#anyway after that i went to my chinese tuition and then they had like a book in a shelf that i hadnt noticed before

[synthbug]

i believe in you.. may yuri give you strength

THANK YOU AWESOME SOUL !!!!!!!! HAPPY TO REPORT THAT I THINK I DID GREAT AND IT WENT WELL :333 ‼️💙🦋 THEN I GOT TO JOKE AORUND WITH MY FRIENDS ! I hope such fun and relieving days are ahead of u too :3 and for all mutuals .. May the thing ur fretting about right now turn out fine💙

[bloodcandied]

Death Addiction 亡瘾 Chapter 3

[Timeskip]

I hated flying on long haul airplanes.

The dryness of the cabin was uncomfortable for the eyes, and after more than five hours, the nose would begin to pick up awful scents.

The last time I went back home was a year ago, to see my mom during Chinese New Year. Usually, I couldn't go back twice a year because I had to study and work part-time. But even once a year, a long-haul flight made me feel like I should never fly again.

I landed at 1am. Because of jet lag, I was drowsy. Even though I had taken a sleep aid on the plane to force the jet lag, I almost stepped off the bridge when I got off.

I waited for my two big suitcases at the baggage carousel. The wait was too long - two connections on a flight from Atlanta - even if I had been told I had dropped a suitcase it wouldn't have been much of a surprise.

I yawned and switched to my domestic cell phone card and sent my mom a message that I had landed. She was already waiting outside the airport, but judging by this, I was afraid it would be a long wait.

Twenty minutes later, I finally picked up my luggage. We agreed on the terminal parking lot, which was about a ten minute walk. I went to the restroom halfway through and washed all the skin I could that was exposed, trying to wash off the weird airplane smell.

It was 2:30 a.m. and there weren't many flights taking off or landing at domestic airports anymore.

I was the only one in the restroom, and as I wiped my hands clean and prepared to leave the place, the door to the cubicle behind me suddenly opened, and a hand yanked me inside, choking me hard-

I could smell the familiar odor of death.

The murder lasted less than ten seconds. I sat down on the toilet lid with my neck covered and coughed for a while. He was about to speak when I kicked him in the middle of the shin of his calf, and he jumped away with a hiss covering his leg.

"Graduated from college, how people have changed?" Xu Tuo jumped over on one foot and ruffled my hair, "hair stay so long, also wear glasses, you myopic?"

I made a move to kick him again, but he opened the door to the cubicle and fled.

--After Dad died, Xu Tuo continued living in my house. He occasionally went out of town for a few days in the name of a business trip, and only I knew what he was there for.

Every year, when I went back home to visit my family, I also stopped by to see him. It was still the same as before, going to a convenience store to buy some junk food, going to an Internet cafe to hack, or exchanging information about the guy he had recently tracked down in my bedroom. I thought he only liked to hunt down murderers who didn't get caught, but then, I learned that his hunt was much wider than that.

The most boring part og all this was hacking games with him. His game playing sucked. "The setting of blood volume is already very unscientific, why is the monster still not dead after being stabbed so many times by the knife ......"

"Because it's a monster."

"Our characters didn't die even after being slashed so many times."

"Because that's just program data."

He probably still thought it was more fun to slash monsters in the third dimension.

My mom had always been an indecisive woman, but after dad's accident, she decisively used her pension to arrange for my study abroad. I hesitated then instead, considering whether to refuse to go abroad and stay here to take care of her.

Xu Tuo however told me to go out and look around, "Anyway, the problem of tuition was solved with the pension ......"

"You have one more chance to speak like human before I call the police." I'd said.

"-Young people should go outside more often."

----

The day I was sent to the U.S., Xu Tuo and my mom drove me to the airport. When I graduated and returned home, it was still my mom and him who came to pick me up.

My mom sent me a message in advance, she drove to the parking lot to wait for me, and Xu Tuo came to the arrival level of the airport to wait for me.

This guy really didn't wait at the exit.

We each pushed a suitcase down the elevator and went to the parking lot to find my family's car. My mom complained that my hair was too long, "You should fix it before the interview. You're not nearsighted, why are you wearing glasses? I'm worried that Xiao Xu won't recognize you."

"I almost didn't recognize him, I was worried that I caught the wrong person." He sat in the back row and laughed lowly.

I glanced at his hand. There was a cut on the back of Xu Tuo's left hand, like a knife wound.

"What happened to your hand?" I asked softly.

"-Work injury." He said, "The client was agitated and tried to cut me when we couldn't fulfill the demand."

"So." I sneered, "Then why don't you just treat the customer like God and fulfill his needs?"

"Business is business but we can't force what cannot be done."

"Tomorrow Uncle Zhou will come to our house after work right?" Too lazy to continue to talk to him, I asked mom about tomorrow, "It seems like it's about helping me with my resume."

Mom was about to drive and didn't look back, "It's okay to tell him not to come. I vote for a technical position, the kind that doesn't go out into the field."

"It's better to go into a regular business like Xiao Xu." She said, "Mom can get an old classmate to help you inwardly push into a joint venture ......"

I pushed the flat lens on my nose, hiding myself behind it to avoid her words. Dad's death had made her as uneasy as a scared bird about my future career choices.

Xue Tuo was also uneasy. He gulped three times when he saw the post graduation wishes on my notebook.

"Is this uncomfortable?" I jerked the notebook back.

"No... but when did you become interested in the study of forensics......"

"When I was in college, ah, purposely changed my major. It just so happened that Uncle Zhou was able to help me send my file to the research institute, what's wrong with a stable job and income."

I didn't know if it was an illusion, but I'd seemed to have grown a bit taller in the past few years, and I was finally about the same height when I walked with him.

The first thing that happened when I got home was the move - my mom decided to bring my grandmother in to take care of her, while I moved directly upstairs with my own stuff to the place that Xu Tuo had rented. This was something I had decided to do before I returned home, and Xu Tuo's rent could be cut in half.

Xu Tuo had rented my place for many years, but I hardly ever came up to his flat. I was worried that if I opened the door, I would see something bloody, but it turned out that the upstairs room was surprisingly clean.

There were no unnecessary decorations or furnishings, everything was neatly arranged, the large suitcase was by the window, and the wallet and ID holder were on top of the suitcase. Even in a blackout environment, one could memorize where each item was placed.

"This is how people who are always ready to run would live." He said, "You should be careful if you see anyone else's house like this in the future."

I pulled two sports posters and a couple of male-oriented magazines out of my own luggage and threw them at him, "You'd better clutter up the house tomorrow when Uncle Zhou comes over to talk to me about joining the force then."

-----

Uncle Zhou was my dad's superior and had been preparing for his retirement for the past two years.

The old cop's intuition was as sharp as a shark's. I was going to make an excuse that I was now living elsewhere and change the place of conversation; but then I thought, a lie is likely to snowball into more trouble because Uncle Zhou was too smart ......Might as well mess up the room a bit and make it look like a regular bachelor pad.

Before the appointed time, Xu Tuo and I purposely messed up the living room by putting a few posters on the wall, a pile of fleshy male magazines in the corner of the coffee table, and a few coats thrown over the backs of the chairs.

After doing all this, I waited for Uncle Zhou with peace of mind. And Xu Tuo brought us ice coke like a warm friend.

"I'd like to arrange for you to go to the third institute in the new district." Uncle Zhou said, "Not counting the old institute, it's a newly established unit in the hall. Engaged in trace science research, your specialty is more appropriate there, and they are in urgent need of new people. The public sector, the average education requirements, and everything else in your resume is beautiful, the people there also want you to go."

"Uncle will arrange it."

"Then next Thursday, you go to Henan Road and New District Road over ......," he recalled the address, his eyes fell on the magazine by the coffee table. I don't know if I was just being paranoid, but Uncle Zhou's eyes changed - was the magazine cover too hot? If I had known, I would have bought a more conservative one ......

Immediately afterward, he turned back to look at the jacket thrown on the backrest of the sofa. In a flash, my heart crashed hard - in the middle of summer, we took a fall cardigan and threw it there.

While cardigans weren't as anticlimactic as down jackets, very few young men still wore long-sleeved cardigans in the summer.

This room was full of incongruity. I purposely aged the magazines and rolled up the edges, but unfortunately, I was not skillful in doing so and could not withstand a closer look. There wasn't a scrap of paper on the coffee table, and the trash can was clean ......

"What are you hiding from uncle?"

When I came back to my senses, Uncle Zhou was sizing me up, as well as Xu Tuo, who was looking at his laptop at the dining table behind him. Xu Tuo's face was blocked by the screen, and I was worried about how he looked right now.

"Don't do anything to bring your father's breath back to life, Xueming." There was a long silence before Uncle Zhou said this.

I heard Xu Tuo choking in the back and he couldn't help but laugh.

I didn't have the guts to stay here. It was a nice night, so I said "Uncle Zhou, let's go out for a walk."

There were quite a few places to walk at night downtown, and there was a green park right next to the house. We passed a bunch of square dancers, chatting hard over the earth-shattering music.

The conversation was still about my dad.

My dad chased down an armed robber back in the day and ended up not coming back from his accident. Uncle Zhou would look blank when he talked about it. He and my dad had been partners for many years, and we had all agreed on where to buy a retirement home after we retired, but suddenly he was gone.

It happened so suddenly that it didn't yet feel real. Grief, like a misloaded bullet, didn't stay long, passing by in the blink of an eye.

"Then we went to get the guy," he said, referring to the robber who had stabbed my dad, "and got word that he was going to take the train and flee out of town."

"I know, and then he committed suicide in fear of his life."

"We only told you he died. After all, you were young and preparing for exams, and didn't dare to tell you many details. The arrest location was set at the train station, he couldn't bring a weapon with him if he wanted to enter the train station, so the difficulty and danger of closing the net wasn't too high, we planned to hold him on the platform, so as not to start a conflict in a crowded place like the waiting hall."

Next, Uncle Zhou told me the hard-core version of the story. The interceptors surrounded the platform from both sides, basically destined to catch a turtle in a jar. The man probably felt something was wrong and wanted to leave the platform and take the overhead walkway above back to the waiting room.

That's when the train was coming. They were going to make their move too. As a result, they unexpectedly saw their target drop down toward the tracks out of the blue and instantly get churned up by the train.

Half of his body was run over by the train, but he didn't die for a while. He was screaming and shouting, "Someone stabbed me in the leg and made me go down!

Whether someone really stabbed his legs and forced him to fall down the platform was impossibleto tell since the lower half of his body had been crushed. There was no way to find out.

By the time the engineer's team came in a hurry to saw off the platform, the man was dead.

"This is only said in private, but everyone thinks it's retribution." Uncle Zhou smiled bitterly, "That death was tragic enough. Later, there was a department that organized psychological counseling to comfort the other passengers who were on the platform that day ...... How could someone stab him down with a knife? That's a train station, you can't bring a knife through the inspection ......"

I twisted my head and threw the contents of my pocket into the trash can. Now I knew, why before I boarded the plane, Xu Tuo gave me a pen that could not write to keep as a souvenir. Its nib was sharpened to a very sharp point, and I'd thought it was a special style of handmade fountain pen.

-----

The job was finalized. When I went back, Xu Tuo had already tidied up the house.

I told him I'd thrown the pen away, but he still felt pity: "Maybe it would have been useful in the future."

"Waiting for whoever finds that pen that can't write ink and realizes that what's congealed inside the nib is blood, then a lab test, exciting."

"You're so bad at enjoying the uncertainty of life."

"I wouldn't have the hobby of dying if I could enjoy that."

I then fished out my newly purchased rope from my bag, a high yardage German-made climbing rope of uniform thickness that wouldn't hurt my skin, which I'd brought back from the States on purpose.

Life after returning to China was calm and stable. I went to and from work every day on time, no overtime, and of course no bonus. When I got home, I cooked on 1, 3, 5, and Tuo cooked on 2, 4, 6, 7. It was a verbal agreement. But the guy often came home late.

"I looked up a soon to be released prisoner." He said, "-Extensive record of brawling, three times causing serious cranial injuries to others, lots of other petty thefts, a regular at the police station since he was fourteen, thirty-one years old this year. Come see my treasure boy."

He held the laptop up in my direction. I was currently hanging myself from the doorknob, staring dead ahead.

"I wish you all the happiness in the world." I choked out.

"Anyway, I may not be back for the next two days. He's got a friend from the next city to pick him up from jail."

"Why don't you go wait for him at the prison gate." I let go of the rope and dropped down, "Maybe he's in jail again for fighting and assault while you're buying a train ticket."

"I'm an activist, Xueming."

-----

The proactive Xu Tuo went to the train station early the next morning to chase his treasured prey. I went to work as usual, and when I passed by my coworker's workstation, he was entering photos of a new case -- the body of a young woman with strangulation marks on her neck.

"Suicide." He noticed I was interested and he handed me the photo, "But the rope marks are special, we'll enter them into the system for a record."

I touched my neck, "Suicide?"

"Well, there are no signs of struggle, there are no abnormal drug indicators ...... In short, it meets the criteria for suicide, and the case was closed in accordance with suicide."

By the time these photos were taken, the body had already begun to show visible body spots. There was a bright, well-proportioned purple mark on her neck, like the blossoming flower.

Perhaps I was the only one who realized that this was not a suicide.

To be continued

[touchmycoat]

HX/LQG!anon: oh, Ella!LQG just pings my kinky heart - he's SURE HX is just messing with him, but there's just a tiny bit of his brain that says, but what if he really needs it? And he just. Wants. He wants to give HX what he needs. And there's that other bit of him that just feels really really good doing what HX tells him to do, a weapon put in good hands. LQG is all-in/ ride or die if he trusts (loves) someone, even if he tries to pretend that's not happening. (Such sub energy!!)

p.s. First David and Second David???????!!!!!! *SCREAMS* I HAVE TOO MANY FEELS! Talk about emotional whump... *bites nails in anticipation*

--

YES YES YES YES AAAAAAHHHHH lqg honestly wants to be the weapon SO bad, just do as he's told because he knows he's in trusted hands. SUB!LQG IS YUMMIEST LQG. And He Xuan, well, he thrives off of control, that much is obvious. Not to be cliche but I want them to do every single con that involves He Xuan coming in and posing as LQG's debtor or employer or owner in some way, and at some point he just impatiently beckons LQG over, asks LQG why the job's all screwed up, and backhands LQG. LQG murmurs a "sorry sir" with no prompting at all, and HX nods, satisfied, before returning to the job.

BABE. BABE. I ALL OF A SUDDEN REMEMBERED NATE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A CATHOLIC PRIEST. WAS THAT WERE HX WAS HEADED?? NOT CATHOLICISM BUT DEVOUT DAOIST SCHOLAR, MAYBE HISTORIAN??

(then HX's entire backstory got a revamp so warning, this got super fucking long)

Like, he and his sweetheart got engaged during undergrad, and for HX's last year he got this huge grant to travel to China to do his research on, I dunno, the original sutras that brought buddhism to the mainland and the daoist sociopolitical interests that propelled the translations. His fiancee makes a joke about how he's like Tang Sanzang from Journey to the West, but will he be okay all by himself, all the demons out there wanna eat his flesh y'know. HX laughs it off and goes—but it's during this time that SWD's entire shit strikes. It's probably a real estate thing to begin with—HX's dad's little Chinese diner refuses to sell to the rich corporate developers. They send people to smash things up, and the first time dad gets hospitalized HX tries to come home, but his mother convinces him to stay put, bc she's heard the real estate developers have some internal issues and are going down.

Sure enough, the company does, and the Hes thought it was over. HX reluctantly stays in China bc they really do have so much money riding on this, but a little while later, he hears about his baby sister falling sick. He and his mother argue for a period of time, but in the end it's HX's father's sudden death—complications due to his injuries from before—that makes his decision for him. So HX drops the research grant, comes home, realizes it wasn't just his sister sick, it was his mother as well, and takes academic leave to take care of his mother and sister.

But he realizes something's wrong. He's already pretty clever, and through mild grifting figures out there's something hinky with the whole "real estate company going down" thing. At the same time, this guy who just calls himself the Reverend shows up, and tells him look, you seem pretty desperate. Your family's sick, you're working yourself to the bones just trying to keep getting them treatment, you'll probably never return to school. But how about you come work for me?

HX puts on a damn good show. He pretends to refuse at first, forcing the Reverend to show him more and more of the business they got running. Then he "accepts" the Reverend's jobs, but tips off the people who were supposed to be the victims, and has them escape or resolve the situation in ways that wouldn't reveal it was HX behind it all. But it was all just a matter of time, of course, and he wasn't trying to trick the Reverend for the longterm, he was just trying to ferret out the people behind the Reverend. Why did they want HX's dad's shop badly enough to kill him, and why do they keep sending goons to smash up the storefront every time HX tries to clean it up?

Meanwhile, his fiancee, who's always helped out at the diner, is getting sick too. That's how HX put the pieces together, that it's...something like radiation poisoning (gotta figure out the deets),, and the real estate situation was an entanglement of coverups to hide what was probably improper waste disposal way back when.

Some good news though—there's a treatment being offered through a special program at the hospital for the thing HX's mom and sister are sick with, and its rep? A bubbly young corporate heiress out to perform some philanthropy, Shi Qingxuan. SQX befriends HX's fiancee first, and after learning about HX's situation, she prepares a whole grant application to the parent medical insurance company, says if it goes through HX wouldn't have to pay a dime. HX's naturally skeptical, but SQX is like "don't worry, I know people high up, wink wink"

But halfway through this the Reverend figures out HX is compiling evidence. Instead of confronting him straight, they want to tie HX down as an accomplice instead, so they send him on another "job" that's totally a set-up. HX's clever and figures it out, sends people packing, and in the end confronts the Reverend like, "the state police are coming, I have evidence and testimony to your crimes, you're going down."

But then the Reverend goes ahead and says, "good job then, you wanna keep patting yourself on the back or go see your mom and sister for the last time?" And plays for him a message from the hospital about his mother and sister's situations suddenly worsening. HX knows this is their doing, but what else can he do? He rushes to the hospital, and finds his fiancee weeping, SQX trying to comfort her. HX's mom and sister are already dead.

At this point, there are strains and fractures in HX's relationship with his fiancee, because of course there is—they're both still so fucking young. Miao-er had wanted to go on academic leave too, but HX refused, saying one of them needs to graduate college at least. The Hes are paying for her tuition anyways, and he kind of strong-arms her into continuing her education. Then he started taking the jobs for the Reverend, and Miao-er knows it's bad news because she sees the way HX's going kind of dark-sided. She always tries to bring him out of his funk, with varying levels of success, but she also kind of wishes he would just stay, and be there, and make this simple instead of diving into what kind of looks like a crazy conspiracy theory.

So here, that confrontation happens. The Reverend had given HX a gun for the set-up job from before, and HX turns right back around at the hospital room and goes to kill the Reverend. Miao-er tries to stop him, finds out he has a gun, is like jesus shit what the fuck dude, SQX's in the background trying to calm things down. HX ends up storming off anyways, and Miao-er is crying. SQX gets a little pissed off too and runs after HX to tell HX that Miao-er needs treatment too. She's really, really sorry that HX's mom and sister didn't make it in time, but the case went through for Miao-er, she can get the full course of treatment with all costs covered, and if HX storms off for revenge right now and gets caught, that means Miao-er gets left completely on her own, you know? The Hes are basically her adopted family, she doesn't have anyone else here in the States, and she just needs HX, please, calm down.

HX listens, manages to calm down, but when they go back, Miao-er's gone. Figuring she just needs time to deal with things herself, HX makes arrangements for his mom and sister's bodies. SQX continues to keep him company, and when she learns about the Reverend, she brings all her personal lawyers to help out. Together, they successfully resolve the entire Reverend ordeal. The Reverend goes down for everything, from the initial improper waste disposal to the real estate situation to getting HX's entire family killed. HX gets a payout, and wonders what to do next.

But then, Miao-er never came back. HX gets all tense and intense about searching again, but then SQX hesitantly informs him that according to the medical grant, Miao-er is currently receiving the full course of treatment. As for where, she's not at liberty to say, but, well, it kind of looks like she's just avoiding him? Maybe he should give her time?

Then HX gets smacked with an insane amount of student debt, both his and his fiancee's, which made no sense, unless Miao-er had cashed out the year's tuition that the Hes gave her and paid for school with a loan instead? And Miao-er continues to be gone, not answering any of HX's calls, and it just doesn't seem like something she would do but over time, HX doesn't know anymore. In the span of months, he's lost everybody, and the only person who still gave a damn enough to check up on him all the time, no matter how much of a bastard he is, is SQX.

Then SQX tells him her brother is hiring. "Look, we're an insurance company, we need case investigators. Normally they only hire out of prestigious schools but I can vouch for you, alright? I've seen what you can do. Take the job, pay off all these debts, smooth things out, and see where to go from there."

