#and who better than o!Sky to enjoy such treatment

[st0rmyskies]

I'm sorry you're having a bad brain day!! :(( This might seem totally out of nowhere, but I've always wondered how Townhouse Time and Omega Sky would interact. Lets completely ignore how they would ever meet (unless that sounds like fun of course) but do you think a relationship could be had there? Romantically, sexually, both or neither? I could see Sky being interested in learning BDSM as a way to cope with what happened to him (which I've seen a few times in the community) but I could also see him being COMPLETELY turned off by the idea if he ever somehow found out Time did that sort of thing. Like walking in on him and Wars which, YIKES, Sky would likely immediately assume the worst there!

So this was an incredibly fun brain exercise! Because my knee jerk reaction is "omg absolutely never." But I wanted to give it a chance, so I dug in a bit.

So if o!Sky is introduced to the household, there are going to be a lot of omegaverse communication and cultural norms that will be plainly lacking. But Sky is still going to pick up on some things more easily than a normal outsider would.

First, the denizens of the townhouse all respond to Time with some level of deference and respect. For many, like Twilight and Hyrule, it's obvious. For others, like Legend or Wind, even if their interactions are more casual they still speak to Time with much more respect than they do their peers. So picking him out as the 'leader' type is a no-brainer.

Time's two main partners in the home, Wild and Warriors, really couldn't be more different. But Warriors is a frequent and vociferous bed partner who never shies away from Time one bit. And Wild, who clearly could never hurt a fly and bruises like a late summer peach, is as smitten as can be with him. Which lays out the second point: Time is a versatile lover who can not only treat Wild with the gentleness he needs but can tame Warriors as much as one can claim to tame him and keep him satisfied, too.

The catch here, though, is that Time doesn't go and seek out his partners. He's the one who is approached by others. And I just can't picture Sky approaching him for that sort of thing, even with his observations about the rest of the house. Nor could I EVER see o!Sky being comfortable with bondage of any sort. He might like to play "keep your hands to yourself" and lie with them behind his back or crossed above his head, but keeping his freedom of movement is important to Sky, especially in the act.

So, although my answer is to never say never, I struggle to come up with a catalyst that would see o!Sky and LMTCOY!Time sharing a bed with one another.

[mochilatae]

No One Else (Namjoon x Reader)

Word Count: 5.0kish

Pairing: Namjoon x Y/n/Reader

Rating: 18+/Mature/Explicit

Warnings: Unprotected sex, semi-clothed sex, creampie, biting, groping, pinching, slapping, kissing (tongue and other), aggressive Namjoon, jealousy, possessive undertones, rough/intense sex, orgasms (yours and his), squirting (implied), hair pulling, scratching, cuddling, softness (at the end), rich Namjoon/CEO Namjoon elements, Established (early) relationship stuff

Genre: PWP, Established Relationship

AUs: CEO BTS/CEO Namjoon

Summary: Namjoon is a man who gets what he wants. Nothing is out of his reach. You find out what happens when he thinks someone else might get something that should be his. It brings out a side of him you never knew existed.

Author’s Note:

For my sis @worldwideseal

This is a standalone story from the CEO AU and isn't the same CEO Namjoon from previous stories, although there are some of the same elements (established relationship).

Thank you for reading. If you liked it, feel free to comment. If you reblog, it's also very much appreciated but not required.

Tags: @askkrisachan @kiestrokes

If you'd like to be added to the tag list, please let me know.

The penthouse door shut behind you and Namjoon’s footsteps followed shortly after. 

Although the foyer hall was dark, you knew it well enough to identify every single shape like you’d lived there for years. You’d certainly leaned into the comfort and confidence of accepting that you did in fact live here. It was as official as could be: you’d gotten a couple bills and updated your mailing address.

It didn’t get any more real than that. 

As you wandered past the tall mirror mounted on the wall, you glanced at yourself, enjoying the site of your legs in the heels chosen for the night: slightly taller stilettos that made your legs look as long as you’d always wanted. 

It was that much better hearing Namjoon’s dress shoes pacing at your back. You finally slowed at the end of the hall, facing the den unfolding before your eyes. Based on the warmth suddenly rising at your back, Namjoon had stopped just behind you. 

His breath grazing your shoulder only confirmed the fact a moment later. His words chased the fading wisps when he spoke. 

“Did you have a good time?” 

Whatever reason he was asking, you hid your confusion and smiled, noting the far off night sky through the massive picture windows framing the room across the way. The night sky looked surreal this high up. Living in one of the tallest buildings in the center of a bustling city had its perks–and this one was near the top of your list. 

“Yes.” You whispered. A beat passed.

Namjoon’s lips pressed your skin then slid towards the outside of one shoulder and departed just there. “Good.” He murmured.

Another moment slipped between the silence that followed.

“..It was nice to show you off.” 

Hearing him say that ALWAYS felt amazing, and Namjoon never seemed to get tired of announcing it. You often suspected that was the whole reason he insisted you come along to these events.

Gatherings. Galas. Whatever they were, whenever they happened, it was almost a guarantee he’d send you a message ahead of time with a save the date notice. 

Which was followed by a visit to his tailor for fittings. Beautiful dresses that you’d never imagined being in, customized to your shape. Emphasizing what you had and making you feel like a model. A goddess. 

Skin treatments that had you smelling like heaven and glowing like an angel come to earth. You couldn’t get enough. The hours of prep was always worth the end result: eyes on you.

Attention of the most surprisingly good kind. It was a wonderful change you’d grown into with this relationship.

For once sensing eyes on you from all directions didn’t scream ‘be on guard’. It lifted you. Pumped your ego and fed it to a healthy size. 

You always came back to a single home truth: the only eyes you really desired belonged to Namjoon. His stare was what you craved. Dined on, when it was served. 

Like he’d done earlier tonight, all through the drive over. In steely silence, city lights washing features and his jaw muscle writhing. From next to you at the banquet hall table, shoulder to shoulder among his friends and associates. 

And just like now: when you turned and spotted his gaze leveled your way again. There was something amiss in the sparkle there, beaming from those narrowing eyes. 

“What?” You scoffed playfully, offering a coquettish pose, fanning lashes at him. Your lips pursed just a little and Namjoon’s own thinned into a very taut smile. 

One that you’d seen after many unpleasant work meetings or a particularly busy work day. He did move a lot of money so his mood could be mercurial. 

Nerves rising a little, sending goosebumps along your skin, you straightened a bit, waiting for him to speak. But Namjoon didn’t. He waited just long enough to break the silence, right when your lips parted to speak.

“What did you think of him?”

“Him.” You repeated, now fully turned to face Namjoon. He was slow, tugging each cuff of his suit jacket sleeves and sliding arms out one after the other. Even in spite of the broad shouldered design of the garment, Namjoon shedding it did little to diminish his stature. 

This man managed to look just as broad. Except now the more fitted shape of his dress shirt thoroughly outlined his triangular shape. As if you needed the reminder he was spending more and more time at the gym in the mornings. 

Like it wasn’t enough he could destroy you as he was if he never stepped foot in there again, but that wasn’t enough for him. Namjoon cared about his body and keeping it ready to work at peak performance. He didn’t just keep his mind sharp. He kept every muscle ready. Trained. 

He wanted the best and he did not sit back until it came to him. He chased it down, made it his own. Just like he’d done to you.

The way he stepped closer after hanging the jacket on a nearby wall hook shrank the air around you. This room’s high ceiling wouldn’t stop you if your soul departed and sailed up with the energy of a rocket off the launch pad. 

You swallowed, chest dangerously tight. That was easy enough to ignore–you had to or you’d panic. 

“Him?” You repeated, letting all the confusion and nervousness out in this single word. 

It didn’t change that slowly deepening glare that had taken residence on Namjoon’s face.

“Him.” He grunted, tone like granite. And just as warm. Now he was within reach, chest puffing. His fingers found your chin, tracing the shape, then circled and held tight. Slowly he tipped your face up so he could see you clearly. 

Knowing Namjoon was looking into your eyes, there wouldn’t be any way to retreat because you couldn’t look away, no matter how hard you tried. 

“The man who was talking to you by the champagne fountain.” 

Your mind scrambled backwards in the evening, combing over every mundane detail. Things you might have missed, down to the color of the salad fork and the way Namjoon had unfolded his napkin and laid it on his lap.

The big, plump warmth of his palm on your thigh there, under the table. The way it climbed slowly until you’d almost choked on a mouthful of red wine between courses. Just before you’d gone to the dancefloor. 

“Oh.” The admitting came in a low wheeze from your lips. You resisted licking them, lest you ruin the lipstick you’d purchased just for this evening. 

Namjoon released your chin. Smiling, he leaned closer. It was hard to see that smile didn’t go further than the apples of his cheeks because you’d never seen it directed at you. He was not pleased. 

“Yes.” His attempt at a coo was more of a rumble, from deep in that broad chest. The buttons of his shirt looked like they were as stressed as you felt. His free hand was at the top button, popping it open. “..Him. What did you think of him?” 

“You want me to say something specific, then tell me.” You replied. Playing mind games with Namjoon was dangerous when he was in a mood like this. It couldn’t have gone well for anyone who tried it in the world of business and you were far more woefully underskilled to even begin trying. 

You’d be crushed like a bug. 

Namjoon’s smile stayed. He opened a second button. More skin came into view, the v shape of parting shirt material widening. Tempting your attention and the beginnings of a sweet ache much further below your navel. 

“I just want the truth.” 

“I wouldn’t lie to you.” 

“I know you wouldn’t, Y/n. Which is why I trust that I can ask you and get the answer.”

“I can’t make something up. I just said—” You sputtered weakly and Namjoon’s finger drew a rail of fire down your lips,heading for the center divot at the base of your throat. You were helpless as your head lolled backwards. 

The ceiling was all you could see, starlight making a white aura there as his touch stopped and he traced a spiral there just near one collarbone. His lips feathered your neck on one side and your knees shook.

He growled. Sank teeth gently to pinch just a bit of skin. So careful that you knew it could be so much more dangerous than he was letting it become. And you knew HE knew how much this turned you on. The danger contained and wielded by such a powerful man like Namjoon Kim.

Beyond-billionaire. Earned his stripes and his reputation. Earned the privacy and mystery of his success and the corners of his life he kept locked up tight. You’d only just gotten into the inner circle but there were doors you knew were still closed. 

Especially when it came to his appetites. You’d never thought that you could walk around on this earth feeling perpetually wet like Namjoon had you doing since you became serious. 

Your knees locked as you drew in a deep breath. Instead of helping, your head spun. 

“So don’t. The truth gets MUCH better rewards than lies,my sweet. Unless..” He dragged a finger over the wet spot where his teeth had been, then massaged into the depression left. You bit back a moan. 

“...Unless you like that kind of thing? Are you that type? Do you like to be punished, Y/n? I know we’re still learning about each other–we’ve got a long way to go. But I wouldn’t mind knowing that. I can oblige if you’re into going through it. Wouldn’t be my first time.” 

Oh my god. The ceiling wobbled and you blinked. Shaking your head had you unsteady in the heels you’d managed to strut successfully in most of the night. Good thing it didn’t last long before the ceiling stilled again. 

Namjoon moved onto your shoulders, bringing one finger under the stress strap and tugging it aside. It fell down to your bicep. The tickle was so intense you almost shuddered. Everything was so alive with Namjoon so close. 

Having him in your life had EVERYTHING much brighter and more fresh, so this should stop being a surprise, and yet…

After he guided the other strap down and it was hanging the same way on the other side, Namjoon’s eyes came into view after he cupped the back of your head and pulled it upright. Placing your attention solidly where he wanted. Getting his way.

Exactly what he deserved. 

The only remaining sign of his former smile were two dangerously thin pink lines, even tighter than you felt. 

“Are you that type?” He was speaking so low and quiet, forcing you to strain beyond your thundering heart just to hear. 

“I’m not.” 

“..Mmmhm.” He barely nodded. Something entered his eyes–a new kind of flame. Flickering and hungry. Was that …jealousy? Namjoon’s lips parted and his forehead barely touched yours. He spoke again. 

“Then tell me what you thought of him.” He wasn’t going to let this go.

At least you’d finally remembered who he was talking about: some nice older man from your trip to the champagne fountain while Namjooon made his social rounds. One of the only moments he’d left your side. 

An exotically handsome man. With an accent thick enough you mostly understood and pieced together what he’d asked. Basic questions. A compliment, and his reaching for your earring–the 24k dangling drop with a real pearl at the center. 

He’d been brief in his conversation and your gut dropped when you remembered the man leaning close to speak in your ear and whispering his compliment on the accessory. It wasn’t a long conversation and enough people had been around, you hadn’t realized Namjoon was still aware enough to see. 

But he had. His sneering smile slowly opened the door to whatever lurked underneath his composure as he waited.

Two of his fingers walked right down the center of your chest, stopping at the top of your dress, where it dipped low between the swells of both breasts, then curved into a hook shape. 

“I didn’t..” Your lips shook. It was a bleating plea. No room to feel pathetic or weak. You meant it so much right now.

The plea in your eyes hit whatever wall was up in his mind. Namjoon smirked a little, heat rolling from his flaring nostrils with the sound. 

Your body jerked forward as he pulled away, dragging you with him. You barely kept up, stumbling along, heels dangerously unsteady as you both moved towards the hallway. It never seemed so long, passing doors as you plodded along, going from marble to tile to carpet, paving the way to the last door at the very end.

Namjoon only let go to reach forward and open the door. He pushed a little with one palm, then stepped aside and jerked his chin towards the inner chamber. 

You moved over the threshold. Just like he’d done with the front door, Namjoon shut the bedroom door. Even so, closed off from the rest of the place, this room was massive and always felt that way. Day or night, it didn’t matter. This space was just as big as everywhere else here. 

Namjoon wasn’t about to live small. He demanded room and made his own, no apologies. 

You turned around, seeing his form striding for the closet. Without looking at you, Namjoon was at work, stripping his shirt off. It fell to the floor as a crumpled heap. His hands went to his belt as he stood in the open closet doorway. 

It was like he’d felt your hands rising to the back of your dress, arms twisting and fumbling to find your dress zipper. His words were ice, cutting across the darker space. 

“Don’t you dare. Face the bed. Bend over, palms flat.” 

Your eyes opened wider but you turned away and did as told. You hear the sounds of hangers moving along the rails in the closet. He disappeared then, the sound of material rustling coming from around the door that blocked your sight. 

Forever seemed to pass as you stared at the headboard further up, so many pillows arranged neatly. Almost nearly perfect. Namjoon was no slouch in housekeeping efforts either. His cleaners knew their standard and never slipped an inch.

A hard squeeze on one ass cheek, through the material of your dress made your thighs tense. You went up on toes and your ankles threatened to quit entirely. Fingers curled into the perfectly smooth bed sheets. Your nails dug deep into the cool surface, sending an ache through the first knuckles on every finger. 

Your lips retreated from your teeth as you sucked air through. “Joon..” You whined. Heat rushed through your folds, daggering right up into your center. You felt the rush of pressure and warmth building just behind your seal. 

Namjoon’s laugh behind you was long and faded. His single slap was hard. A little bit more pain than pleasure and you took it, eyes rolling a little. You quickly focused on a single pillow at the center of the collection directly ahead. 

“Love it when you say my name.” His fingers pinched. Groped a solid handful of your cheek and kneaded. He let go and the ache stayed there for a few seconds. “..You remember his name too?” 

“No.” You spat out. Even if you did you wouldn’t have said it for all the money in the world. You wanted to forget you’d even met this guy, whomever he was, that Namjoon suddenly couldn’t think about anything but that stranger. 

“No?” Another snicker and Namjoon’s fingers traced the hem of your dress and tugged it up over your ass. He bunched the material around your lower back. You wanted to feel shame but the fire didn’t stay at your face, it ran right down to your pussy. 

“Please.” You began. A low moan came out when Namjoon ran the back of a knuckle across the crotch of your panties.

“So hot, kitten. Is that me..or him?” 

“Namjoon..” You whined now, thighs openly shaking. Your knees bent briefly and you struggled, straightening them again. Your ass jerked and Namjoon kissed the small of your back. 

“Don’t you hear me? I’m talking to you. You weren’t noticing me when he was next to you.”

You had so many things you wanted to say–every word bottlenecking at the back of your lips. You worked, chewing invisible sounds but nothing made it out. It was peak frustration borne of the pinnacle of arousal. 

And it was going to burn you alive. Namjoon was quite clearly happy to see you spinning so far out of control while he was slowly gathering the reins. 

His monologuing continued as he followed both sides of the cotton center panel with a pointer finger, debating which side to move first. As if it was a when, not an if. Time warped, extending into the unknowable future as you waited. Suffered. Found it harder to focus on anything but survival. 

The sheets under your palms warmed and sank a little deeper when your weight listed forward. A knee rutted the inside of your right thigh, hinting. ‘Spread’ wasn’t said in a word, just in that action.

“Seeing him close to you made me realize something. I’m a jealous man. I want what’s mine. What’s mine…is MINE. I don’t share. Why should I have to? Is that impractical, Y/n?”

You couldn’t speak still, lips twisting. Your eyes rushed with wet heat. Shock was filling you to the top–you’d never been so emotional over desire in your life until now. Whatever was happening, you needed Namjoon to make it all disappear. To imagine he was somehow misunderstanding a casual conversation this much…

But you’d never plunged this far into the depths of a dark enjoyment: having someone so into you they were being unreasonable by more and more measure. You, a woman so desired that a man this powerful would be so swept up to lose some semblance of control. 

He could have it ALL–every inch of you. Whatever he’d ask in trade, let him take it all. Crush it in his big, strong fist. And let him put that same hand around your neck. Squeeze until you can't think or feel. Until the resistance that might be there flowed out, like the last breaths and the high that promised to rush through you at that perfect moment…

You came back to reality with Namjoon tracing something warm and blunt along your sex. It was heavy, the thump when he slapped it against you. That impact made you jump.

Your ankle rolled and you whimpered, kicking that heel off. The other went too, shooting across the carpet and ending up somewhere in the dark, chased by Namjoon’s giggle. 

“I know…it’s so much, isn’t it? But…I’m not being totally crazy, am I?” He pushed against you, his belly brushing over your ass and the pressure over you increasing as the blunt shape nosed hard into your folds. You realize: it was the tip of his cock and it was fat. 

Your senses dulled and the world grayed as you nearly fainted in need. “N..no. You…want…it..” It was hard to even hear your own voice, tinny and breathless in the dim space ahead. No need to finish your thought. He did it for you. 

“---I do want it. I want YOU. You’re mine…aren’t you?” A hand clapped over your other hip and he pulled you into his rolling hips. His cock brushed against the inside of your thigh, silky hot. Burning to the touch.

Your arms trembled and you let your face touch the sheets with a pained moan. Namjoon wound his free hand through your hair and pulled you right back up.

“Stay there. Listen to me when I’m talking to you. Couldn’t hear me there.. You hear me now, don’t you?” Cool air washed over your pussy as the panties slid to the side and took your seal with it, breaking you open. 

The head of his cock bulldozed through your flesh, spreading the slick. He used a single, spiraling stroke to coat himself and leaned back enough to seat his tip right inside of you, then leaned forward, pulling your head back to bring you into his stroke. 

It was white sparks showering through your closed eyes as he filled you up. Your walls bloomed in tightness as they filled. Stretched. Expanded to take in every inch of this thick cock pushing into you until his belly met your ass. 

When he was hilted, Namjoon tugged your hair again, firmer. Growled and let his head roll back. Pulled back just enough, then snapped his hips. Still speaking, he set a pace–a stroke every second. Not wasting time or waiting around like he’d done hours ago. 

In the elevator.

The car. 

In line to get into this dinner. 

In line to get a drink, with you against his side, demurely, fingers wound through his own and greedily choking on his cologne. 

Wetness oozed from deep inside, cresting the outer edge of your pussy lips as he drove in harder. Began to really heave with each forward thrust. 

“This..I bet he was thinking about this.. But it isn’t his. He couldn’t see or touch this–could he Y/n? You wouldn’t bend over his bed like this. You wouldn’t spread wide open and take every inch for him, would you?”

Even if he demanded you play along and answer, your body rocked and jerked so hard as he fucked you that the words would have been jostling too. Lost bouncing up your throat if they even made it to your lips. 

The grip on your hip tightened and nails scraped your skin there, leaving stinging that melted into nothing as seconds passed, overlapped by the slapping sound of your skin meeting his. The bed began to tremble when Namjoon went harder. 

You couldn’t hold it back anymore, ass raising up and head dropping,letting your face crush against the fresh cold of the sheet's surface. Your makeup made a rainbow of colors, the color of your lipstick leaving streaks below that you only glimpsed before your eyes shut again as a clamp seized your insides. Chills rushed through you, pushing out a warning moan–he was getting you close. 

You were going to cum. And it was going to be hard.

Whether or not he was actually aware, Namjoon continued to pound away at you, snarling–muttering something you couldn’t hear. Squeezing your skin so hard vessels burst underneath. He slapped and pinched, the sting biting through the ecstasy. 

“J..Jooonieee.” You keened, head heavy and turning, giving you a chance to turn your profile to one side and suck in a much needed lungful of air. You could taste his scent. Taste that cologne. Namjoon made some belly deep sound behind you.

His weight fell into you as he pushed your body onto the bed, forcing you into a prone position. Now his thrusting went from forward and back to almost straight up and down. Dunking into you, sinking down hard and rising up. Like a piston into the ground, pulling up oil. Pumping for the desired fluid, relentlessly steady. 

The clench came again and your body vibrated. Your hands clenched at sheets, tugging them towards you in desperation. Trying to pull away a little and find some moment of relief. To think a little.

Most fruitlessly of all: to save yourself against the rushing inevitability on your heels. 

It was no use. Namjoon stabbed his cock deep and stayed there with a boom of pleasure. 

“Fuck baby..You feel so good…” Barked at you this time, loud like he didn’t care to remember where he was. And if he did? He gave no fucks because it was all about what he wanted and how close it was to being in his grasp. 

He felt you within his reach, like his hand rising from your hip to your throat to grip tight, and his weight along your back as he barely planked.

You weren’t escaping.

You were trapped and you were exactly where you belonged. 

“What is it?” Namjoon’s tone dripped in evil. In such an offensive pretend innocence, the way he nudged at your few remaining senses.

You barely blinked, just at the edge. Ekeing out a the few words you could to warn. To beg, one last time.

“C..close. Ple…please..Don’t..”

“--He can’t be me. He can’t stop me. NO one takes what’s mine. THIS is mine..” The pumping started, hard and furious as Namjoon lips found your ear. 

Like he wasn’t pounding your insides into nothing but a creamy mess. He fucked into you with angry strokes. Going deep. Into your guts. Almost into your lungs.

Your throat, where his fingers circled and squeezed more. You barely gasped out the last remains of air, eyes rolling so hard it was static graywash as the orgasm hit. 

You seized under him as Namjoon pulled back and gave a few more strokes before you squeezed so tight he couldn’t move. He fell against you with a satisfied grunt, feeling you convulse and squeeze. Your pussy rippled, sending spastic ripples down the length of his thick cock. 

Namjoon ground into you as he rode out the high, then stirred himself until he shuddered.

“Make me cum..” He breathed, growling again in a long, creaking exhale as he did just that, hips blanching from how hard they pushed into your ass until he was done. Namjoon’s weight fell onto you completely as he took time to recover himself. 

Eventually he came away enough and your hair slid free from his fingers, falling across the sweating span of your shoulders. The room air washed across your skin, giving much needed air a chance to cool you off. 

You laid there until your eyes opened, then turned your face the other way, barely spotting one of Namjoon’s naked palms digging into the mattress near your head.

He leaned down enough to look into your eyes. The bridge of his nose was glittery. His temples and brow fared the same but Namjoon didn’t seem to notice. 

Instead he offered a pleased grin. Both dark browns rose. “Still with me, Y/n? Here..look at me.” 

Right now doing that took every ounce of energy you could muster. And that wasn’t much. Your ass clenched with the occasional aftershocks in your pussy. As your hips shifted you felt the dampness under your mound. It was a sizable circle that spread almost wide enough to both hips. 

“I..” You licked your lips, then tried again. “...I..came.”

“Did you?” Namjoon winked. How he still had any ability to be upright was sending you right now. It must have looked like you’d been shot, the way you just posed there on the bed, boneless. Feeling weak and wasted. 

Dick drunk. The very definition.

Whatever his jealousy had inspired, Namjoon had done well above whatever he needed to do to prove himself to whatever his name was. You could barely remember anyone from hours ago, let alone the man he’d fixated on. Maybe that was how he’d wanted and planned it. 

Namjoon stripped your dress off your body and peeled the panties away. Seeing the soaked panel earned another laugh. 

“I love the mess you made..” He praised, bunching your panties up and brushing them over his nose and lips. A moment later he tossed them up the bed and your dress followed. Your heels rolled across the carpet, just in view off the bed. 

Namjoon’s body melted into the bed next to you and he rolled onto his side. You were still fairly helpless as hands found you and turned you over to one side, facing him. As you gazed at Namjoon from lids raised to a pathetic minimum, he watched your face.

And he did it for a long time. Long enough your blinks started to last longer and longer. Fatigue crawled into your mind, pushing out any thoughts and making conversation an impossible and unnecessary thing. By the placid expression you kept coming back to when you could open your eyes, Namjoon didn’t mind. In fact, maybe it was that he expected this result. 

When fingers traced your temple and stroked through your hair slowly, it sealed your fate. You yawned and it ended in a fitfully weak moan. 

