maybe? Because Thomas would likely be wary of how he acts around his brother’s girlfriend, and likewise Susan would be on guard around Thomas’s predatory nature, whether or not she was part vampire. I really think any joke Susan makes about finding Thomas attractive would fall flat, specifically because she’s already in a relationship with Harry, and it would be awkward as hell for Harry to overhear that kind of talk - we know how serious he felt with that relationship. Maybe if Thomas & Susan hung out more it would have become a more natural part of their banter? But knowing how sensitive Harry was/is about his relationship with Susan, especially after what happened post-Grave Peril, and post-Changes, I just can’t see it.

Also Susan’s experience with her Hunger is very different to Thomas’s, so I’m not sure if it’s something they could bond over either. Susan has magical coping mechanisms and a support group, while all Thomas has to control his urges is his own willpower and the memory of what he did to Justine.

I feel like I’m being a bit uncharitable towards Susan here, though. Like you, I’m not her biggest fan–IMO she’s too defined by her relationship with Harry in the earlier books for her to really come into her own, and she’s too much of a generic noir genre intriguing/sexy love interest character to develop unique quirks that would allow for interesting interactions with the more well-developed characters in the series.

Overall I don’t think Thomas would hate her, nor would he love her, but I think indifference is too strong a word. He’d probably care about her only because of her relationship with Harry. Susan is someone Harry truly loves, and Thomas would wholeheartedly respect that love, but he would not stan the ship the way he clearly does with Harry/Murph.

#dresden files #also it only just occurred to me that susan is possibly the first major character to deal with the whole 'if i have sex with someone i coul #d kill them' shtick??#i probably thought about it before and then just forgot tbh xD #but still #omg #minaminokyoko

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gracetamaras-blog · 7 years ago

Text

The Former Flame (#ChoicesCreates 21)

Description - Years after a secret and fiery romance between that ends in heartbreak, Kenna must face her former flame. Can this turn into her second shot at love?

Author’s Note - Hi, everyone! I thought I might give ChoicesCreates a shot - this is my first ever Choices-related fanfic. I’m complete shit at writing (as you can see) but I still hope you guys enjoy this little Raydan x Kenna piece. Yes, I’m very angry about TC&TF ending and I desperately do not want the buzz about it from this community to end. I’m just trying to keep a legend alive, y’all. *cries bitterly as I replay the series*

Word Count: 1,321

A bit about the piece - I’ve always been a Kenna x Raydan shipper, ever since the beginning, but I knew that there would be little to no chance of their marriage being accepted by Kenna’s advisors and Stormholt nobles. This takes place 4-5 years after Kenna’s *almost platonic, completely diplomatic* marriage to Diavolos.

Thank you @hollyashton and @catsrtheboss for hosting :)

_______________________________________________________________________

T H E F O R M E R F L A M E

“I thought you’d never come.” The spymaster’s eyes glisten with regret as the figure enters the room, escorted by two tall, sturdy bodyguards in full-fledged armour. She cautiously enters, every step timed and calculated, and rises to her full height.

She manages a diplomatic smile. “Lord Raydan. What a pleasure to see you.”

Raydan motions for her to take a seat. The room is dimly lit, but Kenna is still able to see her reflection in the glimmering marble floor. A long table able to fit ten is placed in the center of the area. Despite its large size, it only holds two chairs, giving off an aura of hollowness - the chairs are placed on both heads of the table. Raydan is sitting on the far end.

Kenna slightly flinches at the thought. Her body starts to back away, her spine tensing up, but Raydan insists. He stops sitting up and casually smiles.

This was the smile Kenna once fell for is falling for. Much to her dismay, her heart begins to race and she finds herself involuntarily taking a seat, unable to meet his eyes.

Raydan clears his throat. “Queen Kenna, it’s an honor to meet you again. It has been a while.”

“I- yes, it’s been a while. Certainly. How are things in Aurelia going? Any, er, new missions or something?” The words come out as weak mumbles. Kenna curses under her breath, wishing she had more self-control. She was often seen as a calm and collected figure - next to Raydan, she looked like a fool. A child.

He sees her nervousness and chuckles lightly, walking over to her side of the table. She notices that he no longer carries his weight oddly when he walks, but instead treads lightly. His slight limp from that one Nevrakis soldier has healed, thanks to Annelyse and Aurelia’s fine herbs.

Damn it, Kenna, hold yourself together, she silently curses. She forces herself to memorise the elegant marble pattern on the floor as Raydan’s slight shadow towers over her.

“I- of course, let’s get down to business… was it the new reinforcements and the potential weapons from the Foundry you wanted to discuss?” Kenna blabbers as a pathetic last attempt to save herself from what is coming next. This is greeted with silence, but Raydan’s breath grows closer and hotter. “Er… that new discovery you just made? The deal you struck with Zeno-“

Raydan sighs, exasperated, and gently cups her chin with his right hand, tipping it slightly upwards so that their faces align. She tries to divert her gaze from his intense stare for one moment, but ends up unable to resist. Once her eyes meet his, the memories come crashing back, wave after wave of realization crashing into her.

