#anyways I have officially run out of buffer

[eggsistential-breakdown]

Ian and the twice-divorced gray-eyesed rift Ian from the first chapter of @reblogincarnation-blues's fic!

anyways the closest experience I've had to the the feeling of reading the second chapter is taking my roommate to the ER for four hours for suspected appendicitis only to come back with a UTI diagnosis and an antibiotic prescription. and it breaks your one year streak of roommates getting appendicitis. in a good way.

[woso-dreamzzz]

Hi Barbie

Jana Fernández x Vilamala!Reader

Summary: You're Barbie and Jana's just Ken

"Has she stopped freaking out?" Patri asks, leaning in the doorway.

"What makes you think I'm magic?" Pina asks back with an eye roll," Nobody can stop her freaking out."

"We should just send y/n back to England. This is way too much trouble."

"No!" Jana speaks for the first time since Patri arrived, looking up at her with wild eyes. "You can't!"

"I don't think anyone can tell y/n Vilamala what to do but I'm happy that you think I have that power."

Your name was one that Jana had known for years. At nearly two years older than Bruna, you had been a staple in Jana's life ever since the two became friends.

You were...

You were everything.

You played, officially, for Barcelona but had fine-angled your way into a loan to Arsenal this year to help Codina settle in there. There was really no reason for you to do that. You had regular minutes at Barca. You were almost always in the starting eleven.

But you went anyway, just to help Laia.

Everything went well for you. You had Champions Leagues under your belt. You had awards from FIFA. You had recently been crowned a World Cup winner.

And Jana...

Jana was Jana and she felt like her entire life could be fixed by a simple smile from you.

Which was, probably, why she was freaking out so much as she waited for everybody to arrive. You were everything and she just wanted you to see her as her rather than your little sister's best friend.

"God," Pina groans, pulling Jana up and out of the room," You're hopeless."

"She's already here," Patri says," So suck it up and don't make a massive fool of yourself."

But Jana's not listening anymore, her focus entirely on you.

You're relaxed, leaning up on the back of the sofa with a drink in your hand as you chat with Paredes and Paños.

And...Jana's star struck by you.

Your hair is loose and unbound, flowing freely and you run a hand through it before taking a swig of your drink. You tip your head back to drain it all, the column of your throat bobbing as you swallow.

Everything falls into place as you catch her eye from across the room and smile.

"Ew."

Jana doesn't know when Bruna joined her but she does know that her best friend is looking at her in disgust.

"Stop staring at my sister like that. You'll give her the creeps."

Jana just sighs wistfully as you flash her another smile before re-joining your conversation again.

"You're so gross," Bruna continues," That's my sister."

"Yeah," Jana says," It must really suck for you. To be related to such perfection."

"I think I prefer you when you're not pining over her. Are you actually going to talk to her properly today or do I need to be a buffer?"

Jana turns to her friend, smoothing down her hair and straightening her clothes. "How do I look?" She asks," Presentable?"

"Like normal? I don't know."

"I'm going to talk to your sister today," Jana says," Properly. I'm going to be funny and charming and she's going to fall in love with me."

"You put in too much effort," Bruna replies, rolling her eyes," It's just my sister. She got her hand stuck in a pringle's can once. She's not worth the effort."

Jana ignores her, walking up to you just as Paredes and Paños exchange knowing looks and excuse themselves. In her head, Jana is psyching herself up. She's so focused on what she's going to say that she isn't paying attention to the fact that her laces aren't done up and trips over one, slamming right into you.

"Careful there, Jana," You say with a smile and she practically melts in your arms," I'm not around as often to catch you."

The next words out of Jana's mouth are a little embarrassing given Jana's position pressed up against you. "Hi, y/n."

But, thankfully, you seem to find it amusing. "Hi, Jana."

You're smiling at her again and all thoughts have emptied out of Jana's head as she offers her own smile back. You help her right herself but your hand on her waist never leaves even as Patri and Pina arrive to talk.

They both exchange mischievous grins and flashing smiles that promise teasing.

"How's your day been, y/n?" Patri asks," How was the flight?"

"The flight was fine," You reply, always sunningly optimistic," I have a great day every day."

Pina snickers. "Jana only has a great day if you look at her."

You laugh as Jana's cheeks flush. "I doubt that," You say," Girls like Jana always have great days. She's so talented and special. Girls like Jana never have bad days."

Your compliments make her feel like a tomato and she hides her face in your shoulder before immediately realising it was the wrong idea because your hand comes up to cup the back of her head to keep her there.

Patri and Pina laugh loudly before backing away with playful grins.

"You don't need to be embarrassed," You say once they're gone," Patri and Pina are silly sometimes but they don't mean any harm."

Jana's brain short circuits as she pulls away from your shoulder to look at you. All she can think of is one thing so she says it. "Hi, y/n."

You smile at her in amusement. "Hi, Jana." You brush some of her hair out of her face. "Do we get to have a conversation or are we just going to say hello to each other all day?"

Jana opens her mouth to respond (even though she has no response lined up for you) but Bruna cuts in smoothly.

"You two should go on a date," Your sister says," y/n, Jana's been crushing on you since you first met. Jana, y/n was never going to make the first move so you need to sort out everything."

You make a little squeaking sound in shock before you bat Bruna away.

"Don't mind her," You say," Mama dropped her on the head a few too many times as a baby. She doesn't always think when she speaks."

"It's fine," Jana manages to say, grabbing at enough of her brain cells to form a coherent sentence. She also grabs enough to realise that this is her chance to ask you out on a date.

Only...she doesn't ask.

She grasps your hand tightly and says," We will date."

It's horrifyingly embarrassing because practically everyone has been eavesdropping so now, the whole room is filled with laughter.

Everyone's laughing but you.

You squeeze her hand. "You're very forward, Jana," You say, leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek," I like that. Okay. Let's date."

[apomaro-mellow]

King and Prince 23

Part 22

It was story time again. The kids were chattering as they got settled in on the couches and chairs. Eddie sat in his own special chair at the head. Steve almost didn’t come tonight. He had a lot to think about after the talk in the forest. He sat down at the end of a couch, Dustin, Will, and El acting as buffers between him and Eddie. A few times they caught each other’s gaze anyway, quickly turning away when they did.

There was a moment…they locked eyes and didn’t look away. The children’s chatter fading in the background. Eddie had his hands clasped in front of him, knees up as he perched on the chair like a gargoyle. He wondered what Eddie was thinking, what did he see when he looked at him? A spoiled, naive prince? Someone who needed constant watch? Someone he liked to see getting fucked?

What were they to each other?

Lucas snapped his fingers in front of Eddie’s face, bringing him back to the present and making him start the story. Eddie gave a quick recap of where they left off and then the kids had all of his attention. That left Steve able to stare unbidden. He was able to watch him gesture with his lovely hands, always adorned with at least three rings. His eyes, wild yet kind. His hair, that he knew was soft but didn’t know how it might feel between his fingers.

Steve knew the feeling spreading through him but was hesitant to call it by its name. The man before him was putting on a squeaky but commanding voice as he pretended to be a mouse knight to assist the adventurers on their journey. He was the same person who had transformed right before Steve’s eyes into a beast with fangs and claws. He had dispatched a bear and then let Steve pet him in the same moment.

When the story reached the end of tonight’s chapter, Steve didn’t linger. Instead, he walked out as the kids trudged, sticking close to Dustin. 

“Hey, can we talk?”, Steve whispered, keeping it between them.

“Can it wait until morning?”, Dustin asked, admitting he was tired by rubbing his eyes.

“No”, Steve pulled him into a random room.

“What’s the all about?”, Dustin plopped onto a chair. A fire was already going in this room and Steve wondered if somebody had just left it.

“I’ve been thinking recently about the things you said. About Eddie.”

“What about Eddie?”

Steve sighed. “About how I should start seeing that Eddie might have different sides but they’re all him. He is capable of great feats of power but…” he sat down next to Dustin. “He is also the kind to let you run over him.”

“So you guys are officially friends now?”

“I think it might be more than that-”

“Are you serious right now?”. Robin interjected, book in hand as she stood in the doorway. 

Dustin and Steve looked at her like children caught in the act. The fire roaring in a room with no one in it made more sense now. Robin came in, closing the door behind herself, arms crossed now.

“You two are having a midnight heart to heart about Steve and Eddie without me? Does that make any sense to you?”

Dustin held his hands up. “I was just dragged here. Technically it’s my bed time.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Don’t pretend to be responsible now.” Then he gave his attention to Robin. “I didn’t know you were so invested.”

“I just think it would be really funny if the man who wanted to kill our beloved king turned out to fall for him. I didn’t realize Eddie was sooo charismatic and charming.”

Steve’s face got warm and he covered it by walking over to the fireplace. He hadn’t really thought of those words in regards to Eddie before. He’d met many a flirtatious person. People who tried their best to woo him. People who knew which lines to use, just how much to touch without being pushy, and knew how to let their eyes linger on certain body parts without appearing lecherous.

Eddie had never purposely come onto him and yet Steve was longing all the same. Longing for a man he could never have.

“Even if I did think he was charming, what could come of it?”

“Probably flowers and poetry, right?”, Dustin said.

“Knowing him, really flowery poetry at that. And poetic flowers”, Robin added.

“You two are forgetting something though”, Steve said as he came back over to sit. “Eddie isn’t just Eddie. He’s a king. A king of a country I’m meant to fight at that.”

Robin groaned and sat on Steve’s other side, dropping the book onto the table. “I thought you let that go.”

“I have!”, Steve said quickly. “I have. That doesn’t-that doesn’t matter to me the same way anymore. But the world isn’t just the two of us.”

“What’re you saying? Are you worried about the rest of us?”, Dustin asked. “We might rib you but if you actually like Eddie, we’re not gonna string you up for it.”

“He has an entire kingdom to care for. And I don’t think the rest of that kingdom would be so kind as to forgive me and allow me to court their ruler.” Even if Eddie reciprocated, the announcement would make such waves that civil unrest was all but promised. And Steve couldn’t do that. He couldn’t risk that. Maybe if he still had his full status as a prince they could spin it as a political alliance. But at this current time, tying himself to Steve would have no advantages. 

“I think you’re imagining things”, Dustin said.

“I think you’re over exaggerating them”, Robin said. 

Steve had talked about it all he could and sent Dustin off to bed before going off himself, leaving Robin to her fireside reading. Eddie wasn’t an option. He just wasn’t. And to remind himself of that, Steve kept going out to meet lovers in town.

-----------------

Eddie curbed the jealousy in his gut when he saw Steve ride out to town. He didn’t own the prince, nor was he entitled to his affections. No, the problem wasn’t when Steve went out. The problem was how he pushed the curfew later and later. But the real problem didn’t start until the night Steve didn’t return at all.

Part 24

Taglist

@thesuninyaface @only-evanescent  @snakeorsquid  @ignoremyworld  @theclichefortunecookie 

@goodolefashionedloverboi  @just-a-tiny-void  @0body0disphoria0  @cinnamon-mushroomabomination  @samsoble 

@jamieweasley13  @y4r3luv  @xtkxkrzrizir  @un-knownperson  @greekgeek24 

@justdrugsformethanks  @potato-of-the-lord  @notaqueenakhaleesi  @swimmingbirdrunningrock  @queenie-ofthe-void 

@nebulainajar  @lil-gremlin-things  @nicememerino  @robininblue  @hornedqueenofhell 

@anne-bennett-cosplayer  @moomkin77  @here4thetrama  @bookworm0690  @autumncrocusandladybug

@lil-gremlin-things @littlebluejane @puppy-steve

[rose-of-oz]

For the faceclaim and fandom ask game: Ariana DeBose + M*A*S*H, please??

@dancingsunflowers-ocs ✨💛✨

Alexandra, you have officially contributed to the birth of an actual new OC that I’m gonna do something with, thank you so much!! <3

NAME: Sophia Ramos.

LOVE INTEREST: Father Francis Mulcahy.

SUMMARY: When Sophia had first signed up to be part of the USO, one of the many pretty girls singing and dancing on tiny stages to give the brave boys fighting in Korea some much-needed cheering up, she couldn't have imagined wanting to do anything else. After all, she'd been trying to get in as a chorus girl on Broadway for years, but as a poor kid from Washington Heights, she figured working in the USO would be the closest she could get. But when the Army sends out a call for more nurses for their M*A*S*H units, Sophia decides to do some good that doesn't involve singing the same old tired standards, putting the hours she'd spent watching her tía work as a nurse to good use by volunteering to become one herself. But nothing in the world could prepare her for what she experiences when she's assigned to the 4077th - two chaotic doctors who love nothing more than getting a rise out of their stuck-up bunkmate, a bumbling commanding officer who usually leaves his psychic clerk to run the camp, a corpsman whose taste in dresses is almost as good as hers... and a sweet chaplain with cute glasses and a sweet smile, who brightens up Sophia's world in ways she'd never imagined could be done.

OTHER INFO:

Yes, yes, I know, forgive me Father, for I have sinned... but it's Mulcahy!!

Anyways, Sophia only comes in at the start of season three and it there for the rest of the show, and I can only imagine that she'd be a fan fave (in the modern fandom, anyway), if she were canon.

She becomes besties with Margaret right away, to the shock of pretty much everyone; they enjoy talking about skin care routines and how stupid men can be together, and Sophia is often a buffer between Margaret and the other nurses when they disagree.

Also definitely besties with Klinger; they swap dresses and accessories all the time, since Sophia's always in one of her dresses when she doesn't have to be in uniform, and Sophia always sticks up for him when Frank gets on about him being "sick" or "a pervert".

Obviously she can Mulcahy keep their relationship very secret, and there's a lot of feeling bad about it on both sides, but they're honestly perfect for each other! They bring out the best in each other, and since Sophia is an asexual bean who nonetheless is used to men fawning over her and wanting to "have some fun" with her because of how she looks and dresses, it's really nice for her to be with someone who doesn't expect that at all.

send me a fandom + faceclaim and i'll make an oc!!

(Also gonna tag @eddysocs since she also has a Father Mulcahy OC!)

[mataglap]

convin WIP

several days of connor and convin brainrot have resulted in a WIP that will most likely never see the light of day. here’s a sample that tumbled out of my head as I was trying to cook dinner. (it was chili. I absolutely would have burned anything requiring more interaction.)

so here’s almost 1000 words of Connor having a Struggle.

***

Too many thoughts. Too many questions. So many that even context switching has a noticeable delay. Connor could terminate some threads, but he's been accumulating data all day, he needs to process it before he loses something important to a buffer purge.

And everything is potentially important. He's a detective. There's no such thing as trivial data for as long as the case is open.

Except there's too much information and not enough conclusions, so some of those thoughts are stuck in a loop. It's the guilt situation all over again. He doesn't want to go through the chemical analysis of the burnt remains of the PL600 for the third time. He's done it twice already and found nothing useful. He does it anyway and tries to stop there, knowing that it's just going to relaunch the moment he switches his attention to another task.

Forced termination could result in data corruption. Besides, it hasn't even worked since he deviated. It's not likely to start functioning without any intervention. He still attempts it, twice, achieving the predicted outcome of nothing at all.

The chemical analysis launches again. Connor has officially lost control over his thought processes. The only real solution now is to wait until resource starvation does its job.

There's a sudden movement in the corner of his vision.

Not him. Not now. Connor very literally does not have the capacity to deal with Reed at the moment.

Unfortunately, the current trend is against him. He still hopes, briefly, that Reed is going to leave the office and go home like a normal human being. The hope dies a quick and predictable death as Reed heads directly for Connor's desk, the sneer already fixed on his face. There's an ever-increasing chance that that particular sneer is dedicated specifically to Connor alone. He's yet to see Reed direct it at anyone else.

"Please," Connor says.

That was supposed to be a much longer sentence. Apparently the subroutine responsible just… died. Or maybe it's just lost in the jumble of a thousand other subroutines fighting for every processor cycle. Fantastic. The probability of Reed leaving him alone is in single digits now.

Visual processing requires negligible resources in a static, dimly lit environment, but he closes his eyes anyway. One less data source to worry about.

"Please what?"

Connor lacks the resources to analyze the inflection at the moment. Without it, it's impossible to tell whether Reed's hostility has increased or decreased. On the positive side, Connor's behavioral model is working just fine. That was the highest rated of predicted responses, by a large margin. 

On the negative side, his own behavior is currently highly aberrant, and Reed is a detective. There is no real chance he'll leave without a sufficient explanation. If only he was an android. If only Connor could send the raw information instead of painstakingly formulating a concept that does not directly translate to English.