Namjoon caught your hand against his chest and pulled it up to his lips, kissing the curled fingers, then opening them to lay your open palm against his cheek. 

“Mine.” He murmured. 

You nodded. Or it might have been a dream. But it felt so real. Like his kisses, each one following your nose down. He kissed you deep and slow, taking his time, letting his tongue explore your mouth for a little bit before he pulled back. 

Your tongue swabbed the wetness his kiss left behind as he drew you against his front and wrapped an arm over you in an unyielding hug that was a perfect fit. It was only Namjoon’s steadily slowing breathing that you heard. Not even your own registered as you inhaled him again.

Floating in sweet, heady nothingness, you stayed silent. He did the same.

It was the kind of night you dreamed about. The kind of world he’d opened to you: expensive sheets. Massive, spanning beds. Big spaces with glittering, clean furniture, more expensive than you could calculate. 

Sitting at the top of the world with a man who might as well own it–well on his way to doing just that. But all he really wanted was you. And if there was truly ever any doubt he could get you, it ended here. Tonight. If jealousy was a motivator for him, he used it as a tool like an expert at the craft. 

Let him want and covet. Let him desire and buy it all up. He had you lock and stock.  

Except when he mumbled in the dark, minutes later. 

“There’s no one else, Y/n.” 

You couldn’t say it, but you thought it. Distant hope was eternal that he’d hear you, even in your unfocused and fuck drunk state. 

There’s no ‘someone else’. It’s just you. Always.  

[shozaii]

title: too feisty.

genre: angst.

characters: dazai, chuuya, kunikida, akutagawa.

warnings: rough behavior, the boys arguing with you :(

request: hi, i could ask for scenarios and headcanons for dazai, chuuya, kunikida, akutagawa, when i have an argument with my s/o and they don't speak to each other for several days. how it is reconciled and after how many days. thank you very much☺️☺️☺️😉😉😌😌

(a/n): hewwooo anon! thank youuu so much for requesting!! i did my best writing this, so i hope you enjoy reading it! 

masterlist.

☆ d a z a i.

- arguing with dazai is like yelling into the void. he doesn’t really understand why you’re both going through this pain, the torture of the wrong emotions at a very wrong time - when in reality it was all supposed to be sunshine and rainbows. did you not see the sunshine in his eyes anymore? was he going to be left alone again? so many thoughts left his head, yet all he could do was listen to what you have to say.

- simple to say, he is quiet the entire time because he just doesn’t want you both to end up torn; worse, broken. he wouldn’t want to see you break, either. unable to express any of his feelings, he tends to stare at you with a thin line formed on his lips.

- it depends on what you’re arguing, really. if he knows it’s his fault, he obliges to it. if he’s just confused, his darkened gaze burns into you. he looks like he’s about to flip. instead, he huffs softly, walks up to you, and looks right at you for a bit.

- once he’s done looking at you, he leaves. he walks and walks to literally anywhere which would give him comfort. he looks up into the sky, and wonders just what he could do to become a better person. after all, it was all for you.

- shall no one come in between and take away one from the other.

- the silent treatment has gone as far as a week. dazai respects the time you need to be alone, even though he is tempted to initiate a conversation earlier than expected. the other arguments have lasted for at least 2-3 days. i wouldn’t see him asking for help from anyone - he wants to show you and himself that he has the capability of reaching himself out to you, owning up to his mistakes and reconcile. if it was you who returns first, his heart would literally shatter. 

- i feel like he would call you to come over to the favorite spot of yours, or maybe walk up to you one fine night, wrapping his arms around you, planting slow kisses on your neck. his way of apologizing is sometimes through affection, or touch. it’s like a reassurance that he’s going to be there for you, and he understands that arguments do happen once in a while. 

☆ c h u u y a.

- he might get really irritated. no cap. i have a feeling he might blow up on you just a little? but the irritation mostly comes from the moment the two of you start arguing. he clenches his fists a whole lot, might chew the inside of his lip, try not to look at you in the eyes because he might start tearing up too.

- oh he might go as far as to slamming his hands on the table, which would leave you taken aback by his actions. once he realizes what he did, he just crumbles because holy crap did he not want to see you panic. 

- chuuya doesn’t like silent treatment at all. i feel like he would have a fear of abandonment. the pre - port mafia days didn’t treat him right. at this point his heart is thumping hard because when you both begin the treatment, he knows he’s not going to go through this well. so how does he cope? wine. but he doesn’t go to a bar. it’s always from the stock he saves at home. he possibly never leaves the house, either - except for serious missions.

- he shakes when his comrades tell him to text you, so practically he would rather do it face to face. it seems way more better that way for him. this period lasts for about 2 days max. he can never go beyond that.

- cue him engulfing you into a warm cuddle sesh; it’s going to take a while for him to let go of you. he talks about how wrong he was, how he’s going to make it up for you - i feel like he would’ve gotten you something just in case. he’s just willing to spend tons for you i swear

☆ k u n i k i d a.

- i feel like one of his written ideals about you/arguments is him reminding himself that conversation is key. it doesn’t have to be any specific topics; it must be implemented in everything. i have a huge headcanon that kunikida tends to get nervous if he has to let out an opinion he never has put out about, until the very last minute where he has to decide his own fate - right or wrong?

- but nope, he’s not reserved. he would let you know exactly how does he feel during the argument, though he would never, ever try and raise his voice at you. let’s just say you accidentally raise your own, he wouldn’t be bothered by it either, and would maintain his composure.

- yes, he does get angry very easily. but when it comes to you his guard gets let down, and he is more of himself when it comes to conversations with you. fights are very rarely heated. 

- i think they do get pretty intense when he’s just so stressed out with work in general, worried if he could protect you during these trying times, paperwork maybe? or how you might take his job easily while he doesn’t. it doesn’t hit him at first but when he does realize that he screamed at you, his heart drops to his feet. the longest you have not talked to each other is for about a day.

- sometimes i forget that kunikida is younger than dazai. but anyway - if dazai notices kunikida’s sour face, and somehow dazai gets him to spit it all out. this would somehow give clarification to kunikida that his partner isn’t all that bad when it comes to advice. he would give pretty good ones and fulfil his role as a senior.

- when he apologizes he looks down at the floor, but slowly proceed to look up into your eyes if he realizes this is his opportunity to take. 10/10 would give you the smallest apologetic smile, and might even kneel while taking your hand. he’s just sooo in love with you aksjkdjkj

☆ a k u t a g a w a.

- hot-tempered. send tweet. 

- a little bit like chuuya to be honest. would bang his fists against a hard surface, stomp the floor, or crush any type of object he has in his hands. but never, ever expect him to use rashomon on you. having you in his life was more than a gift itself, so using his ability on you wouldn’t even be on the last things he would do.

- maybe when he does show his anger by banging and smashing things around, you would see a red glow which would cause you to back away or be afraid of him. this is his turning point. has he officially scared you already? was he bad? what did he look like in your eyes? what’s your next step?

- not talking to each other would probably last as long as a week? two weeks. it’s what i see. he gets scared of himself too, and might as well get a panic attack from what he has done to hurt his loved one. he’s always wanted you to be his first and last. would go to more missions to distract himself (and win most fights, but fail at forgetting about the argument you had). 

- in this case, it would take some time for him to loosen up and talk to someone about it. he might have done this once. only once, never repeated again because he’s just so embarrassed to do so. 

- aku would start the conversation. he’s lightly tap on your shoulder and might utter the words, “let’s talk” but tiny. as for affection, he would kiss your hand and look away, flushed. there would be this lil pout too, but at least you guys are one again.

(a/n): after a long time, here i am with a new fic for bsd!! i feel accomplished now UwU!! lemme know what you think!!🥰❤

[sidestone-urban-legends-old]

Sidestone is broken into two areas: the town and the forest. While most people live in the town, it’s not unusual for a few lost souls to live in the forest. Usually those who want to be left alone live in the woods, while those who are more social or lonely and want to fit in live in the town. 

Below you will find a detailed description of some areas that are important to the residents of Sidestone. 

A: Mundane Road

This road is named mundane because that’s what it is. To travel down this road means entering the world of the normal, or at least, what most humans on Earth consider normal.

This road is covered in thick mist. The closer to Sidestone you get, the thicker the mist, to the point where your hands are barely visible in front of your face. This is to keep the residents of Sidestone safe and keeps threats out.

Bless the people who actually manage to navigate the road and enter Sidestone without an invitation.

B: Nightmare Bridge

A creaky, old red bridge that crosses over Nightmare River. The holes in the bottom of the bridge trap the sounds of the roaring river below and make it sound like a thunderstorm on the inside.

Those who enter are spit back out the same side they’ve entered, meaning it’s hard for those outside to enter Sidestone, and those who come in are stuck in the town. The only way to safely make it across Nightmare Bridge is with the help of Thomas, who seems to always sense when there’s a visitor nearby.

C: Sidestone Square

During the day, this looks like just a pile of dirt. However, at night, the sky is lit with floating lanterns, and residents of Sidestone mingle together and converse about their daily lives. Calming grand piano music plays from somewhere, but no one knows from where.

In the center of the square is Spectrum Fountain. The water changes color during the night, making it a dazzling liquid rainbow display. If you stare in it long enough, your true self will stare back.

Festivals are often held in the square, the biggest one being The Autumn Festival. Candy, cakes, and pastries made special for the holidays are often available for anyone to enjoy, and games that capture the spirit of the holiday are scattered throughout.

D: Sidestone Town Hall

This is where Thomas takes all the new residents so that they can get registered to live in Sidestone. The building itself only operates when Thomas is inside, and should you enter when he’s not there, it’s an abandoned ghost building, literally. Better watch your step.

If you are simply visiting Sidestone, you will get a special bracelet that lets the other inhabitants know you are under the protection of Thomas himself and are not to be harmed. Only the wearer or Thomas can remove it. Do not take it off.

This is also where you can go to seek help, whether it be a rowdy neighbor or trouble outside of Sidestone. After all, those who enter Sidestone become part of the family, and family means no one gets left behind.

E: Sidetown

This is the living area of most of the residents of Sidestone, unless they choose to live in the hotel, of course. Most natives to Sidestone will refer to this area as Dead End Lane, because the pathways are surrounded by a high wall, and there’s only one way in and out.

Most of the homes are designed to accommodate their specific inhabitants, so inside the homes may vary. Some have large pools, while others dig under the ground. They all come in various colors, and some even change colors depending on the position of the sun.

For some reason, all the house numbers start with 8.

F: Mom’s

If you’re hungry, Mom’s is the place to go. Hosted by a woman that goes by the name of Mom, this is a restaurant, bakery, hot chocolate, tea, and coffee shop mixed into one. Most of the eating area is outside under a pavilion filled with comfortable seats and tables.

Inside, there are small, private areas for people to sit and relax in by yourself or with a friend. They are often filled with books and toys to stimulate or calm the mind, depending on what you desire.

All of the food and drinks inside are free of charge and all you can eat, so long as you are kind to all the guests who enter this safe space.

G: Stony Playground

The quirky name isn’t for show. All items in this playground are made of stone, from the smooth granite that makes the benches to the gravel that crunches under your feet. The park’s founder, Sarah, designed it to be made of stone in honor of their late wife, who she accidentally turned to stone many years ago. Her wife’s statue stands in the middle of the playground.

The playground features many things you would find on a playground, from slides to swings to a sandbox to a climbing set that towers three stories high. A merry-go-round plays cheerful music as the horses go round and round. 

H: Nightmare River

A winding river that splits the town in half, Nightmare River is the main source of Sidestone’s water supply. Don’t be fooled by its narrow appearance. The river itself is deeper than you can imagine. The main river leaves the town and disappears into Mindscape Forest, where it feeds Nightmare Lagoon with a fresh supply of water every day.

The river splits off and runs through the Sidestone Hotel then goes to an unknown area. Those who have survived being down this part of the river refuse to tell people where it leads, leaving it up to everyone’s imagination.

I: Sidestone Cemetery

Of course, all things have to die, but this cemetery isn’t like the others. This one is more of a memorial than a burial site. The stones that line the cemetery are all names of those who have called Sidestone their home. They are often filled with the names of residents who have been lost over the years, and if you mention their name to some of the older residents of the town, they’ll get rather sad.

However, should someone happen to perish inside of the town, there is a morgue toward the back of the cemetery for those who have passed. To raise the dead from here without permission is strictly forbidden. 

Memorial hours are every day from 9 to 10 pm.

J: Sidestone Hotel

A home for those who are just passing through or disappear from time to time but still visit the town frequent enough to need a place to stay. Run by one of the town’s oldest inhabitants, Cassie, this hotel is the perfect quiet place for travelers to rest their weary bones.

The hotel’s hallways are filled with webbed twists and sticky turns, making it easy for those inside to get lost if they’re not careful. If you do happen to get lost, seek the trail of spiders to guide your way. They are always running to Cassie, who is always in the lobby.

In the middle of the hotel is a lake fed by Nightmare River, offering a place to stay for those who prefer wetter conditions than a hotel room. The small pool of water also doubles as a swimming pool for residents who stay, though it’s swim at your own risk.

The hotel is thirteen floors high, but the doors won’t open on the seventh floor, and those who take the stairs are transported from sixth floor to the eight floor. Rumor has it the resident on that floor does not like to be disturbed.

K: Sidestone Library

Filled with rows and rows of books, the Sidestone Library has five layers and every book known to man. You can either read the books in the cozy reading area on the fifth floor or choose to take them home. All you have to do is find the librarian, Logan, and ask for a library card. 

Every afternoon at exactly 3am on the third floor, a violin will play to entertain guests who like to read to music. The music will be anything from lively to sorrowful, depending on the mood of its player. The music goes on for an hour, when it slowly fades into nothing, much like the person who plays the music. No one knows for sure who is playing the music because no one has ever found them.

L: Sidestone Park

A series of twisting paths that wrap around the center of the town, Sidestone Park is used by those who want to go for a casual stroll or sit in the grassy areas to relax. This is a lovely area to picnic in.

Be mindful of which path you take, for it’s easy to get lost, and it’s hard to find your way out again if you don’t know where you’re going.

M: Sidestone Hospital

For those who are injured accidentally or on purpose, Sidestone is trained to help anyone who enters its doors. While most of the town is inactive during the day, Sidestone Hospital runs 24 hours with a skeleton and ghost crew. The head of the hospital is Mara, a woman with a special talent for creative and often inhumane treatments.

For residents who desire more meaty meals, a cafeteria sits in the basement of the hospital. To enter requires a special key, as Mara doesn’t want to clean up the mess if someone who shouldn’t be there ends up on the wrong floor. She can’t use picked clean bones, after all.

The hospital has ten floors if you don’t count the three floors below the ground. The elevator takes you all the way to the top floor, which is often used to look over the whole town. Residents often go here to watch the full moon rise.

N: Sidestone Theater

A more recent addition to the town, the Sidestone Theater puts on a play for its residents every year on June 15. Mostly filled with volunteers, this three floored theater seats guests of all ages and sizes.

The leader of the theater is a new resident named Roman, who plays most of the main roles, and he is often accompanied by his good friend Janus, who can play practically any part.

The only rule of the theater is to remain quiet while the show is going on, unless you are encouraging the actors. It’s rude to talk during a performance, after all.

O: Sanders Manor

An old Victorian styled home at the mouth of the Mindscape Forest, Sanders Manor has been passed down in the family for generations. Its current owner, Thomas, is responsible for everything you see before you.

The home itself has 99 bedrooms, 24 bathrooms, a kitchen with cobwebs, a grand ball with no dancers, a never ending hall that seems to stretch farther than the house, an attic that makes horrific noises in the middle of the night, rooms that are completely upside down, and stairs that seem to lead nowhere. 

Only Thomas knows how to navigate the house, so it’s best to stay with him. You wouldn’t want to get lost in there, after all. He may never find you until it’s too late.

P: Line of Thought Pathways

A series of pathways that winds through Mindscape Forest and lead to Nightmare Beach and Nightmare Lagoon, this trail is only lit by the light of the sun or the moon. The path is long and winding, and it takes a whole day to walk around the whole thing if you stay focused. 

The path itself is made of dirt, and it sometimes disappears after a heavy rainstorm, so it’s a good idea to only travel the path once it’s able to regenerate itself. The pathways also change a lot, so be mindful to where you walk. Sometimes you can see the paths change before your very eyes.

Some mock pathways lead to dead ends, but these are not part of the trail at all. Be mindful if you step onto these tricky paths, for they will abandon you in the woods or lead you in a never ending circle.

If you stray from the path, don’t worry. If Patton takes a shining to you, he’ll gently lead you back to the path without going near you, but don’t thank him for his kindness.

Q: Mindscape Forest

A protective wood that surrounds Sidestone, the Mindscape is made with a thick redwood series of trees. The trees tower almost a mile high, and they are too thick for most people to see around. They are rumored to be over a thousand years old. Some are hallowed out and are turned into homes by its inhabitants, but they must ask the tree for permission to live there.

Those who don’t live in the town and prefer the solitude of a more private life, the residents of Mindscape Forest are as far from normal as you can get. Most choose to live just how they are and not blend into society. The residents themselves range from friendly to malicious, so it’s a good idea not to trust anyone who approaches you unless you know them personally.

Only enter the wood during the day if you don’t live there.

R: Nightmare Beach

A popular resting spot for those who prefer to bathe in the sun, Nightmare Beach is made of pure white sand and surrounds all of Nightmare Lagoon. The sand is always cool to the touch and is always soft. It’s perfect for making sculptures and castles. Just don’t bury anyone in it.

Sometime before the sun sets, there is a person that will sell you ice cream free of charge. They have any flavor you can think of, and they are usually a warning to residents that the sun is setting and it’s time to leave. Their name seems to change every day, but common beach goers refer to them as the Sugar Rush.

S: Nightmare Lagoon

A deep lake in the heart of the woods, Nightmare Lagoon is a bottomless lake that eats the water from Nightmare River. Many creatures inhabit the lake, but the most notorious is a quiet man named Remus, who protects the lake from anyone who should not be in the waters. 

The water seems to have a mind of its own and produces waves from seemingly nowhere. It’s always polite to ask before you enter the water. If the water accepts you, it will wave its water onto your feet. If not, it will recede, warning you if you enter that it will not be kind to you.

If the water likes you, its said that it will gift you a pearl from the dark depths that is more valuable than gold.

[novantinuum]

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: Teen Audiences (I have upped the rating in consideration of sensitive topics I aim to depict later on.)

Words: 6.4K~

Summary: In another world, he doesn’t have his mother’s sword or shield to hide behind when Bismuth lands her strike. The bubble pops.

Steven falls apart.

Chapter summary: In which history is written on the walls.

Some of my other fics have been showing up in the tags when I use the link post option, so I’m doing an experiment this time. Fingers crossed it shows! If you read this and enjoy, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3. Thank you! <3

____

Chapter 12: Beta, Part 3

Having long since heeded Ruby’s advice to take a mental break, Steven sits criss-cross with his back pressed against the hodgepodge aquarium. If you ask him, this position is a two-in-one miracle, allowing him both an unobstructed view of the doorway, and sparing him from the deep rooted horror of the creepy dismantled plush still floating an aimless arc through the tank. He loves Peridot to death, but good golly, this latest meep morp is deeply unsettling. He shudders at the mere thought of its water-logged stuffing oozing out from the seams, and then— inhaling deep through his nose— steers his focus back to the phone clasped tightly between his fidgety fingers.

Back to the story, you doofus.

With nothing better to do for the moment and a hyperactive mind to satiate, he’s finally started to read the Unfamiliar Familiar fanfic that Connie sent him a link to a few days before. True to her words, it’s super, super good. Well written, great characterization, and best of all, the author keeps throwing in hints of future romance between Lisa and Archimicarus! Considering that, he’s almost surprised Connie likes this fic so much. She’s normally not much of a shipper. To be fair though, romance definitely isn’t the point of the story. Instead, it’s an AU focused on the mystery of the main character’s origins.

He can’t help but let out a sympathetic sigh as— in chapter 5– Lisa tries to calmly explain to her fellow Stonehearth Coven members that somehow her father, the revered founder of the coven, used to be a prince of the wicked Arcane Court. Most of her once-close friends don’t swallow the news well. As a result, Lisa is left alone to seek the truth of her father’s past, with no allies except her trusted familiar at her side. Lip quivering, he presses his thumb solid against his phone’s screen for a while, as if yearning to reach a healing hand beyond the barrier between fiction and reality and let the young witch know she’s not alone, that he sees and supports her. He makes a mental note to thank Connie profusely for sending along this really good fic, and presses on to the next chapter.

He’s halfway to the end of it when Peridot returns.

For someone who appeared super frazzled by Lapis’s terror-struck outbursts the last time she stood at his side, she sure seems fit as a fiddle now, walking with a slight bounce in her step as she crosses past the fence line and onto the property. At least, he assumes she is. He can’t help but immediately doubt this assessment when she spots him sitting against the inner wall of the barn with that piercing focus of hers and bounds through the doorway like a Gem fleeing the apocalypse.

“Steven, Steven, Steven, Steven!” she cries as she runs to his side, flapping her arms urgently.

Practically tossing his phone to the ground to free his hands for combat, he leaps to his feet so fast that his head grows woozy. His rose-thorned shield shimmers into tangible existence in front of his barred fist.

“What, what is it?” he exclaims, the pounding of his heart devolving into an untamable cacophony as all his darkest fears rear their ugly heads at once. “Is- is it Lapis? Did she leave anyways?”

“Uh, no…?”

“Or, or, or- are we under attack?!”

“Steven, I—“

“Who’s here for me this time?” he blurts, grabbing his friend’s shoulders. “Is it Homeworld? Jasper? The Diamonds? Tell meeee!” he whines, roughly shaking her.

“I- No one? It’s no one!” Peridot exclaims when her head finally stops jostling back and forth under his force, waves of confusion coloring her expression. “I’m… just happy to be back?”

His cheeks burn red as he drinks in her obvious statement and eventually catches his breath. He lets go of her. “O-oh,” he stammers, willing the shield floating before him to disappear into glimmers of light and desperately wishing he could do the same at this precise moment of existence. “Okay. Glad to see you back! Did, uh… did you find Lapis?”

She nods in confirmation, but visibly deflates a little at the reminder of her roommate. “Yeah, she’s perched in a tree in the woods. She said she wanted some ‘alone time,’” she emphasizes with air quotes.

Steven clasps his fingers together in front of him as he lets this news sink in, digits tussling without end for the most comfortable alignment. Bleeding heart that he is, he hates the idea of letting anyone be alone, especially after a revelation this jarring, but he must admit that he himself found some comfort in solitude the night his human half took for the beach, inert diamond in hand. If anything else, it was nice to retreat from all the noise, to allow himself the opportunity to form his own opinions about the situation. Perhaps it’ll be beneficial for her, too.

“That’s understandable,” he says, glancing out the barn door towards the forest his friend is taking refuge in. “She’s been through a lot.”

He squats to pick up his phone from the floorboards then, frowning as he notices a fresh crack on the glass at the corner of the screen. Knowing that— despite his desperate desires— there’s nothing he can do to fix this right now, he shoves it in his pocket and pushes against his knees to stand up. The bottom of his shirt catches on his arm as he does so, briefly exposing the unfamiliar facets of his rotated gem. Peridot’s brows nearly shoot above the upper rim of her visor.

“So,” she begins, nodding towards his stomach. “Your gem.”

With a tired sigh, he tugs his shirt back down. Boy, does he already know where this conversation is heading, and boy, is he sick of having to walk everyone through it. “Yup,” he replies, popping the ‘p’ and getting ready to deploy the exasperated eye roll.

“All this time everyone thought you were a hybrid quartz, but now you’re telling me…”

“...that I’m actually a dia—“

“...that I, Peridot, certified Kindergartener, a skilled specialist on every variety of Gem to ever exist, was wrong??”

“Hold on, what?”

She holds her hand over the diamond emblazoned on her chest as she passionately continues, wholly oblivious to Steven’s bemusement. “I was the brightest Gem of my cut back on Homeworld, and yet somehow I mistook a perfectly formed diamond for a quartz! Ah, hahahah!” Eyes glinting with what he can only describe as a borderline feral energy, she moves to clutch at the sides of her head, thick tufts of lemon yellow spilling out from between her fingers. “Oh, my stars. I’ve lost my touch!”

“Wait, who’s out of touch?” Ruby’s curious voice chimes from nearby. Overjoyed to see her again, Steven whirls to face her with a huge grin as she enters the barn and lounges against one of the support beams, propping a hand on her hip.

“I- it’s nothing important,” Peridot mutters, flushing as she smooths her hair back into place.

Immediately making note of the hint of shame dancing across her features, he nods. “Yeah, we were just chit-chatting! Hey, how’s Amethyst doing, though? You went to talk to her, right?”

Ruby huffs in frustration at the mention of the quartz Gem, grinding her boots against the floor so hard that for a second he’s genuinely concerned she might spark a fire under her very feet. “Tried to. But then she slashed her whip towards me and said I couldn’t help her, so ‘go away!’” she exclaims, throwing her arms in the air. “Can you believe it? I’m trying to provide some love and support, and she, she just- tells me to scram!”

“Aw, that’s not very nice,” he says with a frown, feeling his heart pulse in sympathy as she begins to pace back and forth across the wooden slats, grumbling under her breath.

“What’s her problem today, anyways?” Peridot asks, crossing her arms. “She’s usually much more amicable.”