HX listens. He works under SWD and becomes the firm's top investigator. He pays off his debts, helps out his neighbors with zoning shit, and somewhere along the line starts dating SQX. SQX loves loves loves him, and keeps proposing to him ("but hahaha no pressure only if you really want, because I really want, like, spice girls really really want"), so finally, HX accepts.

Soon after their engagement though, HX suddenly gets a call. It's an unknown number, but he recognized the voice immediately. It's Miao-er.

She's crying, she sounds weak, she says she's sorry, so sorry, she let them lie to her for so long, that she never should have trusted them. She says he's been right all along, that there's been a cover-up, and now they're going to kill her for it—

The line goes dead. HX doesn't really remember how, but he loses consciousness. When he wakes up again it's to SQX telling him the doctors said he had a panic attack.

HX's brain puts the pieces together faster than he's really aware, and he has a fist in SQX's collar. He asks her where Miao-er is, what she knows, what happened to the treatment payments, did SQX lie to him about Miao-er taking—

But SWD's also there. They're staying at the Shi mansion, post-engagement. SWD pulls him away from SQX and has security take him down. SQX tries to protest, says HX's not feeling well. HX just keeps demanding to know where Miao-er is, and SWD just coolly opens HX's phone, shows him he hadn't received any calls, and basically calls off the engagement, gaslighting HX into thinking he's had a psychotic break triggered by the engagement to SQX.

Everything goes downhill from there. HX knows what he heard, and knows if something really did happen to Miao-er, then SQX must have had something to do with it. Their relationship completely falls apart, SWD fires him, and HX leaves a complete and utter mess. He drinks himself stupid, lives out of his car, sells his car, and ends up running in the dark side of town, where he mostly just wants to be left alone, but ends up making a name for himself anyways as someone immensely powerful and dangerous.

Then he meets Xie Lian. Everything kicks off again from there.

[in-class-daydreams]

Parlay (Kuroo x Reader)| Ch. 1

Pairing: Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader (ft. Roommate Kenma)

Word Count: ~1,600

Genres: Fluff, angst if you squint, general buffoonery

CW: Maybe some baby swearing, but otherwise none!

Summary: (Y/N), a first-year student attending Tokyo U, is living with her best friend, Kenma Kozume. Little did she know, her life would be turned upside down after being exposed to Kenma's volleyball teammate and close friend, Kuroo Tetsurou. One wrong move, and the parlay's stakes only get higher each time. 

Chapters: First | Previous | Next

“Bonnie left her spot!” the girl’s voice was bursting with sheer panic as her roommate and close friend frantically flipped between security screens to avoid what seemed to be an inevitable death. Even though she was practically draped over him, he barely registered her full weight on him.

He couldn’t play Five Nights at Freddy’s on his channel now. Everyone had already played it a long time ago and he was sure to get some backlash for ‘copying’ other streamers. Still, any self-respecting gamer should have at least played the game at some point. Unfortunately, he’d had to drag his poor roommate into it, and it turned out that together they had the combined courage of a sugar-free gummy bear.

Kenma elbowed his friend in the side. “Shh! I know!” he hissed at her. (Y/N)’s clammy hands were clamped tightly around his shoulders as she half-leaned over him to get a good look at the screen. Both of their eyes flitted around the screen, focused on scrutinizing each and every visual detail. The screens were dark and his power level was getting dangerously low. He exited out of the security screens to slam the left door on one of the animatronics. As the metal door slammed down, they caught a glimpse of the animal’s unnaturally large teeth and the murderous look in its eyes. Quickly clicking through the security screens once more, the female’s eyes landed on something disturbing. She jumped and slapped his shoulder frantically.

“Close the doors! Close the doors!” she squealed. Kenma quickly checked on the door. The duck was still at the left door and it was eating up his power supply. He was only at 3 a.m., and he was determined not to waste any more power.

The in-game clock struck 4 a.m. and his eyes flitted down to his power level. He paled at the ‘2%’ staring back at him.

“Freddie left his--!”

Suddenly the security screens went blank and game’s lights shut off abruptly. The whole game went quiet as the two roommates stared in horror. The doors raised. Luckily, the animatronic was gone from the left door, but they were sitting ducks in that powerless room surrounded by robots with murderous intent. They sat in petrified terror as mere seconds dragged on.

Just then, the animatronic bear leapt and roared right at the two players, its shrill screaming causing their toes to curl. They clung to each other fearfully at the sudden sight. Soon, the ‘game over’ screen appeared and the room went quiet once again. The pair sat in blank silence for a long moment. After a pregnant pause, (Y/N), slow and unsure, stood up off the floor and carded her fingers through her hair.

“I guess I should get to class,” she murmured barely above a whisper. 

Kenma stared blankly at her. “Okay. Be safe,” he said robotically. 

She tiptoed around the house gathering her school supplies and made for the door a bit quicker than would be considered normal.

“I’ll be back in about two hours!” she called over her shoulder as she tried to hasten away from the apartment as quickly as possible. 

~~

‘Went for groceries. Be back soon. 

030’ 

    She had to laugh. Kenma had started drawing those faces to be ironic and poke fun at her, but now he couldn’t stop. Oh how the turns have tabled.

Even for someone as academically-inclined as her, (Y/N) was exhausted from her advanced calculus lecture. It was a class for second-years and older, but when she’d thought she could handle it. 

“Everyone thinks they’re ‘that bitch’ that can handle it early, but trust me, very few people are ‘that bitch,’ (Y/N),” her cousin had advised. Against her cousin’s advice, she’d signed up for the class anyway, thinking it’d be easy peasy lemon squeezy for someone who did so well in math in high school. Oh how wrong she was! Now she was stressed depressed lemon zest. After dragging herself through the door of her shared third-floor apartment, she was grateful to see Kenma’s cute note upon her return.

Five Nights was still running on Kenma’s laptop on the living room floor. That stupid bear’s freaky metal face grinned back at her. Rather than be stared down by an animated murder bear, she toed the laptop closed and decided that if Kenma didn’t know she’d touched his precious laptop with her “sweaty, unsanitary feet,” he couldn’t be mad at her (truth be told, he had a very hard time being mad at her at all). The damage was done, though, and the teen felt those unblinking eyes on her still.

She thought she’d heard some odd rustling down the hall where the bedrooms were.

‘Come on, (Y/N), it was just a stupid game,’ she thought.

Rather than sprint back out the front door, she decided to go to the kitchen and start on dinner. ‘Lasagna, grilled chicken, noodles.’’ She mentally ran through all the recipes she knew. They had Chinese food the night before, and fried chicken the night before that, but it had been a while since pasta night. Hopefully Kenma would come home with the ingredients she needed. She reached into her jeans pocket to text her roommate, but before she could, the rustling down the hallway happened again. This time, it was unmistakable.

 Her pulse quickened and she fumbled around for the nearest weapon-like object. She wrapped her fingers around a small metal water bottle. Sure it was only about 12-oz., but it would do. She steeled her nerves and crept down the hallway pressed up against the wall like 007. The noise seemed to be coming from Kenma’s room.

“They must have known we’d both be out of the apartment! They could have been stalking us for weeks, oh my god, we don’t even have any valuables, though! What would burglars want with us anyway? We’re in college and our entire budget goes to rent and food! I can’t die over this, I’ve already paid my tuition for this semesterohgodohgodohgodohgod,” (Y/N)’s inner monologue began spiraling into hysterics as she trembled outside her friend’s door. Her legs felt like lead and her arms were frozen up close to her chest. The girl was petrified as Kenma’s bedroom door swung open and before her was a massive silhouette.

Pause. Then she screamed a seemingly impossible sound to achieve with human vocal cords and started sprinting for the door. After nearly knocking a newly-arrived Kenma to the floor, she squeezed him in a vice-like bear hug.

“Geh--you’re crushing me,” Kenma wheezed. In her rapid rambling, he could make out the words “burglar,” “murderer,” and “tuition.”

The first-year patted his friend’s back gently to get her to release him from her crushing grip. She had an unnaturally tight grip for someone of her stature. Behind her, a tall, muscular man with unkempt black hair and piercing eyes strolled confusedly down the hallway.

The Not-Burglar raised an eyebrow. Turning to Kenma he asked, “You didn’t tell her I was here?”

“I did. She’s a bad texter,” Kenma replied while peeling (Y/N)’s arms from their spot stuck to his body.

“Huh? O-oh...my bad,” she supposed she hadn’t checked her phone since before her class started. She held up a finger and reached into her pocket, “But wait! I have this for you instead!” 

From her pocket, she held up a finger heart for her friend to see. The latter rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the smirking male before him.

“Well, (Y/N), this is Kuroo Tetsurou. Kuroo, this is (L/N) (Y/N).”

(Y/N)  seemed to have calmed down, because she replied, “It’s nice to meet you Kuroo-san! I’ve heard a lot about you!”

Kuroo noted the radiant grin she gave him and shook her hand.

“Same here. But I didn’t realize Kenma was hiding such a cutie from me,” he smiled that smile that made all sorts of people weak in the knees.

Desperate to avoid eye contact, the smaller girl’s gaze shifted around the room nervously before finding a target, “Ah Ken-ken! Lemme help you with the groceries!”

‘K-ken-ken..? Never heard that before...’ Kuroo thought.

“It’s okay, I got it,” Kenma continued putting away groceries and ignored the pout she threw his way.

“Kuroo-san, since you’re already here, do you want to stay for dinner? I’d like to apologize for jumping to conclusions earlier,” she bowed deeply.

“I could never decline a special request from such a--”

He shut his mouth at the truly frightening look his best friend shot him before interrupting, “Don’t be a pervert, Kuroo.”

“Ken-ken, you cooked dinner yesterday. I can do it today,” (Y/N) insisted, unable to successfully nudge him out of the way. Kenma was surprisingly strong.

“It’s fine, I got it,” he stopped his preparations just long enough to give her a genuine smile that Kuroo himself had only seen a handful of times.

‘Why is this girl so special to you, Kenma?’ Kuroo wondered.

“Come on! At least let me help! Kenma~  Don’t ignore me!”

‘Now this is definitely a sight I’ve never seen before.’

~~

After dinner, as he was saying his goodbyes and gathering his things to leave, Kuroo concluded that his best friend really had found another person that complimented him as well as Kuroo did himself. This was definitely a welcome surprise. He was happy for his friend, of course, though at first, he was puzzled as to how a simple roommate could have embedded herself so deeply into Kenma’s heart. He pondered that thought for a bit before having an epiphany just as he was on his way out the door.

“Thanks for the dinner (L/N)-san, I really enjoyed it. Treat Kenma well! He’s never had me meet a girlfriend before.”

Halfway out the door, he shot them a cocky, conspiratory grin and strolled out into the night.

~~

A/N: And that’s the first chapter of Parlay! It’s our first fic on this blog and honestly the first fic I’ve ever been even slightly confident in, so I hope you enjoyed. We’ll be updating regularly, so feel free to shoot us a message or an ask if you want to be added to our tag-list. Thanks! <3

- Admin Mango-Chan

 Hello everybody! Thank you so much for clicking and reading this story! There will be plenty of chapters with a lot more action and drama on your way! See you soon! :)

- Admin Kiwi-chan

[truthbeetoldmedia]

Mayans MC 2x07 “Tohil” Review

Episode 7 of Season 2 was all about family. This show is all about family, but this episode really showcased it in the best ways. We have the Reyes family and the Cruz family. We also have the Mayans family saving a migrant family. There was some beautiful vulnerable moments, as well as some excitement we’ve come to know and love about this world. There was also too much Emily for my liking, as usual, but that’s neither here nor there. 

Let’s get into it. 

EZ is staying with his pops after the events of the last episode unfolded. He got into a brawl with Marlon, the city clerk Emily had sent him to intimidate into confessing to taking bribes from the Chinese on the Agra Park deal. A gun was drawn on EZ and all EZ did was push the gun out of his face and the gun went off. It ended up looking like the city clerk killed himself, so EZ just went with it. 

Throughout the entire episode, EZ is declining Emily’s calls and ignoring her texts, especially when she learns that the clerk is dead. Her actions directly got somebody killed. He wasn’t an innocent man, but nobody on this show is truly innocent. She’s clearly stressed about not being able to reach EZ to find out what happened. Miguel can see how she’s acting and knows something is up with his wife. In fact, I don’t know if he just doesn’t trust her or if he’s just plain worried about her, but he wants eyes on her at all times. 

Anyways, back at Casa de Reyes, Angel goes to meet with his brother and hopefully talk with his father. There is a lot still weighing on his mind after what EZ told him and what they’ve been working with Happy on. Angel does confront Felipe and it’s actually my favorite scene of the episode. He tells his father that he knows Felipe isn’t who he says he is and that there’s a disconnect between the two of them. He recognizes that their relationship is different than Felipe’s relationship with EZ and Felipe takes all the fault with that. Felipe knows he shouldn’t have treated Angel differently or EZ differently. It would seem like they both want to have a more open and honest dialogue between the two of them and I hope things will be easier between them, especially because Angel tells his father that he and Adelita are going to have a baby together. Angel and Felipe are so open with each other here. Felipe assures Angel that he will be a good father who loves his child deeply because he can see just how insecure Angel feels about being a dad and being a good dad, at that. 

While Angel is opening up to Felipe, Felipe does the same with Angel, in regards to actually being Ignacio. He tells him that it was much easier being a cop on Galindo’s payroll at the time than not working for him. Jose Galindo liked Ignacio and trusted him, he quickly became a part of his inner circle after a couple of years. It was only when his wife was pregnant with Angel that he decided to leave the cartel and Ignacio behind all together and become Felipe Reyes. He picked up and changed his whole life for the better for Angel Reyes and I can’t say that I wouldn’t do the same. It’s what Angel deserves: someone to move hell and high water for him. 

Leti’s back, y’all! She’s living with Coco and going to school. He’s her father and he’s looking out for her, but she hasn’t always known him as her father, so their relationship is still a work in progress. Leti went out and got Coco his favorite breakfast and it almost feels like she’s trying to soften him up for something. Turns out, she had been letting a friend, Gabriela, stay there, despite Coco not knowing and just not allowing that. Coco is upset until he learns that Gabriela’s mother and brother, her only family, were being held by the Malditos MC, who are human traffickers. Gabriela was essentially being threatened to keep giving them money she didn’t even have for the safety of her family. Leti loaned her $5,000 of her own tuition money in an offer to help and that’s something Coco isn’t too pleased with either. 

The group that is holding Gabriela’s family is an MC that has encroached on Mayan turf, so that alone brings the Mayans into the fold. There is a huge amount of disrespect there too since Leti told this other club that her father was a Mayan and they laughed and then proceeded to rough her up a bit, since she was trying to help Gabriela. Since the Mayans MC are full of softies, honestly, not only are they going to get rid of this threat, they are determined to reunite Gabriela with her family. 

The Mayans find the house they’re camping out in and go in, guns ablaze. They find several locked doors in the house with migrants huddled together. They learn from these prisoners that if families don’t pay, the young ones are trafficked and the other ones are killed. The ones being trafficked are moved to a separate location closer to the border. The club finds where the other are being kept and finds them locked in cages. The rival club is killed off and the house is set on fire after freeing everyone. There is one mother and son pairing in the fray and its Gabriela’s family!  The club was able to reunite this one family and remind people not to mess with the Mayans all at the same time!

The episode ends with EZ and Emily finally meeting up. Emily had previously been on the phone with Miguel and told him that Ileana was upset about Marlon’s suicide and needed her there. Miguel surely didn’t look like he believed a single word coming out of her mouth, so he instructed Nestor to make sure somebody is watching her 24/7. Turns out, he had every right to feel that way because she met up with EZ in secret. They spoke about the events at the clerk’s house and how it really looked like a suicide, so EZ wrote a “suicide note” and sent a confession to the mayor’s office about the Chinese agra park deal. 

EZ finally asks Emily for a favor, regarding his family. I’m wondering if EZ and Emily are going to discover that Miguel is Felipe’s son. Are all these lies finally going to catch up to Dita and Felipe? 

Some thoughts on the episode:

I’m very pleased to have Leti back. I’m thrilled she’s in school and thriving like that.

I love that there seems to be a spark between EZ and Gabriela. EZ needs to move on from Emily, but he keeps going back and she’s literally getting him into shit he doesn’t need to be involved in. 

I love when the Reyes men open up to each other and are vulnerable. The show is at its strongest when this happens. 

So...did everyone see who’s going to be on next week’s episode? Who else is freaking STOKED?!?!

Sarah’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

Mayans MC airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on FX.

[pixieungerstories]

Housemates - 2

(Pictures are on Patreon since Tumblr won’t let me) In which we learn many things about the guys.  Including Bazur’s absentmindedness about pants.

“This is ridiculous,” Kevin declared.  He was currently a shadow humanoid wearing a wooden box as shorts.  “No one wants to work for us, guys.  The only reason we are getting applications is that Bazur said ‘diverse’ instead of ‘monstrous’ and it only takes one of us answering the doorbell to figure that out.”

Thea shrugged, “It got better once Bazur stopped answering the door in a leather jock strap.”

Kogan laughed.  “But then he has to wear pants all the time.”

Derick rolled his eyes, “Dude!  Pants!  It’s a thing!  It should be the minimum level of clothing here anyway!  I don’t want to head into the kitchen for a snack and find someone running around with their ass hanging out.”  He turned to Bazur, “You just aren’t that cute.”

Bazur frowned, “This is my house!  And anyway, Thea and Dren don’t have to wear pants.”

Dren looked up from the bowl of soup he was slowly absorbing.  “I can wear pants.  I do at work.”

Tristan considered all of this.  “She can’t be any worse than the last one.”

Kevin grinned, showing off a mouthful of needle-like teeth, “The last one was really into you.”

“The last one was objectifying me.”

Kogan cleared his throat.  “You know we aren’t paying enough for this to be a full time job, right?  We can’t all just keep being slobs.  Whoever we get will be here to help, not do all the work for us.  No leaving soup out when you are done with it Dren.  We just got rid of the ants.”

Dren shrugged, “I never leave my dirty dishes out.”

Bazur nodded, Dren never did.  Derick never did, he couldn’t stand the smell.  Kogan kept his space military level clean.  No, that was a not so subtle dig at him, Thea and Kevin.

But mostly Kevin.

The tenants  weren’t exactly clear what Kevin did for a living.  He kept odd hours.  He never talked about it, and he always paid  in cash with small bills.  At one point Dren and Tristan had gotten drunk and speculated on Kevin being some sort of stripper.  Kogan had laughed his great booming laugh and put five dollars on Kevin being a smuggler.

It didn’t matter.  No one had been able to find out.

Bazur knew, but he wasn’t talking.

In the end, they cleaned before the interview.  No point in scaring her off too soon.  Bazur made sure to book the interview when the boys would be out.  He was dressed and ready to go an hour before she was due to show up.  He spent his time pacing.

The problem was the house was huge.  The maid services he had contacted had all quoted hundreds of dollars a week and that didn’t include cooking or menu planning, a task that was universally despised in the house.  It hadn’t been easy to clear the junk out of the attic, but including room and board was their best chance at getting someone.  Humans didn’t eat much, and the campus was mostly human.

Hell, the whole town was mostly human.  Dren was the only gelatinous Bazur had ever seen in town, and he had been hired specifically to work with autistic kids.  The man was practically a living stim toy.

Bazur jumped when the doorbell rang.  He was shocked when he opened the door.  So was she, but she recovered first.  He knew that Vincensia was a fourth year biochem major at the U.  He knew she had won a scholarship to pay for her tuition.  He wasn’t expecting her to be beautiful. And outgoing and friendly in a way that went beyond what most people brought to the table when talking to not humans.  Bazur managed to fumble through most of the house tour on auto pilot after having done it so many times before.

He was doing fine until she asked about porn.

At that point he was sure it was over.

He was shocked that she agreed to come to dinner.

Oh hell!  She was coming to dinner!  What were they going to feed her?

-----

That night it was pizza take out.  Three pepperoni, one ham and pineapple, one vegetarian, and (because KEVIN) one pineapple and sardines.

Bazur was surprised.  No one asked.  Finally after this third beer, Kogan belched and asked, “Did this one even make it through the door?”

“Yeah, she did,” Derick said. “I could smell her in my room when I got home.

“She’s coming for dinner on Friday.”

There was a moment of stunned silence.

The room erupted in sound.  Everyone started yelling.  Tristan wanted to know what she thought of the tour.  Krogran wanted to know what species she was.  Dren wanted to know what she looked like.  Thea wanted to know if she was freaked out by his room.

Bazur waited for them to run down.  “Human, gorgeous, Italian - so you know her cooking will be amazing, lives with her parents, didn’t freak out about there being a drider or a mimic, but she wants her mom’s approval before she takes the job.  And I’m pretty she if we let either her or her mom sit on Kevin, all bets are off.”

