#anyways sorry if the poses are dumb I just needed full bodies to show off the docs

[swedenis-h]

Vampire with docs gets your ass (FEE FI FO FUM)

[jjk-biased]

jungkook x reader

requested by @atulipandarose (oooh soulmate/jungkook/one shot!! it's been big missing jk hours over here)

genre: fluff, soulmate au

words: 2.5k of dumb jungkook pining

warnings: none >< cussing here and there, also my first time writing just fluff so please be kind. unedited!!!

synopsis: jungkook never loved the idea of soulmates because he liked you and he wanted only you.

masterlist | events masterlist

There it was, the panging he felt in his heart even if he wasn’t the person in pain. As his chest throbbed, it was emotional pain he supposed, the song began to play in his head. He gritted his teeth, upset to have been reminded once again of the world he lived in. 

The world had to be so stupid to believe in such nonsense. It was idiotic. They had to be so naive to rely on  this whole scam - to the point where they even revolve their lives around it. 

It isn’t true. It’s far-fetched. This whole soulmate system wasn’t reliable.

He lived in a world where the universe decided who each person’s other was. Soulmates existed. It was everywhere. And he didn’t like it one bit.

Whoever made the world like this had to be an utter idiot. Why would anyone allow something like this to take over people’s lives? This bullshit soulmate system gave people a false sense of hope that someone out of the millions and millions of people would be the only right person for you. That somehow, out of 7.5 billion people, someone would be the perfect yin to your yang. 

It shouldn’t exist. Soulmates shouldn’t exist. 

Come to think of it, how can the universe even be so sure that the person they have “destined” for him is the right one? And, honestly, who even gave the universe the right to choose for him?

Fuck the universe, Jeon Jungkook wanted to pick for himself.

He thought this whole sham was an inconvenience. Unlike almost every love-crazed and soulmate-addict person, he thought otherwise. Jungkook felt suffocated at the thought of being tied down to someone who he probably didn’t even like. He didn’t need whoever they had for him. He didn’t have to meet this so-called pre-destined love of his life to live happily.

Actually, he did. Or else he would forever be haunted by it. He’d go crazy.

People had different “soulmate indicators” -- basically something in their body that gave them a hint on whoever they were destined for. Namjoon, his writer friend, had a tattoo of his soulmate’s name on his collarbone. Jimin, the short friend, had a ring on his finger with the initials of his soulmate and would even change colors depending on the mood of his other. One part of Taehyung's hair is the same color as his soulmate’s, regardless if he tried to dye it along with his locks. 

To say the least, theirs were easy to find, to discover - much more convenient than what the universe had in store for dear Jeon Jungkook. His had to be the most vague indicator of this whole scam. 

A song.

The universe gave Jungkook one specific song that only he and his soulmate knew. Not a name, not a ring, not even a hair color. Just one fucking song. 

Jeon Jungkook didn’t want to believe in this obviously fraudulent scheme that the universe set up. Despite his woes and resentment towards the system, Jungkook couldn’t exactly ignore it. The song, somehow sung by both him and the soulmate, always played in his head whenever he or the other would feel down. Somehow, it only played when any of them were sad. Not when they’re happy. Not when they’re angry. Not when they’re bored. Only when one or the other wasn’t feeling well.

But hey, at least he knew when it would start. 

There would always be a pang in his chest before it began. It was akin to when the dog dies in the movie, or when someone relayed bad news, or when the character in a book had to leave. The weird feeling would be eased immediately as soon as the song played in their head. It would lull him to sleep, he guessed it held the same effect for whoever was on the other side, and would make him feel at home. 

But he did not like this soulmate bullshit. 

Not one bit.

Even if the song brought him great comfort. Even if it was the only thing he looked forward to when he had a bad day. Even if his soulmate’s honey-like voice blended well with his. 

Wait shit, he should be hating this nonsense. Why did he just think that his soulmate sang nicely?

Fuck it. Forget what he thought. It didn’t matter anyway. 

He had other things to think about anyway, especially how to gain the courage to ask his friend out. 

Jungkook is currently and sadly a college student, who, aside from drowning in student debt, studies fine arts. He hopes to become a renowned artist someday, and in pursuing so, had to disobey his typical Asian parents’ wish for him to be called Dr. or Atty. someday. 

Soulmate hatred aside, art had always been his passion. Despite growing into a family full of doctors, lawyers, and judges, he knew his heart belonged in fine arts. When his brother would play with the toy syringes and stethoscopes, he would be seen getting himself dirty with the washable markers. That love for coloring grew into something more, and so Jungkook decided he would become an artist in the future. 

It was always so freeing for him to dabble in the blues and greens and create whatever he visualized in his mind. The pencil in his hand could easily convey the emotions he had trouble vocalizing. All of his troubles would go away faster than you can say worldwide handsome Jin-hyung with the aid of his drawing tablet. Everything about art just intrigued him. Art was easy. Art was comforting. 

Art is where he felt free.

It wasn’t suffocating. Unlike his family that wanted him to be someone he couldn’t become and this soulmate shit that wanted to cuff him down to one specific person he doubts would even go well with him. 

He wanted the soulmate system gone. For reasons that seemed justified to him and only him. 

He could live without the incessant nagging of his very traditional family who wanted to sped things up. Jungkook would finally stop seeing some of his soulmate-less acquaintances miserable. He could finally go on with his sad day without the song that would automatically play in his head. 

Wait… that last thought made him feel sad. Perhaps he would miss the song after all. 

Anyway, and above all, he could finally court his cute friend without having to worry of the soulmate shabang. 

Jungkook didn’t want whoever the universe paired him with. He wanted his cute seatmate and friend, Y/N Y/L/N.

Y/N Y/L/N. Your name was perfect. 

The way your name rolled off his tongue felt just right. The way your nose would scrunch as you focused on sketching the naked dude who had to pose in front of everyone. The way you would tilt your head when the professor never made sense with his discussions. 

Everything about you was just so… perfect. 

You were kind-hearted, considerate, and intelligent. Your humor was unmatched and you were very enthusiastic when you conversed with Jungkook. From a small crush, his liking towards you grew into something he couldn’t exactly ignore. He liked you more than he liked to listen to the duet in his head.  

Okay… scratch that. Maybe he did like his significant other’s singing voice. It eased his worries after a troublesome day. Admittedly, he had found comfort in it.

If only the universe allowed him to converse with whoever was on the other side, then maybe he didn’t have to loathe this system so much. He could’ve gotten a friend out of it, not a soulmate… but a friend. 

Somehow, his thoughts wandered back to you. God, imagine if you were his soulmate. Jungkook would be more than happy if that happened. But he didn’t need the universe to act on his feelings for you. Jungkook will do something… He knew he had to do something about it. He just didn’t know when. 

All of his thinking made Jungkook revert to airplane mode, so it was only then that he noticed you concernedly waving your hand in front of his face for a sign of consciousness. He found your scrunched up face painstakingly cute but holy shit… why are you so close? Please don’t be so close. Jungkook would malfunction if you decreased the space between you two even more. 

“Are you okay, kook?” You luckily stepped back once he locked eyes with you. 

 Ah… that sweet voice of yours that could rival the comforting honey-like singing in his head.

“Y-yeah! Sorry, was spacing out,” Jungkook’s words were jumbled as he noticed he was staring at you like a gaping goldfish instead of answering like a normal person. 

Your giggles rang throughout the room at his predicament. He crookedly grinned then laughed along. This must be heaven. Your happiness was always contagious and he’d often mirror the smile on your face whenever you were happy. 

You made him feel giddy as much as he did on the days he finished his artworks. You made him complete. 

But that damn soulmate thing had to ruin it. 

How he wished you were his soulmate. 

“I thought something happened to you, kook! Mr. Kang dismissed us some time ago but you were still frozen in your seat when everyone left. I was so… worried,” You chuckled, though quite red and hesitant at the end. 

Well did that instigate the butterflies in Jungkook’s tummy. 

“Concerned for me?” Jungkook teased, it was his go-to response because he couldn’t exactly flirt in straight sentences. 

Your eyebrows furrowed but the pink hue became much more evident. Jungkook didn’t even mind the kick you gave him because he made you feel a bit flustered. Success :D

“Taehyungie’s been busy, hasn’t he?” You said, trying to change the subject so everyone could forget the embarrassment.

Taehyung, the theater kid and drama major, was friends with the both of you. He had been busy for the past month because their project was to create a series of plays to showcase to the school. Their show will be on Tuesday, days away from now. 

Right! He could invite you to the play.

“He is… Hey,” You tilted your head and hummed when Jungkook’s voice sounded a bit unsure. 

“Do you wanna go with me to the play?”

The red on your face and the shy nod you did made him swell in accomplishment. He can’t wait for Tuesday to come. 

Fuck.  He should’ve waited for Tuesday to come. Now it is Tuesday and he was too nervous to even stand in a five-meter radius near you. Slapping himself to forget the momentary faltering of his confidence, he shakily waited at the foot of your doorstep with an album in his hand. 

You two bonded on music and he knew you well enough to know you’d rather have the CD of your favorite artist than some flower that would wilt after awhile. He was right. The beam on your face when he handed over the gift made him so happy that all his nerves were washed away. You always had a way to ease him, even if you weren’t aware. 

“M’lady,” He jokingly tried to replicate a british accent as he offered his arm, waiting for you. And as you always would, you took his arm along with an accent-laced, “M’lord,”

Jungkook forgot his worries for a moment and it was always because of you. 

You two sat near the stage to support Taehyung with his play. You two remembered him sharing that their play was about a soulmate-driven world with much more darker consequences. It was about the fictional hanahaki disease, he said. 

And boy did it feel so sad. Taehyung acted so well, as if he was really losing his character’s best friend onstage. Jungkook peered at you for a moment and saw your eyes glisten as Taehyung’s cries grew louder and louder. 

The story was really heartbreaking.

To the point where Jungkook felt the familiar pang on his chest and the song began to play in his head. 

How peculiar. His soulmate was sad just as Taehyung’s scene played out. Perhaps they were in the same auditorium as well. But that was impossible. His soulmate was probably watching some soap opera. 

Not that he minded. Jungkook had other things to think about, especially how to comfort you as your tears flowed down from the actors’ amazing performance. As slick as he could, he draped an arm around you and let you rest your head on his shoulder. His heart was beating faster than he could comprehend. Even more so, when you scooted closer to him.

Fuck. You were cuddling. Oh my god. Jungkook is gonna die out of happiness. 

He had to play it cool though. Jungkook ignored the warmth in his chest and face as he rubbed your arm in consolation. He was surprised you reacted well. Nothing prepared him for what happened next. 

You were humming. 

You were humming his song. 

hOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT YOU WERE HUMMING HIS SONG. 

You… were his soulmate.

Okay universe… Unfuck you, Jungkook guessed. Apparently the universe was on his side after all… All he had to do was somehow tell you…

Jungkook, his face now an uncontrollable red, nervously turned towards you and successfully got  your undivided attention. God, he could die then and there. Gathering courage from glob knows where, he smiled and sang the first line of the song. 

Universe might have been laughing at him for suddenly changing his views. Jungkook would’ve laughed at himself if he found out the double-back on his opinion. But this was you. 

You and your cute nose scrunch, you and your adorable head tilt, you and your witty comebacks.

This was you.

Everything about you was perfect, and he couldn’t believe that the universe liked him enough to grace him with you as his soulmate. 

何故 こんなにも 涙が溢れるの

[Naze, konna ni mo namida ga afureru no]

Your eyes widened as he sang the song that felt like home to the both of you. 

ねぇ 側にいて そして笑ってよ

[Nee, soba ni ite soshite waratte yo]

You joined in on the singing and everything just made sense. None of the leaving people in the auditorium mattered at the moment. 

君のいない未来は 色のない世界

[Kimi no inai mirai wa iro no nai sekai]

Jungkook was so happy. It seemed like the world was brighter than before.

モノクロで冷たい

[Monokuro de tsumetai]

He shouldn’t have doubted the universe’s plan. Everything was better with you. 

見つめてる 暗闇さえも so beautiful

[Mitsumeteru kurayami sae mo so beautiful]

You smiled shyly as your soft honey-like voice harmonized with him. 

僕を信じてほしい

[Boku wo shinjite hoshii]

Jungkook’s smile grew wider, encasing your delicate hand in his.

まっすぐに君だけを見て

[Massugu ni kimi dake wo mite]

For once in his life, he was happy and it was better because he was happy with you.

どこにも行かないように

[Doko ni mo ikanai you ni]

You two shared a kiss that afternoon, on a Tuesday, at the university’s auditorium.

permanent taglist: @luvinseokjinnie @97faerie @amoreguk @bbyjoonies @borednia @tanumiki @taescake

[Extra]

Jungkook: Hey Taehyung! Congrats, that play was amazing

Taehyung: ...yeah… but why did you two make out when I died onstage?

You: ahahaha bye.

[project-rosewood-476]

Every Rose Has It's Thorns Chapter 3

After a long ass time, ERHIT Chapter 3 is finally out! Tabby is about to commit her first direct kill, and the boys will finally see a brief glimpse of Tabby and who she really is. The Pocket, interpretations of the creeps, and some of the ideas belong to @creepypasta-shtick. Please go check out their blog! They're awesome!

Maplehood Creek and Tabby Anderson belong to me.

TW: homicide, violence, blood, and gore

IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T READ IT.

otherwise, enjoy~

Toby had gone to bed to get an uneasy sleep after the confrontation with Hoodie. He woke up feeling distinctly unrested. Tabby was still out cold, but she was back to being curled up in her natural protective sleeping position, back to cuddling with Toby's hoody. She had a nice black bruise formed on her left temple when she fell and hit her head when she collapsed. Toby took some time getting ready. He was tired, but coffee made his tics worse, so he woke himself up by taking a cold shower. But he could only waste so much time before they had to go. Toby had a simple, small breakfast, then went to go wake up Tabby.

When you walk into Tabby's room, you just see this small curled-up figure under the teal covers nuzzling the hoody. On the nightstand, you could see two pictures. One is of her family. You could see a short and stout woman who looks like a more tired, older version of Tabby with her arms behind her back and a small, sad smile. A tall, built man with his arms crossed and looking sternly into the camera, which was her stepdad. A boy in his late teens who looked like a more boyish version of her stepfather. He had a mischievous smirk as he looked down at a slightly younger version of Tabby in a headlock, looking like he was about ready to pour the container of gasoline that he was holding over her head. Tabby herself looked like she was fighting to get out of the headlock, keeping one leg down and the other leg slightly up for balance. The blonde little boy that was a thick boy with a hint of baby fat on him had a mischievous grin as his innocent blue eyes screamed for adventure. He was holding onto her slightly elevated leg. The second picture was a school picture with a somewhat younger version of Tabby and co. It was 15 kids all together striking funny dumb poses in their Rosewood school uniforms with Tabby and a taller ginger girl front and center. Tabby was loosely hanging off of her, making a funny face as she was genuinely smiling, And the ginger girl wrapping her arms around Tabby's torso to support her, suggesting that Tabby and this ginger girl were close at one point in time. Other than that, it was immaculate and practically empty.

Tabby was snoring softly, as she often does when she's in a deep sleep. Toby gently reached over to her and tried shaking her.

"Tabby, Tabby, you have to get up."

Tabby startled awake, and she scurried away to another corner of the bed in an attempt to get away from him. She was about to cock her fist back and kick him as she scurried over. Until she realized that she doesn't need to attack him since he wasn't doing anything to hurt her. She lowered her defenses down and gave a sheepish, apologetic look.

"Sorry...instincts..."

She groaned and rubbed her head "my head hurts..and my entire body aches...god, I'm so tired..."

She looked around, confused.

"How...did I get back here?...."

She looked over to see Toby's hoody in her bed. Confused and embarrassed, she crawled over and picked up the hoody and handed it back to him.

"I don't know how I got this...but I think this belongs to you."

"Oh yeah, thanks." Toby took it back from her and smiled.

"Yeah. I went and got you from Jane's place and brought you here. Do you need some ice for your head? You had a nasty fall." He felt terrible for having to wake her up.

"Yeah, that's what happens when your body finally gives out when you already went two weeks with no sleep."

Toby left her to wake up. He was getting everything cleaned up. He wanted her to wake up first before he told her the bad news. Masky and HoodieHoodie were already on their way over.

She flopped onto her face in her bed with how exhausted she was. It looks like she's not going to get any more sleep for a while. Great, just great. Hopefully, she could get some coffee or an energy drink or both, preferably. The caffeine didn't help her anxiety and paranoia any. And it's certainly not healthy for her. It worsened, but it does help keep her up when she needs to for more extended periods. This was helpful for when her insomnia finally wears off for a while, and she can't do her usual routine to catch up On sleep like she usually does sometimes. But first, some water for that headache that she had. Tabby was grumbling as she got her clothes ready. She took out a black my chemical romance tee-shirt since she's still in her emo phase that never left her. And a pair of worn-out jeans and socks. She went to the closet to get new bandages for her hand since she was covered in yesterday's blood. She was going to take a shower first. Hopefully, that will help wake her up, but she highly doubts it. The poor girl looked exhausted and just wanted to go back to sleep.

She put her stuff in the bathroom and came out to get some water since she was thirsty. She took three long gulps of water and tilted her head back, and closed her eyes for a moment.

"God, I fucking hate my insomnia. I'd kill for some coffee or an energy drink or both. It's not good for my anxiety and paranoia, but it does help keep me awake when I need to" she went back to sipping her water. "So why do I have to be up exactly that involves me?"

Toby gave her a slight grimace.

"I'll tell you the news later. But I'll tell you what. You take a shower, and I'll make your coffee; how does that sound? I know you like watching, but I'm just going to use these beans." He opened his upper cabinet and showed her the bag of coffee beans. "I have some of the tester sticks, too, if you want." He wanted her to get tidied up a bit before the other two came over.

Tabby gulped at his grimace. Whatever the news was, it couldn't be good for her. But she needed to clean up to wash off yesterday's blood and take care of her hand. She nodded as he showed her.

"That sounds good as long as you have sugar. I like my coffee diabetes sweet." She went in to take her shower.

Toby nodded and made her coffee. He left the sugar and creamer for Tabby to add herself, so she could inspect it if she needed to and also so she could add as much as she wanted. He switched on the TV. He could watch human channels if he wanted, but he much preferred monster television.

Tabby set the water on warm to soothe her aching body for the day. It took her a couple of minutes to figure out how the shower worked. She undid the bandages on her left hand and threw them away. She got undressed and inspected herself. Scars were always going to be there, but the bruises were healing up nicely. It was amazing to her what happens when she wasn't getting into fights and getting beat almost every day. She estimated about a week for them to heal entirely besides a few major ones on both sides of her ribcage and stomach that would take longer. They never recovered this fast before usually; it took two weeks for the old bruises to heal first. Tabby was giddy about that. She got in and washed herself up with the stuff she brought with her when she ran away. The whole process took like 5 minutes. She turned the water off, dried off, got dressed in her black my chemical romance shirt and worn-out pants and socks, brushed her hair and teeth, and got out.

She came out, putting her wet hair back into a ponytail. The coffee was waiting for her, with the cream and sugar next to it. Toby was sat on the couch, watching the news. A little demon man was on the TV, talking about the weather for that day, which was, as usual, hot. Tabby took the testing stick just in case. No poison. She put some creamer and a shit ton of sugar into her coffee. She stirred it in and gave it a taste test. She gave a blissful sigh as the coffee hit the right spot. She took her coffee into the living room, sipping on it. She sat a few cushions over from Toby. She looked visibly slightly better. Still really exhausted but able to deal with it better now that she had some coffee with her. Still looked malnourished. She had clean bandages on her hand, and her fresh scars were basically healed, and most of her bruises were almost gone or looked slightly better.

"So, what is the bad news that involves me?"

Toby was about to answer when there was a knock on the door. He went and got it. There stood Masky and Hoodie. Masky had his mask strapped to his belt, revealing a cheery, rather nice-looking face. He looked like a normal human being. Hoodie kept his mask on, of course. He hated taking it off.

"Hey guys, come in," Toby said nervously.

They both did so. Masky flashed Tabby a smile.

"Hey, kiddo."

Tabby narrowed her eyes at him, remembering the night when he tried to kill her twice. But she wasn't a rude bitch most of the time.

"Hello," she said in a polite tone as she stopped drinking her coffee for a second to give everyone her full attention.

Hoodie chuckled to himself quietly. It must be weird to see Masky so chill. Toby smiled awkwardly.

"Tabby, you've...uh...met these people before, but anyways. This is Masky, our group leader. And this is Hoodie." Both men wave

"Yeah, I know," she said still politely, but her voice had a harsh undertone to it slightly.

But her stepdad was strict on raising her with respect for her elders and manners in general. She gave a small wave with her left hand in return.

"Why are you guys here?"

"They're here, so we can do a small mission before we go help EJ with his," Toby stated nervously before excusing himself to the bathroom so either Hoodie or Masky could explain it.

"Wait, what?" She started, but Toby was already in the bathroom. She growled in frustration, with her jaw tightening up.

"I don't appreciate it when people try to avoid things with me..." she turned to face the two older males and crossed her arms, still being tense, making it very clear that she doesn't trust either one of the three for one second.

"What is the other mission exactly? And how does it involve me?"

She was sipping on her coffee to keep from attacking the both of them.

"Well, the boss wants you to kill some people." Hoodie put it very bluntly.

Tabby choked on her coffee and began to have a coughing fit.

"Already?... Jesus, I've only been here three days; it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me someone with no experience whatsoever and who hasn't been here for long," she said between coughs. She was more awake after that little bit of news.

"Brian, that's unnecessary."

"It's true. And don't call me by my name in front of her. And she will unless she wants to die."

"She's our new teammate now. She has every right to know."

She looked over at Hoodie.

"Jokes on you, I already do. I don't see an issue with that," she said, slowing down with the coughs.

She finally caught her breath. She stood up straight and looked at Masky distrustfully. It was weird to her that he was sticking up for her and being friendly.

"I appreciate you sticking up for me, but please don't do it again. I've already told Toby this, and I'm going to tell both of you. I can take care of myself, don't fight my battles for me."

She didn't mean to sound and be harsh. She was just naturally like that. It was a survival mechanism to her. It either pushed others away and hated her, which was good. She'd instead be left alone by everyone else besides her friend group. Or it showed other people that she took shit from no one and don't fuck with her. Either way, if it got her and her friends to live another day, that's all she cared about.

"It wasn't about protecting you." Hoodie scoffed.

"It was just good ol' Tim keeping me in my place." He sounded bitter.

"And yeah. You're doing it. You get to kill a man and a woman. You get an intimate look at one of the more common ways we get proxies." Hoodie was perched on the armchair.

She then glared at Hoodie, but her expression and tone were spiteful, hateful, and bitter.

"I don't need you to tell me that I'm going to do it when I already said I would. Once I made a choice, I stick by it, and I will go down with the ship to the bitter fucking end".

It was to the point where her darkness was seeping through little by little. Enough to make everyone feel uncomfortable, at least. She was about ready to attack Hoodie if she could get away with it. It just goes to show that the manipulation wasn't going to work on her.

Masky sighed.

"He means that...you will be killing a mother and a father, and we will be taking the children to be trained as proxies. Our boss chooses proxies young. Most proxies start when they're young teenagers, sometimes a little younger. Our boss likes to experiment."

Masky got a cigarette out of a box in his pocket and lit it. At the same time, he reached into the bag at his side, pulling out a picture of the family. The father was tall and handsome, with a medium complexion, dark eyes, and very curly dark hair. The mother was short and a little plump, with friendly green eyes and auburn hair, has done neatly in a bun. They were appropriately dressed. A young boy, around twelve, looked a lot like his parents. He had his father's curly brown hair but his mother's eyes. He was wearing a bright blue suit. There was a girl as well, in a green dress. Her hair was straight but was still the dark color of her father's. She held a book in her hands.

The mother was holding a very tiny baby, fast asleep, and in a little pink bow. They looked like a happy, average family. A family that was about to be shattered: both Masky and Hoodie seemed to regard the fact with indifference. Masky himself had been chosen as a proxy when he was young. Ever since he could remember, he had seen his boss. It used to scare him. His mother eventually gave up custody of him after leaving him in an institution. He left the institution to a foster family. Then another. Then another. Then another. Hoodie, well, he tried not to dwell on what little he remembered.

Tabby's eyes widened.

"P-parents?!"

She dropped her coffee which unfortunately spilled. Her face paled to the point where her skin looked slightly gray. She slowly backed into a couch and tightened her grip on the back of it to the point where her knuckles were white. She had this fearful look to her as she had a flashback of what happened when she first helped taking someone's mother away—but knowing what she knows now. Now she's not so sure if it was just her paranoia that night. Looking back on it now, she was convinced that that specific traumatic incident is 30% of what led her up to be in the position that she's in now. Tabby was just 12 years old at the time.

Both Masky and Hoodie had ruined numerous families and lives. They liked to pretend it didn't bother them, but sometimes, it did. Not in this case, though. The children would live and would be given a new, better life. Masky couldn't tell that Tabby remembered something, but Hoodie could. He said nothing.

"We will be there to supervise." He told her.

Toby soon came back. He sat near Tabby, then saw the picture. He took it and looked at it. He stared at the kids.

She narrowed her eyes at Toby, about ready to call him out on his bullshit. "you know I don't appreciate when people try to avoid stuff with me. It's a cowardly move to me personally, and I don't think you're a coward. If you have something to say to me, good, bad, or otherwise, say to my face, please. Just some advice for next time".

Hoodie continued.

"The older kids will be taken to an institution where they can be transformed and trained. The baby will be taken to the boss." Hoodie spoke with indifference and some amount of coldness

Tabby slowly came back to reality and looked confused. Until what they said processed finally.

"Okay... that's fair enough, I guess....". She started slowly.

The color was returning to her face as she slowly relaxed her grip on the couch. She quickly returned to her usual self. She picked up the coffee cup and cleaned up the spilled coffee. She walked into the kitchen to clean up her dish.

Hoodie angrily turned to Toby.

"See, this is why you need to beat the shit out of new proxies to get them to learn their fucking place! Otherwise, you get mouthy, stupid brats like this one who can't tell the difference between a suggestion and an order! Any other proxy would have just killed her."

Tabby shouted back from the kitchen, "I can fucking hear you! You want to beat the shit out of me? Go right ahead! But I promise you I will fight back! I'm not a little bitch that will take the shit that's handed to her! You think I'm scared of you? Well, you're so wrong!"

Toby sighed and just hung his head.

Hoodie continued, "And if she doesn't learn her fucking place, I WILL kill her."

She heard the next part, "good luck in trying! At least someone else would be competent enough to make a successful attempt, unlike you!"

Hoodie was seething in rage and turned to Masky.

"Are you hearing this bullshit?!"

"Give her a chance to learn, Hoodie." Masky said quietly, "Whether you like it or not, she is our teammate. She might not have that high a standing right now, but it is possible to become very competent in a short time. Toby's living proof of that."

Masky inhaled the smoke and sighed softly.

"There will be no fights. I will not allow it. Hoodie-" his voice became a little commanding. "Go outside and get some fresh air."

Hoodie knew better than to argue. He did as his leader said.

She heard the door slam; she walked back into the living room, still pissed and scratching her ears. And when she's pissed, you could feel the heat radiating off of her, and her ears become rash like so she itches them.

"I don't need to be told what to do a second time. I'm told once. I already agreed fucking agreed to the job. I already said I was going to do the job. Done, set deal."

Masky serenely blew smoke out of his mouth. He seemed utterly unbothered by Tabby's irritation. Toby got up to get some things ready for the little trip. Hoodie was gone. He could kill Tabby if he wanted to. But he was going to calm down. Masky had no desire to argue. He simply sighed.

"You might want to get some stuff ready for the mission. After we do this, we'll be meeting EJ for lunch and anyone else wanting to go on this mission with us."

She took a deep breath.

"Fine"

She was slightly calmer now, at least to the point where she wouldn't take it out on either Masky or Toby. She did what she was told. She just packed up her clothes and products and her two pictures and Autumn's sketches in her black backpack. She put on her shoes and her signature red plaid jacket. She had one strap of her bag slung over her shoulder and waited impatiently to go. Hoodie soon came back, looking a lot calmer. Masky smiled slightly and unhooked his mask from his belt to put it on. Masks were required while on missions. Toby soon came out. He was ready too. Tabby put hers on and just ignored the HoodieHoodie for the time being. Hoodie followed her lead and ignored her as well. Tabby just stuck close to Toby, kept her head down low and her hands in her pockets, and kept silent. She followed the other two out the door.