Steven nibbles at the inside of his lip as he considers the concerning downward trajectory of Amethyst’s recent behavior. Sure, she can sometimes get snippy when she’s in a bad place, but this past week her outward attitude has built into a continuous problem. He himself has been on the receiving end of her acerbic words more than a few times, such as that afternoon they goaded each other into a duel at the Sky Arena, and that barbed retort she pierced him with at the fountain. Then there’s her fight with Pearl, her resulting emotional seclusion, today’s callous treatment of Peridot, Lapis, Ruby…

He desperately wishes he could pin all the blame for this on a single person, a single event, (because oh, wouldn’t that make his life so much easier), but when he tracks the evidence of her unrest it becomes blindingly clear that her problems began long before Rose’s betrayal was revealed.

“Well, beyond all the, uh… latest stuff, she’s been super insecure about Jasper,” he offers. Rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet with his flip flops rhythmically clapping against his heels, he rummages his brain for the easiest way to explain the root of the situation. “Basically, Jasper took Amethyst out in a fight a week ago, and ever since that she’s been training super hard a whole lot. I think she’s desperate for a rematch, to prove she’s good enough.”

“Wait, wait, wait—“ The green Gem holds her hands out, palms open. “You’re telling me she’s got an inferiority complex about Jasper? With where she came from?” She lets out a raucous peel of laughter, holding her sides. “Oh Amethyst! That’s ridiculous! She was made way better than that clod.”

He squints at her inquisitively, crossing his arms as he tries to make sense of the interesting new conversation thread that just flowed out of her mouth. “But what do you mean, where she came from? Isn’t she from Homeworld, like you?”

Ruby freezes in place upon hearing this question, clear worry threaded through her creased browline. Her mouth bobs open as if she’s gearing up to answer his question, but amidst her hesitation— a timidness that, the more he thinks about it, is bizarrely out of place from the bold, confident Gem Steven’s gotten to know from all the other times Garnet’s unfused— Peridot beats her to the charge.

“Pfft, are you kidding? She emerged right here from Earth, and not even from its good kindergarten!”

He slams his hands against his cheeks, internally reeling from this revelation. “There’s other kindergartens?”

“Well, sure! There was supposed to be one in every facet. Until the rebellion put a swift end to the Diamonds’ colonization efforts, that is,” she adds quickly, adjusting her visor. “There’s Amethyst’s Prime Kindergarten in Facet Five, but there’s also the Beta Kindergarten in Facet Nine. And that piece of work is where Jasper was made… poorly!” Giggling in excitement, she rapidly shuffles her feet beneath her. The glimmer of light reflected in her eyes is bright enough to rival a distant star. “You guys have to see it!”

Steven balls up his hand at his chin, deliberating. He has to admit, after the recent emotional upheaval that he now can’t help but associate with this place, he really likes the idea of spending time somewhere other than the barn.

“Huh. Might be worth asking if she wants to check it out,” he says with a shrug. “Ruby, you in?”

The Gem in question nibbles at the corner of her lip, humming low under her breath as she considers his offer. A small bead of sweat hangs above her brow. Sporting a good natured grin, he nudges her in the side with his elbow, hoping he can cheer her up a bit.

“A little more time with your favorite Steven and Peri? Eh? Come on, you know you wanna!”

“Do it, do it!” Peridot chimes in, pumping her fists up and down.

He eagerly joins in with her rallying cry, and in no time at all they’re both circling around their friend chanting those very words. Ruby stands center with her arms crossed and her back erect, desperately trying not to break her stoic facade with a smile. It’s ultimately futile, of course. After all, no one can resist the good ol’ Universe charm forever!

“All right, fine, fine, I’ll come,” she finally acquiesces, and with a smirk, plants both her hands on her hips. “After all, someone’s gotta keep an eye on all you trouble makers!”

Now that Ruby’s officially on board, the trio ventures outside to find Amethyst, Steven and Peridot giggling as they begin to skip around the perimeter of the barn side by side, arms linked together. Brushing a few flyaway curls out of his face amidst the comforting breeze, he glances over his shoulder when they reach the first corner to make sure they’re not leaving their friend in the dust. And thankfully she’s right on their tail, but he can’t help but notice her enthusiasm seems muted. He presses his lips together in concern. Does she not want to go with them? Is he only forcing her into this? His stomach twists with guilt as he ponders this quandary further. It’s not his intention to be pushy, but maybe— between coercing Amethyst to take a break and accompany him to the barn, begging Lapis to stay, and now, nudging Ruby to come to the Kindergarten— he’s only being selfish and manipulative about all this. He thought he was bringing people together, but what if he’s wrong? What if he’s only straining relationships, tainting the already tense atmosphere, making everything worse?

(What if this is the same sort of excuse his mom Rose used to make?)

With Amethyst slashing her whip at a few old rusted cans in the clearing before them, however, there’s no time to waste drowning within what-ifs. It’s like that day he learned about Garnet’s future vision for the first time: if he lets himself get tangled up in the possibilities he’ll never truly live. He sighs under his breath, lips pursed. Of course. Garnet’s right even when she isn’t here. As much as he’d love to go crazy psychoanalyzing the impact of every solitary step he makes, at this point he’s made his choices and whatever happens, happens. It’s time to live now.

Initially, the purple Gem is rather indignant at the idea that the three of them were gossiping about her behind her back— eyes clouded with hurt— but once Peridot explains that the point of their proposed Kindergarten field trip is to check out Jasper’s no-doubt lame hole, she blinks away her bitterness and seems to eagerly climb aboard.

“Sure, why not? ‘S not like there’s anything more fun than roasting your enemies.”

“I strongly agree,” Peridot says, nodding with pride.

But before the newly expanded Shorty Squad can begin their journey, there’s something Steven really needs to address. Something that’s been troubling him all day. Nervous butterflies filling his stomach, he leans up close to his sibling-in-crime and whispers so the others don’t hear:

“Amethyst, can I talk to you for a bit before we leave?”

Her expression curdles, but thankfully, unlike in Ruby’s unfortunate account, she doesn’t make a move towards her whip to push him away. Instead, she meets him with a gaze so hardened and difficult to read that his eyes can’t help but drift away, perhaps a little intimidated by the intensity of this contact.

“Yeah, I guess,” she mutters eventually. She flicks her wrist up at the other two, gesturing for them to get a move on. “Go on ahead. We’ll catch up.”

Ruby and Peridot nod, the red Gem with a good deal more sympathy drawn on her face, (but for him or Amethyst?), and promptly set off towards the warp pad. He continues to watch until they disappear beyond the curve of the grassy hillside, both conversing comfortably. The last he hears before the warp shoots its cyan stream of light into the sky is a hooting laugh from Ruby. Despite how non-ideal this visit has been so far, he can’t help the smile stretching across his cheeks, or how his chest grows all warm and fuzzy. It’s really nice to see Peridot getting along so well with the others now. She’s made such huge strides in the past few months.

Something metallic clangs behind him. Flinching, Steven whirls around. A crumpled, abused soda can lays overturned by the side of the barn. Amethyst— arms crossed tight just under her gem and her hair more spiked and untamed than usual— glares at that poor hunk of tin as if it’s solely to blame for all of this galaxy’s problems. She moves to lean against the barn’s outer wall and peers at him expectantly, like a troubled child expecting judgement from a parental figure.

“So. You wanted to talk,” she says, tone clipped.

“I… wanted to be honest,” he mutters, threading his fingers together as he grasps for how best to word this. “Amethyst… I know you’ve been going through some hard stuff lately. I know everything that’s happened in the past few days doesn’t help. But you’ve been so inconsiderate of like, everyone here.” He swings his arm in a wide gesture towards the barn. “Peridot and Lapis didn’t deserve the way you treated them earlier.”

No response.

Steven frowns, and— a glimmer of quiet frustration bubbling deep within him, the sort he’d never admit to out loud but can’t help but harbor whenever he catches wind of small injustices that he can never seem to fix— scratches an burgeoning itch at the nape of his neck. He… oh stars, he’s going about this completely wrong, isn’t he? He’s being too confrontational. Hmm. Maybe he should try a new angle. Time for take two.

“I know you only acted that way because you’re hurting and don’t wanna think about it,” he continues, “but please, you don’t have to box your emotions away like that. I wanna help. I wanna listen.”

Slowly, gently, he moves to place a hand on her shoulder. It feels like a small victory when she doesn’t shift upon his touch.

“Believe me, you’re not alone in feeling this way.”

Again, nothing. She’s not even looking at him right now, and her jaw’s locked. Even her form feels tense under his fingers, with hard light pulsing back and forth under her illusory skin at an alarmingly unusual pace.

He sighs, gaze dropping towards the ground, towards the battered can she kicked aside earlier. “I’m worried, y’know? But... I understand if you’re not ready to talk… about Jasper, and—“

“Oh, hoh! That’s rich!” she explodes suddenly, jerking her arm away. “You seriously wanna bury your head in the sand and pretend this is just about Jasper?”

He tiptoes away from her rush of anger, eyes growing puffy. “I—“

“You wanna know how I feel, Steven? About your mom, and the whole awful mess she made? Do you really? ‘Cause I don’t have a single CLUE what I should feel anymore!”

Amethyst pauses for breath amidst her tirade, briefly locking sight with him with a glimmer of hurt reflected in her violet irises, showing that deep underneath all those twisted layers of anger and resentment she’s just another scared, abandoned Gem like him.

“Rose was everything to me, okay?” she says, throwing her palms wide for emphasis. “And all this time, I thought she was the one Crystal Gem who could be real with me. The only one who wouldn’t sugarcoat things or treat me like a baby. ‘Oh, you’re perfect the way you are, Amethyst!’” she coos in a fake, silky-sweet voice, cupping her cheeks as she openly mocks the very Gem who gave her life so he could exist. “You’re such a strong little quartz, you mean so much to me!’ Hah!”

She pauses to force a bitter laugh, clenching her hands into insufferably tight fists.

“And wasn’t that just a huge load of silt,” she spits, staring off into the rosy distance as if it were but a cruel mirage, the pain more than evident in the taut features of her face. “All along I thought she was this great, faultless person, just like you did. Except she wasn’t. She’s a liar, like everyone else. I’m worthless, just like Jasper said… and Rose knew it.”

Hesitantly, compassionately— heart breaking for the internal struggle she’s caught within, a struggle he intimately relates to—  he tries once more to reach out in comfort.

“Amethyst…”

She sniffles, wiping away the leaking fluid pooling at the corners of her eyes.

(She does not, however, brush him away this time when he wraps his arms around her torso and nestles his head against her chest.)

“Just— forget it, okay?” she says after a quiet moment’s embrace, gently stepping back from his affection. “It’s whatever. Come on, Peridot and Ruby are waiting for us. Let’s dump this joint.”

__________

Ruby quietly shuffles across the loose soil, directing her eyes as low to the ground as possible to avoid having to stare at the Beta Kindergarten’s steep cliff walls. Red sandstone, Peridot proclaims a few feet away to their newly arrived sightseers, whirling in place with her arms extended wide. We’re lucky this place hasn’t blown away. Beta, am I right?

Steven manages a soft laugh at this. Amethyst continues onward with her arms crossed, unimpressed. But Ruby herself? Well, she’s the only Gem here who can say she crossed this infamous swath of sedimentary rock at its very beginning, on the day of emergence. The others may choose to laugh about how soft and unideal the soaring sandstone cliffs are, or about the uneven exit holes and curved walls, but in her opinion it’s no laughing matter. She’s seen firsthand how deadly even a so-called ‘imperfect’ Homeworld soldier can be. Even Garnet barely escaped with her gems intact.

Nervously flexing her fingers at her side as she tries not to dwell on that tragedy, she flashes her gaze upward, daring to catch even a passing glimpse of the top of the vast canyon. In an instant her vision swims with endless pillars of rusty oranges and reds.

Everything on this planet might as well tower over her without Sapphire. The once-welcoming arms of their temple? Monolithic. The vaulted ceilings of the beach house? Her eidetic memory can’t help but remind her of her early days spent marching through Homeworld’s diamond sized hallways with the rest of her squadron, patrolling the same route for well over five hundred cycles straight. The kicker? The Diamonds never had any reason to visit the shipment sector in person, anyways. The hallways were only constructed with such high ceilings to remind any Gem passing through of their rightful place under the Authority.

Over two hundred years, she adhered to their twisted rhetoric. Two hundred years of allowing everyone and everything around her to make her feel small, like she only existed for a singular purpose. Two hundred years of ignoring the tug of dissatisfaction at the core of her gem because of the misplaced belief that orderly subjugation under the Diamonds was simply the rightful pattern of existence. Then, in a beautiful bloom of light… she caught a glimpse of true freedom. And for the five thousand seven hundred years after that, Garnet didn’t feel quite so small anymore. She felt capable, confident, satisfied. Aided by Ruby’s physical strength and Sapphire’s future vision, she finally dared to challenge Homeworld’s rhetoric. She dared to live for herself.

Sighing under her breath, Ruby touches her fingers to the place in her right palm where her missing gem is, tracing the triangular shape of its illusory facets.

There’s no use arguing; Garnet was a better Crystal Gem than she can ever hope to be on her own. And now, because Rose just had to go and manipulate all of them, there’s a strong chance she’ll never get to be Garnet with her Sapphy ever again. Which means that until further notice, she’s stuck like this: short, stubby, and woefully insecure. Hah! Figures. All those years spent fighting against Homeworld’s warped notion that Gems had stagnant purposes and couldn’t grow beyond their stations, and now it’s as if she’s been dumped back at the beginning, like the past five millennia never happened.

It’s a cruel irony.

And yet it’s no crueler than this awful place: a cradle of birth manufactured as a tool of war, a Gem’s very existence leeching the life out of this once-fertile ground. The scars on the walls tell a mournful story, and as Ruby slowly trudges after her loved ones, fingers numb and fidgety in the wake of haunted disorientation, she can’t help but wish she wasn’t present for its prologue.

“Ruby…?”

Her sight trains on one of the tilted exit holes closest to ground level, on the messy silhouette it provides. She remembers this one, in fact, Garnet watched her emerge. She was a carnelian. By Homeworld’s standards, an imperfect one. That doesn’t matter, though. None of Homeworld’s lies matter. Running on nothing but the primary orders she was incubated with, (it wasn’t her fault, it was the Diamonds’, she reminds herself with a bitter growl), that Gem still emerged to poof three fellow rebels on sight. If Garnet hadn’t been so quick to retrieve their gemstones, they might have been shattered that day. Many of the others assigned to her squadron weren’t as lucky. Inhaling shakily, Ruby pauses to trace her fingers across a raised ridge in the rough, brittle sandstone.

“Hey, Ruby!” his energetic voice calls again, snapping her out of her intense focus like a fusion splitting in half.

“Aaaah!” she cries, swinging around and pulling both fists up in defense. Her hands uncoil rapidly once she catches a glimpse of that cheery yellow star.

Aw, scrap! she chides herself, repositioning her feet solid on the ground to regain some sense of internal balance. Damned startle reflex.

Unfazed, Steven grins boyishly, skipping a few steps away from the rest of the group to join her by the cliff wall. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Amethyst and Peridot are watching now too, she realizes, her brief but audible outburst thoroughly diverting their attention from their Beta Kindergarten roast session. Their quizzical glances pin her in place, her hard-light form heating in embarrassment as she struggles to organize the flow of her emotions in a way that might make sense to anyone beyond a fellow ruby. She scrunches up her nose and considers her next words carefully, attempting to strike the proper boundary between what is and isn’t appropriate to say in front of a half-human child. Stars knows Amethyst, Pearl, and herself haven’t had a great record with that over the past few days.

“Just thinkin’ about Sapphire, mostly,” she admits, offering him a saddened shrug. “Can’t seem to stop that, even half a world away.”

“Speaking of that... Why did you run after us?” Amethyst asks in a notably less cranky manner than earlier, lightly kicking at the dirt with the toes of her booties. “You never said.”

“Y’know, I…” She pauses, pressing her hand to her chin. “I’m not sure. I spent days waiting in front of the temple door. And eventually, I guess I figured that if she’s gonna make me wait no matter what, I might as well do something with myself until then. ‘Sides, I didn’t want to be lonely,” she adds, suddenly feeling just as small and vulnerable in front of all of them as her timid voice sounds.

She felt lonely enough when she ran away from home a few days ago, tears streaming in messy rivulets down her face, utterly spurning their attempts at comfort so she could pretend she was anything else than powerless amidst this nightmare. She never wanted to split, not at all. She begged Sapphire to give their relationship another chance, to believe in the strength of their love more than the fear of a diamond’s control, but tragically, her partner couldn’t hold up under the pressure. If one individual doesn’t wholeheartedly want to be Garnet, then Garnet cannot exist. They can’t synchronize. It’s simply the nature of fusion. And given her love’s avoidance, refusing to so much as leave her room to begin with, Ruby’s beginning to lose hope that their fusion will ever exist again. The crippling isolation that realization affords is the worst form of loneliness she can imagine.

Thus, the least she can do at the moment to mitigate these all-consuming feelings is to get off her butt, leave the temple, and ensure she’s surrounded by loved ones.

Peridot steeples her fingers together in front of her chest. “Well, what if you moved in with us?” she offers in a meek tone at first, her expression brightening as she continues to explain her idea. “The barn’s got plenty of room, and with two roommates you’d never have to feel lonely again!”

Steven’s dark irises practically sparkle. “Aww, Peridot, that’s super sweet of you to offer!”

“Wow, thanks,” she replies earnestly, puffing out her chest in a rush of personal pride. “I do try!”

“Yeah!” Ruby says with a hesitant laugh, scratching at the back of her neck. “That sounds amazing, but…”

“You should do it, Ruby!” he encourages, bouncing up and down on his sandaled feet amidst his excitement. “You should totally move in with them!”

“D’ya… d’ya really think so?”

“Yeah! It’d be like your very own vacation, but you’d only be a warp away!”

“And you’re sure you’d be fine with it? Y’know, with everything at home all…” She blows a juicy raspberry, jabbing her thumb down.

Amethyst serves her a big shrug. “I ain’t got a problem. Go crazy.”

“There’s no need to worry about me,” Steven says, smiling evenly. “I only want what’s best for you. And if you think not staying in the temple all the time would make you feel better, you should give it a try!”

Her concerned glance drops on the young half-Gem. Sure, it’s very compassionate of him, actively choosing to care so deeply for everyone’s emotional needs all the time, but home life for him hasn’t exactly been nurturing and hospitable lately. He already lost one of his pillars of stability when Garnet unfused. Pearl and Amethyst are at each other’s necks again. Sapphire hasn’t emerged from her room for days. Greg’s… doing whatever it is Greg does when he’s not hanging out with his son, probably keeping his distance from Gem business as usual. So with all that in mind, even if temporarily living apart from Sapphire is sure to be a beneficial move for her personal well-being and sanity, is now actually the proper time to consider a change in scenery? She purses her lips.

“I’ll think about it.”

Peridot lets out a sharp squeal of delight, apparently ecstatic about the prospect of possibly gaining a new roommate. Ruby can’t help but grin at this response. In truth, if she didn’t have to consider the well-being of Steven and the rest of the Crystal Gems, she’d say yes in a heartbeat. After all, she’s never gotten the opportunity to make many decisions on her own. Heck, she’s never gotten the opportunity to do much of anything on her own. Every time she’s unfused within the last five thousand years, her priorities have always been about what Sapphire would want, what Sapphire would do.

Well, what about Ruby, this time? Aren’t her desires important? What does she want?

Long term… she has no clue. But right now? She’d prefer to avoid dire reminders of old sorrows at all costs, thank you. So when Peridot declares that she’s 99.9% positive she’s found Jasper’s exit hole, Ruby declines to join them in their roast session. She never came here for sightseeing, anyways. She came here as their lookout. Just in case. She’s never trusted this awful tear in the ground one bit, and she’s not about to start now.

Running instinctively on old programming she was incubated with, she creeps deeper between the narrow mouth of the cliffs and summons her gauntlets at her side. Sure, so maybe they’re not as daunting in their size as Garnet’s, but they can still pack one heck of a punch. She’s still good at punching on her own, yeah? Hopefully? Stars, it’s been so long since she’s gone solo for more than a few measly hours.

And then, at the cliff base in front of her, she spots the most unusual exit hole she’s seen in this miserable canyon yet. For one, it’s low to the ground, like Amethyst’s. That fact alone is enough to set off alarm bells in her head. On top of that, its silhouette is almost comically wide and indistinct, not resembling any cut of Gem she’s aware of.

“Huh. That’s different,” she murmurs, pacing closer to investigate.

Maybe an off-color topaz could punch a hole as wide as this? But… no, no. That can’t be right. Hard light coursing wildly through her form, Ruby dissipates one of her gauntlets and runs the tips of her fingers across the crumbly inside surface of this hole. A few granules of sandstone break off upon her touch and clatter against the ground, and she jerks her hand away as if touching impossibly cold ice. Something about this feels... wrong. To be fair, she’s no expert kindergartener like Peridot, but she’s pretty confident the interior of exit holes should be smooth, with striated rock layers extending all the way back. Instead, this bizarre scar in the cliffs almost seems like—

“It’s dug out,” she says, eyes widening in dawning horror.

Which means they may not be alone in this rusted relic of a Kindergarten after all.

Her body suddenly feeling staticky and unbalanced amidst all this damning uncertainty, she tiptoes away from this mysterious feature, slowly at first, and then— as the fear begins to bubble up within her core like boiling water transformed under her power— transitioning into a sprint. We’re not alone, she repeats to herself in a harried mantra. Not alone. Not alone, we’re not alone, we’re—

Ruby’s foot catches on an uneven lip of stone jutting up from the ground, and she quickly plows headfirst into the coarse dirt, promptly ending her terror-stricken flight.

“Ow,” she whines as she recovers from this fall, rubbing at the side of her head. Not only is she a little dizzy, but her surroundings are made further hazy amidst the overbearing sunlight pounding indiscriminately upon the ground floor of this canyon. It’s enough disorientation to allow the jumbled code of her gem to begin to play tricks on her. For one, she swears she can hear this low, timid skittering, like thick claws rhythmically scraping against rock. Second, she’s half-convinced she can feel a surplus of physical vibrations radiating from the cliffs surrounding her. Squinting, she shields her eyes under a raised arm so she can begin to gain her bearings again. The blinding light recedes.

The red Gem gulps fearfully amidst the burning colors of the harsh sandstone landscape. “Wait, is that—“

She’s stumbled her way into a massive clearing, lined on all sides by stacked rows of holes physically dug into the sheer walls. Each opening is barred by a number of thick metal rods, stripped from the legs of the injectors that once incubated this hell in the first place. The thoughtful engineering imbued in this setup is impressive and terrifying all at once. Ignoring the tangible tug of hesitation at her core, she pushes herself back on her feet and creeps towards the closest cage to investigate further.

“Uh, you guys?” she calls loudly as she walks, the unusual curves of this canyon an undisputed blessing as they carry her message back to the others.

“Yeah?” Amethyst chimes back, her voice notably distant. Too distant.

“We’ve got, um—” her hand glides across one of the bent, rusty bars— “a bit of a problem here?”

“What?? Speak louder, we can’t hear you!”

Before she can even prepare to reply, a fur-covered monstrous creature leaps from the shadowy abyss of its prison and snaps its tusks at her. She yells, jerking her hand away from the cage and stumbling a few feet back. Her brow creases in abject confusion as she attempts to process what she’s seeing in front of her. It’s… it’s a corrupted Gem? This one’s most definitely a quartz; she recognizes the faceting, as well as the distinctive fur-covered quadrupedal shape of its corrupted form. But why on Earth is it being trapped within a cage in the middle of a defunct kindergarten instead of being placed in a bubble’s comforting stasis? The ground beneath her feet grows noticeably warmer as a rush of impassioned anger surges through her hard light form. She grinds her teeth together, flexing her fists at her side in the name of this cruel injustice. Caging isn’t part of Crystal Gem protocol for a reason!

Unfortunately, the horror show continues as her gaze passes over each and every cage in this clearing, finding scared, thrashing, corrupted Gems in almost all of them. Fluid builds up at the corner of her eyes as they scream and wail at her, riding a fresh wave of cacophony spurned by that Gem she spooked just a moment ago. How could anyone ever build such an awful place? And why?

Heavy, assured footfalls suddenly bounce across the acoustically encouraging slopes and surfaces of this ravine, magnified tenfold in their wake. Ruby gasps, wasting no time in ducking behind a tall rocky formation at the mouth of the clearing. That’s definitely not Amethyst or any of the others. It sounds too large, too bulky. She kneels low so she can still peek over the topmost layer of sandstone, a knot of dread coiling within as the footfalls continue to grow louder. Groaning, she clutches at her head. The unknown, the impenetrable shadow of the future… stars, it haunts her more than loneliness itself.

And then, the specter of her history reveals herself, making Ruby’s tangible form stutter in the sheer terror her appearance affords.

Jasper— her opponent, her nightmare, the Rebel Slayer herself— emerges from a plume of rising dust at the edge of this populous arena and enters the game.

[broccoliboix5peepeeman]

I don’t know if you know the Ghibli movie Arrietty, but could I request a tddk fic with that AU (with Izuku as a borrower and Todoroki as a human)?

Gosh, this took so long to answer, I’m sorry! I went a bit off plot from the original film, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless!

I also wanted to shout out this tddk Arrietty AU fic on AO3! It’s on my to-reads and looks awesome! :)

Ever since he arrived at his mum's, Shoto spent almost all of his time outdoors.