They all went quiet at that.

“Um… “ Tristan started, “When you say gorgeous...”

“Long dark hair, huge dark eyes, creamy skin, Sophia Loren’s curves,” Kevin answered.  “I can’t believe she’s coming back to meet us losers.  She could make five bills in five minutes at a strip club.”

“She has concerns about the workload.  She made a fair point, we advertised as a good job for a student, but if she needs to spend all of her out of class time cleaning up after us, she won’t have time to study.  She estimated that cooking supper and washing up was a ninety minute job all on her own. I said we would organize taking care of the washing up if she needed.  She was worried that-”

“Holy shit!” Kogan interrupted, “If she is planning on taking an hour to make dinner, she is cooking from scratch!”

They all stopped to consider this,

Dren nodded slowly, “It only takes 15 minutes to throw a frozen pizza in the oven.”

Thea blinked, it was impressive.  “We can’t fuck this one up guys.”

They all looked at Kevin.  He was currently human shaped, if humans came in wood grain and had a lock set over his groin.

“What?”

----

They cleaned the kitchen.  They had twelve place settings.  Each of the guys had two and using someone else’s was a hanging offense.  Each of them had his own pattern on his dishes.  Dren had plain white from Ikea.  Thea’s were black and square. Kogan’s were beige stoneware.  Derick’s were stainless steel.  Tristan’s were blue enamelled and came from a camping store.  Bazur’s were Belleek.  The Claddagh pattern.

Kevin…. Well Kevin’s were vintage novelty plates from Las Vegas featuring pin up girls.

Everyone knew that.  They had just never really considered how that would look to an outsider.

“What?” Kevin demanded.  “Hey, they aren’t the ones where the girls clothes fall off when the plates get warm.”

Dren looked horrified, “Is that a thing?”

“Yes,” chorused Kevin, Tristan and Kogan.

Bazur shook his head.  “She can use my other set.  I guess if she moves in, I’ll buy more dishes.”

They had decided to order in take away.  Derick was out collecting a car full of Chinese food.  Kogan wandered over to the fridge.  It was full of beer.  There were also pickles, ketchup and mustard and an elderly jar of mayo.  “We are going to need to get her a separate fridge for cooking.”

Dren yelled from the dining room, “Does anyone even know if the stove works?”

“It works just fine!” Bazur yelled back.

Kogan raised an eyebrow.  Bazur came over and tried turning on the burners.  They all lit.  Both men breathed a sigh of relief.  Kogan opened the drawer under the oven.  It was full of dust, mouse shit and cheap tin pots from the fifties.  He looked at Bazur, “You buy her a fridge and I’ll buy her new pots, mixing bowls and plates.  Deal?”

Bazur nodded slowly.

“I’ll pitch in for a stand mixer,” Thea said from the ceiling, making the other two jump.  Once they were looking up at him, he added, “And Kogan is getting the short end of the stick.  Outfitting a kitchen costs way more than a fridge.”

“She’s here!” Dren called.

Thea ran across the ceiling and down a wall, beating them all to the door.  He wrenched it open and froze.  

The girl’s eyes went wide then she blinked and blushed and said, “Wow!  Um, sorry!  I’ve just never met a drider before.  Or, you know, um seen one.  Argh!  I’m being rude!”  She held out a hand, took a deep breath and said, “Hi! I’m Vinny!”

Thea ran up a wall, across the ceiling and up the side of the the staircase.

Vinny looked a Bazur.  “Sorry.  Um.  I’m not exactly off to a good start.  But I brought cannoli for dessert.”

Derick was walking up the walk with a huge box of dinner, “Wow!  Homemade cannoli?”

“Uh, yeah, like an audition.”

“You’re hired!” he announced.  “Hell, forget the job, will you marry me?”

Vinny blinked, “No.  But I will have an eggroll if you brought any.”

“OK.” he said easily as he walked past her.  “Clear a path, food coming through!”

Kogan and Dren headed to the dining room.  Derick followed with the box of food.  Vinny was still standing on the step.  Bazur smiled, “Come on in. They are all really excited to meet you.”

Vinny gave him a funny look.

“What?”

“I scared off your drider and you aren’t wearing pants.”

“Oh! Shit!  Um.  I’ll go get pants.  I’m sure Thea just went to get Tristan.”

Vinny still didn’t come in.  “Is the no pants thing going to be a thing?”

“NO! Um… maybe?  I’ll get better at it, I promise.”

“Uh-huh.” Now she came in.  She hung her coat on the hall tree and headed into the dining room.

(Sticker promotion runs until Feb 2, 2019, see Patreon for details)

[imaginemycroftholmes]

An imagine where the reader owns a bakery, which Mycroft falls in love with along with the reader so he visits as much as he can. But one day her friend covers for her, due to a nasty cold. So Mycroft basically goes into a game of 20 questions and stalker mode?

Tyrese side eyed the man in the suit for what felt like the hundredth time as he shuffled slowly around the bakery. 

He’d been in here for almost an hour before this morning and again after lunch but as it was getting closer to the closing hour it was beginning to get more than a touch suspicious.

Yeah, the guy would buy a few things while he milled about the place while keeping out of the way of others waiting for something or someone only to leave alone.

Some tall bloke in a suit with a brolly looking at sweets by his lonesome for almost four hours when he looks like he outta be doing some big wig government stuff or something just struck Tyrese as out of place.

It was just weird. 

And concerning.

But mostly weird.

And Tyrese would know something about weird because he went to Liberal Arts university.

Putting away what could be saved for the next day Tyrese stands up to ask the man once more, “Can I help you sir?”

The guy opens his mouth and while it looks like he’s going to decline politely like last time his mouth closes and walks toward the bakery counter.

His voice is the same as it was this morning; smooth and calculated as he replied, “You know I think that you just might be able to Mister…”

“Tyrese is fine sir,” Tyrese offers as he leans on the counter to become more level with the man. He was never one for such formalities as he was more of carefree soul. Being called ‘mister’ anything just made him feel old and stuffy.

The man in the suit nods. “Then Tyrese perhaps you would be so helpful me with obtaining some information.”

Now this is something that Tyrese lived for-he loved explaining sweets!

Anyone dumb enough to ask him the difference between a Berliner and an American jelly would be stuck listening him for ages as he waxed on about the different properties and ingredients.

It’s why he took the job at _____’s bakery so that he could talk about them and learn to make them for his own shop one day.

“Well you came to the right bakery today sir, lay it on me. What do you want to know about? Our Brandy Snaps? Fruit Fools? I’m an expert on pretty much everything save the Lardy cakes but I’m workin’ on it,” Tyrese jokes as he points to the items on the counters’ menu.

“I’m afraid the information I am trying to receive is a bit more…off the menu.”

Now if that didn’t sound ominous Tyrese thinks but knows better than to offend a customer much less a customer in a suit that looks like it costs more than his rent and tuition combined.

“Not a problem sir,” Tyrese amends easily, “ here at _____’s bakery we can make just about anything to order provided you give us a weeks heads up first-” 

“I have a very lucrative business proposition for you Tyrese  Flanders, something that would prove to be quite substantial toward finishing your degree and keeping your head above water well past boxing day,” the strange man offers.

Instinctively Tyrese goes to clutch his name badge. This was more than suspicious now. Shit just got real.

“How did you know my last name,” Tyrese demands.

The man of course doesn’t look the least bit bothered or seems to notice his discomfort. “In this day and age of information and social media finding last names, addresses, universities, work is hardly difficult to locate if one puts it up willing,” he explains easily, “but for what I’m after I would need a more human approach rather than a search engine I’m afraid.”

Doing his best to keep the panic out of his voice Tyrese demands again,“Who are you and what do you want?”

The man moves closer to the counter and Tyrese vaguely wonders if the cops would be upset with him if he pushed panic button just to get this dude out of _____’s shop.

It didn’t matter that Tyrese had a good eight inches on this man the dude creeped him the fuck out.

His smile was big though largely insincere as he said, “No one of consequence Tyrese. Just a man willing to pay handsomely for some inconsequential information concerning your current employer. Nothing too personal. Just her habits and interests.” 

And holy shit Tyrese was going to push the fuck outta that button and lock himself in the manager’s office.

This guy is crazy. This guy is trouble. And what the fuck does he want with ____? 

This guy looked like he had his own crime mob and the money to shush him up so why was he asking about _____? Why did he only show up when she’s not here? And why the fuck isn’t the panic alarm going off when _____ replaced it last week?

His heart nearly stops and all color fades from his face as the man reaches into his inner coat pocket.

OH GOD NO.

Without thinking Tyrese ducks for cover behind the counter screaming, “DON’T SHOOT” and tries to army crawl his way to the kitchen as fast as his long limbs could carry him.

He stays in the kitchen with the door locked huddled behind the ovens armed with a frying pan. Its been well over twenty minutes but he has no idea if the man is still in the store.

Tyrese knows he has to find out but since the panic button didn’t go off the police won’t be here for another twenty and he needs to get home in order to feed Buttercup on time.

Carefully crawling as quietly as a 6′9 man could Tyrese peeked through the kitchen’s small door peephole. 

No creepy dude in sight but he could be standing outside.

Tyrese attempts to slither out of the kitchen as silently as his pet Buttercup but finds that he sucks at being a snake while he crashes into the corners of the display cabinets.

Sore and paranoid Tyrese slowly gets up from the floor to pick through the display glass. No creepy dude there.

Getting up fully Tyrese looks around the shop to see if anything has been stolen.

All the pastries are still there, none of the gift baskets are missing, the jams are still in place but there’s a folded up paper on the counter with his name scrawled in an elegant red.

Using paper towels from the dispenser to pick up the note (because Tyrese knew that their could be prints to catch this weirdo) he opens it up.

When its convenient for you Tyrese Flanders I would prefer that you text this number with any and all information concerning your employer’s interests, hobbies and status within the following seven business days. Provide this and not only will the check enclosed be yours but on a weekly basis.Your employer must not know about this contract however, I can attest that none of the information gathered will be used to harm or displease her in anyway. The choice is yours Mr. Flanders. You could use this money to pay for your beloved python’s food supply and then even for food for yourself. Think about it.

-M

If the note wasn’t concerning enough the amount of zeros on the check enclosed was enough to make Tyrese feel faint.

He could pay off his loans before he even graduated! He could get a car! A small house big enough for Buttercup! His dad a car! The possibilities were endless!

Wait tho…

“I can’t sell out ____ like that especially to some crazy wanker in a suit,” Tyrese says with a sigh.

 She had been one of the few that was willing to hire him despite his mum being a career criminal. Being a man in this economy was hard enough with ‘diversity’ quotas to fill but being a man who’s mummy regularly steals and aggressively assaults people on a day to day basis doesn’t help a man get a job either.

Yeah the money would be great but he couldn’t do his employer like that. Not after all she’s done for him.

Tyrese is shreds both the paper and check and then throws it into the bin by the registers. Thanks but no thanks he thinks hoping that was the last of it when his cell phone pings.

I’ll double my offer. Think carefully Tyrese Flanders and make the correct choice for both of you and ______.  -M

While the screams that come from Tyrese don’t entirely wake up the small block but its enough to finally get someone to call the police even if it was from mean old missus Yao from the Chinese buffet next door. 

[vaporwavegirl]

2017 has been the craziest most emotionally damaging and most exhausting and weirdest year of my life. But through all have that I've met some amazing people and learned so much and grown up so much as a person I'm really started to learn about who really am and I've opened up and really matured alot this year. Started college and really starting to save up money and buying my own car and turning 18 and being given so much more freedom becoming so much more open and with my mother and forming such a close unbreakable bond with the women who adopted me and saved my life really was I was a baby. SHe and my father (who recently divorced) gave up alot to adopt me and my brother and raise us the best they could. We're not perfect and we definitely are difficult and mean and make stupid decisions sometimes but our parents despite going through alot them selves and our family struggling with alot of deaths and being broke and not having jobs for awhile have still done what they could to give us a good life. My mom is still there for me and is trying her hardest to take care of me and this year has been shitty but it has transformed me into an entirely new and happier and better person honestly. I've become much more spiritual and I'm so much I more in touch with myself .I'v been through alot but I wouldn't have it any other way it has been for the best. I have met so many of the most amazing people this year some of which were only in my life for a short time unfortunately. But I hope to keep in touch with these people and grow and thrive with them and I'm so happy I'm entering 2018 with some of the most amazing talented creative beautiful people I have ever have the pleasure of knowing in this life. This year is going to be about becoming an adult and making my way out of my mom's house and being on my own and figuring my future and my life out. I plan on moving across the country to the Washington /Oregon Seattle or forks or Portland or something because that's where i really feel like I belong and will thrive the most. I currently live in Alabama and there is nothing for me here except all the friends I've made. But I really feel like I want a fresh start somewhere completely new and amazing and meet many more new Amazing beautiful and live my life to the fullest. After Tonight I'm quitting all of my partying and drugs atleast until I get financially stable enough and atleast am moved out of my mom's house or am living on my own somewhere and I can afford to party and live my life a little so that will probably be when move to Seattle and weed and stuff is legal and it's more acceptable to be who I am up there. I'm quitting smoking weed for atleast like 2-3 months after today. Only reason I am not longer is because I smoke marijuana to medicate myself for my depression and anxiety and shit as opposed to prescription stuff because the stuff doctors give me just make me feel numb and not myself and I'm still low-key depressed. I'm only taking a break from weed to start saving up money and really try to focus and finding a place to move out to when I graduate around may and saving up to do so. Don't judge me but while I'm taking my few months off from smoking and I'm going to be selling a bit of bud to my close friends to make some extra money on the side because weed isn't quite legal here yet and it's a little difficult for my friends to get sometimes and it's going to help me out as a student who finds it hard to find a part time job that doesn't pay minimum wage (7.25 fuK THAT) and gives me decent hours it's always not enough hours for decent pay or they work me to FUCKING dEATH for shit pay and it stresses me out. I quit my recent job about a week and ago I'm started 2018 fresh with a new job starting pay a little above minimum wage at 8.50 an hour and after a few weeks I'll get a raise. They say I'll hopefully get decent hours like 25-35 a week and it's a small Japanese/ Asian/ pop culture shop owned by a Chinese lady that coincidentally has the same name as me and there's only like 3 other people that work there and they are all really cool good friends of mine that's I've met through cosplaying the past few years. So starting with a new hopefully better job. Starting off sober with my mind focussed on graduating cosmetology school and saving up money and working hard and getting my life together. The last thing I'll probably really spend money on and do for myself this year is Kami con at the end of this month. My family has helped get me different parts of my lapis lazuli (gem from Steven universe) cosplay for me as Christmas gifts and it is tradition that if at all possible I will do everything I can to attend each year and I have for the past 5 years and this year I will have my first legitimate good cosplay and I'm excited. But after that every bit of my money is to school tuition, helping my mom with the phone bill and our car insurance and groceries when she needs it and saving the rest for moving out and starting my future. When I move to Seattle and hopefully become successful enough? at cosmetology that I open my own salon that I'm hoping my unique edgy choice in hairstyles with be accepted and eventually apprentice as a tattoo artist and open a piercing/tattoo/body shop open up like with my salon that like a super weird dream of mine I had for awhile and honestly I'm probably not going to be good enough but I'm going work my ass off and be sober and focus on my future so I can reach my fullest potential I have been put through too much and made it way too far to not try and live my life to the best of my ability and do everything I can to really be happy and stable and eventually fall in love and maybe have a kid and honestly I truly believe I'm going to marry this boy that I've been on and off with since freshman year of highschool. We both lost out Virginity to each other after dating for the first like 6 months and that was the first time we dated which was almost 11 months after we broke up and went a little crazy and just kinda started dating random people not really for love just because I was so scared of being alone and I hated idea of it. So I just fucked around alot and never really had anything as serious as my dude (I don't wanna say his name but if u know me and ur reading this u probably already know who I'm talking anyways. We were distant and not even on speaking terms for maybe two years. After i grew up a bit and started actually making goals and becoming a young adult I contacted him and asked if he wanted to meet up and catch up on our lives and try to give being friends a shot. Its been maybe a little over a year since I had reached out and started talking to him again. We've tried dating again and we have been on an off since then and we both are young adults trying to figure out our lives and we are both struggling alot as far mental health because of the stress of having to grow up kinda and it just kept fucking up out relationship and my emotions were so all over the place and I was really struggling with trying to figure out what I need in life and how to be happy without have to rely on a relationship or drugs or material things. I had to learn how to enjoy the actual important things in my life like all the beautiful amazing people I've had the pleasure of knowing in this life and how to cut toxic people and thinks and places out of my life if it's affecting my mental health and over learned that it's ok to be sensitive and to want to take care of yourself and have a good mental health. I've learned how to just live in the moment and to surround myself with positive vibes and only be around good honest genuine people that actually care about me and want me to succeed. I want the people in my life now to be people that I know forever and people that are going to be there for me in future. Anyways Over those two years me and the boy didn't talk i never got over him matter how hard a tried and thought I was and that i could potentially be falling love with some one. I just cant. I am in love with him and always will be no matter what. If i still feel so happy and deeply in love with him after.he broke my heart and didn't talk to be for 2 years I know this man is meant to be apart my life forever weather it is as my lover or as one of my closest friends. We are soul mates and I know that I will absolutely love him completely and unconditonally for the rest of my life. Those two years when I wasn't with him kept failing my classes in high school freshman and sophomore and was extremely suicidal and didn't give and fuck about school and even went to the mental hospital for awhile towards the end of my sophomore year and at that point i literally thought I was so stupid and worthless and not even worth the effort of living and being such and disappointment to my family and my friends because I could pass one class in high school and I had given up. Until my counselor transferred me to a kind of alternative school that I could do everything at my own pace and only do the essentials and stuff I absolutely need to learn instead of busy work and stupid shit like public school. This place had no semesters or exams or grades. It has 4 different very well educated and super cool and awesome genuine teachers that actually care about helping you get the best education and they really do care about their students and they are so passionate about helping these kids actually learn and have an opportunity to have a future. Theres one teacher for each subject and 5 councilors that the 70-80 kids are divided between them and it was such an amazing really healing place and i met some really amazing people that year and learned alot about myself and started doing art therapy and I got my work done and realized I wasnt actually stupid like I had been so sure I was but I'm actually very intelligent I just have manic depression and severe social anxiety and I just needed to start working on myself and start making the effort to keep myself happy and actually work on my life and be the person I want to be. After that year during summer I made the decision not to go back to public school for what would have been my senior year so as soon as I was 17 I dropped out of high school and got my GED and I started cosmetology school at 17 years old before my graduating class even finished there senior year. My GED teacher was also a councilor and i became very close to her and she's honestly helped me make a future for myself and she supported me and saw how smart I was and she would help me no matter what and still to this day if in need to talk or need help with something i can call her and she will 100% help me because she is such a good and selfless and kind woman that genuinely cares about me and my future. It's rare that you meet teachers that actually help their kids . I honestly made the decision to do whats best for me and my mental health and i got my career and life started as early as I could because I'm determined to live my life to the best before I'm too old or die super young I'm some crazy way because honestly life is so short and way too short not to do everything u can to just really be the best you can be and enjoy life and do what makes u fuckin happy. So starting this year I am being sober so I can graduate school and work and save money and start my life as a young independent adult. My teenage years have been so wild and I've been through so much but it's I wouldn't trade these last few years. I've met so many kind beautiful amazing souls and I've learned so much about life and other people and relationships and I've learned about happiness within myself and I've learned alot about who I am and what it really want in life. I've learned alot about my mental illnesses and how to cope with them the best way possible for myself. I've had some of the best and most amazing adventures and i made so many amazing memories so despite the bullshit I've been through in my teenage years and all the stress of becoming a young adult in this super fucked up world we live in today I know that I have made it this far and I become stronger and better everyday and I'm thriving and finally getting where I want to be. I'm becoming more content with who I am and I'm learning to love myself and be who I am and I'm so happy with the person I becoming and I know I'm going to continue growing and thriving and becoming a beautiful and amazing person living the best life I can. This started out as a new years resolution post but im on alot of stuff right now and I felt like I needed to just write about stuff. Anyways. Happy new years yall here's to a fresh start and then beginning of my life as I figure out how to be my own person. 2018 is going to be so fucking good

[happycakestories]

old mx fic dump pt. 3

a very self-serving highly gratuitous twins au -- unrealistic but very fun in the moment - cowritten with @deardystopia

God, why couldn’t he have just suffocated? He needs to work on that - for next time hopefully. (If there even is a next time, the pessimist within him groans loudly).  