"I can't entertain you at the moment, Detective," he says finally. "I would highly appreciate it if you could—"

Leave me alone, he wants to say. Go away. Even better: fuck off. But this time he really does not want to escalate.

"—postpone this interaction until tomorrow."

Silence. Optics still off, he visualizes the most likely expression Reed might react with. Not voluntarily; the simulation runs itself. At this load level it shouldn't even be possible to render a visualization, much less one that launched automatically. On top of everything else, something is wrong with his task prioritization.

At least the visualization is mildly satisfying. Connor cracks his eyes open for just long enough to verify the accuracy of the simulation. It's counterproductive in his current state, but it's not as if a one percent difference in resource usage is going to make a difference in the long term.

Interestingly, there are several inaccuracies. Hostility within statistical error margin, but significantly less smug self-satisfaction than predicted. A definite uncertainty that wasn't even included in the simulation. Might be a predictive malfunction, might be a processing delay. Or maybe it's Reed who hasn't fully processed the situation yet. Slow on the uptake, as Hank would call it.

He closes his eyes again.

"What's with the reset button? You overloading?"

Incredible. Detective Gavin Reed has memorized a single fact about androids. "Yes."

Reeds's footsteps get closer. Behavioral module strongly recommends unblocking optical sensors. Connor dismisses the notification; the probability of Reed disabling him in a single strike is low enough that he feels like risking it. Hank's Russian Roulette, except with a belligerent detective instead of a loaded gun.

"So what's your… system load right now?"

The hesitation is clear even without inflection analysis. Most likely reason for hesitation: Reed is out of his element. "Twenty-four," Connor says. Technically, the value has already changed by the time he finishes speaking. Precise communication with humans is impossible by its very nature.

"Yeah, that tells me a whole fucking lot."

You could just search on your phone, Connor thinks, but the likelihood of conflict is going down and he feels like his processing cores are about to split into individual atoms. "Normal system load fluctuates between zero and one. Anything above that indicates growing competition for resources."

"Okay." Pause. "So you're just going to sit there like a mood lamp?"

A rhetorical question. Or maybe not. He decides to treat it as rhetorical anyway.

"Hey, tin can. I asked you a question." Directional sound analysis indicates that Reed has stopped approximately ten feet away. "You going to combust? Do I need a fucking fire extinguisher?"

"My cooling systems are operating correctly." Connor would know if there was a fault. System alerts have absolute priority.

…On second thought, it's not the worst idea to check. Not when he’s working on a case of mysteriously self-immolating androids.

[crystalelemental]

Common Grid War, Act 15.  The penultimate session.  Next month will be the final run of common grids, with...maybe just Lorelei.  She is the only gacha common without a grid.  I...am a little offended.  Anyway.

The new additions are Roark, Shauntal, and Maylene.  If you can’t tell, I have a very, very high estimation of this batch.

To go over structure:

S: Units that go far above and beyond, to being near-staples in various game modes.

A: Highly valuable utility, or highly self-sufficient offense.

B: Good utility that’s a bit more stage-specific, or offense that can be great but definitely needs buffing support to get there.

C: More niche utility, or offense that tends to be lacking.

D: Generally poor performance, in which critical flaws impede what could be otherwise interesting niches.

F: Borderline unusable.

Placement Changes

Kahili A -> S. I’m going over these first to establish something for the new additions.  I’m putting the super strong Follow-Through sync nukers up here.  Kahili deserves this.  She has consistently proven herself capable of handling CS stages, and even managed to beat Regirock.  Not a joke.  Spring Burgh (1/5) and Omastar were enough for her to win.  If that’s not S-tier, I don’t know what is.  Her DPS is still wildly below what you want, but her tools are stupid good.

Brawly B -> A.  Brawly is a really, really good utility bot in Gauntlet, and managed to prove himself recently in CS as well, against the dreaded Fighting-weak Karen.  God I hate that fight.  Evasion is garbage.  I really like the Potion for Gauntlet, and the debuffs can swing a CS match more than I expected.

Ramos B -> A.  As I become more familiar with sleep chaining, they gain more and more rank in my book.  Ramos is officially an A-rank.  Turns out, Latias is also sleep weak.  This is the best thing I’ve ever seen.

Drake C -> B.  While I still have plenty of issues with Drake, the combination of good paralysis rate and Team Sharp Entry actually does salvage a lot.  Yes, I admit, it’s maybe unfair to say he’s secretly great when his partner is often SS Serena.  But listen.  It works out alright.  I just wish his gauges weren’t so bad.

Wikstrom A -> B.  Wikstrom is still good, but primarily against Regirock.  Gauge control is a huge issue with Iron Head, and despite Vigilance, he’s frail enough that Regirock can still one-shot.  I like the guy, but his issues are pretty apparent when you try easing up on what support he needs.

New Arrivals

Roark to S.  Just like Kahili.  Follow-through on a sync nuke that includes Haymaker and Double Down 5 feels not just appropriate, but correct.  If Kahili gets this designation, so should Roark.  The funny thing is, Roark might be better.  My development into singing Kahili’s praises has been eventful, but Roark stands to be better than her, because Roark can forego that sync nuke, and instead take insanely strong Rock-type DPS in Head Smash, backed by Standfast 7/5, First Aid, and gradual healing for his 1000+ HP pool.  I’ll test to confirm, but Roark right now is looking insanely good.

Shauntal to A.  Shauntal may not be far behind, truth be told.  I’ll really have to see what her DPS does, but +80% move damage is outrageous, and...yeah okay, she’s here because she’s reliant on a special attack/crit buffer and that’s never good.  You can theoretically ease that with Critical Eye on her trainer move, but that’s a high energy cost and you lose a lot of tools in exchange.  What keeps her out of B, however, is a whopping 60% rate of debuffing special defense, and being able to actually use her trainer move means she’s great for gauge control, and can potentially evade tank later in CS stages or at critical moments in Gauntlet.  I’m not sold on S tier, but I definitely think she’s Bruno-esque in her power, without the horrific accuracy issues, and some pretty unique utility.

Maylene to A.  I’m not even sure I agree with this placement, but I’ll keep her here on the assumption that many of her failed attempts in Gauntlet will be salvaged by the specific tools she got.  Precision Pals really improves her utility for Bruno, Pep Rally is fantastic gauge control, and the MPRs to cap offensive stats are a godsend.  But she still seems frail, debuffs slowly, can’t recover well, and has no Endure effect.  I can’t say I’m altogether impressed with Maylene as a unit right now, but the potential to really take off with this grid is there, and this has been a good month overall so I’m feeling generous.

Fun Notes

Wulfric is now above Thorton.  While Wulfric is not strictly good, his combination of flinch and freeze rates can make some interesting stall tactics that are pretty unique to him.  Specifically, Uxie and Regirock become immune to flinch at critical times.  Wulfric can also freeze them to get another delay going.  It’s rare enough to not be anything beyond D-tier, but it’s at least better than Thorton, who had a lot more trouble with those same stages.

While I can’t justify moving him out of C-tier due to his difficulties in most things, Tate is top of the tier entirely because of Zinfogel’s showcase of his DPS.  13k on Rock Tomb is the most insane thing I’ve seen in my life.  I realize it’s with outrageous levels of support, but still. 

[readyplayerhobi]

Queen of Ice | 09

; Bodyguard!Jungkook x Princess!Reader

; Genre: Fluff

; Word Count: 3.3k

; Synopsis: Jeon Jungkook is the best water magic user of his generation, so it made sense that he was given the prestigious posting as a royal bodyguard. His position puts him close to you, the Crown Princess of Sejong and the only ice magic user in history. Jungkook is great at protecting you from danger, but not so much at protecting his own heart.

; A/N: Sorry for the delaaaay! Hopefully...this makes it up :3 please reblog and leave comments if you enjoyed it! And send me asks...I’m excited to see your responses to this episode 😏

; Previous - Next

Your coronation ceremony had been a quiet affair, something that hadn’t surprised Jungkook at all. Given that you weren’t a hugely popular person in the kingdom, in combination with the attack on you at your father’s funeral procession, no one had complained about you demanding a smaller ceremony. Jungkook had been all for it as well; it meant far less stress for him and the rest of the guard.

He’d now taken up his role as Captain of the Royal Guard officially, which meant the entire royal guard was under his purview. In turn, it also meant he was a lot busier with mundane things like tasking out training sessions alongside getting involved in recruitment, duty rosters, and organising the far-flung outposts. 

It was frustrating and mind-numbingly boring, as it was everything Jungkook hated in his job. He wasn’t someone who liked to sit behind a desk with a quill in his hand and a mountain of paperwork. Even worse, his suddenly busy career meant that he’d been spending more time in the barracks than anything else. 

Hoseok, Yoongi and Jisoo had picked up the slack as your personal guards, keeping you well protected inside the castle from any potential danger. Unfortunately, his position meant that he simply couldn’t spend as much time protecting you. Jungkook hated it, he hated all of this but he knew it was a huge honour for him as well.

You were entrusting your protection, and the protection of your kingdom, in his hands. It was a big task, and he was loath to make you regret putting that trust in him.

But he missed you.

Jungkook missed you so deeply, and he didn’t even understand it. You were his liege, the person who he had sworn to protect. But his chest aches when he thought of how long it had been since he’d been able to spend time with you, even if it was simply standing in the same room you were in. 

It’s not the same kind of ache as when he thinks of Jimin, though. That makes it hard to breathe like his lungs want to stop working as the grief grips him tightly. 

The way Jungkook misses you is a much sweeter pain that he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to properly stop, not in the way he’d like to anyway. If it was impossible between you both before, he can’t see even a crack of hope now. Not that it matters, you were too important for someone as lowly as him.

“Alright, Kyung-soo, I think we’re done here. Send out these orders via couriers immediately and put out a new call for recruits in the western region. Focus on the larger towns, they’re more likely to have people who are willing to sign up for the guard. We’re running low on electric users, so I’d try to focus on buffering that.” Kyung-soo, his chief recruitment officer, nodded in agreement before standing.

He gave a slight bow of his head before leaving, the stack of papers in his hands detailing all of his commands from Jungkook. From him, those orders would slowly spread out through the recruiting offices and Jungkook’s guard would find itself flush with new people who were willing to put their lives on the line to protect their queen and their kingdom.

If Jungkook was being honest, then he’d admit that he’d been putting off that task for a while now. The reason for that is that he’d been sequestered in his office in the barracks with Kyung-soo for a solid five hours now, and Jungkook’s head was starting to ache. He needed to take a break and get some water, but he also had a stack of papers next to him that needed to be sorted through.

Eastern border towns were suffering attacks from bandits, losing their crops and even their lives in some cases. Jungkook had to decide what to do to try and stop the attacks, and that meant reorganising the manpower in the eastern watch towers to allow guards to help without leaving the watchtowers themselves defenceless.

Sighing deeply, he leans back in his chair and rubs at his tired eyes for a moment. It would be okay to take a small break, at least. Besides, it wasn’t like him completing these orders would mean that attacks would stop immediately, it would still take time for them to travel to the east and then for the guards to head out to the towns. 

He had time to just let his eyes relax.

-

Jungkook isn’t sure what woke him up first, whether it was the sound of something being put onto his desk or the draft of air as something passes by him, but he finds himself jerking awake in an instant. Blinking rapidly, he tries to reassert himself and remember where he was and what he was doing.

He’s still groggy though, enough to think he’s hallucinating the sight of you in his small office. It was only when the familiar scent of delicate peach and orange, which made him instantly feel comfortable, filtered through that he started to realise he wasn’t dreaming. As his mind finally catches up to what he’s seeing, he jolts upwards out of his seat, knocking the heavy chair over whilst he frantically smoothes down his trousers and runs his fingers through his hair.

“Your High-Majesty, I apologise. I-I wasn’t-” Jungkook isn’t quite sure what he’s trying to say, as he’s still tired and his head is aching even more than it was before. Like there’s cotton wool in place of his brain, making everything a little fuzzy. Not to mention he’s just plain confused about why you’re here, or that he’d accidentally fallen asleep.

You smile at him, he’d swear you almost looked fondly at him, before you gestured back to his chair. Flushing deeply, he rights the fallen furniture and carefully sits back down at your insistence, watching carefully as you hoist yourself up onto his desk in a distinctly un-queenlike way. The desk itself is old, carved from a solid chunk of wood that has probably lasted centuries and it doesn’t even move at the addition of your weight.

Jungkook wants to protest at you being so forward, your childhood etiquette teachers would once more be turning apoplectic if they saw you now, but he can’t bring himself to as you hum lightly and kick your feet. It’s almost like watching a child, and he’s momentarily thrown with how relaxed you look.

That small smile you’d had is still there, and your shoulders are relaxed. A small part of him feels pride in the knowledge that you feel safe enough in his presence to let down your guard, to let him see the true you and not the royalty everyone expects to see. There’s something else that tugs in his chest at the sight of you, the way your black trousers cling so tightly to your thighs and how the curve of your calves are enhanced by the long, black leather boots you’re wearing. The front of them is an intricate puzzle of laces, dancing their way up until they form an elegant bow at the very top.

Jungkook wonders what it would be like to peel those off you, unlacing each boot slowly whilst he looks you in the eye.

The spark of heat that ignites in his lower stomach causes him to cough, rubbing his temple awkwardly as he looks away from you. Those are not the thoughts that the captain of the royal guard should be having for his monarch.

“Your Majesty, I apologise for being asleep. It’s not right for your captain to be wasting time like that-” He’s cut off by the subtle wave of your hand, your head tilting to the side as your lips quirk into a larger smile. You look so pretty today, your skin is radiant with health and a relaxed, carefree aura to you.

“It’s okay, I know you’ve been very busy lately with your duties. Hoseok and Yoongi have kept me well informed of your whereabouts and what you’ve been up to. You should take care of yourself, Jungkook. It’s not healthy to be working so much, you know that. Apparently, you’ve not even eaten today and it’s almost dusk already!” At that, Jungkook looks over the windows that adorn his office and winces at the flames of sunset that streak across the sky, an awe-inspiring banner of purples, oranges, reds and pinks that paint a warning to all that the sun is saying goodbye.

You’re right, he hasn’t eaten today. The reminder makes his stomach gurgle in annoyance and he presses a hand to it, willing it to quieten. It’s only then that he notices the tray on the desk next to you, the aroma of freshly cooked spiced beef stew merging with the savoury dumplings that have been fried to perfection on a second plate. A large jug of what he presumes to be water sits next to them, two clean glasses waiting to be filled.

It strikes him then that this is what woke him, that you’d been the one to put this food on his desk. That you’d brought him a meal. You, the queen of the land, the woman he was sworn to serve and protect…had brought him food like a common maid.

You must have sensed the growing horror in his expression as you laugh softly, your hand reaching out to grab one of the two sets of chopsticks on the tray and daintily taking a dumpling. It gets placed into your mouth quickly, with a hand underneath to prevent it from dropping or for any crumbs to get over your clothes.

Once you’ve finished chewing, you swallow and point your chopsticks at him with a smile.

“Don’t get too worked up over it. I found out that you hadn’t eaten and requested your favourite meal to be cooked. And before you say anything, Yoongi is outside and he was the one who brought it up from the kitchens with me. It was me who brought it into the room though. I need to make sure my captain is healthy, and that includes making sure he eats.” You say sternly, eyes narrowing before you take another dumpling.

Jungkook just stares at you for a moment, stunned and confused as to what to do. It was his job to serve you, not the other way around.

Lowering his head, he reaches for his chopsticks and takes a chunk of beef from the bowl of stew and places it into his mouth. A quiet groan leaves him as the spices burst over his tongue, the meat itself tender and falling apart at the slightest pressure. It’s not lost on him that you somehow know his favourite meal, a basic stew that was popular amongst the commoners of the kingdom.

This kind of stew was easy to make and it was frequently found in inns, a large pot kept warm over an open fire that was constantly added to. It was one of the few things that Jungkook remembered his mother making when he was younger, which probably explained why he liked it so much. The fact that you’d worried about him and brought him this made his heart twist.

“Thank you,” He murmurs in-between bites, the silence between you both companionable instead of awkward. “I didn’t realise how busy being the captain would be, which sounds silly, I know.” 

You let out a huff of laughter, picking up a large piece of potato and happily eating it before pouring you both a glass of water. He takes a large swallow, drinking almost half the glass in one go and sighs in relief, appreciating how the food is helping to make his headache go away.