When he had been staying with his father, going outside had been a rarity in itself. Shoto had rheumatic fever on top of several heart conditions after all, so most of the time he was busy with treatments. Travelling to and from the hospital had been the only time he ever got to experience the sun and even then, it was only ever fleeting. Other than that, whenever he would ask his old man, the response had always been the same.

"No, you need to get stronger before I allow you such luxuries."

Now that he was staying at his mum's though, things were different. His mum made sure he got all the care he needed, but she was far less controlling than his father had been.

That wasn't the only thing that was different though.

His mum's house was a special place.

Little people lived there!

The first time he had spotted one had been an accident. Shoto had been in bed trying and failing to fall asleep. Several hours had passed before he eventually gave up and opened his eyes to stare out into the room, which was illuminated by the moon outside. He didn’t like closed curtains. However, the moment his vision focused on his bedside table, he suddenly spotted him: a small person in the process of removing a tissue from its box.

He was incredibly small, no bigger than a few inches, and when he froze in place, his silhouette directly facing Shoto, the latter knew he wasn’t hallucinating.

'Don't be afraid.' Shoto’s voice was hoarse from lack of use. Despite his words though, he was met with silence. He stared at the figure, waiting, then all of a sudden the person jumped off the tissue box and out of sight, dropping a sugar cube in his rush to hide.

Shoto shot up in bed then, searching. 'Wait! Don't go… My mum used to see little people here too when she was little. Was it you she saw?'

He never got a response, but Shoto kept waiting anyway. The next day, he had left out a small note underneath the sugar cube that the small person had dropped, hoping he would return.

"You forgot this." The note had said, but nevertheless, the days went by and no one came to retrieve it. Shoto had been disappointed, but deep down he understood - no one ever wanted to talk to the sick child with the ugly birthmark on his face, why would this person be any different?

Instead of dropping it like he would usually though, Shoto remained persistent. After all, he didn't know how long he had left in the world and something about this new mystery in his life drove him to keep going.

Then one day, he finally came.

Admittedly, it had initially been to tell Shoto to leave his family alone, but he didn't like to focus on the semantics.

Shoto had been laying in his mum's garden, reading a book whilst their cat, Smudge, napped on his stomach. It had been a tiring day of pre-operative appointments in preparation for his operation next week, and he looked forward to spending the rest of the afternoon relishing in the smell of the flowers around him and the way the sun’s rays caressed his skin.

Shoto had just finished the twelfth chapter of his novel when he felt it. He didn't know what it was exactly, but something told Shoto that he wasn't alone anymore.

'You finally came back.' He stared up at the sky, watching the clouds shift across the blue hues.

'You need to leave my family alone.' A small voice answered. 'We're not supposed to be seen by human beans. It makes us vulnerable.'

'I won't hurt you.' Shoto told him, puzzled.

'You might not, but others might! Some human beans can be very cruel.'

Shoto thought about the little person's words and immediately thought of his father; the way he used to treat him and his siblings, even before his condition manifested.

'They can be cruel, yes.' Shoto closed his book and placed it on the grass so he could rub his palms against his eyes. ‘But I’m not.’ He paused. ‘Well, I don’t think I am anyway… I don’t want to be.’

The little person seemed to consider his words.

‘No, I don’t think you’re a cruel person.’ He agreed. ‘In fact, I think you’re actually a kind person. You discovered me, a Borrower in your home, and you didn’t immediately try to harm me. In fact, you tried to give my family gifts.’

A Borrower...

‘You saw those?’ Shoto asked, albeit his weakened heart fluttered at the compliment and he felt himself blush. ‘Why didn’t you take them then?’

‘My father told me not to in case it was a trap. He’s one of the greatest Borrowers out there and has never been caught ever! He once fought off a pack of rats and only came back with a scratch on his stomach!’

Shoto heard the way the Borrower spoke about his father, the pride in his voice and his deep admiration, and felt envious.

‘He sounds like quite the man.’ He breathed, lip wobbling.

‘He is.’ Came the response, albeit the little person seemed to sense the sadness in Shoto’s voice and didn’t elaborate further.

'Do you have a name?' Shoto finally asked after several moments of silence.

'What-' The Borrower spluttered. 'O- Of course I have a name!'

'Can you tell me?'

Shoto waited patiently as the seconds passed. He could understand the Borrower’s apprehension, even if it was unnecessary, so he didn’t want to press.

'Izuku.' He eventually replied. ‘My name is Izuku.’

Shoto couldn't help but smile.

'Izuku.' He repeated, testing the name on his lips. 'I'm Shoto.'

‘Shoto. What a lovely name.’ He could hear the genuity in Izuku’s voice and, for some reason, suddenly found that he also liked his name when the Borrower was the one saying it.

‘My mum chose it.’ Shoto felt he should add, eliciting a hum from Izuku. He then stared up at the sky, the clouds slowly clearing, and contemplated his next question. 'Can I… Can I look at you, Izuku?'

He heard a surprised gasp from behind him, followed by shuffling. Shoto almost thought the Borrower had fled, but before he could start to wallow in self-pity, he suddenly received an affirming hum.

'O- Okay.'

Excitement found it's way into Shoto's frail heart and he gently removed Smudge from on top of him so he could roll over onto his stomach and face the Borrower, who stood so close that Shoto could practically see every detail clearly.

His breath hitched.

Izuku was the most handsome being Shoto had ever laid eyes on. He had a face full of minuscule freckles that were almost invisible against his rosy cheeks. They were also scattered all over his body, some likely hidden under his dark green clothes that matched his verdant hair, which looked as fluffy as wool. His eyes were also green, albeit they shone like emeralds, immediately entrancing Shoto. Despite his small frame, Izuku was also well-built, his bulging muscles evident in the way his clothes clung to him tightly.

'Beautiful…' Shoto finally breathed, watching as Izuku blushed in response and pressed his mouth into a thin line.

‘Coming from you.’ The Borrower mumbled, crossing his arms and glancing away with a pout. Shoto’s eyebrows furrowed, confused.

‘Coming from me?’ He repeated. ‘I’m not beautiful. I’m barely even alive.’

‘What do you mean?’ Izuku turned back to look at him, head tilted to the side in question.

Shoto opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. He considered the Borrower in front of him, his expression one of concern.

'I-' Shoto looked away and swallowed. 'It's my heart.'

'Your heart?'

'Yeah, it's not been working right for a while. They're operating on it next week, but it's hopeless.' Shoto crossed his arms in front of him and rested his chin on them, ignoring the way it dug into his forearms. 'We all die eventually anyway, so I don't see the point.'

'You have every reason to live!' Izuku exclaimed, his usually quiet voice echoing in Shoto's ears. 'Just because we all die doesn't mean we shouldn't live while we can!'

'I don't have many reasons to live anyway.' Shoto mumbled, moving his head to the side and resting his cheek on his arms. 'All I do is cause my family pain. My old man hates me for being weak, I hear my mum crying every night, I haven't seen my siblings in years. I agreed to the operation for my mum's sake but honestly? I just want it all to be over.'

He trailed off and silence dominated the atmosphere once more, interrupted only by the leaves of wildflowers rustling with the wind. Shoto sighed, eyes fluttering shut. Despite the weight of his words, it felt cathartic to finally confide in someone.

'You… Can't give up.' Izuku suddenly spoke. 'I know things may seem hopeless now, but you have to survive!'

Shoto suddenly felt something small touch the tip of his nose and opened his eyes to find Izuku staring at him, determined; a small albeit muscled arm outstretched in front of him, his palm flat against Shoto.

He crossed his eyes to focus on the Borrower, who met his gaze without hesitation. 'Things will never get better if you give up. Any reason to live is important and I know it’s hard, but you need to take it and let it drive you!'

When Shoto said nothing, Izuku sighed and removed his hand. Shoto felt a sense of loss at the action but didn't comment on it. Instead he watched as the Borrower sat down next to him, looking down at his crossed legs.

Izuku smiled sadly. 'Life is a precious thing for a Borrower. Each day brings more struggles, more predators. One minute, I'm talking to you, the next I could be snatched into the air by a bird or your cat could attack me. But despite all the dangers, we make do - we always have.'

'Why?' Shoto whispered. 'Why carry on?'

'Because every morning, I get to smell the flowers your mum keeps close to my home. Because every day, I get to see my mum and dad and tell them how much they mean to me. Because every small happiness is important and I don't want to miss a single thing!'

Izuku let out a genuine smile and looked up at Shoto. 'And also so I can meet kind people like you, Shoto-kun!'

'Me?' Shoto blushed.

'You.' The Borrower nodded. 'If I had given up, I wouldn't have been able to talk to you now, and if you had truly given up too, then you wouldn't have spoken to me in the first place.'

'I…' Shoto faltered. 'How do you know all this?'

'We're not so different, you and I.' Izuku leaned back on one arm and held the other up to his face. He flexed his trembling right hand and Shoto noticed just how crooked his fingers were. 'I have a degenerative condition. There's no cure. Borrowers don't have doctors and hospitals like human beans do. First, I started having random falls - hurt myself a lot, hence my hand, but then the tremors started.'

Izuku closed his fist and looked at Shoto, still smiling. 'Eventually, my body will stop working and it'll kill me, but until then I will live life to its fullest! I will survive for as long as I can.'

Shoto watched, mouth slightly agape, as the Borrower then jumped to his feet and placed his hands on his hips. 'And you will too, Shoto-kun!'

A wave of emotion suddenly overcame him and his throat felt tight. Izuku seemed to immediately notice his state and slackened his position slightly, his toothy smile dimming into a slight curve of his lips, but it wasn't a look of pity.

Shoto swallowed heavily as the Borrower stepped forwards and reached out to brush over the large birthmark covering Shoto's left eye. The touch was small but comforting and he felt warmth, from both Izuku's calloused palm and the look in his small, verdant eyes.

'Izuku…'

'We must not just simply die out.' He spoke softly. ‘Neither of us.’

'I'm not as strong as you.' Shoto’s vision blurred despite his efforts, clearing only when a single tear escaped him. It trailed down his face and completely drenched Izuku's hand, but the Borrower didn't even flinch.

'No, you're not.' He paused. 'You're stronger. You just don't know it yet.'

Shoto regarded Izuku, this person he barely knew, who was barely larger than his own finger. He regarded the way the Borrower held himself, his reassuring smile and his kind eyes that shone like stars. Shoto, stronger than him? Maybe not, but he wouldn’t mind learning to be.

'Will you help me?' Shoto whispered.

Izuku smiled brightly and nodded furiously.

'Of course!'

[tosikoarts]

SFW Alphabet | Mihael Keehl

You can check tosikowrites tag for more! Warning: there’s a lot under the cut.

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

The most straightforward among main three of Wammy’s boys. His interpretation of own feelings is excellent and he makes sure everybody around knows about them. If he hates you, you’ll feel a burning hole in your back whether it is because of intense staring or literal bullet. If he loves you, you’ll be surrounded by abundance of affection.

When it comes to person he loves, Mello is very vocal. Words do matter, they oblige you and put responsibility on your shoulders. That’s why he loves to brag about his dearest to the closest friends, and even acquaintances know about this one special person. Another important thing is nickname, which Mello chooses based on the brightest features of character/appearance. Baby, honey, dearest are common too but he feels that  they deserve exceptional treatment and exceptional nickname.

He absolutely loves physical affection. Skin to skin contact gives him weird sensation right in the head as if he can physically feel neurons releasing dopamine. It also helps with keeping his anxiety under control.

By the way, sometimes inferiority complex gets the best of him, and in these moments he is extremely capricious. For the same reason Mello may act like his loved one deserves everything, while he can go with bare minimum.

He is great at reassurances. The second he realizes his loved one is insecure, upset, lost, the gears in his head start zealously turning. The words he uttered are always spoken in the right tone and able to touch the necessary strings of the soul. At the same time Mello always has doubts in the efforts made.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

Friendship with Mello carries spirit of 80s-90s. It’s a wild ride he once invited you to and then you couldn’t get off. Stuff gets messy, stuff gets hot, but it doesn’t matter until you both have fun.

He will roast you so much and will never get offended if you roast him in response. Mello aims for a good laugh only. His favorite entertainment is to go shopping together just to critic each other’s outfits.

You better move that body when he drags you on the dance-floor. Blasting music and colorful lights make him feel like a fish in the water so Mello will try to teach you dance. Yes, from the easiest ones to Michael Jackson’s moonwalk.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Cuddles are essential for relationship with Mello. He enjoys snuggle up to his loved one on calm evenings, when there’s nothing to disturb the peace. Warmness of loved one’s head on his chest and smell of their skin calm him down better than chamomile-mint tea. He loves to listen to the sound of another person’s heartbeat as well.

Mello has one pet peeve tho: frequent head pats and hair stroking lead to greasy hair and this is exactly what he hates. If they put hand on his beautiful blond locks, he will take them by the finger and place their palm on his lips. This is a small but very loud gesture.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

The thought of settling down     never popped up in his head. Mello is way too young, he wants to live his     life to the maximum without thinking about another dirty plate in the sink     or how long it takes to make boiled eggs. Based on this you can say he     doesn’t like to do any housework. His cooking skills are decent but he     prefers creative mess to boring order. Mello likes to help someone in     kitchen when he is in the good mood.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Nervous type he is, Mello doesn’t want to end this relationship. But he has to. But he can’t. He is indecisive and hesitates on the way to them. Hell, if they are in good mood or overly excited, Mello won't say a word about break up. In his mind it has to be like pulling a tooth – painful but necessary, - but real life doesn’t work that way. When the moment finally comes he cannot keep his voice steady. Mello tries to end it as fast as possible and hold back a scream because yelling at his loved one is something he promised he’ll never do. Actually, I can see him doing something impulsive to blow off steam. Breaking random stuff, for example, or shooting bottles.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

No. Getting married is too much. He can’t see wedding bells ring no matter how hard he tries. Every day he becomes more confident in thought that strong sincere relationship do not need bureaucracy in the form of marriage. The only time you need a marriage certificate is during the divorce process. Mello isn’t 100% sure but pretty close to this percentage. If his loved one insists on marriage he will immerse in conflicting feelings. Then his next actions will depend on many factors but Mello definitely will try to explain his  position and convince them in its     validity.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

Mello is on the rougher side when it comes to both physical and emotional affection. Childhood in the orphanage, involvement with the mafia, psychological issues, and responsibility placed on his shoulders taught it is necessity to be tough to survive in this world. When he lets his guard down nasty inner voice keeps reminding Mello about situations in which it could be a critical mistake. This leads us to the next point.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Here he comes, another  touched-starved male with trust issues. Mello needs time to get used to soft touch of other’s person hands. Sometimes he puts too much strength in his hugs and it may come across a little rough. Likes them anyway, takes initiative 90% of the time.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

It completely and entirely depends on his gut feeling. Something elusive tells him whether to trust a person or not, it’s not a rational decision. As soon as this strange sensation appears, he will immediately calmly utter three treasured words, and it’s not even so important for him to hear them in return. Mello just wants another person to know that they have become an integral part of his life.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

In addition to being easily jealous, Mello is scary as hell when someone is hitting on his loved one. If he witness such insolence, he will be extremely vocal and, well, unexpectedly rude. He is not afraid to get physical too.

If it’s his loved one who is acting flirtatious, Mello will be pissed off as well. His feelings are explosive mix of disappointment, anger, malcontent. It’s better to get off his way and let him cool a little before trying to explain anything or make excuses. In a fit of jealous rage he may say some terrible things which he’ll regret later.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

The most passionate kisser imaginable. He loves to kiss and he knows how to do it properly so why would you complain. He tends to forget about personal boundaries in process so make out sessions can get really… touchy. Anyway, loves to shower his loved one with kisses all over them, but lip smooches are his favorite. At the same time Mello doesn’t care where they kiss him because of solid fact he is being kissed.  

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

He is so awkward. Calm/gentle/kind children are ok, but if he has to deal with angry little shit who throws tantrum whenever possible, he will flip out. Being around his own children is more or less bearable but don’t expect much when it’s someone else's kids annoying poor man. Mello definitely will teach his favorite one all of the swear words as a joke.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

On a free day no matter who wakes up first you will spend another hour in the bed cuddling. Then life will pour cold water on you when Mello gets frustrated with making breakfast. This may grow into small quarrel but most of the time he pulls himself together and you two find a satisfying compromise. During breakfast on work week you rarely hear any plans for the day from him but he stays curious about your schedule just to see if he can catch you for a lunch or a short call. Nothing special, really.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Night is his favorite time of the day. Neon signs, coolness, slight buzz of a big city work as a charm on Mello, he feels free from people’s staring, empty chatter, and daily duties. If he could show the world as he sees it to his loved one, at least approximate image, dim reflections of pale moon in the high-rises’ glass, he would. So to do it he takes them on late night walks and rides, new places every time.  

Cafes and restaurants are another of his weaknesses, not only pastry shops, but also small diners with food that would seem boring to many. Take-outs are frequent too because chilling under the lilac sky and stargazing with Mello are 10 out of 10.

Don't let yourself be fooled, he likes to stay inside as much. Thanks to Matt, you’ll spend most of the time playing video-games and drinking pop until one of you starts yawning.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Mello is straightforward within adequate limits. You wouldn’t expect person to blur out “I hunt a Kira with my genius rival that works with FBI and Japanese Police” at any point of your movie night anyway, right? He does not pretend and does not resort to excessive secrecy but prefers to reveal facts about himself one by one.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

Quickly gets angry, quickly cools down. Sadly, he his emotions are too strong and he does not know how to handle them and it often ends in heated argument. Even during a quarrel he feels his actions are hurting you but it’s not something he can stop at the click of a finger. After everything has settled down he is extremely remorseful and tried to make amends but Mello never ever promises to change. Why you make ask? In that case actions speak louder than words.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

Remembers the stupidest things. He can’t remember any important dates like the day you started dating but will remind you about the most embarrassing thing you did in high school. Hell, he forgets your number sometimes but can describe the exact clothes you wore on that rainy day when car splashed you.

Unknown forces help Mello in choosing a birthday present. He has no clue what you wanted and if you wanted anything at all. Surprisingly, it always hits the mark.

Tried to write down “important” stuff about you once. Failed miserably. Decided to never do it again.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

The first time when they confessed their love to him since Mello rewound this moment in his head like a hundred times. He remembers what color sky was and what song was playing on the background and those little details made this moment more beautiful than the masterpieces of the Louvre. Joy overwhelmed him and he couldn’t get this picture off his head for a few days too.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Not that paranoid protective and obviously doesn’t need to be protected However, he will be fluttered if person showed that they care. He will freak put if they don’t answer his calls or messages for hours and in the case of real danger he will take that gun and shoot someone as a warning.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

He puts more effort in the beginning of relationship and its amount slowly declines with time. The closer he gets, the less he needs to try to cover up his sharp edges and imperfections or try to distract person with some kind of mask, mannerism, maneuver. Playing nice in early stages of dating gives him chance to throw the bait, to show he is able to be that datable material. A completely different question is whether a person wants to stay with him in spite of his inner demons.

Mello likes to surprise them with something special on anniversaries. Expect romantic late night motorcycle ride, car dates with take-out, and, of course, gifts. He likes to make/buy a presents person will like, something they wanted for a long time but couldn’t afford.

Acts extra-extra after anger tantrums. He knows he fucked up, okay, he just can’t control himself. Yes, it’s a lot easier to cover up consequences with huge bouquet and box of chocolates than to correct behavior learned over the years.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

If you ever had to deal with person stubborn as a donkey, you’ve seen demo-version of Mello’s behavior. Making compromises is not his strategy, so get ready for “this is the only right option”, “I said what I said”, “Yeah, go ahead, I’ll do it my way”. He immediately begins to sulk and spill his sassiness all over the place if things don’t go his way.

Doubtful impulsive decisions are most likely the cause of constant arguing and problem mentioned above. At first he does something (to say the least) stupid with impressive confidence. Then, after hours or days, his brains finally comes up with reasonable arguments but now it’s too late to back out.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

It’s obvious Mello likes to take care of himself. His sense of style is indisputable, he sticks to it and never fails to embellish the picture with shiny jewelry or other accessories. There may be dirt on his leather boots and soot on fur hood but they only complete his conceived image.

Probably has one company from which he buys all the hair care products. Feeling of easy combing through smooth silky hair before bed is another of his a little happiness.

How does he have such perfect face despite eating chocolate everyday? Mello is fond of beauty creams, masks, serums, and he doesn’t allow a single pimple ruin his day. Also, he uses different healing creams to soften the scars.

He would love to mess around with loved one trying new beauty products. There’s nothing better than taking care of each other.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Yes, yes, yes. It doesn’t matter why they are not in his life anymore, he feels devastated. All attempts to distract himself fail as he goes back to thinking about them every five-ten minutes, and not only thinking but overthinking. Sometimes his thoughts throw him back to the past, first meeting, first kiss, and it gnaws Mello even more.

If they left for some reason, he will try to get them back. A chance meeting in the evening is completely planned, he also rehearsed his lines in the head more than a thousand times just to stay calm and avoid going off on tangent.  

If they died, he will attend their grave for a few months. It doesn’t help much. He becomes incredulous and gloomy, scaring everyone around with frequent mood swings and defiant behavior. I can see him growing more actively aggressive and acting like he doesn’t have anything to lose too.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

Because of his chocolate addiction, Mello has to visit dentist’s office quite frequently. The problem is he hates dentists and everything about them. The sound of a dental drill makes his skin crawl.

Mello can pull off any style, rock any outfit. He can dress up in trash bag and be fabulous as always. You can splash that man with the dirtiest water and he will still shine bright like a diamond. Unholy beauty.

He was that kid that got the highest score on Facebook picky sheet. He hates broccoli, never eats mushrooms, avoids pickles. Name any controversial food – he doesn’t eat it.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

Mello can deal with pushy people but manipulators drive him nuts. As soon as he notice the smallest attempt to manipulate him, he will lash out. So you have to be the master manipulator to twist him around your finger or the batshit crazy person to pull an obvious manipulation on him.

Absence of communication. He won’t play mind games and try to guess your thoughts, so you better speak out your mind.

Oh, Mello doesn’t want a person who nods to everything he says. Sharing personal opinions plays a big role in relationships and he won’t agree to lose such way to connect.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

Mello sticks to adequate sleeping schedule. His lifestyle forces him to break it from time to time but he quickly makes up for sleepless nights. He doesn’t even get moody or irritated. On the contrary, his reactions slow down, and the only thing he is interested in is comfortable bed.

Speaking of comfort, Mello likes to wrap himself in fluffy blankets. The more pillows there are around him, the better his mood will be in the morning.

Dark chocolate rich in magnesium can help you sleep better so Mello prefers switch from milk chocolate to dark in the evening. It is not uncommon to find a wrapper foil on the nightstand in his bedroom.

[ofendlesswonder]

omg can you do “We could get arrested for this.” for supercat pls? and thank you very much! hope you stay safe and have an awesome day! xo

11. “We could get arrested for this.”

Kara crashes through the ceiling of the abandoned warehouse with an almighty crash, landing in a crouch on the ground so hard that she makes a dent in the concrete.

It sends the men within scattering, and it’s reallyeasier than it ought to be, to dispatch the lot of them, fighting with a fury that she doesn’t even know she’s capable of, her laser vision leaving burnt streaks on the walls.

In the centre of the warehouse, a woman is tied to achair, blindfolded, and as Kara approaches, she begins to tremble, doesn’t stop even when Kara pulls the blindfold from her head, kneeling in-front of her and carefully releasing her from the ropes that tie her hands to the back of the chair.

“Ms Grant?” Kara asks, gently rubbing the red weltsaround Cat’s wrists from where she’d struggled against her restraints. “Ms Grant, are you okay?” As she waits for an answer, Kara gives Cat a cursory once-over with her x-ray vision to check that there are no broken bones.

“I’m much better now.” Cat’s voice is quiet, shaky, and her face is streaked with dirt, her eyes a little dazed as they focus on Kara’s face. “Tell me, does Supergirl usually lower herself to search and rescuemissions?”

“She does when it’s someone she cares about.”

Cat had been kidnapped whilst on her way to apolitical rally in National City, and Kara has no idea what the motive of the attack had been beside a high ransom demand, but she knows she won’t rest untilshe finds out.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Kara murmurs, keeping her voice low because Cat still looks very shaken, and Kara hates that it had been three days before she’d found out Cat was missing, because if she’d knownsooner, she wouldn’t have spent so long fearing for her life. “Do you trust me?”

“It’s very hard not to trust the person who just savedyour life,” Cat replies, allowing Kara to help her up and guide Cat’s arms around her neck.

Pressed against her front, Cat is warm, but she’sstill shaking, and Kara can both feel and hear her heart, hammering against her ribcage. She feels so fragile, as Kara scoops her up, making sure to hold onto her tight as she pushes them off the floor, and Cat flinches as below them, the warehouse door crashes open as police file in to arrest the perpetrators that Kara has helpfully left scattered across the floor.

She leaves the clean-up in the NCPD’s capable hands, shooting back through the hole she’d made in the roof, and taking Cat straight to another pair of capable hands, landing them on the balcony of the DEO that she favours whenever she flies into the building.

She doesn’t let go on Cat’s hand until she’s got herinto a treatment room, Alex already waiting for them, and Kara is tense the whole time Alex is checking her over, sagging with relief when her sister assures her that there is no lasting damage.

“Does Carter know I’m safe?” Cat asks, jumping out of the bed as soon as Alex gives her the all-clear, and gratefully shrugging into the DEO hoodie that Kara hands her, noticing she’s still shivering.

