#approximate time duration

[lemon-box]

IM SO TIRED OF SCREAMING IM SO TIRED OF GOING INSANE SOMEONE TELL ME WHERE MICHEAL JACOBS LIVES SO I CAN KNOCK ON HIS DOOR AND RELEASE A COMICALLY LARGE JAR OF BEES ONTO HIM, IF GOD WONT PUNISH HIM I WILL.

[sufficientlylargen]

Hmmm. A finger is a unit of volume, as in "two fingers of whiskey". A hand is a unit of length (most commonly the heights of horses).

So fingers per hand is actually a measure of area.

A beard-second is defined as the length a beard grows in one second (generally held to be 5 nanometers), which implies that a beard is a unit of velocity (5 nm/s).

Hands per beard is thus length per (length per time), i.e. a unit of time; conceptually one hand-over-beard is the amount of time it takes to grow a beard that is one hand long.

It follows that we can measure flow (which is change in volume over time) in fingers per hand/beard, or fingerbeards per hand (the number of fingers of fluid that pass through in the time it takes to grow a beard one hand in length).

Of course, fingers measure cubic hands, so we can cancel a hand and express flow in terms of square-hand beards - conceptually a flow of one square-hand beard means that a volume is increasing at the same rate as the volume of a one-hand by one-hand patch of beard.

Acceleration is length per time per time, so hands per square hand/beard, i.e. square beards per hand; this makes intuitive sense as the acceleration that will increase your speed by one beardspeed in the time it takes to grow one-hand beard.

There doesn't seem to be a unit of weight that's derived directly from a human body part, but we can take our cue from the ounce and use a unit of volume of a standardized substance (one ounce of water by weight is also one ounce of water by volume, modulo some details we don't care about). Using finger or hand would get confusing, though, so we should measure mass using a body-part unit we haven't used yet, the butt. One butt is therefore the mass of one butt (volume) of pure water.

Force is measured in mass * distance / square time, which for us means butt-hands per square handoverbeard, but we can cancel some hands to measure force in butt-squared-beards per hand.

The intuition for this is that one butt*square beard / hand is the amount of force necessary to accelerate a butt of water by one beardspeed over the duration of growing a handlong beard.

I think having units tied to approximations of actual human features will greatly help scientific literacy, so this units system should be adopted immediately.

[sadesluvr]

Turbulence

You join the mile-high club with a mysterious English gentleman. 

A/N: First BT fic! Been obsessed with this movie, and just had to make something with one of our favourite assassins. I had to do a weird amount of research on flying for this... It won’t be my last so follow for more! :)

Set pre movie. 

Word count: 2.5K 

Tags: SMUT / Porn with little plot / Minor spoilers for references in Bullet Train (2022) / Unprotected sex / Creampies / Hookups / Mentions of birth control / Quickies / Canon-typical language / Canon-typical banter / Minors + Ageless blogs DNI

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome onboard Flight 4B7 to Tokyo. We are currently second in line for take-off and are expected to be in the air in approximately five minutes time. At this time, we ask you to please fasten your seatbelts and secure all baggage underneath your seat or in the overhead compartments. Please turn off all personal electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones. Smoking is prohibited for the duration of the flight. I’m Goldie, and thank you for choosing our airline. Enjoy your flight!” 

Hanging the speaker up, you smoothed out your skirt as you fixed yourself to take the final walk before take-off. ‘Goldie’ wasn’t your real name of course, but a nickname given to you by a sleazy boss. You would’ve hated it, but you found that it greatly helped with creepy passengers who were searching for a place in the coveted ‘mile high club’, or those who simply flew with the intention of sleeping with flight attendants across the world. On the contrary, it was always cute when toddlers cooed your name from across the plane, calling for you as if you’d known them their entire life.  

As you pushed past the curtain to the business class, your eyes fell on a pair of men; one dark-skinned with curly dyed hair, the other with long, slicked back hair and a moustache. They wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary had the moustached man not been holding a phone to his ear. Great. There was always at least one person who never listened to the announcements, but there was something about those who rode in first or business class that held a different kind of entitlement entirely. 

Swallowing, you put on your best customer service and sauntered over to them. The dark-skinned man noticed you first, raising his brows before nudging the one next to him, who seemed deep into an important, but strained, conversation. 

“...Yeah, yeah. We get the kid and the briefcase, then the train to Kyoto...Yes, we know who we’re dealing with, I forwarded Lemon the briefing. Right, can we go now? Take-offs in two minutes --” 

“Excuse me,” you cut in. “You’re going to need to hang that up...” 