The Aurelian party. How he had saved her. The maze and defeating the Mechataur. The first time they kissed. The way he held her hand while they were finding their way through ruins. Meeting his sister, the Adder of Lykos, and how she had told Kenna to treat her brother well… the one time she finally acknowledged that her feelings ran deeper for him than she would like, and the many times he told her that he’d risk his life for her.

The bitter times hit her harder. She remembers her advisors sitting in a neat circle, telling her how Raydan is not worthy of being her consort. She recalls the endless nights of looming and crying. And worst of all, she sees the most vivid, most painful memory of all - telling him that she was to marry Diavolos Nevrakis.

A suitable, proper marriage, they had said. One widely accepted by the nation and one that would greatly ease tensions between Abanthus and Stormholt.

Raydan brushed it off that night, saying that a spymaster wasn’t supposed to be seen with the Queen of Stormholt, and that he could easily slip in when Diavolos was away. Kenna rejects this. His face nearly crumples up and he is crestfallen. When he asked why, she lies that she had developed feelings for him and perhaps Raydan should just leave.

And for the first time, the spymaster falls for a lie. And he is not the only person in the room whose heart just shattered into a million pieces.

The marriage does not last. Diavolos is killed in an uprising in Lykos which was halted after Adder is brought into power. When Diavolos died, their relationship was strained - fine, but strained - and lacking of love. Kenna respected him as a great king and leader but never anything more, and that feeling is mutual both ways.

She does not remember the last time they made love, only that instead of thinking of her husband, it was Raydan’s name that threatened to escape her mouth.

Her mind jumps back to present day and she instinctively leans in quickly, not even taking a glance. To her surprise, Raydan stops her, holding her by the shoulders as she opens her eyes in confusion.

“Kenna, are you sure?”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just a spymaster, meant for the shadows. Think about the nation. Because the last thing I want to do is hurt you… or the people.”

Kenna’s head tilts to the side, deep in thought.

“Raydan, are you sure that’s what you want?”

“My queen, if I could get what I want, I’d have you every night for the rest of my life. But we have learned the hard way that not everything is handed to us on a silver platter. And besides…” His voice trails off, but Kenna completes his statement.

“You don’t want me to be taken away again?”

Raydan sighs, genuine sadness and regret in his eyes. When he meets Kenna’s gaze for the second time, it is obvious that her feelings mirror his. An awkward silence follows, his hands still on her chin and hers on his shoulders.

“Kenna, I’ve lost you once. I do not think I can survive the heartbreak of losing you a second time.”

They stay still for minutes.

Raydan allows himself to hungrily eye Kenna’s body. Her arms still looked as delicate, her legs as inviting as before. She was still the same Kenna from the good old days, just moulded into a queen. Still the same Kenna who stayed up all night awaiting him in her tent the day before the victory at Lykos. Her skin looked more polished and her armor redesigned, but her eyes still held the same spark they did before.

She still looked the same to people from afar, but he was trained to catch minor details that gave people away. And it was almost like Kenna wanted him to find those details, like she wanted him to think that she was better off without him.

Raydan knows that this is the doing of her foolish pride, and that is why he makes the first move.

“What if we just forget that for one moment?”

Suddenly their minds are back in the command tent, in the vulnerable situation prior to this stability. She is no longer Queen Kenna Rys of Stormholt, a figure admired by many, and he is no longer a street rat from Abanthus unworthy of the throne. She was Kenna and he was Raydan. He was her king.

This time, Kenna does not retreat when Raydan caresses her cheeks. She does not pull out her sharpened dagger like she did when Raydan came to warn her about Azura’s assassins. Instead, she leans in, and her coated lips meet his, first delicately, then forcefully.

Kissing Raydan was like playing a game of tug of war. It is a test of strength, of willpower - a test of who could pull the furthest and blow the other away. Despite the voice in her head telling her to stop, Kenna surrenders to him and she

finds herself

l o s t

to his touch.