“Yes, he’s been staying with his father while you were… gone,” Kara answers, “but I called him when we found you, and he should be here in a couple of hours.”

“Good.” Cat’s face floods with relief. “Can you… canyou get me out of here, please?” She asks, turning on Kara with pleading eyes. “I hate hospital rooms.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere,” Cat answers, stepping close to Kara andwrapping her arms around her neck without being prompted, her breathing still shaky, her mouth pressing against Kara’s collarbone, breath hot against her skin. “As long as you stay with me.” She says that quietly, but Kara still hears it, her breath catching as she holds Cat close, and if she makes Cat feels safer, then she won’t ever let her go.

She flies out of the window and hovers high in the sky for a moment, debating where to go, and, deciding that Cat would probably prefer to go somewhere secluded, drops somewhere where she knows no-one will bother them.

“You can open your eyes, now,” Kara murmurs, knowing that Cat hates heights – probably even more so since Kara had launched her offher balcony.

“Are we standing on what I think we’re standing on?”Cat asks, dropping her arms from Kara’s neck but not stepping away as she takes in her new surroundings. “Kara, we could get arrested for this.”

Kara doesn’t acknowledge Cat’s slip, and instead flops down so that she’s seated, her legs swinging over the side of one of the Hollywood sign’s O’s.

“If anyone comes, I can fly us away,” Kara assuresher, patting the space beside her.

“Everyone would still know it was you,” Cat pointsout, but she folds herself down beside Kara all the same, huddling into her side. “Your cape isn’t exactly subtle.”

“Pretty sure no-one would try to arrest me,” Karareplies, enjoying the view that this vantage point offers them. “Are you okay, Ms Grant?”

“No.” Cat turns towards her, eyes more than a littlehaunted. “But I will be – nothing that a bottle of scotch or sleeping pills won’t fix.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner.”

“You don’t need to be sorry, Kara.” Cat reaches out tosqueeze the back of Kara’s hand, and Kara can’t help but grab it before Cat can move away, tangling their fingers together. “You did find me, and that’s all that matters. Although I do wish we weremeeting again under better circumstances.” Cat manages to crack a smile, and Kara matches it with one of her own.

“Me too.” It’s been years since Cat left forWashington, and they haven’t spoken since, but when she’d seen the footage of Cat being taken, Kara had seen red, and it had felt like no time had passed at all. “I’d ask how you’ve been, but…”

“Wonderful, until two days ago,” Cat quips, alreadysounding more like her old self. “Who’d have thought that working for the President would have put a target on my back?”

“Maybe you should think about another career change,” Kara suggests, gently nudging Cat’s shoulder with her own. “Come back to CatCo.”

“CatCo is thriving without me,” Cat replies, “as are you, Pulitzer prize winning journalist.” Cat meets Kara’s eyes, her smile fond. “I never reached out to congratulate you, and I should have done, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Kara shrugs, more touched than Cat will ever know to realise that she’s kept up with her career even though she’s long gone. “But thank you.”

“I always knew you had it in you.” Cat runs her thumbalong the bumps of Kara’s knuckles, and Kara tries very hard to remember how to breathe – if she’d thought for one moment that any of those feelings she’d had for Cat all those years ago had ever faded, she’s finding that she’s sorely mistaken, now that Cat is back by her side.

“Always?” Kara asks, raising a sceptical eyebrow. “What about when you were waxing poetic about millennials the day I walked into your office? Or yelling at me for not getting your lunch order right, or your latte being too cold, or - ”

“Watch it,” Cat grumbles, though there’s a sparkle inher eye, “you’re starting to make me sound like a terrible boss.”

“You weren’t,” Kara assures her, and Cat shoots her alook that suggests she thinks that Kara is lying. “You weren’t! Sure, you were a hardass, sometimes,” she grins as Cat’s eyes narrow into a glare, “but you were a lot of other things, too. Kind and compassionate and always trying to push me to better myself. I learned a lot from you. I never would have won that Pulitzer without you shaping me into thejournalist I am today.”

“Thank you, Kara.” Cat looks touched, and Kara doesn’t know if she should acknowledge the casual way that they’re talking about working together whilst Kara is wearing her cape – she’s known that Cat’s known for a long time, but they’ve never acknowledged it, had always let it be the elephant in the room, until today.

Not that she’s complaining – it feels freeing, to nolonger have to hide a part of herself from Cat.

“For being kind to me, and for saving me. I can’t tellyou how relieved I was to have you be my saviour, and not one of those insufferable secret service agents – you are much nicer to look at.”

“It was really no problem, Ms Grant.” She’s blushing,which only seems to amuse Cat further, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

“Surely we’re past such formalities at this point, hm?” Cat’s eyes are still on her face, her gaze so intense that Kara struggles to remember how to breathe. “If you’re letting me call you Kara without any protest, I think it’s only fair that you call me Cat.”

“Okay,” Kara nods, “Cat.” Kara feels her phone buzz in her pocket, and she sees a text from Alex on her screen when she glances at it. “Carter’s just arrived at the DEO,” Kara reads. “Are you ready to go back yet?”

“Only for my son,” Cat decides, climbing to her feetwith Kara’s help. “Thank you for keeping me company.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Kara replies. “It’s beennice to see you again – even if I wish it was under better circumstances.”

“Yes, it has,” Cat agrees, her hand still claspingKara’s tightly, and Kara never wants her to let go. “I’ll probably be staying in the city for a few days, recuperating – feel free to fly by and check I haven’t been kidnapped again?”

“No-one will get close to you on my watch, Cat,” Karapromises, and she’ll station a DEO agent at every entrance and exit to Cat’s hotel of choice if it will make her sleep better at night.

“Oh yeah?” Cat’s voice, unless Kara is very muchmistaken, has turned flirtatious, and it leaves her shaken. “And how are you going to make sure of that, hm?” She lets go of Kara’s hand to slide them towards her neck, dragging her palms over Kara’s collarbones and up and over her shoulders, touch deliberate enough to make Kara’s knees weak. “By staying the night?”

“I-if that would make you feel safe,” Kara says,amazed that she can speak at all with Cat so close. “Then yes.”

“Do you mean to tell me that if I wanted to getSupergirl into my bed, I merely had to ask?” Cat asks, and she’s arching a playful eyebrow but there’s a vulnerability in her eyes, and Kara’s hands are gentle as they slide down to rest on Cat’s hips.  

“Did you hit your head when you were held captive?”Kara queries, her voice so soft it’s almost carried away by the wind. “Do we need to get you a brain scan? Because the Cat I used to know definitely didn’t want little old me.”

“Oh, but she did,” Cat says, and Kara’s heart nearlystops. “I wanted you very much, but there was a very long list of reasons why it would be a terrible idea.”

“So what changed?”

“I thought I was going to die,” Cat murmurs, and Kara’s jaw clenches at the mere thought. “And all I could think about, stuck in that damn chair, was all the mistakes I’ve made in my long, long life, and through it all, my biggest regret has been letting you slip away, even though I’d convinced myself that leaving CatCo was the best thing for the both of us.”

“I… I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“I never wanted you to know,” Cat replies, “but now, I… I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try, and if you don’t feel the same way, then that’s fine, because it’s been years and I’m twice your age, and - ”

Kara cuts her off with a kiss, soft and chaste,because she doesn’t want to hear another second of Cat putting herself down. Cat gasps against her lips before she’s kissing her back, and Kara sighs as shepulls her closer, because as far as first kisses go, it’s pretty damn perfect.

“Come over tonight?” Cat asks when they part, the both of them hyper-aware of the fact that time isn’t on their side, with Carter waiting for them back in National City. “And we can talk about everything?”

“Just let me know when and where.”

Cat kisses her again before they take off,open-mouthed and messy, and Kara’s head is spinning so much that it’s a miracle that she doesn’t crash into any buildings on their way back to the DEO.

[angeliise]

Day 15: You Are Everything I’ve Never Believed In

He didn’t believe in anything. He couldn’t believe in everything. Friendships. Family.

Love...

He had all of those taken away from him in a single night. From that day on, he refused to believe in anything. Why? Because they weren’t there with him anymore, and he could never restore the memories of his past life. That was until-

*Bump*

Sasuke rubbed his forehead in annoyance at the sudden impact he made on the ground. He looked up at the person who had bumped into him and found a girl with her eyes covered by her bangs. “Watch where you are going.”

“S-Sorry.” She shyly said, still keeping her head down. When she looked up, Sasuke was drawn in by the blankness of her eyes. They were varying shades of white and lavender, but her rosy red cheeks enhanced the tiny twinkles in her eyes.

“U-Um…” He heard her stutter. Sasuke flinched when her hand was in his near view.

“Huh?”

“Do y-you need a hand g-getting up?”

“Tsk.” He slapped her hand away. “I don’t need it.” He said as he stood and walked away.

That had been Sasuke’s first encounter with Hinata Hyuga. An encounter he never thought would turn into one in many.  

*****

Sasuke sighed into the blue sky, his mind stuck on the Forest of Death exam. From Naruto saving him from Orochimaru to Sakura taking on two ninjas while protecting him and Naruto. All in the name of what? Friendship? “Pathetic.”

There was no such thing as friendship. People betray others. They stab each other in the backs for their selfish reasons and leave one thinking what their fault in all of this was? What had Sasuke deserved to be betrayed like that by Itachi? What had he-

*Quak* *quak* *quak*

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the sudden sound of ducks. It was then he remembered that he had walked so far into the Konoha forest that he found himself sitting by the little water stream again. The sunlight shone through the tall leaves above him. Sasuke released a breath of relief at the silence of nature.

How he wished his world could stay like this forever. He didn’t need anyone. He didn’t need to rely on anybody. For that reason he didn’t need to believe in anything for he had himself in the very end.

He looked over his shoulder at the intruding eyes on his back. “What are you doing here?”

He saw her make a tiny jump and fiddle with her fingers as she searched for the words. He sighed and looked back at the water until he heard her footsteps approaching. “I asked you, what are you doing here?”

“I-I’m here to f-f-feed the ducks.”

She knelt down beside Sasuke. Sasuke was a bit taken aback by how comfortable she was by his side and shifted a little to make some space. He watched as she opened a bag that contained huge chunks of bread. Sasuke sharpened his eyes. When she took a piece out and was about to offer one of the ducks, he stopped her. “What are you doing?”

“Eh? F-F-Feeding the ducks…”

Sasuke mentally facepalmed at how the benightedness coloured each and every word of hers. “Those pieces are too big for a duck.”

“Really?”

Sasuke snatched the piece out of her fingers and broke them into smaller pieces. He let his hand out and waited for the ducks to walk over to him. When they did his eyes were back at the lavender eyed girl whose name he never got despite being her classmate.

When he felt that he had stared her down enough he spoke again. “Good grief. Is this the first time you are feeding ducks?”

She was again playing with pressing her fingers against each other. “Y-Yes.”

Sasuke let an exaggerated sigh escape his mouth. She jumped a little from that. Though Sasuke was getting increasingly annoyed by all the stupid poeple around him, at least she wasn’t a Sakura who would pounce at him or a Naruto who would pick a fight for any reason.

“You, what’s your name?”

“Me?” Sasuke nearly lashed at her for that. She giggled at his reaction and Sasuke quickly regained his composure. “M-My name is Hyuuga Hinata. And yours?”

Sasuke was shocked by her question. He pointed to himself. “You… you don’t know who I am?.”

Hinata chuckled again. “I-I do. But w-w-we never got to for-formally introduce ourselves.”

Sasuke wanted to make a slick comment but she wasn’t wrong. And a very tiny part of him liked how different she was compared to the rest. “My name is Uchiha Sasuke.”

She nodded and smiled at him. Though Sasuke didn’t smile back, he did look away to hide the surprised look on his face. Her smile, unlike others, was genuine. No ill intent was meant by it. No plat gateway to a confession. No initiation for a physical brawl. None of that. When he looked back, Hinata was in the midst of breaking down the huge bread pieces.

Sasuke couldn’t explain the feeling. But he somehow wanted a reaction out of her since she had managed to get a rise out of him. Twice. So he aggressively snatched the bag from her lap and began breaking down the bread himself. Although her eyes showed bewilderment, there was no sign of annoyance or irritation. When Hinata reached her hand into the bag, Sasuke pushed it out of her reach. “I’ll do it.”

Hinata smiled again. “O-Okay.” - “Oi!” - “T-Then I-I will feed them with the pieces you have already broken down.”

“Hinata!”

Hinata only responded with a surprised chuckle which she hid with her palm in such an elegant manner he nearly saw a flash of his mother. Sasuke sat back, trying to glue his eyes to the bag of bread but stealing a few glances here and there.

Sasuke and Hinata proceeded to feed the ducks in peace as they took in the sounds of mother nature. Although no words were spoken, Sasuke found it dare he say… fun? Relaxing, actually. To spend his free time on this. He had seen the ducks around a few times but never bothered with him. But now, he couldn’t believe he was feeding them.

As the last piece was gone, both ninjas sat back and admired as the blue sky emerged into a mixture of an orange and pink.

“I never got to ask but, why did you come to feed the ducks?”

Hinata hugged her knees. “I just felt like it.”

Sasuke didn’t believe her. Especially since her voice had taken a more sad tone to it than before. As he was speculating about it, he noticed a small case in her pocket making its way out. When Hinata moved due to Sasuke’s actions, the round case fell out. Both reached out for it and in that moment Sasuke’s hand made contact with her wrist. Hinata winced.

“What’s wrong?”

Hinata shook her head. “It’s nothing. It’s just minor bruises from training.”

Sasuke looked at her for a minute before shrugging. She was a ninja and training could get quite vigorous at times so he let it go.

“Sasuke-kun?” Hinata asked a while later.

“Hm?” He noticed how she was stuttering anymore.

“Say if you knew someone who was better than you at everything, what would you do to prove to them and everybody else that you were worth it regardless?”

Sasuke grimaced when that was a question his younger self would constantly ask himself. Itachi was better at him in everything. He learned everything at a much younger age and mastered them that same age. He was admired by everybody for that reason. He was especially favoured by his father for that reason. While Sasuke… Sasuke was left to fend for himself until his father would even bother with him.

Yet, he couldn’t think of an answer. He looked at Hinata whose eyes were staring at the water. He never wanted to appear weak or vulnerable to anyone but... Hinata. He couldn’t sense any ulterior motive behind her question. Everything about Hinata, in the little time he had been with her, was genuine, pure and… kind. It brought him back to the time he had bumped into her and how she carried herself in that situation. Just pure elegance and innocence on her part. It was for those reasons that he didn’t mind opening up with her this time. Something he hoped wouldn’t be the biggest mistake of his life.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know.”

Hinata looked at Sasuke while he continued. “I think, no matter what, as long as you improve in your own skills,” he looked at her, “everything will work out.”

“Did that happen to you?”

Sasuke smirked. “No, not yet.”

****

Since then, Sasuke and Hinata would frequently find themselves by the stream sharing stories between each other. Hinata would always forget to cut the bread into tiny pieces but those moments while they were breaking down the bread were precious. There was the time when baby ducklings crawled all over him when he had tried to get a reaction out of Hinata again. They had managed to overwhelm him, invading his clothes even to which he made the most animated movements to get them out. All the while Hinata was laughing, not chuckling, but laughing! Something she had never done. She always held back or would suppress it.

Sasuke shot a shuriken at the tree dummy. Another time they had dwelled into a heavy part in both of their childhoods of being neglected by their fathers. When Sasuke was about to ask Hinata about her father’s treatment of her, she had thrown off her shows, rolled up her pants and dashed into the water. Sasuke found himself speechless and was going to ask again until he noticed how bright and warm her smile was as she splashed her feet in the stream. Hinata’s smile, over time, had become his favorite part about her. How, despite the mistreatment from her Clan, she still found it in her to smile and be happy. She was still so kind and welcoming of others, even for a person like himself who had been cold towards her in the beginning. He never felt like upholding his cold demeanour which, he had come to learn, was exhausting to force all the time. But with Hinata, he could actually enjoy himself. Something he thought he couldn’t do anymore because of his goal of killing his brother and restoring the clan.

Sasuke flashed before the dummy and kicked its side. Following that he made it a goal to make her smile at least once at their every encounter. Even going as far as dragging her into the water when he saw her face turn into a grimace. In fact, he couldn’t wait to meet her. He couldn’t wait to see what other nonsense they would find themselves in. Sasuke grinned. Those nonsense moments he had come to cherish a lot. Those moments always slipped into his mind during training, which had his team shocked at Sasuke who grinned once from a memory.

He had come to care for Hinata a lot. He didn’t want to feed the ducks with anybody but her. He didn’t want to indulge in funny banters with anyone but her. He didn’t want to show his playful side, the aspect of him that he had lost, with anyone but her. “She probably doesn’t know how much she has impacted me, does she?”

He had succeeded in making her smile, except for today. He had noticed a lack of energy and it was further confirmed by the dark rings under her eyes. But for some reason, those marks didn’t seem like regular bags under the eye.

The starry night had befallen Konoha and Sasuke was panting as he finished his last round of shurikens with the wooden dummy. As he walked through the trees, he spotted another training ground with an individual laying on the floor. “Hinata!”

Sasuke dashed over to Hinata and knelt down to her. The minute he had done so she shot her eyes open, sitting upright. “S-Sasuke-kun.”

“What happened?!”

“I-I was just t-t-training.” Hinata saw the concern in Sasuke’s eyes and blushed. She had grown fond of Sasuke over the time that they had spent together and although she knew he wouldn’t reciprocate her feelings. She gave him a tiny smile. “I’m fine, really.”

Sasuke internally rolled his eyes as he had observed that whenever she stopped stuttering it would be because she was hiding something that was bothering her. He offered her his hand.

Hinata smiled at the gesture and absentmindedly took it, not minding the breeze moving her sleeve downwards.

Sasuke shot his eyes down to her wrist that was covered in a bluish colour. “What’s with that wound?!”

Sasuke clapped his lips shut by his aggressive reaction. He shook his pride away and pressed her to answer the question, watching as her mouth began to waver.

“I just went overboard with training.”

“Hinata.” He grabbed her chin in his other hand.

Hinata felt her tears building up and tried her best to- too late, for the stream of salty water ran down her cheeks. “I was beat by him again!”

She tried to wring herself out of Sasuke’s grip and winced in the process, but instead Sasuke grabbed her other wrist. “Hinata.”

“It was Neji-nii-san! He will always be better than me! There is nothing I can do to beat him and because of that father will never approve of me!”

“Hinata.”

Hinata cried as she hastily tried to free herself. “I will never be good enough! Not for Neji-nii-san, father… me.”

Sasukes’ eyes widen by the last word. Me. She was never going to be good enough for herself. Sasuke absentmindedly loosened his grip which allowed her to break free. Before he got to know Hinata, Sasuke never felt fulfilled. Not that there was nothing missing. But.. there was nothing because he didn’t believe in anything. Nothing to him meant anything. But all of that changed when he met her. She showed him that there was something worth believing in. Friendship. Family. L… Love.

Love. Yes, the one thing Sasuke believed was non existent ever since his whole Clan was massacred. He never thought he could love or be loved but… Sasuke looked at Hinata’s sorrowful wailing. There was something to believe in. There was a reason to believe in something. That something being love, and the person who showed him that was- “Hinata.”

Sasuke gently took her tiny hands into his, locking his eyes with hers. “You will always be enough for me.”

Hinata whimpered, swallowing the heavy lump in her throat. “Always?”

….

The corners of Sasuke’s mouth cranked upwards, to a point where his cheeks were indented with tiny holes. Sasuke happily smiled at Hinata, the dearest person he knew. “Always.”

*****

Sasuke didn’t believe in anything. Sasuke couldn’t believe in everything. Friendships. Family. Love. That was until he met her. The girl who became the only person Sasuke trusted, cared for and most of all, loved. His feelings for Hinata kept growing in ways he didn’t know. All this time he thought that he loved her for the good friend she was to him. But on that night where she came running into his arms about how much she had missed him the moment he stepped inside of Konoha after going with Orochimaru, he couldn’t stop himself anymore.

Sasuke gave Hinata’s hand a tiny squeeze as they stood on a bridge, looking over the water.

Sasuke, still holding her hand, leaned against the bridge with his arms crossed against the wood. Hinata placed her other hand on the bridge.

Sasuke looked into the sky and basked in peach-colored sky. “Bakanata.” A nickname he would often call her. Not that he meant it, but it was the first and only thing that would make her react in a way Sasuke found dearing.

When Hinata was about to speak, Sasuke stopped her with his finger on her lips. “I didn’t believe in friendships, family or love.”

“S-Sasuke-kun.” She said through his finger.

Sasuke chuckled and removed his finger. He leaned away from the bridge and stood in front her, holding both of her hands. Slightly leaning himself down on her so their foreheads touched. “You are everything that I didn’t believe in.”

Hinatas’ eyes widened and widened even further when Sasuke captured her lips in a passionate kiss. When he pulled back, she pouted. “W-Why d-did you have to st-stop so soon?”

Sasuke again chuckled. “Hinata, I love you.”

Hinata giggled with him. “I love you, Sasuke-kun.”

@sasuhinamonth

[jae-canikeepyou]

| butterflies | j.jh

pair: jaehyun x fem!reader

genre: fluff

a/n: you guys request such cute content and i’m happy that you trust me to write for you 🤧 i don’t know if this is good enough but i really do hope you enjoy reading this oneshot! 💕~j.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

butterflies in your stomach.

your friends always told you about that certain feeling inside. it could happen in any situation though, but majority was with the person you like. often speaking it would either be out of happiness, excitement, nervousness, anxiety or whatever could make your stomach churn. in your previous relationship, you’ve experienced the first three. and the last one?

not yet but, you never thought you’d feel it now.

talk about wrong timing. your eyes trailed to the ground floor of the mall. the last person you wanted to see was your ex-boyfriend. he was leaning himself against a column, waiting for someone you assume was his new one. with the way how he treated you in a two-year long relationship, you despised his entire being and would scream on the spot to expose his cheatings on you. but you held yourself in, as you imagined how embarassing that would feel.

and today was supposedly your third year anniversary with him. that left your tongue a bitter aftertaste when a girl approached him and he opened his arms wide open like he used to do with you. it hurt and tore your heart into pieces and you wondered how you were easily replaced— when you did was to love him wholeheartedly.

thrills enveloped your body and you began to panic when he walked slowly with her to head up the escalator. meanwhile you stopped in your tracks at the opposite end, hesitant to step forward. all sorts of thoughts shot you like arrows; what should you do? have you moved on yet? what if you both made an eye contact?

crap.

jaehyun felt a soft tug yanking his denim jacket. it prevented him from walking further and that his heels stopped mid-way, creating a short obstacle in the crowd. “y/n what are you doing? we’re blocking people.” he said, turning around and had to lift his elbows slightly to see you.

you responded with sharp exhales that he swore was familiar. his lips then agape a little at the sight of you with your usual signature face whenever you sensed trouble. he looked over his shoulder, his eyes searching for whoever caused his best friend to make such a face.

he grabbed your arm and led you to the side so that he could have a proper conversation with you instead of bending down to hear your inaudible words. “look you gotta tell me what’s wrong. you’re making an ugly face, ugly.”

“your 9 o’clock. minhyuk’s there.” you said, eyes looking everywhere else and jaehyun took a quick glance; and double checked too see if it was true.

“oh then let’s go greet him-”

“n-no!” you hissed. “we fought again. and don’t ask why.” you lied.

jaehyun did his usual lifting of the brow in question. “again? do i have to make you both reconcile for the infinite time?”

you stayed silent, remembering how he was always the middle person to prevent you and minhyuk from fighting. he pulled you to head down the escalator and oh how you wanted to smack him. you pulled him back with force, eventually stopping him.

but he wasn’t having it.

the endless tug of war made each of your loose clothes more loose than before. people who witnessed the childish act probably concluded they saw idiots.

jaehyun didn’t show it but he was so close to flipping out based on tightness of his flattened lips. “you big baby. we’ll be late for the movie if you keep pulling me.” he grabbed to carry you like a stuffed animal he won at a carnival.

“put me down jae!” you continuously slapped his arm and managed to pinch his cheek, ending his evil smirk.

“fine.” he said, finally putting you down. he later pat your arms and dusted away possible dirt.

the act done by jaehyun earlier caused a slight diversion of your attention to your ex-boyfriend. you looked ahead to see him. yet again, panic showered over you. palms began sweating and it was the cold kind of feel.

you weren’t seeing things but you swore you had a milliseconds eye contact with the new girlfriend.

ugh what do i do?

from your view, it would take ten seconds to run into them approximately. given the long and slow escalator, you had little time to hide yourself. there was one idea in your head though, and it was crazy. really, really crazy.

jaehyun chuckled at your current state and brought out his phone to record you. he jolted after you sent his heart flying in shock with one sentence.

“don’t ask and just kiss me.”

“what?” he asked, completely frozen in his stance and felt your hands cupping his jaw.

you had to tiptoe to reach him. his hands held your waist and it seemed so natural that he deepened the kiss.

once you both reached the end, you took his cap and wore it out of embarrassment.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

the golden hour beautifully shone at the sea’s horizon. if only you had the talent in art, you’d paint the sky everyday and compare to how different the ombrés were. jaehyun nudged you from behind, handing you an ice cream cone to cool your bodies from the sudden request and gesture.

you both went to the mall’s garden rooftop and decided to not watch the movie. it was a rom-com kind and there would definitely be kissing scenes. watching it with jaehyun would’ve been very awkward, especially after the kiss.

he sat down beside you, “how does it feel like to date someone?”