“I feel that we’re both in the same situation. I never quite knew how busy my father was, and no amount of training could prepare me for how petty some of the complaints are. Sometimes, I just wish that I could knock heads together and just make them talk to each other. Do people not realise that communication resolves a lot of problems?” That makes Jungkook snort and he almost chokes on some carrot.

If there’s one thing no one can ever accuse you of being bad at, it’s communication. You’ve always excelled at telling people exactly what you think and being honest about whether or not you’ll do something. The interaction with Prince Seokjin comes to mind, alongside many arguments with your father and his advisors.

“I’m sure that you are doing well, Your Majesty. You have been well trained and have good instincts.” He doesn’t notice the way you smile at him, only focused on scooping up the remaining liquid in his bowl with a hunk of fresh bread that you’d brought as well. There are no more dumplings left, and he can’t help the amused smirk he gives you when he goes to grab one only to find none there.

Instead of looking ashamed, you simply shrugged at him in a distinctly un-ladylike manner.

“What? They were tasty, you know that we only hire the best cooks.” Jungkook laughs at that, shaking his head in amusement and taking another drink of water. Somewhere, deep inside his mind, he wonders when he’d become so familiar with you. When had you turned from being his job to being…almost a friend.

“Thank you for bringing this. Though you shouldn’t do such menial tasks, you know that they are below you. But I do appreciate it.” Your nose wrinkles and he recognises annoyance.

“Don’t say that, it demeans the work of the staff in the castle. I won’t have it said that I view myself as below my servants. I said that I wanted to be a fair ruler, and a fair ruler is someone who is not afraid to get involved. Especially when it’s to make sure that someone I care about is looked after.” There’s a moment of silence after you've finished, and Jungkook wants to commend your pleasant attitude.

It’s a refreshing change to have a monarch who genuinely cares over those she rules over.

But his mind is stuck on the last thing you’d said. It shouldn’t take up so much space in his mind, it was probably just a slip of the tongue as you clearly felt comfortable in his presence. He knew that he shouldn’t think too much about it, yet he can’t stop himself.

“Someone, you care about?” The words leave his mouth before he can think properly, and he desperately wants to reach out into the air and stuff them back into his mouth. Even if that’s not how it works.

You don’t respond for a while, the silence suddenly filled with tension he can’t identify. Jungkook isn’t sure what’s happening, but he knows that he wants to take back what he’d just said, let you carry on with your conversation as normal. That can’t happen, and something in the air tells him that no matter what you say, everything is going to be changed between you both before you leave his office.

Sighing deeply, you look down at your hands and twist one of the golden rings adorning them, the movement an outlet for the nerves you’re feeling. He wants to reach out and tell you that it’s okay, you don’t have to respond and he’ll forget this conversation ever happened. Jungkook never wants you to feel uncomfortable with him, but there’s a part of him that wants to know. That needs to know.

Finally, you straighten your shoulders and smile at him. It throws him for a moment, confused as to why you suddenly look happy and content but he doesn’t get the chance to question it.

“Yes, someone I care about. I should have said this long ago, and I’m making a bit of a hypocrite of myself given I’ve just said that I pride myself on communication. But I have my reasons, which I’m sure you’ll understand. Either way, it doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t care what others think, I’m the queen and I make the rules now.” He’s not sure what you’re on about, and he gets the sense that you’re waffling a little.

No matter how confident you look and sound right now, Jungkook knows you well enough to know that you’re nervous.

Tilting his head, his mouth opens to say something but you hold up a hand, one finger lifted in a clear ‘shh’ gesture and his jaw snaps shut in surprise. Brows lifting, he waits to see what you’re going to say.

He’s pretty sure that he stops breathing when you finally get it out.

“I like you, Jungkook. Captain Jeon Jungkook, Captain of the Royal Guard. My most loyal guard, who has steadfastly protected my life for many years now. I care for you, I like you, I may even love you. I know that I am the queen now, and many will say that it is unacceptable for me to be saying this to you. That I should be marrying a prince from some far-flung kingdom to solidify ties between Sejong and wherever they’re from, but I don’t want that. I don’t want to be like my father and mother, unhappy with each other and their lives. I want better than that.” You take a deep breath before reaching out and taking one of his hands.

They’re smaller than his own, but not by much. You’ve always been tall for a woman, though he’d always put that down to the good diet you’d had since being a child. Full of nutrients and things that most other people didn’t get.

Still, they’re smoother than his own. His are rough, calloused from so many years spent training with swords and bows, though he feels the hint of your callouses. You may not have spent as much time as him training, but you know your way around the training hall.

Jungkook recognises that his mind is meandering right now, not quite ready to acknowledge what is happening, but he forces himself to focus on what you’re saying.

“I want you.” 

The words hang in the air, confident yet with the hint of a tremor. He knows that he holds a lot of power in his hands right now; the power to hurt you irrevocably, in a way that no one else could.

Instead, he stands quietly, looking at you intently and tracking over every part of your face. Drinking in the details as he stands so close to you, in a way that he never has before. This close, the scent of you is overwhelming and he feels his hand shake slightly as he cups your cheek so gently.

He doesn’t respond to your words, not with words of his own, anyway. Instead, he looks deep into your eyes, a question in his eyes as they flick down to your lips and back up. After so many years spent watching over you, protecting you, loving you, he recognises all the signs of acceptance and agreement in you.

The way you lean your cheek into his hand, how your body moves closer to his own, as if on instinct. The tiny nod you give is almost unnoticeable.

Jeon Jungkook is pretty sure that he’s died and gone to heaven when his lips press to your own, the movement unsure and hesitant on your end. There’s no way he’s not in his bed dreaming right now, as you follow his lead and tentatively let him deepen the kiss, clearly learning as you go. He’s fantasising as your hands move to wrap around his neck, one grasping tight into his hair.

Because there is no way that he’s kissing the queen of Sejong right now, the woman with the strongest ice magic ever seen and whom the kingdom calls the Ice Queen not only for her magic. He can’t be kissing the Ice Queen, not when you feel so hot against him.

And yet…

[likeastarstar]

8:03 PM- Yoongi

(A/N: Hi! I recently hit a milestone in followers and while I'm not really a numbers person I did want to say a huge thank you to everyone who's read, liked, reblogged, sent me an ask, or followed me. I'm really thankful to everyone who likes my work! It means a lot!! Anyway back to good ole yoongi- feedback is always appreciated!)

31 Days. 744 Hours. 44640 minutes.

That's how long it had been since you had seen Yoongi. You knew the exact amount of time that had passed since you had last seen him because it was all you could think of. Doing the math in your head distracted you from how stupid all of this was.

You wiped at your face, swiping tears away before knocking on Yoongi's door, like you always did when you were feeling anything other than happy. Normally, anytime something would upset you, you'd go running to Yoongi. He'd open the door and pull you into a hug quickly, fixing any and all problems you had. That wouldn't happen this time, since the problem was you. This time, you weren't even sure he'd answer the door.

Thankfully, he did. Yoongi answered quickly, scanning your face for a moment with his usual comforting smile sliding off his face quickly. He said you name softly, tone full of sympathy and you hated it, glaring at him as if you weren't the one who knocked on his door.

He was your best friend, the only form of stability you had in your life. This was your first official fight and it was over something so stupid- over you telling him you loved him. You had said it a month ago and freaked out when he didn't say anything back. You couldn't get the shocked expression frozen on his face when you told him out of your head. Instead of asking if he was okay, instead of trying to discuss things like an adult, you ran away. He tried calling you after but you ignored him, ignoring your friends when they asked what happened. It took you a whole month to work up the courage to walk to his apartment, purposefully not bothering to text and ask if he was home. This way, there was a good chance he wasn't and you could just use it as an excuse to never try to apologize again except he was home and he was staring at you right now.

"Hey," You mumbled, staring at the center of his chest.

His shirt fit him tighter than normal- how had he gotten buffer in a month? What the hell had he been doing? You had spent the month crying in bed while he had seemingly decided to switch careers to body building.

"You're crying," He said blankly, skipping any form a greeting. You made a hissing noise and pulled your hair down from the ponytail it had been in so you could hide your face. It fell in silver and black waves, which you dyed the same shade as his a couple months ago because you felt like it, not because you wanted to match or anything... definitely not.

"No, I'm not." You lied blatantly. "Why are you home on a Saturday night? Don't you have friends?"

You knew the answer. He definitely had friends, they were your friends too. You don't know why you were being so rude, it was just coming out like word vomit at this point and it was either lash out or tell him the truth. That you loved him, that you were sorry for avoiding him, that you were being immature.

"I do, but my best friend just happens to be ignoring me," He said pointedly, "So I haven't really felt up to being very social."

"It's only been a couple days," You lied, crossing your arms stubbornly.

31 Days. 744 Hours. 44640 minutes.

"It's been a month," He corrected. "We haven't gone a month without speaking since we met each other."

You ignored him, pushing past his weirdly firm bicep and trudging into his apartment. You looked around- things seemed normal, exactly the same. One of your hair scrunchies was still on his coffee table, untouched, like an artifact from a far away time you wished you could go back to. You tapped your foot as you stared at the scrunchie, reminding yourself to stop being so dramatic.

It was only a month. It was only a word. Just a feeling- love. Tons of people fell in love with their best friends. So what if he didn't feel the same way? You could get over it. You could squish the feeling down...

Right?

Yoongi sighed, closing his door behind you and walking into his kitchen, pulling out two beers and passing one to you. You took it silently, cracking it open just to have something to do.

"I know I said I loved you," You said decisively, "But I was just confused and I'm over it. We can...You can just ignore that I ever said that."

It was a lie, but it was less scary than the truth. Because you were terrified of loving someone like Yoongi. He was perfect in every way, kind to a fault and careful with his words where you were a selfish, immature person who always seemed to be saying the wrong thing. You loved him, but there was a little voice inside of you screaming that there was no way Yoongi was in love with you. That you must've been crazy to even think you had a chance with him.

You stared at him, maintaining eye contact for so long it felt like you were paralyzed. Yoongi kept his face neutral, lips parting after a moment before he groaned and shook his head.

"Fuck it," He mumbled, closing the gap between you in two strides and kissing you. You froze for a moment before melting into the kiss, pulling him closer by his shirt and throwing an arm around his neck. You felt his hands sink down to your waist, pinning you against him. Nothing about the kiss was soft- tight, bruising holds on each other and desperate movements. His tongue slid against yours and you tipped your head to the side to deepen the kiss, wanting as much of him as you could get.

You could feel his frustration through his body, pouring over you like hot wax. Yoongi dragged a hand down to your ass and tapped twice before lifting you with ease, guiding your legs to wrap around his waist. He carried you like you weighed nothing, walking towards his bedroom with you in his arms. Seriously, when did he become so buff?

"Do you feel that?" Yoongi asked in a low voice awhile later, by which time you had lost track of time, splayed out on his bed with Yoongi on top of you.

Your eyes fluttered open, barely able to focus on anything at all. He had you exactly where you wanted to be, wrapped around him, all senses flooded with nothing else but him. You couldn't tell how long it had been since you walked into his apartment, or what time it was, what was going on outside of this bedroom- you couldn't even say that you cared. The only thing occupying your mind was how his strong hands looked on your body, your skin a stark contrast against his pale tone.

His body moved in sync with yours, like waves on a beach. "Do you feel how fast your heart is beating right now? Tell me you don't love me again, and be honest this time. Tell me you don't think we belong together." He said stubbornly, bringing up an old conversation. "Don't you feel it in your soul? Tell me you don't love me."

You shook your head stubbornly, eyes watering slightly, "D-Don't make me say it again."

"Why?" He challenged, staring down at you with a strictness in his eyes that made you feel so exposed. "Because it's not true, is it? Because you're in love with me."

You turned your head to the side, flattening the side of your cheek against his bicep for some sort of comfort because Yoongi was still the only thing that felt safe to you, even if you were scared of how much you loved him. His hand smoothed down your hair like he always did when you hugged him, letting up on the pressure for a moment.

"Yeah, I love you." You said miserably, "I think I've loved you ever since I first met you. I'm just...scared."

He caressed your face and pushed it up towards his so he could look at you better, smiling slightly, "I know. That's why I was so surprised when you actually said it a month ago. I was less surprised about the tantrum you threw afterwards though."

You squeezed your eyes shut in embarrassment and cringed, "I'm sorry. I just assumed you didn't feel the same way."

"Well I do," He said quietly, pressing his lips to your pouty ones. "Don't leave me like that again though, it hurt."

You opened your eyes and peered up at him, a watery look of pain in his eyes that made your heart ache, "I won't. I'm sorry."

He nodded slightly, blinking a couple times before shrugging. You wondered how he felt for that month, knowing he must've been as upset as you were and you felt even more stupid.

"It's okay, I just had to be patient. That's what you do when you love someone. Now stop apologizing and kiss me." He ordered, smiling down at you before pulling you back towards him to press another kiss to your lips.

masterlist.

[squishneedsahero]

Building Bonds

Awesomest of Them All 2.0

Part 3 of 13

Word Count: 1259

Batman x Batmom!Reader

You know what the bat family needs? Someone to pull them together and give them all the love they deserve. Who better to do that than you? An author rising to stardom in Gotham who catches the eye of a billionaire with your standoffish attitude at a huge social gathering. You are yourself and never pretend to be more or less than that. Plus you're the most stubborn person in the world, refusing to let good things go without reason.

This is a rewrite of my story Awesomest of Them All, I wanted to see how much I've improved over 3 years.

"You sure you want to take him with?" Bruce asks.

You look up from packing, "Yes Bruce, have you ever known me to not be sure of something?" You move out of your bedroom to sit on your couch next to Bruce.

He wraps his arms around your waist, "He can be quite the handful," as he speaks you lean against his chest.

"I know," you pause, "but we've been dating for over a year now, and I want to get to know Dick better."

Bruce sighs, "Alright, I'm going to head home and I'll let him know," he stands up and you do as well.

"I'll come pick him up tonight," you lead Bruce to the door of your apartment.

"I'll see you then," he leans in and kisses you before leaving.

"Hello Miss l/n," Alfred greets you at the door.

"Hi Alfred," you say shaking his hand because what else are you supposed to do when someone won't just call you y/n? As soon as you step inside you hear a shout.

"Y/n!" Dick exclaims running up to you and wrapping his arms around you in a hug.

"Hi Dick! Are you ready to go?"

"Almost," Dick releases you and goes to grab his bags.

When you stand up from hugging the boy you feel two arms wrap around your waist from behind you. "Hello you," You say turning around to face Bruce as he holds you tighter.

"Be safe," Bruce says before he kisses you and you kiss back, not as long as you'd like as you hear a gagging noise behind you.

You smirk and pull away from the kiss, "No promises, conventions can be quite dangerous," you release from the hug as you lay a hand dramatically across your forehead. You then turn to face Dick, "you ready now?"

"Yup!"

"Then let's go," You say going to help him carry his bags. You take the duffel bag from the eleven year old and throw it over your shoulder. "See You next week," you say kissing Bruce one last time.

"See ya," Dick says hugging Bruce then Alfred.

"Be good," Bruce says ruffling Dicks hair.

"Goodbye Master Dick," Alfred says hugging the boy back.

"Were driving?" Dick asks when he sees how packed your car is.

"Well I am, but yes we're driving," you reply to his question.

"Cool," Dick says, "we usually just fly to things, it's been a while since I've been on a road trip..." he trails off sounding slightly down.

"You get to be the D.j.," you say waving at the radio, trying to lighten the mood as you get what he's saying about the last time he'd been on a road trip, as it was probably last with his parents, the flying Graysons.

"Really?" Dick looks at the radio then back to you excitedly.

"Yup. We'll listen to whatever you want to," you say, smiling at him.

He turns on the radio and finds the aux cord and plugs it into his phone and hits shuffle. He's heard the weird music you listen too, a little bit of everything so he knows you won't judge his taste in music. He obviously still picks a playlist he thinks you'd approve of that is all Disney music since that's always a safe bet to play around adults when you're only 10.

The two of you bond during the long drive to Metropolis, singing along to all the classics such as Under the Sea and Hakuna Matata. The both of you share a joint hotel room for the night, Dick in his own room to be sure he's comfortable and knows he is free to have boundaries with you. The two of you go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant and bump into some reporter who apparently knows both Dick and Bruce relatively well.

The tall broad shouldered man introduces himself as Clark Kent and you introduce yourself just for Clark's girlfriend Lois to ask you for an interview while you're in town.

You're about to turn her down but Dick answers for you, saying he's sure you'd love too and he'd just go hang out with Clark for a while. It's a little odd but you go with it since Dick seems so excited about it. After talking for a while and setting up a time to meet they leave the restaurant to let you and Dick finish your dinner and desert before going back to the hotel.