First Chapter : Hotter than hell

Literature class never felt so slow to Jackson as it does today, he decides, grumbling and writing notes in his chicken scratch handwriting of what the professor is saying. None of it is helping to make the minutes pass faster. Nor is sending playful and stupid messages to his best friend, typing fast on the phone screen hidden behind a tall student sitting disinterested in the row in front of him. Okay no, it helps just a bit, but reading Tolstoy also feels like being punched in the gut over and over.

Usually they would be together whispering and chattering like two old grandmas for the entire lecture, but Jooheon didn’t arrive today on time. When he showed up as the class was starting, he literally looked so lost and confused like he had just gotten out of bed, but it wasn’t surprising as this was the first class of the day. He was sporting messy dark chocolate curls, a bordeaux adidas hoodie and a pair of black sweat pants that probably were the first things he fished off of his room’s messy floor – he was the messiest person, really – to get dressed fast, and by the time he had gotten there, almost no seats were left. Jackson couldn’t have kept the reserved spot any longer as more sleepy students were already dragging themselves into the various rows of seats in class, occupying everything too fast.

Also, Jackson would have been late as well if it wasn’t for his noisy roommates returning to the dorm at 6 am in the morning - God knows what they were on about - and let’s not even talk about the constant pressure he felt being the New Exchange StudentTM. He moved to study in Korea one and a half months before, to start sophomore year in Seoul thanks to an international exchange program hosted by the college. He must also admit that if it hadn’t been for Jooheon’s bright smile, incredible charisma and that charming pair of deep-set dimples that made him the most adorable human to ever exist, he would have felt completely alone. Some people weren’t so welcoming at the time they found out he was a Chinese exchange student, even if prejudices were based on old history for some communities, it was hard to let things go, but with Jooheon all that was needed to get to know each other was a simple smile during the first day of the class they were now always attending together.

Uh, usually you don’t think something like that about your best friend… But nobody could resist Jooheon’s smile in any way and Jackson was definitely pining over him since they met, always dreaming of being able to touch and caress those dark chocolate curls of his and kiss those pink plush lips. They probably would have tasted just as sweet.

Anyway, today’s messages’ topic was: What happens when you get ‘scared half to death’ twice?

Last night Jooheon’s brother insisted on entering one of those terrible and scary houses… Because, why not? He said everything would be fine and that those ‘monsters’ were just people working and doing their job, so there was nothing to be worried about, right?

Jooheon wasn’t entirely convinced as he was telling Jackson, all his friends knew that he gets scared easily and maybe it’s one of the reasons they enjoy frightening him at all times – his reactions are the best really -, but there was his brother too with him, so he decided to go inside and face all his fears.

‘Face’ is a strong word, “Suddenly this guy with a big bloodied chainsaw and a freaking mask started to scream and chased US! BUT I FELL (☼Д☼)” Jackson is reading the story unfolding on the messages and lets out a small giggle as he keeps going on “I wanted to run but my legs went numb and my BROTHER DISAPPEARED (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ”

“He abandoned you there??”

“YES!?”

“Why? What happened then? What did you do?? （・□・；）”

“I cried,” Jackson must hide the big smile that is emerging reply by reply by sliding down more on the chair, he doesn’t want to get scolded by the professor as he tries to imagine Jooheon crying on the ground of this warehouse with a masked man threatening him “And the chainsaw guy took off his mask, put his hand on my shoulder, kneeled to talk to me, and APOLOGIZED ‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·��”

“WHAT щ(゜ロ゜щ)”

Okay, Jackson now has to bite his bottom lip hard to not laugh out loud in class. How much would he have payed to see that scene in person? Probably his entire tuition.

“I KNOW” Jooheon answers in caps “And he led me to the exit by my hand!!! That shit was too scary tbh. Remind me to NEVER go again inside of one of those houses lol”

“I guess he actually felt bad about scaring you like that ahah. But at least you didn’t have to endure the entire house till the end ┐(´∀｀)┌”

“Maybe? But you know who wasnt sorry about leaving me to die in there? MY BROTHER (ノಠ ∩ಠ)ノ彡( o°o)” there were more dots under Jooheon’s name on the chat, signaling he was typing something more “HE WAS WAITING FOR ME OUTSIDE AND WHEN HE SAW MY FACE HE LAUGHED HIS ASS OFF!! HE CRIED ABOUT MY PAIN. He is SO MEAN really. I don’t know why we’re still brothers??”

“You can’t change your relatives, I know something about it… But if it was me I would have bought you sweet pastries and a hot coffee to be graced by your forgiveness ahah”

“You’d be a better brother for sure ♥”

Did he just…get bro-zoned? You got yourself into this situation Jackson. You did this to yourself.

Jackson mentally slaps himself as he tries to change the topic to something entirely different in order to stop where all of this is going to lead before it happens. Besides, as he thinks about it, he actually hasn’t met Jooheon’s brother at all, his best friend told him only that the first year was really tough and messy. His brother was never home or attending classes, and lots of fights happened between them when he wouldn’t even say where he was spending most of his nights. Jooheon kept worrying over him, stressing over him, almost reaching a point where he almost failed two classes, but since the start of the sophomore year, everything was getting better slowly, his brother started to attend classes more and seemed “more tamed” as Jooheon described it.

“Do you have another class after this? (´・ω・｀)”

“Yeah, man. Gotta attend linguistics, sad stuff (;´□｀)”

“Oh!” You’re probably going to hell for this small lie as you’re typing it and for all the times you thought about your best friend in not the most innocent ways, Jackson thinks, biting his lying tongue, “Can I walk you over there? I’m going in the same direction.  (◡‿◡)/”

“I’ll wait for you outside then! ♥”

It went smooth. But why does he keep sending those hearts? Is he using them with his other friends as well? Is it a Korean thing? Probably - Jooheon most likely replies like that to everyone, but Jackson can’t and won’t stop his hopes from soaring higher than they should as he slips his phone into sleep mode and slides it back inside his jean’s back pocket.

Finally, the longest literature class in history ends, and Jackson’s heart starts to pound faster as he prepares to approach Jooheon waiting out in the packed corridors. Most of the time it’s not like this, but today it’s different for them, Jackson will ask him out. Or try, at least.

He gathers all of his books, his favorite blue squid-shaped pencil case and his literature notebook, throwing them inside his blue backpack before high-tailing it out of there.

“Jooheon-ah!”

When Jackson calls to the red hooded lump leaning against the corridor’s wall, Jooheon raises his chin up and looks directly at him, sweet eyes accompanied by that irresistible deep dimpled smile that drags everyone into a utopian paradise. Jackson’s heart painfully skips a beat for a long moment.

I’m going to die, he thinks as he moves forward to his best friend, attempting to reciprocate with a small smile and hoping to not seem too obvious about his crush for him.

“Hey! All good?” Jooheon chirps fondly, moving off from where he was leaning to walk side by side with his friend, fiery red backpack dangling wearily from one of his shoulders as the weight of culture made itself apparent.

“Yep,” the Chinese student starts, bending his head slightly toward the ground as he doesn’t feel so confident in his self-restraint when those angel-kissed dimples are there. “Though, what about you? You seem quite, uh tired this morning? … Don’t tell me it’s because of the House of Horrors you went to yesterday?”

“Well, that definitely helped! But when it was like 2 a.m. I was about to doze off, my mind was literally blank… And then the thought of Lit’s midterms results coming out today HIT me so hard that I couldn’t stop thinking about it.” Jooheon makes a startled face, giggling at an invisible thought, gesticulating to make it less abstract. “Like, it’s the first exam this October and I want to pass it so bad?? I don’t want to repeat last year’s grades seriously.”

“What?! You shouldn’t be this anxious! I’m sure you got a straight A with a full score.” Jackson pushes jokingly at the other’s shoulder, almost making him trip on his feet. “We studied together, I know what you’re capable of. Don’t worry too much! And if it’s not what you hoped for, we’ll get through it together.”

Was he being too extra with the compliments? But at the same time…why is that when he said I know what you’re capable of, it made him think about totally different things that were incredibly out of context?

He know his best friend is a great student, a slow learner but with enough time he could analyze and understand things way better than others. Also, Jackson got help from him many times with Korean language misunderstandings – and there were many of these times - but Jackson wouldn’t have minded knowing what Jooheon was capable of in other contexts. Contexts where Jackson imagined himself on top of Jooheon, bodies pressed together on unmade and crumpled sheets as he drinks himself drunk on each one of those wet and incredibly sweet kisses, as their fingers intertwine together. He could almost make out the stunning sensation of Jooheon’s soft, ruddy lips on his.

“Thanks man, we will see later I guess…!” His best friend’s cheerful voice feels like a bucket of freezing water thrown over him.

Jackson, chill. Literally. Also, maybe it’s time to ask him about… “Oh, yeah… Later I-“

“Ugh. I really want a Smoochie right now, in this exact moment. Like right now.”

But it seems that his best mate didn’t hear his mumbled words as he was groaning and pouting like an adorable child in need of his daily sugar intake to keep functioning.

Still, what the hell was a Smoochie? Was he talking about a literal smooching session or what…? Would Jooheon ever be so forward with him? Did he notice Jackson’s embarrassing crush for him?

“A Smoochie is one of the best smoothies in town, you know?” Jooheon laughs again, probably from the confused look on the Chinese student’s face. He had to explain.

“Ah.” No kisses involved, then.

“It’s made with hibiscus flowers! It’s one of the seasonal drinks they prepare in that nice coffee shop near the campus, Flower Café, you know?” He seems so eager to explain the entire story of the drink to Jackson, that if he didn’t know him, he’d honestly assume he was some kind of amateur food enthusiast. And honestly, knowing him as he is, the fastest way to his heart was definitely through his stomach. “It’s so colorful and it smells amazing…You should try it sometime! Even though, I think they changed the menu to fit the Autumn theme by now.” With a deep sigh he keeps going on, “It’s a pity I couldn’t go before the end of September, there was no time to breathe with this midterm coming so fast…”

Jackson lets out a nervous laugh as he musters up the courage to say what could only be an incredibly embarrassing thing, his mind completely blank and unable to think. His brain decided to not function anymore at the word ‘hibiscus’ for some reason.

“Hibiscus flowers symbolized, in the Victorian Europe, ‘delicate beauty’” - stop - “In China their meaning is related to wealth and fame.” - STOP BRAIN - “I think it’s the type of drink that fits you perfectly, you know for your bea-“

“OH NO!” Jooheon shouts, his mouth hanging open for a moment as the sudden realization hits him hard “I forgot my essay for linguistics!”

God maybe is real, maybe not, but Jackson owes him at least for this. He was definitely saved in the very last moment before he made himself look like a fool. He bites down on his upper lip hard, thankful he didn’t finish what he was going to say.

“I’m sorry man, I’ll catch you later, ok?”

Wait.  

“Sure, but about tonight’s party would you- “

But Jooheon already rushed through the other side of the corridor, running for his life as he probably had to get back to his apartment near the campus, fetch the essay and come back to the same building and arrive late for his class.

Jackson remains by himself, talking alone and completely out of the range from his next class. He accompanied Jooheon just to be able to talk with him about the party, but his plan to ask him out completely failed. Sure, if there’s time they will meet later at Jooheon’s apartment, so he might try to gather the courage to try to ask him out for a second time, but…

“You can do it, Jackson.”  

-

“...called you, but your cellphone is down - but workin’ on weibo what you think I’m blind? Playin’ hard to get, I know you want me too-”

Jackson looks up from his own phone, pulled away from his temporary distraction by the uncanny timing of the party’s booming music. Working on weibo huh, he thinks, echoing the lyrics in his own mind, smiling slightly at the out of context reference. The DJ tonight must be Chinese, he guesses. Maybe he should pay them a visit at the end of the night, strike up some conversation, and leave the party with another friend. He strides across the dance floor, empty messages already forgotten in his excitement at the chance of finding someone from the motherland. First and foremost, Jackson Wang has always been a social butterfly and not even a language barrier can stop that.

Unfortunately, the complexities of texting etiquette can, and he’s nervously clicking his phone open again, scrolling through a string of messages he’s read over at least three times. Writhing bodies mill around his own, an awkward unmoving block that sits smack dab right in the center of the party, but Jackson can’t bring himself to care about the hastily bumped shoulders or rude murmurs. It’s not like he can understand them that well anyway.

What he can understand is the fact that there seems to be no sign of Jooheon replying to the messages he sent over thirty minutes ago. Earlier this morning, he had stood there in the crowded hallway with his tongue swollen in his mouth as Jooheon had gone on and on about a terribly named drink. It had been on his mind the entire time, nine simple words, do you want to go to the party together, reverberating over and over in his throat and practically on the tip of his tongue for the entirety of the conversation. Casual, friendly, and entirely platonic - nothing could have gone wrong with him just asking outright. And yet, the words had sat fat and swollen in his mouth, souring like spoiled milk from being exposed to the rot of his cowardly disposition. Now remembering Jooheon’s innocent rambles about sugary drinks as he had considered a multitude of things less than pure brings a flush of heat to his cheeks, and the bitter taste from earlier bubbles in his mouth like acrid vomit as he scrolls again through his messages.

Sent 9:17 PM. The time reads 10 by now, and still no reply.

Getting to know the potentially fellow Chinese DJ suddenly seems much less appealing now, and Jackson considers trekking all the way back across campus again so he can eat away his feelings in bowls of Szechuan-style chicken as he cries his eyes out to old imperial dramas in his tiger print pajamas. Why yes he is a fully grown functioning college student, why do you ask?

He’s already retracing his steps back through the disgruntled crowd, picturing in his mind’s eye the exact arrangement of pillows he’ll set up on his bed for the night, when a familiar stare forces him to a sudden stop. Slim eyes, usually so soft and gentle, are lined to a knife-like point with perfectly flicked curves of black. Still, it’s unmistakably Jooheon’s stare pinning him like a taxidermied butterfly right where he stands, rooted motionless against the far wall of the lobby floor. Even from clear across the room, Jooheon’s gaze burns so intensely Jackson feels it down to the very marrow of his bones. Oh, and also directly in his crotch.

The unflinching stare draws closer and closer, never removing itself from his wavering own as its owner weaves his way effortlessly through the shifting crowd. The bass pounds up through Jackson’s locked legs, flowing through his blood and right into his brain, elevating his current consciousness into a state of lucid drunkenness. Maybe that’s a good thing, he wonders, especially if Jooheon keeps staring at him like that, there’s the very high chance his brain will leak right out of his ears and plop right onto the neon patterned dancefloor. Not very attractive, Jackson, he thinks, grimacing at the sudden appearance of the explicit imagery inside his swirling mind.

In his panicked what-ifs, Jooheon has somehow already stalked his way across the floor and is standing in front of Jackson with his dark, glittering stare, looking as if he’s absolutely ready to party the night away. All thoughts about melting cerebrums and drunken bass beats fly out of his mind as Jackson blatantly ogles the entirety of Jooheon’s too tight fashion. Not that he doesn’t appreciate his friend’s frayed hoodies and sagging sweatpants, but just - goddamn - they really don’t hold a candle up to the rips situated dangerously over gloriously thick upper thighs and the rest of his legs bound in skin-tight black jeans. The shock hits him again in another breath-sucking punch as he looks up to see a leather choker buckled dangerously around a pale neck, so thin and stiff Jackson faintly wonders how Jooheon is breathing with that on.

Then again, how is he breathing with anything he has on right now?

The DJ shifts songs, switching to something smoother with the same pulsing backtrack, and Jooheon sidles right up into Jackson’s space in perfect timing with the beat. Oh god - Jackson is really holding his breath right now, staring right into slitted orbs that blink lazily at him almost as if in wait. When raucous silence passes by for a few nerve-wracking moments, Jackson finally summons up his lost voice and says in a very manly, very steady tone, “When did you get here?”

Jooheon’s gaze flows like liquid mercury, dark and inscrutable as he tilts his head to the side in a movement that Jackson has seen an infinite amount of times before under innocent sunlight in hazy cafes. This time though, it’s so...predatory, Jackson is gripped by an irrational fear for his life.

No ripping teeth or hungry growls come though, only the same smooth, elegant smile dipping over the other’s full cheeks and revealing a very familiar set of dimples. “Just now, you?” he murmurs, stepping even closer, practically tangling his toned legs around Jackson’s own.

The Chinese student muffles an indistinct sound in his throat, something suspiciously resembling a choking cough as he unintentionally inhales the scent of heady jasmine mixed with a strange smoky sweetness from Jooheon’s upturned cheek. In what universe has Jooheon ever been this forward, this alluring? He admits it, he may have slightly dug his face a little too deeply into past hugs and it’s always been the soft, curling scent of warm cotton and fresh spring detergent, but right now the only way he can describe the perfume curling off of Jooheon’s skin in waves of heat is - pure sex.

“Uh, like uh thirty minutes ago, but no worries - woah-” Jackson’s reply is cut off with a definite sound of him choking on his own spit as Jooheon presses himself to the panicking man’s front in a smooth serpentine arch, pushing their chests together in a searing line of flesh. A light hand traces down his jacket clad arm, before loosely circling around his wrist and fitting Jackson’s locked fingers into the curve of a warm, supple waist.

Abort. Repeat. Abort. Hand. Jooheon’s waist. Chest. Jooheon’s chest. There are spots dancing over his vision, and he knows these ones aren’t from the neon beams. If he passes out now, at least he can go out with the perfect sight of Jooheon’s face burned into retinas as he descends into Hell.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Jooheon hums, practically purrs, pressing over Jackson’s twitching fingers with his own cool hand as he continues staring up at him with sharp eyes. They’ve changed though, still two pools of inscrutable ink, but the predatory glare has faded into something more silky, more inviting. And Jackson, with his shaking heart and pounding head, who is he to say no?

It’s as if Jooheon mentally heard the automatic response within Jackson’s head, and he’s backing out of the other’s space, leaving the air around him suddenly so cold. Still, Jooheon keeps one hand curled watchfully around Jackson’s wrist, tilting his chin towards some dark corridor in the furthest recesses of the dorm as he mouths “come on” to the stunned man with a shiny, pink smile. The moment he turns, strutting confidently through the flickering shadows, Jackson is tripping into action, allowing himself to be pulled along by the heated tether between them.

Now, Jackson doesn’t know what he expected his first time with Jooheon to be like (if he ever even expected a first time at all), but it most definitely did not include being pushed up against a wall and being kissed within an inch of his life. Jooheon’s lips are locked glossily over his own, and already there’s a tongue licking into his mouth, draining every shocked moan right out of him with its skilled workings. By the time Jackson comes back enough to the real world to begin reciprocating, there’s already fingers dancing down his jeans and popping open his fly without a second of hesitation or struggle.

The mouth over his own is suddenly gone, leaving him panting at empty air as Jooheon’s dark head situates itself right at crotch level. Jooheon. On his knees. For him. Jackson is definitely going to hell after tonight.

Jooheon sends him a sultry glance up through delicate lashes, complete with a hint of a tongue peeking out over spit-shined lips as he proceeds to maneuver Jackson’s rock-hard cock out of his boxers without a hint of hesitation. Jackson swears he’s already shaking down to his very bones, but the tremors only escalate another level further when Jooheon’s hands grip soft and steady around him, stroking gently up and down with deft fingers that smear beads of pearly precum over every inch of his painfully red cock.

“You don’t have to-” he starts, wincing at the sound of his own cracking voice, but Jooheon only puts a wet finger to his full mouth before swallowing Jackson down in one go.

Jackson bites his tongue, clamping a sweaty palm over his mouth for good measure as he tries to hold in every embarrassing sound as a tight, wet heat begins working itself over his cock in a quick, unforgiving rhythm. The slick noise of flesh against flesh echoes lewdly within his ears, and Jackson knows, no matter how much control he has over his 3-pack abs, if Jooheon continues at this pace he’s going to come like an eager middle schooler discovering the wonders of porn for the first time again.

Somehow, Jooheon seems to read his mind for the second time, and he pulls of Jackson’s now purpling cock with a sucking pop! There are trails of white smeared around his lips, and he makes direct eye contact with Jackson as he openly licks away the droplets and swallows them down with a distinct bobbing of his throat. Jackson automatically swallows his own spit at the sight and feels his tortured cock twitch happily in response to the sight. Somehow, Jooheon has twisted him into a complete masochist tonight, but with the way he’s straightening in front of him with further promises flashing within his slitted eyes, he can’t say he has a problem with that.

And without warning, complicated lacings of combat boots are being pulled loose and kicked to the side, and Jackson watches, flabbergasted, as Jooheon shimmies out of those skin-tight black jeans with a wiggling of his hips, his underwear quickly following until he’s standing thighs bared before Jackson, head cocked again as if in wait.

This time Jackson stands, absolutely frozen in place with no idea what to do, so Jooheon takes the initiative and slips forward, grinding himself up against the other man’s front as he pulls Jackson to his lips with looped hands around his neck. The moment their mouths connect, Jackson is shocked back into awareness, and it only hits him now that this is real, that Jooheon is willing to kiss him, willing to let him fuck him, and oh, how badly he wants it, how badly he needs it and how he needs it now.