It was quiet out. Hoodie and Masky were talking among themselves as they walked. Toby walked resolutely with Tabby. They were going to walk to the portal, then steal a car to drive there.

Tabby was calmed down enough. She was lost in her thoughts. She was stuck in between neutralizing her anxiety about her first kill and kind of being excited to go back home in a sense. At least she would be in familiar territory again, and she could go back to her and Autumn's spot to get away from these 3. Tabby kept sneaking glances over at Toby. It was nice having someone by her side. Even if they didn't talk, it was nice to have company. It made her smile a little under her mask.

Toby felt meek and tired. He usually didn't argue with his group. He wasn't all that good at it. But he and HoodieHoodie had some fundamental disagreements on how to train new proxies. It was frustrating. He didn't want Tabby to have to go through the hell he did. Tabby continued not to say anything. She figured at this point it would be best to stick to her fundamental rule of only speaking when spoken to.

Tabby was lost in thought. Killing people who deserved it was one thing. Killing people for survival is another thing that she understands all too well. Killing someone because it's for a job is another thing that she understood. But she didn't know if the parents were what she would deem immoral or not. She was about to take away someone's parents. Just like she did all those years ago. It didn't matter. She already said that she would do the job. That was that. What was eating away at her was that she was about to prove her stepdad right about her. How godawful of a person she was, how she was a monster, how everyone around her would be dead because of her. To her, that was like admitting ultimate defeat. She looked down defeatedly and fidgeted with the bottom of her shirt to keep her anxiety at bay. What would the kids think of her? Well, whatever. Let them figure it out on their own. Let the chips fall where they may.

Toby always hated these missions. Retrieval missions were draining, hard on his psyche, and didn't usually pay well. He tried his best not to think about it. His job was to retrieve the baby, which was the least draining, in his opinion. All he had to do was find the crib and get the child. That baby couldn't be upset with him for destroying her life. The only reason she would cry is if she was hungry or cold or tired. The older kids, however.

Tabby looked like she was about to cry as she felt her demons at her heels as she was reliving that Godawful night. The last thing she wanted to do was to prove her stepdad right. But it looks like she had no other choice. She kept her head down and soldiered on. Thank God her mask covered up her entire face. As she let silent tears stream down her face. She didn't make any noise as she did, so she just stayed deathly silent, not to give herself away. She was so quiet and stealthy that you would forget that she was walking with you.

Toby overheard Masky speaking. The father was someone who was looking into their world. And that couldn't be allowed. That action had made that family their enemy. The way for that family to be redeemed would be through the children. It was cruel. But fair. Tabby understood, unfortunately. The price you pay was very cruel but reasonable if you go looking for shit, you don't know what you're getting into. She learned that from a past babysitter of hers. She paid the price for her babysitter's actions, which was how she got her knowledge on the paranormal. Something that didn't belong in Maplehood but oddly enough somehow belongs here vaguely.

The walk to the portal was thankfully quick. Masky had his bag with him. Hoodie knew what was inside, and so did Toby.

"Okay. Who wants to go through first?" Masky asked

Tabby snapped her head and blinked a couple of times to clear her eyes to make it look like she wasn't crying. She spoke up with an emotionless voice.

"I will"

Tabby stepped through the portal and waited for everyone else. The men soon followed her, arriving nearby. Without a word, Masky began to lead the way. Hoodie was muttering to him.

Tabby followed behind them, following alongside Toby and going back to being silent. She was past crying now. Now she just looked straight ahead, not showing any emotion, but her eyes just look dead on the inside. She continued to fidget with her shirt like she was wringing out someone's neck. Masky led the way.

"The house is 1112 Twelfth St. Keep an eye out."

They were heading towards a neighborhood. It was nice out that day.

Tabby knew that street all too well in her hometown. It was in the downtown area. Three blocks from Rosewood Preparatory school. It was in one of the wealthier neighborhoods. A younger, more childish version of Tabby loved going down that street for trick r treating on Halloween. She deemed it the best place to go because they always gave out big and lots of fancy pieces of candy. Those memories brought back a warming sense of familiarity. It calmed her down enough to the point where she almost forgot that she was about to commit her first kill. The closer they got to the street, the darker the aura felt. But that's because it was close to Rosewood and Rosewood as an unsettling dark, mysterious aura around it with how much bloodshed was wrongfully and violently spilled there. It was the same unsettling darkness that generally surrounded Tabby since she used to go to Rosewood. Everyone who went to Rosewood has it. That's how you can tell they were there. Except hers had a more personal taste and was raw just beneath the surface. It was enough to make anyone feel uncomfortable if you weren't from there or just used to it. Toby and HoodieHoodie didn't seem to care all that much. Masky seemed to notice it but paid it no mind. It was bright out but slowly getting darker. Masky saw parents coming outside to usher their children back inside. Dogs were outside in many of the gated yards. Some barked at the four. Others ignored them.

Tabby kept her head down and mumbled prayers to herself that they wouldn't bring too much attention to themselves. And also that she wouldn't fuck up. Her anxiety and paranoia were sky-high to the point where she was almost jumpy and jittery. Although she desperately tried not to show it. It was to the point where even fidgeting with her shirt wasn't working, and she was slightly squirming uncomfortably. Tabby's mind was racing.

"How does it feel to go into this knowing you're going to prove dad right?"

"How does it feel knowing what you're going commit."

"What would the children say about you? What about Adam? What about Autumn? What would happen if Horatio ever found out?"

"They're going to find out your secrets and what type of a godawful person you are."

"You know dad would be proud of you."

"You're no better than dad and Horatio. If not worse".

Those were the thoughts that intruded in her head. She kept mumbling to herself, "shut up" "that's not true," over and over again like a mantra.

She kept repeatedly and periodically shaking her head to get rid of her thoughts.

Hoodie soon stopped in front of a quaint blue house. The mailbox was painted white. It was cute. The curtains were open. It was easy to look in. Hoodie saw their targets. The mother was holding the baby. The kids were sitting together at the table. The father was serving dinner to the people at the table. Hoodie shook his head.

"Game plan?" Tabby whispered, squeaked out awkwardly. It was evident that Tabby didn't look too good. But her face was emotionless and resolute. It was showing the determination that she would go through with it no matter what.

"Well, I'd hate to ruin their little dinner." Hoodie said sarcastically.

Tabby rolled her eyes at Hoodie.

Masky sighed.

"Let's sneak in."

Tabby nodded at Masky.

"I know these types of houses. These structures are old. And the house is huge. The best way to sneak in would be through the cellar. From there, there's normally an old secret passageway of sorts, what would be a servant's passage. The walls are hollow so we could move through there, and we would end up in the rooms of the house," she explained quietly.

"Alright. Sounds good. Tabby, Toby, you go in through the cellar. Once you get in, open that window-" he pointed to the left one on the upper floor. "To signal for me and Hoodie to come in as well."

"Got it. Toby let's go," she said as she started to sneak to the back of the house towards the cellar.

Even though her stomach plummeted with dread and her footsteps felt heavy. She still kept ongoing. Toby followed her. They passed by the backyard. A little playground was in the back. It was cute. Tabby saw that the cellar doors were locked. But not to worry. Tabby crouched down and began to pick the lock with one of her knives. A few minutes later, the lock came undone. She gently lifts it, not wanting to make too much noise. She slowly went down the cellar stairs. Toby followed her, quiet as a mouse, closing the door behind him. He could see a little in the musty cellar light. Mostly empty shelves. Some old toys. Nothing special. Tabby was scanning for something that resembled a secret door of some sort. Until she found it, it was a bit small. But it was big enough for both of them to fit if they both crawled through until they came into a bigger space, then they should be fine. The door looked like it hadn't been used in years. Tabby could tell that it would open up easily. She used her knife to pry it open. It gently scraped against the floor, blowing a thin layer of dust in their way. Tabby coughed a little bit, silenced it. Toby covered his mouth with his elbow as he sneezed.

"Oh, fuck." He muttered under his breath, then laughed nervously.

He let Tabby go first. Tabby gave him a small smile and a slight chuckle. For some reason, her nerves seemed to calm down around him, which was good for her anxiety. She crawled through the darkened corridor.

"It's small at first, but once we get into the wall structure, it should get bigger, Although it will be a narrow fit for the both of us," she whispered.

Toby chuckled in response.

"I feel a bit like a mouse." He said in a joking manner. He crawled in after her.

"The only time I feel blessed with my small size," she smirked.

Her smirk faded into something more serious.

"To be honest...I have never been more scared in my life than now," she said quietly as she hung her head looking at the ground while crawling forwards and taking a right.

"It'll be okay," Toby muttered to her. "I'll be there to back you up if things go wrong." He promised her. He followed her when she turned.

Tabby stopped dead in her tracks, causing Toby to crash into her. She whipped her head around.

"You know those were the exact last words that my friends ever said to me. Just saying"

She gave a quiet bitter chuckle.

"Who knew that I would spend my entire life trying to prove my step das wrong only today to prove that he was right about me all along. I'm no better than he is" she sounded bitter yet defeated.

Tabby continued straight for a while. They had to take a left and then straight ahead before the corridor expanded into the wall structure.

"Your stepdad is wrong," Toby said. "You are better than he is."

He continued to follow her. "He hurt someone he was supposed to care for. You are hurting our enemies."

"And I hurt his enemy; what's the difference?" she shot back.

He didn't have an answer for her. She sighed

"I don't think you understand," she started.

She paused in her thinking for a minute. She turned left in the corridor. She was debating on how much she should tell him. She didn't want him to think any differently of her. Even though she just met him, she wasn't sure exactly why she cared so much about what he thought. She also remembered her stepdad's threat about if she told anyone what happened, he would find out and either kill them and/her. But Toby was a proxy, and her stepdad was a human; if anything, he could kill him if something weird were to happen.

"I- this-....this isn't my first rodeo...exactly" she hesitated.

"That's okay," Toby said with a shrug.

"You know, killing doesn't make you...bad, right?"

Toby knew she still thought like a human. But once she entirely switched, she would understand.

"I know...that it's necessary. Because I plan to when I get my revenge so my friends can finally crossover and are at peace if they already haven't, that's not my problem," she sighed "it's just that... I've just seen too much death at the hands of the wrong people for the wrong reason...." she referred to her stepdad and Horatio and the teachers at Rosewood.

"And to clear it up, I never killed anyone directly before. Although I've tried countless times with Horatio, I never succeeded."

She hesitated "but that's not to say that I never helped out with the aftermath of it though it wasn't my fault."

They got to the wall structure, so she stood up and walked sideways through the walkways.

"It doesn't matter anyway. The tricky part here is judging when we're on the second floor. Then we can let Masky and Hoodie in," she said

Toby shifted to the side slightly. It was somewhat hot in here.

"I understand. I promise it won't be too bad." He said quietly.

He continued to crawl.

"And we'll just climb as far as we can go, maybe. That should get us upstairs." Toby was a little worried for Tabby.

"Fair enough," she said.

"I don't know if this will help," Toby began," But don't think of it as taking parents away from the kids; think of it more as a way to punish those who have wronged our people and give those kids a purpose. If that's what's bothering you" He was quiet after that, allowing her time to speak if she needed to

"I guess that makes sense...sort of like a second chance....for the kids, I mean" she tilted her head to the side and then nodded.

"After all, my stepdad taught me that if you do something wrong, then you should expect the worse possible outcome, which is usually death. Especially if you go actively looking for shit that you don't understand what you're dealing with. And sometimes, just sometimes, someone else pays for another person's actions. Yet something else I know too well. That was the second life lesson I ever learned" she shrugged.

Toby nodded.

"That's true." He said.

"Both of those things are true." He sighed quietly.

"I know. I experienced them. But that's a story for another day. One, I think you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I have been through a lot of unbelievable things myself. I can handle it."

Tabby looked over at Toby for a moment. She wasn't sure if he was bluffing and just saying that he could get more information out of her or if he was just trying to keep her talking so her anxiety won't be as bad, to which she was thankful that he was playing into it. On top of that, she was more comfortable telling this story more than the other one that she was going to. She could deal with the fact that he would think that she's crazy afterward than him judging her entire character.

"Alright, I'll tell you. So, to preface this. I've always been able just to see the paranormal. I guess I was just born with it. Although throughout my childhood, I've always been able to see these wispy tall, lanky shadowy figures. I have no idea what they are to this day, and they appeared to be less and less as I got older, but I still made it a point to talk to them when they showed themselves, even though they never talked at all. They were just there. The first ghost that showed itself to me was when I was six. The rest was from birth and on"

She paused for a moment and looked away from him.

"You probably think I'm crazy already."

"N-no, I don't please..continue," he said softly.

She looked into his puppy dog brown eyes for a moment. It was enough to make her melt, but she would rather die than admit it. She gave in.

"Well, I always thought the extent of my supernatural abilities would just be Sight. But I was so wrong."

"I was four at the time. My mom always worked a lot to provide for us my entire life. So I never really saw her. I don't hold that against her though it is what it is" she shrugged. "This was before my stepdad came around permanently, so I was always passed off from one babysitter to another," she smirked "none of them lasted a week with me, but my thing was don't tell me what to do in my own house when I am practically self-sufficient even at that age, and I know the rules and my routine better than some stranger who's in my territory. It started like any other day. But it just felt off like the entire day just felt off. Like, you know how a dog can tell when a thunderstorm will hit, and they act all weird? That was me. I could sense that a storm was brewing, and it wasn't one in nature. I could tell something bad would happen; I didn't know what at the time. I thought it might happen to my mom, and that's why my intuition was screaming at me. So I begged her not to go to work that day, but just like every adult, she brushed me off and didn't listen to or believe me. Idk there was just this ominous feel in the air. This time my babysitter was a stranger that my mom managed to hire—a fifteen-year-old blonde petite girl named Maggie Hemmington. At the time, I thought she was an adult, but then again, anyone older than 10 is an adult to you when you're four years old. She wore stuff that expressed she was into the occult stuff. When she came over that day, the feeling that something bad would happen jumped to 1000. I became more insistent and screaming, crying, and begging my mom not to leave me alone with her. But again, my mom brushed me off and tried to reassure me the best she could. In the end, she left for work and me alone with that bitch. The day was awful, with lots of fights and screaming at each other. She was just an awful person; she didn't even do her job. I still had to go and take care of myself. Eventually, she made me go to bed early, saying that she would have friends over and she didn't want a brat like me to get in the way. Which she wasn't supposed to have friends over, to begin with, but after the day I had, I was more than happy to oblige. The quicker I went to sleep, the quicker I could wake up and have it be the next day. So like the good kid I once was, I went up to my room, and surprisingly, I fell asleep naturally".

Tabby took a deep breath before she continued talking.

"It was around midnight, or so I would like to believe. I honestly don't remember much of what happened that night. I only remember what I remember due to months of pushing through the painful headaches and flashbacks accompanying me ever since. I don't remember the full story, so I'm probably missing a few parts, but I remember enough to piece together a semi-complete story. I remember waking up to Maggie and her friends screaming. I was scared and confused as to what was happening. Hindsight is 20/20. I probably should have just stayed in bed. Although, to be honest, I don't think that this night wouldn't have ended differently, even if I did just stay in bed. And in all actuality, I didn't hate her or any of her friends, for that matter. At least, not enough to leave them to their deaths. What if they were in trouble? I was the only one there that could do anything. If I didn't, that would make me a coward, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself. What if they were dead? Then what? If I did go down there and saw what I saw if they were dead, how would I explain what I saw to the police? To my mom? All these questions and choices ran through my head. However, my pride and what little compassion that I had got in the way. I didn't raise myself to be a coward, and I wasn't going to start then, and they sounded like they were in trouble. They needed me. So I chose to sneak downstairs to see what was up and figure it out from there. The apartment itself was quite old, so the staircase was creaky. However, some spots weren't creaky; I knew where they were. Going down the stairs was like doing an intricate dance to avoid the creaky spots. I crouched down halfway down the staircase. The apartment had dim lighting, so there were lots of shadows all over the place. I was wearing a black nightshirt, and I was tan and small enough to hide in the shadows. I looked through the bars of the stairs, and I saw Maggie and her friends huddled together with the look of absolute fear in their eyes, staring straight ahead and an ouija board in front of them. I couldn't see what they saw at the time. But I could feel a dark and powerful aura that was around. It was uncomfortable and overwhelming. It was almost suffocating. As I called it, the entity didn't know what it was since I couldn't see it, but I could feel it and hear it. All that I knew was that it was a malicious entity. It kept coming closer to where I was hiding. I crouched down more to make myself appear smaller. But the entity snatched me up, and as far as I knew, I was levitating in thin air. The entity had a suffocating grip on me. I don't remember much because Maggie, her friends, and I were too busy screaming, crying, and I was trying to fight my way out. I even tried to bite the entity, but that only resulted in it tightening its grip on me even more. Maggie was trying to negotiate a different price for summoning the entity Since it said that it required a sacrifice as a price for summoning it. And well, I was it. After hours of screaming, crying, and negotiating, they came to a compromise. What that compromise was, I have no idea to this day. But all I remember is a pressure on my forehead and just a flood of painful life truths and knowledge on more paranormal creatures and how to deal with them. I was screaming and crying in pain and agony. It was too much all at once, and I felt like my head was going to explode. The night seemed to go on forever to me. I thought that it would never end. After the entity was done, I blacked out. I can't tell you what happened after even if I tried. This is why I don't mess with horror movies, witchcraft, and ouija boards to this day. I don't go actively looking for stuff that I don't understand what I'm dealing with."

She checked to see if Toby was still listening, which he was. She was already in way too deep. There's no backing out of this story now. She was going to finish it.

"The next morning, I woke up back in my room in my bed. I had a painful headache in the center of my forehead, like the equivalent of a nasty hangover. I was perplexed as to what happened last night. I knew something happened. I didn't know what. That is until the painful knowledge that I received last night came flowing back like a flood. I was crying and screaming in agony until the flashbacks subsided. My mom came running in to see what was wrong. She asked me what was wrong. But I couldn't tell her the truth about what happened last night. She wouldn't have believed me anyway. Instead, I just cuddled up to her and held onto her tight, and just cried until I ran out of tears and was reduced to a sniffling, hiccupping mess. I just suffered in silence while my mom rubbed my back and petted my hair."

Toby looked at her, confused.

"I mean would your parents believe you if you told them this exact story?"

"Absofuckinglutely not," he answered honestly.

"That's what I thought."

She paused for a moment before taking a deep breath before continuing again.

"The next three months was a bitch to deal with. I was a mess. I still did what I needed to do. I went to preschool, although I was more antisocial than usual, and I was jumpier. I was just more of a broken quiet, my wide hazel eyes had a haunted look to them on top of them being slightly sunken back, and I had dark circles under them; I wasn't sleeping much during those three months. It was an awful sight. I was almost sickly skinny; I wasn't eating much for those three months as well. It was evident that I was a shell of my former self. After preschool, I ate the bare minimum to stay alive and shower when I had the energy to do so. I didn't want to be out of my room longer than I had to. I was afraid the entity would come back for me. The rest of the time, I laid in bed with my covers pulled up, staring at the wall or ceiling for hours on end, just empty-headed and crying when the flashbacks and nightmares occurred. The worst part was that I was alone. Mom was either working or sleeping, and she knew that my trauma had to do with Maggie, so my mom stopped with the babysitters and just left me alone. She wasn't supposed to, but she didn't know what else to do. I didn't tell my stepdad about what happened. And I used to tell this man everything and anything. Back then, we didn't have secrets from each other. But I couldn't tell him this. He wouldn't believe me if I told him. The only ones that I told were my friends when they gained enough trust. So I kept it to myself. My stepdad didn't push me back then. He knew when to back off and respect my boundaries. He dropped it when I didn't want to talk about it. He knew something happened to me but didn't know what. He checked up on me when he was there to make sure I was okay and got a little bit of something to eat. He wasn't always like the way he is now. But that's long gone. You think I'm bad now? You should have seen me in that state back then" she gave a bitter quiet laugh.

"A month had passed since then, and my stepdad had enough of me being bedridden. He gave me this piece of advice that I live by to this day. He sat on my bed and rubbed my back. It was an awful day. The flashbacks and headaches were non-stop, and sleep was nonexistent. He said he could tell that I was scared, and he hated seeing me like this every day. He also said that he knew that I wasn't a coward, and he knew a way to help me face any fear that I would have. That caught my attention, so I sat up a little to pay better attention. He told me this: The more you know, the less you have anything to be afraid of. After all, you can't be afraid of something if you know what that thing is. He left me alone after that, and it was something to think about. I gave myself a week to think about it. By Friday, I decided that I had enough. I didn't want to be stuck in bed. I was tired of the constant flashbacks and headaches. I was tired of living in fear. It's not a fun way to live as I would discover that realization again later on in my life, and guess what? That night when I decided to start not being afraid anymore was the first night that sleep overcame me with no flashbacks and headaches the following day. I guess as I started to make peace with what I was about to do, had something to do with that too".

"The next day, before my mom left for work and my stepdad came over to babysit me, I told them my decision and asked if I could go to the library. I figured that the first step to not being afraid is getting everything on that subject. My mom agreed and left her library card for us to use. I didn't get my own until I was six. I think my mom was just relieved that I wouldn't be bedridden anymore and that I was actually going out to get some fresh air. After my mom left, I grabbed the black backpack he gave me, and we went to the library. I got every book I could on the supernatural and how to deal with them. I definitely got some confused and concerned looks from the librarians and my stepdad. I ignored the librarians, and my stepdad didn't push it. I assumed that he picked up on the type of books that I was getting and figured out what I was scared of, but he was more than willing to help conquer my fears. We checked them out, and we had a month with them before we had to return them. My backpack was so filled that it made me look like an oversized turtle. I wasn't a good reader back then to reading comprehension. It wasn't my strong suit back then. But I was one hell of a writer. So even though he was confused about the subjects that I picked, he helped me with reading the books and helped me take down notes. The more I understood, the less I was becoming less and less afraid. The next step to me for not being afraid was getting the full story of what happened that night. To tell you the truth, I honestly didn't really remember what happened exactly. I remember bits and pieces of what happened due to flashbacks and memories but not in order. And I don't remember what happened after I blacked out about my thought process because I can finally understand and not be afraid anymore if I learned the truth of what really happened. Despite me staying out of my room more and more, I still spent an equal amount of time there. I would deliberately sit myself down and go through that day's events, walking myself through step by step. It wasn't until I got to the par I was snatched, and then the flashbacks would come back intensely. But nevertheless, I pushed through. I would always have a bad headache after each and every session. Literally, my diet consisted of whatever I ate and children's T. It wasn't easy, and there were days where I stepped back from the progress that I made, but little by little, I got to piece together as much of a complete story could. Over time the flashbacks and headaches became less and less frequent as I got older. Occasionally, I would get the nightmare of that nevertheless, always be followed by a headache in the center of my forehead. Still, I wMye some ibuprofen and be on my way. They don't happen as much anymore like they used to. Over time I became less and less afraid, and I became well more normal after that. Well, as normal as I could get after an event like that. I was happy more often. I had my dad/best friend. I pushed boundaries; I got time-outs and early bedtimes. I played with my toys and with him, and I went to preschool, and I ate a lot and regularly more often. I was doing fine. I was getting better".

"Anyways, that's my experience with people fucking around with shit that they don't understand, and then someone else had to pay. I'm pretty sure that this was also 30% of what lead up to me being here," she sounded bitter and looked away.

Toby had listened carefully to her story. He somewhat understood. He never had experiences with the paranormal like that when he was a kid. He had so many more questions for Tabby. Her story made him even more curious about her, but he knew better than to bombard her with them here and now. He hasn't known her for very long, but he knew he was the type of person to beat the fuck out of someone if they didn't back off. Or, at the very least, cause a scene. Maybe he'll try a different approach later when they had more time and alone and settled in. I mean, she already told him one of her most traumatic stories. So she was starting to trust him somewhat. Maybe she would say to him more. Perhaps finally, he found someone with the same pains as him, and they can cope together. He wondered, in the pit of his stomach and the back of his brain, if some force that was not his own made him stop his group from killing Tabby. He honestly had no clue whatsoever. Maybe, maybe not. He knew he had to respond to what Tabby had said, so he did.

"Hm. It doesn't sound like the weirdest thing I've heard." Toby said honestly. "Don't tell him I told you, but Ti- I mean, our boss stalked Masky for years before joining. The whole situation is up on Youtube. He's been trying to get it taken down."

Masky had told him about his life before he was a proxy. The hospital. The medications. Tim was screaming at the staff to believe him when he told them about the monster he saw. It was very lonely for him, and Toby assumed that it must've been very lonely for Tabby as well.

"I won't tell. I'm not a snitch. I'm not the one to snoop around in someone's business," she gave a small reassuring smile.

"You're probably right, though; about that probably leading you to here. Experiences with the paranormal usually either bring people to us or get them killed. I think that name sounds familiar. Maybe Maggie was someone my group has killed in the past. I'm not sure, but I think so. I'm sorry you went through that so young, though."

"I appreciate your sympathies...and it's whatever now I learned to cope. That's why I don't have any sympathies towards people who go actively looking for stuff. You knew what you're getting yourself into; you pay the consequences. If your group did kill her, I would thank you for that. The bitch had what was coming to her," she sounded dark and cold.

It took a minute for her to process what he said entirely.

"Wait, hold on. You believe me?"

"Yeah, I do believe you," Toby said.

Tabby just looked at him as she kept crawling. She wasn't exactly sure how to feel about this. All she can say is that she felt a weird rush of relief and adoration for the stranger behind her. It almost like he was the best thing ever.

He suddenly stopped crawling and grabbed Tabby's leg to let her know to stop.

"Do you think this is the place? It feels a little cooler, so I think it's by a window." He placed his hand on one of his hatchets.

"I think so. We should check"

Toby nodded and moved so Tabby could wiggle out first. She probably knew this better than he did. Tabby got out first. It turns out they were in the parents' room. And the window was open. She gave a thumbs up out the window to let Masky and Hoodie know that they could come in. She turned to face Toby.

"Alright, so I thought that I should take out the parents first, so that way all you guys have to do is just get the kids. So we're going to need to create a distraction to lure the parents up here. The least I can do is make sure that the kids don't have to see them being brutally murdered" she looked down.

"That might not be an option," Toby said quietly, "They may see...we have to try to get them not to see. I'll tell Tim and Brian to take the older kids while I get the baby. That should leave you a window of opportunity to do what you need to do."

Toby looked around. The parents' room was tidy and lovely. Pictures hung on the wall. What looked like their wedding photos. A baby photo of a baby in a little blue hat. A photo of the son as a toddler, with food all over his face. A picture of the boy with a newborn baby in a pink hat. Those were all over the walls. Photos of the stages of the family growth. He also saw some exercise equipment that the parents used in the room when they could.

"Well, I'm going to try to make it an option."

She took a deep breath, "you go hide somewhere and then take the baby. I got this"

It was evident that she didn't believe it. She lifted a heavyweight ball that was in the room. She gave it a good bang against the wall.

"Now go!"

Toby and Tabby slipped into the closet as they heard the dining sounds cease, and footsteps came up the stairs. He hoped it was the mother, as she was the one he had seen with the baby. The footsteps paused outside the door. Then he heard it open. Toby and Tabby peeked out from a crack in the closet to see the woman standing there, a look of confusion and shock on her face. She held her baby in her arms. She stood there for what seemed like minutes but was seconds. Then she screamed and turned to run back down the stairs.

"PAUL! TAKE THE KIDS AND GET OUT-"

Toby heard crashing downstairs. Ah. Hoodie and Masky.

Tabby and Toby ran with the speed of light, and she tackled the woman down the stairs. The baby flew from the mother's arms on impact, but luckily Toby caught them. She tumbled down with the woman. That's going to leave a couple of bruises later. She honestly had no idea what she was doing; she had no idea how to kill. So she fell back on the basics of what her stepdad has taught her. "go for the throat," she said in thought. She took out her knife and pulled the women's head back by her hair, and jammed the knife into the back of her neck in the hypothalamus gland causing instant death. The baby was unharmed.

The woman was bleeding out on the stairs. The baby was crying, mainly because the whole situation was probably terrifying for someone so small. Toby gingerly picked the baby up, searching her over for injuries. The woman was dead. Now Tabby just had to get the dad.