The man did a double take, holding his phone away from his ear as he glanced up at you. If it wasn’t his old English accent that captivated you, it was his eyes, a striking blue with hints of grey that seemed to stare directly into your soul.  

“I’m going now.” He said snarkily to the person on the phone before hanging up, placing the object into the pocket of his navy-blue suit before staring up at you with a charming, but cheeky smile. 

“My apologies darlin’,” he said, his voice as smooth as butter. “Work won’t give us a break.”  

“Don’t I know it?” you replied, shifting your weight as you prepared to move on. “Thank you, sir. Enjoy your flight...” you said before looking down at his hands; strong and adorned with gold rings.  

“...Nice watch.” You finished with a knowing smile. Given the parts of the broken conversation you’d heard, and the elaborate way they were dressed, you figured that they were at least some kind of secret service members - not that it was any of your business, of course. Still, there was something particularly arousing about the blue-eyed man in the three-piece navy suit with the nice watch, and you couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if you broke your ‘no-sex-on-the-job’ rule, just this once. If he wasn’t busy with mission stuff, of course. 

“Thank you, sweetheart.” He replied, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he smiled, watching you as you walked off, admiring the questionably short length of your skirt in the process. Sitting back in his seat, he chuckled to himself before turning to see his brother Lemon hastily swiping through the movie selection on the screens. 

“The fuck are you doing?” 

“Tryin’ to see if they’ve got Thomas...” Lemon said matter-of-factly. “It’s alright though. I always come prepared.” he finished, tapping his laptop pointedly. Tangerine frowned, shaking his head as he sat back in his seat, side eyeing you as you made your way to your jumpseat in the corner.  

It was going to be a long journey, but at least he had a nice view. 

.・゜゜・　　・゜゜・．

As soon as it had been safe to take seatbelts off, you’d wasted no time in making your way back down to the business area. The best part about the job was that you were able to walk about, getting a good glimpse at the passengers you thought were attractive – all under the guise of providing good customer service. The man with watch was reading a book, whilst the other seemed engrossed with whatever was on the screen, with his fingers covering his face in a concerned manner. They seemed like polar opposites, yet seemed to work so well together, something that made your job a lot easier when it came to seating passengers. If only everyone was like them. 

If it hadn’t been obvious, you were rather interested in the blue-eyed gentleman in particular. Whilst he hadn’t given you definite signs he was interested, you fixed your make up in your compact mirror regardless, and opened a button on your blouse so it was just a little lower than industry guidelines. It never hurt to try, and it certainly wasn’t as if you were going to see him again. 

Smiling, you guided a cart down the narrow aisles, stopping at the pair of men. 

“Refreshments?” 

The dark-skinned man, ‘Lemon’, as he had been referred to, answered first, eagerly pausing his screen to speak to you. 

“I’d love somethin’, love,” he said, holding the same accent as his partner. “D’ya have anything fizzy?” 

“Of course,” you hummed. “We have Coke – regular, Diet and Zero, Dr Pepper, Sprite, some SanPellegrino --” 

“I’ll have a Coke, love. Make it Diet...” he said, and you nodded, quickly finding the box for the right can. “It’s a shame ya don’t do any bubble milk tea up here...I got a real craving for one...” 

You laughed as you handed him the can. “Luckily for you Tokyo is full of great places to get one. You probably could even find one in their vending machines...Don’t get those in the West, do you?” 

“Certainly not in London,” he chuckled, opening the can and taking a swig before pursing his lips and tapping a finger on his chin. “Say, I don’t suppose you could settle a little argument for me, could you?”  ���Oh here we go...” the other man interjected, drawing himself from his book to huff and look between the two of you. “Fucking unbelievable.” 

Lemon rolled his eyes.  

“That SanPellegrino of yours...Which flavour do you sell the most?” 

You bit your lip. 

“Depends...It’s usually lemon because people think it might taste like lemonade. The orange one never goes to waste, though...” 

Lemon gave the other man a pointed look, and he scoffed before looking at you. 

“Not to completely waste your time, love, but if you had to choose between a lemon or a tangerine...” he didn’t finish, probably because it would’ve pained him to, and moved his hands as if he were balancing weights on scales.  

You stared blankly between the two men, confused but utterly endeared. 

“Tangerines are good on their own, but lemons are far more versatile...”  “See?” Lemon said triumphantly, celebrating with himself before shaking your hand. “Pleasure doing business with you, darlin’.” He grinned before restarting his movie, moving on as if nothing had happened. You chuckled to yourself, conscious of the hundred other guests that needed you, but looked back to lock eyes with the other man, ready to ask him the same question. He wore a knowing smirk on his face, the curve of his pink lips still evident under his thick moustache and tutted chidingly. 