Jooheon is the one being slammed back against a wall now, releasing a shuddering breath into Jackson’s all too eager mouth as he latches on even tighter around the other’s neck. Jackson hikes his hands up under the crook of bent knees, winding them around his waist as he lifts Jooheon off the ground entirely, and a surprised moan brushes sweetly over his lips as a reward. Maybe all those years of professional fencing are finally paying off now, he thinks deliriously, digging his fingers into the soft, full flesh of Jooheon’s ass.

He’s ready to move on, to take it to the final point, to take Jooheon as he’s presented so enticingly before him, but a realization suddenly douses his entire body with cold water. Jooheon senses it too, hands cupped around his cheeks as he separates his mouth from Jackson’s, a clear trail of spit hanging between their open lips. Jackson’s gaze catches on that erotic sight for a moment too long, before he knocks himself out of it with a stuttering whisper of “condoms?”

Jooheon gives him a squinted stare that strangely makes Jackson feel like folding to his knees and begging for forgiveness in a deep bow. “Why, are you not clean?” he asks bluntly, digging a foot into the curve of Jackson’s back.

The Chinese student splutters, pushing Jooheon further up against the wall in an effort to avoid dropping him. “No, no, I am, but shouldn’t we be safe?”

The hallway is almost entirely encased in shadow, but he swears he receives an immediate eye roll in response. However, the weight latched around his waist disappears as Jooheon steps down without shame, hips swaying confidently, over to his discarded pile of clothing. He bends over, Jackson trying and failing to not gawk over his full ass, and returns with a shiny packet in hand. He slips into the space between the other man and the wall and tears open the condom with a quick snarl of teeth before discarding the silver packet to the side.

Hail Mary, Jesus, and Joseph, Jackson might as well die from a brain aneurysm now. The sight of Jooheon opening a condom in a flash of white teeth and pink lips is the only thing he ever wants to remember for the rest of his life.

He shivers as Jooheon roughly rolls on the latex sleeve over his curved cock, biting his lip when a hooked finger pulls it tight with a snap right at the base. Jooheon straightens, seemingly a pout on his face as if asking ‘satisfied?’ Jackson swallows guiltily as heat begins roiling in his gut again, and an idiotic surge of bravery courses through him as he crowds Jooheon back up against the wall with his own body.

Soft hands slip smoothly over his shoulders in response, curling along the column of his neck in vague threat that has Jackson obeying immediately. He’s in the middle of hiking thick thighs up to his waist, when Jooheon laughs, high and lilting. Jackson pauses, rightfully confused and a little lovesick as he stares at Jooheon’s dimples on complete display. “Come on,” he murmurs, “don’t you want to try for the shoulders instead? Or can you not handle it?”

Oh it’s on. Jackson’s never known Jooheon to be so cocky, but if he’s asking for it, then Jackson is going to give it to him.

“Sure I can,” he smiles, purposefully letting his rough syllables roll low off his tongue as he immediately hooks bent knees to sit at both sides of his neck in a quick, steady hold. Jooheon blinks, appraising him perhaps, before grinning wickedly and seating himself down over Jackson’s cock in a single smooth push.

Velveteen heat encases him in an immediate vice, and Jackson chokes on the feeling, at the realization that Jooheon decided to come prepared. The image of Jooheon spreading himself open at home just for this, for him, flashes through his brain, and he has to grit his teeth to not come from that sight alone. For once, the other man finally shows signs of breathlessness as his mouth drops open in a silent o from the full drag of Jackson’s cock within him. The slight gasps dropping out of Jooheon’s shaking lips are doing wonders for Jackson’s already self-assured ego.

When it seems like an eternity has passed with them connected together like this, Jackson dares to move, pulling back with a slick sound of flesh and pushing back in with a simultaneous moan from the both of them. Jooheon immediately clenches around his cock and kicks his foot into Jackson shoulder, glaring up at him with a very obvious command.

Jackson obeys with another burning pull, dragging it out even longer just to feel that sparking friction from Jooheon’s fluttering insides. Another hard kick digs into back of his head, and Jackson slams in without warning, the force of it knocking Jooheon so hard against the wall he arches his throat up in a cry of breathless surprise.

The air fills with cut off moans and yelps as Jackson picks up pace, drilling Jooheon onto his cock over and over again as he chases after the oncoming wave of absolute ecstasy. Jooheon’s bare legs bounce uselessly over Jackson’s shoulders with every thrust, no resistance left for any bruising kicks as he can only cling to Jackson’s tensed body to keep himself from falling.

Jackson’s close, too close, and the sentimental idiot he is, he wants to come with Jooheon’s lips on his, crying out the other’s name, so he blindly gropes for Jooheon’s face in the darkness with his own. Like a magnet, plush lips fit themselves over his, and they’re messily making out as Jackson pistons erratically in and out of Jooheon’s wet heat.

It’s here, the wave, the final build up in his stomach, and Jackson groans out his final confession against Jooheon’s gasping breath. “Jooheon, I, I’m going to-”

A bruising force slams into his shoulder, and Jackson literally has the breath knocked out of him as he falls back onto his ass. He can only gape, jaw dropped, as Jooheon stands above him, glare raining down all of the fires of hell upon Jackson’s prostrated body. The other’s cock still bobs proudly, its head tinged pink against his black shirt, and there’s a hint of slick dripping down his pale thighs. Jackson’s traitorous cock twitches heartily against his stomach at the sight.

Jooheon steps right between his spread legs, and leans down, a strangely gleeful smile pulled across his dimpled cheeks. “I’m Hojoon. Jooheon’s twin.”

And with that he���s spinning on his heel, the same confident sway in his walk as he collects his clothes and disappears past the corner without even a backwards glance.

Jackson sits there, fly down, dick hard as he considers whether or not he still has enough dignity to drag himself back to his dorm tonight. Jooheon’s twin’s - Hojoon’s - words ring over and over again through his mind, and Jackson prays to his dear grandma’s heavenly soul this won’t come back to bite him in the ass tomorrow.

-

Jooheon keeps glancing wistfully now and then at his blacked-out phone screen because of course he had to forget the portable battery charger in his room. Before coming to the party, when he got back from afternoon classes, he didn’t think of plugging it in at home as eating pizza had seemed much more important at that time. In his defense, he was starving after being out for the entire day, and then his brother was talking about having a “fast” match on Overwatch, so he needed to participate even if “fast” matches usually lasted hours. That was because Hojoon kept whining things like “Fuck no, we need to do another one! It can’t end like this” – “I need to beat this person’s ass again!” or “My reputation completely depends on destroying this Hanzo for one more match.” Jooheon wasn’t really into gaming as he actually sucked at anything related to hard competition, but he was glad they usually played in groups with some of Hojoon’s internet friends. They won most of the times against strong parties, and he couldn’t really complain when he was carried as Mercy - plus it was funny to see his brother flame people and talk rubbish into the voice channel.

Sometimes playing was a good distraction from college-related work, annoying parents, and just moments when he felt like not talking to people for some reason.

Though, it was almost 10 p.m. when he noticed what time it was after getting sucked into eleven more matches, and just a few hours before he promised himself to not be late again on Jackson, like how it had happened this morning during Literature class and a few other times, but he was already breaking his promise as they had to meet around 9.

When he arrived at the party, almost thirty minutes had passed, and along the way he even lost his brother somewhere into the mess the dorm had become for that festive and liberating night at the end of midterms.

“I’ll help you search for your friend,” he said with a smirk before disappearing, without giving Jooheon a chance to answer, as the younger twin would have probably suggested that they look for him together, since his phone was basically dead in its electronic grave at this point. Hojoon knows what Jackson looks like, Jooheon talked about him and showed him their countless dumb selfies they took during classes, so he’s sure his brother will be able to recognize him… But if they can’t communicate in some way, how can they meet? He can’t stop his mind from thinking about those comic strips with different characters chasing after each other, opening more and more doors without being able to come across one another.

Jooheon slides his lifeless phone into one of his black sweatpant’s side pockets and keeps looking around in search of familiar faces, still everything seems to be the same on every dorm floor - people dancing, drunk people dancing, beer pong matches, and yep, just more people drinking and dancing -  Ah, if only he could chug down drink after drink like everybody does and be carefree. With just half of one of those he knows would start to ramble about random stuff (nobody would want to know how bees could actually recognize human faces) and dance in every possible awkward way, unlike Hojoon, who has the tolerance of a devil (or at least that’s what people say) and can drink straight for an entire night, ending it though with a massive killer hangover in the morning that Jooheon has to take care of...

He is about to change floor and go up the stairs when he sees his brother coming down from the same stairway as he zips his fly up, buttoning his pants with a smug look on his face. His parted hair, which had been styled so effortlessly, is now completely messed up into a dark tangled nest, the laces of his combat boots halfway tied, and his black shirt slightly rucked up to show a slight outline of his hip bone.

“Had fun?” Jooheon asks when Hojoon sees him and stops for a moment, probably thinking about what just happened, before keep going down the stairs with a now tensed smile.

“Uh, nothing special really-” He starts saying, stopping then in front of him at the end of the stairs as he fixes himself, sliding down his black shirt, “but I haven’t found your friend and this party sucks…sooo shall we go?”

The younger twin pouts, furrowing his brows as he looks at his older brother with defeat. “But hyung, we just arrived! And I- “

“Yes, you promised him and everything,” Hojoon imitates him with a slightly more high-pitched tone than his own, completely it with an exaggerated eyeroll, gesticulating in an exasperated mocking way. “By this time though, he probably went back to his dorm since you had to meet him almost-” he then looks down, annoyed at his own phone, the time showing up on the lock screen with a simple tap of fingers, “-two hours ago.”

Jooheon finds no fault with his reasoning as he catches himself sighing loudly, head slightly drooping, lolling to one side while glancing at his brother sideways, with all the sadness in the entire universe at once.

For sure Jackson is mad at him right now, thinking about how blatantly careless his friend is or how stupid he is when he’ll tell him about the phone charging problem. Like, what kind of irresponsible adult forgets to charge his phone when he knows it has 10% of its battery left?

He kind of regrets now playing Pug’s Quest during afternoon classes, but after some time he had to occupy his mind differently as some sort of a break, since he couldn’t really focus for more than forty minutes straight at his teacher’s boring tone without seeing double or getting a headache.

He definitely needs to apologize to Jackson soon, he thinks, sighing loudly again.

Hojoon, knowing him better than anyone else, comes closer and graps his lukewarm hand into his own colder one for a moment, before pulling him lightly into the direction of the hallway which is even more crowded than where they’re currently standing.

“Come on Jooheonie, let’s go home.” He pulls again with a bit of more strength. “You’ll see your friend tomorrow.”

Jooheon just nods silently, looking more most miserable than he ever has while following his brother around, hands still locked together, and Hojoon can’t stop himself from letting out a small amused laugh at seeing him react like that.

“Hyuuung, don’t laugh at my pain!” a pleading whine comes from behind him, making him laugh even more.

“I’m sorry, your face is just too funny,” the older twin shakes his head as he tries to contain the amusement Jooheon always causes with his childish behavior – even if his younger twin thinks the same of him (and whenever that happens they can’t help but physically ‘fight’ about who’s the stronger one. Hojoon always wins by pinching ruthlessly Jooheon’s thighs, ending up as maybe the more childish one, but definitely the winner).

“Then your face is funny too.”

“Did you just sass me?” the older twin asks glancing back at Jooheon for a moment, before he keeps pulling him through wasted people overdoing the celebrations just a bit too much, as only the midterms period passed. It wasn’t like it was finals ending.

“Maybe.” Jooheon murmurs with a small smile, following his brother through the crowd…Oh. He stops for a moment in front of a bulky and muscled guy, and with his free hand he grabs the plastic cup in the guy’s very intimidating grip and chugs it down in one fast go. A deep “hey!” can be heard from above, but when Hojoon drinks the entire cup, he only replies with an overconfident glance, chin tilted up in a manner that seems to dare the man into saying anything else.

At that look, no more protests can be heard, and the older twin pulls the younger one again into a silent march aimed into getting them out of here.

Before leaving, Hojoon throws the empty cup somewhere into the writhing mess, satisfied.

End of the first chapter

Second Chapter: Here come the regrets

-

“Hyung, I’m worried,” is the first thing Jooheon says, pouting as he plops himself onto Hyunwoo’s lap.

The older man blinks, glasses slightly skewed over his nose, as his English report is entirely replaced with Jooheon’s sullen visage. A pen dangles halfheartedly from between his thumb and index finger, the next sentence more or less forgotten. The warm weight in his lap wriggles needily, and he sighs internally, dropping the pen with a light clatter as Jooheon scooches further and further up along his crotch. Hyunwoo wraps his newly freed arm around the younger boy’s waist, hiking him up to his chest (like a baby, his sleep deprived mind coos), keeping him still against his lap. Jooheon pouts again, but he ceases his squirming and plops his head softly against his boyfriend’s shoulder, nuzzling at the threadbare t-shirt there. Hyunwoo makes direct eye contact with the other’s wide, puppy-dog gaze, and he swears something is melting within him. Most likely all his internal organs, but Jooheon tends to have that effect on people.

“What’s up?” he asks simply, stroking a hand over the curve of the younger’s sweater-clad waist. Jooheon smiles at the gentle touch and takes to wriggling again, burying himself in the other’s all-encompassing warmth as he settles into story-mode.

“So, Hojoon, my brother you know-” Hyunwoo nods sagely at Jooheon’s questioning tone, and the younger continues, deeming it satisfactory, “he’s been coming home with a lot of...bruises.” Hyunwoo watches Jooheon press his pink lips open and closed, a perpetual sheen shining across the soft curves, and he almost doesn’t register the implications behind the younger’s murmured statement. When “bruises” and “Hojoon” finally register in his distracted mind, he physically jolts at his realization. Hojoon is Jooheon’s perfectly identical twin and the idea of him covered in bruises...well, Hyunwoo’s mind is certainly going places.

Jooheon’s voice pierces through his haze, and Hyunwoo blinks back into focus only to see genuine worry in the younger’s eyes. “I just, he started dating a new guy recently…” Jooheon sighs, gaze wandering, cheeks bunching as he tries to find the right words, “and he always comes back the next morning with um, hickies? But like-” he gestures with his hands, grasping for an image Hyunwoo can’t see, “they’re always so intense I end up calling them bruises in my head…”

He trails off, eyebrows scrunched in a light furrow, and Hyunwoo presses his thumb over it, smoothing out the wrinkle with a gentle swipe. “Who is your brother dating again?” he asks, bouncing his legs and jostling Jooheon in his lap, attempting to dislodge the frown from the younger’s face.

“Um-” Jooheon’s voice hitches with each bounce, and he pouts up at Hyunwoo to stop. The older man muffles a chuckle against his cheek and ceases the movement, patting affectionately at Jooheon’s waist. His boyfriend scooches up against his chest, resituating himself in Hyunwoo’s lap before muttering, “Kihyun, I think?”

Kihyun. Hyunwoo knows that guy: round cheeks, pinched mouth, always ready to yell at someone somehow. Also, he goes around with a head of bright pastel pink hair. Hyunwoo shrugs because hey, at least he rocks it better than the students from the art department. Hyunwoo has passed him in the hall a few times, and other than a casual nod, they don’t talk at all. Basically, he assumes he’s an alright guy, if not a little uptight.

He voices his belief out loud, pressing it in a whispered kiss against Jooheon’s curtain of bangs. The scent of soft baby powder unfurls into his nose, and he nuzzles deeper into messy brown curls. He’s pulled out of his reverie when sweater-clad hands yank at his neck, and he’s met with Jooheon’s round cheeks, puffy and flushed with dissatisfaction. He sits up straight, hands flapping over Hyunwoo’s back as he tries to make his point.

“But, but bruises hyung! Bruises! I don’t want to question him, but...don’t you think it might be unhealthy?” He lips curve out again into a pout, and Hyunwoo’s heart does a row of backflips all the way down from his chest to his stomach.

“Jooheonie, I think,” he pauses, considering his words carefully, “it’d be best if you asked your brother directly instead of assuming things here with me.” At the younger’s unmoving pout, he presses a chaste kiss over soft lips before pulling back with what Jooheon calls his “half-moon smile,” humming a light “okay?” as his final nudge for the younger man to do the right thing.

Jooheon sighs, deflating against his chest, before stealing a quick, sweet kiss from Hyunwoo’s lax mouth and springing out of his lap. “Thanks hyung,” he smiles, pecking the older man’s cheek on his way out, a hopeful spring in his step.

Hyunwoo waves until Jooheon is disappearing behind the door frame and turns back to his English assignment, drooping back against his chair as a wave of lethargy instantly overtakes him. He forces the pen back into his cramped fingers and continues the lost sentence, lips and cheek still tingling from the force of Jooheon’s casual affection.

-

Hojoon rummages for his apartment key, shouldering wayward bags of groceries and books up from his fatigued arms. The key fits into the lock after much stubborn jamming, and he pushes roughly into the room shoulder-first, paper bags shifting loudly against one another as they slip at the sudden movement.

*

“Fucking-” Kihyun swears, muffled, as he fumbles at a wall of flesh, scrabbling down tensed thighs that encase his face completely from all sides. There’s the heady taste of salt and something more dripping down his mouth, but there’s also the distinct lack of air flowing through his currently crushed nose. He claws again down the curve of Hojoon’s bare ass, digging his fingers into the soft flesh there, knowing exactly how the marks will look on the other’s backside in the morning and not regretting a moment of it - not when he’s actually choking from his boyfriend’s very supple and heavy weight.

He audibly makes a noise of distress when said weight only bears down even harder, crushing with the force of a two ton truck against his cheekbone as Hojoon grinds down without mercy against his spluttering mouth. Alright, enough, Kihyun may love it when his partner makes him lose his breath during sex but to the point of absolute suffocation? That’s a discussion for another day entirely (safewords!!! the last functioning part of his brain screams).

He says it just so as he musters every ounce of strength back into his jelly limbs, launching the scorching inferno off of him in a sudden toppling motion, gasping air into his soaked mouth like a drowned man. Which, to be honest, he almost did...under the absolute wonder of his partner’s thighs that is. Again, absolutely appreciated, just no literal choking please.

Hojoon doesn’t seem to get the message though as he rolls onto all fours in a perfectly unruffled landing. Like a cat, Kihyun thinks, replaying all the videos of children dropping their cats from terrible heights just to see them land upright without any trouble. Even still, after landing like a cat, Hojoon follows through with the attitude, glaring over at Kihyun’s gaped expression with a cocked chin, legs coiled tense against the bedsheets. Silence ensues and in his oxygen-deprived brain, Kihyun almost expects the younger man to begin grooming his curled black locks in a prissy manner.

Hojoon only glares harder, turning so that his back is entirely facing the end of the bed before yanking a blanket over his bottom half. There goes the fresh laundry of the week. Not that Kihyun expected anything on the bed to last after tonight, but what with the way Hojoon is cocooning himself with that goose down blanket...it’ll be awhile since they use it again.

“Quoting you,” the younger man begins, still sulking darkly as he rests his cheek on raised knees, “ ‘Please fucking choke me with your thighs, that’s how I want to go tonight.’ “

A sharp heat pulses through Kihyun’s gut at hearing his own explicit words uttered out loud, and he presses his lips together into a thin line. Hojoon arches a neat brow at his silent reaction and scoffs, turning his glare to a loose feather stuck among the bed sheets instead. “Don’t tell me you regret it now...”

His words trail off, and the atmosphere between them immediately chills, filling with a kind of murky lull where all Kihyun can discern from Hojoon’s errant sheet-tracing is a tinge of quiet bitterness.

[amongushq]

Welcome to Among Us, JASON! WILLIAM HAN ( with the faceclaim of YANG YANG ) has found shelter in NEW ATHENS and CAMP HALF-BLOOD, where we hope HE will fit in nicely. Please make sure to check the “after applying” section of our navigation here!

William Han seems to be a very interesting person and it would be entertaining to see him mingle with the people of New Athens/Camp Half Blood. Your audition was so fully detailed that even without the para, we could already see what kind of person William is. We also appreciate that you had included his Chinese names - meaning you took his ethnicity into account and that Chinese people actually do have two names depending on where they are. But other than that, your application was well written and we hope that William grows more comfortable with his 'new life'.

AND YOU ARE…?

What is your full name, and when were you born?

William sighed at the question, wondering why he needed to do the redundant interview in the first place. Did they not receive his transfer application? Basic information such as his name was already included. Nevertheless, it seemed that he will have to go though it anyway. Leaning back into the chair, despite being irritated by his overall situation, he gave the interviewer a believable small smile and spoke in a gentle, but straightforward voice. “William Han. Although, if you’d prefer my Chinese name, it’s Han Wenzhou.” He decided to answer before continuing. “I was born at the end of the eighth month, 31st of August in 1997, to be precise.”