Tabby saw the dad standing there in shock with the kids to the side. Tabby gave an apologetic look to the kids that said I'm so sorry. Then she looked at the dad again, and she felt anger boiling in her. Why did he look so shocked? He should have been prepared for the consequences of actively looking for shit that he didn't understand. What did he expect? What made Tabby angrier was that now someone else had to pay the consequences for his actions. Because he brought his children into this mess, and now they have to suffer. She lunged at the dad and just aimed for the throat. She had enough momentum behind her to have enough force to knock down the dad. Blind anger and Rosewood's and her darkness engulfed her. She lived up to her reputation as Karma.

With that, her vision turned red and blacked out.

[the-fandom-fuckup]

A bit more for that modern fantasy au I teased a bit ago

Character designs n stuff are slightly based off the official halloween n fantasy ending arts, plus whatever else I wanted to do, so Kiri is a dragon shifter here, Baku is a werewolf, n Ochako is a witch.

There'll probably be a hint of a/b/o dynamics here for weres n shifters, n the idea of alpha!Kiri n alpha!Baku has stuck to me like glue, so that's a thing here also

There's no real plot for this, just these three being dumb n pining, and everyone around them rolling their eyes n dealing with it lmao

I've thought about jobs n first meetings tho, n came up with this. Kiri's a firefighter (along with Tetsu, who is also a dragon shifter, bc I love him and their bro-bond), bc big fire resistent boy running into fires to help people just makes sense. Also I really like the thought of him in the uniform

Ochako works as a self defense instructor with Gunhead at a small gym in town, probably helping people with magic items n stuff on the side for extra cash or smth, I dunno. She might wanna move into a more magically dominant field one day, but she likes the environment of the gym n the regulars that come in n chat between classes. She's also very good at what she does n has put many assholes in their place after they've scoffed at "the cute little girl you have here".

Baku is a "park ranger", n I use quotations bc that's the only title he could really give himself to have any authority over the land he owns. He gives himself more leeway than what some laws may grant, tho tbh if you're coming into his territory with intent to harm those in it, you're lucky to walk away at all just sayin'

He runs an escape park of sorts for weres n shifters to run around during full moons and other times they need to shed their human skin, personally owned so he can avoid all the bullshit regulations n "safety procedures" found in bigger places that try offering the same thing, but ultimately make the shifting process shittier than it needs to be. And words gets around so it gets super popular super fast, n people of all ages come by

Tbh the thought of a teeny tiny wolf, like 10y/o at most running around Baku n trying to get him to play, nipping at his ankles n calling him the pack alpha is really what settled the debate on whether he should be an alpha or omega. And the added image of Baku rolling his eyes n putting on his toughass act but not really minding it as he gets them moving with a tap on the ass, muttering "Fuckin told ya squirt, I'm not your pack alpha. Now find someone else's ankles to bite at, I'm busy", makes me feel really nice

For some first meetings, tbh Kiribaku probably happens first, n they meet when Kiri n Tetsu accidentally trespass on Baku's territory bc they're new to the area n found a big ass lake to soak in during a flight over town, like dude!! Fuck yea that could fit both of us easy, man I haven't soaked in my big form in forever lets go!

And ofc if the giant shadows overhead hadn't tipped him off the security sensors would've so Baku's like who in the FUCK!! N storms off to confront them bc you don't just come on his land like that. That's how people get fucking hurt you dumb assholes 😤😤

N Kiri n Tetsu are mostly just minding their own business, settling down into the lake like aw yea that's the shit, almost passing out bc they'd just had a long day n the water was so cool n the fish eatting the dead skin n shit off their scales was so relaxing. They don't even realise they'd drifted into a light doze when they hear furious snarling n harsh sniffing coming their way, n barely have enough time to get up before Baku comes tearing shit through the trees

And like. Kiri n Tetsu know that they're big boys. Their full sized dragon forms are huge n there's not much out there that scares them, but nobody likes coming face to face with a snarling werewolf, standing in their territory without any warning that you maybe shouldn't be there

Despite the hostile intro, it doesn't take much for the misunderatanding to be cleared up. There's a lot of apologies from Kiri n Tetsu n a lot of irritated snorts from Baku, but they get straightened out. Baku tells them what kinda show he's running n Kiri inatantly get sparkly eyes like dude!! You do that all by yourself?! That's so manly bro you gotta let us help with that

Baku snorts like you don't have to make empty offers if you wanna use the grounds, I don't refuse people unless they pose an actual threat to the others. You guys aren't dangerous, just stupid. N Kiri goes hey rude, but also it's gotta be a lot dealing with all that on your own. We can at least watch out from above, keep an eye on shit or whatever bc face it man, you may be great but even you can't be in multiple places at once.

And the only reason Baku ends up agreeing is bc they pester him about it until he's well past irritated, n he's figured out the only way to shut them up was concede. They can't be there fulltime anyway consudering their professions, but they're sure to help when they can

Kirichako meet at the gym. Kiri's buying a membership or smth bc you gotta keep the stength up bro! Can't be slacking when you're the difference between someone living n someong dying y'know? Ochako's either in a class or dealing with some hothead, her furrowed brows n puffed cheeks distracting Kiri n reminding him of a chipmunk before bud says smth he can't hear but has Ochako seeing red. It doesn't take long for him to end up on his ass n Kiri's just stuck watching, jaw dropped n heart eyes as Ochako tells the guy he can either fix his attitude or find somewhere else to go

Kiri turns to Tetsu like dude holy shit did you see that?? N Tetsu's like yea bro everyone saw it, n Ochako comes up to them like sorry about that. We have a no harassment policy here that some people overstep, n it sucks that we get people coming in that need it enforced but unfortunately it's pretty common.

Then, bc she's still a bit sour, she looks them both dead in the eyes with a fire raging behind hers like if that's not smth you think you can handle then you might as well save us all the hassle n leave now. N they're both like no way that was great, totally understandable, just tell us where to sign

And while she came off as kinda aggressive during their initial meet, Kiri's quick to find she has just as much sweetness to match her bite. He watches her between sets sometimes n sees how kind n gentle she can be with the younger classes that come in, how she doesn't single out people who struggle n instead moves to help n provide tips without making a huge deal of it

She's also one of the first people to come running when someone gets hurt, he finds out. He'd admittedly been more focused on her sparring with Gunhead than he'd been on the super heavy equipment he was using for his reps, n managed to look over at the perfect time to get flustered n drop it directly on his foot. The resounding crack was loud enough to catch quite a bit of attention, tho he knows the equipment is more likely to be damaged than his foot

Ochako doesn't even hesitate to run over n levitate him to take the pressure off of his not broken foot, going "oh my god are you okay?? Someone clear that bench please, he needs to get off his feet now!" N Kiri does appreciate the concern, as embarassing as it may be, n tries to tell her it's really not a big deal, thanks for the help but honestly--

N she rounds on him like say that one more time n you'll be dealing with a broken nose instead, now sit your ass down n let me handle this!! Kiri can't even reply with anything other than a quiet okay😳😳 bc he's always thought her determination was super admirable, but being this close n seeing it burn in her eyes so intensely is taking it to a whole new level n he has no clue how to handle it

Kacchako meeting is kind of a hybrid mix of the other two combined lmao. Baku owns a pack house where he lives with Deku, then later with Kiri, Tetsu, Mina, Kami, n Sero, but he's so busy with the park that he's hardly ever home. N since Ochako's kinda embarassed about her tiny ass appartment, they usually hang out at the pack house to talk over magic studies or gossip over whatever's happened recently. At this point Baku n Ochako have heard of each other but never been around at the same time

Which causes a problem one day while Ochako's in the kitchen making tea when Baku comes home. He'd had a stressful day warding off poachers or smth, n his rut's just a few days away now, so when he opens the door n is greeted with a slightly unfamiliar scent it sends him into a daze, where he stalks to the kitchen before he even knows that he's moving

Ochako knows tho, can hear the low growls and deliberately quiet steps creeping behind her, setting her on edge bc ohhhh my god, someone just broke into Deku's place holy shit!! And when it gets close enough to barely feel hot breath on the back of her neck she's flinging herself into action, all muscle memory as she gets a few quick jabs into Baku's gut. It knocks the question outta his lungs, getting out a choked "who the--" before her magic kicks in and she's picking him up n slamming him down with his weight returned for maximum momentum, body slamming the following "fUCK!!" out as well before she placed her weight on him to keep him down. She gets right in his face demanding "who are you?! How did you get in here?!"

And when he can breathe again Baku snaps back like "who tf am I?!? I live here!! Who tf are you?!?!" And like, she's still in fight mode so she's looking him over like hmm, so this is Bakugou. Then she realises wtf she's doing n goes oh my god it's Bakugou!! N she's jumping off him and apologising so fast that she's barely saying words, trying to take his hands n help him back up but getting swatted away bc you've done enough touching don't you think??

And yea, Baku's kinda pissed. Being attacked in your own house does that to anyone, let alone a pre-rut alpha. But also, he's kinda impressed, bc he can count on one hand the amount of people who've gotten the drop on him like that, but he'd rather die than admit it out loud. So he just huffs at her with a final "try that shit again n I'll kill you", n stalks off to his room, having more important things to worry about right then than who's fucking around in his kitchen

((His rut decides to be completely unhelpful that time around, his alpha brain locking in on the faint perfume she'd left on his shirt while tossing him around and how perfectly it mixed with his own scent, as well as the shirt he nabbed from Kiri's laundry basket the night before. He rubs the scents of these strong potential mates all over his den, knots his rut aid with his face plastered to the shirts then uses it to scent the shirts even more, drunk off of how well their scents all mix together. He's rightfully embarassed during the end when he can start thinking properly again n throws both shirts to the back of his closet to be forgotten about--as much as his alpha fights him on it--n moves on to his business like normal.

Tho if he tries to be home more often when he knows Ochako's coming around, n spends more time in Kiri's space, nobody's mean enough to comment on it. At least, not at first.))

Man I have many feelings about this, but I'll leave it here for now bc I could go on forever

[sweetescapeartist]

MY DBS MANGA CHAPTER 72 REVIEW... 😒

Hey there... Here comes the review.

Imma start like this and use language some ppl may find offensive. Goku, Vegeta, & Granolah are retarded. Now that that's out of the way, time to dissect this "Dragon Ball Super coloring book."

Goku & Vegeta land on the planet & its peaceful. How are they not immediately suspicious? They see that the planet isn't in danger & no death. Its obvious they need to ask a question to figure out what lies they've been told.

I was gonna say its dumb for Granolah to be able to supress his ki because it seems only Earthling have that kind of spiritual understanding. But Namekians have that spiritual understanding too so maybe Monaito taught Granolah how to suppress his ki.

I lost interest in the Heeters' past. You can only tease me so long until I stop caring. At least mention something like Freeza almost killed Gas on planet Cereal so now that's why Gas keeps trying to get stronger. There's so little info about "important" stuff that's supposed to be important. Give readers a tease, hint, a different hint, some valuable info, then another hint, then a reaveal (or something similar!) Instead its tease, hint, tease, tease, hint, tease...

In all honesty, the chapter didn't even need that page with Gas & Elec. When Maki said Gas & Elec are coming, that was all we needed to know. Then we anticipate their arrival in the next chapter. Showing them is a waste of time & they add no real purpose to the chapter. That was just a waste of ink.

Also I'm bored of Gas now. He only looks interesting but does nothing. 👎

Granolah shoots at Goku & Vegeta. Base Goku closes his eyes to use UI (UI Omen?) while Vegeta goes SS. Base Goku dodges easier than Vegeta. Goku is leagues beyond Vegeta.

A better way to have Goku & Vegeta encounter Granolah would be for him to snipe at them right when they get off the ship. Granolah wanted to kill them so bad so why wait for them?

Somehow they go towards Granolah but he's too fast for them & they lose him. They can't sense him firing ki for some reason. Idk why Goku didn't use Instant Transmission when Granolah shot ki at them?

I don't get why Goku closes his eyes either. Its as if Goku can't use UI now unless his eyes are closed but that wasn't the case before. Eyes were opend when using UI Omen & Mastered UI. Toyo could have conveyed that better but instead he's making Goku close his eyes like how Roshi covered his eyes when fighting those prisoner women because their beauty distracted him. Is Goku distracted by Granolah's beauty or something?

Wait a sec... I gotta backtrack real quick. Goku used the Ultra Instinct technique in his base & didn't go into Ultra Instinct Omen? But thats him using it in base right? Oh boy... This is about to get dumb...

Ultra Idiot Goku & Super Stupid Vegeta are surprised that the guy having the title of "strongest in the universe" is capable of moving faster than them when they aren't at full power. Such genius writing.

Goku gets shot in the neck... & it knocks him out... Ok. But later Granolah comments on how Goku's body moves on it's own before Goku can even process an attacks. Not to mention Goku & Whis have said the same thing. Goku should be untouchable at this point, but for some reason he is not.

So, Vegeta takes a senzu bean from his "training bra" and gives it to Goku. For some reason they decided to only take 2 senzu when knowing they would fight a guy possibly stronger than them. Stupid monkeys.🐒 (I'm starting to sound like Freeza now)

How did unconscious Goku eat a senzu? Yaoi fans would had loved it if Vegeta chewed the senzu up for Goku and fed it to him. Sorry, it just reminded me of Trunks spitting senzu mush into Mai's mouth since she was unconscious.

Then we have this dialogue from "sensei" Vegeta, The Ultra Instinct Expert...

"You rely on Ultra Instinct too much! If you haven't perfected it yet, then dodge using your mind!" - Vegeta

"Yeah, you're right..." - Goku

"WTF Toyotaro!" - DB Meta

... I'm unsure who is the stupid one in this situation. Is it Goku or Vegeta? It could be Vegeta because UI is the ultimate technique that allows you to move without thinking. But Vegeta says that because Goku hasn't perfected Ultra Inst-...

...

...

Sorry, I had to restart my brain...

Didn't... didn't Goku master Ultra Instinct? Silver hair? Silver eyes? MASTERED/PERFECTED ULTRA INSTINCT? Before that, Goku perfected Ultra Instinct Omen & could go in it at will... So, Goku is listening to Vegeta tell him he hasn't mastered UI? But both know that Goku did master UI? What does Vegeta know? Vegeta can't even use UI.

I almost stopped reading the rest of the colouring book when I got to that dialogue.

Also, Granolah wants to kill Saiyans, so why is he holding back and not hitting them with deadly attacks. He only needs one alive anyways. He said so himself.

At least there was a good pose Goku was in. The art looked nice there.

Now here's another place I almost quit reading. Granolah apparently has all the abilities of Goku & Vegeta. Hack writing. Sounds like a Moro, 7-3, & Cell copy cat. Toyo just cant leave the Cell saga alone.

Granolah is bumping his gums & rattling his tongue (old slang for "talking a lot") but when Vegeta asks if Granolah holds a grudge against Saiyans, Granolah suddenly says that's enough talking. He responded to them 3 times & spoke like 5 sentences to them. If you're gonna chat then chat. If you hate Saiyans then don't say anything to them & try to kill them. Dummy.

Granolah uses Hakai. But aparently he's not using Hakai or Instant Transmission. Its just "similar." Sure. Confirms that he has been using something similar to UI in previous chapters too.

Granolah says they're stronger than expected because they escaped into the air. Escape doesn't equal strenght. Mai escaped Goku Black, doesn't mean she's extremely strong.

But seriously, Vegeta saying he's gonna prove his training is better than Goku is stupid. He wants to prove he is better than Goku yet he tells Goku to fight first (that's beta). It's as if he isn't confident & wants Goku to wear Granolah out first, so he can come in and look impressive. Kinda like in RoF after Freeza was tired from fighting Goku & Vegeta wasn't tired at all & he easily beat Freeza up. Looked cool, but actually wasn't too impressive.

Granolah saying that he's gonna shoot them if they don't fight him is ridiculous. Why is he showing mercy to the tribe that didn't show his ppl mercy? Why give chances to the ppl you wanted revenge on for years? Realistically he would just start blasting at them.

Unecessary dialogue from Vegeta talking to himself about how he needs to learn who Granolah is. Show don't tell Toyo.

Why is Granolah waiting for the Oozaru form? Maybe he wants to kill them in that form? What about revenge? Just kill them.

Goku screamed to power up from SS to SSG. That's possibly dumb, but I gotta let at least 1 thing slide this chapter.

Why did Granolah let them power up? So unlike what we've been shown what Granolah is like. Why would he want to give "murderers" of his entire race a fair chance to fight him?

Next, Goku doesn't try to explain he isn't savage like other Saiyans when Granolah accuses his kind of being so. Instead Goku just agrees & says "Oh... Yeah." I guess he really just wants to fight. I can't tell if this is OOC or just magnifying a Saiyan flaw of Goku just to push the story along. Idk. I'm losing brain cells reading this chapter.

Granolah's fighting stance is cool. Hey, look. I said a nice thing. (But why is he doing close combat when being a sniper us his specialty?)

So, Goku uses UI in SSG form... Bruh, is Ultra Instinct a technique, a state of mind, or a transformation? I'll tell you what it is. ULTRA INSTINCT IS A PLOT DEVICE! It does whatever Toyotaro decides at the moment. So freaking inconsistent... 😓😒

Ultra Instinct becomes more accurate when in conjunction with a SS form?! How tho? I thought it was just a goldy technique that needed a clear mind and control or whatever. Or is UI a transformation like Toyo stated many times in previous chapters, while also calling UI a technique? How can mixing a godly "technique" with a SS form enhance it better than Goku simply using UI Omen? It doesnt! Vegeta, you can just shut up! Every time you talk about UI, you've been wrong! It should be illegal impersonating an UI Expert.

Goku is using the Ultra Instinct technique in base form against Granolah.

UI Omen is Goku using the Ultra Instinct technique in base form.

Goku uses Ultra Instinct technique in the Super Saiyan God transformation.

Mastered UI is Goku mastering the technique or maybe using the technique as a transformation? (Toyo is confusing.)

So why isn't Goku going into UI Omen when using UI in base? Why does Vegeta say "Ultra Instinct... becomes more accurate when used in conjunction with a Super Saiyan form"? Does that mean Mastered UI is a Saiyan form in conjunction with the Ultra Instinct technique? So, there's an unknown silver haired Saiyan transformation that Goku was utilizing in conjunction with Ultra Instinct? I guess this confirms that "Super Saiyan Blanco" is real y'all.

I suppose that if UI in base isn't the same as UI Omen, then by that logic, there is also an unknown "Super Saiyan Noir" form we haven't seen yet.

I'm done with Ultra Instinct in the manga. Toytaro doesn't know if UI is a technique or a transformation. I could explain it better than him, but I'm not tye one writing official material. Why should I make sense of his bad writing when he will change things later? HE should explain it clearly to US. He is extremely inconsistent with his explanations and will change them when he feels like it.

I dont care what Geekdom101 says about UI being both technique & transformation, because Ultra Instinct IS NOT a transformation nor a technique anymore. ULTRA INSTINCT IS JUST A PLOT DEVICE. 😑

[You can skip this little section. I'm talking about inconsistencies from the Moro arc]

I remember when I talked about how Moro's life draining powers were retconned multiple times.

Moro can absorb life energy from a planet while he is in outer space, then he is nerfed to only being able to take life energy by directly touching you, later Vegeta says they need to get off the ground because now Moro (who is stronger and fused with the planet) can only steal your life enrgy while making contact with you. He could absorb life energy from entire planets from space, but has to make contact with somebody once he got stronger?

Let's not forget it's said Moro drains life energy, but can't drain 17 & 18 because they say they don't have life energy. I guess that means Krillin had a daughter with a dead woman? No. Multiple times, 17 & 18 contributed to the Genki Dama (a collection of life energy). Goku gathers energy from trees, animals, ppl, everything living. This means 17 & 18 do have life energy because they are living beings. But the energy they fight with is unlimited artificial energy.

So if 17 & 18 can give life energy to Goku for a Genki Dama, then Moro should be able to take their life energy just like anyone else. What he can't take is their energy they use for battle because itsunlimited & artificial. Toyotaro does not understand this important detail nor does he understand many other details about these iconic character. So why is the the writer if he is getting so much wrong? Why is he not soley the artist?

Goku uses UI in SSG form to dodge a barrage of attacks from Granolah that are aimed at the planet. They must be weak attacks because the explosions are tiny. Is Granolah really trying to kill them?

Goku using UI in SSG but somehow gets caught off gaurd. Did UI just get nerfed so that Vegeta can look like he is on the same level as Goku in a later chapter? I think it did...

Granolah took Goku down a second time... Wow Goku, you kinda suck. In DBS CH 65 on page 11, after Moro broke his arm on UI Goku's chest, Whis said "When Ultra Instinct is honed to this extent, the body will automatically grow sturdier as necessary." Why is Goku holding back against the strongest in the universe? Oh yeah, that's right... UI is getting nerfed.

Vegeta, what do you mean "How is he learning Kakarot's weaknesses so quickly?" Everybody has similar vital spots in DB. Thats not learning, thats just knowing. Are you just a dummy, Vegeta? Do you not know where vital spots are?

Granolah can tell Goku's body is moving before his brain tells him to react. Granolah the UI "expert" can see all with his eye. You know who else can see with their eye? Tien. Speaking of Tien, I wanna go back to Earth now. What's Piccolo doing? I bet everyone on Earth is chilling or at work. Is it bad I'd rather watch Gohan at a conference than watch Goku, Vegeta, & Granolah be dummies? I'd rather watch Chi-Chi cooking with vegetables instead of watching vegetable puns fight a cereal pun. I'm sorry, the dialogue is just so bad...

How does Granolah's right eye being able to observe blood flow & muscle movements let you know where to strike? Dude, vital spots are where your organs are, & pressure points, & your head area, & you arteries, & so on. Ya ain't gotta observe blood flow to know that. Granolah just making stuff up now to sound cool. News flash, you failed. If he was sniping and able to track them based on blood flow and muscle movement, then that would had been smarter writing.

Granolah: "This right eye of mine is the sharpest in all the universe. It sees all."

Your eye sees all Granolah? Can you see past the Heeters feeding you bullcrap too?

Yo, where did Granolah's barely existing personality go? He wss once driven by revenge, and now the opportunity for revenge is right here in front of him & he's acting like he doesn't want it. If revenge is his only noticeable personality trait, what happens when you take it away? You get bland and dry Granolah.

So then Veget- hold on! Thats it! Granolah's name pun is granola because he is meant to be a bland character! I get it now! So all his moves must be cereal puns!

I never realized how genius this character is!

Detective Vegeta: "A tribe driven to extinction, known for their evolved right eyes... This is starting to sound familiar..." 🕵

Tien?! Oh wait... he said right, not 3rd eye. Jiren?! Oh wait, that's both his eyes... Jaco!? That's both eyes too... I give up.

Granolah's eye can tell that Goku is not using his full power, yet he can't tell he is being fooled by the Heeters. I think he needs new glasses or at least clean the revenge smear off of his monocle.

Granolah casually chats with a Saiyan who is one of the ppl he wants to kill. He would be better if he barely talked and just acted. Granolah should be like Iron Man in "Captain America: Civil War." Not trying to talk, just trying to kill because he is angry and wants revenge.

Goku: "Granolah, we don't work for Freeza & the two of us didn't attack your planet."

Granolah: "I dont care... Your people killed my family."

Boom! Gimme an award!

Back to the chapter 72 colouring book...

Granolah: "Hurry and get on with it. I have no duty to wait for your sake."

Yet you've been waiting all this time for them to arrive, fight them, chat with them, & even waiting for him to transform right now. You got time. You got 3 yrs to waste. You can chat for 10 minutes or so.

Granolah tells Goku that he doesn't have time to wait, then says "It's no skin off my nose to kill you where you stand." Then he waits for Goku to transform... Just kill Goku and be done with it already. Its not like Vegeta can win if Goku can't.

Granolah: "I dont have time for talk."

Goku: "Ok lets fight!"

Granolah: "Ok but, let me tell you about what my eye can do. I'm really proud of it. Mind if I talk a bit? So I sacrificed my life to defeat Freeza, the guy you're working for."

Goku: "What? You don't like Freeza? You're not a bad guy?"

Granolah: "Shut up Saiyan! You'll pay! Fight me!"

Granolah doesn't want to talk about Freeza all of the sudden when Goku implies they both have been tricked. Granolah becomes stupid just so the fight continues. There's a better way to keep them fighting. SHUT UP, GRANOLAH! If he talked less then convoluted stuff like this wouldn't happen.

Granolah yells "Take this!" He powers up instead of doing an attack... Why yell "take this" then power up if you aren't gonna attack right away? You even knocked Goku out of SSG, so now is the perfect time to finish him.

Blah blah blah, Goku goes SSB and they fight, blah blah blah.

Hey look! In my last review I said something about the planet should shake or be in danger from the battle. Looks like Toyo made the planet shake from the battle. Good job. I like this detail. Will it matter later on? Probably not.

Also, ya notice how god ki and god transformations are limited in this chapter? It seem they got too powerful for there to be any stakes. So we see Vegeta in base & SS. Then we see Goku in base, SS, SSG, base, & SSB so that false tension can build. Its smart but the dialogue doesn't compliment this smart tactic.

Aparently Vegeta doesn't care about the fight. Detective mode activate! (🕵) Vegeta standing in that Oozaru footprint looks like he's in Jurassic Park lol. But why did Detective Vegeta have to touch the footprint? He could had just looked at everything when he was high up and had a bird's eye view. Did Detective Vegeta taste the soil & gain knowledge by tasting the past?

Detective Vegeta: "I think I know who he is."

The Heeters said his name is Granolah, dummy. Shouldn't you say "I think I know what happened here." or something like that? Gimmie your detective hat, your trench coat, your bubble pipe, & you magnifying glass! You give detectives a bad name! I'll give this to somebody more deserving, like Jaco, Videl, Krillin, or Hit.

Did ya notice that Vegeta didn't get hit once but Goku who is using UI gets hit multiple times? Vegeta tells Goku to think instead of use UI? Oh yeah, this chapter was to pander to Vegeta fans. Toyo is poorly trying to convey he is equal or above Goku somehow. Like Vegeta mastered his training but Goku hasn't despite having mastered UI as a transformation thingy.

In conclusion, I was right. Freeza still hasn't been seen yet. Show a pic of him in somebody's thought bubble at the very least. This is all happening because if his influence y'all. Still no visual of Freeza yet... Whateva.

This chapter was wack. Too much unintelligent & unreasonable & unrealistic & unnecessary dialogue, plot went nowhere, Goku is being handicapped so the fight can continue, everyone are stupid idiots, Vegeta is being built up to lose his battle or get lucky & win. No image of Freeza still... This was just a very, very boring chapter.

I expect the next chapter to be boring too. Probably won't see Freeza either.

Prediction

Goku got knocked down twice by Granolah, Vegeta decided to fight second, Granolah said he doesn't need to keep Goku alive, & Vegeta told Goku he should stop relying on UI... Sounds like UI is getting nerfed & Goku is gonna need to be saved by Vegeta so that Vegeta can show off his Hakai training in comparison to UI.

[starswayv]

pretty pink hoodie (lee jeno)

pairing lee jeno x female reader

themes fluff, drabble

word count 696, pretty easy to read, enjoy!

author’s note hello, my very first story here on tumblr and my very first time writing in a language that is not my birth language, so i’m sorry for any misspeling mistakes you’re most likely going to find ;) enjoy!

“Honey, babe, you know this is supposed to be the other way around, right?” you say, as Jeno walks around his bedroom like it’s his own little fashion show, posing in front of the mirror every now and then. "I'm supposed to be stealing my boyfriend's hoodies, not my boyfriend stealing mine. Leave my hoodie alooooone!”

You whine, and he just shows his tongue to you and goes back admiring his own self in the mirror.

You’re lying in the bed, bored, killing time watching your boyfriend as he pouts and makes faces to you.

"You know what, y/n, that's just dumb old standards. Nowadays girls and boys wear almost the same clothes, so I can wear your stuff too, and what fault do i have if my girlfriend has such an amazing taste in fashion?"

The "amazing fashion tasting" piece of clothing in question was a pink hoodie. Just that, not even stamped or anything. Just an oversized pink hoodie you just bought 3 days ago and wanted to show it to Jeno, not realizing the mistake you’d have made then. At first it was innocent, he liked your hoodie and tried it on as a way to leave his smell on it, wanting for you to carry a piece of his everywhere you’d go.

Sweet and all, but now, he was no time close to taking it off his body.

"Yes, love, i know it's pretty, i bought it. And since i like it and i bought it for myself, i would really like to give it a use too."

He looks at you thought the mirror, rolling his eyes and turning his body to face you. He jumps from the mirror right onto the bed, making you jump too with the sudden move. Sitting on the bed right in front of you, he grabs your face and leave a kiss with a smack on your lips, unexpectedly. Months of dating and you still failed to understand what was going on in this little extra head of his.