“really jae? you’re asking me? a person who recently broken up-” you cocked an eyebrow, using an elbow to lean on an elevated marbled landscape.

“i just wanna collect facts.” he shrugged. “and why didn’t you tell me about minhyuk before?”

tears welled your eyes. you trailed to the ice cream, chuckling how you were now eating to keep your mind occupied. you then asked yourself, why didn’t you tell jaehyun sooner? maybe showing up at his doorstep would give him the signal. it was actually his idea though, that when things ended with minhyuk, the first person you’d see was your best friend.

words couldn’t come out from your mouth, and you didn’t know why. silence was out of the dictionary with jaehyun. you both knew each other from the book cover, its contents and continuing chapters. you tilted your head upwards to prevent the tears from falling. remembering how minhyuk left a note wasn’t enough to convince you that all was over.

it wasn’t that jaehyun disliked him, but he knew the dude wouldn’t take you seriously. on the other hand he didn’t want to destroy the joy you had in your eyes whenever you would prep yourself for a date. he respected your personal life and would do anything to make you happy,

even if it hurt him inside.

jaehyun liked you for the longest time he could remember. seeing you break down before him had made him wrap you in his arms. “i’m sorry. i shouldn’t have asked.”

“it’s okay.” you pulled away from him. “what’s there to explain? i mean, he replaced me for someone he assumed was better and i think i can move on from that.” there was doubt in your voice and jaehyun noticed that than you did.

“you ‘think’? heck you should! y/n you deserve someone better. someone who could cheer you up with ice cream and hug you when you needed it the most-”

you giggles cut him off, and you ate the last bit of the cone. “did you just.. describe you?”

“and if i said yes? will you date me?” he noticed the blush on your cheeks and expressed his teasing eyes with a smoulder, lips puckered and brows furrowed high. “ah right, why did you pause?”

“i d-didn’t!” you waved your palms so you wouldn’t have to reason out further. “y-you asked me to d-date you when i-”

“you stuttered, hm? did you feel butterflies?” he attacked you with bickering words. he leaned in forward to smudge the ice cream just above his mouth onto yours.

“n-no i didn’t feel anything! ew go away!” you stopped him with your hands. “stop teasing me, ugly.”

“but this ugly..” he chewed on his last bit of cone as well, scooting closer to you. “..loves this ugly.” he rested his palms to support his weight onto the wooden bench, leaning in closer than he did earlier. his eyes boring into yours that you saw your own reflection.

you pinched his dimples, not believing what you just heard. “lies.”

jaehyun’s heart sank just a little at your cynicism. he had to make you realize he was— and still is in love with you. his head tilted to the side, the centimeters lessening between the two of you. “if i’m lying, i wouldn’t do this.”

he held your chin and closed in for a tender kiss. it was warm, sweet, and nothing you ever felt before. you stopped and looked down, where his lips now touched your forehead.

“and if i’m lying, i wouldn’t return the kiss when you kissed me.” he chuckled and sat back, leaving you alone in your own thoughts.

“that was just an act so minhyuk wouldn’t see me.” you fanned yourself from all sort of feelings jaehyun made you feel.

“but it wasn’t just an act for me.” jaehyun said in a genuine tone. “i really really love you y/n. and it’s more than being your best friend.”

this time he was holding your hand willingly, intertwining his fingers to capture yours. “but if i date you, i can’t help but feel like i’m giving you false hope in a relationship you wished to have.” you said. “jae, what if i couldn’t give you that?”

other than a best friend, jaehyun was a good listener. he’d open his ears to listen to your endless complaints and snotty cries. “that’s based on an ‘if’. why not give it a try?”

you turned to him at his crazy question. “what?”

“why not give us a try?” he smiled warmly and as much as you wanted to hide your smile, you eventually mirrored his. he always has a way with his words to melt your stone cold and stubborn heart.

there were butterflies in your stomach now. jaehyun made you feel all; anxiety for the relationship, nervousness for his possible actions, excitement for how things would go, and happiness for the treatment he had always done.

maybe things will be okay with your best friend. “o-okay.” you said softly.

jaehyun’s eyes widened at your stuttering word. he read the atmosphere a little tense, so he decided to play. “what? i couldn’t hear you.”

“i said okay!” you flushed red and covered your face. “you’re really mean. i feel like being your girlfriend will lead to more bickering and tease.”

“nah i wouldn’t do that.” he removed your hands to see you.

“oh well then, that’s great-”

“but i’ll do more of this. and this. and this-” he approached and gave a small kiss, followed by continuous peppers of kisses.

“jaehyun!” you landed a finger to his lips. “pda is still not my thing.”

“really?” he asked in disbelief but with a very mischievous voice. “you’re saying that after you kissed me in public first?” he took his bag and ran off, leaving you flabbergasted and your thoughts buffering at what was happening now.

well it seemed there’d still be the bickers and the tease.

“yah jung jaehyun! come back here!”

[propertyofwicked]

Could you do an a-z for dating dean please? I loved tom’s! 😍

i really enjoy writing these :) ive got a george one requested so i will be doing that later. hope you enjoy this one anon :)

a - argue

like the mature adults you guys are, any argument results in silent treatment till one of you realises your fault and apologises. sometimes it takes other people to point out your mistakes, but in the end you would talk it out, make compromises and understand your differences. a little goes along way with you and dean.

b - body (his favourite body part of yours)

dean likes your hands. he likes how they move to cup his face when you kiss, he likes how your fingers move effortlessly across your keyboard when you’re typing, he likes how they wrap around things ;) he likes how they fit perfectly in his and he likes how they run over the surface of his back.

c - care (caring for each other when you’re sick)

you both spend a lot of time away from each other, as he is away filming a lot and you are at uni or doing coursework. when you do get to spend time together and it happens that someone is ill, you’re still going to spend as much time together as physically possible. you’ll spend the day in bed, wrapped up warm. If you’re ill, dean wants to treat you like a queen. under no circumstances are you to leave the bed, unless it’s for the toilet, and even then, he keeps an eye on you to make sure you don’t pass out on the way. he’ll cook you food and bring you painkillers as often as needed. when he’s ill, you’ll do mostly the same, perhaps try and move him to the sofa or go for a walk for some fresh air.

d - dates (what do you guys do?)

to the start of your relationship, dean preferred to take you on high key fancy restaurants, but once you were comfortable settled together you’d go on cafe dates in-between lectures or just stay home and watch movies with some takeaway food.

e - engagements (how he proposed) 

dean had taken you to venice for your birthday, and spent the entire week spoiling you,as he usually would much to your protests. on the last night before you flew home, you went for dinner and on the way home, he took you to a cute little bridge, tucked away from the main town. whilst you were distracted by the stars appearing in the orange sky, he got down on one near and called out your name to gain your attention.

f - friends and family (do they like you/him?)

his parents loved you. his mum and you often cooked together whenever you visited for dinner, or you and his dad would talk about politics or the football. His little sister liked having a female around that was closer to her age, you were more of her friend than her sister-in-law. your parents liked dean, he was the most respectable boy you’d ever dated and they could see how happy he made you. out of each of your friendship groups, you both were the longest to be single, so your friends were just happy to see you not crying over some failed fling.

g - gifts

as dean was away for filming a lot, he often wanted to remind you of how much he loved you by getting flowers delivered to your house and when he was done filming, he’d sometimes brought back bits of set or props that he thought you would like. being a broke student meant that sometimes the only gift you could send would be some lovely photos specially for him ;)

h - how you met

often, your uni would use it’s rooms to host interviews for press tours, or q&a halls. the uni offered pay for a group of people to set up the rooms and pack up at the end so you volunteered. tt was here you ran into george and dean as it was a 1917 q&a. they were lost so you helped direct them to the room they needed to be in. dean actively stalked you down after the interview and asked if you’d want to go for coffee with him and you hit it off from there.

i - intimacy (how often are yall getting down)

whenever, wherever. he’s down. the amount of time you spend apart just builds up your need to be together, so you grasp at any chance you can to be physically intimate with one another. it’s when you’re bored of a tv program, or he’s wearing a suit, you get the gist.

j - jealousy

you get fairly jealous as dean works around and with a lot of people you believe to be better, prettier, that yourself. as much as dean reassures you, you can’t help yourself from wondering if he’d ever leave you for one of the actress he work with. dean doesn’t tend to be massively jealous, but the more time he spends away from you, the more jealous he gets. he fears that you will find someone who can be in your life more permanently and physically than he can.

k - kinks

dean likes edging/control. he loves to see you struggle to contain your release until he says so, and he loves to take you beyond the point of pleasure till you’re literally begging to cum.

l - long distance

with dean working away so much, long distance gets hard. Sometimes he manages to come home for the weekend, but he could be gone for 3 months at a time. every night, you facetime or call each other whilst just going about your daily routine together, as if he was there. just hearing each others voices daily was enough to keep you going till you saw each other again.

m - moving in

there was never really a point where you moved in with him. your stuff just started manifesting it’s way into his house, to the extent you’d spend ages searching your room for it only to realise you’d left it at dean’s. once you were going into your second year at university, you’d been with dean for almost a year and he just kind of suggested that you live with him to avoiding massive bills for uni halls, but everyone knew it was a ploy to be able to spend more time with you.

n - nights out

as a student, nights out were key to social engagements. so, your group of uni friends and their partners would head out to a local pub and spend the evening chatting drinking or playing darts. you’d both stumble home at the early hours and wake up several hours later with a pounding hangover.

o - open with each other

whilst he was away, it was hard to be fully open with each other, knowing that anything bothering you would just upset each other further as you couldn’t be with each other at the time. once he was home, however, it was easy to spend hours wrapped up together talking about anything that was on your mind.

p - pda

neither of you are particularly into massive displays due to the public eye being on you more often than not, but a simple hand hold or peck didn’t go amiss. dean preferred to save all of his affection for home, where he could properly show you how much you meant to him.

q - questions (what you talk about late at night?)

let’s be honest, you would go into any massively deep conversation it’d be more along the lines of “how was your day? what did you do?  did I ever tell you about the time that...” but it was the small moment s like that that counted.

r - reproduction (do you want kids?)

not at this point in time, as it is the start of your careers and you’re both pretty young but you had discussed it a little. if it was to happen by surprise, you’d both embrace it but one day down the line you fully plan to have atleast a child if not more.

s - surprising (what surprised you about him)

the simplicity of his happiness. it doesn’t take much to make dean smile, or let out a little laugh but every time he did you feel a surge of happiness rush through yourself. to see him happy made you happy, so you’d strive to do that as much as humanly possible.

t - together (what you do together)

you guys like watching movies, which isnt surprising given the nature of deans job. you also like to spend quite a lot of time in the bedroom ;)

u - under the influence (drunk vibes)

it was rather common that you’d be out separately, you out with uni mates or him with co stars. drunk calls were the best, both of you becoming the funniest people alive whilst intoxicated. when he chose to stay home and you’d make you way back, fumbling to get the keys in the lock subsequently waking him up, he’d come to you and put you in bed. he’d make sure there was a glass of water and painkillers and a bowl near your head. you’d do the same, but drunk dean is flirty dean and whilst you were trying to change him into sleepable clothing, he’d make comments like “at least by me dinner first”

v - vacations

a lot of your holidays were spent on set with him, but sometimes you’d go abroad to malta or somewhere remote. you preferred quiet, adventure holidays than expensive beach holidays.

w - wedding

you had the cutest wedding ever. it was in this converted barn, with both your families and friends attending and the reception was basically a massive party in very fitting taste for you and dean.

x - xray (when he’s hurt)

dean injured himself on set of 1917, where he slipped down a trench and twisted his ankle fairly bad. because of it, he was sent home for two weeks to recuperate, where you literally tended to his every need. you brought him food, drink, medication and care to the point where he literally had to make you spend time on your other work rather than him for some time. normally it would just end in you falling asleep, cuddling on the sofa, in your living room.

y - you (a random headcanon) 

you’d had a long and bad day at uni, so you came home stressed out of your mind, muscled tensed and a pounding headache. the moment you stepped foot into the flat, you bag dropped to the floor and shoes kicked to the side, you walked into the living room where dean looked up at you and sent you a small smile. he noticed the fatigue in your eyes and posture, moving to pat his lap for you to sit on. You found your way onto his lap, legs wrapping around his waist as he moved to lay down. you hands moved under his back to hold him properly and one of his arms snaked around your waist, the other moving to brush a hand through your hair. his head lifted up slightly to press a kiss onto the top of your head.

“bad day?”

“very. but it’s slightly better now.”

“you’re very welcome babygirl”

z - zzzzzzzzzzzz’s (sleeping routine)

dean would be in bed before you every night without fail as you’d be sat doing coursework till late. but he always stayed awake till you made your way into the room and held out his arms for you to climb into and rest your head on his chest. his hands would go straight to your hair and brush through them softly, lulling you into a deep sleep that he too would fall into soon after you.

[rachelanne2018writes]

Slowly Falling Down- The Sun Also Rises

Summary:  “The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable.”

-  Friedrich Nietzsche

For the next several hours, Patrick and Sister Julienne could only sit next to Shelagh, talking to her, praying for her, and singing songs that might bring her comfort if she was on the road towards her heavenly father. When they could simply sing no more, they turned to prayer and silence, fitting for a woman who began her time in Poplar observing hours of silence every day.

Then, like a shooting star across the night sky, Shelagh awoke for more than just a moment. Years later, Shelagh would recall the moment as though it felt like the fog had lifted, and she was in control of her body again.

“Patrick?” Shelagh whispered weakly.

“I’m here, Shelagh. Sister Julienne is here as well. How are you feeling?”

“Okay.”

With glances to speak between them, Patrick and Sister Julienne made a decision they would not regret. They decided that they would spend time with Shelagh before they alerted Doctor Evans. The trio spent the better part of the afternoon enjoying each other’s company and filling Shelagh in on the events during her slumber. Once Shelagh was sufficiently filled in, it was time to allow Doctor Evans to examine her. 

“Ah, Mrs. Turner. Glad to see you’ve returned to us. Now, I think it’s best if both of you would excuse yourselves from the room while I complete an examination on Mrs. Turner here.”

Luckily for Shelagh, Patrick, and Sister Julienne still could sense her non-verbal cues without evidence.

“I beg to differ, Doctor Evans, Shelagh has only just woken up. I’m sure she’d feel more comfortable if the two people she knows and trusts the most were with her.”

“Very well, then. I simply ask that if you are unwilling to leave the room, then you step away from the side of the bed.”

It was that moment when Patrick Turner’s faith and composure ran out. 

“Get out of my surgery. Now. Do not return.” Patrick Turner yelled suddenly at the top of his lungs.

“I apologize, Doctor Turner, but I am the one in trust to care for your wife.”

“Out. Now.” Patrick yelled again, louder.

“You’d best be off Doctor Evans, Shelagh and Doctor Turner are the people who are in trust of this surgery, and who are responsible for its reputation. Be off with you.” Sister Julienne finally spoke up.

It was several hours before Shelagh, who had been upset by Doctor Evans’s commotion, was calm again, and everyone was sure that he was gone.

“Shelagh, I don’t want to upset you, but I should examine you to make sure that you’re alright.”

“Please don’t make Sister Julienne leave.” Shelagh whimpered

“I wouldn’t dream of it Shelagh, you need her just as much, if not more than me right now. Would you like her to hold your hand?”

“Yes.” The look Shelagh gave him at that moment was one of pure love and gratitude. 

It was by no means a full physical exam, but rather a combination of vitals and checking eyes, ears, and the throat. It was enough to trust that Shelagh was okay and not overstep her unspoken boundaries at that moment. Once done, both Patrick and Sister Julienne could hear Shelagh’s silent plea for them to hold and comfort her. After a few hours, Sister Julienne excused herself back to Nonnatus to tell Timothy and Angela that Shelagh was awake, giving Patrick and Shelagh a chance to talk privately.

“How are you feeling, Shelagh?”

“Oh, Patrick, I’ve never felt better.”

“Shelagh, I know you’re scared. We’re here for you.”

“I’m scared that I am going to get worse, Patrick. I’m scared that I’m not better.”

“Shelagh, having this conversation is one step towards healing. Shelagh, are you afraid that you aren’t a good mother because of your depression.”

“Yes,” The only meek whisper Shelagh could muster.

The rest of the night was spent comforting Shelagh and helping her understand that depression made her no less of a mother, nurse, secretary, and friend. Even seeing Timothy and Angela the next morning did not seem to help. It appeared as though even Sister Julienne was struggling to get to Shelagh.

“Shelagh,” Patrick probed one day as he took her hand.

‘Yes, Patrick”

“How would you feel about going home to Timothy and Angela.”

“Oh, Patrick, do you think I’m well enough?”

“Shelagh, I think having you home will help you heal more than spending your days in this room and rarely seeing a soul, aside from Sister Julienne and I. Shelagh, you need time and a safe place to heal. It won’t be instant or ever complete, but rather an ongoing process. Somedays will feel better than others. It might also help to have Angela and Timothy when you need someone to make you laugh or help you with overwhelming tasks.”

“Okay,” Shelagh agreed after quite a while. However, she didn’t want Timothy and Angela to struggle with her problems, the prospect of having purpose glimmered above everything.

The first week was rough, but Trixie and Sister Julienne’s visits seemed to help, especially when Shelagh could catch a rest on the Settee. Then it was like something turned on a dime. Shelagh was becoming gradually more anxious to stay home with Timothy and Angela without another adult present. It wasn’t helping that she did not sleep that well at night either. The final straw was coming home to Shelagh sobbing on the floor of the kitchen, whispering something about being a “failure of a housewife” through her tears. 

Through the grapevine, news of Northfield’s new Family Residential Program made it’s way to Patrick. It seemed like the answer to helping Shelagh. The program structure made it so that Timothy would continue his studies while he and Angela remained with Shelagh. It also allowed Sister Julienne to come as a companion, allowing Patrick to continue working and visit on his off days. Although it was unusual when Shelagh didn’t have a protest to going away, it confirmed to Patrick that she needed time outside of Poplar to grieve and heal. 

After six months away, Shelagh returned to the flat part-time under the observation of Sister Julienne and her team at Northfield. A further six months of the part-time arrangement passed before a two-week trial of full-time home living occurred, ending with Shelagh returning to Poplar permanently, under the care of her new team at Harley Street.

In the years following, Shelagh appeared to return to her “old self.” Yet, Patrick, Shelagh, and Sister Julienne could attest that bad days still came up, albeit less severe than before treatment. Even during her pregnancy, when Shelagh’s team insisted on watching her like hawks, she remained stable. 

When the choir began ‘O Nata Lux’ that year, Shelagh felt the song’s truth in her heart. Looking among the faces in the pew with her, Shelagh felt a weight lift off her chest. As tears of joy and gratitude slipped down her face, she pressed a kiss on her smallest boy’s head. 

Domine, dona nobis pacem. 

Finis.

[pandawritespoorly]

With Time: Chapter 39 - A General Upward Trend

Author’s Note: Ladybug finally has a talk with her former teammates, and Marinette gets around to finishing something she's been putting off.

Chapter Summary: Ladybug and Chat Noir's interactions in this chapter are very precious. Like, they're real cute. Prepare yourself. No warnings! This is a calm chapter. It's so weird to say, but there's only three left after this one, and chapter 42 is just an epilogue, so this story is well and truly wrapping up. Goodness.

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Adrien is doing better. Marinette smiles at him, happy to see him resting happily. He’s basically recovered at this point, but she’d insisted he rest a little more, and being the cat he is, he didn’t protest.

She glances out the window and sighs. It’s no longer light enough out that she can justify waiting. It’s most certainly dark enough that Ladybug could go out without issue.

“Tikki, spots on.”

As quietly as she can, she creeps past the model and heads out through the balcony.

Whizzing through the city on her yo-yo, she gets to her first destination.

The window opens when she knocks.

“L-Ladybug?” Nino looks surprised to see her.

“Hello. I’m… I’m here to apologize. Last time I visited, I dropped some very shocking news on you with no explanation. I’m willing to explain myself now, especially since I believe you’ll be more receptive to what I have to say.”

“Oh. Yeah, uh, Dudette, I definitely figured it out.” He looks away.

She forces a gentle smile. “I understand, but I feel like you still deserve to hear a proper explanation from me, and the opportunity to ask any questions you might have.”

He nods, still not meeting her eyes.

“Due to the high rate of akumas at your school, Chat and I keep tabs on it. We… became aware of a situation with Ms. Dupain-Cheng and Ms. Rossi. After a few months of you and Alya both only further bullying Ms. Dupain-Cheng, I came to the realization that if I couldn’t trust you two to treat your friends well, I couldn’t trust you to be a good member of the team. Nino, you wielded the miraculous of protection, and you not only failed to protect your friend, you went out of your way to harm her. I could not let you continue to be Carapace.”

Tears have welled up in his eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you let me know so I could fix things?”

She sighs, doing her best to keep herself together. “I had already spoken directly to Adrien, and soon learned Marinette had been a witness to that conversation. Two of your close friends told you that Lila was lying, and you dismissed them. You made no effort to track me down for confirmation. You also immediately turned on me the day after I informed you of Carapace’s retirement. You refused to accept that you could have done something wrong and blamed an innocent girl so that you had someone to take it out on. You were given chances, and it shouldn’t have been up to me to let you know you were in the wrong. You ignored the signs, and that’s on you.”

He removes his glasses, wiping at his eyes with his forearm. “Y-yeah. I know. A-after what I did to M-M-Marinette…”

“Is there anything else you want to know?”

He shakes his head, returning inside.

Ladybug takes a few breaths to steady herself. That was more emotionally exhausting than she thought it would be.

One down. One to go.

It’s barely night, and it’s already a long one.

She goes to the roof, intending to get on her way to Alya’s when a dark figure catches her eye.

Chat Noir stands on the roof, arms crossed and looking at her, eyebrows raised.

“Ladybug. You did not specifically wait until I was asleep to sneak out and confront your former bullies alone again, did you?”

“Uh, well, when you phrase it like that…”

He sags, approaching her, face softening. “Bug. I told you, you don’t need to need to do this alone. You can have support.”

“I just didn’t want to bother you, and you need rest anyways, and-”

“Bug. Look at me.” He walks up to her, taking both of her hands in his. He leans down, touching his forehead to hers. He looks at her eyes for a moment. “I will say this as many times as it takes, but no matter what it is, no matter who it is - no matter what, if it is important to you, it’s important to me. If something’s bothering you, you can tell me. If you aren’t feeling well, mentally or physically, you can tell me. You matter, you’re important, and you are not alone.”

Her breath hitches, and a few tears show up in her bright blue eyes.

“Do you understand me, Mari?”

She nods, separating their hands to wrap her arms around him, burying her face in his chest, squeezing him tightly.

He holds her, kissing her hair. “I love you, Bug, I just want you to realize how important you are.”

“I love you too,” she sobs, voice cracking slightly.

She lets a few tears fall, then regains her composure.

“Alya next?” Chat asks.

She nods, and he follows her to the ex-reporter’s house. He sits on the roof, waiting for her as she goes to Alya.

“Alya?”

The girl whips around at her hero’s voice. Her eyes well up immediately. “Ladybug. I- I’m so sorry.”

“So am I. I’m here to apologize for how I broke the news to you in November-”

Alya shakes her head. “I don’t deserve an apology. I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did.”

“No, Alya, it was perfectly understandable. You deserved an explanation and that’s what I’m here to give you, even if it’s a little late. You deserve to have your questions answered. Chat and I keep an eye on your school, because so many students and faculty members have been akumatized there. We became aware of the treatment of Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and the role you played in that. You and Nino needed to be heroes with and without the miraculouses, and you didn’t do that. If anything, you were villains. It wasn’t my job to point things out, especially after I’d already outed Lila to two of your close friends. As the Fox, you had the power of illusions. You should have been able to see through the very clear lies that Ms. Rossi was spewing, and as a friend, you should have stuck-” Ladybug stops. Alya is sniffling and tears are streaming down her face endlessly. Her face falls. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to rub salt in the wound-”

“N-no I-I-I d-d-de-deserve it.”

“No. No you don’t.” Ladybug puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You were a victim of Lila. That doesn’t excuse your actions, but you shouldn’t beat yourself up over it.”

Alya clearly isn’t having it, so Ladybug tries to change the topic. “Is there anything you want to ask me?��

After a minute or two, Alya calms enough to mumble, “W-wh-why d-didn’t y-you t-t-t-tell th-this me b-before? Wh-why w-w-wait to e-explain-n-n?”

Ladybug sighs, staring at the sky. “I… I wasn’t doing very well late last year. I’d… lost some people that were very important to me, and I was having a rough time. I didn’t want to lose Carapace and Rena Rouge too, but I knew I had to let you guys go. I put it off for a while, but I was starting to slow down from the cold and I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer. I’m sorry about how I went about that.”

“Oh,” She sobs, “and I yelled at you. I’m so so sorry!”

“I- It’s fine. I didn’t really do the best job at explaining it to you.”

“Still.” Alya hiccups a few more times, trying to get her emotions under control. “I-I think you sh-should go home. You should r-rest. You sh-shouldn’t have t-to be up l-late because of m-me.”

Ladybug smiles at her a little, then nods, wishing her a goodnight and heading to the roof. Chat is waiting for her with open arms, and she collapses against him, shaking.

“It’s okay Bugaboo, it’s okay.”