Have you been claimed, or do you belong to a legacy? If yes, state your godly parent / heritage.

“I’m guessing you’re asking which parent made me a demigod.” He sighed at the last word, distaste lingers in his tongue. “My mother… is Hecate. I don’t see her often, and I don’t have any desire to change that.” He chuckled bitterly. “I suppose, only us demigods and legacies considers meeting their parents a bad omen, literally.” He then took his time pondering about whether he should continue answering the question, trying hard not to think about his past, yet failing miserably.

“I was raised by my father for a while, before…” Pausing briefly, he sighed again in resignation. “Before he found out I wasn’t normal. No, he didn’t abandon me completely, but he did send me to a boarding school while he went to have normal, mortal children with a normal, mortal woman.” He sneered slightly as he reminisces about his past, before remembering where he was and regained his composure. “It matters little to me though, as I wasn’t interested in inheriting his company in the first place anyway. At least he still remembered that he had another son and had the conscience to diligently pay for my taxes, tuition, and monthly allowance. We rarely ever see each other since, though I also believe it’s for the best.”

Where are you currently based? Are you attending a Camp (Half-Blood / Jupiter), or are you living full-time in New Athens / New Rome? Is it a combination of both?

“Well, I first discovered my abilities to practice magic when I was around… nine, I think. I have always been a very curious child and I was ecstatic to show my father that I could make fire dance in shapes, or get things to float around.” He smiled genuinely. “Long story short, it appears my father did not see my powers in a positive light and was utterly… resentful, or perhaps aggrieved, to know that his only son and heir could be a spawn of the devil.” He chuckled in mild amusement. “He was a pretty hardcore Catholic Church believer, I suppose.”

“When I turned twelve, I was sent to a ‘summer’ camp called Camp Half-Blood to mingle with people of ‘my own kind’.” He gestured the quotation with his fingers. “It was also around that time that my mother decided to pay us a visit. Nevertheless, my father was still convinced that my mother was the devil and he sent me to an elite, catholic boarding school in London despite our house being in the states. Since I understand the implications of my father deliberately driving me away from home, I always push myself to strive for the best – at least, academically.” He leaned back into his chair.

“Therefore, despite being barely 20, I don’t attend the camp full-time because I am currently a full-fledged medical student, as you can see with that transfer application to your university in New Athens over there.” He pointed casually at the papers on the desk. “I still go to the camp every summer and from time to time, though, so no summer classes for me.”

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? ( If you’re applying for a canon character, are you diverging from book-canon? If so, how?)

“I suppose I can start with my medical condition?” He smiled warmly. “I don’t have any attention disorders, but I do suffer from OCD.” On another hand, he also has tendencies to have bipolar swings as well, but he figured he should probably not mention that.

William tapped a finger on the chair’s armrest as he thought of his next words. “Oh, why don’t we do a SWOT analysis? I’m surprised I hadn’t thought about it. Let’s see… strengths, classic efficiency and determination. People have said that I am quite charismatic, when I lead. And it appears that I have low doubts in my self-confidence level.” He chuckled lightly. He was also a very good actor, but it would probably be best unmentioned.

“For my weakness, I can be… arrogant, sometimes. My efficiency and belief in the merits of rationalism could also make me somewhat insensitive while pursuing my goals, sometimes I would dismiss personal circumstances and preferences as… ah, irrelevant.” He smiled sheepishly. “I can also be impatient at times and very stubborn most of the time.”

“About opportunity, my long term goal had always been aiming for the position of chief surgeon in the cardiothoracic department of Mayo Clinic. Now? I’m not so sure. Especially since we’re stuck here, in this Recall limbo. Perhaps I’ll still aim to be a chief cardiothoracic surgeon here, or I might just undertake a second major in NAU, or a new extracurricular activity, who knows? It’s a new life, after all.”

“Lastly for threats, I guess if I were forced to work under an incompetent authority and management, I would either walk away, leaving the project to—” The dogs “—other people, but most likely I would go maverick, consequences comes second. The achievement of those—” my “—goals will come first.”

What were you doing prior to The Recall?

“Studying?” He chuckled lightheartedly. “Well, when you’re a medical student, what else do you do, honestly?” He gave the interviewer a small, but warm smile. “I was a student at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, with hopes of going to Mayo after I graduate, but I suppose until all this anti-mystical movement nonsense is all settled, there would be no way of reaching that particular goal.” He sighed. “This Recall situation is absolute rubbish, if you ask me. We should be out there, proving that we are not the monsters they claim that we are – I think we have the potential to be much better than those… people, even. We should be doing something, instead of just settling here, hiding and… more hiding.” He exhaled in mild disdain.

[donaldresslerfanfic]

Paint.

Rating: M 

Warnings: Strong Language (little bit) 

Word Count: 2968 

Donald Ressler X OC Maggie Waters. 

Chapter: Three.

Chapter Index

Story on Wattpad

Ressler.

“What’s the difference between those two though?” I said pointing at both samples of the color Maggie was choosing for her walls.

“This one is darker”

“Barely”

“Agree” she sighed and left the samples back at the desk of the reception “it has to be lighter though, the sun comes from the window right next to it and it has to look shinny. Like this”

She flipped through pages that to me, contained the same color, she pointed at one and looked at me.

“But I think it’s too light”

“You can take it white, and add this colorant” the men at the desk pulled some little pouches of paint from a cabinet behind him. “And add accordingly to your liking.”

“Mmm” she hummed and took the pouch, she gave me a glance and smirked “ok, I’ll take this one. Otherwise I’ll end with your patience”

Not to mention that my patience was already low, but not because of this. We’ve been digging on files, Reddington’s acquaintances we put away in a hole. No one was talking.

I cannot go back to the routine of following bank robbers or tear down a meth lab. But it’s exactly where I’m headed unless I get a lead this week, today.

I waited for Maggie to finish with her purchase and carried the cans of paint to the car, covering them with a tarp in case of an accident. We climbed back in my car, and as we drove back to her apartment, I could feel her eyes on me.

“What?” I gave her a quick glance, and returned my view to the road.

“You look mad. You got problems at the… Post office”

“Why do you say it like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like it’s unlikely I work at a post office”

“Because I’m a good judge of character Donald, you don’t look like a person who sits behind a desk all day, even driving must be too much inactivity for you”

She was a really good judge of character

“And what do you think I do then?”

“I don’t know” I could see her shrug her shoulders from the corner of my eye. “Even your haircut is like super formal. Maybe you’re an equity trader”

“An equity trader?” I said with a chuckle

“Yeah, you know, those dudes are kinda out there. Besides, you know, the standard cop. But I think that’s too much for you”

“Why would that be too much?”

I parked the car,  she opened the door of the passenger while I pushed the button to open the trunk, then exited myself.

“There’s a lot of double crossing and bribes, dirty cops, corruption. I don’t think you could not do something about it if you were in the force. You look…by the rules” she air quoted as I lifted the cans, she closed the trunk and let me in.

“In that you’re right.” She pushed the button for the elevator, though she lives in the third floor, but I guess she was considering I was carrying the heavy stuff while she only had the bag with the colorants.

We entered the elevator, a few seconds later we were on her floor, walking down the hallway to her door.

“So I’m not right about you being a cop then?”

“I am not a cop Maggie, I work at a post office”

I tried to stop this little interrogation I was being submitted to. The longer I keep my job hidden, the more catastrophic this friendship would end, I knew that. But then again, I don’t go around identifying myself.

“I bet your dad was a cop” she slid the key in the door and opened it, letting me walk in first “welcome to my humble abode” she said closing the door behind her.

“It’s nice” I commented, looking around

“I still need a couch and the bed came this morning before you arrived. But the couch will have to wait for my next paycheck” she began to scramble in one of the boxes to find a stack of old newspaper.

I walked around to a little table filled with portraits, they all held the same three people, an older men, a girl older than the one I assumed was Maggie, and Maggie herself.

She was working behind me, putting the newspaper on the floor at the edge with the wall, then sliding down the paint can.

“You really don’t have to stay” she gave me a quick look before finding a pair of scissors and cutting the edge of the pouch.

“It’s no trouble” I said taking out the brushes and paint rollers from the bag.

She poured some colorant in the white paint, then began to move it with a little wooden stick, I don’t know where she got that from. But then again she’s an architect, maybe she has those for building models and such.

She dipped one of the brushes I handed her and gave the white wall a nice strike.

She then moved the curtain and inspected it in the light.

“I love it” she said with a smile, then glanced at me “last chance to back down Ressler” she warned.

“I’m not afraid to do a little bit of dirty work” I bent down and poured a bit of the mix into a paint tray and moved to the side

“Suit yourself, I’ll take the top”

Maggie moved a chair to the near wall and began painting.

“He’s my dad” she said after getting done with the line that connected with the roof “I saw you snooping on my photos. He’s my dad and my oldest sister. We’re from Rhode Island.”

“And where did you study?”

“MIT school of architecture and planning”

“Are you kidding me?” I stopped painting to look up at her, I had sat in front the wall to paint.

“Nope, my dad paid my tuition. It’s kind of a long story” she said with a sigh as she continued to paint.

“I think we’ll be here for a while”

I saw her give me a smile as she turned back to the wall

“OK. My mom passed, a few months after she gave birth to me, it was a fulminant cardiac arrest. After that every penny my dad made he saved to pay my sister and I’s college tuitions. She’s four years older than me and she didn’t wanted to study, she hadn’t found her calling and frankly who does at 17?. Anyway so he saved a few more years and was able to pay my education. I kind of had a moral debt to him, we always lived in the same house, used the same furniture, bedsheets, for almost 20 years so my sister and I could have an education. So I took the chance”

“And your dad?”

“Good old Christopher Waters… He got sick. Leukemia. And then, the traveling. We ha-”

She was interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing loudly from the table. I stood up and gave her an apologetic look as I walked to it.

“My bedroom is over there if you need some privacy” she pointed at the door on the right, I gave her a nod of thanks and walked to it, picking up the call and stopping the phone from ringing.

“Yeah” I closed the door of the bedroom “what do you have?”

“An address” Bobby said in my ear “does Belmont and the 20th ring any bells?”

I frowned and paced in the room

“That can’t be, we cleared that safe house months ago”

“Well, apparently it was sold, bought and went through some modifications. Some of Reddington’s ex associates talked and they said a lot of meetings were in that house. It’s been confirmed by three sources and a black car with no plate has been going around that area. This is a good lead Donnie, are you coming?”

I rubbed my eyes and sighed

“Get me a jacket, bulletproof vest and a warrant, I’ll be there as soon as I can”

I hung up the call and pushed the phone in my pocket. I opened the door again to find Maggie sitting in the chair she was once standing on, quietly brushing paint into the wall

“Something came up” I said, catching her attention.

She looked at me with a frown and left the brush in the tray on the floor.

“Everything OK?” She stood up and walked to me

“Yeah, it’s just an emergency. I’ll be back as soon as I can” she led me to the door.

“A work emergency?”

“Yeah” she opened the door with a little smirk “what?”

“I don’t believe for one fucking second you working in a post office Donald” she said looking at me in the eyes.

She had me, she knew I was lying to her, bluntly to her face. And she still maintained that winning grin, didn’t push for the truth. I bet she just wanted the satisfaction of saying ‘I knew it’ once I finally talked to her about my job at the bureau.

“I’ll come by with some Chinese at night”

“Absolutely not, you’ve done enough Don” she shook her head while I began to walk out.

“I’ll be here whether you like it or not” She gave me another smile and I began to walk down the hall, hearing the door click back into place.

The drive to Belmont could’ve been a quiet one, if it wasn’t because of all the thoughts running in my head.

I remember when I cleared that house almost a year ago, two down, one wounded we took into custody. It was being used to print money, and after interrogating the survivor we learned that Reddington had scaped us once again. I don’t know how he had the upper hand on us almost every time, but he did. And it was infuriating.

I arrived one block before the house, I fished my badge and bureau standard weapon from my glove compartment and hung both before exiting my car.

There was a road block up ahead, where I saw Jonica waiting for me.

I took the vest from on top of the police car as Bobby talked to me about what they had found out.

“No thermal readings, appears empty, but that doesn’t men we won’t find anything in it. If he’s done some modifications, we might need another warrants besides breaking and entering. You smell like paint”

“Because I was painting” I put on the blue jacket with the FBI logo on the back and looked up at the house. The whole block looked very very quiet. “OK let’s roll, I want eyes on every house, everything looks too quiet. One team gets the front, the other one the back, I want people on the cars and ready for persuit”

I threw my hand up in the air and circled it, signaling everyone to get moving.

I lead the team to take the front of the house, it was a two story very suburban-y home.

I kept my head low as I stood behind one of the members of the SWAT team, another one kicked the door open while pushing themselves into the house, I drew my gun as I stepped into the house quickly behind the SWAT team, hearing the team from the back door entering as well.

I kept my guard up until I began to hear ‘clear’ coming from every room in the house, I stepped into the kitchen to also find it empty.

“Clear” I said as I put my gun away in the holster in my waist.

The place had no furniture, and if I didn’t know better I would have cursed at Jonica for giving me wrong Intel. But the house was different. The layout of it.

“Not even a hair in this place to prove Reddington has been here.”

I walked to one of the walls and touched it, smoothing my hand down on it

“What are you thinking?”

“Modifications were made you said?”

“Yeah, that’s what the realtor told me” “Then we need a warrant to dismantle the whole house. This room is a lot smaller than what it used the be”

I walked to the room right next to it to find out it had a weird layout as well.

“I want the walls gone.“ 

“I’ll get the old blueprints of the house, if this was Reddington with the remodeling I don’t think he did it by the book, it was clandestine.”

I nodded and gave the room one more look before exiting the room.

“I have to get back to my superiors, and get this into a report. I’ll drop by when the walls are gone. I want full surveillance 24/7. We cannot leave this place unguarded”

I exited the house, watching the curious residents of the other houses peak out. I guess I’m back to doing interviews for the rest of the day. 

Maggie.

I gave the wall one more look as I relaxed in the chair, teal it was, and it was perfect. I couldn’t wait until the new couch arrived, hang some paintings. Maybe a few flowers near the windowsill to make it more vibrant and colorful.

I had sent a photo of how the wall looked finished to Gina, with the light of the sunset peaking through the window.

I had tomorrow to paint the little stretch of wall next to it, the one that had the window.

The phone vibrated on the table, I picked it up and slide to unlock, Gina had replied with another picture of a painting.

Little house warming present!

*I bet it’s going to look beautiful,, you didn’t have to.

What are you doing still up?

*Don is bringing take out.

It’s 10:30…

What she meant was that he wasn’t going to bring it, but Donald looked like a men of his word, and if he said he’s doing something you’re wrong to doubt him.

I let the phone on the table without replying to Gina and pushed my legs up on the edge of the chair, downing my forehead to my knees and massaging my neck.

I was in this position for a few minutes until the doorbell rang.

I stood up quickly and walked to the intercom, pushing the button to talk downstairs.

“What’s the password?”

“I work at a post office” Don answered back. I smiled ringing him in and then walking to the fridge to pull put some beers.

I opened the door when it knocked and let Don through.

“Chinese was closed by the time I finished, I got McDonalds instead.”

“I’m a vegetarian” I said, closing the door. Donald turned to me with a frown and I let out a laugh “I’m fucking with you. I haven’t had McDonalds in years though! Beer?” He let the bags down and accepted the beer I handed him, we both sat down, and I saw Don looking at the wall.

“It looks good even at night”

“It does” I nodded and took some French fries to my mouth.

After a few minutes of eating Don leaned back on the chair and took another gulp of beer.

“So he had leukemia” I looked at him “and then what?”

I sighed and leaned back as well, pulling my feet up on another chair and taking my beer

“They moved us all around the map. ‘The service is better in this state, there’s a new experimental drug they’re trying out at this other one’ and such. We had to sell the house after two months it was diagnosed to pay for either the hospital bills or our hotel, we never staid in a place for more than a month”

I took a big gulp and looked at the painted wall.

“So to you, painting a wall means that you’re here to stay. For more than a month” he said. I smiled a little and nodded at him. “And he died?”

“Yeah, six months ago. And don’t tell me that you’re sorry, really, I’m way pasty grieving point. My dad never wanted me to be dependent of him, even though I was his little girl, he didn’t shed a tear when I moved to go to college. He wanted me to walk my own path. My sister in the other hand came back to Rhode Island when he passed.”

“And why didn’t you go back?”

“I’ve been everywhere, LA, Miami, New York and Jersey, Boston, Mississippi, Houston. After you see all those wonderful big cities Rhode Island it’s just a town.”

I gave him a look to find him staring at me, arms folded on the table and listening attentively.

“You’re a warrior, Maggie”

I gave him a sweet smile and bowed my head

“Thank you Donald” I gave my beer one last gulp and left the empty bottle on the table.

We remained quiet for a while, it wasn’t the awkward quietness though, I knew he was thinking about what I said. By the time he stood up from the table it was past midnight.

“I have to go, I still have to work tomorrow” I walked him to the door again

“Man, those dudes at the post office are clingy, it seems like that thing doesn’t run without you” he gave me a little sideways smile and I opened the door, leaning on it as he walked through it to the hall “thank you for tonight Don”

He his his hands on his pockets and gave me a nod

“Goodnight Maggie”

“Drive safe Don”

He gave me another nod and began walking down the hall. I closed the door behind me and sighed. I’ll clean up tomorrow, for now my legs can’t keep me upright anymore.

[wtfxian-blog]

hello pals,,,, it’s your girl ai !!  here with another trashy character for u !!!!   if u don’t know me you probably know jiyeon, resident walking princess and mom friend of literally everyone !!  i present u now with zhou xian (dont call him xianliang he’ll fite u), my newest son -- a total dumb flirt. this is a sideblog btw so if you didn’t get a follow that’s why. like this and i’ll show up at your ims for plotting !!  ( i may show up using ji’s acc if tumblr fucks up, just a heads up)

trigger warnings: underage sex, underage drinking + smoking

a lil chinese kid

born in hong kong but moved to san francisco when he was ten

a troublemaker as a kid tbH

he was told in early high school that he was ugly :((( so his confidence was rly low

started hitting the gym at like 16 and puberty seemed to hit him like a truck cause boi got abs!! and he was suddenly super hot!!

sdajbasjd girls wanted to date him so he was like omf!!!!!

anyways he became kinda popular cause he joined football and had girls after him so suddenly his confidence skyrocketed n he became,,, a player,,, (in both senses ;) )

anyways 

flash forward to him being 17 and beginning his last year of high school

he needed a job so he started cleaning pools because what else u gotta do fam

but!!!! one day he was at a friend’s house and his mother was like flirting with him so xian was shook tbh, his friend wasnt home so like he hooked up with his mom yes (#friendshipgoals)

she must have told others cause he got hit on by other married women in the area (which were his clients anyway cause he cleaned their pools) so basically he went around screwing all of them 

he dug around and found the marvelous world of How To Be A Sugar Baby™ and decided to become one cause the money makes the world go round

he finished high school but took a year off with the excuse of wanting to really think through what he wanted to do with his life + work for a year

tbh he was mostly doing it for his sugar daddies/mamas and getting that sweet money ;)))

he became really good at lying and pretending, making his family believe he was regularly either hanging out with friends or at his part time jobs -- xian told them he was getting paid nicely (but never really told them what he was really earning since it was way higher)

skipping to xian being 19 now and having been on and off being a sugar baby for the past two years -- he was only seeing one older guy now, his income enough for him to pay tuition at his new college in san fran

but it soon turned messy when a private detective caught them in a hotel and exposed his sugar daddy yikessss

apparently the guy had had sugar babies who were minors so it was Fucked Up™ and he got arrested

xian, sadly, got exposed to his parents about he was really doing so they were pretty pissed that he was selling himself like that??? so they sent him to sutton in irvine to straighten him out

he’s been a student since then but is a year below since he should be a senior but he’s a junior majoring in mechanical engineering

he’s always liked building things so that was mainly the reason he chose it (and because he thinks he looks hot as fuck covered in grease)

he’s also a tiger because he luvs sports and wants to stay in shape

xian doesnt really talk about his sugar baby days (although he’ll tell u if u ask) and mostly just,,, lies

he’s a pathological liar

like he’s probably told everyone he had sex with that one hot teacher and people even believed him!!!

no one really knows him, not the real xian,,, because he lies abt his family, abt why he’s at sutton, anything and everything  y i k e s 

his ego is Huge™ so catch him flirting with anything that moves asbdajs

probably at every party too cause he loves booze and smoking

and he luvs sex so he’s like hmu babes ;))))))

so he’s basically a Lying Fuckboy™

but he’s nice behind all the layers pls love him

i think that’s all of it

[sarahlwlee]

31 Stories in 31 Days: Gossip

What is this? As part of celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May), I am writing a story a day about my experiences as a Chinese Malaysian immigrant in America. My friends and family have provided numerous one-word prompts to help me create these stories. Today’s word prompt was contributed by J K. and the word is “Gossip”. Thank you J for your contribution and thank you everyone who stopped by to read my story today.