#choicescreates #kenna x raydan #choices #choices stories you play #choices fanfic #the crown and the flame #tc&tf

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shinneth · 5 years ago

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Gem Ascension Tropes (Peridot-specific: P - Q)

Reference:

Primary Peri Post ▼ Primary General Post ▼ Full Article

Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Justified, as Peridot and Steven are 13 and 14 respectively (until It’s a Birthday, Yes It Is; then they’re 14 and 15) and haven’t been an Official Couple for very long. However, Steven’s hormones (fully in effect since his Plot-Relevant Age-Up) and Peridot’s devotion to him make them both self-aware that they’re moving along faster than they should and really can’t help themselves. This is addressed as early on as Chapter 5 of Act III, but that brings up another factor that the Dawn of a New Era brought about by the events of GA are forcing them both to grow up too fast with crushing levels of responsibility hanging over them both. Just under a week removed from GA confirms the pair have gone as far as second base and are eager to go past that in This is Who I Am. Then it completely goes off the rails in It’s a Birthday, Yes It Is (3-4 months removed from GA) where they’re not only well into third base, but are desperate to go all the way. They ultimately succumb to that in Chapter 2… sort of.

Pensieve Flashback: Chapter 1 of Act III features three flashbacks of Peridot’s Homeworld days – all of which she is forced to watch by White Diamond, who surrounds all sides of her with screens of these memories that were ripped directly from her mind. Present-day Peridot has to discuss her past with White Diamond as she watches these moments against her will.

Photographic Memory: An ability Peridot gains post-ascension. Often paired with her Mental Picture Projector power to provide exposition.

Phrase Catcher: Although it’s technically not a catchphrase (and technically Lapis is the one who came up with the term originally), Peridot often refers to Steven as her “center of gravity” as a Term of Endearment across the GA continuity. Once Peridot adopts the term, she’s the only one who uses it… until Chapter 5 of Act III, when Steven refers to her as this for him. This moves Peridot so much that she actually needs alone time with him despite already having some not that long ago. Much later, in Plans Change, Garnet also uses the term to reference the importance of Steven in Peridot’s life even in regards to her leadership abilities, though this only serves to embarrass both Steven and Peridot. The latter insists that the term just sounds awful coming out of anyone other than Steven or herself.

Physical, Mystical, Technological: The Technological to Lapis’ Mystical and Bismuth’s Physical.

Platonic Life-Partners: With Amethyst, and formerly Lapis.

Please Wake Up: The moments leading up to, and the actual moment Pumpkin dies in Chapter 8 of Act III have Peridot invoking this trope, though she almost entirely loses her ability to speak coherently once Pumpkin dies. She speaks incomplete and fragmented statements while she’s internally processing the reality of what just happened. Following that is an Angst Nuke.

Plucky Comic Relief: Per canon, she’s still this. Granted, it’s notably downplayed given the circumstances, as Peridot pretty much has to become more serious and professional as an authoritative figure (the central theme of this story is Peridot starting as this trope and transitioning to Hero Protagonist, after all). However, she still has a good number of moments, and her pluckiness serves to get her team motivated and optimistic in a mission they can very easily screw up and fail.

Poisonous Friend: After her actions in Chapter 6 of Act III that ended up getting Steven willingly involved in a very violent, sadistic method of In-Universe Catharsis (aka hack at White Diamond’s neck in hopes of snapping it clean off her body), Peridot not only sees herself as this to Steven after coming to her senses, but White Diamond blatantly accuses her of being this as well. This plays into White’s goal of crushing Peridot’s ego to make her submissive again so she can be more easily coerced into fusion. Later in Chapter 8, Steven (as Pink Diamond 2.0) adamantly tells Peridot (as Chartreuse Diamond) that she isn’t a toxic influence on him at all, and that his actions are his own.

Power Crystal: Emerged with the components of one that was made whole by White Diamond’s manipulation. A broken splinter of Yellow Diamond combined with White Diamond’s diamond dust embedded in Peridot’s gemstone forms a brand new diamond. In full bloom, it merges with said gemstone and rests directly in the middle of it; this is a permanent change and marks Peridot’s ascension from a low-caste worker gem to a Diamond. Peridot effectively becomes two gems simultaneously and gains a great deal of power (though capped unless she shifts into Chartreuse Diamond) while doubling as being her lifeline just as much as her mundane gemstone.

Power Floats: Can do this post-ascension, though Peridot still prefers to use a metal platform when she takes to the sky.

Power Incontinence: By far the biggest case of this for Peridot was her inability to fuse, even with Steven. It’s heavily implied that despite her ascension, Peridot wouldn’t be able to fuse with anyone else due to being an Era 2 gem – as well as a kind of gem that logically should never have any reason to fuse, given that Peridots are not meant for combat of any kind (and fusion on Homeworld was solely done for combat purposes). While she was finally able to fuse as Chartreuse Diamond in Chapter 8 of Act III, there was a lingering concern she would only be able to fuse in that form. However, Steven’s Epiphany Therapy proved to work on Peridot just as it did for Chartreuse; once Peridot was able to forgive herself for her many past crimes and accept that she did deserve to experience fusion, she and Steven finally fused successfully and became Sphalerite in the final scene of Act III.