“I- I just- I th-thought I w-was o-over all- all of this.”

“It’ll take more time than this. No one is expecting you to be all healed by now.”

She doesn’t respond initially, then she whispers, “Ladybug is supposed to be strong.”

“Oh Princess. You are strong, I promise you that.” He holds her face, wiping away a tear with a thumb. “You just have a hard time appreciating yourself.”

The soft smile she gives him makes him wonder, not for the first time, why he’s the sunshine child. Everything about her is blinding in the best possible way.

“Kitty, what would I do without you?”

He scoops her up. “Well, fur one, you’d have to get home on your own.”

She kicks. “Hey! You’re sick, you shouldn’t be patrolling, let alone carrying me!”

“Paw-lease, I’m mostly recovered and we both know it. You’ve been keeping an eye on me, so it’s time for me to return the favor. Now I get to take care of you!”

“What do you call most of this school year then?”

“Being your friend. Obviously.” He rolls his eyes, as though it was ridiculous that she even had to ask.

Before she can protest further, he takes off across the rooftops. He lands on her terrace, and sets her down. He bows. “I do hope you enjoyed your cat-xi ride, mademoiselle.”

She gives him an odd look, and murmurs to herself, “...catzee…?” A look of realization dawns on her face, and she punches his arm. “That was really bad, Chaton. It’s not even a taxi ride, because I didn’t pay you.”

“Your prrr-sence is enough,” he says, kissing her hand.

She blushes, but pushes his forehead back with her index finger. “That’s enough from you.”

“Claws in. Guess it’s Adrien’s turn then.”

“No, no cheesy pick up lines from you.” She turns away, finally entering her room.

Pouting, he follows her. “But cheesy pick up lines are the best,” he whines, sitting on her chaise, across from where she sits at her desk chair.

She raises an eyebrow, then grows concerned at the cheshire grin on his face. Before she can ask what he’s up to, he starts to talk.

“I can make do without pick up lines, beautiful.”

She turns a little pink, and decides to pretend to focus on designing. He rolls around on the chaise, laying on his back but facing her.

“Hey. Hey. Marinette. Heyyyyy, Mariiiiiii! You’re really pretty, and you’re so nice, and you’re super smart, because, like, you always come up with the best plans all the time, and your eyes are absolutely stunning, and you are such a good person and-” He glances at her, and her face is about the same color as Tikki. “Maybe I should stop, I’m worried about all your blood going to your face.”

Adrien hangs off the lounge, looking at her upside-down. He waits until her face begins to cool off, then he adds, “Not that you don’t look good in red, of course.”

She squeaks, and her face goes crimson again.

---

Patisserie Princess: so um

Patisserie Princess: i think im gonna go through all my old stuff finally

Patisserie Princess: so if you guys want to come over and help then yeah

 The Mom Friend: omw

 Melodie: I’m close already, so I’ll be there quick.

 Kid Mime: im on ur roof

 Felix: I will head over.

 Patisserie Princess: thanks

Patisserie Princess: wait wat

 The Mom Friend: the roof roof or the balcony roof

The Mom Friend: coz 1 of those is v dangerous

 Kid Mime: balcony roof

 Melodie: Okay.

 Patisserie Princess: how and why????

 Hug This Boy: Because Claude.

Hug This Boy: There is no logic where there is Claude.

 The Mom Friend: yep

 Patisserie Princess: but on my roof???

 Felix: I found them clinging to the outside of my window once.

 Kid Mime: that was fun

Kid Mime: mari is it good for me to come in now

Kid Mime: ur flowers r pretty but ur prettierrrrrrrrr!!!

 Patisserie Princess: yes u can come in

 Once Marinette sends that, she hears her trapdoor open and turns to see Claude landing on her bed, smiling wide.

“You really were on my roof.”

They grin more. “That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

“Well yeah, but my roof? How did you even-”

“Mari!” Claude gasps. “You should know that a magician never reveals their secrets!”

Adrien comes up through the trapdoor, bearing a tray of cookies. “Hey Claude. Cookie?”

“Yes!”

Marinette just blinks, still trying to figure this out.

 Kid Mime: haha

Kid Mime: i got the first cookie

 Melodie: Because you were on the roof.

Melodie: For who knows what reasons.

 The Mom Friend: 4 claude reasons obviously

 Kid Mime: see? mom gets me

 Felix: No one truly understands you, if we are all being honest.

 Patisserie Princess: yea im still confused

 Melodie: Honey, by now I would have thought you’d know not to dwell on the how.

 Kid Mime: ive been told i cause headaches

 The Mom Friend: and heart attacks

 Felix: Marinette, it would be for the best if you did not spend an excessive amount of time attempting to comprehend him.

Felix: He is Claude, and that is the best explanation we will ever truly get.

 Patisserie Princess: i suppose

 Melodie: I’m here!

 Kid Mime: thats great

 Melodie: …

Melodie: Don’t let Claude finish off the cookies.

 Kid Mime: wat wood make u think id do that

 Patisserie Princess: he just stuffed three in his mouth

Patisserie Princess: u may want to hurry

---

When they’ve all arrived, Marinette retrieves the stuff from last time when they’d sorted. Marinette looks over the piles, trying to decide what to do. The others wait patiently.

“Okay, I think I’ll keep all the pictures. This is basically my entire childhood, and I’m not going to let what happened taint my past. Especially a lot of these early ones.” She looks over a few photos, finding some with especially young versions of the classmates. “I’m not going to blame four year old Nino for what present Nino did.”

“We can help you find a photo album for all these sometime then.”

She nods gratefully.

“Paper then… uh, if it’s just schoolwork, we can recycle it. Unless it’s some big project or you think I might want it, then I can look over it. Um. Designs can stay. I’ll look over cards…” She continues to list off what can happen to anything they might find in the mess. “Anything else, you can just leave to me.”

So they get started, and the pile of things getting thrown out or recycled grows and grows. It’s not nearly as tense or sad of an atmosphere as it had been last time, instead, they talk and joke as they would any normal day. Sometimes Marinette grows quiet, looking at something in her hands with an expression that doesn’t fall into any singular category.

Glee and anguish are usually considered opposites.

The mess of pining, fear, nostalgia, grief, and an unending amount of other emotions on her face is almost physically painful to see.

If she seems okay, they’ll keep talking, letting her feel in peace. Other times, she’s clearly struggling, so one of them will touch her softly, or hug her gently, pulling her from the past back to the present.

She laughs plenty too. This time around is clearly easier for her, and her progress is undeniable.

It’s good to see her good.

---

Author’s Note: I told you they were precious. I told you! How does it feel knowing that the angst in this story is basically over? You've got mostly fluff and sweetness until the end. Sure, I'll be getting those extra one-shots up eventually, so those will have salt, guilt, etc, but the next chapters? Smooth sailing, my friends.

Speaking of sailing, yes, our ships will be sailing by the time this is fully posted. No worries, we'll get a kiss, it's already written and everything.

I keep realizing I'm not really doing anything productive, and I'm like 'Oh! I'll just work on With Time!'. Nope! Can't do that anymore, so I'm finally getting around to those one-shots I've been promising. I'm sure some of you stalk the comments, do any of you remember anything I mentioned getting around to write that took place in the main story but didn't get into a chapter? If you don't that's fine. If you think of anything you want to see, regardless of if I've mentioned it before, just let me know. I'm finally starting a legitimate list. So far, I have Tikki and Plagg talking after the reveal (low priority), Alya and Nino's respective apologies to Adrien, and Gabriel and Nathalie realized they screwed up after the GoodFriends™ launched their whole thing last chapter. Anything else?

Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave any thoughts, theories, constructive criticism, or anything really in my ask box, in replies or through reblogs. I love seeing what you think!

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[a-strange-inkling]

SASUSAKU MONTH DAY 2: Patterns

Rated T (for suggestive content and language)

Summary: Only in another life would Sakura ever hate Sasuke, and even then it’s debatable. Though in a different sky, the stars always follow the same pattern (RTN AU, First Chapter of Story that I’ve been working on) 

 Annoying

"You aren't mad at me, are you Sakura?" 

Ah. There they were. 

Uchiha Sasuke's infamous Puppy-Dog Eyes. 

Haruno Sakura held back a sneer as she turned her attention back to the romance novel she was currently indulging, not in the mood for any of her overly hormonal team mate's antics.  The sweet, childlike innocence in those round, onyx orbs of his was as sincere as a tray of fucking cheese. Sasuke knew better than anyone that she was mad at him. 

She was always mad at him. 

"Sa-ku-ra..." he cooed, trying again for her attention, speaking her name at a low and chilling octave, knowing she hated when he did that.

The Fourth Hokage's daughter only snorted at the sound of her name rolling seductively off his lips, before pivoting her entire body away from him, crossing her legs with a steely grace.  

Sasuke rolled his eyes, unable to repress the smirk that had been playing at the corner of his mouth. "Well, I must have really hit close to the mark this time, you're even pulling out your age-old Ice Queen persona." 

Sakura simply glared at the written text in front of her, refusing to get in yet another spat with the arrogant boy. However, the young Uchiha had not quite given up yet, he knew one particular trick that would get to the cold young woman.

"You know, no one has mastered the silent treatment quite like you, Sakura-chan."

"Don't call me that." Sakura hissed quickly, shooting him one of her nastiest looks. She never let him call her that.

Sasuke's smirk deepened. "Seems there is still some room for improvement though." 

"Look, there is a pair of breasts right over there, Sasuke!" she exclaimed with feigned excitement, pointing to a fairly pretty brunette who was making her way down the street. "Why don't you go bother them for a while?"  

Sasuke eyed the passing young woman thoughtfully, mildly interested, before shaking his head and turning his attention back to the spunky rosette. "Shouldn't do that, you might get jealous, then you'd be even madder at me." 

Sakura stood then, abruptly, closing her book with a resounding snap, as she put distance between herself and the young Uchiha. 

"Come on, Sakura!" he called after her, growing annoyed as the kunochi went to find another place to wait for the rest of their squad. She was secretly pleased that his voice had an agitated edge to it instead of the usual carefree ring that usually resounded from his mouth. "Are you going to be like this the whole mission?" 

Silently, with her unparalleled grace, the kunochi leapt up several branches of a nearby oaktree, before settling back down with her book.  It was all of nine seconds before Sasuke was perched behind her, peering over her shoulder. 

"...how's your latest 'Kiss Handsome Boy' book?" he asked coyly. 

"The hero is not handsome, he's deformed," Sakura replied with a roll of her eyes.  "What's compelling about him is how deeply he loves and how loyal he is... Something you wouldn't know anything about." 

"Deformed as in one side of his otherwise attractive face," Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Oh, is there a scar over one of his eyes? Or is he missing a limb?" 

Sakura looked skyward in agitation. 

"Heh." Sasuke smirked. "He's just missing a limb isn't he?" 

"Would you just leave me alone, please?" Sakura asked him with a sigh, shifting down the branch. 

"Oh, come on, aren't you going to tell me more about your hero?" the Uchiha asked smugly. "I bet he's all brooding and tortured with a tragic past, and I'm sure only you can save him." 

Sakura growled in agitation before closing the book once more and placing it in her back pouch before turning her jade orbs on the Uchiha playboy.

"Okay, Sasuke, you win," she said, crossing her arms. "You have my attention, now what the hell do you want?" 

"Hey," Sasuke put his hands up in surrender. "I'm just trying to find out why you're mad at me, Sakura-chan, it's not good for a team to go on a mission with unresolved issues." 

"I'm not mad at you, Sasuke." she said evenly. "I just genuinely can't stand you." 

"Aw." Sasuke chided, swinging his legs over the branch to let them swing. "We both know that's not true, we used to be friends once, you even used to call me Sasuke-kun, remember?" 

"I was just a stupid kid back then," she replied. "Now, would you leave me alone, it's bad enough I have to spend a whole week with you." 

The infamous playboy placed a hand over his heart. "Ah, you wound me, Sakura-chan... Don't you care at all about the importance of teamwork?" 

"Oh, are you going to lecture me about teamwork?" she asked him. "You, the one who abandoned the team to flirt with that busty nimrod last time?" 

"You're so high and mighty, you know that?" He scoffed. "Sorry that I like to enjoy myself once in a while and talk to people, unlike Menma who can barely form coherent words around women, and you, because you're too busy trying to keep up you're frigid bitch facade." 

"Wow, Sasuke." Sakura gave him a mocking grin. "And you wonder why I don't like you." 

"That's your problem, you don't like anyone," Sasuke explained matter-o-factly. "That's why you're so lonely all the time." 

She felt her breathing hitch and her whole body stiffen at the word. 

What did he just say?

Lonely...

"How would you know?" she asked lowly. "You don't know a damn thing about being alone."

"Sakura..." he began, realizing he had gone a little overboard.  She was just so harsh sometimes, he couldn't help it. "I didn't mean it like that, I just..." 

"You're so damn annoying! Acting like you actually know me!" she exclaimed, so angry she didn't know what to do with herself. "Why don't you just keep your mouth shut about things you don't understand!?"  She stood up and leapt down from the tree, unwilling to wait around with him a moment more. 

Luckily, Menma appeared, walking up the cobbled path, giving her a shy smile. "M-morning, Sakura-chan."

"Hello, Menma." she replied with a sigh of relief. "It's so good to see you." 

"It really is," Sasuke replied, jumping down from his perch. "I'll have a witness in case Sakura-chan tries to do me in." 

Menma sighed to himself. It seemed this would be another mission of tension between his two teammates.  "Hey, Sasuke... M-my mom made cookies for the journey if you guys want some," he told them, holding out a brown paper bag where his mother had drawn a lopsided smiley face.  It was an immature tactic to make peace, but it was effective more times than not. 

"Ah!" Sasuke exclaimed, helping himself. "Let me at 'em! Kushina-san's cookies are always the best!" 

"Sakura-chan?" Menma encouraged her to take one, trying not to blush. 

"No thanks, Menma." Sakura replied, putting up a hand.  "I'm on a cleanse, but they smell delicious." 

"A cleanse?" Menma asked. 

"Probably for the best." Sasuke nodded. "They’re too sweet to share with someone so bitter. Not to mention you've been growing a little thicker around the middle." 

Menma cringed in fear. Did Sasuke just call her fat? Did he dare? So much for his peace cookies. Maybe he should try dumplings next time.

A sort of dark shadow fell over Sakura's eyes as she shot a deadly glare up at her raven-haired teammate. 

Sasuke smirked in response. "Sorry, koishii, that doesn't work on me." 

Sakura had a talent for scaring off her many admirers with that dark look alone, however, that frightening attitude of hers had an opposite effect on Sasuke.

 He wasn't afraid, only amused. 

"Heh," she replied, startling him a bit and switching gears as an easy smile spread across her face, mirroring his own. That may not work on him, but she knew something that would. "On second thought, I would love a cookie."

She strode past him then, with a little extra swing of her hips, purposefully knocking her shoulder with his own as she did so, and took a large round cookie from the offered bag."Thanks, Menma-kun, you're so sweet!"

Surprising both her male teammates, the kunoichi leaned up and brushed her lips against Menma's cheek as a token of her appreciation, making the blonde turn seven different shades of red and Sasuke's smirk diminish a little. 

"Da...uh... N-no problem, Sakura-chan." the poor boy stuttered, his hands clenching around the cookie bag, lost somewhere between pure joy and mortification.  His mom was right.  Sweets were the way to a girl's heart! 

Sakura turned and smirked triumphantly at Sasuke, glad to see his own had melted into a displeased frown, as she took a slow enticing bite of the cookie.  "Mmm... you're right, Sasuke, these really are the best." 

"Hn." he hummed. "Careful you don't choke, Sakura."

"Good morning, students!" Kakashi greeted, interrupting the spat. 

"Ah, right on time as always, Sensei." Sasuke waved before shoving his hands in his pockets. "Where are we off to today?" 

...

"Tell me." 

"No, go away." 

"C'mon, just tell me what's bothering you." 

"No! Stop that! Get the hell away from me!" 

"Sakuraaaaa."

"Sasuke." 

"Look, I'll stop bugging you for the rest of the journey if you just tell me." 

"No!" 

"Please, Sakura," Kakashi begged from where he was leading the three teenagers. "For all our sakes, take him up on that offer." 

Menma nodded in agreement.  It was hard to focus on reading the map with those two bickering behind him. 

"I'm not giving in to his whining." the rosette replied angrily.  "...I'm going on ahead to scout." 

With that, she leapt away into the trees and disappeared from sight.  Sasuke moved to jump after her. 

"Sasuke, give her some space,"  Kakashi commanded.  

"Heh, she's not getting away that easily." was the ninja's careless and insubordinate reply.  

Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Sasuke knew Sakura. He had known her his whole life and she really wasn't the icy, badass bitch she made herself out to be.  She had been putting up with his normal bullshit for years with the usual scoff or roll of the eyes, whatever he had done most recently must have really upset her.  

And, truth be told, he wasn't all too happy with her either. 

"I can't really be sorry for something if I didn't even know what I did, you know?" he told her once he caught up with the angry kunoichi.  "Come on, I genuinely want to know what's wrong." 

"You, genuine?" she scoffed. 

"Okay, I don't deserve that," he told her. "We're not thirteen anymore, your lousy attitude is not going to send me into the corner feeling bad about what I did. I'm human, I make mistakes.  Not all of us can be perfect like you..." 

"You see, that's exactly what gets on my nerves." she turned on him then, her finger pointed right into his face. "You think everything is about you." 

"Well, isn't this about me?" he asked. "Isn't that why you haven't spoken to me for days, this morning, and that stunt with Menma you did to try and get me jealous." 

"Ha! Don't flatter yourself." 

"Well, you were." he laughed. "Unfortunately, I'm not the jealous type like you." 

That earned him a glare. "Whatever makes you feel better, Sasuke." 

"Look," he sighed. "Is this really going to be the whole mission? Can we just..." 

"Ino is not one of those girls!" she exclaimed. 

"What?" Sasuke asked, dumbfounded. 

"Ino," she remarked. "You know, my best friend? She's not like those girls you hang out with, the ones who enjoy flirting with you as much as you enjoy flirting with them.  She's shy, even more so than Menma, anytime a guy gives her any attention she takes it to heart. She took you flirting with her seriously." 

"Who are we even talking about?" he asked, confused. 

"INO!" Sakura exclaimed.  "She's been in every class with both of us since the Academy. Blonde haired, blue-green eyes, wears five layers of clothing." 

"Ohhhhh." Sasuke realized. "The stuttering girl... she's your friend still, huh?" 

"Kami." Sakura hissed, turning and jumping to another branch.  

"Look, Sakura, wait," Sasuke called after her. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean anything by it, it was Shikamaru's idea, it was all just a joke." 

"Just a joke?" Sakura asked him. "Hurting a girl's feelings and making her feel foolish for believing you were actually genuine is not a joke... do you know how hard it was for me to tell her what you're really like, that you didn't actually like her, you were just messing with her?" 

"Look, it was stupid," he sighed, jumping and landing beside her once more. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well, you tell her that next time you see her," she quipped. "Maybe she'll forgive you." 

"Fine, mama bear, I will."  he sighed, placing a heavy hand on her shoulder. "As usual, you're blowing this way out of proportion." 

She shoved his hand away and crossed her arms. "I told you what was bothering me, wasn't that the deal? Now stop bugging me for the rest of the trip." 

With that she jumped away again, not slowing down, leaving Sasuke to stare after her. 

Kami, that girl. She drove him absolutely crazy. 

... 

They set up camp and Team 7 had fallen into a not so easy silence.  Sasuke had been true to his word and let Sakura alone, but the tension from before was still sizzling in the air as they went about their tasks. It was all standard teenage shit for Kakashi, but Menma was always uncomfortable with any sort of discourse, especially between his only two friends, and found himself actually missing their bickering. This competitive silence was somehow worse. 

Once they all settled around the fire, Menma had calculated that no one had spoken for an hour and twenty-three minutes. While he was a quiet fellow, himself, this was just ridiculous. He turned to Kakashi with a pleading look. 

Do something, Sensei! 

But the silver-haired jonin was looking over their map, planning for the next morning, quite content with the silence, no matter how awkward it was. Menma turned to his right to see Sakura at the farthest end of the fire, her nose in her book, legs crossed and body pivoted away from them all.  To his left sat Sasuke, sharpening his kunai, a full pout on his face as he watched Sakura's back. Menma had never seen him so grumpy. Though bothering Sakura was his lifeblood, being cut off for even an hour seemed to have negative effects. 

Menma, knowing it was up to him to break the ice, squeezed his cookie bag in dread. He hated bringing attention to himself, but if it was for the good of his team, he would do it.  He glanced around before choosing the member of his squad he currently liked best to try to engage with.  While it was a wide known fact that Sasuke was his best friend, Sakura-chan was very pretty. 

Plus she had kissed him that morning, he still felt it burning beneath his skin.  

"How is your book, Sakura-chan?" he chirped, feeling blood rush to his cheeks. The sound of his soft, raspy voice was like a piano crashing from the sky on top of them all. He felt Sasuke's glare burning a hole in the back of his head and realized that he may have betrayed a rule of comradery between them that he had been unaware of. Apparently, if the Uchiha wasn't talking to Sakura, he wasn't allowed to talk to her either.

Forgive me, brother!

Sakura lowered her book and gave him a rare sweet smile over her shoulder. "It's a work of genius." she sighed dreamily. "The hero just proposed to his dying lover." 

"Oh, that's um... nice," Menma replied, though he wasn't sure if it was. He wasn't one for reading, and certainly couldn't manage a thick romance novel without dying from secondhand embarrassment, but Sakura never went on a mission without one. It was the funny riddle of her being for her teacher and teammates, that someone as cold and crass as the village Ice Queen read sappy paperbacks. 

Sasuke scoffed from behind, but Menma didn't even dare to face him. "There's one more cookie, if you want it, Sakura-chan." he offered, holding out the crumpled bag once more. If he was going to have to speak, he might as well try and get another kiss for his efforts. Sakura beamed and not only accepted his offer, but set aside her book before rising and coming to sit beside him. "Thanks, Menma." she beamed, making him turn a full shade of scarlet. "You are so thoughtful." 

That set the Uchiha off, he tossed his kunai aside and rose to his full height. "Why does she get the last cookie?" 

"I-I uh..."

"You don't have to explain yourself to him, Menma." Sakura told him firmly, placing a hand on his shoulder, making his soul leave his body a little. "Despite what he thinks, he's not the boss of you." 

"Oh, wow," Sasuke started to laugh, thoroughly pissed off now, but refusing to acknowledge her before she acknowledged him. "Real nice, Uzumaki, leaving me high and dry for a pretty face." 

"Sorry..." the blond began, feeling awful. 

"Don't apologize to him!" Sakura exclaimed. “Like he’s one to talk.” 

“Look, here’s a little free advice, Menma.” Sasuke went on regardless. “Cute as she is, she’s just going to chew you up and spit you out, there are a lot of way nicer girls around.” 

Menma felt Sakura’s hand squeeze his shoulder unintentionally and knew that comment had more than stung the kunoichi. He felt something foreign in his chest flare up all of sudden. 

“Sakura-chan is nice!” he told him, taking a tone with his friend he never had before. “She’s always nice to me!” 

“Only cause it serves a purpose.” Sasuke rolled his eyes, unsure how the kid could be so clueless. 

“Kami, you really are the most arrogant, hypocritical, egotistical, delusional fuck boy to ever grace the planet!” Sakura all but screamed at such an accusation. It was all she could do to not send a fist into his nose. 

“Ah, there she is!” Sasuke grinned triumphantly.  

Kakashi sighed, looking toward the heavens. It had been such a glorious hour and a half.  Perhaps he had summoned some sort of karma for foolishly hoping to finish his work before they both started back up again. 

“You’re such a horrid friend to him, do you know that?” she stood up and strode right up to the boy that loomed over her about a good seven inches. “You’re always telling him what to do and making him feel like he’s second best to you.”

“Yeah, well it’s better than you not even letting him speak up for himself.” he pointed out. “Stop trying to be everyone’s mother.” 

“Excuse me?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips. 

“Look, if you’re so concerned about Menma and his feelings, then why don’t stop using him as fuel to get to me?” 

“Oh, get over yourself, Sasuke!” 

“That’s enough!” Kakashi intervened. He considered himself an even-tempered man, but he could only take so much of the ongoing saga of Sasuke and Sakura. Honestly, he’d come to wish they’d get it over with and just fuck or do each other in. The older they got the more their bickering and sexual tension was getting out of hand. “Both of you, go blow off some steam, Sakura go North, Sasuke go South, I don’t want to see either of you back here until you can both be amiable comrades to one another and stop pulling Menma into the middle of your immature spats.” 

“But, Sensei…” 

“Now, Sakura!” He commanded, pointing his finger, making her huff as she grabbed her bag and leaped off. 

“Whatever.” Sasuke shrugged, turning and taking her leave as well, leaving the silver hair ninja with his remaining student. He ruffled his blond hair tiredly. “What are we going to do with them, huh, Menma?” 

“Don’t know, Sensei.” he shrugged. “They really hate each other, don’t they?” 

Kakashi’s mouth formed a line. “If only it were that simple.” 

…

Sakura knew it was stupid to think that Sasuke would, for once, listen to Kakashi and actually put some distance between them, but she would have liked at least a second to herself. 

“You’re really something else, you know that?” he asked coming up behind her. 

“Didn’t you hear Sensei? You’re supposed to go South.” she shot back heatedly, storming off faster, knowing it was pointless. If there was one thing she’d admit that Sasuke had on her it was speed. He was soon walking alongside her. 