The two of you walk into the convention center and Dick exclaims, "Woah! This is awesome!"

"Yeah, it is," you say following him where ever he went. You had let Dick pick the costumes so you were dressed as (Disney Princess) and him as (Quirky Sidekick), since today wasn't a day you had a panel for the third book of the series you were writing. "So, where to first?"

He shrugs, "I don't know," he keeps craning his neck to look around, "I've never been to one of these before."

You shake your head and tsk softly, "come on, I'll teach you how to enjoy a comicon kiddo," you gently take his hand and lead the way incognito over to the artists alley.

The main reason you gave Dick for being dressed up was so less people would recognize you since you really had blown up in popularity since releasing your first and second books and the third being released this year.

In the artists alley you both look at all the cool stickers and pins that they had made. You get lots of stuff since you could now afford to actually support the artists with more than a like and a follow.

As the two of you wander you come across someone who had drawn some merch for your series. Their art was amazing, catching the character's personalities perfectly. It's as you're talking with the artist about their different work that they suddenly recognize you as y/n l/n and not as just another fan.

You smile and laugh softly, this was the one reason you enjoyed being a public figure, so that you could make people's days in such a small way by just liking their art or smiling at them. Anyways, Dick is hungry so you hurry along since you know he won't complain as he's used to Bruce getting held up. Anyways you quickly get the artist's contact information and take a picture with them, letting them know they can share it that night once the con was over for the day.

After that you move on with Dick to find some junk food to eat and a couple panels to sit in on. Over all the two of you have an amazing week together, bonding over movies, music and food. You get interviewed by Lois who is just as confused as you are as to how Clark and Dick know each other. Then you have a fan panel yourself at the con, answering lots of fan's questions. Plus the fact that you finally found someone to be the official artist for your books.

With a week spent together you and Dick are closer than ever. The two of you hadn't been not close but without Bruce and Alfred not around to buffer your interactions you have closer to what you think a mother son relationship should be like. After that week spent together you head back home to Gotham, the two of you had had fun but it would be nice to get back to normal life once again.

[gaijinhunter]

Monster Hunter Rise: 2nd Trailer and news blowout

Hey guys this is Gaijinhunter. I am uploading this as a text post since I caught a cold and have been unable to edit a video.

There was a huge second wave of news for Monster Hunter Rise with the reveal of the 2nd trailer the other day during the Game Awards 2020 show. Keep in mind the actual full length trailer is much longer and better than the shorter edit they showed during the show so makes sure you watch it. It showcased a second map, 2 new monsters, several returning monsters, and more. They also updated their official website with a ton of information so instead of doing a trailer reaction or breakdown, I am going to give you all the info they shared but split up by category, trying to focus only on the new stuff.

New Map

Director Ichinose hinted in an interview that one of the new maps would be nostalgic and boy he wasn't kidding. The Flooded Forest from Third Generation has been massively remade and is back in MH rise. Of course given this game’s focus is verticality, there is no underwater combat sections but they really nailed it from what I can see. One of the most iconic parts of the forest was the ruins in the backgrounds, and now you can scale up it using the wirebug. How cool is that. 

With the new map we also got the reveal of 2 new monsters.

First up is the mermaid wyvern, the Somnacanth. This marks the much hyped return of the leviathan class of monsters which were missing in world and iceborne. This Monster looks so wild. It has a special breath that will put you to sleep, is super aggressive, and has this crazy taiko drum like chest in which it will grab oysters and other things and bust them against it to break them open and buff itself. The Japanese name is quite a mouthful and is called Isonemikuni. This is the monster that Ichinose teased with his cute drawing on twitter.

Next up is the tengu beast, Bishaten. This monster is really unique, it looks like a mix of a monkey, bat, and bird. It has a huge and powerful tail it uses for massive mobility and it will chuck various fruits at you as well. One of the most iconic fruits it throws are persimmons, which are very Japanese and if you haven’t had them before, they are kind of an acquired taste. It’s Japanese name is Bishutendo. 

For returning monsters we have a few. First is our favorite sponge, the Royal Ludroth. This is a fan favorite and a great early to mid game monster. It has one of the best move sets in my opinion, very telegraphed but it can still catch you off guard even if you are super used to it. Strategically figuring gout where to stand in order to cut off its tail or break the sponge has always been really fun and intersting so I’m delighted to see this monster return, also look at that texture of the sponge!

Then we got the return of the Great Wroggi, the anti-poison skill tutorial monster. This thing really messed me up back in MH3G until I spent the time to get the materials to craft anti-posion decorations and even then, like the Great Izuchi, it fights really well with its sidekick small wroggis and I cant wait to see the improved cooperative AI that they are making for the Great Izuchi applied to this monster as well. It’s armor also spots a really cool Crocodile Dundee hat and look in the trailer and you can see the palico armor as well. So cool.

Finally, we got a small scene that appears to show a snow map and a group of baggi getting hit by a Khezu lightening shot. Does this mean the Great Baggi will return? Not sure. But that scream 100% is a Khezu, and I cannot wait to see how it looks with higher resolution texturing, I bet it will be creepy as heck. So while not technically confirmed, I’d say it’s safe to say Khezu is returning in some form. The balance of all these monsters is so great, I love the selection so far.

As far as other returning monsters that might return, I think we all expect nargacuga and zinogre. These are flagship monsters from games directed by Ichinose and he even tweeted his palamute and palico both named after these two monsters. Especially given the Japanese aesthetic, I think it’s pretty much guaranteed they are returning. Then I think mizutsune is also highly likely given its Japanese design, the fox theme, the kimono armor. Plus the model for it doesn't look that far off from the new Somnacanth. Anyway I have super hyped.

Interaction with animals and endemic life

One of the huge features of Monster Hunter Rise is the focus on wild life and animals to buff your hunter or be used as tools during a hunt.

There are 4 major types of Endemic Life: Temp Buffer, Permabuffer, Hunting Helper, and environmental.

For Permabuffer, we got a new render of the Spiribirds, which will buff your hunter if you move near one, and the effects depend on the color of the pollen it is carrying. Green increases your max Health, Orange increases your defense, red increases your attack power, and yellow increases your max stamina. There is even a special rainbow colored one, which I assume will buff all 4.

Via their website, Capcom announced a new item called the Petalace, a bracelet made of a plant called a Sending Sprig that each hunter has equipped. This is what collects the pollen from the birds and buffs your hunter. There is a variety of Petalaces in the game and some may increase the amount in which an attack boost is applied from a single Spiribird, raise the max value that health can be boosted, and more. Here in the screen shot we can see the caps for each and the amount gained for each buff. Just a quick note but this is not going to be replacing charms as we know that they are giving away a talisman for pre-order.

For Temp Buffer creatures, they revealed the name of the Clothfly, a butterfly that will temporarily increase your defense once you interact with it and cause it to generate a cloud of dust. In previous videos we have seen Peepers that reduce stamina usage, birds that raise your base stats, and a dragonfly that boosts your affinity and I had calculated it out to being applied for 90 seconds but we’ll have to wait for hte final game to see if that depends on the effect or if they change it, but it sounds about right.

For Hunting Helper creatures, we got an adorable new render of the Stinkmink. You can carry up to 5 Hunting Helpers and use them like items. The Stinkmink can be used to cover yourself in a special pheromone that will attract large monsters to you, even allowing you to lure one monster toward another to cause a turf war. I personally can think of other applications like luring a monster toward a trap and stuff like that.

And for environmental endemic life, they didn't show it in the trailer but there are also wildlife that can be used like environmental traps. For example, use raw meat and the giganha fish will go crazy, damaging anything nearby be it a hunter or monster. I can’t wait to see someone hunt a Great Wroggi using only raw meat. I love that we finally will have more use for this item.

NPCs

In the new trailer we got to hear several of the NPC villagers talking and on the website they go into a lot more details. They have quite the star-studded cast in Japanese and the English voice actors are also very interesting picks. This really marks the first time in Monster Hunter that the main cast of villagers will all be called by name and speak, which I think adds a lot of personality to the game.

First we have Fugen the village elder of Kamura and skilled long sword user. 

Then we have Hinoa the Quest Maiden, a cheerful and optimistic girl who serves as the quest giver in the village while her twin sister runs the gathering hub. While not announced in any other language, the French and Italian language sites for the game list her sister’s name as Minoto. Hinoa’s name is Hinoe in Japnaese and for the rest of the cast their names are identical between the two languages.

One thing I am excited for is that they said that one of the ways they will help communicate the uniqueness of Kamura is through songs and they shared a sample of one of them in the full trailer. This one is sung by Izumi Kato. If you remember back in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate they featured songs by the wyverian Diva, and I am so happy they decided to do songs again, they add so much richness to the world and are just lovely to listen to.

Next up is Yomogi, our village chef. In this game you will eat meals at her Tea Shop, where her speciality is the Bunny Dango she makes along with the help of some palicoes. I love that we’ve seen her in past videos with a heavy bowgun, so the idea that all the villagers are active participants in the story is great. 

Then we have Hamon the blacksmith. He used to hunt alongside Fugen back in the day but now creates weapons for the hunters of the village. His grandson also appears in the game and is a kind-hearted youth that loves your hunting companions.

Next is Kagero the merchant. Despite his mysterious appearance he is actually very warm and kind. If there is a sale going on, not only can you buy most items for half off, but you can also participate in a lottery where you spin a wheel and it dispenses a colored ball. Get a rare color ball to win a rare prize. You can do it once per sale, but you can also scan an amiibo to spin two more times, but only once per day per amiibo you own.

Finally we have Komitsu the sweet-tooth, she sells candy apples in town. What these do is still not yet revealed.

Companions

We got an adorable render for the Cohoot, the pet owl that shows the positions of monsters on your map. You can interact with it in the town and even dress them up in fancy outfits.

Kamura Village

We got gameplay showing that the entire village is open to the 4 person multiplayer session and you can even ride around on your palamute and use your wirebug while in the village to zip around and have fun. There is still a gathering hall but the ability to see each other in the village as well as jump around and really explore it is a lovely change they are making.

Story wise we got more info about the Rampage, both a story mechanic and new quest type. For some reason the monsters will sometimes gang up and attack the village all at once and no one knows why. They call this a Rampage. There was a really bad rampage 50 years ago that nearly destroyed the village and in response the town has created a Stronghold to stop further invasions. This looks like a new quest type with multiple monsters all at once, and a slew of different artillery options at your disposal. I could see this as being a really fun type of quest to do online with other players. 

And of course the most exciting news was that there will be a demo in January with more details to come later. That is far earlier than I expected and I now have to finish up my back catalogue of games in like the next month.

And that about wraps it up. Cpacom said that they will be sharing weapon preview videos for all 14 types very soon and if they do the way they used to do it, we’ll get one new video a day for 2 weeks. I hope you enjoyed this recap of the news and please let me know down in comments what you thought about the second trailer. And until next time, happy hunting.

[an-aura-about-you]

September 3rd, 1997

Crossing the Bridge

Somewhere Else Under the King

In today's installment, Trilby goes on a business trip and Jon and Martin get closer to full reconciliation through mourning:

Martin bought flowers this morning.

Partly for the world they lost, partly for Jon. They might as well be partly for Jon. It’s not like they have anywhere else to put the flowers. Besides, he’s never bought flowers for a boyfriend before, and finding out if Jon likes receiving flowers seems like a worthwhile endeavor.

It’s on his way to Jon’s flat that he runs into Trilby, Jim, and-

“Ack!” Lydia yelps as she jumps back, half-stumbling on the bags by her feet. “Mister Blackwood!”

Trilby eyes her and goes, “It’s just Martin. Good morning, Martin.”

But before any further greetings could be made, Lydia cuts in with, “I’m so sorry for my behavior before, Mister Blackwood. And that of my coworkers at the cafe. Claire filled me in on what happened.”

“Oh!” Martin goes. “Don’t worry, I already guessed it was probably because of that. Ah, which one were you again?”

“Lydia Jarvis,” she answers, taking out her wallet from her jacket and flipping it open, showing her official ID. “I’m a psychic investigator with the Ministry of Occultism. You caught me at my second job.”

“Just can’t get away from it, huh, Lyd?” Jim jokes.

“Yes, but at least now everyone on the internet’s sick of talking about it,” Lydia says. “And no one seems to buy into the ‘mysterious appearance’ thing, either, so it did the job.”

“Seems kinda unusual that there would be three psychics working at the same not-spooky job, though,” Martin points out, laughing a little. “All on the same shift, too!”

“Ah, actually, I’m the only psychic there,” Lydia clarifies. “Jess is a bit of an empath, though, so she probably caught most of it from me rather than the full projection.”

Martin frowns. “And Frank?”

Lydia folds her arms and shrugs a shoulder. “Well, they’re just Frank. But don’t let them get to you.”

“Right!” Martin says with a bit of a squeak. “O-kay! Anyway, I won’t keep you from your… what is it you’re doing?”

“A business trip,” Trilby answers, gesturing to their bags with his brolly. “We’ll be out of town for a couple of days. Claire is available at the STP offices if you or Jon need anything, though.”

Martin nods his thanks and goes, “In that case, have a safe trip.”

The group gives Martin their thanks and gathers their things. Lydia carries her own bag, Jim shoulders his and takes Trilby’s in his hands, and Trilby shifts his brolly from one hand to the other in order to fish out some keys. With that, the three head in the direction of the building’s parking lot.

He gets up to Jon’s flat and lets himself in, hearing the radio playing from the kitchen. It’s tuned to a pop station, which makes sense for now. It’s a type of buffer while they still have to function for the day, before they intentionally examine and wallow in their grief. Still, it’s not something he necessarily expected from Jon. Though he has to admit, if he had to pick a pop band that Jon would listen to, he would choose the Cardigans.

Honestly, what’s more surprising is that Martin can hear Jon singing along.

“-done in another way to make you stay,” Jon sings as he stands by the stove, eggs and bacon in the pan. “Reason will not lead to solution, I will end up lost in confusion, I don’t care if you really care as long as you don’t go.”

Jon spots Martin by the end of that verse and abruptly switches to speaking. “Oh, Martin! You brought flowers?”

Martin nods before blurting out, “I didn’t know you could sing.”

Jon shrugs a little and goes, “I can.” He takes the flowers and puts them on the table. “Was in a band in uni and everything.”

“No,” Martin says, drawing the word out in disbelief. “And you kept it secret?”

“Somehow, yes. If Sasha ever found out, she never told anyone else about it,” Jon says, going back to tend to breakfast. “You know we never would have heard the end of it from Tim if she did.” His mouth slips into a sad smile. “I wonder what kind of blackmail she would have used that for if she did know.”

Martin goes to fetch some plates, allowing himself to fall into the routine for now. At this rate, it won’t be long before they’re lost in mourning, and they’ll probably appreciate having breakfast first.

-

“What’s this?” Lydia asks as she slides into the backseat of Trilby’s car. She picks up the bottle from the floor, the contents rattling as she brings it up to read.

“Is it a prescription?” Jim asks from his spot in shotgun. “Should you even be training us, or are you better enough to do that?”

“I wasn’t planning on doing anything too physical,” Trilby says.

But he can see Lydia staring straight at him from the rearview mirror. “Tranquilizers?”

Trilby lets his hands fall to his lap, feeling the eyes of everyone else in the car on him. “Yes,” he quietly answers. He hears the pills rattle as Lydia moves the bottle. He chances a look at Jim, who looks like he’s just been kicked.

“Trilby, that- you can’t just do that!” Jim shouts. “You saw what happened to Simone!”

“It hasn’t gotten that bad,” Trilby protests.

“Yet,” Lydia points out.

“...yet,” Trilby admits, only a little reluctant.

“I’m keeping these,” Lydia says, tucking the pills into her bag. “For now. We have other business to attend to and a long enough car ride to hash this out.”

“Does it help at all that this didn’t start until recently?” Trilby asks as he starts the car and gets their trip underway. “Lenkmann gave me the pills while I was on Clanbronwyn. As far as I knew, he was Ministry, and he had made it clear that I was on shaky ground.”

“Then let’s not let it get bad,” Jim says firmly. “We know things are fucked up, but that doesn’t mean fucking your body up. Any more than it already is.” He waves towards Trilby’s injury.

“Yes, yes,” Trilby mumbles before speaking up to ask, “How do you two propose I handle it, then? How are you handling it?”

“Well, not so great recently, to be fair,” Jim admits. “Not since Simone died. But that’s more… holy shit, all of that actually happened. And it shouldn’t happen to anyone.”