“Really thought you’d be on my side there, sweetheart,” he sighed. “Suppose you can’t trust everyone, can you?” 

“I’m sorry,” you pouted. “You must give it to him though. Lemons are pretty good.” 

“Darlin’ I don’t have a problem with the message, but the messenger,” he said, nodding to the man next to him. “He’s a grown arse lad watching Thomas, that one.” 

You chuckled, glimpsing at the screen to see that it was indeed correct. Shaking your head, you scanned the crafted features of his face before raising a brow. 

“So, what’s your poison?” 

“A gorgeous lady pushing a cart, it seems.” 

“Smooth,” you hummed, unable to ignore the way a dangerous heat shot through your stomach and down to your core, making your legs feel like jelly. He’d hardly done anything, and yet you were under his spell. “What would you like to drink?” 

“Nothin’ at the moment, love,” he grinned. “I’m a bit peckish, if anythin’...” 

Sighing, you quickly checked the man out again, this time eyeing his body. Broad shoulders, muscular thighs, thick legs...The total package.  

“Hurry, up! I’m thirsty!” Someone from across the aisles said. The man was about to argue, but you halted him, nodding in the direction where the voice came from.  

“I tell you what,” you said softly, lowering your voice as you stared into his eyes, your composure so controlled that it would’ve been impossible to tell that your heart was pounding in your chest as you spoke. “-- Us staff have our own snacks. If you meet me by the toilets in fifteen, I can get you some...” 

“Don’t leave me hangin’, sweetheart.” The man grinned, not-so subtly uncrossing his legs and giving a cheeky wink before you headed off down the aisle. Gripping onto the handle of the cart, you tried your hardest to walk straight, excitement boiling in your loins as you counted down those fifteen crucial minutes with every strained smile at a customer. 

.・゜゜・　　・゜゜・．

He was there when you arrived. 

“Took ya’ long enough -” was all he said before cupping your cheeks and pulling you into a passionate kiss, pressing your body against the wall of the bathroom. It was by far the most glamorous place to have sex, but there was something about the sleaziness of it all (with such a put-together man, nonetheless) that made it that more enticing. His scent was an ode to his masculinity; aromatic and woody, and it consumed you as he kissed down your neck, nipping at your collarbone as his large hands caressed the sides of your body. You moaned, writhing your front against his pelvis, desperate to feel the outline of his erection against your own. Admittedly, you weren’t entirely sure what to do with your hands, settling to drape them around his neck in fear of messing up his hair. He seemed like a man who took pride in his appearance, and he certainly wasn’t going to be able to fix it up in an airplane bathroom. 

“Feel me, darling. I don’t bite...” he whispered, his hands now sliding between your thighs as he fought to push your panties to the side. You took this as a hint, and you combed your fingers through his roots with one hand, whilst the other fumbled to undo the button on his trousers, difficult to do with his considerable bulge. You let out a broken gasp as you felt his cock, likely over average sized with a nice girth, and he shuddered in response. 

“Goldie, is it? You’re a naughty one...” he sighed, slipping a finger into your wet cunt. 

“Mhmmm,” you crooned. “’S nickname. I don’t suppose you’ll give me yours?” 

“You’re a bright bird, ‘m sure ya figured it out.” 

“Tangerine, huh?” you hummed, throwing your head back as he began to finger fuck you, his gold rings adding the extra girth that would prepare you nicely for his cock. “I like tangerines...” 

“Ya didn’t seem to back there.” 

“Well, give me a reason to...” you chuckled, and he grinned, grunting before he hoisted your leg up around his waist, his cock dangerously near your entrance. 

“Better be quick,” you teased, staring at him through your lashes. “They’ll get suspicious if I’m not back in five.” 

Tangerine chuckled.  

“I can do that. Just know it’s not a reflection of me at my best.” he sniffed. 

“Good to know.” 

Your words were unfounded as he pushed into you, his girth filling you completely as you moulded perfectly around his cock, gripping onto his shirt as he began to buck his hips. The man grunted, accosting himself to the feel of your warm, wet hole – raw and unfiltered, sighing into the nape of your neck as he fucked you. He steadied himself with his hands, gripping onto your thigh with one as the other rested above you, lending him the luxury of staring into your eyes as he drilled you. 

“God...” you panted, your lips wet and raw from his kisses. “T-Tan -- You’re so good...” 

“That’s it, love,” he beckoned, words rolling off his tongue like honey as he rolled his hips deeper into you. “Say my name...” 