In Standard 6 (or 6th Grade equivalent in America) primary school, my mom enrolled me in math tuition — additional tutoring outside of school — with one of the primary school teachers who was running a side hustle to earn extra money by proving tuition. In my tuition class, there were two other boys — Ken and Joe. They were the same age as I wasn’t and we went to the same school but we were in different classes. Within a few months, I started to do better in math and learned ahead of what was being taught in class.

Our math tuition teacher was the designated teacher for one of the Standard 6 classes and she was also pregnant. When her baby was due, the students in her class had to be reassigned to other classes to maintain consistency in following the syllabus. The couldn’t afford to hire a temporary teacher to cover the rest of her time out of school. Ken ended up in my class with several of his friends and sat on the opposite side of the classroom. I started to hear a lot of gossip amongst the Malay girls in our class about some boy who just joined our class has a crush on a girl in our class and how he hasn’t had the guts to tell her that he liked her. Being nosy, I asked them who it is and are they planning on helping this boy. They laughed and one of the Malay girls moved their chair closer to me, whispering into my ear that the girl is me and the boy is Ken. I blushed and was embarrassed that a boy liked me, especially a boy that I saw only at math tuition classes.

The next few days, the Malay girls decided to write a note on my behalf to Ken inquiring if we should exchange phone numbers so that we could talk more. I don’t remember if I consented to this, but it was nice being part of a group girls giggling and being teased. It was a different kind of attention from classmates that I haven’t experience before. So I went along with the note passing from one side of the classroom to the other, where Ken and a bunch of guys were teasing him about getting a note from a girl. We exchanged phone numbers and he started calling me. I was very proficient in English and he was proficient in Cantonese, so we compromised and spoke in Malay on the phone. Whenever he called, I would always say “Apa hal?” (What’s up?) and soon my mother caught on that I was talking to a boy and this became my mother’s nickname for him.

After several calls in the evenings after dinner for what seemed like a month, we decided to start writing letters to one another because he was trying to improve his English composition and thought it might be helpful for him to learn from me. We exchanged mailing addresses and I remember using special stationary for our correspondences. On his 12th birthday, he invited me to his birthday party and I was too shy to show up. I bought him a birthday present because I felt bad for not going to his party and I asked my mother to drive me to his house so that I can drop off the present. It was a fancy ballpoint pen with a case of its own. I remember when I walked up to the gates of his house, his mom came out to greet me and I said I was looking for Ken. She called for him and he came out of the house with a cast on his arm. I didn’t know he had a pretty bad fall while playing badminton and broke his arm because he was didn’t come to school for several days and he didn’t say anything on the phone about it. He was smiling from ear to ear when he saw me and I handed the box to him saying, “Happy Birthday!” He opened the present in front of me and said he will use it every day. I said I had to go, my mother is waiting for me in the car and off I left.

Towards the end of the year, I decided that this was inappropriate for me to continue. I think I knew I didn’t like him romantically and the boy I was crushing on at the time was Joe, the other math tuition classmate. So I wrote my last letter to him saying that I can’t continue this “relationship” because I needed to focus on my studies when we move to secondary school. I think I might have mentioned that I liked Joe and it wouldn’t be fair for me to continue being his “girlfriend”. After that I forgot about the whole thing and secondary school was a new chapter for me. Little did I know, Ken’s two best friends Chong and Yang were assigned to my class in secondary school.

Chong and Yang had found out from Ken that I broke his heart and they were out for revenge on his behalf. In class, they were extremely mean to me by berating me, putting me down at every opportunity and making fun of me when the teacher made a mistake on total points of who had first place in class. Initially the teacher said I had scored first place in class and I went home to tell my mom, she was so proud of me. The next day the teacher apologized and said I was third place and Yang was first. Yang relished that moment and refused to let it go by reminding me everyday in school that I will never be first or smarter than him. This was the beginning of when I started to deteriorate in my academic performance because I didn’t want to be first in class. It didn’t motivate to do better, I just decided to disengage and hopefully someday he will stop pestering me. Eventually when we reached Form 3 (or 9th Grade equivalent), students were reshuffled into new classes based on the points they earned on their final exam in Form 2. Chong and Yang were no longer in my class and that ended the bullying.

During our final year in secondary school, I noticed Ken had a girlfriend from one of the Science stream classes. He was friends with one of my good friends from primary school and I remember asking her if he would consider being friends again. I wasn’t interested in becoming boyfriend-girlfriend or anything like that, I just thought we had something in common at one point and perhaps we could be friends. She shared with me his ICQ account name and I decided to message him directly instead of passing notes like we were 12. I crossed my fingers while I waited for his response. It was a short reply of no. Followed by how he just recently burned all our “love letters” and the pen I gave him for his 12th birthday. He described it as a way of getting over me and he wasn’t interested in revisiting and of those feelings or even considering friendship. I said I understand and said I was sorry for how things ended and left the ICQ conversation.

I remember thinking to myself at the time, why did Ken have such strong feelings for me at 12 and all the way through senior year of secondary school? I didn’t think much of it at the time and it felt like puppy love, just like how my mother described it. I assumed we were young and didn’t understand what love is anyway and I didn’t think I left such a strong impression on him. What I know of love today is so different from when I was 12 or even 17 and I know what I felt then wasn’t physical attraction nor romantic love. It was my own fantasies of trying what being “in love” was like and in the process I hurt someone.

At the end of day, I knew it was the right thing to do at age 12 however I could have done better in my delivery of the message instead of writing a letter. It’s almost as bad as text messaging someone to break up. In reflection of the few relationships I have had over the years, I have been on both sides - the one breaking up with someone or the one being dumped. Either position is terrible and awkward to be in. In the long run, I know the relationships that have ended for me were meant to end. I may not have received it quite that way at the time, but today I know those individuals are in much better places and happily married or single partnered. The best thing anyone could do when relationships end is to continue living your life to the fullest. No one should ever prevent you from pursuing happiness, not even the shadow of them lingering in the dark corners of your mind.

[bb-loves-boys]

Soon You’ll Come Home Chapter 20

Summary: Blaine and Kurt are married with two kids and at the point of their lives they would never imagine having another child. But then Blaine meets a young girl in the most unlikely way and after he learns about the abuse she suffered he can’t help but want to give her the family that loves and care’s for her like she needs.

Warning: mentioned child abuse, and Bullying, and self harm (nothing graphic), depression

fanfiction.net

ao3

other chapters on tumblr

With Sophie home from school everything feels weirdly normal. She and Blaine go running in the morning, now that she is three hours behind him she gets up at an hour Blaine’s body can handle. Blaine decides to tell her about everything when they take a short break to stretch a little before running back home. He tells her about Oliver, about Riley, about going back to music, about possibly moving. They started to look at houses directly outside of the city, nothing further than a train ride away. It’s a lot and Blaine is not quite sure how she is going to react. She’s quiet and doesn’t say anything.

“I know it’s a lot all at once,” Blaine apologizes.

She nods and lets out a huff. “How does Papa feel about everything? The moving? The music?”

“He’s been supportive and mostly agrees with everything. He’s hesitant about moving, but he likes the idea of being able to decorate,” Blaine answers. “Of, course you would still have a room with us, you will always have a home with us.”

“uh huh,” She says nervously.

Blaine can’t help the curious look that comes across his face.

“I’ve been dating someone for a while now,” She clarifies even though it only confuses Blaine more.

“Okay?” Blaine says slowly.

“It’s getting pretty serious, and he asked me to move in,” Sophie explains.

Blaine’s in shock. The last time she dated was in high school. He was the perfect first boyfriend any parent could wish for. They were together for almost four years and broke up after graduation, deciding that college was a time to move forward in their life and date other people. She took the break up hard, which is why Blaine is shocked she is seeing someone already.

“He’s two years older than me, and we met when my dorm’s fire alarm went off the second week of the first semester,” she explains when Blaine doesn’t say anything. “We went out once as friends, but after that we started dating. We just clicked right away.”

“And you want to move in with him?” Blaine asks, worried about the idea.

“He doesn’t live far off campus, more room to live in and for less. Plus, after I live there for a while I would get in state tuition,” she tries to justify.

“Your scholarships cover most of that anyway,” Blaine says and it comes out a lot harsher than he intends it to be.

“Don’t judge until you meet him, I invited him to visit so he could meet both you and Papa this summer,” She practically begs.

“When were you going to tell us?” Blaine asks, the surprise obvious in his voice.

“After I gave you your gifts I got from when I took a day trip to see the Chinese Theater,” she explains, knowing that distracting Kurt with something historical and related to a celebrity would be the best way to break the news.

“Alright, I won’t say anything until I meet him,” Blaine promises at the look his daughter’s face. Even after all these years he still has trouble saying no to her. “I can’t make promises for your Papa, though.”

“Maybe, we don’t have to tell him,” she jokes.

“You know he’ll find out anyway, I’m not good at keeping secrets” Blaine laughs thinking about all the times he has failed to surprise Kurt.

When they get home, Sophie makes a beeline for the shower afraid Oliver will try to take it from her at the last second like he used to do.

“Kurt, I got you a bagel from the bakery on the way home. They’re still warm and fresh,” Blaine calls out setting the brown bag and opening the fridge and pulling out the cream cheese.

“Kurt?” Blaine calls again when he doesn’t hear anything and decides to go investigate.

He finds Kurt in Riley’s room just staring into the empty space. They left everything how it is, waiting for her to come home.

“Kurt,” Blaine says hesitantly, placing his hand carefully on the small of Kurt’s back.

“Oh,” Kurt blinks like he’s waking up. He sighs and moves to sit down. In his hands are a small pile of clothes. It gives Blaine a sense of dejavu from when they lost their second baby, before they adopted Oliver. Kurt took the entire thing hard, blaming himself since his was his sperm. He locked himself in the nursery for a week after the news, refusing to sleep or eat.

“She’s going to come back to us,” Blaine says surely.

Kurt nods and sniffs his tears away. “I forgot, for a second. I went to wake her up and get her dressed and – “

Blaine quickly moves to sit next to him and shush him, mostly because he isn’t sure if he can take anymore. “She is coming home. We are going to find her.” He says with more certainty.

Kurt nods in agreement.

“Now, how about bagels while I tell you about how Sophie has had a secret boyfriend since she started college,” Blaine distracts, knowing Kurt is always up for some good gossip, especially secret romances.

“Really?” Kurt says, obviously intrigued, following Blaine into the kitchen.

“Apparently, it’s getting serious and she invited him to meet us, she wants to move in with him,” Blaine says in a mock whisper.

“I was kind of hoping Dylan and her would end up together,” Kurt answers disappointed.

“He was the perfect first boyfriend,” Blaine agrees. “But I promised we wouldn’t judge until after we meet him.”  

Blaine smiles as Kurt winkles his nose, but nods in agreement.

“I’ll behave myself,” he promises.

It’s only three days later when he shows up to the front door nervously smiling and holding a bottle of wine. Blaine freezes when it’s offered to him because Sophie mentioned he was older, but not old enough to drink and he isn’t sure how he feels about the idea. He’s taller than Blaine imagined, and tan. His hair and eyes are darker, which is the complete opposite of her high school boyfriend. His hair is on the shorter side, just growing out of a close shave to head.  Blaine does approve that he at least dresses appropriately, nothing too casual or formal.

“I apologize for the mess,” Kurt says and he leads him into the house, “We’re in the process of moving.”

“Your home is immaculate, Mr. Hummel-Anderson, thank you for having me” Luke politely replies.

“Please, call us Blaine and Kurt,” Blaine says trying to loosen the tightness in his voice.

When they take a seat in the living room, telling Oliver to turn off the television, Luke and Sophie cuddle close on the sofa, making Blaine clear his throat awkwardly. He can tell from the way they are with each other that Sophie is probably already semi-living with this guy.

“So, Luke, Sophie hasn’t told us much about you,” Blaine starts causing her to flush with embarrassment and give him a warning look.

“I wanted to tell you, but she knew how much you were all going through and decided to wait. We were both a little nervous how you would react to the age difference,” Luke says shifting an appropriate distance from her, but being sure to hold her hand.

“And how old are you?” Kurt asks.

“Twenty-four,” Luke answers.

Blaine understands that to Sophie that five years doesn’t seem like that much of a difference, but to him it’s a lot.

“uh I think my dads’ want to know more about you?” Oliver asks when neither Kurt or Blaine say anything else.

“Right, um” Luke starts clearing his throat, more nervous than when he started.

“We’re sorry,” Kurt apologizes. “We just found out about you not that long ago and now to hear you’re older is just a shock. But, please tell us more about yourself.”

“Well, I’m a police officer. I attended two years of community college before joining the academy and I love your daughter. I’m not sure if you believe in love at first sight, but it’s the only way I could describe it. I saw her and just knew I had to know her.” Luke answers with a smile, causing Sophie to blush.

“Kurt believes in love at first sight,” Blaine teases bumping Kurt’s shoulder with his, knowing Kurt is gushing over the romance of the answer.

“Oh, hush, you believe in soulmates,” Kurt retorts with a laugh.

“I never said soulmates. I said I believe in us and I distinctly remember you having a crush on me when we first met,” Blaine says.

“Okay, yes I was hopeless in love with you, but it was you who wouldn’t stop flirting with me,” Kurt points out.

“Don’t let them fool you, I heard them fighting over which towel is the good towel just the other day,” Oliver jokes getting them to stop.

The rest of the conversation is polite, slowly becoming more comfortable. Blaine hates to admit it, but he does like this guy. He is polite and charming and seems to love Sophie. It isn’t until he reaches over to the table and picks up the Christmas photo with Riley that things take a turn.

“Who’s this?” he asks tensely.

“Um, that’s Riley.” Sophie answers carefully, attempting to pull the photo out of his hand.

“No, that’s not the picture you showed me.” Luke says seriously.

“Well, that was before she was healthier.” Sophie says through her teeth, trying to get the conversation to stop.

“Her hair? It’s shorter now?” he asks, looking around the room for another photo.

“Luke, don’t” Sophie says looking at the pained looks on her family’s faces.

“We appreciate your interest, but this is not something we are ready to talk about,” Blaine answers bravely. “We’re still looking for her and waiting for her to come home.”

“You don’t understand, please excuse my behavior.” He apologizes quickly. “I don’t want to get your hopes up, but my last shift before I flew in there was a call from some neighbors about a suspicious mother and little boy that fits this description.”

Blaine feels his heart beat quicken with hope of it being her, but Kurt quickly takes his hand brings him back to earth.

“It … it might not be her, Blaine,” He says softly.  

“But it could be her,” he says optimistically.

“Luke do you think you could,” Sophie begins to ask hesitantly.

“Yes, of course I will do anything I can to help you bring her home,” Luke answers to the family. “Do you think I could have this photo of her or something similar?”

“We have tons of them, just take what you need,” Blaine says pulling out a scrapbook he made and handing it over.

Normally they would invite a guest like Luke to stay in the guest room with them, but it seemed known to everyone that room was no longer available after becoming Riley’s room. He promised it was no trouble commuting from the hotel and Sophie offered to stay with him, not that it eased their minds.

“So, he seems nice,” Kurt says slowly as he carefully rubs lotion on his arms.

“He’s older,” Blaine responds short not looking up from his sheet music.

“It only seems older because he is drinking age and she is not,” Kurt points out.

Blaine only hums in response.

“He makes her happy,” Kurt says when Blaine doesn’t respond. He puts the bottle on lotion on the nightstand and cuddles close to Blaine giving him a soft kiss to the cheek.

“She didn’t tell us about him, doesn’t that worry you?” Blaine asks putting his sheet music down. “We’re accepting parents I don’t know why she had to hide this from us.”

“She didn’t hide it,” Kurt clarified. “Maybe she just wanted to keep it to herself, or not have us worry about her having sex like we both are now.”

“I should have offered the couch to him, then we could at least keep them apart,” Blaine sighs.

“Yeah because that worked so well for us,” Kurt laughs. “She’s nineteen, our time with her is over. We can’t make decisions for her anymore.”

Blaine doesn’t answer, only cuddles closer to Kurt, thoughtfully.

“Do you think Oliver has?” Blaine asks and Kurt shoots up straight.

“Why? What do you know?” Kurt asks worried.

“Nothing, that’s why I’m asking you.” Blaine answers trying to keep his laughter under control.

“He hasn’t even dated yet,” Kurt says worried. “He’s so much younger.”

“He’s your baby boy I know, but he’s going to grow up too,” Blaine reasons pulling Kurt back in to cuddle.

“We don’t even know if he likes boys or girls,” Kurt thinks aloud.

“Or Both,” Blaine adds.

“Or neither, oh please let it be neither, then he can stay our sweet little baby boy,” Kurt pleads jokingly.

Blaine feels himself drifting to sleep, he knows he needs to put his papers away and take his glasses off and turn out the lights but Kurt’s warmth and breathing is lulling him to sleep.

“She really loves him,” Kurt says softly, still in thought. “And not like the last love she had, this is something different. I can see it in the way she smiles at him.”

“yeah,” Blaine answers nervously.

“At least he isn’t ugly,” Kurt jokes. “I don’t know if I could handle having an ugly grandchild.”

“Kurt, that’s not funny, I’m not ready for grandkids,” Blaine whines.

“I’m serious, he’s like a younger, tanner, version of Cooper,” Kurt teases, “You know with the perfectly angled face and nice muscles.”

“I thought we had a rule of not talking about my brother in bed,” Blaine pouts turning away from Kurt.

“You had that rule and it’s weird,” Kurt responds moving Blaine’s papers to the side and reaching over him to turn out the light.  

“Don’t be too jealous, I still have the horrifying sight of Cooper clipping his toenails in the living room burned into my brain,” Kurt pacifies, shuddering at little at the thought.

“That was only a couple weeks, try living with him for years,” Blaine lightly complains before yawning.

He is just starting to fall asleep when Kurt speaks again.

“You know I think you’re the hottest, sexiest, and most talent man on the planet, right?” Kurt asks slowly, eyes wide with worry.

“Kurt, go to sleep,” Blaine says with a smile, moving to cuddle into Kurt’s side.

Blaine is only able to sleep for a couple of hours before his new case of insomnia gets to him. He shifts quietly from the bed doing his best not to disturb Kurt, he’s caught him a few times laying with his eyes shut, pretending or trying to sleep in Riley’s bed so any sleep Kurt actually gets is good.

Blaine shuffles into the kitchen and decides to get to work on the dishes Kurt was going to leave to do in the morning. At the smell of the dish soap his mind drifts back to the days when it was just him and Kurt, Kurt washing the dishes and Blaine drying them. The days before they could even afford a dish washer. He pauses and wipes his hands when he sees his phone light up with a notification. He debates on reading it. Not all the comments are good or supportive, or even relevant, but he has to know. His heart beats faster at a repost of Riley’s photo with the words “Last seen,” in the comment. He knows he shouldn’t get his hopes up, it might not be serious, just someone who wants his attention, so he screen shots the picture with the new comment to send to an update to the police.  

He knows there is no chance of sleep after this so after he finishes the dishes he works on organizing more of their books for the move. He knows it’s probably pointless, since Kurt will just go back over it and make the final call of what gets pack and what get sold, but it will keep his mind busy and that’s what he needs right now.

next chapter

[holankia]

She won 3rd place in the smallest writing category.

  Finally managed to sit down and blog about the event that happened for the past few days.  About a month ago (19th May 2018), Princess E participated in one of the yearly biggest Chinese Calligraphy competition that was held at Chung Hua No.3 Primary School in Kuching. Here she went against the best calligraphers that represent from every Chinese school from Kuching to Samarahan District that has to offer.  This competition was slightly different from the regular competition she participated in the previous years as it requires her to write 144 words in 1 hour.  After weeks of practice with both her school teacher and tuition teacher, we thank God that she was able to win 3rd prize.  From the past few years, they would only send the top 2 winners to battle it out throughout Sarawak.  This year, they’ve decided to include 3rd place winners as well.  All of us were thrilled of course, as this will be a good experience for her to battle it out with the best in Sarawak.

  She got her to write at least 2-3 pages a day.

  Never the less, her school teacher continued to help prepare her for the competition which was going to be held on the 21st June 2018 in Sarikei.  She got her to write at least 2-3 pages to help prepare herself for this competition.  But on the last day of school, just before the school break the school announced that she would be retiring from teaching.  Initially we thought it will be tough now without her guidance, but the principal assured us that she will come back to the school to help guide her during the school holidays.  We were extremely touched by her dedication, and words couldn’t expressed how grateful we were towards her.  With her former school teacher drilling her and correcting her every day without fail, along with her tuition teacher who guided her with the correct brush strokes as well she was set to go.