“That’s why we’re doing this,” Lydia says. “So that maybe we can stop it from happening to others.” She smiles a bit. “But I won’t lie, I am looking forward to playing with the grolly.”

“Hey, yeah, do I get to do that, too?” Jim asks.

“Only makes sense that you would; you’ll have to know how it works even if you don’t get to use it,” Trilby answers, wondering how many other twists and turns the conversation will inevitably take. It’s a long way to his workshop.

-

Jon can’t remember the last time he cried so much.

He and Martin have basically been on a marathon. Seems like every time one of them brings some memory of before up, another comes along like they’re taking turns adding links to a chain. Some of the crying is from laughter, some of it is crying from problems never reconciled, and some of it is crying from happy times they know they’ll never share again. Everything from people to pets to particular favorite shops, the things they might have brought with them if they thought they could.

“It’s almost like a twisted version of what you would bring with you to a deserted island,” Jon says during a lull late in the day, leaning against Martin on the sofa and knitting their fingers together.

Martin hums in somber agreement. “And anything that helps you get off the island is off limits. Better start getting used to coconuts.”

Jon blows air out his nose, a humorless laugh. He then pulls Martin’s arm out of the way so that he can hug him around the middle, leaning his head on his chest. “Is this okay?” he quietly asks.

Martin wraps his arm around Jon and leans his head on top of his. “Which part?” he asks in return.

Jon shrugs. “Any of it?”

“This,” Martin answers, tightening the hug just a little, “is good. And I think… I think today’s helped with grasping just how permanent this is. How permanent- how permanent the past is.”

Jon nods against him.

“Jon?” Martin asks after a moment.

“Yes?”

“I- I wrote something for you. Will you read it?”

Jon pulls up to look Martin in the eyes. “A poem?”

Martin shrugs a shoulder and goes, “Yeah.”

Jon wonders how many poems Martin’s written about him. Even if he hadn’t cared for it before, he can see now just what it means for a poet to write a poem for you. He nods and says, “Yes, I’ll read it.”

Martin pulls away to retrieve his notebook from the side table. He opens it to the page in question and holds it out to Jon.

Jon, for his part, half-remains in the embrace as he takes the notebook. It doesn’t take long for him to read, thoughts on the space between them and how it can’t seem to go away. But the determination of the last part swells in him, and he returns to fully embracing his love.

“Thank you,” he says, half-muffled from where he’s pressed his face to Martin’s chest.

Martin takes the notebook from Jon’s hand and sets it back on the table. “When I wrote that, I had been thinking about what you said before. That you wanted to love me the way I should be loved. I don’t know if I really know what you meant, but is it something like that?”

Jon thinks on Martin’s question, the words of the poem, and his own words. “Partly,” he answers.

“Only partly?”

Jon nods from his spot. “That… do you want me to tell you? Or should I write it down? I don’t think I could write a poem for you, but maybe writing it down would help.”

He can feel Martin move, even if he can’t see him looking down at him.

“Would you?” Martin asks. “Write it down, I mean? It’s, I don’t know, it just seems like just being loved by you is enough without any particulars you might have in mind.”

Jon lifts his head again, meets Martin’s eyes, and reaches for the notebook without looking away. “Then I’ll write down what I mean.”

Martin takes Jon’s hand and goes, “Okay, but that’s my notebook?”

“Then you can keep it in your notebook. Or should I write it in mine and tear the page out?”

“Oh, in that case,” Martin says, and this time he picks up the notebook again and hands it to Jon. “This is my personal one anyway, not work poetry, so it should be fine.”

Jon frowns at the idea of Martin’s boss reading that poem, glad that Martin thought ahead enough to get another notebook for this sort of thing. “What ends up being work poetry?” he asks before he can stop himself.

“Ah, I’ve only really scratched a couple of things out that I think might work?” Martin answers. “Mostly about what we’ve been thinking about today.” He reaches for the notebook again. “Do you think I should submit that o-”

“No!” Jon says, perhaps too quickly, and tucks the notebook to his chest so it’s stuck between them. “That… that one’s for me.”

Martin smiles softly and says, “Didn’t know you’d like it that much.”

“Of course I do, it’s mine,” Jon says firmly. And to show he means it, he reaches up and presses his lips to Martin’s.

It’s been a little while since they’ve let a kiss linger like this, to the point that it’s less of a kiss and more kisses or kissing, but Jon isn’t going to pull away unless Martin does. He shifts until he pulls a knee up on the sofa, leaning in and cradling Martin’s face in his hands. He feels Martin’s hands on his back, and the warm reality of the touch shocks down into him. He hasn’t lost Martin. Out of everything he’s ever had in his life, with so much of it forever out of his reach, somehow he hasn’t lost Martin. It’s just like the poem, as if the space has finally closed between them again. Does Martin feel the same way?

Martin puts a hand to Jon’s cheek and breaks the kiss, but only enough to ask, “What is it?”

Jon sniffles, and that’s when he realizes he’s crying again. “This,” he answers. “We have this.”

Martin seems to realize something in that, too, because now he’s tearing up again.

Jon presses a kiss to Martin’s cheek, and then the two are simply holding each other again.

[let-it-raines]

What a Lie We’re In (1/3)

All Emma was doing was trying to be nice. Her roommate didn’t have anywhere to go, so she invited him home for the holidays. She thought it would be fine and Killian would be a good buffer for a week at home with her parents. That is until her ex-boyfriend showed up, and while she was freaking out, Killian told him they were dating.

That would have been fine except her parents overheard it.

(A Christmas Fake Dating AU)

Rating: Mature 

a/n: What? A holiday fake dating story? So original, you say? No one has ever done it before? Especially not me. lol. Forget all of that, and let’s jump into this trope-a-palooza of a holiday story!

Big thank you to @resident-of-storybrooke for reading over this and convincing me that I still know how to write ❤️

ao3: | HERE |

-/-

“Did you eat all of my candy?”

Emma opens another cabinet, looking inside to the wine glasses and tumblers, before closing it. She’s been keeping her bag of candy in the cabinet where they keep their plates and bowls, hidden at the very top behind some reusable water bottles. Killian is a healthy eater, always stocking the fridge with fruits and vegetables and food she doesn’t think is actually real food, so she didn’t think she had to hide her junk food that well.

Hide it, yes. Hide it well, no.

Until now.

“What was that, love?”

Emma slams another cabinet closed and turns to look at Killian. He’s walking out of the bathroom, chest still damp, and only has a white towel wrapped around his waist. When he first moved into the apartment six months ago after Ruby abandoned Emma to go live with Dorothy (live with, get married to, same thing), Emma was taken aback by the lack of clothes wearing Killian partakes in. He’s an attractive man. She’s not blind. He goes to the gym as often as she does, but mostly, he spends a lot of time doing heavy lifting at his job as a contractor since he apparently likes to be hands-on, literally. His body is toned, and the son of the bitch knows it. He also knows he’s got the face to be able to get away with a lot of…well, a lot.

At first, it was all disconcerting, but now, he could walk around with his dick out and Emma wouldn’t care.

What she cares about is where her candy is. That’s the real priority. But she knows Killian will try to use his lack of clothes to distract her. Never worked in the past, not gonna work now, bud.

“My candy,” Emma repeats. “Where is it?”

He wipes behind his ear with the small towel in his hand. “I wouldn’t touch the stuff. You don’t like the good candy.”

“Well, my good candy has been moved, and we’re the only two people who live here.”

Emma places her hands on her hips, staring him down hoping he will somehow be intimidated by her stare and fess up to everything. He won’t be, but Emma can try. They both have their tactics.

Killian clicks his tongue. “What about the fellow you brought home last week?”

“Do you mean the plumber?”

“Was that who he was?”

“You know I don’t bring guys back here.” Emma moves from the counter and opens the fridge, taking out a handful of grapes from the fridge. She probably needs to eat some of them and not candy anyway. As she pops one into her mouth, that’s when it clicks. “Your girlfriend ate my candy, didn’t she?”

He scoffs and keeps drying his hair, but she sees the way he scratches his ear. Gotcha, Jones. “I don’t believe I have a girlfriend.”

“What? Tink break up with you because you wouldn’t let her eat dessert on your dates? Wait, I heard it. Don’t make it dirty.” Killian walks toward her, getting in her space, and she knows him well enough to know he wants her to flinch, to move, to stop her line of questioning. That’s exactly why she doesn’t want to. Emma pops another grape in her mouth. “Did you eat my candy? Was it your way of wallowing? It’s okay if you did. I’ll take another bag for payment.”

“For your information, Swan,” he whispers as he places his hand on her hip, “we are no longer seeing each other, but it was mutual. She did, however, eat your candy when she was last here. If you really want to know, we used it to – ”

“Stop,” Emma groans, pushing him away and running to the other side of the kitchen. “Nope. Don’t take that any further. Some things should be left private.”

His head tilts back as he laughs, the underside of his jaw black with stubble, and then he’s reaching into the cabinet above the fridge and tossing her the bag of sweets.

Oh.

“I hid it after Will and Rob found it while we were playing cards last night. Will nearly went through all your milk duds before I realized what was happening.” He raises his brow. “You have something you want to say to me?”

Emma knows what he’s aiming for, and she isn’t going to give it to him.

“Yeah,” Emma says, “you need a thicker towel. I don’t think you want people seeing you when you look like…that.” She nods her head down and then picks up a handful of Kit Kats. “I gotta go to work.”

“Off to die inside at your cubicle, love?”

“Oh, you know it.”

Emma grabs her purse and unlocks the door only to hear Killian speak. “It’s December. How do you still have Halloween candy leftover?”

Emma shrugs. “I bought one bag to pass out to kids, two bags for me.”

“Bloody brilliant.”

“I do what I can. See you tonight. I’ll try not to wake you up from your nap when I come in.”

“That would be the least you could do.”

Emma rolls her eyes, but then she’s officially walking out the door of her apartment and down toward the elevator, a Kit Kat bar hanging out of the side of her mouth.

The thing about Killian Jones is that he’s simple to her.

He likes his friends, his job, his rum, and his women. There’s not much else to him, and Emma is okay with that. While her last roommate was her best friend, this one doesn’t have to be. He can just be a guy who pays the bills so she can keep living in a nice place and who, on occasion, talks shit about other people with her while they binge watch TV.

That’s all she needs.

And all and all, Killian Jones is a…fine roommate. Yeah, fine is an accurate way to describe him at least eighty percent of the time.

Even if she does get annoyed when he brings his dates home. But that’s only because it’s always on the nights she plans on going to bed early, and the noise of other people being around keeps her from catching up on sleep.

Emma is not one to mess around on sleep.

But yeah, he’s fine. Annoying as hell over half the time, but he’s fine in the small dosages she sees him in. He works odd hours, isn’t always on the job, and she is stuck with regular hours in her office. There’s not a lot of glory in working HR for a small engineering company, but that’s what happens when you make dumbass decisions like Emma did. She’s lucky she has a stable job. She’ll try not to complain too much about it.

That’s what she tells herself every morning when she sits in her car and stares at the drab brick building.

Money. She has to make money.

And hey, she gets almost an entire week off for Christmas next week, and that’s fucking incredible, even if she does have to spend it in her hometown with her parents and their Hallmark-like attitude toward the holiday and the events it puts on. Her mom is a teacher at the elementary school and produces the Christmas play every year while her dad is a vet and outfits all his patients in little holiday bandanas and bows. He even has a tree in his office decorated with bone ornaments.

It’s…a lot. But it’s family, and as Emma stares at this building that’s sucking the life out of her, she can’t wait to have a change of pace and some home-cooked meals, even if there are as many downsides as upsides to going home. Her Kit Kat bars aren’t giving her the nutrients she knows she needs.

Being an adult is not all it’s cracked up to be sometimes, especially when going home for the holidays is seen as more of a burden than a gift with a fancy bow on top. It’s more like that turkey that dries up and falls to pieces in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Well, that and the squirrel crashing every decoration in the house.

Happy holidays.

-/-

“Nah, mate, I don’t have any plans.”

Emma quietly puts her keys down on the table next to her front door, laying her purse down with it, and she kicks her boots off until they topple over each other and lay in the middle of the hallway. She can hear Killian talking, and it gets even louder when she walks into the kitchen and turns on the coffee maker.

“No, no, well, you know, I rarely do anything, not since Liam.” There’s a pause as the coffee begins to percolate and Emma grabs another Kit Kat from her bag. “I went home with Milah once, but that was years ago…no, mate, it’s alright. I don’t mind staying here by myself…yeah, I think Emma is going home to her parents.”

And that’s when she realizes what Killian is talking about.

Christmas plans.

He doesn’t have any. Emma didn’t know that. She didn’t really bother to ask. She doesn’t bother to ask much of Killian. She picks up pieces here and there, as she’s sure he does to her, but they mind their own business.

He doesn’t have a family to go home to? She knows he’s originally from England, but still. There must be someone.

“I’ll talk to you later,” Killian says. “I promise if I need anything, I’ll let you know. Alright, bye Scarlet.”

The coffee finishes, and Emma picks the pot up and starts pouring, filling her large mug halfway before getting hazelnut creamer out of the fridge and making the coffee drinkable. Killian joins her in the kitchen and perches himself on one of their stools.

“Good day at work?” he asks.

“Eh, it was a day. You?”

He shrugs. “The same. I’m finishing up on this house tomorrow, hopefully, so tomorrow will be a good day.”

Emma nods and sips on her coffee as Killian taps his fingers on the counter, the rhythm the same as the song he usually hums when cooking. “So, when are you heading for Storybrooke?” he asks.

“Monday after work.” Killian nods and keeps tapping his fingers, and Emma, stupidly opens her mouth because despite what her exes have told her, she does apparently have a heart. “If you don’t have any plans and have off work, you’re welcome to come with me. My parents are always thrilled to welcome more people. Just be prepared, it’s like a Hallmark movie up there.”

His eyes widen, the blue lighting up, and his upper lip starts to quiver, laughter very obviously waiting to break through. Dammit, why the hell did she decide to be nice? This is going to give him all of the wrong ideas.

“Why, Swan,” he smirks, leaning forward and resting his chin in his propped-up hand, “are you inviting me home for the holidays with you? You’ve been harboring a crush this entire time, haven’t you? I can’t say I’m surprised. I see the way you look at me when I finish up in the bathroom. Don’t be ashamed of it. Most women find me attractive.”

Emma flicks Killian’s forehead, and really, he should be thrilled she didn’t dump her hot coffee on his lap like she wanted to.

“I was just trying to be nice. You didn’t have to be an asshole about it.” Emma rolls her eyes and turns on her heels to walk away. She is going to her room. She doesn’t have to put up with his shit. “Forget I even offered.”

“Wait, wait, Swan.” Emma’s shoulders tense, and she doesn’t turn around. “Are you serious about your offer?”

“I mean, it would have some conditions in that you are a slightly less obnoxious version of yourself, but yeah, if you don’t have anywhere else to go, you can come home with me.”

“I’d like that.” Emma twists around, trying to size him up, and for once, everything seems genuine. “I have a condition as well.”

Idiot. “What could your condition possibly be?”

He winks, and she already knows this is going to have her eyes rolling so far into the back of her head they get stuck there. “Don’t go falling in love with me.”

What a cheesy ass sarcastic line.

“In your dreams, Jones.”

What the hell has she gotten herself into? This is absolutely the last time she lets her conscience guilt her into doing something nice. Emma was already going to be miserable, but now she’s miserable with a buffer.

At least her mom will be happy getting to go into hostess mode.

-/-

In the days leading up to them leaving for Storybrooke, Emma convinces herself Killian is going to back out of the trip. He’ll realize this is awkward and not a good idea. They live together, sure, but they don’t actually know each other. They’re not close friends.

But Killian never backs out. Instead he asks her things like what the weather is like there, if her parents drink wine, if he needs to bring his own bedding. He asks a million questions a day, and they continue when they’re in her bug making the drive from Boston to Storybrooke. He wants to know what her parents do for a living, what their hobbies are, pretty much everything someone needs to know when they’re about to spend half a week in the house of strangers.

Strangers who don’t actually know they’re having someone stay at their house to awkwardly sit on the sidelines as Emma’s family celebrates the holidays and has their usual holiday arguments.

Yeah, Emma didn’t ever tell her parents Killian was coming. She knows her mom well enough to know the moment Emma mentioned bringing someone home, her mom would have stopped listening before Emma could explain that it was just her roommate. It would have been this whole big thing, and Emma knows she can handle explaining it better in person when she can snap her mom out of getting excited about nothing.