“Tangerine...” you whined, eyes fluttering shut as you drowned out the vacuum-like ambience around you, focusing on the small grunts and sweet nothings the man whispered into your ear, his warm breath sending chills up your spine. The room around you was making a slight creaking sound, and you barely even cared that your calf was banging slightly against the door.  

With every passing second his thrusts became more focused, solely intended to bring you both to that point of ecstasy- yet you didn’t doubt that Tangerine was the kind of man who made sure you finished, even if he himself didn’t.  

His hair was beginning to become undone now, brown strands falling in front of his face, just barely clouding his vision, but enough to make him look even hotter. Both of your shirts became more and more dishevelled as he pressed up against you, the muffled sound of his clothed thigh against your bare ones becoming more frequent as he growled, the sound coming from deep within his muscular chest. 

“Fucking hell, darlin’...’M gonna make a mess...” he hissed through laboured breaths. “I’ve gotta pull out --” 

“It’s alright,” you lulled, and you could’ve sworn that his cock twitched at the phrase. “I’m on the pill...” 

“You naughty girl...You’re gonna get me in trouble --” he groaned, throwing his head back as he gave you a few fast and sloppy pumps, shutting his eyes as you clamped down on him during your own release, creaming around his cock as he filled you with his own. You dug your nails into his clothes as you rode off your respective highs, hair and clothes askew as he rubbed small circles your trembling leg before lowering it to the ground. 

Panting, there was a brief silence as you dressed yourselves, with Tangerine preening himself in the tiny mirror. 

“You look good as gold.” You said with a smirk, fixing your hat.  

“Thanks,” he said with a broad smile, popping some gum into his mouth as he looked you up and down. “You’re a dime a dozen, y’know? Fly this route often?” 

“Sometimes,” you hummed, opening the door so that the sign no longer read ‘occupied’. “Why, are you thinking of coming back?” 

“I’ll be headed to Kyoto,” he said, looking around before he stepped out. “Maybe I’ll catch you there.” 

“Yeah,” you grinned, fixing the final button on your shirt. He’ fucked you so good you could barely even remember what your next journey was. “Maybe.” 

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

i ignored most of the prev tags on this post bc i genuinely dont want to get in a fight i DO want to take a second to acknowledge

"bootlicking the writers" what fucking boot does alyssa lane have on me. what the fuck are you even talking about.

wait hang on tho. another thing

[tanadrin]

The wizard can only make you cease to normally age or deteriorate for the allotted span of time. You will be immune to cancer, gradual accumulation of toxins, progressive diseases like atheriosclerosis, and new long-lasting joint or musculoskeletal injuries from overexertion. You can still be maimed or killed by violence, accident, or infectious disease. If you have chronic illnesses they won’t be healed by the wizard’s magic, but they won’t get worse (and future medical science may be able to cure them).

If younger than 65, you will gradually age to approximately that physical age (albeit healthy and vigorously) over the selected span of time. So if you are 30 and opt for an extra 1,000 years of healthy life, you will, barring any new developments in medical science, appear to be about 65 in the year 3024. If you are over 65, you will simply cease to age for the duration.

You are encouraged to further specify the number you'd pick and why in the notes.

[dedalvs]

ive done a lot of translating to high valyrian in my day and id like to think im pretty good at it sometimes (the way ive spent literal hours researching how just one piece of grammar works to change a noun to an adverb or something is maybe insane)

anyway all that to say i usually know what to look for and how to apply it, but i am struggling with this new bit im trying to translate. “i disdain all glittering gold.”

ive replaced disdain with hate cause there doesnt seem to be a word for disdain in valyrian and hate is the closest approximation. same with glittering — replaced that with shine, and had to manually transform that to an adjective (jehikagon -> jehikere? dunno if its right)

so what i have now is “nyke buqan unir jehikere aeksion”

(im not as concerned with getting the word order right as i am with the rest of the grammar)

ive learned from a previous answer “nyke” is potentially (probably) unnecessary here, so that leaves it as “buqan unir jehikere aeksion,” but the unir there in the middle kinda makes it feel off and im not sure if maybe that also needs to be part of a compound word like valar or how to make it one if so because idk what part of valar is all and what part is men and how to fit aeksion into that equation.

i lost track of what my question was originally meant to be but i guess im wondering if im on the right track and if theres some guidance you may have to get me all the way there.

thank you for your time 🙏

Uhhhhhh... Not to be that dude, but...maybe be more concerned with that...?