  Day 1

We decided to grab something to eat, while waiting arrive.

  So we woke up about 4.45AM on the 20th morning, to pretty much get ready and head towards the meeting place at 3rd Mile.  So after getting ready, I decided to check and see if there were any grab drivers available.  And to my surprise there were indeed a couple of them roaming near the hotel nearby.  So off we were to our meeting point.  We were supposed to be there by 5.30AM and depart from there to Sarikei by 5.45AM.  By the time we arrived there, we didn’t see the bus nor the van that was supposedly to send us there.  So we decided to grab something to eat while waiting for the others to arrive.  By 5.30 AM we then see the people started to gather at the meeting point and we saw the bus passed by us.  As the organizers dropped by, stated that the bus couldn’t come in due to the traffic congested in there. The rest of the participants were asked to walk out to the bus stop instead.  While the remaining 7 of us boarded the van.

  Passing through Serian after an hour’s journey

  So off we go, as this is Princess E’s first road trip.  She had to understand in the event should we stop for a break we need to ease ourselves even if it’s not much.  She was pretty much excited over the whole trip that she couldn’t sleep.  As for me, I tried to sleep but unfortunately the road was way too bumpy for me to fall asleep to.  Many parts of the roads were still currently undergoing maintenance and renovation, which was supposedly to be the Pan Borneo Highway.  So we departed from the meeting place about 6 AM and arrived at Sarikei about 11.45 AM.  Overall she did well being in the van for close to 6 hours, and both of us were quite exhausted from the whole ordeal.  Anyhow the first thing we did was to check into our rooms, at Garden Hotel and unpack the stuff we needed.  Once that was done we headed out to Marrybrown for lunch which was quite close to where we stay.  After lunch we headed to the supermarket nearby the hotel called Doremon, just to grab a few supplies before heading back to the hotel to freshen up and rest the entire afternoon.

Our room, she got the Queen bed while I took the single bed

Having lunch at Marrybrown

Doremon Supermarket

  Banquet that had close to 900 people

  Towards the evening, there’s apparently a banquet for all the participants and parents for the opening for this year competition.   So we walked over to St. Anthony Secondary School, to pretty much scout the place for tomorrow.  We met with the teacher in charge for the Chinese Calligraphy, and were given dinner tickets for both nights and a lunch voucher.  He pretty much ran us through the rules for the next day and what time we should be there to register.  We were surprised to see so many people at the banquet hall, which I think was close to 900 people.  Apparently there were 4 different competition that was concurrently being held, which are Chinese Calligraphy, Group Dancing, Public Speaking & Singing.  No wonder her teacher told us last year that this would be the major competition throughout Sarawak.  Her teacher than called her up, and gave her a few last minute advices before her competition the next day.  She also made sure she gets enough rest since it was a long journey. So  we’ve decided to stayed there for another hour and head back right after that to get some early rest.  Back in the hotel we went and gave mummy a call to update her on the latest info and plan for tomorrow.

  Day 2

It was pouring heavily that morning.

Mummy gave us a morning call at 6 AM for all of us to get ready.  Initially we wanted to grab breakfast before heading out to the school, but then we were told we need to register ourselves by 7 AM.  So after getting ourselves ready, we thought we could still grab a quick bite at the nearby coffee shop.  But lo and behold as we stepped out from the hotel, it was pouring heavily that morning.  So instead of getting breakfast, we’ve decided to head to the school instead.  Since we couldn’t walk, I tried checking grab to see if there’s any driver nearby.  Unfortunately for us there wasn’t any available, so I decided to place a booking anyway to see how it goes.  In less than 2 minutes, a driver was assigned to us.  The driver Mr. Lee Ching Seng was quite a distant from us and he messaged us that he will be there shortly.  So after he arrived, we went straight to the school for Princess E to be registered in the competition.

  While waiting for the organizers

By the time we got there, it was still early as the organizers just arrived not long after that.  So after the registration they got us to stay back a while for the opening ceremony.  So after the opening ceremony, I got her to stay back as it was still raining while I went out to grab breakfast for the both of us.  Quite surprisingly most of the place have yet open or just opened.  So it took them a while to get the food ready.  After 30 minutes I finally managed to pack breakfast while rushing back to her, hoping that she’ll still have time to have breakfast.  Due to the delay earlier this morning, she had plenty of time to eat and calm down at the same time.  Despite still feeling nervous, I tried to calm her down and showed her the messaged from the choir wishing her all the best.  Not long after we cleaned up breakfast, the first group just finished their competition and they asked her to get ready.

  Examining the words carefully

  So we went over to the classroom and remembered the advice from her teacher to make sure the table is stable and the surface is smooth.  So while I helped prepare her table, Princess E went to prepare her brush.  After everything was set, every participants were given the words that needs to be written.  That was when they kicked everyone else out from the classroom and asked us to wait for them at the school’s canteen.  So I reminded her to pray before she starts writing, just remain calm and she’ll be fine.  So that’s when I took this picture before leaving her, and we shall see how it goes after that.

  St. Anthony School Canteen

  I just realized that I didn’t had a cup of coffee, so I found out St. Anthony canteen is like a mini coffee shop.  If only they opened earlier so I didn’t had to leave her, so I bought a cup of coffee while waiting for her to finish.  The rain had finally stopped by then, and she had about 1 hour to finish writing everything.  No doubt the waiting period was long, I went and scout to see the trophies awaiting there.  I only calculated about 15 that time for both categories, which concerns me as there were 18 of them.  Was talking to mummy wondering why they don’t make all 18 of them, since it’s just another 3 more.  So at least all the participants will go home with something instead of empty handed.  Never the less, once the waiting period was over I saw her stood up from downstairs so that was when I went up to check in on her.

  Taken from Doremon’s FB page

  Tears were rolling down her face when she was packing her tools.  In my heart, I was wondering what went wrong. Once we left the classroom, she told me that she wrote 2 columns wrongly placed.  Her reasoning was because initially she wrote on one piece of paper, but she felt unsatisfied with it so she decided to write a new one.  Then when the teacher inside announced that there was only 10 minutes left, she panicked hence wrote the wrong words.  Never the less, she was still able to write finish everything but was still upset over her carelessness.  She felt disappointed because she feel as if she let everyone down, and was worried that we’ve wasted a lot of money preparing her for this.  I told her not to worry about it, and that we came here for the experience and not the prize.  The fact that she was able to represent Kuching in just 1.5 years of learning calligraphy was already an achievement, and we will always be proud of her even if she wins or not.  So we’ll just leave it to God now, since that you’ve already done your best.  If we get a prize praise God, if not we still praise God for giving her the opportunity to experience this roller coaster ride.

  “天外有天，一山还比一山高” (Tiān wài yǒu tiān, yī shān hái bǐ yī shān gāo) Literally: There are skies above the sky, there will mountains taller than other mountains. Meaning: We may be the best where we are, but there will others who will be better than you in some where else.

  Despite her flaws, she still managed to bag consolation prize.

So we sat right at the back of the announcing area as we didn’t want to disrupt others later on.  They first gave out the prizes for the medium words category, and the whole Kuching representative managed to get consolation.  And she was shocked, and told me that if they can only get consolation then she will probably get nothing because they’re the best in Kuching.  So I reminded her what her teacher used to tell her that “天外有天，一山还比一山高“.  You may be the best in your school, but that doesn’t necessary mean you’re the best in the whole Kuching.  And I reminded her that she’s now going against the best throughout the whole Sarawak, so don’t feel bad about not getting anything.  So she felt much better after that, because she knew the level where she stood in world of Chinese Calligraphy.  When they began announcing the small word category, 1st consolation prized went to her rival from Kuching Princess E was in shocked.  This was because she knew that her words were really neat and nice but can only get consolation.  Next out of the blue they announced her name, and both of us were shocked but happy at the same time.  And she literally lit up, because despite her flaws she still managed to bag consolation prize.  I informed mummy, and she was glad that she was able to at least win the consolation.  After I sent the group photo to mummy, she said all 18 participants got prizes.  So the both of us were relieved, at least everyone will not go home empty handed.

  The future of Chinese Calligraphy lies in the future of these hands.  Congratulations to all who participated!

  We celebrated at Sushi King

  So once that was over, we were suppose to join them for lunch.  But just to put an icing on the cake, that I told mummy in the event she didn’t win anything I’ll still bring her out to celebrate.  So we went back to the hotel to freshen up and changed, after that we went to Sushi King to celebrate.  She was so thrilled when I opened the door to Sushi King, because I told her we were going to KFC.  She loves sushi, and we’ve only been to Sakae Sushi once.  So I think it was appropriate for the timely celebration and encouragement.

  I told her that God is still good to you, as He knew you put in a lot of hours into the whole thing.  And all glory goes to Him, because despite still wrote wrongly (which I found later her marks got deducted) she still got something.  As I told her that, I only counted 15 trophies for both categories but yet they came up with 18 trophies in the end.  And that this is only the beginning, where the ones that got first 3 places were Primary 6 calligraphers.  So you still have 2 more years to work your way to the top.  And she understood that it’s not easy, and that different judges may have different opinions.  Considering that the whole Kuching squad only managed to bag consolation prize, but something is always better than nothing.  So after we finished eating, we headed back again to the hotel to get some rest before attending the closing ceremony in the evening.

  Princess E enjoying it from where we were.

  So we walked over again to St. Anthony’s secondary school for the closing ceremony but before that the dance competition was still going on.  Thought it was a brilliant idea to actually have performances going on while having dinner.  Initially we actually sat at the wrong table, which was somewhere in the middle.  But only to realized that our table was actually all the way to the back.  Never the less, it was still good though considering those who were also sitting there was from Kuching and we instantly clicked without any issues.  While talking they were surprised to hear that Princess E was from SJK (C) Chung Hua No.1, because most of the time the one representing Kuching were mostly from SJK (C) Tapah and SJK (C) Chung Hua 4 1/2.  Again the Uncle reminded Princess E that 天外有天，一山还比一山高, and asked her to strive harder next time.  Whatever we do we need to put our hearts into it, and continue working hard until we reach the top.  We stayed a little bit longer this time before decided to head back to the hotel to pack.

  Day 3

Laksa with pork taste interesting.

  So we were supposed to meet up at the meeting point by 7.45 AM as that would be the time we will depart from Sarikei back to Kuching.  So we went to the nearest coffee shop, where the only current stall opened was laksa.  No doubt it was interesting, as most of the time laksa just comes with chicken shred, prawns and egg.  This one we replace the prawns with pork, which taste interesting.  Probably wasn’t really a good idea especially for the long journey ahead.  That was only when our drinks came, I asked the owner if they had toast and he said yes.  I ordered that for Princess E since she can’t really take much in the morning.  So after breakfast, our van driver was there waiting for us already and here’s to another 6 hours drive back to Kuching.  This time Princess E was still exhausted from the last 3 days, she was able to sleep about an hour.

    One of the stops we made was at Pusat Rehat Mid Layar, which toilet I would give 6 stars if possible.  Could stop laughing with all the puns and jokes they posted all over the walls inside the toilet, I guess for those of you who went there would probably know what I mean.  Never the less, after that it was a long drive all the way to Lachau where we had lunch.  Then we proceed back to Kuching where we arrived close to 2 PM.  After saying our good byes with team Kuching we went and got a grab driver to send us back.  Our driver told us that the place we’re heading most likely will be blocked due to the Perarakan Gawai Dayak procession. True enough by the time we reached close to our area, traffic started to crawl.  So I got him to drop us at Plaza Merdeka and we’ll just walk home which will be faster instead.

    Never the less, this whole trip was indeed a fruitful one as Princess E learned a lot of things.  After all been said and done, she’s more determine now to work harder to improve herself.  Her teacher wanted her to send some writings for her the next day to prepare for another competition on the 1st of July.  But she decided to write it on the same day, as she needs to start getting used to it because she’s not been writing bigger words for the last 2 months.  So let’ see how things goes from here.

天外有天，一山还比一山高   Finally managed to sit down and blog about the event that happened for the past few days. 

[generationtrygirl]

FabFitFun Spring 2017: Unboxing & Review!

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I’ve been wanting to write this post about unboxing my FabFitFun Spring 2017 Box for about a week now. But, life got in the way. NOW however, it is finally time for a review! As a yearly subscriber, I got my FabFitFun box in the mail about 10 days ago. Seasonal subscribers will be getting them later this week. So if you are one of those and don’t want your surprise ruined, stop reading now. How about you check out this post about saving money whenever you shop instead. HOWEVER, if you are too excited to wait for your box, or if you’ve heard about FabFitFun and want to learn more, keep on reading!

First, a little bit about FabFitFun, and my history with the box. FabFitFun is a box subscription or gift that you can purchase as either a yearly subscription or a seasonal renewing/cancel any time box. I first tried FabFitFun back in Summer 2015. I liked it so much that I went ahead and got the yearly subscription in September 2015 as a birthday present to myself. Recently, I renewed my subscription this Spring as another “treat yo’self” gift to celebrate increased income from my freelance jobs. What can I say? I can’t get enough.

So, what exactly is the FabFitFun Subscription Box?

Every box contains fun full-sized items from fashion to beauty to fitness and more, themed and styled around the upcoming season. The FabFitFun box always  contains a guaranteed over $200 of products. This spring box has a value of $374! BUT the box only costs $49.99 (including shipping) without a subscription, while an annual subscription will get you four boxes when you pre-pay for $179.99. P.S. If you use my referral code you can get an extra $10 off your first box or subscription! That’s a lot of swag for the price tag.

I would say, because of how great and valuable the products are inside, that you could also knock out all of your Christmas gifts for your girlfriends in one go…but honestly, there’s nothing in all of the boxes I’ve received that I didn’t want to keep. Seriously. These boxes are AWESOME!

Screen cap of the FabFitFun TV home.

Did I mention? Stream workouts on FabFitFun TV! 

As of VERY recently, FabFitFun has added this awesome new year-long add-on to their yearly subscribers: FabFitFun TV! Yes, totally included with yearly subscriptions now is an exercise-streaming service with TONS of awesome workout videos.

Because it literally just came out, I’ve only had the time to try a few and browse the site, but I’m already in love. For one, it is organized beautifully by “type” of exercise and there are videos for Strength&Toning to Yoga to Cardio to Pilates and BARRE! The length of the videos varies greatly too. So, whether you have 10 minutes or an hour, you can find a workout to fill the time! This is especially great for me. Because I’ve kiiiind of fallen off the workout bandwagon in recent months  years, but I’m really wanting to hop back on. Shorter effective workouts are my jam, basically–not intimidating, but they pack a punch. I did one of FabFit TV’s leg toning videos and was sore for literally a week after. Which means it’s either a super effective workout, or I’m super out of shape. Probably a combo of both.

Get to the box, already.

ANYWAYS, here I’ve been rambling about how great the box is and I haven’t even begun to say what’s inside it! Fine. I’ll make you wait no longer. Without further ado, here is everything you need to know about what is inside the FabFitFun Spring 2017 subscription box!

The first thing you’ll see in your colorful box with super fun springtime artwork by Cat Coquillette (@catcoq on insta), is the little catalog with a message from the FabFitFun Founder and a guide to everything inside your box. While I of course read this after getting to all of the goodies in my box, I always love reading it to learn more about the products and about FabFitFun.

I Am Fabulous Lip Kit from RealHer in Red <3

Female-Centric

This catalog explains that this FabFitFun Box has partnered with the “More Than Me” charity which helps young women and girls in Liberia get necessary education tuition-free. That’s something else I love about FabFitFun–in addition to supporting female artists through all of their box designs, they also support awesome women-centric charities that I can totally  get behind! If you want to learn more about More Than Me, visit their website at www.morethanme.org or their insta at @morethanmeorg.

The catalog further explains that this Spring box is particularly special because it marks FabFitFun’s 3rd anniversary! And as if they weren’t already doing enough, the catalog explains that this box celebrates and contains products from seven female-founded brands, a new record for FabFitFun! Finally, the beauty brands in the box are built around ethical, natural, and cruelty-free ingredients.

Luv AJ Studs and Crawlers in 14K Gold <3

The Products!

WITHOUT FURTHER ADO (I know I’ve said this already, but whatever): WHAT’S INSIDE YOUR FABFITFUN SPRING 2017 BOX!

GYPSY 05 “Roundie”

 This may be what I’m MOST excited for, not gonna lie. I’ve wanted a round beach blanket/towel/pieceoffabric whatever since the first time I saw one on Zulily, but they were always so expensive! Needless to say, when I saw this was in my box, I flipped. It’s an excellent size for a picnic outside with a friend, but I’m also thinking of using it as a backdrop on my wall for photos and more. It also fits perfectly over my round kitchen table! I love it <333 Valued at $50.

Briogeo “Rosarco Milk Reparative Leave-in Conditioning Spray”

I have pretty curly hair thanks a lot to the Atlanta humidity, but after 25 years of not knowing how to deal with it, I learned for the first time last September that curly hair NEEDS moisture to survive and not get all frizzy. So much money wasted on Frizz-eez and silicon-containing products when I needed the exact opposite! This spray contains NO SULFATES (Yay!) but rather rosehip, argan, and coconut oil.  Valued at $20.

Milly “Zip Pouch”

Mine says “Resting Beach Face” which makes me so happy because I’ve always loved a good pun. This pouch is a pretty great size and is water proof, so it will be perfect for packing away a wet bathing suit after a day at the pool or beach. Valued at $45.

Dr. Brandt “Microdermabrasion Age Defying Exfoliator”

This face exfoliator contains no Parabens, so that’s awesome. Instead it contains “aluminum oxide crystals , lactic acid, and smoothing botanicals.” But honestly I’m just excited for my at home facials <3. Valued at $79.

Karuna “Hydrating+ Face Mask”

Also Paraben-free, these deep conditioning sheet masks are made from 100% natural wood pulp fiber, aloe vera and Chinese licorice. I think I’ll use this ultra-moisturizing mask after my Dr. Brandt exfoliator, thankyouverymuch. Valued at $28.

REALHER “Lip Kit in Deep Red, Deep Nude, or Neutral Pink” [I got deep red ;)]

Made with all natural ingredients, this liquid lipstick, plumping lip gloss, and lip liner all contain NO PTHALATES, hust shea butter and jojoba seed oil! Aside from the vibrant red color, I love the little empowering phrases on each one. Mine say “I am tough,” “I am a fighter,” and “Be yourself.” Valued at $48.

Deborah Lippmann “Nail Polish Set in Blue Orchid/Like A Virgin or Shape of my Heart/Like a Virgin”

 I got the shape of my heart combo. My nails are in need of a good DIY manicure, and I’m always thrilled to see a bottle of high quality polish in my box. Although I usually only purchase cheap polish for myself, I know that the better the polish, the longer lasting the manicure. Valued at $19.

LUV AJ Diamond Kite Crawler Earring Set or  Emerald DUV “Joshua Tree” Cage Bracelet ($80)

I opted for the earrings–beautiful 14K gold “Climbers” and “studs” with jewel accents. Maybe these will make me look hip for once! Maybe.  Valued at $85.

Nature’s Bounty Hair, Skin & Nails Gummies 

FabFitFun often adds in an extra little full-sized sample of products their consumers will enjoy. This time around I got these strawberry Hair, Skin, & Nails biotin gummies. I tried them yesterday, and they are super yummy. Seriously, I had to remind myself they aren’t candy.  Value – ?? Not mentioned.

TOTAL RETAIL: $374+

One Last Thing

So now you’ve seen what came in my box, but I’d like to add my box will be different from others. Not because it’s a luck-of-the-draw thing, but because FabFitFun lets  annual subscribers CHOOSE between different options. This time around, I chose the pattern I wanted for my Roundie, the color of my nail polish and lip set, which of the clutches I wanted, and the earrings over the bracelet. Seasonal subscribers do not have the customization option. (But honestly, I would have been happy with any of the options!)

In addition to box customization, there are a few other perks with having the annual subscription over a seasonal renewing one. These include early shipping (getting your box before everyone else!), and early access to seasonal Add-ons for your box.

What? Add Ons? That’s right. You can add even more goodies to your box. All add-ons are favorite products featured in previous boxes. AND All of these products will also be up to 70% off retail price. Also, they are totally optional. (But it’s great for knocking out some Christmas shopping ;). )

If the FabFitFun box sounds like something you’d like to try, you can use my referral code to get an extra $10 off on your first box/subscription. Thinking of giving it a go or getting it for a friend/loved one? Let me know in the comments. Also please let me know what other subscription boxes you’ve enjoyed

For more “Trys”, shopping & saving advice, and tips living your life to the fullest, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

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