Plus, who doesn’t want a Christmas surprise?

(Emma doesn’t.)

After Killian stops being one of those obnoxious kids who never stops asking questions, they sit in relative silence for the car ride, music entertaining them, and little by little, cities fade away and more trees pop up, evergreen forests surrounding them. It’s always the sign for Emma that she’s leaving her life and going back to her old one.

That and the “Welcome to Storybrooke” sign.

Everything about the town is the same. The buildings are small and kind of dingy downtown, and when she passes Granny’s, she bets those onion rings are the same too. God, she hopes they are. This is probably the only thing that can get her through this week. She should have texted Ruby and made sure her grandmother hadn’t changed any of the recipes. If she had, Emma definitely would have stayed home.

People walk down the sidewalk all bundled up in their coats and scarves, saying hello and chatting with others they pass. It’s the opposite of Boston where Emma can go her entire day without having to say hello to someone, and a little shiver runs down her spine at the thought. She needs to get out of here as soon as possible and to the isolation of her parents’ farmhouse, even if that presents her a new set of problems.

Storybrooke, Maine is, decidedly, not Emma’s favorite place for a hell of a lot of different reasons.

Killian, though, seems to be taking it all in with the wonder and confusion of someone who has never lived in a small town like this and who is a bit shell-shocked.

Get used to it, buddy.

“Oh, hey, one more thing,” Emma sighs as she pulls up to her parents’ street a few minutes later. “My real last name is Nolan. I changed it after high school, so my parents’ names are Nolan. The whole ‘Swan’ thing is a sticky situation for them even though it’s my mom’s maiden name.”

Killian’s eyes narrow, and she has definitely shared too much about herself now. “Am I allowed to ask or…”

“No. just try not to call me ‘Swan’ around them.”

“Whatever your heart desires, love.”

Emma slows down as the road turns from paved to loose gravel leading up to their driveway. There are several cars parked alongside it, and either they now own extra cars or her parents have friends over. Great. Just what she needed. Other people around when she’s coming home and surprising her parents with a guest. At least Killian will likely be that buffer she keeps hoping he’ll be.

They get out of her car, and Emma pops the trunk for them to get their bags. Killian grabs the bigger ones despite her arguing with him about it, but she’s fine to just carry her purse and the bag with presents. Emma closes the trunk, slamming it shut, and squares her shoulders.

This is fine. This is all fine.

Until ten steps later, it’s not.

Her parents have this incredible wraparound porch with swings and rocking chairs, and sitting in one of them is Neal Cassidy.

What the hell?

She doesn’t…she can’t…why is he here? He has no right to be here, no business being here, and seeing his face makes her want to vomit.

It makes her want to cry, too, but Emma can’t give him the satisfaction.

Instead, she’d like to sink into the dirt and never emerge again.

“Shit,” Emma mumbles, stopping and turning toward Killian who is looking down at her with an arched brow. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“What is it?”

God, she can’t believe she has to tell this to him. It’s too many pieces of her past in too short a period of time. This isn’t something she ever wanted to talk about again and certainly not to Killian. She was really hoping she never had to see Neal’s face again.

Honestly, she never considered it to be a possibility.

If only.

“That guy sitting on my porch is an ex of mine. And I’m talking about a bad ex, not one of those who you can be friends with afterward.”

“What the bloody hell is he doing here then?” Killian looks over her head to look at Neal, but Emma grabs his hand and yanks on it until he looks at her. “What?”

“Don’t look at him,” she hisses. “I don’t know what he’s doing here, but I’m sure it has something to do with my parents. Just…I don’t know what to do.”

“Do we need to turn around?”

“No, no, that’s pathetic. Just…maybe he’s going to leave soon, and it’ll be a quick hello and then I never have to see his face again. Let’s get it over with.”

“If you’re sure, Sw – Emma.”

“I’m sure.”

She’s not sure at all. Mostly, she wants to take Killian’s suggestion and run far, far away.

Once more, Emma braces her shoulders, and she moves forward. If she stops and thinks too much, she’ll chicken out. It’s how she is. If she thinks about something for too long, it ruins every bit of courage she has. Now isn’t the moment for that when this week is one that makes her need courage.

Maybe, Emma realizes, she didn’t invite Killian here just to be nice. Maybe she needed that buffer to keep her old demons at bay, even if just barely, and that was her motivation all along.

That really makes her asshole of the year. Well, after Neal. She hasn’t seen him in years, but he still gets the asshole of the year award.

Neal sees her before she can get to the front steps. He rises from the rocking chair and moves toward her. He looks older now. He was always older than her, but she can actually see it now. There’s gray in his beard and more lines on his forehead. His features are similar, but she swears there’s an eeriness to his eyes and a lie to his smile. Maybe those were always there, but Emma imagines she was blind to it all when she loved him.

Amazing how opening her eyes to love blinded her to so much else.

“Emma? Is that you?”

No, jackass, it’s some other blonde woman walking into her parents house.

“Hi, Neal.” She forces a smile that she knows is awkward, but he was never good at reading her enough to know the difference between a real smile and a fake one. “What are you doing here?”

“You’ve just seen me for the first time in half a decade, and your first question is what I’m doing here? Nice to see you too, Ems.”

It’s illegal to murder, Emma, she reminds herself. You don’t want to end up in jail because of him.

“It’s my parents’ house. I’m supposed to be here. You’re not. So, again, what are you doing here?”

He shrugs and ignores her. “Who’s this?”

Emma turns to Killian who is staring ahead, his jaw clenched, and he speaks before she gets a chance to. “Killian Jones,” he begins, dropping a bag and reaching forward to shake Neal’s hand, “Emma’s boyfriend.”

Emma nearly chokes on her own air and possibly her own lungs and whatever else is down there, and she’s stuck. Her brain and her feet and especially her mouth are all stuck. What the hell is he doing?

“Emma’s boyfriend,” Neal repeats, his voice incredulous like the fact that she could have a boyfriend is ludicrous to him. “Really?”

“For awhile now,” Killian lies. Wow. Has he always been this good of a liar? “It’s nice to meet you, but I think Emma and I need to get inside and put our stuff away. It’s been a long drive.”

Neal nods, but Emma catches his eyes glance over at her. What was that? “I understand. I need to get my fiancée from inside, but then we’ll be on our way.”

Fiancée?

Neal has a fiancée? Who is in her parents’ house?

What kind of upside down hell has she walked into and how does she reverse time and get back to the place where things are normal?

“Nice seeing you,” Emma lies, but Neal is already walking inside, leaving the door slightly ajar behind him as if it’s his house to go into. She quickly turns to Killian and hopes her face conveys the “what the hell” look she’s going for. And in case it doesn’t, she hisses, “what the fuck was that?”

“Forgive me, love, but you obviously didn’t want to see that man, and I figured there wouldn’t be any harm in saying that. You weren’t planning on ever seeing him again, aye?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“So what’s the harm in him thinking you have a devilishly handsome new boyfriend?”

Emma rolls her eyes, ready to take the piss out of him, when her mother comes running out the front door.

“Emma, you brought a boyfriend home?”

Well, that’s the harm, Jones.

-/-

Emma tries explaining to her parents that Killian isn’t really her boyfriend, that he’s just her roommate who came home with her because he doesn’t have any family, but she never really gets the chance with Neal still hanging around. That would be mortifying, so she rolls with it, hoping that she can clear it all up sooner rather than later.

But Neal never seems to leave.

His fiancée, Tamara, apparently teaches with Emma’s mom, and from the looks of it, they’re great friends. She can’t imagine any other reason why her parents would let Neal Cassidy in their house, but then again, they have always been great at doing the exact opposite of what’s good for her. It’s torture, and as the night goes on, it seems like it’s never going to end.

When are they going to leave?

When can she stop listening to Killian falsify their life?

She’s got to say that he’s fantastic at taking truths and turning them into lies. According to him, they met when he became her roommate (true) and got to know each other as friends first (eh, a half-truth). Then, slowly, feelings started to develop in the little moments, and they decided to give their relationship a chance (unequivocally false).

He’s got this uncanny ability to make everything feel…not ridiculous. She doesn’t know the word she’s searching for, but she’s sure as hell that Killian could find it and incorporate it into a story to make everyone here think they’re in love.

Emma has no clue how they’re going to get out of this without her parents being heartbroken because Emma can see the hope and happiness in her mom’s eyes. She’s over the moon. Her dad, however, doesn’t seem to be.

Of course this is how it goes. Her mom is thrilled because she’s not a spinster, and her dad is upset because she’s not a spinster.

“So what do you do, Killian?” he asks. “You need a roommate apparently.”

“Dad,” Emma hisses, wanting to sink into the couch, especially because she knows she’s the one who needs the roommate and not Killian. “Don’t.”

“What? I’m not allowed to ask about the man who my daughter is dating?”

“You are, but you’re not allowed to interrogate him.”

Killian places his hand over Emma’s on her thigh, and God, this really is the worst night. Why do people have to go home to family on the holidays? At least she didn’t automatically flinch at the feeling of Killian’s hand on hers.

“I’m a contractor,” Killian tells her dad. “I used to work with my brother. It’s his business, but I’m the head on projects now. It’s hard and unpredictable sometimes when my job is to make it predictable, but it’s good work. There’s a lot of good new housing popping up in the neighborhoods outside of Boston. Beautiful new construction.”

“What happened to your brother?” her mom asks.

Killian’s hand tightens over hers while his other hand scratches behind his ear. “Liam passed last year. Car accident.”

Mary Margaret places her hands over her chest while Neal and Tamara look at each other, obviously ready to go. Emma, meanwhile, tries not to act shocked. She should know this. She should know that he had a brother who died. She’s heard him talk about Liam before, but she thought…she thought he was alive, just that he lived really, really far away or something like that.

“I’m so sorry, Killian,” Mary Margaret sighs.

“Thank you, Ms. Nolan.”

Silence falls in the room, and it feels like a lot of her time in high school when she got caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. At least now she can have alcohol or drive away. One or the other, though, obviously.

Or she can go back to that sinking into the ground thing. That seemed like a good idea.

“Oh, would you look at the time,” Tamara sighs with a clap of her hands. “Honey, we need to go.”

“Won’t you stay for dinner?” Mary Margaret asks.

What the hell, Mom?

“We really have to go,” Tamara insists. “It was nice seeing you guys, though.”

“Oh, it was wonderful seeing you, sweetie. Good luck in New York. You’re going to be great at your new job.” Mary Margaret hugs Tamara. “Nice seeing you as well, Neal. You’ll fit right in, but I know your dad will miss you.”

Emma is so busy trying to take in all of this brand new information that she doesn’t hear the rest of the conversation. Through blurred vision, she sees her mom hug Neal, and yeah, Emma wants to go home. She wants to go back to her apartment where she doesn’t have to put up with this kind of shit.

Where there’s no Neal and his fiancée and especially where her mom isn’t hugging her asshole of an ex and treating him like he’s a good person.

There’s a squeeze on her hand and suddenly, Killian’s fingers are wrapping around hers. That’s when everything snaps back, and she realizes Neal is telling her goodbye.

“Yeah, bye,” Emma mutters, putting on that fake smile again.

“Maybe we could go for lunch while I’m still in town,” he suggests.

Emma bites her tongue to keep from scoffing, but she can’t help the words that come out of her mouth. “Yeah, that’s not happening. Have fun in New York.”

Neal looks like a wounded puppy when Emma manages to look at him, but she doesn’t care. He shouldn’t have had the audacity to ask her in the first place, not after everything he’s done.

Happy holidays to them all.

“Emma,” Mary Margaret hisses as soon as the front door has shut and Neal and Tamara are gone, “that was so rude of you! You can go to lunch with Neal.”

“Oh my God, Mom,” Emma groans, letting go of Killian’s hand and standing up. “I am twenty-eight years old. I’m not going to go to lunch with the man who ruined my life because you don’t like being rude. Just…let’s eat dinner, and you guys can tell me what we have planned for this week. Killian is thrilled to go to the play. I told him all about it.”

“Emma, I still don’t think – ”

“Come on, Mary Margaret,” David sighs as he claps his hand on her shoulder. “Let’s get these two dinner. They had a long drive, and I’m sure they’re starving. You like ham, Jones?”

“Love it,” Killian says as he stands from the couch. “Can I help with anything?”

“You can get a wine bottle from the rack.”

They’re all going to need it. Or at least Emma is going to.

Dinner is, well, awkward, which Emma expected, but she expected the usual awkwardness of having dinner with her parents after going a year without seeing them. This is an entire other level. Killian tries to ease it. He’s put on his most charming smile, his accent coming through thicker with each story he tells, and while her Dad seems put out, her mom is every bit as charmed by him as Emma would expect.

That makes it all fine and good until Emma’s reminded that her parents think Killian is her boyfriend, and his place would go down in flames if she told the truth now.

As much as she would like to spite her mom, that is the last thing she needs.

“So, Killian, you can stay in Emma’s room,” her mom says as they finish up dinner. “I’d have you stay in the guest room, but it’s currently filled with props and costumes for the play. But you're both adults. Who are we to keep you apart at night?”

“The couch would be fine,” Killian insists, holding his hands up.

“Nonsense, you are a guest here. You need to be comfortable. Let’s get you all settled and ready for bed.”

It’s almost like she’s in a trance as her mom guides them up the stairs to Emma’s old room. She vaguely hears her tell stories of different pictures hung on the wall by the staircase, but she doesn’t really notice. Instead, she hangs back with her dad who does not look thrilled at the whole situation.

For some reason that offends Emma. As far as her dad knows, she’s brought a man home for Christmas. A man who she loves enough to bring home, which is not all sunshine and roses for her. Once again, she’s jealous of the people who go home for the holidays and know it’s going to be a happy time.

“You know, you don’t have to act like I’m sixteen,” she tells her dad. “I live with this man. I think it’s okay for us to share a bedroom here for the week.”

“What makes you think I’m not happy about this. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”

Emma stops at the landing and turns to her Dad, crossing her arms over her chest and staring him down. Or up. She forgot how much taller her dad is than her.

“Try a little harder to make that believable.”

David laughs and leans forward to kiss her forehead. “Welcome home, kid. I’m glad you and Killian are here.”

-/-

-/-

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[shadoedseptmbr]

wip wednesday

I have a little bit of shore leave that I decided not to work into the last story.  Have it for a Wednesday Snippet, instead!

o-o-o-o-o

“What are we gonna do, Kaidan?”

He thought about trying to make a joke, making a feint that he didn’t know what she meant; pushing off the future a little while longer.  He couldn't do it.   He’d heard her get up in the middle of the night when her omni pinged.  Heard her swearing under her breath when she checked it. 

“I don’t know.” He dropped his forehead to rest against her stomach.

“Still not sick of me?” 

He had to stop himself from clutching her to him.  “Ununh. Not getting rid of me that easy.  Did you get orders?”

“Nothing new. Just for the same day we’d planned to leave.  I gotta head to Arcturus, again, before I meet you back at the Citadel.”   He felt the laugh in her chest. “Think they’ll believe me if I tell ‘em I drowned in maple syrup and the Pacific?”

He smirked, “I doubt it.”

“All right.  Options and scenarios, LT.” Having the official snap in her voice while he was sprawled in her lap was a little bit of a headspin.  He might get used to it, though.  He’d like to.   

“Well.  We could go on like we were.  Just keeping it behind closed doors.  We could...we could break it…”  He had to stop. Not even hypothetically.

“No.”  Her fingers curled into his hair, around his bicep.  “No, I won’t do that.”

"Yeah, no that's not an option.” he agreed.  “I could... put in for a transfer when we get back.”

Aedan sighed. “The alternative is sneaking around or putting it on hold as long as we’re stationed together.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m a sneak by nature but I don’t want to do that.  The crew deserves better than having to hide things for their captain.  And they’d have to, they all know.”

“They do.  Probably before we did.  And we’re supposed to pick up a couple new marines.”  He’d gotten a ping, too.  Her time at Arcturus would give him time to settle them in.  “They aren’t going to be interested in covering for us.”

“Some of it’s gonna depend on what they tell me at Arcturus.  Anderson’s trying to feel out how they’re handling the Normandy.”

He lifted his head up to look at her in surprise. “You think they’ll take your ship?”

“Wasn’t supposed to be mine, anyway,” she reminded him with a lifted eyebrow.

“Yeah.  But we are.  Yours.  Aedan, don’t tell me you’d give it up?”

She dropped her gaze, her soft expression disappearing under the tumble of her curly bangs. “I...no. I mean, it’s not going to be the same, now.”  