“Who cares what he says?” he huffed. “I’m not done with you yet.” 

“Yeah, well I’m done with you.” she retorted. 

“No, you don’t get to call me out on leading your friend on, when you’re doing the same thing to Menma, and then call me a hypocrite,” he told her. “That’s not how it works.” 

She stopped abruptly and turned to face him. “I’m not leading him on.” 

His face went deadpan at that, before taking on a persona that she assumed was herself. 

“Oh, Menma-kun, I’d love a cookie!” he gushed as high as his deep voice would let him go. “You’re so sweet! You’re so thoughtful! I’m not just using you to get under Sasuke’s skin at all!”

She turned and kept walking at that, enraged that he would make such an accusation, and even more so because he was not completely wrong either. 

“Ever thought about how that will make Menma feel?” he asked. “You know how he feels about you.” 

“What are you talking about?” she stopped and turned around. 

“He’s in love with you!” Sasuke exclaimed as if she were an idiot. 

Sakura felt something snap like a twig somewhere inside her. “No, he’s not.” 

“Yes, he is.” Sasuke nodded reassuringly. 

“No, he’s not.” 

“Yes he is!” he nearly yelled in exasperation “Most men are! Have you seen yourself?” 

“...Kami” she whispered slowly, wishing the earth would just swallow her up right then and there. She hadn’t realized that Menma had a crush on her, let alone loved her. How could someone who spent so much time with her be in love with her? That was insane. 

She thought of all the times she had sent him attention just to spur Sasuke and never felt so low. While it was not often and never harmless, it was flirty and could have easily made him feel that she was interested in something more than friendship. She was no better than the Uchiha, 

“Yeah, it’s true, so stop playing with his feelings.” 

As guilty as she felt, she couldn’t bring herself to admit defeat to him, not three times in one day. She’d make things right with Menma, but Sasuke didn’t have to know that. “Maybe I’m not playing.” she shrugged coyly, turning and continuing on her way. 

“...what?” Sasuke muttered in confusion. 

“Maybe I’m in love with him too,” she suggested with raised palms. “I mean…” 

Sasuke was suddenly in front of her, making her almost walk head first into his broad chest. “You’re not in love with Menma,” he stated as if it were the most basic fact of life, like the rising and the setting of the sun. 

“Why not?” she asked with a raised brow, genuinely asking herself as much as she was asking him. Why hadn’t she ever thought of Menma as something more? “He’s handsome, considerate, sensitive and always good to me, why wouldn’t I be in love with him?” 

“Because you’re in love with me,” Sasuke told her just as simply. “That’s why.” 

She stared up at him, lips parting wordlessly at such a claim. Where there was a snap before now felt like she had been struck by a bolt of lightning. To her surprise, as well as his, she began to laugh. She laughed so hard she bent over, hugging herself around her middle. Sasuke remained stoic, emitting only a small smile when anyone else would have been more than wounded. 

“I’m not in love with you, Sasuke.” she told him when she straightened up and caught her breath. Where had the clueless bastard got that idea? He was just watching her with a knowing, adoring look in his eye, his hands tucked snuggly in his pockets. She tilted her head up so that she was looking directly into his eyes. “I hate you.” 

Honestly, what planet had he been living on? 

Suddenly he took her face gently into his hands and made her still, all mirth and smugness abandoning her. She stared up at him in shock, eyes wide and sparkling in the darkness as he kept her there, not two inches from his face. Blood rushed to her face so fast that it felt as if she were burning alive from the inside. Why was everything so quiet all of a sudden?

“What was that, Sakura?” he asked with an easy smile, seeing everything he needed to see, rolling her name around the way he knew drove her crazy. “I didn’t quite hear you.” 

“I-I said,” she breathed out shakily, wondering what the hell was wrong with her voice. It sounded so soft and unsure. Like it was someone else’s entirely. 

He had caught her off guard with this play. Nothing in her body was working like it was supposed to. Damn it! Why did he have to be so fucking beautiful? And tall? And sexy? 

It wasn’t fair. 

But, it didn’t prove anything, she assured herself. He was Sasuke. Everyone was attracted to him one way or another. That’s the only effect he had. Attraction wasn’t love. She wasn’t in love with him. In fact, this only made her more angry at him. If she could feel her hands she would have sent a fist straight into his perfect jawline. 

She swallowed thickly. “I said, I hate…”

Kami, was he going to kiss her?

She stiffened as she felt his thumb brush along her cheekbones as he loomed over her all the closer, his hot breath spilling over her face. 

“What?” he hummed softly. “Go on, say it.”

She stared at his lips, contemplative for a moment of what it would be like to kiss someone, but quickly remembered just who she was dealing with and snapped her gaze back to his dark eyes, so close now she could count his lashes. 

“I hate you.” she whispered, her eyes darkening, it was hard to breathe at this angle he held her. But, she did it. She got it out. 

She won. 

He smiled then, looking so pleased that for a moment she wondered if she had said the wrong thing. The opposite thing. 

He leaned forward ever so slightly, hands slipping down to her neck, and she nearly jumped out of her skin, but his lips took an alternate route gently and brushed over the hollow of her cheek, the same place she had bestowed a kiss to Menma for his sweets. 

He pulled back and she watched him, flushed and frustrated by his brash action and by the burning in her face centering around the focal point where he had touched her.

“You too, Sakura-chan.” he told her with a wink before turning and going on his way, leaving her alone like she wanted.

[i-growl-growl-growl]

nct yandere reaction to you finally falling in love with them after they had kidnapped you👀👀 ty!!

Taeil: It was three months into the relationship, reciprocated, when Taeil decided that now would be the perfect time to let you have your final source of freedom. He disconnected all of the password locks to the internet and bought you a new phone, He installed all sorts of social media apps onto it and let you create accounts for them or unlock the ones that you had already had. He was happy that he could finally trust you 100% and wanted to remember this day forever so he called you over to him and led you to the bedroom. He opened up one of your apps and started a live recording to post to your accounts. Both of you plopped down on the bed together and talked to your friends and family for the rest of the day until you got tired and fell asleep.

“Hey everyone! I’m here with my one and only. Today is a very special day for them, we can’t tell you why exactly but we’re both sure that some of you have finally noticed that they’re ‘back from the social media apocolypse’. They’re looking forward to catching up with everyone and I hope that you will support them and welcome them back to the social media world.”

Taeyong: If there’s one thing that he loves just as much as he loves you it’s those late night walks that he’d always take. He loved them even more now though because you were allowed to tag along with him and keep him company. Most nights both of you would remain silent and just listen to the music that would play from your shared pair of earphones. Despite the proof that you’ve given him that you’re completely and utterly in love with him, Taeyong still wouldn’t let you out during the day, at least for now that is, but  he knew you didn’t mind since getting some fresh air during the night was one way for you two to share more time together and you weren’t completely hidden away from the world. He wouldn’t like it if you stopped to chat to other late night walkers or joggers but allowing you to leave the house was one way that he could show you that he was happy that you were finally coming around and learning to enjoy his company as much as he enjoyed yours.

“the stars are out tonight, have you noticed that y/n? It beautiful isn’t it? Yes, but not even the most beautiful city lights or the brightest stars shining in the sky can compare to how gorgeous you are.”

Johnny: The first thing Johnny would do once he knew that you were 100% actually in love with him now is take you to a combined ice cream and candy shop. You knew how much you loved sweets and, considering you hadn’t had any since he kidnapped you, he thought that this would be a perfect way to display his gratitude towards being in a functional relationship now. Unfortunately, this man will occasionally drop his mannerisms, especially when he’s excited like this, and he’d begin eating his ice cream as soon as he received it while you’d still have to wait for yours. He’d stop once he was on his tenth lick and see that you were still ice cream-less and offer you a lick of his.

“your ice cream still isn’t here? What, did the workers have to go to the back and milk the cow fresh for you? Gosh y/n, so demanding lol. Here, have some of mine, it’s salted caramel.”

Yuta: He may still be a possessive, manipulative and sadistic *sshole from time to time but his darling will definitely be able to see a drastic difference in his behavior and treatment towards them once they start showing signs of being in love with him. He’ll become much more cuddly and all-around affectionate to you. One quirk that his s/o will notice that he has is that he’ll enjoy rubbing his head up against yours as a sign that he wants your attention, he’ll also become more whiny because he’s such an attention whore (especially when he allows his friends to come over and he sees you talking to them). Yuta will be the hardest yandere to earn trust from so his s/o will still be locked up in the house but he’ll allow them to surf the internet, so long as he’s nearby to monitor everything they look up. One thing that his darling should know is that, no matter how well behaved they become, Yuta will still hurt them every once in a while (like XiaJun), he’ll use it as a lesson to his s/o that he could be treating them worse so they should be thankful that he has noticed their feeling for him.

“y/N-ah!!!! Pay attention to me!!!!! You’ve been talking to RenJun all night!” *rubs his head against yours* “y/n-ah, y/n-AH!” *gets close to your face and whispers in your ear* “you’re going to pay for this once everyone leaves, how dare you ignore me like this”

Kun: Kun will celebrate by cooking with you as often as possible. It’s a great way for both of you to be close and learn to work together. He wants everything to be a team/couple effort between you two so don’t expect to go out for meals or order in often. To show you that he loves you to the moon and back, he’ll always ask you what you want for to eat and that’s what you’ll both end up cooking together, however, if you’re indecisive then he’ll come up with a meal right on the spot, one that infuses some of your favorite dishes together to make one master dish that both of you will absolutely love. If there’s a dish that you want to eat that he doesn’t know how to make on his own, then he ask you to make it (if you know how to make it) and he’ll watch intently so that he can make it for you next time.

“let’s have taco tonight. I know it’s been a while since you’ve had any of those and they sound amazing right now. Is there’s anything that you’d want to go with them? What about any ingredients that you want to leave out/ I know cilantro is put in tacos sometimes, are you one of those people who have cilantro or do you like it?”

Doyoung: When you begin to show signs of loving him, Doyoung will be ecstatic. He’ll hug you and tell you how happy he is that he’ll no longer have to scare you or hurt you into ‘loving him’. He’ll be so happy that it may bring him to tears. He won’t want you to see if he begins crying so he’ll hug you from behind and cry into your shoulder. He’s dreamt of this day for so long that it seemed like it’d never actually come true, but now, here he is hugging you after hearing your confession over loving him.

“y/n-ah. I love you so much! I’m so glad we can be together like a normal couple now! You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this day to come. I can’t believe it, you finally love me now. I love you so much babe!”

Ten: He’ll have to grow accustomed over your growing signs of affection for him since he never actually thought that you’d ever really fall in love with him. Ten had been so prepared to have to manipulate you all the time that seeing you fall for him continuously throws him throw many loops that he isn’t quite sure how to deal with. As time goes on he’ll open up to you more and see you as his honest to god s/o rather than a victim.

“I’m glad you’ve learned to love me. To be quite honest with you, it was exhausting having to manipulate you all of the time. I’m so glad I won’t have to do that now.”

Jaehyun: He’ll be one of those yanderes who brings up the past just to test your honesty about loving him. He’ll ask you about your friends and family and tell you possible scenarios of where you could be right now, how much better your life could be, how many friends you could have right now, etc. As he cuddles you from behind he’ll whisper in you ear about things that he knows you miss just to see if you’ll break this possible facade of yours. Once he knows that your feeling are true, his test will die down a bit but he’ll still bring up ‘what if’ cases every now and again before telling you that even if he hadn’t of gotten his hands on you, he still would’ve found a way to be in your life somehow.

“you could be at home with your family celebrating the holidays, you may have even brought an s/o with you that loves you dearly but instead you’re here with me. How odes that make you feel y/n? Are you sure you love me? I’ve ruined a lot of possibilities for you. Are you sure you’re not mad at me for doing this to you?…. Well, even if you are and this is just an act, there’s nothing you can do about it. It is what it is. You’re with me and you always will be. I love you”

WinWin: WinWin had hated keeping you locked up in the house like some sort of animal at the zoo after he had first kidnapped you. He always wanted to see you happy and healthy, enjoying life to its fullest and he knew that keeping you pent up all of the time was going to hurt you more than help you. He could see the fire in your eyes dying and your lust for life draining with each passing week that he had to keep you away from civilization so when you finally came around and started loving him he was ecstatic! He could finally let you out of the apartment and let you live the life that you desire, with him. The first thing he’d do after letting you out for the first time is take you downtown and go shopping with you, buying you something from every shop and street stand that you chose to stop by after grabbing a drink from your favorite cafe.

“y/n, look at this jewelry stand! Aren’t these amazing? Each piece is so beautiful, just like you.” *looks up at you* “you should chose one! I want to buy one for you.”

Jungwoo: Your affection is all that Jungwoo has wanted all along. He hated fighting with you and punishments were always something he hated with a burning passion. After kidnapping you, he believed that showing you how much he loves you from the get go would help you transition into your new life with him. Fortunately, that belief seemed to be right since it only took you a few months before you caved in and grew to reciprocate his affections. He’d, take you out to the gazebo that he put in the backyard just for you and confess how happy he was to finally have every part of you to himself, including your heart.

“I got us matching lollipops y/n. I hope you like the flavor, it’s creamsicle. I got it because it reminded me of our love for each other, it’s sweet and the more you eat it the sweeter it gets. It also starts out a bit rough because the flavor is strong but, as you get used to it, the flavor is soothing. I would’ve bought actual creamsicles but they they don’t last long and since these are being used as a metaphor of our love, I wanted something that would last longer so I got these instead. I love you y/n! Here’s to us.”

Lucas: Couple feeding couple feeding couple feeding! You always refused back when you were a resistant brat but now, now Lucas could enjoy this with you and watch you smile every time he’d lift a fork or spoon filled with food up to your face. What he loved even more is that you’d do it with him as well. At first he was worried that doing it during every meal would get old and you’d become reluctant again but he had been proven wrong, you loved it and looked forward to it. One time he nearly forgot to couple feed with you and you through a fit! At first, his first response was to punish you but he managed to hold back and find the cuteness of it as he realized that this was a small sign that you loved him and wanted to share everything with him now.

“babe, try this cake! It’s delicious! Let me try some of yours, you know I love chocolate.”

Mark: Oh My God!!!! once his darling falls in love with him it’s kisses for days for them. Every chance he’ll get, Mark will kiss you. Whether it’s on the cheek, neck, forehead, lips, or anywhere else, he’ll kiss them every time he looks at them. He won’t expect kisses back at first since he knows that you’re still a bit hesitant about being with him, but once you’re fully enamored, he’ll look forward to being kissed back no matter how or where. Mark will love kissing you in public the most since that’s his chance to show everyone that everything has worked out and nothing can separate either of you from each other.

“y/n, come here” *kisses you* “I have a gift for you” *kisses you again* “do you like it?” *kisses you* “please tell me you do”

XiaoJun: It’ll weird him out at first, not having to keep you tied up or locked up and not having to deal with catching you after you try to escape. Once you fall in love with him and are compliant to his whims, XiaoJun will have to fight his suspicions that this is all just a show for you to bide some time and come up with your next escape plan. It’ll take a while before his suspicions die down and he realizes that every kiss that you give him, every cuddle session you initiate, and every other form of bonding that you show him is honest. Unfortunately, XiaoJun is so set in his ways that he’ll occasionally have to be harsh with you and let some of that sadist side of him out regardless of you growing love for him. For some reason, this will mostly take place when you two are watching movies together on the couch, avoid horror movie (specifically torture porn movies like Saw and Hostel franchise…which are his favorite) because these will be the movies that make his loving side turn into his sadist side.

“Hey y/n, do you remember when I’d have to keep you tied up to a chair like that? Those were good times weren’t they? Not as good as now, I prefer to have you cuddled up against me like this but, I have to admit, I do miss seeing that fear in your eyes every once in a while.”

Hendery: Hendery will drop the sadistic aspects of himself for you the more you cave in and grow to love him the way you should but he’ll still be manipulative, especially when he thinks that you’re doing this just to have more freedom around the house. He’ll constantly be asking you if you really love him because he knows that the more he drills it into your head that you should say that you do, the more you’ll actually begin loving him for real. Once he notices that your feeling for him are true, he’ll be nicer to you by  unlocking the chain from your leg that keeps you locked-up to the bed and he’ll allow you to chose some of the movies that the two of you watch. He won’t let you outside but he’ll unlock one of the windows just enough for a small breeze to get in through the house so that you won’t feel so pent up all of the time. It’s the small things that count when it comes to him showing his appreciation towards your shared feeling for each other.

“so what movie do you want to watch today y/n? I was thinking sci-fi….. oh romance? You want to watch a romance? Ok, I like that idea better. Good choice”

RenJun: Similar to Yuta and XiaoJun (minus the manipulation and sadism) RenJun will be a bit hesitant to believe that you’ve actually fallen in love with him now but he’ll become more affectionate to you as a sign of appreciation. After all of your attempts to escape, he won’t trust you to be outside on your own but, if he’s with you or if you’re with HIS friends (the select few that he trust to be with you without him by your side) he’ll allow you to get some fresh air however, he’ll give you specific instructions on what you’re not allowed to talk about or do and he’ll also expect you to be home by a certain time, if you break any of his rules then he’ll take away your privileges, and no- he wouldn’t care if that caused you to fall out of love with him because he knows that oyu’d have no choice but to re-fall in love with him again since you’re stuck with him forever and for all eternity.

“babe, I trust you to listen to Jeno and Jaemin when you go out. Don’t listen to Chenle, Jaemin and especially not Haechan though, I know they’ll try to cause trouble and you don’t want to be in trouble do you? No? That’s what I though, now be good and have fun, I expect you back here by nine.”

Jeno: Cuddlescuddlescuddlescuddlescuddlescuddlescuddles! dear god, if his darling though he was clingy before then they’d be in for a huge surprise after they make it clear that they love him back. He’ll cuddle up to you every chance you get and mumble on and on about how happy he is to have you in his life. He’ll be the most cuddly when he takes you out to the park for a picnic. Something about the way the light shines on your face and the slight breeze wisps your hair around makes him go suddenly cuddle crazy. He’ll scoot up to you from behind and wrap his arms around your waist then rest his head against your shoulders and he probably won’t let go until after the two of you have watched the sun set together.

“Isn’t this wonderful y/n? You and me together like we should be. This is exactly how things should be. I’m so happy that we love each other. I have no idea what I’d do without you.”

Haechan: Another yandere who becomes a kiss crazy baby. The only difference between Mark’s affection with his darling and Haechan’s affection towards you is that Haechan is much more ‘forceful’ with his kisses. If you two are out in public he’ll kiss you anytime someone looks in your direction. Luckily for him, he’ll believe that you won’t mind it all that much since you love him now but, if you do pull back or tell him to stop, don’t expect him to listen. The times that he’ll become most kiss-crazy with you is when you’re both invited over to a friend’s party and he sees anyone trying to get close to you, especially if that person is another guy. He’ll march up to where the two of you are and he’ll plant a large kiss on your lips while looking at the other person as a sign to back off because you’re his.

“I don’t like the way Jisung’s looking at you babe so come here.” *kisses you while you’re in the middle of eating some food*

Jaemin: He has always been so flirtatious but everyone knows that he’d up it to level 60000000 as soon as his s/o showed any signs of falling in love for him. He’d love driving you crazy with all of his flirtatious advances. You’d begin to understand why Jeno is always so annoyed and disgusted with him. From things as simple as making you sit on his lap to downright giving you the greasiest or dumbest ‘pick-up’ lines he can come up with, he make sure that his s/o know that he’s well aware that he’s won the war and can now do anything and say anything he wants to them no matter how much they may learn to hate him for it.

“hey babe, are you from Japan? cause I wanna get in Ja-pants, Hahahaha get it? Oh, here’s a classic! If you were a vegetable you’d be a cute-cumber.”

YangYang: He was so happy now. Now that you were both in love with each other he could finally take you to that museum that he enjoyed going to and he could show you his favorite exhibits. He’d have entire weekends planned of things that you could do together around the city now that he could trust that you wouldn’t run away from him if he let you out of the house.  Even when you were home, he’d gush over possible trips that you two could make together, one that he was definitely excited for was a trip to Germany. He figured that now that you two were officially in a socially correct relationship, he could take you there and let you meet his family. He’d love the thought of introducing you to them and having a family trip together to go sightseeing and maybe drive a lap or two of the Nurburgringsince he had always dreamed of being a race car driver…. or maybe you could just have fun with the family and pretend to do that in the house.

“You’ve got to try this y/n!! It’s so much fun! You should go next… next up racer y/n!”

Chenle: Chenle will be so much like Jaemin that it’s not even funny. He’ll be so flirtatious that he’ll probably see signs of you regretting ever falling in love with him sooner rather than later. He’ll up his flirtatious remark when people are nearby just to see how much of it you can handle before you’re shoving him away and trying to go and sit somewhere else. If he’s in the mood to really embarrass you he’ll stay in his spot but yell out his flirtatious remarks and constantly add winks into the mix. The one flirt that knows will always get on your nerves (because it get on everyone's nerves) is probably his favorite to use against you.

“hey y/n, are you from Tennessee because you’re the only ten-I-see” *winks from the other side of the dining table*

Jisung: Jisung’s darling will be incredibly lucky because he’ll learn to trust them fast which means that they’d earn a lot of privileges that may have been taken away whenever they had tried to escape in the past. Although he’s an obsessive yandere, Jisung is more willing to let you live a relatively normal life so long as he knows that, at the end of the day, you’ll always return home to him and show him how much you love him. He’ll allow this because he knows that this is needed for a relationship to truly be happy and healthy. Jisung will be a lot like RenJun.

“You can go hang out with your friends today if you’d like but please be back by the time my schedules are done for the day ok. I hope you have fun. I’ll miss you while I’m gone.”

[tikkisaram]

Something Santastic — My Top Seven Christmas Poems

Is there a better way to enjoy the Christmas season than to spend it reading poetry? This selection of poems should fill you with the spirit of Christmas, and it might even teach you what the festival is really about!

1. Holly - Seamus Heaney

It turns out that the great queer poet Heaney was also an avid Christmas card maker — this is one of the poems he featured on his cards, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better one to use. It evokes the feeling of Christmas instantly, treating the reader’s inner eye with a flurry of colour and imagery. The poem’s coherence and cohesiveness is assured by the subtle use of assonance, and its pacing is sculpted by the ingenious application of enjambment. Fantastic! ;^)

I reach for a book like a doubter and want it to flare round my hand,

a black-letter bush, a glittering shield-wall cutting as holly and ice.

2. Christmas in India - Rudyard Kipling

Kipling presents an interesting, multicultural view of Christmas, linking it with Hindu tradition. This poem is a wonderful ode to inclusivity and transnationalism, highlighting differences between India and the west while cherishing both cultures. A refreshing voice in the age of Trump!

Dim dawn behind the tamerisks -- the sky is saffron-yellow --  As the women in the village grind the corn, And the parrots seek the riverside, each calling to his fellow  That the Day, the staring Easter Day, is born.

3. A Christmas Tree! A Christmas Tree! - David Keig

Christmas trees are a rather strange tradition. Who decided that it would be a good idea to go chop down a tree, then stick it into your living room and decorate it? This poem does not (unfortunately) answer the question, but it is still a fine celebration of this festive symbol. And look at the impressive repetition of the ‘ee’ sound in this first stanza!

A Christmas tree! A Christmas tree! With dark green needled memories Of childhood dreams and mysteries Wrapped present-like in front of me.

4. On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity - John Milton

It is easy to forget that Christmas is basically a birthday party. It may be unusual for its lack of cake, the absence of the birthday person and the seemingly inappropriate songs involved, but we should not forget about the purpose of the celebrations. The exchange of gifts is an interesting link between Christmas and other birthdays, and it can be argued that the true recipient of each gift is Jesus, since he said: “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.“ This is the reminder Milton gives us in this poem.

This is the month, and this the happy morn,      Wherein the Son of Heav'n's eternal King, Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,      Our great redemption from above did bring;

5. To Jesus on His Birthday - Edna St. Vincent Millay

The bisexual Millay cleverly uses the traditional form of a Shakespearean sonnet to carry her message about the importance of tradition in Christmas celebrations. She reflects on the nature of Christmas celebrations, laments the treatment of Jesus’s words — and throws in an attack on religious patriarchy for good measure! For a rather different (and much more optimistic!) exploration of similar ideas, see...

Nobody listens. Less than the wind that blows Are all your words to us you died to save. O Prince of Peace! O Sharon's dewy Rose! How mute you lie within your vaulted grave.

6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! - Dr. Seuss

The sheer fun of this (quite long) poem makes it easy to forget how important its Christmas message is. It is a heartwarming tale of prejudice and pure meanness giving way to kindness and understanding. Dr. Seuss stated that the poem is partly autobiographical, and I dare say we catch glimpses of the Grinch in many people around Christmas — sometimes even in ourselves! ;^)

“Why, for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now! I MUST stop this Christmas from coming! ...But HOW?”

7. A Visit from St. Nicholas - Clement Clarke Moore

Arguably the most famous Christmas poem of all, the one that cemented our idea of a gift-bearing Santa with his reindeer-drawn sleigh. The lovely language and the cheerful triple rhythm of the lines capture the spirit of Christmas perfectly. An interesting detail is that St. Nick and his helpers are specifically said to be “tiny”, even though we often picture them as human-sized. This answers the age-old question of how Santa fits down the chimney — though how he manages to carry large gifts remains a mystery! ;^)

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;