Power Limiter: A natural variant in Peridot’s limitations of her base form. While she is vastly more powerful and versatile compared to her abilities pre-ascension, and Peridot might be able to share most of the same abilities as Chartreuse, the range of effectiveness is greatly limited while performing as Peridot… simply because she’s in a form that can’t channel the kind of power a Diamond can. If Peridot pushes herself too hard, she can risk harming herself in the process.

The Power of Love: This is what kept Peridot from falling apart on Day 1 of the rescue mission. Her boundless love for Steven kept pushing her to follow through on her vows, even when she wanted to give up and go home. It’s pointed out several times In-Universe how Peridot made something that’s usually a point of vulnerability into a power source. That is, until White Diamond finds a way to make it a weakness in Act III. Still, Peridot’s love for Steven shines through and helps way more often than it hurts. Somewhat subverted as Peridot and Steven have trouble fusing – love alone isn’t enough to make them compatible. Steven had to dig deeper to get to the root of Peridot’s problems to make Iridescent Diamond a reality, but love is still in play as Steven’s efforts just further prove to Peridot how he’s a beacon of light in her life and can only make sense of things she doesn’t understand with him around. When Steven helps Peridot finally move on from the guilt of the past weighing her down, she can’t help but fall even further in love with him.

The second point happens early in Chapter 8 after Pumpkin dies. It’s mixed in with the Heroic BSoD, but this trope is largely what fuels the Angst Nuke.

Power Perversion Potential: Peridot has an idea to use just a small bit of willpower to make Steven unable to ejaculate for a while with the intent of building towards a stronger orgasm in the long run, which Steven consents to. And… it definitely had the intended result when Peridot dispelled him.

Pragmatic Hero: Contrasts with Steven’s All-Loving Hero; while Peridot has changed so much to the point that who she is now is a vast departure from her Pre-Earth Manipulative Bastard persona, she still remains an objectivist who knows better than to love everything and everyone unconditionally. Most times she attempts to adopt this attitude ends up blowing up in her face (see also: Lapis). Since she is fiercely protective of the ones she loves, Peridot has no qualms whatsoever about doing immoral things if it’s literally the only way she can assure the safety of others. She has more than once butted heads with Steven over this, and while those were ultimately minor spats, This is Who I Am Chapter 5 proves there is a part of Peridot that has more than some lingering contempt for Steven for making light of not only her embodiment of this trope, but others who share her ideology…

5XG: “You hate murderers. Anyone who takes the life of another, you hate on principle. The cause or circumstance is of no concern to you and never has been.

The Bismuth told me how events played out when you first met her. After knowing by this point how the Diamond Authority were responsible for committing multiple acts of global genocide, how this very planet was on that list, and were prone to shattering members of their own court on a misdemeanor or even on a whim. You were aware of all of this.

Yet you admonished the Bismuth for daring to create weapons made for wiping out an enemy with lethal force; legitimate ways to justifiably defend yourself against an enemy you know would not hesitate to take your life if they had an opening. You stood there, and you actually labeled her as one who is completely indistinguishable from White, Blue, or Yellow Diamond. A loyal ally of your maternal unit whose focus was always on doing her best to defend her friends and loved ones, who only fought when forced to by the Homeworld gems… to her face, you belittled her convictions and you said there was no difference between her and the maniacal, genocidal dictators that you yourself were defending against along with your loved ones – just as the Bismuth herself.

I honestly don’t blame her for trying to kill you that day. You should have died.”

Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: Shown in Chapter 1 of It’s a Birthday, Yes It Is when Peridot’s exhaustion (both mentally and physically) makes her unable to concentrate her willpower, even for a simple task like cleaning a minor mess. To a lesser extent, it was also present in This is Who I Am Chapter 2 when she Forgot About Her Powers from the shock of getting ambushed by an alligator. During the previous chapter of the aforementioned story, Steven heavily implies this trope was why Peridot was unable to fuse with him during the main GA series until she learned to forgive herself towards the end of Act III.

Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: The slew of derogatory words Peridot has for Steven after first reuniting with him are delivered like this, with a weak punch to his shoulder after every name she calls him.

Punctuated Pounding: The moment Steven and Peridot reunite in Chapter 5 of Act I, Peridot unleashes this on Steven while crying into his chest; punctuating every name she calls him with a punch. However, being that she’s severely injured at this point, Peridot’s blows don’t hurt Steven in the least, and he just takes it in stride.

Quiet Cry for Help: The narrative in Chapter 4 of Act I notes there is a brief, vulnerable look in Peridot’s eyes as she turns to face Bismuth and Lapis, who just screamed at her to not shatter the helpless poofed gems in her workstation, which Peridot was “teasing” and looked ready to follow through with it until her friends intervened. She’s described as looking lost, confused, on the verge of breaking down, and silently crying for help. That expression only lasts a moment before Peridot slips back into Heroic Safe Mode and mocks her friends for thinking she was really going to do it.

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