"Let's make a trade then, one hoodie of mine for this hoodie of yours."

"No way! This one is new! It’s not a fair trade, Jeno” you pout, and rethinks his offer.

"Ok, two hoodies for this one. Please, it’s just so pretty and it fits me so well, don’t you want your boyfriend to look pretty for you?”

He smiles suggestively, making you laught. Like he needed a hoodie to be pretty. He could wear a potato bag and would look good. For all you care and knew, he could were nothing and still look gorgeous.

“And also, i don't even know why you're complaining, y/n, think about it. We’re stuck together forever, you'll never leave me, therefore, you'll always see the hoodie, you won’t miss it al all."

“Yeah, that’s a very good point you just made.”

Turning to lay back, you grab the colar of the pink hoodie he’s wearing, pushing him to top you in bed, you both smiling thought the sweet kiss. His hands instinctively go to your waist, squeezing it there sometimes, body weight completely dropped over yours. You don't move your hands from the cap of the hoodie, wanting his face close and lips on yours for as longs as possible. You know you could never say no to him, you just enjoyed the teasing sometimes. This smile you’re witnessing so close to your face right now would make you move mountains for him, so what’s a little pretty pink hoodie, right?

“So,” he says, parting your lips a little. “Do we have a deal?”

With his loving eyes far into yours, you give in.

"Okay, you win. Two hoodies for this one. And whatever ones i want, no picking!" he smiles widely, leaving you one too many soft kiss on both cheeks before jumping out of bed and off of you to admire himself again on the full-body mirror in your room. He was right, he really look way to cute and pretty in your hoodie.

You gasped, still not understanding the boyish behavior of his, but loving it anyways. In a lower voice, almost if he wasn't supposed to hear it, you complete:

"I'll steal it back anyways after you wear it enough so it smells like you.”

[kimnamshiks]

You Got it Like That?

Alternately longer Title: You Got it Like That? (Damn that’s crazy)

Pairing: Wooyoung x Female Reader

Genre: Whatever the hell this plot is and Smut

Rating: Explicit

WC: 7.5k+ (below 8k that’s for sure)

Tags: Smut, light fluff, bad attempt at humor, brief Minsan shenanigans, Fingering (female receiving), Temperature play kink, slight praise kink, slight kink discovery (anal), marking kink, some other shit I’ll update if I missed it. Briefest mentions of Seonghwa

Summary: You just needed to get through this week at the resort at the hands of 20 coworkers and Wooyoung; the Sales Department Supervisor who got some raunchy photos of you the day prior.

Taglist: @atiny-piratequeen @thereal-smolchild @angel0taiyo

You stumbled through your house happily, sorta out of it since you’re still high on the party you just left from. A little drinking here and being around smokers that had you linger in the weed; the endorphins coursing through you were pretty higher than usual on this Saturday night. A friend’s night that turned into crashing someone’s party freely without judgment which made everything better in your opinion.

You were on your way to stripping off your clothes when a buzz alerted you, taking your attention away from your work at hand.

+1[245] woobieboobie Uh… I believe you sent it to the wrong person? But holy hell you really did that. Didn’t expect that this late but thank you (;

Confused, you opened the message in full and damn near dropped your phone in shock. Six photos of you in states of undress stared back at you. Provocative and cheeky (literally, ass cheeks showing in some) as you smiled happily towards the lens of your phone. Your breast pushed up in the little strappy blue chemise set you wore to show off your body littered with little bruises and fingerprints on your thighs. Even some prints were dark on your shoulders from one of your wilder nights from a quickie. Honestly, you can’t even remember who’s house you took them in..

Though you managed to send them out to for… what exactly? Looking at it, you couldn’t help but groan in dismay.

+1 [873] me [image89.jpg attachment sent] Feeling sorry that you can’t leave these on me huh. SOL~  Gotta work for it if you want it, doll xoxo

Above those photo messages were questions about the next team-building trip that your company was supposed to take for the week, discussing with your co-manager Wooyoung, from the sales department. Just brainstorming ideas on how to get the departments to know that they work together, no matter how much push back you get from each other. 

Both of you got close over the process of thinking this up and getting approval by the company head. If it brings back good results they may make this an option across the board for the rest of the departments who can’t get along. Yea you crushed on him a bit but who wouldn’t? He was hard-working, caring, pretty funny and fucking fine as shit. 

You weren’t trying to mess the good balance of friendship up right now cause of some tipsy texting.

There was one for almost every photo too! You didn’t drink that much did you?

+1 [873] me [image90.jpg attachment sent] Wanna know what you like about this pose.

+1 [873] me [image95.jpg attachment sent]    Tbh my form looks the best it’s ever been.

+1 [873] me [image105.jpg attachment sent] Call me pretty cause I almost had to beat an asshole up for saying I looked like shit tonight :(

You couldn’t do anything more than spam a message out in response and hope, praying that Wooyoung doesn’t say anything to you tomorrow.

+1 [873] me Kfajsdlgjskfjogsldfj!!! uH THANKS?! DELETE PLZ. SEE YOU TOMORROW!

+1 [245] woobieboobie ….. (:  Hmm. See you tomorrow beautiful~ ;3

Based on that response, you knew he wasn’t. The fucking troll. Regardless you made sure the pictures were saved and got ready for bed. There were no real regrets, just the slight anxiousness of the unknown

Would he ask you about it?

Did he want details?

Would he ask for more of them?

Which you wouldn’t mind if it was any of your girlfriends, but you two haven’t hit that stage yet in friendship to even know if jokes like that were allowed (from what you thought). So this was a huge deal for you.

With a sigh you set your alarm and laid down. No one was going to hear about your lapse in texting, you were going to take this to the grave.

If your dream happened to have a certain male coworker and a few Kamasutra positions no one was going to know.

When Sunday rolled around, Wooyoung was nothing but a gentleman to you. He made sure to carry your bags or help get the large group of 20 people to quiet down enough to listen. It was like he was trying to somehow stay on your good side. It had you relax enough to not think of this type of trip of anything business, just a group of people trying to understand each other at the end of the day.

His conversation light on the bus to the resort that was agreed upon, having you laugh, choosing dumb driving games to pass the time there. It was nice to see both departments playing The Movie Game or even having acapella showdowns. 

It was pretty nice. Even when they got to their destination to see their sleeping arrangement, he didn’t bring it up. Well… If he wasn’t going to say anything you would pretend like nothing went on. Wooyoung and yourself had one cabin, then there was 5 to the large cabins in the surrounding area. 

“Okay guys! We’re going to make you all pull colored sticks -- Whatever color you get we’ll throw a number and that’s the cabin. No switching at all and I mean it!” Wooyoung said above all the groans and whining.

“But you two get your own that’s not fair!” his friend, Mingi exclaimed.

San moved up with a giant pout on his lips. He knew you were sorta weak for them anyways. “Yea why don’t you guys have to do the popsicle thing too!”

You pinched his cheeks playfully, yet your voice was slightly stern. “Because Wooyoung and I made the decision to do this. We’re supposed to have fun but we are also supposed to make sure you guys stop trying to destroy each other’s job.” 

“Regardless of what happens do know you guys are still getting the normal pay that you would if you did work. So no need to worry about that.” Wooyoung assured them at your side.

Everyone seemed to relax more at that before they got the sticks to be roomed. Once it was fixed and you sent each group on to their merry way Wooyoung hip-checked you to get your attention.

“So roomie shall we get our little cabin together?” he was twirling the room key as he asked. He stuck his arm out afterward with a little wink.

“Aah… I guess roomie. It shouldn’t be so bad~.” you sang, sauntering off towards the destination. 

The rooms were beside each other, pretty spacious from everything of the bathroom to the living room and open floor kitchen. Covered in soft colors you would think it was more of someone's house than that of a resort. Both of you moved things into the respective rooms to set up, heading to sleep since it was pretty late for the first day.

“Night Woo!” you sang to the wall, getting comfortable into your bed.

“Night. Sleep well~” he sang back.

There was more shuffling on his side before you succumbed to sleeping, tomorrow’s worries for the you of tomorrow.

As the week progressed, to you it seemed as if your coworkers were actually getting along with each other. Besides the standard disagreement or someone getting into their feelings, it wasn’t so bad. You got to know Wooyoung’s team more so as you helped them when you explained why your promotions team needs their hand in hand cooperation when asked of them. Just a simple “Everyone on the same page makes things run smoother.”

You also got to know Wooyoung more so in his work environment. He made sure to repeat anything that someone needed help with, ready with a playful remark if someone would call him out on being wrong. He even entertained everyone with a little dance if someone got a question right.

He was so fucking cute you could honestly get cavities right now.

When everything was done you all would head back to either the cabins or the entertainment on the property to set up. Sometimes you had a few of your teammates, like Dahyun or even Jessi who would take you out to see all that the full resort had to offer. Drink or flirt a bit with the other distant company people who used the other spaces. 

Mingi catching you out late for talks and jokes before San would join, all of you guys laughing till your stomachs hurt. Maybe stay up later than normal around a little fire looking at the stars.

Other times it was just you and Wooyoung laughing about on the walking trail or sharing snacks with some dumb reality tv show. When you would cook he’d try to be helpful, making sure nothing was too far or too hard to reach. It was really sweet, learning more about him. From the favorite foods or movies-- learning about his whole squad of friends are apart of the company. (He didn’t tell them that he personally knew them for years, just of their working together) Mingi and San being his department while the oldest one, Seonghwa, being apart of your team. 4 other members were spread out in the other departments.

Being so domestic so quickly like it was second nature to both of you.

He even made sure to knock before trying to enter into your space or making sure everything was alright before doing something that he would consider uncomfortable for you. (“Hey I’m gonna come out shirtless!” “Okay that’s fine!” “Don’t look!” “Why cause you got cute nips or something?”) When you asked him about it, he just smiles cutely to tell you it’s to make sure you were dressed or that if you brought anyone in while he was in the shower, all parties would know.

Sometimes Wooyoung would forget of course. You would sneak glances at him every now and then; wet and soft from the shower. His body a touch pink from the hot water with his bottoms hanging off his hips.

“Like what you see~?” he’d whisper over to you when he caught you looking. 

“It’s here for show so I might as well enjoy it huh?”

“Then I deserve one too right? You are very beautiful.” He told you one time when he was drying his hair and he looked at you expectantly. Even when you flushed hard from the statement, shoving him playfully and whining, he just ruffled your hair up.

You two got comfortable enough that you would be cooking in your pjs just after a shower. Where you wouldn’t be fully dry and the clothes would stick to your frame just a bit more. He never made comments but you felt eyes on you more so than not. 

“What am I going to do once we leave here? I’m not going to have your cooking anymore~,” he lamented over the ribs he ate.

You scrunched your nose at his messy eating, even as you were thinking that he looked like a little chipmunk with his mouth full. “Well, we can always hang out after this you know. Or I can just bring food to the job?” you offered.

“Mmm…” he trailed off as he finished chewing-- eyes focusing back on you sharp and serious, “Rather just hang out with you. Then I don’t have to share at all.”

His tone was playful when he said it, but his eyes told you a whole different story. It wasn’t something you saw directed at you so it kind of made you a bit hot under the collar of your pajamas.

“I like sharing though~. It’s okay you’ll just need to work for that huh?” you giggled in the same breath to reach over and clean his face with your thumb.

You sat back without care, cleaning your hands to resume eating but Wooyoung was sort of stuck in his thoughts. Seeing you eat so cutely after doing something like that without warning had his heart rushing. Blinking back into the present he finally responded with a,

“I’ll work for it. Don’t you worry.”

The light-haired male sounded cocky, in turn, you shrugging your shoulders to continue eating.

“We’ll see about that.”

Sometimes… Mingi and San were your main trouble makers from Wooyoung’s team who continued to push your buttons when you were just trying to be informative. Mostly making you come over and show them easy steps in the program that you guys utilize to get any updates. Hands-on enough that they start to look flustered as well when you press up against them, voice soft with a bit of an edge cause your patience was running thin.

Maybe you were teasing them. No one’s gonna notice since everyone should be focused on their work anyways right? San’s face flushing harder than usual though this time. He seemed almost shy with you, whispering “Oh okay I get it now.”

Wooyoung stood off to the side of one of your workers, clenching his teeth at the scene. Trying to figure out what was going on between you three right now.

When you turned to him and gave a thumbs-up, he scoffed and focused on his work at hand with helping. You were confused at his antics but shrugged-- He’ll talk to you if something serious was going on. He was probably just pissed about something.

Later on in the day everyone seemed to be doing better now when they got paired up to work on a small project together. Quiet laughter or a little flirting here and there happened.

You moved over to Wooyoung who stood against the wall silently, murmuring “You alright..?” “‘M fine.” He gritted out, gripping his arms tight before letting them fall to the side. His brows were still pushed together in a slight frown, purple locks of hair sort of sticking to his forehead. You reached out to move them out of the way to smooth the wrinkles from his face.

“You’re not but I won’t pry. Just relax your face hun, you’ll have your face stuck like that~” you playfully jeered and bumped shoulders.

He seemed to freeze a bit before relaxing, giving you a quirk of a smile that you couldn’t help but be extra over.

A faux gasp and a coo came from you. “Aw see? You turned that frown upside down~ Good boy!”

He choked on seemingly nothing before pushing away from the wall. “Shut up dork. Let’s finish, got an announcement for everyone.” “Not even a dork!”

A call of your name distracted you both for a moment before you looked at him seriously.

“But you’ll tell me if somethings wrong right? I won’t judge you or anything, Wooyoung.”

He gave you a look that said something that you couldn’t quite understand. He nodded, making a face when Mingi came over and dragged you away in excited chatter.

“I heard there’s a dance tonight! San and I are going to take you as our date~”

“Hey how did you hear about that!” Wooyoung’s voice screamed across the area.

Both of you giggled, gossiping about what to do as well as what to wear for later that night. Both unaware of the slightly angry look Wooyoung gave to your backs.

You’ve been added to the group chat: Date night!

+1 [177] minglepringle Hope you’re ready~ Me and san will be over there soon~!

+1 [392] sanscript I look better than Mingi just letting you know.

+1 [177] minglepringle We’ll see about that.

+1 [873] me Boys I bet you both look dashing. Stop fighting I’m TRYING to finish getting dressed! Or I’m dumping both of you!

Your mind was too busy giggling at their antics in the text messages. Their playful banter and whining that you got used to over getting close with them, you enjoyed seeing it as much as you have. You also think that they may be fucking but that’s on a whole other note. So immersed into everything that you missed Wooyoung’s warning of checking in that his loud gasp had you turning quick. 

There he stood, so fucking beautiful in his all-white suit with his hair fluffed up fully around his head, the middle-parted style that fit his look too well if anyone asked you. His eyes were rimmed in light brown eyeliner; a thin diamond choker on with a pair of earrings that added to the overall expensive look. Your eyes couldn’t help but follow down the expanse of his neck to the peak of collarbone winking at you from behind the open plackets of his black shirt. It was tucked into his pants to showcase the little waist and his pants clung to thick thighs and calves. 

“Holy fuck Woo…” 

Your eyes trailed back up his form with no shame as you damn near undress him mentally. Shouldn’t do that given you guys work together but what the job doesn’t know won’t hurt anyone.

“You look... Really good.” You finally finished when you gathered yourself together, looking up to meet his eyes. They were slightly hazy and far off before they focused on you. His jaw set when he walked farther into the room.

“Thank you. I’d say the same for you though. Is that all you’re going to wear darling~?” he asked in such a soft candied voice that you got whiplash from the change of his tone, “Just a bralette and boy shorts? Think the boys would like that a lot hm? Seeing their stern supervisor looking all pretty like that.”

You sucked in a quick breath, feeling your nipples harden against the cloth at attention from his voice. Even your heartbeat began to pick up when you realized he was watching your body respond to his voice, a smirk on his features. The thought of covering yourself up shyly was the last thing on your mind as you shakily exhaled.

“Not at all,” voice in a whisper as you grab your dress to slowly slip on in front of his eyes. 

“I was just caught off guard, Wooyoung.” you kept the same tone as he tilted his head. 

Probably taking in your figure now that it was covered back up in the peach shade maxi wrap dress, long enough to brush against the floor with the slit high enough to show your legs. White liner with darkened lashes with a smudge of brown shadow with nude glossed lips was the choice of makeup.

You added a pair of brown studs into your ears as you bit your lip, giving him a slow twirl so your dress could float around you. Stopping, you asked softly, “Well? How do I look now?”

Wooyoung stepped closer to run the back of his knuckles against your cheek, opening his mouth to say something but it was interrupted by a knock on the main door from two excited voices.

“We’re here to pick you up~!”

“Move Woo stop hogging our date!”

It broke whatever air wrapped around you two that you put on your boots and felt your face heating up quickly.

You didn’t know what to say as he still stood there, looking at you with so many emotions that you felt hot yet again.

“I gotta go Wooyoung…”

He sighed and backed up, his playful air back around him “Save me a dance would you?”

You booped his nose and nodded, giving a bashful smile before leaving to San and Mingi’s insistent whining. You couldn’t really process what was going on but at this point, it didn’t matter; two gorgeous men were your date for tonight and you decided you were going to have fun.

Which you were having. The guys made you three take so many pictures you were sure there was a whole album dedicated to it now. Lots of solo shots of you making funny faces or doing runway poses that you made them do tenfold. (”Can’t wait to use this cute one as blackmail” “You wouldn’t dare!” “Oh doll, you will learn real quick I’m vindictive.” “That’s kinda hot...” Choking sound here somewhere. “Mingi plEASE”)

They layered on the compliments thick to get you to giggle or shove at them on the way there, even when they were the equivalent of models on the fashion runway themselves. Each male held the door open to the pavilion to you before all three of you walked in with each other. It was gorgeously colored with a stage where the DJ was switching up his songs in front of the large dance floor littered with people. Surrounding it were the tables that already had forgotten drinks or people’s belongings there, or just people not really dancing just relaxing with food on their plates.

The music was everything from every genre you could think of that you could sing or dance to, open bar and buffet that you won’t admit you visited more times than you’d admit. It was only to keep your mind off your roommate but it wasn’t helping when your eyes would drift over to him from your peripherals, catching him drinking at the bar or laughing loudly at something someone said. 

Fuck it. You can get lost in the dancing since you felt a little looser from the alcohol thrumming in your system. Dahyun and Jessi off doing lord knows what with whatever guys they suckered into doing their bidding for the night.

“Mingi come here! I lost you somehow and you’re supposed to be dancing with me,” you whined loudly while pulling him close and grinding on him before dropping it low to your knees.

He laughed around a whispered “holy shit” as he followed your dancing, his big hands pulling you back up to roll and dance on him again. Songs passed with the two of you sharing another drink before San joined to sandwich you in. It gathered a crowd when you three started dancing raunchier with a couple of other people. Especially with the way the two males really had you going because of their wandering hands and smoldering gazes. When you were gyrating really hard on San, he gripped your hips before trying to tickle your sides.

“You’re such a tease~. We’re definitely going clubbing when we get back to the city.” San whispered in your ear, holding up a finger sandwich to feed you.

You turned to blow a kiss at him before eating the offered food. “I would love that! I’ll go get some water and some food. I don’t wanna eat everything you’re feeding me~.”

Both nodded at you when told them you’ll take a break since you were so sweaty and out of breath from all the dancing, happily giving each of them a small peck on the cheek. You laughed at some of the comments of surprise that you got as you made your way to the bar.

Yea no one’s seen you dance like that but again you all were here to have fun right? It’s bound to happen sometime so at the end of it all, it was something dumb to think or fret over. None of them were CEO’s or anything (well you couldn’t say that for the other people at the resort, but they don’t know you.)

Yet before you could make it there you were stopped by an unfamiliar male stepping into your space.

“I’m sorry but I’m trying to get somewhere so if you could just..Move out the way please that would be great.” 

“I just wanted to tell you that your dancing out there was really sexy,” the male stated, moving into your space with an open look on his face. You didn’t really respond but you were guessing your nonresponse was a good cue to him.

“Maybe if you like for me to get you drinks we can get to know each other. Or just let off some steam, if you know what I mean.”

You stepped around him, shaking your head. “Sorry but it’s not what I’m looking for now excuse me--”

He takes a grip at your hand, tight that he had to have heard you snarling. “So you’ll dance like a slut for those two guys but you won’t even give me a look? Especially when I look better than them both?”

You bristled at the comment of him talking about Mingi and San like that, turning around to give him a piece of your mind when Seonghwa steps up to you with Wooyoung in tow.

“It seems like she doesn’t want to deal with you sir,” Seonghwa’s voice was firm, gripping his upper arm tight enough that the guy yelped and let go.

Wooyoung makes sure to stop you from clocking the guy by putting his hand onto your lower back. It was a nice touch but it didn’t calm you down at all.

“This has nothing to do with you--”

“Assholes who think their hot shit? Overcompensating too? Guys like you aren’t the ones I go for.” you spat quickly,  “Fuck with me again, or any of my people and you’ll be trying to find the best doctor in town to stitch your dick back on to yourself.” Angrily you stared him down, allowing Wooyoung to tug you away from the asshole and off to a quiet room.

Once the door was locked, he watched as you paced back and forth for a few minutes. He was even calm as you blew up.

“The nerve of that dickwad! The way I dance has nothing to do with who’s allowed to talk to me or not! Literally has no correlation.”

Wooyoung stood by the door and listened as you ranted, sipping on his drink.

“Lucky I didn’t fuck him up. I look too good to be brawlin today. He even had the nerve to talk about Mingi and San? He really fucking lucky--”

“You really fucking do and it’s driving me insane,” Wooyoung growled from behind you, having you jump from how close he was. “You look like a goddess reincarnated and I couldn’t take my eyes off of you.”

“Wooyou-” you began as your body responded to his closeness again. 

He slowly pressed his body against yours, unashamed at the loud gasp you gave him because of his clothed dick hitting your hip.

“See?” the male whispered, looking up into your eyes, “Being so carefree from judgment, dancing how you want. Singing loudly and having a good time regardless of who is around; gorgeous. You made sure to include everyone that was close to dance or sing because you wanted to enjoy this party.”

You really didn’t know where he was going with this but you heaved a shaky inhale when you caught him looking at your lips. 

“It just made me like you a hella lot more… Sweaty, hooded eyes were so enticing. Then when you handled yourself with that guy back there, you got so protective and serious…” he trailed off, his dick twitching against your hip again.

“Really wanted to get on my knees and eat you out right on that dance floor… it was so damn sexy you just don’t know what you do to me.”

An airy moan slipped past your lips from his confession, his response of holding you closer and a tad bit tighter had your nipples pebbling to hardness swiftly. Wooyoung’s hands slid down to cup your ass that you whined out his name.

“When you sent those photos… I wanted to have a quick jerk session. Had a hot moment of jealousy…” he whispered now, leaning in to brush his lips along the quickening pulse on your neck. “I wanted to mark you up like that. Have my fingerprints linger on you for days from holding you so hard. Wanted my mouth to find out all your weak spots to have you crying..”

Your arms wrapped around him as you shivered, hips canting slowly against him in the slow simmer of want.

“Wha- What stopped you then hm?” It was a breathy ask while you carded your fingers through his hair, your leg sliding up to wrap around his hip to hold on. You were feeling a bit faint.

His moan vibrated against your skin as he replied “Wanted to be a good boy for you. Said I had to work for it, remember? So I have been.”

Pulling away, you looked at him questioningly, his skin pinkening with an almost boyish shyness to it as he mumbled, “Was gonna wait for the perfect time so I could take you out to dinner then hopefully get to this point now.” Which done it in for you.

"Tell me more doll, wanna hear it." You purred sweetly, feeling him give a full-bodied shutter.

"Didn't want you thinking that I suddenly wanted to fuck because of those pictures. But I've looked at them once in a while this week, hoping I could get you like that myself."

He was suddenly picking you up impatiently to set you on the table in the middle of the room; his lips nipping at the skin he could reach right now as you whined under him.

"Shit, Wooyoung," a hard whimper left your throat and you rutted up against him. "Same. It's the same. I've been crushing on you but didn't wanna complicate things I.."

Your words died on your tongue as he trailed his hand along your body, letting you arch into the feather-light touch before he put his glass down. “Can I kiss you?”

Your arms shot up and tugged him half onto you, nipping his bottom lip hard before kissing him deeply. His mouth tasting of Malibu Sunset shots and something else you couldn't place, both of you groaning at the contact. Tugging at fabric to get to heated damp skin made you a bit desperate, given how many times you have imagined doing anything remotely sexual with him.

“Pretty baby, panting so hard and we haven’t even gotten naked yet huh? You want me that badly? Want my hands on your bare skin that much.” he taunted, pulling back from your grabby hands with a playful pout.

“You take your dress off and then I’ll be good for you to take my clothes off too.”

You sat up with a pout back to him, tone going sultry instead, “That’s unfair cause I really am. If you’re my good boy you’d let me take off your clothes for you. Maybe even let me choke on your dick. I’ve been wanting it for so long~”

You watched as Wooyoung’s dick twitched hard, seeing his hands shake to a stop before moving back towards you in a flash. Inwardly you cheered in victory, hurriedly breaking a few buttons off his shirt and shoving everything off his body. As a prize, you immediately went to sucking marks on to his skin-- feeling his groan of your name vibrate on onto your lips. 

You left lipstick marks in some places before sucking harshly on others such as his cute nipples and the lines of softly defined muscle, all the while he tried to push your dress off your shoulders. You made a show of sliding your hand into his pants and gripped his dick that was already slick. 

“Who’s wet now doll? Hm?” you moaned out high and breathless, skin prickling with goosebumps from the sudden attack of cold water droplets falling onto your chest.

“Baby, you will be soaked when I’m done with you. Come on, clothes off wanna try something.”

He was asking you in a rush which was sweet but you really wanted his dick in you someway so you relented your control this time to him. You hurriedly slid your dress off your body and moved to get onto the table before Wooyoung tugged you by your bra and kissed you hard again. He was mapping out your mouth like he wanted to remember every dip and curve of it; sloppy, messy and so fucking hot you knew you were dripping in your panties now. “This okay? Not uncomfortable?” he pulled his lips away from yours, gently pushing you back from following.

You swallowed, whimpering out a “Yea it’s fine” from his serious gaze at your face.

When you didn’t change your mind he relaxed and kissed you again. Stealing your breath and making you drool a bit making it hot and messy in the right way.

When cold, wet fingers slide down the curve of your breast your body curved to the touch happily, mind already dopey on wanting Wooyoung’s touch; on wanting anything Wooyoung could give you right now. His mouth moved down your neck, lapping and sucking just as many bruises into your skin in repayment to your own work. 

Wooyoung would cover the next stops of his lips with thin layers of alcohol to suck off your skin as if you two had all the time in the world, skipping past your aching breasts to apply more of the sweet liquid on your stomach then your thighs. He made you sit back on the table as he made a promise to his earlier statement and marked you up basically head to toe; his eyes dilating fully to the point of pitch blackness cause of the whining and mewling.

“Fuck. Just let me..” Wooyoung spluttered while grabbing his phone to take a few photos.

You were leaning back with your legs spread, fingers rubbing your clit over your soaked through panties frantic now. Honestly, you don’t know how you even made it through his markings because you couldn’t describe how much you loved it; probably looking too gone already by how he froze for just a moment. He joined you after shuffling his pants off to finally snatch your bra off to give some love to your aching breasts.

But not without adding an ice cube between his lips then sucking a nipple into the same space. The moan that bubbled out of your mouth was nothing less than dirty, making Wooyoung double his efforts. He did this to the other one as well to make your peaks harder than they ever felt. Bringing that same numbing cold heat combo onto your neck then back down, across your navel and your hip line. He skipped over your core to press his now cold lips onto the marks he left earlier, grinning at your pleas leaving your lips quickly.

“Please Woo, ngh! Please!” you cried, holding his head to your chest while he moved your panties to the side and slid two fingers in immediately. The shock of his cooling mouth and cold fingers onto your burning skin brings a pleasant hum to your body and even heavier wetness between your legs. 

You never knew how much you liked the combination.

“Need you, baby, please ‘m tired of waiting.” Your head buzzed as you slipped further into his ministrations, alternating from begging or crying out his name to scrambling for purchase on the table when he moved his body away from yours. You had to have left a few more marks in the shape of claws along his skin.

“Want my dick that bad? Kinda like how you're begging right now,” He pressed into you harder that you choked for a moment.