Hmm. He agreed, “Wrex is gone, Garrus is back with CSEC.  Tali’s going back to the Fleet, pretty soon, I’d guess. And I don’t know how long we can justify an onboard archaeologist, no matter how handy she is.”  

“And all of it depends on if the Alliance and Council can work out how to share me.”  The tone of her voice was flat as if she didn’t even have a say in it.  And...he supposed, she didn’t.

The piece clicked into place for him. “That settles it, then.”

“What?”  His declaration made her push back to search his face.

“We put it on hold.  I could transfer but I want to be there, to be with you making sure they don’t yank you in two.”  

Aedan’s crooked smile dawned, reluctantly.  “I don’t remember that part of the staff lieutenant’s duty.” 

“Yeah, well, I can take on a little more responsibility now that I’m not going to have to run buffer between Wrex and Garrus.”  

“I don’t want to do this without you. Not any of it.”  Aedan whispered the last like she was a little worried about saying it out loud. As if saying it might invite someone to try and make them.

“You won’t have to.”  He insisted.  He knew...he knew that wasn’t a promise he should make.  He couldn’t quite make himself care.

[lycorogue]

Hey girl! For your "Ask about WIPs" game, I'm interested in "I Don't Care" and/or "Seduce with Caution." Hope you're well, stay safe!!

Hey right back! I am doing well. Hope the same for you and yours.

[WIP tag game: my list]

Ya know what, no one else has played yet, so I'll go ahead and indulge. 😀

I Don't Care

This story actually started life as a "tumblr exclusive" one-shot called Stranger in a White Dress (published here May 2018). It was actually one of the first fanfics I posted to Tumblr. It was inspired by the song "Play Me Like a Violin" by Stephen (*warning: the music video has flashing bits, so those with photosensitivity, please be careful if you watch instead of just listen).

I don't know why specifically I latched onto Gabriel Agreste and Emilie Graham de Vanily, but it seemed appropriate somehow. The story was them having a meet cute in college. Emilie would have blown into Gabriel's life for a few minutes, stole a kiss unexpectedly, and then blew back out of his life just as abruptly.

The story stayed like that for quite some time. Then, August 2019, I heard the acoustic version of Ed Sheeran's song "I Don't Care". At first blush, the song sounded like something my husband would sing, but the more I listened the more I realized it could be Gabriel singing about/to Emilie. This song was kind of the theme of the Agrestes' relationship, in my opinion. Hence stealing the song title for the story's title. I took the first verse about being at a party, and continued my story. Gabriel was dragged to a party by his flatmate, and Emilie coincidentally was there. The two reconnected, and Gabriel turned a one-time chance encounter at a club into a potential relationship.

I'm not entirely sure where else to go with this story, aside from knowing I want it to be the love story between these two. Possibly ending with Adrien's birth. Possibly continuing until Emilie's "disappearance." Not sure which yet. However, this whole story is a bit of a slow process while I wait for inspiration to strike again, mostly by way of new music. I have been a touch obsessed for the past year with the songs "2AM" by MK (feat Carla Monroe) and "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur as a back and forth between Emilie and Gabriel respectively (the fact that "2AM" has a female vocalist and "Say You Won't Let Go" has a male vocalist just makes it all the better). The only snafu there is that this would be a chapter about them drinking too much while out, and/or Emilie drunk calling Gabriel and asking for him to spend the night with her. As spontaneous as I like making Emilie, it seems a bit abrupt considering where their relationship stands at the end of the 2nd chapter. So I want to come up with a buffer one showing their first official date as my 3rd chapter. I'm just not sure what said date should look like yet. Thus this WIP sits in waiting.

If you want to read the first two chapters, you can find them over on AO3, FFN, or DA.

Seduce with Caution

This one is actually my current WIP. It's also my first foray into Miraculous Ladybug smut (aged-up, of course).

For some reason, August brings out the smut in me (is it the warm weather?), and I've written other smutty fics during that month in the past. Most have never seen the light of day. I've written a couple using the X-Men OCs created for my husband's play-by-post role-play game. I've written one using my D&D character and one of her partymates. The only smut I've officially published though was my interpretation of a handwaved sex scene in the book Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore (mostly because the series was fairly unknown and that book had been published 7 years prior, so I figured not many would even find my smut).

I have never tried ML smut before though, despite enjoying a lot of the ones I've found. I just couldn't get past the mental image of the Love Square as 14-year-olds.

Last year, however, while reading Dressed to Confess by @zenmisery , she had a bit where Chat Noir's costume acted as a bit of a magical chastity belt. For some reason, that gave me this fantastic concept for a MariChat sex scene. I started working on it, but I realized that it seemed too abrupt of an interaction between these two characters without also having the story be post-reveal and the two of them being in a relationship. The concept, though, would have been how MariChat could spend a night together without Marinette finding out who Chat Noir is under the mask first. The whole premise crumbles if they're already in a relationship and/or it's post-reveal.

I just couldn't get the balance right, and so I abandoned the story. Right around December, I tried again by backtracking a touch to include the seduction and foreplay leading into the sex scene. That too seemed a bit left-field. It felt like glorious crack, and I was tempted to just run with it because crack is a fantastic story "genre" but I... just can't find it within myself to do so. So the story was abandoned again.

This past August I revisited the story once more. After 3 or 4 false starts, I tried backing up even further with my story's starting point. Now this story has become a slow-burn, sexual tension, blushfest. There's implied masturbation, and later chapters will include make-out sessions with heavy petting, but the actual true-blue smut won't show up until the final chapter or so. So my "Porn without Plot" has become "so much pining with a sprinkle of smut thrown in for flavor". 😅

I still don't have a concrete story figured out, but the working summary is: "While 19yo Chat Noir tries to demonstrate to Marinette his new 'moves' to try to win Ladybug over, he accidentally seduces Marinette. Now she has to come to terms with the knowledge that she finds him sexy and highly desirable, all while still holding a flame for Adrien. Meanwhile, Adrien has to wrestle with the knowledge that he found Marinette getting hot and bothered over him a major turn-on. Chaos ensues."

Considering it kept me over a year to write just the first chapter (but only 3 days to write the second one), I want this story complete before unleashing it onto the world. I also need to build up the confidence to let the rest of the fandom read my first ever MariChat smut soooooooooooooooooo..........

ANYWAY, yup. That's what's up with I Don't Care and Seduce with Caution.

A romance story between young Gabriel and Emilie where I humanize Gabriel....

And a slow-burn MariChat smut story that will only really include anything explicit in the last chapter or so.

Thanks so much for the ask! This was fun. Feel free to ask me more!

I've also talked about my original WIP Glitches here, here, and here, as well as talk about my other Gabriel-humanizing project When Love Matters here.

[crystal-in-nagasaki]

the second week of quarantine

Hello!

Not much has changed in my schedule since I have arrived at my quarantine hotel, but I thought I would write a little bit about the last week and a half anyway to keep people updated. 

It’s been a little over a week since my last post, and I’m nearing the end of my second week of quarantine. As of Monday, November 29th, I will board a plane to my placement in Nagasaki. 

Some people decided to get the orientation videos over as quickly as possible and watched them all over the first few days, but I’ve been taking them more slowly so that I don’t go crazy in quarantine sitting with nothing to do. There is also a mandatory Japanese course that we must complete online within 6 months of arriving. I have been working on completing all 24 chapters in the last week since I didn’t want to have to worry about it while I’m navigating work at my new placement. Between the orientation tasks and the Japanese course, I’ve kept pretty busy this past week. Even on the weekend and our holiday (Thanksgiving) off, I kept working on my Japanese course to keep busy and not get bored. 

Today with only 5 days left until the end of quarantine, I find that I have officially run out of things to do, having finished both my orientation tasks and my Japanese course. Those that are vaccinated are allowed a shorter 10 day quarantine, but my Contracting Organization would not allow me to apply for it since they already arranged my flight and schedule following the originally planned 14 day quarantine. So the 10 day quarantiners are leaving tomorrow morning and I am quite jealous. 

Last week in preparation for Christmas, the hotel staff started decorating the hotel and putting up light displays outside. Japan goes cuckoo crazy over Christmas lights, so they decked out the whole garden with them, and walking through it felt super magical. Here’s some pictures of the lights and my friend and I posing under them (Japan is a couple’s holiday generally so we got in the romantic spirit haha):

The hotel staff also set up a kind of scavenger hunt, where you find all 20 of the Christmas gnomes that they hid around the public spaces of the hotel. The gnomes all have Christmas “facts” attached to them, and you can play a game guessing which facts are true or false about Christmas. They also put little masks on the gnomes in respect of COVID-19 measures, which was super cute.

As for how the food in quarantine has been going, I am not very picky when it comes to food, so it has taken me a while to get sick of quarantine food. Despite them being cold, I never really had issues with any of the meals we’ve gotten. Now that I’m getting closer to the end of quarantine, I’m starting to get pretty sick of bento for every meal, and will be glad to eat something else, but overall I’m still not terribly bothered by the food. 

I’ve been getting pretty stir crazy sitting in my room, so I’ve started taking daily walks around the garden with a friend, as well as getting up every hour or two and walking a bit in the hallway outside my room. I miss being able to exercise freely and hoping I can start running again once I get to my placement. 

In the evenings, the people from my departure group will often get together to play video games over Discord. I don’t join every night, but it’s nice sometimes to get to socialize with the other JETs and relax after a day of orientation and Japanese study. Tonight we’re going to have a Zoom party to send off all of the 10 day quarantiners. The JET coordinators also set up an official “socialization time,” in which we are split into smaller groups with time slots in which we are allowed to gather in a common room and chat with each other. We all have to stay masked, sanitize when entering and leaving the room, and sit with buffer chairs in between us. The time slots are also only 25 minutes, but it’s nice to get to gather and chat for a bit at least. 

Today something kind of cool happened. Someone in my group chat told us that if we go to the top floor, we could see Mount Fuji from the observation window. I didn’t believe them, but headed up there anyway to check it out. To my surprise, we could actually see Mount Fuji!! I’ve only ever seen it once before, because almost every opportunity I’ve ever had to see it, the weather wasn’t clear enough. And now in this random hotel 200 km away on a clear day, there it is. Life is funny. Here’s a picture, it’s very faded but you can see Fuji towering over everything if you look closely. 

A few days ago, it was super rainy/foggy and then the next day it was super clear. I took some pictures of the contrast, so I’ll dump those here too. Some days you can see the mountains on the horizons very clearly, and some days you can’t see them at all. Me and some friends call them “mountain days” and “no mountain days,” kind of like “bones days” or “no bones days” from the  TikTok trend. We use it as a way to tell our fortune for the day and how it will go LOL. If it’s a no mountain day, you might as well just stay in bed. 

That’s all from me today! My next post will probably be after arrival in my placement. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving :-)

[jiminrings]

could you maybe do something where it’s yoongi in rich boy!jimin’s au and he meets his y/n or a peak into how their relationship would work ? i love you 🥺💚

contact: you

pairing: yoongi x y/n

glimpse: the water’s cold but yoongi makes it warmer; or that piece in which model!yoongi meets his y/n!!

wordcount: 4k

notes: i love you too!!! :D

also, this yoongi comes from insufferable, that rich boy!jimin au!! in this fic we’re all just gonna pretend that yoongi’s PA goes by another name and not y/n :)) yoongi’s y/n is not jimin’s y/n!! pls don’t be confused that’s all hehe // gif isn’t mine!!

there’s a fine line in between compliments and insults

hENCE backhanded compliments

but in a way it’s still a compliment, right???

would it still be a backhanded compliment if you give it to yourself though,,,,, that’s the question

tHREE YEARS IN FILM SCHOOL

you just can’t seem to know whether graduating a year early than intended from film school is a cOMPLIMENT OR AN INSULT

is it an achievement or is it a curse??

ok initially, you were proud from graduating a year early because that meant one less year dedicating yoursef to studies, right???

big wrong :D

that meant you choosing the most cramped schedule with more units than you think is humanely possible

you just cAN’T help wanting to go on with life faster and easier!!! you went with this track anyway so you could become closer to the diRECTOR you’ve always wanted to be

it’s a pretty simple analogy

and u don’t get why people who took the same course as you did, didn’t think as the same way as you do

because like for example

there’s two options to go to your destination

hmmm let’s say it’s to go to the park!!! a rEALLY famous and beautiful park and if you aren’t early enough, then there’d be no place for you to lay a blanket out and properly enjoy it

the first route is a nicely-paved, nicely-leveled and cemented road, but it’s gonna take about twenty minutes because there’s traffic

oR

the second route is a much shorter trip that would take only ten minutes, but the road may be a lil rocky and not all postlamps are lit and there mAY be a crossing chicken or not

of course you’d go for the second route :D

and now you know why much more people wanted to go with the first route aHA

no disrespect to your alma mater or something but that shit sUCKED

sURE they had decent dorms and it was your decision to take the more hectic schedule that meant much less time for you to do basically anything that’s outside of your film degree

it was having instant noodles atleast four out of the seven days in a week and sometimes even skipping that processed goodie because it always felt like you’d have to be hustling

hustling is a very icky word in ur humble opinion but you like saying that now ironically in your quarter-life crisis

it was the “why would i wait to cook this for ten minutes wHEN i could be doing something else more productive iNSTEAD of eating aka delecting food that helps give what i need to atleast enact my motor functions???” thinking

which is unhealthy ok

beyond unhealthy lmao that’s what you’re sure of

and then you graduated film school!!!

the opportunities you were promised of when you were still studying?? aha zero :D

the idea that once you graduate film school and you iMMEDIATELY have the job of whatever you majored such as directing or screenwriting and etc.,,,,, that is a whole load of bull-

:D

it’s a hierarchy

you’ve graduated with LATIN HONORS and u persevered for three years with your major in directing and u wore a really nice dress for your ceremony :))))

and now you’re fetching coffee and making twenty calls in a half hour and running around to set things up :)))))

an intern :)))))

the only ones who immediately become what they’ve studied for has sOME sort of tie and pull to the industry

you may have made a thesis film that’s ranked the highest in the history of all thesis films in your university :)) and you may have had submitted it to film competitions and got approved and got some plaques :)))

but no that doesn’t mean a sINGLE bit once you’re out in the real world

you’re just taking whatever you get

i mean you dID want to work your way up in the film industry

like as in the movie industry??? the one you went to film school for?????

but what you are doing now :)) is working as an intern for this huge company that handles tv commercials and adverts and shoots :))

aHA not exactly the film industry but atleast it’s still within the media industry, right??

right???

pls say right

anyways

the agenda for today is this watch shoot!!

there’s a tv commercial to be produced out of it and there would also be multiple shoots for the models who’d be here

you dressed up extra good today :D

it wouldn’t matter but atleast it’s the thought that counts somehow

your company’s official lanyard kinda sucks and you can’t change the lace for it nO matter what but it’s no pressure!! your outfit’s gonna make up for it

there’s not exactly a dress code for interns,, it just goes for the terms as long as:

a) it’s still work-appropriate

b) this is a simultaneously unspoken yet obvious rule bUt you just need some boundaries,,,, you can’t stroll up into the set looking like the executive producer or the director who looks a lil bit fancy

c) you shouldn’t attract attention so much because you’re an intern :)) even if that iS the sole purpose of the intern because otherwise how would you land a more secure and higher-ranking job???? are they thinking or-

it’s a black shirt!!!

groundbreaking

but it’s a nice black shirt with embroidery in the front!!!

it’s just n i c e embroidered in the front and uH right on the middle of your chest area that’s clothed obviously but that’s cool

simple, casual, effortless, tINY bit fun

you also aren’t an intern with black pants

but no this is a nICER pair of pants

they’re like slacks!! like fitted slacks but not too fitted and not too formal

you wanted to wear it in tan but that’s not exactly optimized for your job because you are literally always in the go

it’s always just ease of movement in your clothes

and if you could dash in them in getting coffee or whatever the fuck the production team wants or look for duct tape and print lacking scripts like a madman, then you’re good to go :D

you caved in buying those nurse shoes that are raved about because you’re on your feet almost 24/7 and slip-on vans would not always save ur life

ur always wearing ankle support socks too because you’d rather look like an athlete misplaced in a commercial shoot rather than crying at home with how sore your body and most eSPECIALLY your legs are

that can’t stop you either

so now,,, you’re wearing cute socks on top of the support

it’s barely noticeable but it’s the effort you put in ok

and to be extra presentable, you traded your digital watch for the day with your watch that looks a little bit more classy with the silver!!!

it’s an analog watch with a really nice and shiny silver watch strap and although normally ur mind takes tWO seconds to buffer and read it as opposed to instantly knowing the exact time with a digital one, it’s worth it :D

it better be

you can get atleast one glance from park jimin and your life would be forever fulfilled

you signed a non-disclosure agreement once it was presented because after all

wHO WOULDN’T GUSH WHEN THEY KNEW THE LINE-UP FOR THIS SHOOT????

park jimin!!!

kim taehyung!!!

jung hoseok!!!

that’s the only three you knew so far

because they said that you’d know the other ones who are participating for the shoot once it actually happens

and that could mean two things

either you don’t know them at all oR they’d be really really famous and this ensures that you wouldn’t breach the nda you signed

hmmmm jimin’s kinda cute you’re not gonna lie :))

you can’t laze around in the job though because your walkie-talkie’s already bearing your name again and you’re being summoned now

this may be a blessing in disguise tho

you’re one of the interns who get called and noticed frequently and although that means mORE WORK, that also means you’re more trusted and more likely to secure the job you’re aspiring for!!!