Why was he teasing even more now holy fuck. “Yes let me have it!. You didn’t let me suck you off like I asked earlier.”

“I’ll let you suck me off later, I’ll blow my load if you even so much as touch it.”

You whined even harder. Maybe you wanted him to dirty up your face, he keeps taking everything away from you. It was a fun back and forth game but you were truly wanting his dick like months ago.

It was distracting enough that you just registered the sounds of how wet you truly were, body experiencing harsh pulses of pleasure from Wooyoung’s fingers and the zip of chill his mouth left before he laved his tongue onto your clit. Harsh flicks of his tongue coupled with the perfect curling of those fingers you’ve also obsessed over sent you reeling. Such a move brought you hurling over the edge to your release quicker than you expected.

“Wooyoung! Holy shit!” you shouted, voice pitched higher than you’ve ever heard it, legs trembling around him as he sucked onto your clit to help you ride that high before layering wetter kisses to the inner thighs. Your head went back with another curse, feeling your body turn into a liquid state of pleasure, unable to ride out your orgasm on his fingers. When your eyes fluttered open suddenly you took in Wooyoung's features.

“God..” he breathed, looking up at you as if you were his whole universe at this point and slowing down his fingers, “you’re so fucking perfect aren’t you baby?” In your hazy state, you keened at the compliment, body curving up slow as if it was reaching for more praise. Slowly, you rotated your hips in small circles to beg for everything he could give.

“Oh? You want me to fuck you while you are just loose and pliant for me baby?” To your little happy hum, he smiled gently. Removing his fingers he made the show of licking them clean, gently taking off your panties and giving you a soft kiss for your patience. “Lemme get a wrapper and I’ll be right back. Okay my pretty baby? Be patience.”

Slurry on your high still, you stayed spread onto the table. “Hurry... Really wan’ your dick Wooyoungie. Need it.” You could feel your eyes tearing up at your denial of feeling him in you.

He tripped in his haste with the condom already on and picking you up into his arms much to your protest. You could see how little it mattered as he held you to rut up against your folds to slick himself up, kissing away your tears with a coo of your name and how precious you were crying for his dick like you were.

Little words whispered against your ear of "I got you, princess, shh" and "Fuck if we go past this I have so much planned for us, holy hell." You wrapped your legs and arms around him tight, leaning in to suck a lobe between your lips and tug, whining yet again.

“Wooyoungie, please. Wanna feel it for days.. Nothing else but your dick please." You hiccuped over a short sob, honestly too fucking horny to care at this point. "Please Woo please I’ve waited for you this whole time plea-”

When Wooyoung finally pushed into your body after making sure the condom was on, it gave way like a greeting. Your walls fluttering and kissing his dick inch by inch like it was meant to be there; so happy that you squeezed him tight and mewled loudly.

“Yess what I’ve been waitin’ for. Wan' it deep~. Make me yours~.” he cursed and started a slow pace.

Honestly, you couldn't believe how much patience he had given the circumstances. His strength on display as he brought your hips down when he fucked up into your body with a slowness that had you singing. He was so hard inside of you, hitting all the right ways when he readjusted his grip on your sweaty body, the slight curve helping to graze your g-spot when he was being nice to you. It was hurting just a tad from the build-up to overstimulation but it felt too good to stop. Clit being abused against his stomach while you arched to throw your hips back onto him to get him to quicken the pace.

You were moaning his name and nonsense when he slid home deeper into you, praising him. Mouthing out on how you crushed on him since all those years he helped you. From when you decided to let him get closer because you wanted to be in the same playing field. 

He paused mid-thrust with a tremble and a gasp, "Is that true..?"

Blinking past the tears you nodded, feeling bare to him suddenly.

His mouth worked around its sound for a moment, so focused on you that your breath stuttered on an exhale.

"Fuck... Fuck love, you don't know how much that means to me." He said, voice pitched so low it sounded like a snarl. Though the continuous pulses of his dick inside you spoke volumes.

Slowly you ran a hand through his sex mused hair and brought him close to your face, looking into his eyes, "Then please Wooyoung… Ruin me. Show me how much it means to you."

His resounding growl made your toes curl as he moved you two a few feet to the wall, pushing you hard against it now.

"My pleasure baby." He panted, "Gonna give you what you wanted since you asked so sweetly." He sealed his promise in a kiss before pulling out slowly.

The sudden snap of his hips made the surroundings turn to colorful constellations. Everything else fading to the haze past his beautiful expressions, the feeling of you two joined together, the cries and moans of each other’s name. Mind filled to the brim of Wooyoung, trying to kiss him but both of you are just sharing each other’s air now with little nips or licks here and there.

You don’t know how long he went at it but it felt like hours that he was pounding into you. You couldn’t even moan anymore, just whimper or keen or silently scream while he cursed in between punches of your name from his lips.

You both knew you were going to bruise on your hips and ass cheeks with how his grip tightened and loosened. At a particular shake, his fingers slid and pressed hard against your asshole, almost slipping in a bit from the dripping wetness from your folds and it tumbled you into your second release; so hard that you happened to squirt against him.

The wide-eyed look Wooyoung gave you when you screamed his name had him jerking his hips twice more before he came into the condom. He cried out to you in return, full-body shaking from its intensity that he leaned to kiss all over your face softly. Staying still and bringing you back down to him with kisses and murmurs against your skin. Breathy gravel tones from how spent his voice was blanketed you back down.

"I've been crushing on you too, you know."

"So gorgeous."

"I'm lucky to have such a beautiful princess."

"Come back to me love. I'm right here."

It was a few minutes before you gave him a satisfied smile, lazy in the afterglow and bright for him. 

"Mmm, you’re the best."

He took the time to pull out and maneuver the hold on to bridal style, holding you closer to his frame as he set you back on the table with a laugh.

“I must be if I made you squirt~.”

You swung at him weakly, hiding your face from him at that and you kept it there as he moved around the room. You could hear him bump into things, mumbling to himself before he found what he was looking for and moving back to you.

“Come on my pretty baby lets get you slightly cleaned up and get out of here. We can take an actual shower and cuddle together,” he whispered softly, moving your hands out of the way with the sappiest look you’ve ever seen on his face.

Not before he took another of you posing for him to show the additional fingerprint bruises on your lower half, then immediately went to cleaning you with feather touches in case you were too sensitive with the clean rag and water bottle he found in the room. You were getting sleepy under the treatment so you allowed him to do everything; fix your hair, help you back into your dress and watch him put your undergarments into his jacket and fold it up. Making every sure you two had everything you needed.

You even watched him get himself dress sluggish and tired as you were. Something about watching him get dressed was so enticing to you. Maybe it was the way his veins in his arms and hands looked… You couldn’t wait to trace them with your tongue sometime.

When Wooyoung offered to carry you back to the cabin you agreed happily, secretly enjoying his display of strength as you guys avoided the still pretty heavy partying people further down the hall.

“I owe you a dance don’t I?” you mumbled against his neck, curled tight to his chest.

“Yea you do.”

“Damn... We’re starting off our trysts with owing each other.” he laughed into your hair, kissing a free spot on your forehead. “Alright, that’s a bet.” 

You left it at that from his questioning hum. 

You both got back to the cabin without being caught by anyone who knew you two. He held on to your clinging form as you whined about showering later, you were tired and you just wanted to cuddle up to him and sleep. So much so he relented with a playful sigh and tucked both of you into his bed. He did take a makeup wipe to remove any lingering product on your face and his,

“So I can see your cute natural morning face~” with a kiss to your giggling lips.

The both of you held each other to sleep, tangled head to toe with Wooyoung being the little spoon. You’ll deal with the irritating clothes and washing in the morning you thought. You were excited to think you’ll wake up to Wooyoung beside you finally.

“I h a t e your friends Wooyoungie, I really fucking do.” you groggily said when you woke up to your phone’s reminder buzzes and took a look at the notifications.

“Mmm, why is that?”

You happened to look down at his soft sleep puffy face laying on your thigh, pouting up at you so you blew a kiss at him before showing him the messages.

+1 [177] minglepringle So.. heard you had a grand slamming of a time last night

+1 [177] minglepringle As well as seen him carry you off like a princess being saved by her prince~ So now we don’t have to worry about not seeing you for the rest of the night

+1 [392] sanscript A lot of slamming. Seems like our “Make Wooyoung jealous plan worked”!

+1 [177] minglepringle Glad you finally got that dicking you been thirsting over~  Congratulations! +1 [177] minglepringle DON’T EXPOSE US YOU ASSA LSDKJFLSJGSDJF--

+1 [392] sanscript Don’t forget to call us next time so we can hear better~! We’re friends now your supervisor status means nothing now!! (:< Besides you completely dipped on us and we would have asked you for a threesome but Wooyoung beat us out-- +1 [177] minglepringle sAN OH MY FUCKING LORD STFU +1 [392] sanscript What they gonna do? Beat us?

Then an extra one from an unsaved number,

+1 [524] Unkown As much as I love that you two resolved your heavy sexual tension can I get a raise for having to hear your horny asses going at it like rabbits and dealing with the Minsan duo? Thanks, boss. -Seonghwa

Wooyoung laughed hard, screeching about his embarrassment at his friends and how he was going to beat their asses. He was ranting, fumbling for his phone to give him a piece of their mind but you just watched him being animated. Still a bit sleepy, the marks dark against his skin while his eyes caught the light just right to sparkle slightly. Even when he was squeaking into the phone’s receiver at Mingi, San, and Seonghwa, you couldn’t help the happiness you felt at the turn of events.

Wonder what your friends will say once you tell them everything that happened. That would be for another day, you think as you stroke Wooyoung’s face and trace the features. He doesn’t stop talking but he does look at you with a sappy smile, wiggling and making kissy faces at you.

This was something you could really get used to.

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Hiii! I was wondering if I could request a revali x reader where revali and reader are best friends and are in love with each other but they’re both too oblivious to notice until one day something happens and they find out? i love your writing! thank you so much😊

Hey there! Sorry this took so long, but here it is! This is gonna be a two parter because I got super carried away with all the banter and scenes. Thanks for the request because I had a lot of fun with this! So, here is

Oblivious Actions Part 1 of 2

4015 Words (sorry it’s so long)

Revali x Reader

It was a perfect day to disobey your elders.

The sky was just waking, strokes of rose and honey painted the edges of the horizon. The wind was crisp, and playful, ruffling through his feathers as he flew. Lake Totori glistened below. Sunlight shone across a bright blue expanse, laced with only a few, white clouds. The plateaus surrounding the area were dotted with pine trees, their umber trunks rooted to the ground. The air was open and infinite. Gliding through the sky and observing the tiny specks of nature below filled him with a sense of wonder. Revali flapped his little wings down towards the forest.

HA! See? I’m already an expert flyer! I can explore as much of the world as I want, without any adults. I’m not a kid anymore!

The Rito baby blush marks that painted his cheeks said otherwise.

Even though Rito under 10 years of age were heavily discouraged from venturing beyond the bridges, Revali had decided he was big enough to go where he wanted. Behind him, the towering spire of Rito Village continued to shrink. To his left, the jutting figure of a wooden horse head could be seen. Hylians are so weird, needing other animals in order to move around. The stable in the distance then drowned into an evergreen sea. Gliding closer to the earth, the view of the sky was now covered with dry pine needles and brittle branches. He focused his attention to what was under him, trying to find a safe place to land. The breeze cooled and quickened. Revali angled his wings downward, trying to move his body to land gracefully among the trees.

He would fail.

There was a small clearing in the middle of the grove, a dirt path that travelers would use to hike between Warbler’s Nest and Rito Stable. Supposedly, following the trail even further up would lead to the infamous Hebra Peaks, a mountain range that lay just outside the view from his house, full of secrets and sights that no one has ever explored. Being the child that he was, naivety clouded his judgement, as Revali had ignored the warnings given to him about monsters nestled in the woods. The Rito was desperate to get out of the village in any way he could, even if it meant learning to glide all on his own.

Trying to plan his descent, he positioned himself at an angle, moving his weight backwards, ready to land. His feet shifted forward, ready to grip onto something solid, but the wind suddenly changed. It’s direction altered only slightly, but it was enough to catch him off guard. Flailing his wings, Revali tried to catch the current under his wings again, but it was no use, the current keeping him in the air was gone, and his baby wings weren’t big enough to flap a large gust of his own. A stray branch knocking into his side, the little Rito tumbled into the dirt. 

“Gaah!” he grunted, panic coursing through him.

Revali plunged through the trees, not unlike how a snowball tramples down a mountain slope, picking up debris as it rolls. Falling through the branches, his feathery features caught sticks, leaves, and pinecones, until he connected with the earth with a thud.

“…ow…” 

The impact caused dust to cloud around him. It got in his eyes and settled on the edges of his feathers. The dirt wasn’t the worst place to land, but it still hurt. His crash had broken a few branches, causing a couple of pinecones and leaves to break loose. One stray, falling leaf hovered through the air, delicately. Its flight was much more elegant, dancing in the wind. It landed gracefully on the tip of his beak, its cinnamon hue and crinkly features mocking him. Revali blew it off with a “hmph!”

Sitting in the dirt, Revali brushed off the dust and twigs on his tunic as best he could. It was one thing that he had snuck out of the house, but coming back all dirty wouldn’t do either. Mumbling to himself, he sat there, taking in the sights and sounds of the woods. A much better setting than sitting in the house all day. Then there was an abrupt shuffling in the bushes. 

Looking up, Revali searched for the source of the noise. Getting to his feet, he picked up a twig and held it in front of him like a sword. Was it the monsters everyone had warned him about? His heart quickened, his mind raced. The trees still swayed in the wind, and the birds and bugs chirped, but suddenly everything was looking a lot more ominous. Another rustle. He hastily faced his left side, where a single dark green bush greeted him. Do I move closer? Back away? Revali was frozen in place. Finally, he dared to whisper.

“W-who’s there?” he asked.

Instead of a cliché silence, his question was immediately answered with a loud scream from the bush.

“AHHHHH! IT’S TALKING!” the bush yelled.

Revali followed suit and screamed himself, as it was only natural to be scared of shrieking plants.

“AAHHHHHH!”

“AHHHHHHH?!”

This exchange of confused and fearful yelling went on for a few seconds. A few sparrows took off for the sky, startled by the noise. Then, silence took hold again, with only the wind brushing through the woods. The bush and Revali stared at each other for another eternity. Finally the bush spoke again.

“Why are you pretty?”

“AGH?! What?” the Rito took a step back, bewildered. “W-wha…what’re you talking about??”

Suddenly, a small face peeked out from the bush. Their eyes were wide, and curious, but their expression was still wary. “I said, why are you pretty? Monsters are supposed to be ugly.”

Revali tightened his grip around the twig. “I’m not! You’re the one hiding in a bush, so you’re the monster if anything. I’m a Rito!”

“A Rito?” a small, Hylian child stepped out of the bush. They were wearing a maroon tunic, along with stable gloves and boots. The collar of their shirt was lined with cotton. A loopy scarf, that was far too big for them, was wrapped around their shoulders, etched with the emblem of the Hylian Stable System. Their hair was messy, probably from hiding within the bush. Gripped in their hands was their own makeshift sword, a wooden spoon. They waved it in Revali’s direction. “You’re way too tiny to be a Rito. The ones who visit the stables are always taller than my mom.”

“W-well, then maybe you’re mom’s short!” Revali sputtered out.

“Nuh-uh!”

“Ya-huh!’

He stomped his foot. “Obviously, I’m not a monster. I’m just of a… different height, because kids don’t leave the village without supervision. It’s only the adults you see. So quit being dumb. I mean, I can talk can’t I?”

The Hylian crossed their arms, tapping the spoon against their elbow. They considered his argument… I guess a tiny monster couldn’t eat me in one bite anyhow. “Fine then. If you’re not a monster, then you should have a Rito-sounding name, right? So what is it?”

Revali held his beak in the air and turned his back, crossing his own wings in imitation. “Hmph! Well why should I tell you when you’re a complete stranger! I thought you were a monster too, you know.”

The Hylian squinted their eyes thinking. “Well… fine. Your name probably sucks anyway! Thanks for scaring me half to death, tiny Rito!”

With that, the child turned around and started marching back in the direction of the stables. They made an effort to pound their boots on the ground to make as much sound as possible. Revali was left with his beak hanging open. How dare they! They’re the one with a sucky name, whatever it is.

He ran behind them, trying to catch up. He fluttered his wings to shake off any other dirt and twigs. He matched their pace, and puffed out his feathers. “I’ll have you know that I have a supercool nickname! Nicknames are always cool, therefore my name doesn’t suck. So, Ha!”

The Hylian raised an eyebrow. “Well, what is it then? What’s your fancy name?”

“They call me…” he stopped and posed, both wings outstretched in front of them, “…the Supreme Master of the Sky!”

They Hylian clutched their stomach, laughing hysterically. “HA! There’s no way that’s true. I saw you crash through the trees earlier! Some master you are, that’s probably even dumber than whatever your real name is.”

Revali narrowed his eyes, “Nuh-uh!”

“Ya-huh.”

“Hmph! Well at least I have a cool nickname. I bet you don’t even have one!” 

“Nope. People just call me [Name], because my name is already great and I don’t need dumb nicknames or titles.” They stuck out their tongue at him.

Revali made a dumb face in retaliation, before responding. “Fine, if you won’t call me that, you can just stick with ‘Revali,’ and you better remember it!” 

[Name] shot him a look, then huffed. “Yeah. Sure.”

The two of them continued their walk through the woods. Revali trusted it was the route back to the stable. They talked and jeered, laughed and scowled at each other, their conversations about nothing in particular. At one point, the Rito attempted to show off by gliding through the air. It would end with another crash, and the Hylian child chuckling.

“It’s cause you still have a bunch of stuff tucked in your wings!” [Name] said with a sigh. Removing a pinecone and several bits of dried leaves, they cleaned up the rest of Revali’s wing. When taking out a twig, they accidentally took out a feather.

Revali yelped, “Ow! What was that for?”

“I’m so sorry! I was just trying to get rid of this.” [Name] chucked the twig over their shoulder. The feather they had taken out was mainly white, but faded into a deep, indigo color at the bottom. It was like a star had shot across the sky, and its streak had colored this single, delicate feather. [Name] brushed it against their fingers, and stared at it in awe. It’s so pretty.

“Pfft. I know that. Anything from me is great.” Revali’s feathers puffed up in pride.

Oh no! Did I say that out-loud?? “Uh…yeah.” [Name] mumbled. They suddenly became very interested in the condition of their boots, turning their head to the ground as the two of them walked. 

A silence fell between them. Then, 

“Can…can I keep this?” 

Revali cast them a glance. “Uh…sure, why not. Not like I need it anymore. I’ll have plenty next time I molt.”

[Name] looked up, eyes wide. “Really?! Are you sure? This doesn’t, like, curse me or anything right?”

He scoffed. “No, of course not. It’s just a feather. I’ve seen adults trade them all the time. It’s fine. Whatever…”

The large horse head was now in front of them. The trees were more dispersed, and piles of lumber scattered the ground. The muted colors that decorated the stable billowed in the wind, the breeze blowing loose cloth and banners across the sky. To the left were the wooden bridges. They led up to a towering spire, the familiar shape of Rito Village casting over the two of them. The two of them stopped by the back side of the stable. [Name] forced themself to plaster on a grin.

“Well, guess I’ll see you never!” they jeered.

“Ha! If I’m lucky, I’ll never see you or your wooden spoon again!” Revali stuck his tongue out at them. 

After staring at each other for another eternity, [Name] finally turned around and ran back towards the entrance to the stable. Revali then began his walk back over the wooden bridges.

The next day, Revali would be punished for sneaking out of the village. His grounding would include having to do extra chores, specifically by having to help around Rito Stable for the rest of the month, much to [Name]’s surprise. Neither of them minded.

- - - - - 

Years Later…

- - - - - 

The Champions had arrived. 

The letter had reached the village around a week ago, but they had come a day earlier than scheduled. But, that was to be expected, as the princess was always eager to go out and explore the shrines. The sun was set high in the sky, Rito Village’s shadow cast down on the woods below. The breeze exposed the pine cones nestled in the trees. The birds sang a familiar tune. However, the state of Rito Stable was very much unusual, or at the very least, uncustomary. Hylians and Rito alike were bustling. What was usually a quiet setting was now full of life and movement. People scrambled to set up decorations and supplies, most of which was being transported towards the village. Some were preparing lanterns, others setting up bright blue banners, adorned with the Hyrulean Family’s crest. The colors of the stable were now even brighter than usual, even the Rito flying about added streaks of bright colors in the sky. Children ran through the boxes of cargo, and stable hands moved barrels of goods towards the bridges that led to the towering stone spire. Among the chaos, a few individuals were chatting by the roadside. 

“I’m just saying, I don’t wanna accidentally break the bridge! It wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened…” Daruk scratched the back of his head, chuckling. 

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. The bridges are sturdy enough to handle the strongest of winds, after all.” Mipha gave him a reassuring smile. She glanced at Urbosa for confirmation, “Don’t you agree?”

The Gerudo nodded, “There’s no need to worry about such things. The whole point of throwing a party is to sweep your worries away. Besides,” she cast a glance towards a particular Rito’s direction, “we owe it to everyone who worked hard to organize it to be there. Isn’t that right, Revali?”

The Rito Champion was busy observing… something, but it was clear he wasn’t listening. He kept watching people file in and out of the stable, as if waiting for something. Revali kept fiddling with the edges of his blue scarf, smoothing it out to make himself more presentable. 

“Revaaaaaali?”

“Hmm?” Finally snapping out of it, he turned to face the other Champions. “Ah yes, sorry. Daruk, there’s no need to be concerned, if you break the bridge all the Rito are perfectly capable of flying home, so it won’t matter anyhow. Plus Lake Totori is quite refreshing, so when you fall—”

Urbosa elbowed him on the side, cutting him off. He mumbled something about practicing honesty. She sighed, “Why did I expect you to add something genuine to the conversation…”

Revali scoffed, “Tsk. Your mistake.” Mipha gave a small laugh. The Zora princess tilted her head before chiming in, “Revali, Urbosa does have a point. You’re going to come to the celebration this time, yes?” The Rito Champion had a habit of not attending events that weren’t necessary or mandatory. He had skipped out on nearly every noble party, feast, and nightly social gatherings, on the pretense that “diplomats were boring,” “it’s utterly useless,” “I didn’t come here to socialize,” and “I’m busy doing something that’s actually important.”

However, it would be a bit more difficult to opt out of something that’s held right in your hometown. Revali turned and sighed. “Unfortunately, my schedule is quite clear for tonight. So, unless something more significant comes to my attention, I suppose I’ll attend the damn p—”

“HEY! IS THAT THE SUPREME MASTER OF THE SKY I SEE?”

The Champions turned in the direction of the voice. The feathers on Revali’s neck fluffed up in surprise, or was it embarrassment? Well, some sort of combination of the two. A Hylian stable-hand, carrying an assortment of wildflowers in their arms, made their way towards the group. 

Mipha snickered, “Master of the Sky?” The Rito shot daggers in her direction, before facing back towards the stable-hand. 

“Are you ever going to live that down? I was six. I think I’ve grown out of that.”

A bright grin grew on the Hylian’s face. “Hmm. Not vertically you haven’t!” They stood on their toes and used a hand to pat the feathers on the top of Revali’s head like a puppy. “I mean, you’re taller than me and I can still make fun of you for being a short Rito. That’s an achievement all on its own!” 

Daruk didn’t try to hide his laughter that time. Revali shot more daggers at the Hylian. Although no one could notice it (and he would certainly never admit it), there was the slightest creep of a smile on his face when they patted him. He responded with his own quip. “Funny hearing that from someone who awarded themselves the title of ‘Number One Horse Boss,’ don’t you think?”

Their cheeks flushed, their grin was replaced with an awkward smile. “I was nine…”

“Oh? Does age matter now?”

The two continued to laugh among themselves about things the other Champions couldn’t really understand. Daruk was scratching the back of his head again, clearly it was new seeing the Rito so carefree. Mipha also watched them curiously. Urbosa’s gaze continued to switch between Revali and the Hylian. She then asked, “So Revali, are you going to continue insulting each other, or are you going to introduce us?”

He quickly coughed and straightened himself out. “Right, sorry. Well, esteem fellow Champions, this is [Name], they’ve been working at Rito Stable for as long as I can remember.” He wrapped his wing around their shoulder, pushing them forward. “Say hi, [Name]”

Snapping their attention to them, [Name] turned to greet them with a beaming smile. They excitedly shook everyone’s hand, a bundle of wildflowers still in their other arm. “It’s great to finally meet you all! Revali’s told me so much about you guys.” 

Urbosa raised an eyebrow, looking at Revali. “Oh, what sort of things has he said?”

Before he even had a chance to stop them, [Name] gestured to Daruk. “He said that your optimism and laugh are very contagious,” they turned to Mipha, “And that you’re one of the nicest people he’s ever met.” Mipha blushed, Daruk had a grin plastered on his face. Turning to Urbosa, [Name] added, “And he said that you basically act as everyone’s mom in the group.”

Revali suddenly stepped in front of them, his feathers were puffed up. “AAAAAND NONE OF THAT IS TRUE OF COURSE. THAT WAS ALL A JOKE, A DUMB JOKE I TOLD A LONG TIME AGO. I GUESS THEY DIDN’T PICK UP ON THAT, OBVIOUSLY URBOSA ISN’T ANYONE’S MOM HAHA YEAH GOOD JOKE [NAME].” 

Urbosa put a hand on her chest fake offense. The Rito turned back to [Name]. “So you’ve met everyone now, maybe now’s a good time for you to leave and not say anything else about our old conversations, got it?”

“Oh! Wait before I go,” [Name] took a wreath of yellow wildflowers from their arm, “The, uh…the Rito children were making these flower crowns…I, uh…I thought you all might want some..?”

[Name] draped them over Revali’s head before he could object. The flowers were a bright, bumblebee color, with small blushes of white. It matched well with his indigo and white feathers. “See? Now you look, uh, pretty…” they said. Their cheeks were beginning to rose in color.

Urbosa took three flower crowns from [Name], blue, green, and red in color. She took the red flowers and placed them in her own hair. “Thank you [Name]. I’ll give these other two to Link and Zelda. He’s off somewhere chasing the princess near the shrine at Tabantha. So I’ll just give them these later.” 

[Name] nodded. Daruk took a pink flower crown, the salmon color bright on his white hair. It was more of a bracelet if anything. Mipha draped some on her own head, the pure, pearly white hue seemed to glow along with her other jewelry.   

Revali then took lavender ones. “Don’t forget yourself, don’t think you can escape without also wearing one of these ridiculous crowns…” He gently set them on [Name]. They mumbled a meek “thank you” to Revali.

“Awww” Daruk gushed, “you both look cute together.”

Revali and [Name] stared at him in confusion. 

“Uh, yes. The flowers are pretty…neat.” the Rito mumbled.

“Yeah,” [Name] whispered, “It’s pretty…swell…?”

Another silence fell over the group. Urbosa seemed to be barely holding it together, ready to snicker at any moment. But [Name] didn’t notice, they turned to Revali, slightly flustered. 

“And, uh, Revali?” He glanced at them with a raised eyebrow. “Since you’re back in town, maybe we can hang out later? Or tomorrow? Maybe sometime before your big Champion party, we could hang out at our usual spot? You up for it?” Their ears and cheeks were starting to red, perhaps from the cold…

The Rito smiled, “Yeah, I think I can make room in my schedule for it. I’m very busy, but I’ll make it work.”

The two just stared at each other for a moment, both oblivious to the other Champions staring wide eyed at Revali. Then [Name], broke their gaze, giving a forced cough. “Well, *cough* I think I should get back to work. There’s probably a bunch of guests I need to serve inside.” They turned to the other Champions, “Feel free to stop by and I’ll whip up something for you to eat! On the house!” With that, they cast one last glance at Revali, and then started walking back. The purple petals in their hair rustled in the breeze. 

“Uh, right. I’ll see you later.” Revali mumbled. He watched them walk away. “AND, um, Y-YOU LOOK NICE!” he called. [Name] turned, fumbling, and gave him a thumbs up, before joining the other workers inside the stable. 

Revali turned back to the other Champions. They were all staring at him in silence. 

“Tsk. What are you looking at?” he asked with a grimace. 

Urbosa finally broke the silence, half laughing as she spoke. “What in the hells did I just witness?” 

This cued all sorts of chaos in the group. Mipha started to barrage Revali with questions about his relationship with [Name]. Daruk was gesturing wildly at him, mouth agape, as if to wordlessly ask who are you?? How come you never smile like that when you’re around us? What’s the deal here?!

In the end, it was Urbosa who had to get everyone off Revali’s back. Placing an arm around him, she said, “Ok, now, now. Let’s leave our fellow Champion alone. We’ve been traveling for awhile, so I’m sure he’s eager to get back home without us all pestering him.”

Revali shook his wings and held his head in the air. “Hmph! That’s correct. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Giving a mighty flap, he summoned his gale and took off into the air in one smooth, fluid motion, literally leaving the other Champions in the dust. It seems he couldn’t get out of there quick enough.

Mipha turned to Urbosa with a teasing expression on her face. “Are we really going to pass up the chance to see how Revali’s gonna act around his obvious crush?”

“Oh don’t worry,” a knowing smile spread across the Gerudo’s face, “I’m not gonna let this opportunity go to waste.

- - - - - 

“So is it your title as Champion, or Gerudo Chief that entitles you to lurk on my property?”

Revali gave a condescending glare at Urbosa. While it was one thing that she had the audacity to visit him so early in the morning, he was mainly just embarrassed she had caught him with his hair still messy. She gave a smug smile. “Neither, it’s simply my role as a concerned mom.”

The Rito hopped off his hammock. He fitted messy ribbons into his braids, before wrapping a white scarf around himself. Glaring back at her, he added, “Just to clarify, I don’t need any additional parental figures in my life.”

Urbosa sighed. “Just follow me when you’re ready. I’m gonna take up [Name]’s offer on the free food.”

Revali clicked his tongue. “Tsk. I don’t see why it’s necessary that I tag along.”

“Just for the company, we can chat over a drink.”

“About what?”

“Well, I have a few interesting conversation topics,” she turned back towards the wooden stairs, a grin still shone on her face.

 “It’ll just be you and me, but I find the topic of your love life quite interesting.”

[willow-salix]

Fluffember prompt: Rose

Day 11 of Isolation on Tracy Island 2.0 and I would like you all to know that, while Virgil was very nice to write my update for me yesterday, he’s also a complete liar. I did not fall asleep on the couch, I was watching the movie the whole time…

Anyway we all got up late today, since we didn’t get to bed until late and even then it hadn’t been easy to get to sleep. I’d woken up a few times but a quick look at the clock to estimate the amount of time I’d actually been asleep, coupled with a warm John to snuggle meant that I gave in to the lure of oblivion twice before I actually got up.

I felt like death, which was strange, because usually caffeine has little to no effect on me, I can only assume that the added stress of Alan hopped up on coffee beans was the catalyst to my zombie-like state. 

Alan, it transpired, was going through an even worse caffeine hangover than I was, at least I had a little resistance. He was groaning from his bedroom complaining of a headache and full body shivers. 

So yes, we were certainly feeling delicate and, even though I desperately wanted a coffee to wake me up enough to function I knew that it would probably be a bad idea. So there I was, sipping on a hot chocolate (I delivered one to Allie too), munching slowly on a corner of my toast and just hoping that the world would stop spinning today when Grandma came in.

“What are you planning on doing today?” she asked, not bothering to offer a greeting, no good morning, no hello, nothing. I glanced over at Scott who shrugged and sipped his tea ( he was avoiding coffee too, Virgil wasn’t but it takes a LOT to put that boy off his brown nectar).

“No plans,” I was forced to admit. I saw Scott shake his head sadly, like I’d just doomed myself. I obviously wasn’t on top of things today, my brain is mush.

“Good, then you can help me with some chores.” 

I resisted the urge to groan, looking over at the big bros for support…

“Huh, where did they go?” Grandma asked me.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know,” I sighed, gulping my cocoa and wishing it was something stronger and possibly alcoholic.

“Then I guess we’ll have to work twice as hard!”

 “Yes, Grandma.”

                    ***

“John,” I whispered into my comm as I hid in a corner of the library.

“Yes?” he popped up in his hologram form, not looking at me straight away, clearly distracted by whatever he was working on.

“I have a question.”

He turned to look at me. I saw him pause, his eyes darting around, taking in my surroundings.

“I have a question too, why are you hiding behind a curtain? Where even is that?”

“Library,” I settled back against the wall. Perched on the windowsill I was indeed hiding behind a curtain. “Grandma gave me a chore list.”

“Ah,” he said, not needing to add anything else, that said it all really. “You had a question?”

“Oh, yeah, I did.”

“What was it?”

“Oh, she's made me do three loads of laundry, I’ve dusted her ornaments, cleaned the two bathrooms, which is all I'm doing by the way, I’m not touching the ensuites, they’re on their own with them.”

“A wise decision,” he agreed, crossing his arms, leaning back on nothing, suspended in midair, showing he was in the comms sphere, clearly sensing that this would be a long story. There’s no rushing me when I’m trying to explain things, you just have to accept that you're along for the ride.

“I’ve helped her change the bedding in the guest rooms, why I have literally no clue, since no one can come and visit anyway and this is a secret base and it’s not like we do a lot of tours or anything…” I trailed off, seeing the raised eyebrow of doom on my boy. “What else did we do…” I mused, trying to think and hurry my thought process along. “Cleaned all the old food out of the fridge, vacuumed the lounge and now I’m here.”

“And why are you in there? Apart from hiding from more chores, obviously?”

“Because I needed to ask you what was going on.”

Was that an eye roll? I’m pretty sure it was. 

“Going on with what? You’re the one that was filling me in on your day.”

“What’s with the Grandma?”

“Grandma?”

“Yes, Grandma. I’ve been going from room to room, ticking things off her chore list but…”

“But what?”

“Babe, I hate to ask this, but is Grandma going a little…” I couldn’t say it out loud so I settled for the universal sign that is a finger twirl to the side of my head.

“Explain.”

“Babe, I don't usually question the wiseness of Grandma's logic but this time…well...she's got me watering plastic plants,” I whispered, making a conscious effort not to shout as I usually would. News like this needed to be delivered in a delicate way, a supportive, understanding way. No one wanted to hear proof that their, let’s face it slightly elderly, grandmother was going a little cuckoo in her golden years.

I watched him carefully, it wouldn’t do to be upsetting him when he was so far away 22,400 miles away to be exact, and I couldn't be with him, but to my surprise his face registered nothing but relief with a hint of...amusement? OK, maybe a hint was being generous. 

“Dude, are you laughing at me?”

“No, love.”

“Lies! You’re laughing right now!”

“I’m laughing with you, not at you,” he promised, sobering slightly.

“Laughing with me implies that I should be laughing too, so either share the joke with the rest of the class or bugger off.” I was not impressed and fast losing patience with the love of my life.

“Sorry, sorry,” he coughed, clearing his throat in an effort to regain his composure.

I waited, arms crossed in a mirror of his earlier pose, lips slightly pursed, eyes narrowed, he sooo knew he was in trouble.

“Let me tell you a little story,” he began, finally calm enough to talk to me properly.

“Go on then, I’m listening.”

“Grandma has always loved her plants, she used to garden a lot,” he started and as usual when he spoke, I listened, one because I needed to know what was going on and two, because I just love his voice and would happily listen to him reading a menu if he so chose. I wiggled a little to get comfier and prepared to be entertained, because every story John tells is entertaining in its own way, mostly because he just sounds so fed up and done with life as he tells it. 

“She said that she found it relaxing to tend them, it gave her time to think and to order her thoughts. She would talk to them like they were her children and no one dared touch them.”

I nodded to show I was following so far.

“When we moved to the island and got busier with International Rescue it obviously started taking up a lot of time for all of us,” he reclined himself back into his lazy float giving me a nice view I must say (I’m sure he did it on purpose).

“The busier we got, the less time she had to devote to them, the more we did the more she forgot about them and it wasn’t long before the first one died. She came down one morning and noticed that it’s leaves were dried out and brown and it was slumped over in its pot. She tried, we all did, but there was no reviving it.” His tone was so serious that I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Grandma was really sad, so we decided to help if we could. Unfortunately, as it turned out, none of us have a particularly green thumb. We did our best, but failed spectacularly. As we always say, you can’t save everyone, and that isn't limited to humans.”

I nodded encouragingly, wishing I had a mug to sip from 'cause my boy was spilling the tea!

"When we noticed another was, as Gordon put it, on its way out, we stepped in before it happened and fixed it."

"You fixed it? Like it was a broken processor or something? How do you fix a dying plant?" 

He stayed quiet. 

"John?" I lifted an eyebrow demandingly. 

"We switched it out for a plastic one," he finally admitted. 

"John!" I was shocked, shocked at their sneakiness and the sheer balls of pulling off such a move right under her nose. 

"I know, I know, it was awful of us. But we couldn't think of anything else to do. She was so sad every time she lost one and we couldn't stand it."

"How many times did you do this? Because I have yet to find a real live one."

"I think you just answered your own question."

"All of them? Like every single one?" 

"Well, not all of them, the bonsai in the lounge is still alive, but that's mostly Kayo and Virgil that tend it. Kayo learnt from her dad, he loved to garden. And the outside plants usually do OK. We have timed watering for then with both underground pipework and an overhead sprinkler system. And Kayo will do a little maintenance on them, cutting them back and the like, whenever she has time which isn't often. We don't really get weeds here as the seeds have nowhere to carry from, so it's just upkeep of the plants themselves."

 "But every houseplant other than the bonsai…"

"All fake," he confirmed. 

"And you never told her? She didn't notice?" 

"No, not that we know of, the fact that she gave you the job of watering them confirms that. We just kept offering to look after them for her and she let us do it. We bought the best quality we could, they look very realistic." He said that last like it made the whole thing more OK. "We did it for her, we didn't want her upset."

"Well, I honestly don't know what to think about all that," I confessed. And I really didn't, they were such sneaky little sods when they wanted to be, dangerous when working together. Sure they did it with the best of intentions and for the right reasons but still I did need to know one thing… 

"Whose idea was it?" 

"Idea?" he repeated, clearly deflecting. 

"Yes, who thought up the idea of swapping them?" I knew the answer, he knew that I knew, I just needed him to confirm it. 

Slowly he lifted his hand. 

"Yep, not surprised. Totally called it," I grinned. 

"Then why did you ask?" 

"Because sometimes I need to remind myself what a deliciously devious man you are." 

"You're a strange woman."

"A strange woman that your dumb ass married," I reminded him. 

"We all have our weak moments," he quipped but I didn't take it seriously. "I should probably get back to work, just hide out there for another few minutes and call the job done."

I nodded, seeing the sense in his words. "How long will you be?" 

"Just another few hours, I should be done by dinner."

"OK, but I'm holding you to that, Space Man." 

"Wouldn't expect anything less."

I blew him a little kiss which he dutifully pretended to catch, with much eye rolling, before he clicked off, cutting the connection. 

Sighing , still unable to believe what I'd just heard I drew back the curtain I was sheltering behind and dropped down from the windowsill. I grabbed my phone, tucking it into my pocket as I turned round. 

"Grandma!" 

There she was, waiting for me like a silent septuagenarian ninja, arms folded, one foot tapping out an annoyed rhythm. 

"Hi," I greeted, taking an unconscious step backwards. Would she notice if I threw myself out of the window like a weak willed victorian maid whose husband hadn't returned from the war? 

She glared at me. Yep, she'd notice alright. 

"Done with the chores?" she asked in a voice that told me she already knew the answer. As far as I could tell I had three choices, lie through my teeth, tell her the truth or deflect like my name was John Tracy and I was late home. 

"Well, there was a lot on the list…"

"Oh knock it off," she huffed. "I heard everything."

I slumped, there was no deflecting this.

"I'm very disappointed in you, young lady."

"I know, I'm sorry, I-" 

"I can't believe you let yourself get dragged into one of their idiot schemes. I expected better of you."

"I'm sorry, I know I let you down."

"Too right you did, I've been waiting the best part of five years for them to tell me the truth, I had hoped you'd call them out on it but they ended up with another conspirator. Perfect."

"I said I was sorry, I- wait, you knew?" 

Grandma rolled her eyes in a move that was so very John. "Of course I knew, how stupid do you think I am?" 

I sighed in relief that I wouldn't have to pull off this charade any longer, hell, I'd only been involved for five minutes and it felt like a year. "I did wonder, I mean, I noticed straight away and I don't even know that much about plants. When did you find out?" 

"Not long after they started," she shrugged. "I just didn't tell them."

"John did say they bought the best quality plants they could find," I said, feeling the need to defend my man and his idiot brothers. 

"Oh, they did that alright. They are beautiful and less work than the real thing, honestly I liked my plants because they gave me something to do, they kept me occupied but when this organisation took off I didn't need them any more."

"Then why not tell them?" 

"Because it was funny to watch them pretend to water them every week, plus I was waiting for then to realise how stupid they had been."

"Which they didn't," I supplied. 

"No, they didn't, which surprised me, I thought I'd raised them to be smarter than that." 

"They were pretty smart with it," I argued. 

"Smart? They replaced every plant that died."

"Yeah, that was kinda the point."

"Which would have been fine, if they had paid attention to the plants themselves. Roses that bloom for four years are a dead giveaway."

[nonsensicalobsessions]

But You Are Mine

Prompt: Loki/OFC AU, nurse

Author’s Note: So, after an incredibly long hiatus, the Muse returned and left this story with me, so I could respond to the mystery prompt challenge as posed by Little Darlin’s AU Mystery Challenge. It was an interesting set up: I chose the pairing, and the prompt I wanted (song, dialogue prompt, or a nonverbal prompt, or AU) which would was then selected by Little Darlin.  I will let you, the reader, decide how well I fulfilled the prompt I chose and drew...

Tired. So unbelievably tired, I couldn’t hold my eyes open any longer, nor could I come up with a reason to do so.

The bath water was warm, and deep, my head was so heavy, and my eyes burned...what was the point? Rest, a persuasive voice whispered inside my head. Just close your eyes for awhile, what harm will it do? You are finally warm, after feeling so cold and miserable.

The humidity felt so good in my aching throat and the scent of almonds and honey soothed me further as I allowed myself to drift off.

Come now, Little One. You need to shake this lethargy off, and sit up.

I need to do no such thing. This voice was new, and unwelcome, and it could piss off. 

Hearing voices in my head wasn’t nearly as upsetting as it might seem on the surface. They weren’t true auditory hallucinations...most of the time. I knew I had an active imagination. Usually it was a source of comfort for me and my solitary, sheltered existence. The more upsetting mono- or dialogues I had become disciplined enough to shut out. Therapy is a wonderful thing.

You most certainly do, or else the consequences will be most dire.

Oh? Such as?

Such as, I am the only thing keeping you from falling asleep, and as such slipping under the surface of the water and drowning.

The voice was quiet, and firm. Curiously enough, it was male. Huh. A lovely baritone, come to that. Most of my voices were either female, or asexual.

I somehow think my first inhalation of water would be sufficient to wake me up, but thank you for reinforcing your poor opinion of me, whoever you are. You may go now. Just...so tired...

You are tired because you haven’t eaten in three days, nor had anything to drink for two. And you are also tired because you are barely conscious. You are quite ill and in dire need of medical assistance. Does the thought of impending death not move you at all? 

Voice, who are you and why should I even care? Voices come and voices go. None of them speak truth, they simply tell stories or say what I want to hear. Just leave me to some god damned rest for a change.

No. This god will not let you have the rest of the damned.

Oh bullshit. There are no gods. And if there are, none of them speak to me, or care enough to make their presence known. I’ve tried.

Can you not hear me answer you?

I’m dreaming. That’s all this is. And I challenge you, Nameless God—who are you, and why would you come to me now anyway? Why can’t you just let me go in peace?

Because I have been watching over you, my dear. I’ve heard you calling out to me in joy, in mischievous laughter, in rage, in despair, but most delightfully in passion...and yet, your calls have dwindled, and your supplications grown smaller, and finally silent. I came to see about you, and find you on the verge of passing beyond even my reach...why? Why have you allowed yourself to fail so grievously ill?

I repeat—who are you?

Beautiful mortal. I’m your Loki. Open your eyes.

Struggling, I managed to force my eyelids to open. It was time to force myself out of this reverie that was bound to sink my soul deeper into the mire of depression should I continue. There would be no one there, because there was never anyone there.

Crouched besides my tub, was...someone. A male figure, in armor that was casually unfastened at his throat. His index finger lightly supported my chin, as my body had in fact slipped a lot lower than I realized. Careless of modesty, I struggled to sit up, but my head felt poorly supported by my neck, and I leaned it heavily against the side of the bath. I blearily realized perhaps I was sicker than I realized, as my imagination had now exploded into full blown delusions. Auditory, visual, tactile...whee, such fun...

“You do not seem overly distressed to find me here.”

“Begging your pardon, but I fear you are not. Clearly I am spiking a temperature and am delirious. I knew I was feeling ill beforehand but had no idea...”

“Oh, you skeptical woman. You are indeed sick, in fact I am still unsure what can be done for you, but none of my favored will slip away in a bath if I can give at least some assistance to aid their passage.” And with that, I found myself being lifted, and tenderly brought to my bed, instantly dry and clad in the loveliest nightdress I’d ever seen. Certainly finer than anything I had in my possession.

“What...?”

“Darling, you deserve something beautiful. But right now, I fear your body is shutting down. You should not have neglected yourself so sorely. Why have you?”

At this point, I decided to just go with it.

“Are you then, truly...”

“Yes, I am the same Loki you’ve called out to many, many times. Your very own.”

“Why do you say it like that? ‘My very own’? Surely there can only be one of you...?”

“Little One, have you no idea how many multiverses exist? For whatever reason, I have found you, and therefore I have claimed you as mine. I do not share easily, if at all. Should another incarnation of myself suddenly appear, he would have quite a fight on his hands. You are mine. I know everything about you...how you read well past your bedtime. The many, many hundreds of thousands of words you have written, but have never shared with anyone—why? You’ve created entire universes of your own, woven wondrous tapestries filled with richness and delight, but have locked them away in secret...composed anthologies of poems...” Long fingers played with my hair as I stared into his eyes, struck dumb by his revelations as he looked pointedly at my stacks of journals that were perched on my nightstand, leaned on shelves, and even sat on the floor.

His face was a confusion for me. He wasn’t as described in the eddas, nor was he the mirror image of the MCU character.

“Of course not,” he laughed, his voice rumbling low in his chest. “I am me, and no one else. Just as you are yourself.” Drat the man, he was even reading my mind now, or at least reading my expressions...

His eyes were almost a kaleidoscope of green and blue, and his hair a rich black waterfall of wavy locks, his lips neither thin nor thick, and his teeth...I had to shake myself from getting lost in his physical magnetism. 

“I don’t know what to say,” I murmured. “If you know so much, why are you asking me these questions, and why are you coming now, when everything has gotten so bad?”

“When I saw you last, things weren’t so dire, pet,” he confessed. “I wasn’t going to manifest myself unless I thought you truly needed me. You were content, I thought—you had your life with your friends, your activities...why should I upset everything? God of Chaos and Mischief I am, but I had no desire to destroy your life for no purpose. I adore mischief and pranks. I would bring pain to you.”

“Loki, everything is gone,” I whispered, trying to contain my grief. “Everything I was striving for...I’m never going to get better, you know, the physical therapists told me I’ve hit my maximum potential. The only thing I can do is have surgery, which will be expensive, painful, and risky with uncertain outcome. There will be no one to help me recuperate, to further complicate matters. My job is at risk because I can’t keep up any longer. I’ve worked so long to help everyone else, but...”

“Now you need help, and everyone has disappeared, aye,” he concluded sadly. “I am sorry. I know you have struggled with this for a long time.”

“I never felt like I wanted outlandish things. I wanted to have a family of my own. A husband who loved me, found me physically desirable...”

“You are incredibly desirable,” Loki growled fiercely. “By the Nine, I’ve watched you as you have lain in your narrow bed of nights, wondering what ails the men of this realm that you have had to take care of your needs alone. Your body in passion has inflamed me in ways I can barely tolerate without slipping through and ravishing you without so much as a by your leave...!”

“But you didn’t” I hotly interrupted. “For whatever reason, you didn’t. Whether I was too old, too disabled, too fragile, too mortal, too unattractive...you like every other male found your pleasures elsewhere, and...”

“Be very careful,” Loki hissed. “You are close to unleashing something you know nothing of...”

“Well of course I know nothing of it, I just want a family, babies, children, I just wanted to be loved, and yet you find me about to drown in my own bathtub! And come to it, why didn’t you just leave me be? At least the pain and the loneliness and the aching would be over! What is the point, or are you going to be just as distant as all the other gods in the pantheon...!”

I didn’t say anymore, because speech was no longer possible. Loki had swooped down, crushed my body to his, and was kissing me with a thoroughness I never dreamed possible.

What need for breath had I, when there were such kisses to be had? My head was spinning, my heart was pounding, and the edges of my vision were growing dark as I lost myself in him, my hands slowly then more confidently pressing him even closer to me, so I could feel his silky locks in my fingers, his chest rising and falling.

“I warned you,” he said at last, allowing me to greedily inhale at last. “You taunt me, showing me where I may have failed in the past, but I will refuse myself no longer. I thought by denying myself the pleasure of being in your company, I was doing what was best for you, but no more! You are mine, and I will be the one to give you all, whether you wish it or not. No mortal men for you, my darling. I will have Eir herself if necessary at your bedside, and what Eir cannot heal, I shall unleash my seidr upon, and what magic cannot improve, I swear I will fetch and carry and give to you whatever you need so you will be comfortable and happy. No healer will be as dedicated. No handmaiden as constant.”

I sat back. “You...really care? You care that much?”

“Sweetling? I may be your Loki...but you?”

He leaned forward and cradled my body against his, his voice husky and tantalizing, his breath barely brushing against my ear.

“...you are my Ástvinur. I cannot, will not be without you another moment. I refuse. Seeing you about to slip away...no. I have chosen you, and you are mine.”

@sourpatchkidsandacokecan @just-the-hiddles @yespolkadotkitty @hopelessromanticspoonie @winterisakiller @redfoxwritesstuff @ciaodarknessmyheart @villainousshakespeare @lotus-eyedindiangoddess @vodka-and-some-sass @theheartofpenelope @sabine-leo @wegingerangelica @the-insomniac-cat2 @alexakeyloveloki @myoxisbroken @ladyfluff @toomanystoriessolittletime

[nikadoesthings]

A beautiful rear can also endear

Hello people, I am new on here and shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal was roaming my mind and I had to get it out of my system by writing a fic. So here is a blurb (is it called blurb? idk). It’s around 1000 words and the reader finds him doing this challenge and is taken by surprise and then some teasing happens. Anything else you need to know beforehand? Let me know if I’m doing something wrong. And English is not my mother-tongue, so sorry for weird things in the text.

You’ve been standing in the door frame for you don’t know how long. He’s known for being just a tad - or more - weird. But yet here you are, astonished and enamored at the same time. You should have become suspicious when you heard him giggling in the living room and visiting you in the kitchen demanding love from you and showing you different T-Shirts to choose from. You were in self-isolation after all, why did he want to be perfectly dressed? After exchanging some cuddles, sweet kisses and loving words he just explained, he had a special workout planned. While planting a last kiss on your forehead, he snitched the hair tie from your ponytail to use it himself for his man-bun, leaving you with your hair loosely evolving a life of its own. Anyways you got back to preparing food. But you weren’t prepared for what was you would see when entering the living room.

How long can a human be head over heels? Uhm I mean… upside down. You are the one head over heels probably. While being in an upright position. Like on a plane during take-off and landing. Staring at Jake Gyllenhaal putting on a shirt while he performs a handstand is definitely more adventurous than flying. This is a work of art. Effortlessly completing his task aka accepting the challenge he just smiled at before with no intention of doing it. At least that’s what you thought. And those toned muscles… You felt half of your brain cells clock off in the exact moment you laid eyes on this scenario. And what makes standing weirdly in the door frame even better? - Right, holding a random food item in your hand.

Losing track of time and space is notoriously inevitable for quarantine and looking at Jake - this you have learnt so far while spending time with him. It has been just a few seconds you stared at him in awe. And with a sandwich in hands. Motionless. The thirst kinda took over the wish to eat anyways. While he returns to a more normal position after he accomplished successfully you slowly get a hang of reality again. He starts goofing around, striking a pose and sighing with relief. His eyes were focused on his phone recording his heroic deed but then he notices you and he gives you and the future audience behind their phone an adorable smile. Partly proud of himself, partly amused by seeing you being dopey.

He decides he can leave you in trance a few seconds more to record his nominations and the appeal to support local businesses. That being done he puts his phone away and approaches you still smiling, now with a hint of slyness creeping in. He positions himself standing right in front of you, looking at you for a few seconds and then biting in the sandwich. It has come to a good use, finally. The brain cells left run at full speed while you look puzzled between a muffled laughing Jake and a bitten into sandwich trying to figure out the correlation between those two things. He grabs your wrist, lowering your hand with the sandwich to the closest furniture. “Surprise! I did the challenge!”, he smiles widely and adds explaining “And ate some of this sandwich… I’m not laughing about you, I am laughing because sandwiches are hilarious, you know.” “I think I witnessed that.” “I know you did. But you looked like your soul left your body for a second. So I wanted to double-check that you know for sure.”, he chuckles while running his thumb over your cheek. “I guess I have to breathe a bit of life back into you.”, he ponders before kissing you and smiling at your lips. “Welcome back in this world.” “Very funny, Mister. I still have to adjust to you being… you, I guess. You’re unlike anyone I ever met. But I like it. A lot.”, you blush while he rests his head against yours and plays with your hair he freed from being stuck in a ponytail previously. “Same goes to you, special girl. And I like it especially when this smart cookie…”, he taps your forehead while his blue eyes lock on yours. “…does something dumb because she likes me so much.” He snakes his arms around you, teasingly raising his eyebrow. But he stops dead in his movement when your recovered brain cells come up with a comeback. “Did you just call yourself something dumb?”, you ask playfully sheepishly, but that facade quickly crumbles and your devilish grin shows. Now he stares at you in disbelieve, his kissable lips slightly parted, but yes you just said that. Surprise! Now you returned the favor. But still you are under his spell, thinking about his lips on yours. He uses your moment of abstraction to pick you up, which causes you to squeal in surprise but was cut short by his lips crashing on yours. And you reacted to him immediately. “Oh… someone’s naughty today… talking back, checking me out literally behind my back…”, he whispers in your ear with a snarl and nibbles your ear. Dammit those actors really can change their demeanor perfectly in just a heartbeat.

Your heart now beating fast, fluttering as if by command since day one. He quickly figured out how to push your buttons and noticing every ever so subtle or instinctive signal sent from you. He knew you were checking him out earlier all the way. “A lot of backs here… But what can I say… a beautiful rear can also endear…”, you couldn’t hold back from babbling. And you immediately regret it when you see his facial expression. You will have a lot of teasing coming for you. Whoops! “Let’s get you back to bed and get this stupid shirt off me again.”, he bores his eyes into yours and grins evil. “You’re in trouble, Miss.” You know.  And you look forward to another show of his skills and physique - now just for you.