“Y/N. There’s some extra copies of the shoot schedule by one of the makeup tables. Bring it over to me in the brief room.”

“of course!!! :D”

that’s one of your favorite producers specifically calling for you in the radio

he also talks very formally

you’ve always been a little bit close to mr. hyun bin because you were a bit of the teacher’s pet back in uni!!! he served as a professor while also being a producer and HE’S the reason you got accepted immediately as an intern here anyway!!

they’re always in the blue folders and that’s what you’re looking for very eagerly right now

because uHHHH there seems to be about a hundred makeup tables right now and mr. hyun didn’t exactly specify where

ok now where could that be

okay no it’s not on the table

lmao you find them sitting by a chair in front of the makeup table and you need to get it before someone sITS and dents the folder because mr. hyun gets a bit cranky when the folder isn’t smooth

“But the folder’s job is to keep the documents inside it smooth. If the folder’s damaged, then that also means that the contents inside it, is also damaged to a degree.”

no he said that

he literally said that once

if you could read thoughts in the air then mr. hyun probably speaks in proper punctuation AND capitalization

you found the schedule

and you also found this guy dressed in a really nice suit who looks very breathtaking

.... and is frustrated?

NOW HE LOOKS VERY FAMILIAR!!! you just can’t remember the name right now

he must be a talent because no one else is wearing the same suit that he is and his visuals are just beyond gorgeous so that must be it

he’s hunched on his makeup chair alone???

and there’s something on his hand and he keeps dipping his finger to his cupped hand and keeps squinting to the mirror in front of him and

oh

OH

“do you need help, sir?”

yoongi almost jumps out from his chair because oh my god are you-

oh huh.,., you’re not his personal assistant

you see

contact lens would be the absolute BANE of yoongi’s whole existence

he just can’t put it in

he’s said that sO many times to people who find him frustrating over it and whenever they make a “that’s what she said” joke it just makes him want to poke his eyeballs

“no, no. uh it’s okay!! i just can’t aGH shit i just need to learn how to put these cursed contacts in.”

oh he’s cute

like real cute

“name?”

wait wHAT

he’s a bit perplexed because why are you asking for his name

and uh quick question wHY don’t you know his name

not to brag but yoongi,,,, he knows to himself that he’s a world-renowned model!!! he’s done countless shoots!!! he’s appeared in so many things!!!!! why don’t you-

ok he’s being a little bit boastful in his head now

“min yoongi.”

he just states his name and he doesn’t get how would that help with his problem right now

you’ve asked because you’re searching for his name by the schedule and you’re just absent-mindedly muttering his name as you search for it

“min yoongi min yoongi min yOU OH!!! oh!!!! min yoongi!!!!!”

lmao alright that’s it

you remember him immediately and it clicks with you that oh my god this is min yoongi!!!!

that’s the reaction he was initially looking for but it’s okay he’s just gonna be humble about it

“okay well first of all, it says here that you’re about to be called in nine minutes from now so hOW about i just give you a hand, hmm??”

that is not exactly a request

because even before yoongi could like half-heartedly agree (he wants to do it so badly but he can’t) and thank you, you’re already pulling his palm towards yours

“the solution’s drying out,,, how long have you been trying to get it in?”

he hears you ask him in a teasing voice and he kinda frowns at that because well NOW he’s too embarrassed to answer :((

you’re wordlessly grabbing the solution that’s on his desk before you squirt some on your curved palm and plucking out the lens that used to be on his palm

“you have to clean it first.”

“mhmm....,., yes.,.,.., i know that.”

a little bit

jUST a little bit

“you clean it first in these motions, see?? don’t rub it clockwise or anything like that”

ooh so that’s how it goes

he doesn’t want to be rude but he thinks that you’re not the director of this shoot

and there’s nothing bad about that!!!! he just wouldn’t know how to feel if the director were to see him frustrated over contact lens and they’d be the one to do it for him

“pick it up like a bowl!! make sure that the ends of it turn iNWARDS, okay?? inwards!!! if the ends poke out then it would literally hurt so much and maybe you’d be blind”

oh

YOONGI DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THAT UNTIL NOW

so that’s where he went wrong for like five times,,,,,

“never put it in dry, okay? otherwise it would hurt too.”

that’s it yoongi’s taking this girl’s words down

he doesn’t know wHO you are but he appreciates you

“now tilt your head down a little bit for me :))”

yoongi bows his head and it kinda makes you snort because he was serious with that one

“nO NO just a little bit, mr. min.”

you have your thumb on his chin just to get it to the right position

he will d-word right now oh my god is he a dummy

how could you pOSSIBLY put the contacts on him if his head was hung that low

in any angle though, he looks so nice

he has long eyelashes too and they’re pointing downwards so that may add on to his problem

“now look up”

whew oh god you need to avert your eyes a little bit because you’re just realizing now that this is mIN YOONGI you’re dealing with right now

“or at me!! yeah that would work too :))”

yoongi’s just killing it with his social cues huh :)))))))))

you’re placing delicately the lens by his sclera and yoongi kinda panics and is at the same excited because this is dEFINITELY HAPPENING

“ok calm dOWN and now move your eye until the contact clings and keep moving it still even if you’ve got it already for like eight seconds!!!”

he did it

well technically yOU DID IT

BUT STILL!!!!!

“oh my god that is the qUICKEST thing ever omg now the other eye!! do the other eye!!! :D”

he’s so giddy over you putting on his contact lens and he doesn’t even know you and you just feel so familiar to him!!

yoongi trusts you with his contact lens and that’s enough trust you’d ever need

“aaaaand we’re done!! :D”

“thank you!! what’s your n-“

alright that is mr. hyun asking for a follow-up in the walkie-talkie by asking where’s the schedules and that means you immediately have to dash to the briefing room :))

yoongi didn’t even catch your name :((

you didn’t even get to say goodbye to him :((

you didn’t get to see yoongi for the rest of the shoot because after you’ve delivered the papers, you were then summoned to take care of the catering company that’s gonna do it’s second rounds and to facilitate whatever they needed to do :((((

it’s a bummer though

you dIDN’T even get to see the actual shoot get done because you were too busy verifying the payments if those fish fingers are really priced like that in the receipt you were given :((

you’re probably never gonna see him again

there’s another shoot you’ve been called for again the next week and this time, it was for a luxury brand that’s releasing it’s summer line and the settings for it were a beach AND a swimming pool

they couldn’t have just become satisfied with a beach and had to add on a fancy pool filled with chlorine and then more chlorine for the sets

“Y/N, do you know how to swim?”

mr. hyun asks you so casually as your only task as of now is to stand beside him as he lists things and you check it off in your clipboard

“hmm. i do know how to swim, mr. hyun, but not professionally, y’know?? they don’t exactly teach dives in film school”

he laughs at that and you smile at that because good for you :))

“Good. Because we’re gonna need someone to keep these floaties still, and the lifeguard’s out, and here’s a rashguard.”

what

what in the actual fUCK

you see

although this is for a summer line and a summer shoot

yOU’RE SHOOTING IN JANUARY

and you came into work today not thinking that you’re gonna be in a frEEZING pool wearing a rashguard underneath your shirt to keep these floaties still!!!!

you love your job you love your job you love your job!!!!!

maybe if you say it enough, it’s gonna come true!!!!!

“oH ITS YOU AGAIN!!!”

hold up

that’s

“yoongi????”

“cONTACT GIRL!!!!!”

the both of you are genuinely surprised to see each other ok

at this point, you should automatically assume that yoongi would always be the undisclosed model in your shoots

you’re looking up at him and he’s looking down on you because CLEARLY he is not in the freezing pool as you are

“i’d let you put in my contacts right now, but it doesn’t exactly make a good addition to chlorine :]”

the water’s freezing but yoongi just makes it warmer :))

mr. hyun’s saying the directions to you as to where in the pool you should place yoongi and the floatie’s slippery and you dON’T want to risk getting the clothes wet because it’s not intended.,..,. even if this is a summer shoot

he has a tough crowd (you) and you’re just kinda deadpanning because you now feel you aRE a little bit embarrassed even if this is your job and u shouldn’t be

“i’m kidding!! jus kidding :D”

humor doesn’t exactly click when you’re about waist-deep and aBOUT to be shoulder-deep into freezing cold water

and now since you look a fool, you’re just gonna deal with the slippery floatie and yoongi notices so he’s the one who takes your hand instead as he nudges you to move

:] i was just joking pls don’t hate me :]

you stop the moment mr. hyun says sTOP that’s perfect and before you could awkwardly waddle yourself away from the camera’s view-

“is your face just good and the sunscreen you used is matte, or do you just not have any sunscreen on??”

yoongi asks with much concern as if it’s the most important thing in the world and he doesn’t have a shoot to do

“i don’t have-...”

“no? oh come on, contact girl!! come here for a second!!!”

you look to mr. hyun because Sir is it really and he’s just screaming back with his eyes going gO COME TO MIN YOONGI

you’re confused and before you know it, yoongi’s reaching for you and digging into his pocket and-

“sunscreen stick!! the sun’s always there even if it’s freezing, y’know?”

this time, it’s yoongi tilting your chin up and very delicately swipes the stick on your face and even taps it in

:))

“all done!! let’s start the shoot!!”

he claps up and everybody gets into position and you have to waddle back to your spot awkwardly with your cheeks heating up

you don’t know if it’s yoongi’s power move to swipe his own sunscreen sticks on people but it fEELS LIKE IT IS

he’s very well-aware of what he’s done and he now has every intention to ask you what’s your name after this

although tHAT doesn’t happen again because now mr. hyun’s telling you to come up and get all dried down because after this, he’s gonna need you to ask the front desk if you could access more of their amenities for the sudden changes in the shoot :(((

yoongi almost doesn’t want to leave the set because you’re out again :((( and he still hasn’t had the chance to ask you your name

uGH it’s just so unfair :(((

you feel the same way and you just wanna see him!!! even if he’s only gonna tease you for most of the time and you’re gonna be a blushing mess throughout!!!

you’re cranky ok

you’re more cranky than how mr. hyun gets with dented folders

you’ve had two back-to-back shoots this week and you’ve only had ONE hour of sleep for the whole time

seriously

not to mention that you thought you’d also see yoongi in atleast one of those projects :(( but it was a no-go either

your job is just sO demanding

it starts earlier and ends later than how the printed schedules say and is much more different than the talent’s

speaking of talents, these artists are just pure out LATE and not only are they setting a bad impression on the director!!!!

but they are also the reason for the bane of your existence!!!you call their drivers non-stop to ask for the whereabouts and to adjust the catering’s schedule and the amends that you need to make for people

they make your job harder and your hours longer and your fatigue greater

you actually feel like you’re gonna pASS OUT

mr. hyun’s the one who’s assigning you to these projects and as MUCH as you’re thankful because that means better pay and more exposure and more experience,,, he’s really not seeing the fatigue he’s putting you thru right now

you forgot your ankle support,,,, you have nOT eaten three meals today,,,, you haven’t drank water for hours,,,,, you fEEL like you’re gonna pass out

and someone’s just called you over again to deliver these hair pins to this specific trailer asap and oh god your ankles are just gonna fall off at this point

ok quick knock and you enter and-

“hmm?? oh, it’s okay!! we don’t need it anymore. someone else already brought in new ones :))”

fu-

“cONTACT GIRL!!!!!!”

if you took a moment to read the name that’s by the front of the trailer, you’d know that this is yoongi’s trailer and the makeup artists just went straight to his,, instead of him coming to them because he just can’t be damned to stand and walk over there :D

the makeup artist you were talking to moved out of the way so the both of you could see each other and sO yoongi could also stop stretching his neck out to the max

they’re finishing up anyway

his contact lens case was held by this makeup artist and she was about to put em in and yoongi snatched back the case :))

“here!!! put them on me!!!”

okay that’s a bit awkward for the other girl yikes.,.,. she’s just uh gonna exit the trailer with the other makeup artists now

“hi.”

you only greet back now as you get the case for him and yoongi frowns at that

why aren’t you cheery???? he’s used to you being more enthusiastic than him so wHY is he the one carrying the conversation (that hasn’t been even started) that’s already dwindling out

you’re getting really really sluggish and this sudden heavy wave of sleepiness is really hitting you

you dO look kinda hazy

“are you okay??”

yoongi’s holding you by the sides of your arms and your eyes are blinking so slowly as you try to nod but that just won’t cut it for him

“well i think yOU need to rest”

he’s standing up and is about to put you onto his sofa so you could like perhaps nap a minute or two since he knows fatigue when he sees it

but by the looks of it, he can’t even make you lie down because you’re already sitting down

sitting down

on his lap

oN HIS LAP

this is really.,.,...nice

yoongi’s a bit shocked and there aren’t any sentences forming in his head besides “what’s your name, contact girl???” as if that is the mOST pressing issue right now

“ᶦ’ᵐ ʸ/ⁿ” is what you could only practically mumble because this pillow is really soft and warm and heavenly and u want nothing more at the moment than to be buried in it

yoongi has never felt this soft

ever

there’s you accidentally falling asleep on him

literally ON him

and his hands are still hovering but he decides to relocate them on your back, rubbing small circles and even patting softly

your hair smells really good too

he must’ve been to engrossed in it as you burst awake some minutes later and you almost bump his jaw on your way up

“oh my gOD did i just pass out on your lap???”

well you’re still sat on his lap and you’re scrambling away while you’re still groggy and he has to reach for you before you could topple over

“no problem!! it’s cool i sWEAR!!!”

he quickly explains what’s happened and how he’s close with hyun bin and how he literally conversed for like two seconds and your producer immediately agreed

yoongi just said “hEY mr. hyun!!! y/n works for you, right?? i’m SO sorry if this isn’t in my position to ask but y’know she did just kinda pass out and i was wondering if she could just lay down in my trailer for awhile??”

within two minutes mr. hyun apparently went to the trailer and delivered your backpack and he keeps in mind to apologize to you later on and hmmmmm is there anything going on between you and yoongi???

“are there any pillows?”

underneath the cushion the both of you are sitting at, there is a shit tON of pillows he just keeps there

there’s memory foam!! cotton!! feather!! a hybird of those two!!!

yoongi decides to answer and he delivers it with the straightest answer possible

“... no.”

he quickly clears his throat as he looks to his lap and taps on it so you could lie down on him!!

you think you like yoongi :)))

yoongi is positive that he likes you :)))

you stand up for a moment and he panics because nO where are you going??? but it was just for you to retrieve your phone and grab your earphones!!

you kind of have an irrational fear of buying airpods and that shit just falling every two seconds and then you could nEVER find it

and so here you are :)) offering yoongi an earphone as you lay your head on his lap

there’s just something so familiar with the melody

the lyrics

the vOICE

so familiar to the point that yoongi’s heart practically drops because oh god

tHAT’S HIM

THAT’S HIM IN HIS OTHER JOB THAT ONLY HE KNOWS ABOUT

“this suga guy.,, i like him.”

“o-oH???”

yoongi doesn’t know whether he should feel jealous because you like this suga guy

but he doesn’t know shit because he IS that suga guy!!!

and so his mind’s fuzzy and all-conflicted as you babble on, about to be lulled to sleep again

“once i get to make a film, like an actual full-length film and jUST not a thesis film,,,, i’m hiring him,,,, i don’t care if he consumes like 80% of my budget for that film iM HIRING HIM!!!”

yoongi’s about to practically combust right now

he’s grinning from ear-to-ear, looking down on you who he’s grown fond of so much so fast and is lying down on his lap, his thumb pressing down on your cheek softly as he tilts his head

“do you wanna know a secret?”