So here it was, my first fic here. Want me to write more? You want to know something else? Chat? Please feel free to message me or whatever. I heard finding friends online is nice. ;)

[artfromtheunderworld]

Feelings Are Weird - Chapter 3

The sound of different paced footsteps round around the estate, before finally coming to a full stop out back, where now it appeared the sun was going down, so the sky had a beautiful pinkish orange tint to it, as the clouds rolled around the ball in the sky like it was a queen. Zenitsu’s attention was on the boar though, his golden eyes narrow as he gave a more than upset look, for whatever reason for them being here right now. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but, the other’s breathing was all off. “Why were you staring at me, you creepy moron, what reason could you have had to rip me away from my precious Nezuko!” Arms going up in the air, waving them around wildly like something big really just happened, though, in this case it makes sense for the blond’s sake. Inosuke stayed silent for a few more moments, his expression was unreadable due to his mask, so his body seemed somewhat limp as he continued staring ahead. “Ghh..” Was all that passed out from him, Zenitsu made an annoyed yell, rubbing his hands through his hair violently, he didn’t understand this guy at all! What the hell was his problem anyways!? “THIS, you were doing THIS very thing when we were inside, what’s your issue!?” He takes a step forward, raising his hands up a bit as he looked pissed off, but in an oddly comedic way. “You...You just wanted to pull me away from Nezuko, because you thought it’d be funny, didn’t-GAH!” Punched right in the face, Inosuke lets a huff out from his snout as his hand draws back, and would stand up straight. Hands on his hips as he would look annoyed as all hell, his mask nearly looked angry following his emotions in suit. “Shut it creep-!” “CREEP!? YOU’RE THE ONE THAT’S BEEN STARING-” Inosuke cuts him off with a nasty headbutt to the gut, and would flex a bit as he laughs. “I don’t understand you.” A growl escapes from him, and would grab at Zenitsu’s yukata, lifting him up and over a bit with a small shake. “Why do you keep doing that stuff with her? The hell is that all about, it’s freaking me out, it’s too weird! Is it some kinda attack you’re planning against her or something!?” That caught the blond off guard, in the heat of it, he looked terribly offended by that, grabbing the other’s wrists and would butt heads with him. They were both grunting and glaring at each other. “HOW COULD SOMEONE LIKE YOU, YOU OF ALL PEOPLE EVEN SAY THINGS LIKE THAT!? I’D NEVER HARM NEZUKO, WONDERFUL SOFT NEZUKO!! SHE’S TOO PERFECT! YOU BRUTE! YOU’RE ALWAYS HITTING TANJIRO, YOU’RE THE ONE THAT’S ACTING CREEPY AND PLANNING!” Zentisu would squeal a little as his legs kicked when hosted into the air, Inosuke would let out an animal cry before slamming the other slayer onto the ground from that, a foot raises up, and sits on his stomach as his arms crossed over his chest staring down. “haHAHAHA! You’re really are a fool!! It’s alright, I forgive you for saying such things!! Not everyone realizes!” Not that he really knew what he meant by that, but hey, it made Inosuke sound smart so it was some kinda win wasn’t it? Maybe not. ANYWAYS. “It’s not right to actually attack follow members, besides, Tanjiro has become my favorite underling! I need to show how strong I am against him!” He moves his arms over each other doing a weird pose. “Ghahaha!! I don’t even know why I listen to that bastard anyways! He makes things weird, always! So damn nice, it pisses me off.” He growls, clenching his fist. “But, sometimes it feels...not pissed off.” Slowly his body relaxes, and would stare blankly. Reminded of the times of how nice Tanjiro was to him. Yesterday and today even when they were yelling at each other and seemed like they would fight. All that the red head slayer did..was take him back inside, and offer to feed him something to help his nerves.  That took Inosuke back a bit from the whole ordeal, but had taken it anyways..because Tanjiro’s cooking wasn’t bad, and he could eat it all day honestly. Though snapping back down when his ankle was grabbed and his foot was lifted up easily due to his distraction. “Aha! I knew your heartbeat sounded different before, and this confirms it!” Zenitsu slides out from under, now sitting up to point the finger over at Inosuke, who in return gave a blank stare and fell limb. “The hell you on about, creep?” The blond looked offended by that, but takes a breath knowing he needed to be a bit more stubborn to keep up with Inosuke. “You! Your heartbeat gets off track, it moves faster and louder whenever Tanjiro gets brought up-lIKE RIGHT NOW! YOU LIKE HIM!” That pissed off the other, making an angry yell leaping over, but Zenitsu was able to dodge just as fast. “I don’t even know what that means, the hell are you going on about!?” The boar teen runs and gets the hit this time, slamming his head into the other’s side. Making him groan in pain, and go flying a bit. Once done sliding on the ground, and staying where he was with a whine, his head turns slightly over as he begins sitting up again. “Y-You moron, you seriously don’t know what it’s like to like someone like that?! You’re such a poor soul, how could you not get a warm gush of emotions when in the face of someone you find attractive! I couldn’t imagine being like you, being around Nezuko is like the heavens have blessed me with someone so cute!” He tears up, holding himself as he begins ranting a little. Inosuke stares, though you couldn’t see his face, he made a little growl and you could feel the creeped out look radiating underneath it. “I don’t understand any of that, but it sounds creepy coming from you, weirdo.” “YOU’RE ONE TO TALK!” Zenitsu quickly makes his way back over, still on his knees, as his hands raise up grabbing Inosuke’s own and would cry a bit more, almost pleading. “I know you’re an idiot, and a loon! But, you can’t really be this dumb to not understand anything Inosuke! This is one of the few times I really feel sorry for you, even when you piss me off!” He croaks out, meanwhile the other kinda was staring, not saying a word, almost silently allowing the other to keep talking. This threw the blond off, since he expected to get smacked or throw away, but taking a breath, he keeps going. “Around Tanjiro, you have to feel something, you might not understand, but your body does, yeah!? The way your heart beats when he talks to you, and I bet you get that dizzy hot feeling, it means you like him romantically, meaning you’d like to be with him as a mate-” Inosuke screams at that word, a term that seemed he understood better. Which is why Zenitsu had thought this was a better time to see if Inosuke knew about those words due to being in the wild. Seem like that was the case. The feral teen pulls away, and kicks Zen in the stomach, sending him to the ground. “IDIOT! YOU IDIOT! I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN, DON’T EVER SAY THAT WORD AGAIN, THERE’S NO WAY I FEEL LIKE THAT! YOU GET ALL STUPID AND WEIRD WITH HIS SISTER!! I’M NOT THAT WAY AT ALL!” Zenitsu felt like he might have made a mistake through Inosuke’s yelling, but he could hear the quick pick up in the breathing, the way the heart beats rapidly now. Plus, he noticed the red that escaped from under the mask, just reaching to the edge. But, that was noticeable. 

This only caused a smile to reach over Zenitsu’s face, before turning into a smug smirk. That struck a nerve for the other. Moving into a fighting position. “YOU GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?!” Before long, now confused when Zen was laughing, he didn’t understand what was so damn funny, and it made him more flustered and angry not catching onto what was going on. Hating to feel left in the dark for a lot of stuff. Then again, that was a lot of thinking on his part, and wanting nothing to do with that. Better to get the answer straight forward. “You-You moron, you seriously don’t understand how much you care about Tanjiro! It’s obvious now! You can’t hide anything from me, I understand everything! HAHA!” He snorts, and gets up, now feeling more confident for once in front of Inosuke. “If you don’t care, then I can tell him about all this!” He turns to go do so, however, only causing Inosuke to freak out in the spot. Shaking and frozen trying to show he didn’t care. Nope! Not bothered in the slightest, he…..it didn’t..he grunts a bit, as his fists ball up. Inosuke darts forward finally chasing Zenitsu into the estate, past some others that were inside, though not like they were surprised or anything. Once sliding in front of the door, grabbing on the door handle Zenitsu had everything to figure out, but quickly put to a stop as Inosuke dives and tackles him down onto the floor. They caused a huge crashing noise, as they both thrashed, and wiggled in each other’s grip. Before long, the door opened on its own, with Tanjiro standing there with Nezuko underneath his arm, staring blankly at the scene in front of them. Inosuke now sitting on top of the blond, with his legs crossed, making sure to put all the weight he could onto him, looking quite proud of himself at that, beaming basically. While poor Zenitsu was on the ground under him, being anchored by someone who was heavier than they looked. “An underling should never challenge his lord, you should have known better!! GHAHAHA!!” He said. At this point, the slayer on the ground had given up the fight, knowing he couldn’t break through to the idiot on top of him. So the next course of action was to talk with Tanjiro, to see how he felt about all this going on, or if he was just as stubborn or clueless. Speaking of said boy, Kamado was trying to get Inosuke off of him. “Come on Inosuke, you really shouldn’t be sitting on him, remember what we talked about?” Speaking so calm, and sweet, however Inosuke ignored him at first, trying to not break. However, a hand grabbed his wrist and he grunts getting thrown into the room by Tanjiro. And soon puffs out a grunt when sat on him. “See? It’s not so nice when it’s you being sat on.” But a word wasn’t spoken by Inosuke, keeping silent, before snarling a bit like a brat. Tanjiro pets the head of the mask, chuckling a bit from the attitude he was used to by this point. But, the teen under him started blushing from the mask, lucky it kept him hidden away if anything. Nezuko crawls over to Zenitsu, looking down at him making sure he was alright, poking slightly. The blond was up in seconds, holding a hand to his chest. “Ne~zu~ko~ you’re so wonderful, you’ve helped me so much just now, how could I ever repay you? So sweet~!” Nezuko just looked at him awkwardly, now trying to push herself back away from him, realizing what her mistake was in trying to be nice. “Mmn..” Was all she mumbled before worming into the room behind her brother as Zen tried to make chase, but was stopped obviously. “Ahhh~ How could you have such a wonderful, beautiful sister like her still? Nezuko!!” Tanjiro made a face, he hated hearing this from Zen, but, not like he could do much about it. Moving his free arm back to pet his sister’s head. All the while Inosuke was lost in his own thoughts. ‘What did that creep mean? I don’t get it at all, Banjitro? Mate? The hell..why am I even thinking all this, it’s making me hot.’ Quickly from thinking too much, he passes out on the spot, hoping this whole thing blows over, though there’s a sneaking feeling...that might not be the case.

A/N: You know when I said that I’d have this up soon? I got distracted and super busy, so I’m sorry for that guys, I’ll try cranking these out sooner!! Thanks for the follows and likes from the previous chapters, I’ll try get some drawings out soon too! 

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 

[ladyshandioftheendless]

Royal Pains

HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS this is one of @ashestoashesvvi ‘s crowning achievements!! Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Steel Panther invaded the KISSteriaverse? No? WELL TOO BAD HERE IT IS ANYWAY!! So in this Michael Starr is Vince’s cousin and a constant thorn in his side. This time the Panther boiz assume to role of party crashers! Placed under a cut for length and dirtiness~

“W- We’re gonna what now?”

“We’re gonna bring some heavy ass metal to my favorite blond richy bitchy cuz! It’s gonna so fuckin’ rock, man!” Michael declared, jumping on top of their pool table in the middle of the room. He downed his open beer in one go and tossed it down on the floor when he was done with a pumped grin. “Woo!! Alright, bitches, c'mon, who’s game to party hard tonight?”

Lexxi blinked, and blinked. Then blinked again. Then he looked back at his mirror, shaking his head and fluffing up his hair. “Ahh, ahhhhh, you can go, but… but…” he paused, rolling the words around in his head. Beside him, Satchel just rolled his eyes as his bandmate’s mind was as lost as ever. “But I- I don’t think I’m for it after we jus- just snorted aaaaall, and I- I mean aaaall, the fuckin’ coke we had, dude. Kinda just wanna stay here and pet my turtle– you guys kno- know my turtle, yeah?”

“Lex, no damn turtle talk.”

“No one wants to hear where you shoved him up.”

“Guys!!” Michael groaned, “Duuuuudes, focus! Party time! Yeah or fuck yeah?”

Stix sighed, flopping down next to Satchel and Lexxi on their demolished, once lavish, black leather couch. “Eh, why the fuck not? It’s been a while since we had some fun, man.”

“Yeah, a whole fuckin’ six hours.” Michael nodded, grinning ear to ear. “C'mon, Lex, don’t you want to have some fun this weekend?”

“I- If by fun, you mean work on my highlights and fu- fuckin’ update our fashion style, then yeah. Ahhh….. What was I– Oh, yeah, just fuckin’, other than that, I- I don’t feel like going to some big party.” he said. He winced when Michael pouted then came running up to him, putting his head on his shoulder, whining and hugging onto his arm.

“Come on, please?”

“Bitch, you’re getting between m- me and the mirror- the mirror, man!” Lexxi pouted, pursing his lips out even more. He swung his mirror around in his hand to keep it out of Michael’s way and more focused on his own beautiful face.

Satchel laughed, “You’re gonna drop that, and that’s gonna break, and you’re gonna cry like a little girl in front of all of us, dude.”

“Then I’ll be careful- duh!” Lexxi sighed, wriggling out of Michael’s strong hold.

“Lexxi, you’re coming with us. It’s not a bitchin’ party until the whole band shows up!” Michael laughed.

“Mmmh…..”

“Lex, c'mon, c'here.” Stix sighed, shifting and standing to grab his taller bandmate. He forced him to lean down so that he could put his head on top of his, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “Come and have fun, okay?”

“Wh- Wha- What’d you say?” Lexxi blinked. He tried to consecrate and think about what he was just asked, but all he could manage was a confused, cute squint.

“Come and have fun, okay?”

“Ca- Can you say the last work- word different?”

“…okie?”

“Ooh, see that’s what I th- thought you said.”

“Lexxi, stop being a dumb fuckin’ blonde– no offence Michael– for like two seconds and focus, man. Think of it, think of the tiddies! The booze! The drugs! I heard they’re importing these new blue lines straight outta Jendell! Jendell, man! I heard that shit makes electricity shoot right up your spine!” Satchel smirked, rubbing his hands together.

“Better yet,” Stix laughed, catching Lexxi’s short focus again. “Think about it, man… Prince Vince has an entire hall of mirrors in his crib~”

Lexxi’s eyes widened. He’d forgotten about that. He hummed, thinking about it now, debating on the pros and cons before giving in. “Alright, okay. I- I’ll go.”

Michael squealed and hugged him. “Fuck yes! For a second, I thought we had to bring your mother in this.”

“Y- You fuckers leav- leave my mom outta this shit–”

“Heh, she wasn’t out of this,” Satchel motioned to his crotch. “last night, dude.”

“Shuddap!!”

“Oh fuckin’ grow a pair and get over it, Lex. Can’t give her AIDS twice.”

“Or thrice.” Satchel added with a nod of his head.

“Or frice?” Stix said, smiling. “Or whatever the fuck it is.”

“Can y- you guys not gangbang my m- mom?”

“Too late!” Michael said, reaching for his microphone. “I gotta summon us a bitchin’ ride…. Hmmm… what’ll it be tonight, boys? One big limo or…?”

“Flaming limo with flames painted on the sides, and nachos when we get in. I want some fuckin’ nachos right about now, dude.”

“Annnnnnd hookers.” Stix said, letting Lexxi go finally.

Michael nodded, “Oh man, this is so tits. Vince is gonna be soooo fuckin’ happy to see us.”

“Or he’ll banish us from the kingdom again.” Stix shrugged, cracking open a beer.

“Eh, fuck that. We always come back, just like a bad STD.”

“Lexxi would know all about that, wouldn’t you, Lex?” Satchel laughed, poking him in the side.

“Stooooooop, I- I was cleared ages a- ago, man!” he pouted, sitting back on the destroyed couch as they chuckled and relaxed against each other.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Prince Vince watched his party’s performance in the palace’s throne room. Mick and Tommy sat to his left and Nikki sat to his right. Their eyes all watched as the ceremonial warriors and dancers of the Order of the Golden Pyramid from the realm of Sphynxia performed for them. They watched the sharp blades twirl in their hands and the air with ease in their finest silks and robes.

The normally rowdy court was calmed and entertained by them, and they even cleared the way for the belly dancers to take the main floor of the throne room. All the dancers in the troupe were women, and each one was catching the Prince’s and his friends eyes. Except for Mick, but he had been around enough to not fall so easily and forget that they were still warriors under those black halter tops adorned with gold jewels and beads, long black skirts with high cut slits, gold anklets and gold bangles.

As a final motion, the dancing warriors twirled and all did a ‘death drop’, leaping up into the air, doing a full turn which almost fully exposed their lower bodies, falling to land on one of their bent legs, and spinning around a few times before slowly rising and posing. The kingdom and all the entire court attending burst into applause for their performance. The members of the Order of the Golden Pyramid all gave a short bow of appreciation at the applause.

The leader of the group, Asim, stepped forward to Vince and knelt down in front of him, offering up a sword. “Prince Vince, this is a gift from the Order in honor of our alliance with Anarkia. May it be fruitful and prosperous for both of us.”

“Holy fuck, that’s a big ass sword!”

“Duuude, look how Vince is holding it like it’s his penis.”

“Nah, that blade is waaaay bigger than his tiny dick, man.”

“I- I’m confused… aaaahh, which way was the bathroom? Oh fuck it. Forget it, Imma just go over here.”

“Oh no,” Mick groaned, making a face. “They’re back.”

“Hell yeah! Can’t fuckin’ go and invite the whole kingdom to a huge ass mother fuckin’ party and not invite us! Just cause we’re on the Steel Pantherian moon doesn’t mean you get to skip out on our invite, cuz!” Michael shouted, bounding straight up to the throne. He seemed unaware of Vince’s reddening face of anger and embarrassment. Or he just didn’t care. “Oooh! Sweet! We’re cool with the Sphynx people? Awesome! Cause I need to go there to tan. See, I’m getting a bit pale and–”

“What are you doin’ here, you fucker!?” Vince growled, trying to keep his cool during his important alliance set up. “I banished you fifteen times!”

“….And?” Michael giggled, then caught sight of the lovely warrior beside them. “Oooooh~ Hello, baby~ Hey, hey, don’t get with this bratty prince, c'mon and hang out with a duke and his boys, honey. I got a real swollen member, and I really need to cum in an ass tonight~”

The olive skinned warrior scoffed, then snatched the sword straight from the prince’s hands. “Master Radames will hear of this behavior and this- this vulgar offering. He had thought you Anarkians had matured after assisting the KISSterians in battle so many times.”

“N- No! Th- This fool is not affiliated with us!”

Nikki growled, nodding in agreement with Vince. “These bastards are just a buncha crossbred, inbred fucks! C'mon! You can’t just–”

“There is a certain level of respect that we expect during such ceremonial events, and this,” Asim motioned to the long hair blonde taking a piss behind a potted plant. “This is not something I can allow to happen on my first mission of alliance.” She shook her head, signaling to the rest of her troupe to pack up and head out.

“Hey, hey,” Michael said, grabbed the warrior’s wrist. “Listen, please. I’m sorry… I guess I messed up… Lemme restart, c'mon, how about I make it up to you and my cousin by offering to let you both blow me. You don’t even gotta worry about the rest of the band. Trust me, compared to the rest of the guys, I’m less likely to cheat, too, if you wanna meet up a second time and make it a thing.”

Rolling her eyes, she pushed him away harshly. “My master will certainly hear about all of this.”

“Michael, I’m gonna fuckin’ strangle you and banish you to a damn realm without pussy!!” Vince screeched, putting a hand on his cousin’s shoulder.

“Hey, dude, fuck off!” he snapped, “I’m trying to help things!”

“You’re making it worse!” Vince growled, his grip on Michael’s shoulder growing tight.

“Hey, let go of our Michael, you royal fuckwad!” Satchel shouted, darting in from the side, swinging a fist back and punching Vince square in the nose.

The crowd gasped, and the members of the Order of the Golden Pyramid quickly fled before an infamous Anarkian battle broke out right in their palace.

Vince growled at the punch, coming at Satchel angrily. With one quick motion, he slammed the guitarist’s head toward the floor, then felt the hardest hit he’d ever had in the ribs. Stix smirked at him as he gasped, standing there frozen and a little shaken from what had just happened.

Tommy came up from behind and kicked the bulkier drummer to the wall across the throne room. “You fuckin’ assholes!! You ruined everything– again!!”

“Ugh… Fuck you! We just came for fun and a good time!”

“BAD FUCKING TIMING, FUCKERS!” Vince shrieked, recovering, then leaping to try and claw his cousin’s eyes out. Michael laughed, holding his wrists an inch from his pretty face.

“Awww, hey, I missed this!!” he giggled, staring into the blazing pits of hatred of the prince’s gaze. “Jeez, I’m just sorry we didn’t show up sooner!”

“IMMA KILL YOU ASSHOLES!!!”

“Nah! You’re just gonna banish us again!” Michael smiled at him, “Make it a tiddie beach this time, though, would ya? I get bored just jerking it off to Lexxi’s girly face.”

“D- DID YOU JUST NOT HEAR ME—!?!” Vince shouted, then cut himself off in an angry roar. “AAAAAAAARGHHHH!!!!!”

“I’m too old for this shit…” Mick growled, sinking down in his chair, glaring at Lexxi off to his side. Blue electricity protectively crackled around him as the tall blonde just stared at him like he let a hamster borrow his last brain-cell. “I’m not gonna do a fist fight, you lil’ shit.”

“Nah, I- I’m just… ahh, well… fuck, someone said something about a mirror hall…. yeah, mirrors.”

Mick squinted at him, then jerked his thumb back behind the throne. “Down the hall.”

“Thanks, old dude.”

“Ugh…” Mick rolled his eyes, watching the court explode, then actually explode into fire and flames. “There goes another perfectly good alliance.”

[heavensentgohansrage]

Sunflower Marimo

PG-13, 4958 words

Fluff and Crack, Magical Seeds

AO3

So in this post on my main blog I gushed over this adorable work by @kingofalltsunfish​ and sorta made a promise to write it for her lol

It may have happened almost over two years ago, and the art itself is even much older than that, but I knew I had to do it.

Even if the outcome is all over the place for so many reasons, it’s better now then never.

Sanji has been howling with laughter for the last half an hour, as he keeps understanding more and more the reason behind Zoro’s strange behaviour.

Ever since returning back to the ship at almost the middle of the night, Zoro has refused to leave Chopper’s infirmary, where he has spent the night instead of the boys’ quarter. Then, all throughout breakfast, he proceeded in arguing with Nami about his mysterious need to turn the Sunny against the location of the sun - or, in words of people who actually know how direction works, to turn west - even though the Log Pose is directing to north-east.

Nami eventually agreed, even though he refused to give any explanation whatsoever. Then, it was only when he checked - through more than one window, because, you know, safety first - that the shadows outside were stretched in alignment with the ship’s structure that he rushed from the galley and through the short way that the infirmary created to the backside of the ship.

The crew’s excitement as they followed right after him was short, though, as it turned out he simply had to pee. Looking at each other, the group asked Franky to check if there was something wrong with the ship - although it did not explain Zoro’s secrecy about it - but he quickly found out that everything was just fine.

It was just then when Zoro finally went out, but slowly so, as he opened the door way too carefully, and even then took his time to look around, clearly making sure the ship was still facing the same way as he had asked for. Weirdly enough, it suddenly was not good enough for him to get out, but just shouted that they could now turn it back.

Before Sanji could tell him once more that Nami-san is not one to order around like that, though, Luffy stretched his hand all the way to him, assuring that he would make it quicker for him- and pulled Zoro’s shirt back to him without sparing him a moment to object.

Zoro, as usual, crushed right at Luffy and most of the rest, like Robin-chan, who Sanji had the utmost pleasure to pull away; but as he was bathing in the delight for having her thanking him that, suddenly he heard Zoro grunting.

The instinct to stand guard for his Nakamas overcoming any other nature of his as usual, Sanji cut his blessings off right away and turn to the Marimo-head, who was gritting his teeth and shaking with effort, although there was nothing visible to be affecting him.

Usopp and Luffy were arguing with one another, seemingly sensing nothing themselves, but Sanji activated his Haki anyway, in case some Devil Fruit power was casting on him from afar.

“What are you doing, dumb Cook?”

Sanji blinked back at Zoro, who, weirdly enough, looked completely fine as he was standing quiet and still. Had he seriously stolen his attention for nothing? Was it all just about some stupid bet he filled, considering Zoro never backs down from a promise he makes?

Sanji frowned. “You gotta be kidding me- you weren’t okay just a second ago! Just what’s wrong with you today that you’re acting more weirdly than usual?!”

There was a flash of realization in Zoro’s eye, and suddenly he was giving him the kind of smirk he always has when he uses Sanji to his advantage, although usually it is only for his amusement. “Me? I’m completely fine. You’re the one who imagines things. See?” He stretched his arms to the sides and walked backwards, as though to give Sanji a better look of his entire body.

But then he walked right into Nami, who had returned from the helm on the front of the ship to their side.

“Not only you didn’t watch your mouth that entire morning, but now you don’t even mind crossing others’ paths?!” She rebuked him.

“Yeah, how dare you running into Nami-san so carelessly?” Sanji followed with a yell of his own.

Zoro tsked and scratched his head in annoyance, but Sanji cared even less than the indifferent he would have been anyway about him being sandwiched between the two of them.

“Look at me when I’m talking to you!” She demanded, holding Zoro’s sides and turning him to her.

Zoro grunted again, this time like she was straining all the muscles in his body just by rotating him on his axis. Startled, Nami let go of him- but simply realizing her hands was like letting go of a swing that was spun 180 degrees, as in an instant he was turning his back on her, facing against the backside of the ship.

Everyone silently stared at him for a while, until Chopper started freaking out of the blue.

“Is it- Could it be- Th-that’s bad! Where’s the doctor?!”

“Calm down Chopper and tell us what’s wrong!” Usopp entreated him tiredly.

“Ahh, sorry!” Chopper circled Zoro, who still did not bother to change his position back, to be able to face him. “Zoro, yesterday when we split in the island and you wandered by yourself, did you come across sunflower seeds, or something similar, while exploring the island?”

“Yeah, I helped some old lady carrying her groceries, then the garden kept leading me to her backyards where there were flower plots, so it tempted me to try some. Why?”

Sanji felt a squeeze inside his stomach, but just like every time Zoro’s words affected him like that, he made himself to ignore it. He should know better than react that way to such an idiot who would not admit he got lost in a porch, for fuck’s sake.

“Then it is serious!” Chopper squealed and put both paws on his face.

Sanji patted him on his head, trying to soothe him as much as he could. “What it is then?”

“I’ve noticed the sunflowers here are a rare species of a clan-type.”

“Clan-type?” Robin parroted him with an inauspicious voice.

Chopper nods. “It is kind of plants which try to make other living beings to become like them instead of naturally reproducing. Luckily, this species is too weak to actually make a human into a flower, and maybe this is why the locals allowed themselves to grow them for their beauty. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t succeed to leave any effect at all.”

“Eh? But he still looks normal!” Luffy wondered as he searched for anything outstanding all over Zoro’s body, who was losing his patience by the minute.

“Didn’t you notice? As long as he sees it, Zoro can only face the sun!”

Sanji cannot help himself but losing it.

  -

  For the following days, Zoro spends even more of the day in the crow’s nest. He even stops looking for booze, too, as he has to make sure he drinks just as much as his body needs to deal with the amount of sweat he perspires during his workout, so unlike the first morning he will be able to hold it until the sun is down, when he finally can go out.

Since Nami asked Sanji so, he prepares breakfast for Zoro earlier than everyone, just before the sun is up, and delivers him lunch while everyone eats inside the galley.

Sanji understands it is serious, especially as out on the sea, the next battle can happen at any given moment; not only everyone will have to have Zoro’s back, the proud bastard will not even let them cover for him that easily himself.

In the meantime, though, he still takes advantage of that to make fun of Zoro every time. He cannot be blamed for not being able to stay quiet with a - now literally - moss-for-brain guy, who could not even figure out himself that the sunflower seeds he has eaten just before it all started were the reason for it.

As the sunflowers act the way they do because they know what is best for themselves, even without consciousness, that man is officially dumber than a plant.

“Enjoy your meal- unless you’re already full by photosynthesis,” he wishes him the first time he brings him lunch.

“It’s exactly noon, so make sure to warn us when you sense a Knock-Up Stream, South Bird,” he cheerfully remarks another time as he brings him a snack.

“Maybe you should consider renaming this one after Thousand Sunny instead,” he notes at one of the time he comes back to take the dishes, while Zoro was practising the movement of the 1080 Pound Ho technique with weights.

For the last bad pun Sanji actually has to dodge an attack directed at him, and each time it is still worth it. After all, if he has somehow spent the entire first day under the effect of the seeds facing the sun, which allowed him to find the right path back to the ship even later than usual, without getting his face burn- then at least Sanji can amuse himself by attempting getting his face red himself.

Although while not finding it as cute as it is amusing, of course. Not at all.

At any case, the rest of the crew takes their part in toying with the current member to get into an unfortunate situation, so Sanji is afraid he will soon run out of original good material himself - only Usopp, for example, has used up anything clever you could make with a comparison to the Sunlight Tree Eve -  but that until Chopper gets concerned about the lack of vitamin D Zoro will soon suffer from, as it is not clear when the effect will go away, and orders him to take his naps outside.

Luffy and Usopp get bored of it quickly, as the sun moves too slowly for the direction Zoro’s head leans to noticeably enough, but Sanji still manages to entertain himself with trying to guess the time according to the direction Zoro’s head is tilted to.

But that also means he stares at him more as he sleeps, and perhaps Sanji does more damage to himself than good while suddenly noticing how beautiful Zoro’s face are, once he is too peaceful to distract Sanji with some sort of annoyance. It even exposes some of his soft side he usually does not show, well hidden behind the stiffness the usually carries himself with.

Sanji is reminded of one of those rare times, where they got stuck with each other as circumstances made them split together from the rest of the crew; as they walked by a small waterfall, Sanji’s eyes caught a small rainbow it created. He got closer to make it illuminate over his hand, and only by luck Zoro was still not that far away once he raised his head to look for him. He called him, intentionally to warn him to not drift away- but was then surprised when the swordsman not only was marvelled once he noticed Sanji’s his finding, but was interested enough that he got closer to take a better look, touching Sanji’s hand in the process. Sanji somehow avoided jerking away, but it did make his gaze to lock on the full exposure of Zoro’s long, moss-green eyelashes as he was looking down. The way their arcs were as perfectly round as the sincere, more unalloyed than his katanas smile stretching beneath them caught Sanji’s breath. He had seen him smiling astonishedly like that before, like when they arrived at Water 7, but had never thought he would have ever care to share it with him.

Then the singular hazel eye looked back at him, which may have carried less variety of shades than a rainbow, but the natural phenomenon still had nothing in comparison to the depth and strength of the overall tone.

Okay, that is it, he should stop wasting time on bittersweet memories and focus on important issues, especially those which will actually grant him happiness, like making drinks for the ladies.

He manages to actually lose those previous thoughts in his new occupation, that he even manages to not pay attention to Zoro as he leaves a drink beside him, and passes him to Nami and Robin- the only targets that should matter.

And that is why it takes another whole day for anyone to notice that he became the one according to whom Zoro’s body changes the angle it is facing, overcoming even the sun’s position, whenever he is near him.

  -

  “Best. Development. Ever!” Usopp cries, rolling on the ship’s lawn while holding his sides.

“How the hell having our Swordsman losing control over his body is a good development?!” Nami scolds after him.

Luffy, who has been crossing the grass back and forth just like Usoop, suddenly clashes into the other- but it does not stop the two of them to bark out in yet another wave of laughter.

“We should find a yellow ball on the next island to throw at the Marines so he could fight them,” their Captain finally suggests.

“Great idea, so very helpful,” Nami sighs as she walks up to the duo to give them their justified punches.

Sanji has never had any special thought about his hair, really - unlike someone else’s, it is actually a completely normal one - but that situation makes him to actually wish it was not yellow.

Not that it means he plans to dye it to anything else, of course.

“Why doesn’t anyone listen to me?!” Chopper waves his arms helplessly, and jumps for a good effort. “It can’t be about Sanji’s hair resembling the sun!”

Zoro groans. “Either way, Cook- why don’t you go there too so I can give them a piece of my mind too!”

“Tch, good-for-nothing Marimo.” Sanji lights up a cigarette as he remains standing. “Now I won’t be able to stand close to either Nami-san or Robin-chan, for who knows how long, in case you’ll hurt them accidentally.”

“Won’t happen as long as you don’t give me a reason to try going after you, Ero-Cook.”

Sanji jumps in front of Zoro at once, pressing him against the wall with his foot on his chest. “You mean you actually won’t even try to control yourself when you have a lady in view?!”

Zoro holds his leg and tries to shove it off of himself, but that also means he has to try incline to another way; as he is physically not able to face a point even a little skewed from the one Sanji is at, an attempt like that is clearly utterly impossible- or at least looks to be as painful as trying to twist one’s hand beyond its maximum flexibility point.

Sanji smirks triumphantly. “Well, at least you finally won’t be able to ignore the truth anymore while it is standing right in your face.”

“What truth? That your women-obsession is a much more ridiculous sickness than mine?”

“What was that - ?!“

 “ - Didn’t you hear me? I told you to stop it!” Chopper, in his grown Heavy Point form, comes to stand aside them and force Sanji to step back. “I finally figured it out- it’s adrenaline!”

“Huh?”

“His body can't absorb light, so it searched for the next closest thing- something that drives itself to accelerate energy creation through cellular respiration, and I think it found it in the rush of adrenaline Zoro has been triggered to experience during all the times you angered him recently. You’ve teased him more than everyone when you came every day to bring him his meals.”

“That might be true,” Brook comments, “but when we tried earlier, Zoro was back to being attracted to the sun whenever Sanji was gone out of his sight. Even while searching for alternatives, it still doesn’t solve the original problem.”

“That’s true,” Chopper nods, “but I still think that it’s still progress. Soon his body will understand that the best way to get energy is through food alone, and will teach itself to get over that added instinct, just like there are a lot of instincts the human body forgets as we grow up.”

All the while they discuss this, Zoro has his eye closed so he will not have to stare directly as Sanji, who knows that he will not be able to get on with it for long himself. While he is currently not the one to be stuck in a state he cannot get away from, it can soon be him if Zoro will start finding things he could use to his disadvantage, like that time he caught him off-guard by the waterfall.

“Anyway, I’ll go hang back at the galley, where I better keep staying out of the zone of staring creepers,” he declares as he starts making his way back to the kitchen, even though it is too early for any dinner preparations.

“Like having to look at your swirly eyebrows the entire day doesn’t creep me out,” Zoro murmurs as his body spins in accordance with Sanji’s advance, which Sanji senses on his back way too well. Another roar of laughter commences, but is cut short as Sanji finally closes the door behind him- living the two boys in the direction of the sun fully exposed to the Swordsman’s range of attack.

Sanji puffs out smoke in relief. Being away from a compassionless eye constantly following and judging him, now he can finally think clearly: while he does not turn down Chopper’s speculation completely, Sanji still has a feeling there is something else that Zoro’s instincts connect between the sun and himself, even if not the shared colour.

Going over any association he has about the sun which he can somehow be also linked to him, he finds quicker than he would think an idea with a considerable possibility, and he is not happy when the solution he comes out with intensifies it on his face.

Unless he comes out with a better idea, though, or somehow he will be miraculously proven wrong even before that- he knows he will have no choice but to try it.

  -

  He waits until the next day’s sunrise, since the last dinner’s attempt has proven that Sanji still affects him even after the sun has sunk completely below the horizon, to the point the cook had to go out of his own kitchen to let him eat in peace.

While Zoro technically can get around with his eye closed whenever Sanji is visible to him, his lack of sense of direction for sure will take a disastrous turn.

Chopper volunteered to carry his next meals - Luffy tried to too, but everyone was too smart than letting him touch food that is not on his own plate - and Sanji hopes that it will not be the only excuse to not have to see Zoro, well, just about ever again in case he is wrong.

Sanji takes his morning preparation slower than usual, but inevitably, the time eventually arrives.

Despite peeking inside his pack of cigarettes, to make sure it is not empty, he throws the one he has smoked until that moment without taking a new one; he will have to face this situation head-on.

Getting out, he moon-walks his way to the crow’s nest.

Probably sensing him in advance, Zoro is standing where he can match the line of the sun, shining through the window, while having his back to the entrance when Sanji makes its way through.

“There’s no need to test it again every day, so just leave,” Zoro asserts.

Sanji sighs, as he for once wants to listen to Zoro so much. “Not before I try something I’ve thought about.”

“And since when do you have good ideas?”

Sanji crosses his arms. “When I rescued you from Crocodile’s cage? When I delayed Enel’s ark by attacking his engines before facing him? When I opened Enis Lobby’s Gates of Justice? Starting to find a pattern yet, human-plant? ”

A few beats pass, but finally Zoro’s shoulders slump with a sigh. “Fine, you have good strategies, but only when you’re unseen. Isn’t that part of the pattern too?”

“There’s no point if I don’t return to the light again, as much as you hate it.” Sanji rounds Zoro to meet a suspicious, unwelcoming eye that hopefully only hides the truth he has once witnessed from it, back at the waterfall.  “Supposedly.”

“Eh - ?” Zoro opens his mouth to utter, luckily, and by that makes the task easier for Sanji, as he can immediately use it to grab his face and meshed his own mouth to his.

Zoro tries to hum something, but Sanji has to make sure he acts as thoroughly as possible before he is thrown away through the window, and with each press of lips tries his best to make a profound contact, so the instinct holding Zoro captive will not be able to miss it.

Once overcoming his initial surprise, Zoro starts to react back with just as much force, not willing to let him take full leading so easily.

Instead of relief, like any normal person would feel for the cooperation, Sanji actually enjoys it. Thanks to becoming breathless, though, he does not have to face the painful temptation stretch it further than needed.

He somehow remembers then that he should check the results, as it was nothing but an experiment, and start jumping between different spots around Zoro.

“What the hell?” Zoro gasps, his head moving back and forth as he tries to catch a glimpse of him.

Grinning, Sanji stands right behind him and shifts him around. “It worked!”

Zoro blinks, but then stares out of the window he is now facing, which is finally not the wrong one to him, but just another window. A smile that only a free man can make is slowly drawn across his face, and he even releases a rare laugh that pulls at Sanji’s stomach much more than it should.

“How did you know what to do?” Zoro asks him.

Sanji slowly lets go of Zoro, eyes darting elsewhere. He clears his throat and lights up a cigarette, at long last.

“Unlike what Chopper said, I don’t think I annoyed you to the point your instinct will see me as a trigger to create energy, but that your body made it figure out that this is a human body, and you need the sun mainly for warmth- although it is something you get more effectively by a contact with someone else.” Sanji walks over to a window, although not one where the sun is seen; he is not that cold. “I’m the one who happens to touch you the most, during our quarrels, so I figured that was the reason you fixed on me, so I wanted to make sure you felt my warmth as effectively as possible.”

“Body warmth, huh…” Zoro mutters behind him.

They fall into silence, which Sanji desperately wants to get away from, but has no idea how to get out. Going near Zoro, ironically, has become intolerable.

“No, it’s both,” Sanji suddenly hears the other man says behind him, following by footsteps coming closer.

Sanji takes a long drag on his cigarette, and closes his eyes.

“Whether I liked it or not, you’ve been central in my life on this ship. All the times you got me to heat up, you influenced me to train even harder. I don’t depend on it, but by this point, it is almost as vital for me as the sense of Nakamaship I’ve developed."

Sanji huffs. “The point was that you’re a muscle-brain anyway.”

“Shut up, dumbass. I’ve simply persisted to one specific path - ”

This time, Sanji snorts.

“ - which made it hard for me to see alternative ones,” Zoro finishes explaining his insight, although a bit too annoyed for someone who has experienced one. It is not like Sanji want to ruin this moment for Zoro, but he has to get back on track, right after messing with their status quo.

This is how they communicate, and this is how it shall stay. Being able to fantasize a much more meaningful future with him than with anyone he has ever attempted to attach himself to does not matter.

“But since you keep trying multiple ones for no reason,” Zoro suddenly continues, “maybe combining to find a balance it will make you finally stop pretending like another person is better than you just by being born with the right set of milk glands.”

Sanji snaps his eyes open at that, forgetting all about his discomfort he has felt until just a second ago and coming forehead-to-forehead with Zoro. “Oi, just because you don’t appreciate that doesn’t mean you can talk about it like its speciality is unadmirable like that green head of yours.”

“It doesn’t matter what it is- you can keep pampering women, if it makes you happy like cooking for anyone regardless of gender. But you can’t let this cost your self-worth.”

The smoke from Sanji’s cigarette blocks his view, so he takes it out of his mouth for now. “Well, you did help to raise it during the last few days while I was constantly reminded of that stupid mistake you’ve done on a whim that I’ll never do, and I don’t see how cherishing women is beneath that. Then what do you suggest?”

“Blocking your path and see what you do about it.”

Before Sanji knows it, Zoro’s palms are on the back of his head and he is being pushed forward until their lips meet again, though this time for something simpler that still leaves the both of them frozen to their spot for the few seconds it lasts.

Shocked, Sanji tries to connect the different points that brought them to this- because if he has kissed Zoro to help him break through the seeds’ effect, Zoro has to have his own legitimate reason for this. He may not be dumb enough to force him like that to stop his so-called women problem, but it is too surreal for him that it could be what it looks to mean. How could anyone want him and yet trust him so much that they will not care about his admiring attitude toward others?

But Zoro’s eye, while not looking at him as tenderly as one would expect from someone with sentimental meanings behind this kind of action, is assuring it in his own way by staring at him with his frank, unreserved expression.

“Finally it looks like I'm the only one who was warmed,” Zoro smirks as he trails his fingers on Sanji’s burning cheeks.

“Shut up, shitty bastard,” Sanji murmurs as he flicks his hand away, but ultimately let Zoro’s fingers to comb some of his shiny hairs.

“Same to you, asshole.”

  ~~~

  Finally able to enjoy the sun properly, Zoro thinks back to the period of his life as a wanderer, where many times he had to walk under the warmth of the sun with hunger eating him from the inside.

Later, soon after joining Luffy’s crew, not only he did not have to worry about that- but he could actually build muscle more effectively, with no worry that his body would resist it- all thanks to one pesky, obnoxious cook coming abroad.

Even if there was a proper way to truly return him the favour, Zoro is not one to express that deep kind of gratitude directly, obviously, but since he happens to be the first one to get back to the ship from a stroll, for a change - even while the sun already barely presents in the sky - and only Sanji is there, as he stayed to look after the ship, he still wants to communicate it somehow.

He finds him leaning against the railing, watching the sea, and does not turn around as Zoro gets closer. The latter embraces him from behind with one hand, and turning his hair aside with the other so he could mouth the skin behind his ear.

Sanji sunk in a sharp breath, but his voice is mostly levelled when he speaks. “Are you bored?”

Despite Sanji is still uncertain about what they have started, as it is still too fresh for him- Zoro keeps being patient about it as usual: “No.”

“Then what's that about?”

Zoro smirks into his skin. “Isn't it clear by now? Disturbing you is always too tempting.”

“I thought you prefer doing that by picking on me until we start fighting.”

“Maybe, but that's when your mood is neutral.” He slowly nips his ear shell. “Now you're peaceful.”

Sanji is right by most probably figuring out that Zoro does not really have romantic moods, where all he wants is to be the man who initiates nice settings. He is a spontaneous kind of guy: he lets life lead him to find in a new island’s market something that the cook would like to receive only by a chance, and will not pull him to a place with unconventional, noteworthy settings, whatever that counts as, as letting it naturally occur around them is much better.

Just like waterfall creating a rainbow.

But when something reminds him of Sanji, he simply cannot help but look for him, no matter whether they end up trying to tear each other’s throats - and no matter what, there are still times where the cook makes him see red - or other behaviours that have to do with their proximity which feeds his satisfaction.

Because, as great as watching the sharpness in his eyes every time he uses an opportunity to drive him up the wall- being absorbed in the warmth of his smell and taste is quite remarkable, too.

“Sun's coming down,” Sanji mentions latterly.

Zoro hums into his shoulder agreement, even though he could care less about it so long Sanji is still there.

[banshee-cheekbones]

i would love to request some more zagene!!! preferably some first kiss action? cause you’re super good at first kiss fics!!!!! uwu!!!!!!

this is only four months late and i’m so goddamn sorry! anyways, here’s some first kiss shenanigans, set during Keith and Becky’s wedding reception!

~1.7k, on ao3 here.

shut up and dance with me.

Zach can’t remember the last time he was this drunk.

Presumably, it was for one of their videos, but that’s all he can dredge up at this particular moment. The parts of his brain normally devoted to combing back through his memories are distracted at this particular moment by the champagne flowing through his body, by the warmth concentrated in his stomach and the lightness filling his head like so many helium balloons.

Based on a quick glance around the dimly lit, expansive room where Becky and Keith’s wedding reception is in full swing, he’s sure he’s not the only one feeling this good. Ned and Ariel are sitting at a table over in the corner, and while Zach is pretty sure that Ariel’s only been drinking water for the entirety of the night, the two of them still look tipsy, foreheads resting each other, giggling at some private joke. Various family members and friends are scattered around the room, heads thrown back with laughter as they move to the upbeat music flowing from the speakers set up in each corner of the room. The happy couple themselves are over in a corner, eating off the same plate with matching ridiculous grins.

(The sight of that makes Zach’s heart ache in a way that might border on painful, if he was anything approaching sober.

Thankfully, he’s not, so he barely registers the twinge in his chest.)

And then, of course, there’s Eugene.

Even though it’s been one hell of a long day, there’s no sign of his energy dissipating anytime soon; he keeps flitting from one end of the room to another. One moment, he’s crouching down to let one of Keith’s nieces push a handful of flower into his hair; only a few seconds later, he’s talking up Becky’s mom. Once he’s left her with a smile stretching across her face, he effortlessly spins around, impossibly graceful as always, grabs two flutes of champagne off a table, and crosses the dance floor to stand beside Zach.

“Your flowers are crooked,” Zach says, taking one of the flutes when Eugene offers it to him and waving his other hand at the daisies threaded into Eugene’s hair. Eugene shrugs and reaches up to prod one with his finger.

“Probably. Do they still look cute though?”

There’s only one real answer to that question, and Zach doesn’t hesitate to say it. “Fuck yeah.”

Eugene smirks and raises his flute in a toast. “Well, that’s all that matters then.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Tipping his head back, Zach dumps the contents of the flute into his mouth. The champagne burns a line of fire down his throat and adds another layer of warmth to the pit of his stomach. He lowers his head and wipes his mouth off on the back of his hand just in time for Eugene to take the empty flute from his hand and stash both of them on the nearest table.

“Maybe we should grab you some too,” Eugene says, gesturing from the flowers to Zach. “Could braid them into your chest hair or something.”

“Don’t say that too loud,” Zach says through a laugh that veers dangerously close to being a giggle. “If Keith hears you, you know he’s going to somehow work that into a video.”

“I see nothing wrong with that.” Overhead, the music changes from a shuffling pop beat to something with a slower tempo, a song Zach remembers hearing in a movie once upon a time, almost saccharine in tone. If he concentrates on it for too long, he’s bound to fall into a self-pitying hole, but before he can come up with some kind of creative reason to excuse himself from the room, Eugene’s fingers wrap around his wrist.

“What are you doing?” Zach asks, stumbling slightly as Eugene tugs him away from the tables.

“We are going to burn up this fucking dance floor,” Eugene says, moving backwards, practically bouncing with each step that he takes.

Zach laughs helplessly. This is a horrible idea; his coordination is suspect at the best of times, never mind when he’s this drunk, and if he doesn’t trip over himself, he’s going to trip over someone else, or maybe a table leg or chair. At the very least, he’s bound to stomp on Eugene’s feet.

But Eugene looks utterly delighted as he spins them around and maneuvers Zach’s arms up into a textbook waltz pose, and even if Eugene would forget it in seconds, go off and find some other form of amusement, Zach doesn’t want to be the reason that happiness flickers or fades. So, tightening his hand on Eugene’s waist and laughing all the while, he lets himself be pulled around the dance floor, lets himself be dragged into exaggerated motions and evermore dizzying spins.

Amazingly, he manages to keep up for most of the song. That’s not saying that he dances well; he’s sure that, if he ever happens to see footage of this moment, he’s going to be embarrassed for years to come. But, by some minor miracle, he doesn’t stumble over Eugene’s feet or kick him in the shins, doesn’t crash into anyone else or lose his balance when Eugene twirls him around.

But as Eugene tries to dip him, during the last moments of the song, he fucks up.

The movement catches him off guard, and as Eugene drops him low, Zach’s feet slip out from underneath him. In his frantic struggle to stay upright, he hooks his fingers into Eugene’s jacket, but rather than the grip serving as a way for him to haul himself upright, he ends up tugging Eugene down instead. They land on the floor in a sprawl of limbs and surprised laughter, and Zach can hear the people around them laughing as well. Someone even starts applauding, and without looking around to see who it is, Zach fires off a half-assed salute, since pulling a bow isn’t exactly possible at the moment.

The floor is warm and smooth and absolutely unforgiving underneath his back. He’s sure that, come morning, once the alcohol and the giddiness fighting for space in his body have worn off, he’s going to feel the throb of half a dozen bruises, not to mention an ache in every bone lining his spine, from the impact. But for the time being, that’s a distant thought, one that breezes into his brain just as quickly as it leaves.

For the time being, he has more important things to focus on. Namely, the fact that Eugene is half-sprawled on top of him, heavy on Zach’s thighs and hips and showing no sign of moving anytime soon. He’s propped up on his hands and laughing, so close that Zach can smell the champagne on his breath.

Or maybe it’s on his own breath. Either way, he can smell champagne.

“You were doing so well!” Eugene says, dark eyes sparkling. One of the flowers has come loose and is barely clinging to his hair, hanging over his forehead like a gargoyle clinging to the outside of an old church. “I’m proud of you.”

“Hey, the only reason I ended up down here is because of you,” Zach retorts, leaning up on his elbows in an attempt to lever himself away from the undoubtedly filthy floor. “You-”

What he plans on saying is you gotta warn a guy before you do that, but only the first word leaves his mouth. The rest disintegrate in the back of his throat, because as he leans up, Eugene leans down, and their mouths skim together in a kiss.

Immediately, Zach freezes, and his heart starts beating a tattoo of fear and anxiety and outright panic. He’s dreamed of this for years, came dangerously close to confessing it on camera a time or two, but he was never stupid enough to think that it would actually happen. But, while he’s sure they’ll be able to laugh it off tomorrow, for now, unless he immediately starts drinking more, he’s going to spend the rest of the night trying to stay away from his friends, and-

That thought process comes to a screaming halt, thanks to the sudden realization that Eugene is kissing him back.

One of his hands is pressed firmly against Zach’s face, warm and slightly sticky with sweat, and he’s kissing him back. His eyes are closed (which makes Zach realize he needs to close his own), his thumb is skating back and forth against Zach’s cheek, and Zach feels like, if it wasn’t for Eugene’s weight atop of him, he’d simply float up and out of the room.

He doesn’t know what to do with his hands, fumbles them through midair for a few moments before he settles one on Eugene’s shoulder and the other on his lapel, grasps the fabric tight between his fingers. In the back of his mind, he’s vaguely aware that they’re being whistled at, but that isn’t important. The only thing that’s important is that he kiss back.

He’s not stupid. He knows that this is absolutely a dumb move, a move with potentially earthshaking consequences. This could fuck up everything: his friendship with Eugene, the entire dynamic of the Try Guys, their very jobs. Not only that, but this could very well break his goddamn heart.

But he also knows that, even under the influence, Eugene is almost painfully logical. He excels at thinking things through, at following the correct path and making the right decision. If Eugene is doing this, it must mean that he’s thought about it before, that he’s weighed the pros and cons, the positives and the negatives, and decided to kiss Zach anyways.

Really, for now at least, that’s all the reassurance Zach needs.

By the time Eugene pulls away, face lit up with a grin that looks almost out of place, Zach’s lungs are aching with the need to breathe. Even as he inhales deeply, he finds himself mirroring Eugene’s smile, feels it creeping across his face wholly of its own accord.

“So,” Eugene says. Carefully, he rolls up onto his feet and extends a hand to help Zach up. “We’re gonna have to work on that.” Zach doesn’t know whether Eugene is referring to the dancing or kissing or both, but he nods rapidly all the same.

What he does know is that he isn’t ready for the night to end.

“Okay,” he says, nodding rapidly and grinning as Eugene pulls him back in close. “Let’s get to work then.”

[keepseaveyweird]

Request: OKAY BB HERE'S MY IDEA: you’re an actress on Riverdale and you’re dating Jack and he’s just so supportive and you’re doing lots of behind the scenes stuff on Instagram and the fans don’t know y’all are dating but Camila (or Lili, whichever you want. Maybe even Madelaine) post something ab y’all without thinking and the fans go crazy and it’s super cute. :))) sorry if that’s a lot haha

A/N: Okay so I don’t watch Riverdale and don’t really know the actors in it very well, but I tried to get Lilli right? Idk this one was a struggle for me but I’m glad you sent it cause I’m always wanting to get better! I also tweaked the request a bit, so I hope that’s alright :)

The set hustled as producers, actors and make-up artists sprinted around getting ready to film the next scene. This upcoming season was a big deal, and the audience has never been bigger. With lots of media attention from not only fans but tabloids as well, the pressure was on.

You sat in your dressing room, dolled up in makeup and your next outfit as you posed for Jack, who was taking pictures for yours and Riverdale’s instagram. He handed you back your phone, letting you look and begin editing them, preparing for your next post in order to promote the show.

“Babe, these look so good! You should leave the band and take up photography,” you joked, earning a grin from him.

“Very funny,” Jack mocked, “but thanks, love, it’s not my skills making you look good though, it’s just you,” he winked. Suddenly the door swung open, revealing Lilli recording the conversation on her phone, a smile on her face.

“What are you doing?” you asked her as she rewatched the video while laughing.

“You guys are so cute it’s gross,” Lilli smiled, saving it to her phone.

“Thanks Lil’s!” Jack beamed, “but you can’t post that, our relationship is still private.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll save it for when the world knows,” she laughed as she walked out.

Jack looked down to you, confusion written on his face. All you could do was shrug before picking up your script and practicing lines with your boyfriend.

It was a week later, and you had a red carpet event to help kick-off the new season of Riverdale and you were ready to walk it alone, the world still not aware that you were, in fact, dating Jack Avery. Jack hung back in the car as he gave you a quick kiss on the lips before you stepped out, the camera’s immediately starting to flash as you posed with a soft smile.

It was normal to get questions yelled at you from paparazzi, it was in the job description.

Who are you wearing? Who dies at the end of the season? Any special secrets to spill about your castmates?

And you were trained not to answer them, trained to ignore them. It was easy, but for some reason you thought you heard Jack and the other boy’s names pop up. You tried your best to ignore it, pretend you didn’t hear it, because maybe you didn’t, it could’ve been in your head.

At least that’s what you told yourself until you reached the lady from TMZ, who was ready to conduct your short red carpet- interview.

“y/n! How are you doing tonight?” The lady asked, putting a hand on your shoulder.

“I’m doing great! I’m very excited to be here and for the new season to premiere,” you told her using your fake interview voice.

“And we are too!” she exclaimed, looking to fans lined up behind the cameras who screamed in agreement.

“So y/n, you have to tell me. Are the rumors true?” She asked, putting her mic up to your lips. You couldn’t help but stare in confusion, not a clue of what she was referencing.

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I know what you’re talking about?” you crinkled your eyebrows.

“Is it true you’re dating the Why Don’t We member, Jack Avery?” The lady rephrased the question, and your whole world just stopped.

It wasn’t because you were embarrassed of Jack, or of his friends or of his music or anything like that. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to be seen with him, in fact, it was quite the opposite; you wanted to show him off to the world. But it was still new, only a couple months and the two of you didn’t want your careers getting in the way of what you had.

“I- uh… who told you that?” you asked, curious as to who spilled. You knew it wasn’t Lilli, she was both of your number one fans and wouldn’t hurt a fly. You wondered if it was Cole, who slipped up in an interview while making some sort of stupid joke, or if Camila accidently mentioned his name while talking about behind the scenes because Jack was there almost as much as you.

“Well y/n? You did!” The woman exclaimed.

“I what?”

She pulled a picture up on her phone, letting you take a peek. It was your Instagram page, the picture Jack took of you the other week when Lilli interrupted. In the back was a mirror, and though you weren’t quite dumb enough to post a picture with Jack’s full body in the background, you did manage to miss a big tuft of noodles peeking from the corner. Noodles that are quite iconic, and cannot be passed on as anyone else, which is a dangerous game when trying to keep your relationship quiet.

You knew you couldn’t deny the rumor, couldn’t say it wasn’t him. You couldn’t do that to Jack who you knew was watching on his phone, most likely just as stressed out as you in the back seat of the SUV.

“Well I guess the truth is out,” you shrugged with a slight smile, actually excited the news was out. It meant no more hiding, no more constant night ins. Jack could hold your hand while walking down the street and you could kiss his cheek while out in town. You two could publicly show affection for one another, something you didn’t realize you missed until then.

The lady did a giddy little dance before turning to face the camera with a smirk, proud to say she was the one to confirm the relationship over anyone else. After multiple questions about Jack and the rest of the band, you made your way inside to do a viewing of the first episode of the new season before heading back to your apartment where your boyfriend was waiting on the couch.

As you opened the door, Jack sat on the couch, turned to face you with a giant smile.

“So? The truth is out baby,” he stated, holding open his arms for you to climb into.

“I’m so sorry, I’m such an idiot, I can’t believe I didn’t see your stupid hair.” You sighed, laying your head on his chest.

“You don’t have to apologize, it was probably time we went public anyways,” he said kissing your temple, “and my hair is not stupid.”

You couldn’t help but laugh, ruffling his hair around as he scrunched his nose, “whatever… noodle boy.”

Suddenly your phone went off and you saw Lilli was calling, in which you picked up.

“Hello?”

“Can I post the video I took last week now, the world needs it!” She yelled through the line. You silently rolled your eyes.

“Whatever,” you told her, hanging up before you could hear her squeal. You tossed your phone onto the coffee table, only to cuddle up to Jack, as you had much to celebrate about.