I'm not sure if you know about this site, but my wiki is exhaustively updated with respect to High Valyrian, specifically. There's a team of people that work on High Valyrian and it's massive. For example, you could go to the entry for jehikagon and see that jehikere is wrong: it should be jehikare. And, of course, it has to agree with āeksion (note the long ā), so it should be jehikarior. To get the sense of repetitiveness (with "glittering"), you might add ā- to the front, so ājehikarior.

Now for "all", why not use the collective? This is how you get "All men must die", so it should work for "I distain all glittering gold". That would be āeksior. Of course, it would need to be in the accusative, so altogether it would be ājehikarior āeksȳndi. By adding the repetitive you kind of get the aliteration, too, since they both begin with ā.

Finally you have "disdain", for which buqagon serves. Aside from sound a little more posh, the difference between "disdain" and "hate" in English seems to be one of duration. The words "disdain" and "loathe" seem to emphasize that this is a character trait rather than a reaction. If you disdain something, you've given it some thought, have experience with it, and may use this as a way of describing or characterizing yourself. You can do this with "hate" as well, but it's a much more common word, and so can be used in other more basic ways, whereas "disdain" and "loathe" tend to only have specalized uses. To try to approximate this, you could use the frequentative with buqagon to imply a lengthy duration. That would give you jobuqan "I disdain". In fact, you could even use the aorist if you really wanted to imply that it was a description of yourself, i.e. jobuqin.

Now that you have the pieces, though, I really hate to say it, but the words must be in the right order. I mean, you can change the order of the noun and adjective, if you'd like, but you simply cannot put the verb first and think you've created a Valyrian sentence. It's not just "kind of" wrong: it's completely wrong. It'd be like suggesting "I him saw" is close enough in English because the forms are correct. It's not. It's wrong. This is not a minor part of the grammar you can ignore. High Valyrian is aggressively verb-final. The verb must be at the end.

All in all, that gives you:

Ājehikarior āeksȳndi jobuqin.

Hope that helps!

[softcuddledrone]

So theoretically if someone were too, I don’t know, go to the cafe and wish to become a cuddledrone, how would the process go exactly? Asking for. A friend. [the friend is me]

Apologies in advance bc this is going to be a long ramble

Initial contact with Miss Manager (the proxy), undergo an interview so management can get a feel for your intentions and desires. Hypnosis to get a deeper look at true desires is optional but ultimately an opt-in step.

A contract is drawn up to determine the duration of one's employment within the Cafe (reviewed and renewed annually; the majority of the contract is favored heavily towards the soon-to-be-cuddledrone's autonomy (should it want it returned).

Congratulations! You have been accepted into the Cuddledrone Cafe! Don't celebrate just yet though, as there is approximately one entire filing cabinet worth of paperwork to process. Don't worry, Miss Manager (and a small squad of maid-drones) will be there to explain every line as needed. Notable points in this mountain of forms includes purchasing and absolving any debts, granting temporary retainership for any associated property related contracts, arranging for movers to put any property into controlled storage, consent forms for present and future medical services (general healthcare, augmentation of any and many kinds), and general bureaucratic formalities towards never having to worry about anything and let Mistress take care of you

At this point some opt to directly proceed to augmentation! The process starts with a lengthy physical to find any and all issues to be addressed through surgery, medication, conditioning, or augmentations. Following that is the 'fun' part of the cuddledrone standard augmentation suite, which includes but is not limited to a neurological network node implant, top-grade cybernetic limbs, and anything else the new cuddledrone needs (or wants). Any augmentations post-'graduation' can either be kept or replaced free of charge for hardware of equivalent value.

Heavy augmentations over a relatively short period of time can be intensive, and requires rest, recovery, and acclimation to both the physical and cognitive aspects of new limbs and joining the sensory network. Freshly minted cuddledrones are expected and encouraged to take as much time as they need in the backrooms before assuming duties as a full-fledged cuddledrone. This also gives ample time to get to know the other drones, get used to the new diet (delicious and plentiful), pick up a hobby (enrichment is important!), get your brain rewired a few times, and so on.

Congratulations, you are now a proper cuddledrone! Enjoy your days caught in the bliss of a network feedback loop of tactile stimulation and drug-induced bliss!

[omegaversetheory]

Courtship

Traditional Omegaverse

After getting caught up with Bridgerton the wheels started turning...here is the courtship process in my au at the moment.

The Promenade - A debutant ball style event where families walk and present their child who has newly come of age around the village center and to the town hall to register as an official pack member. The promenade also signifies that the child is ready to find a mate/bond partner to all of the other pack members. Promenades normally occur the first summer after the child's 21st year, but could be delayed all the way to age 24. There is often a high level of pagentry involved, and specific promenade customs vary by region and culture.

Setting Intent - Asking someone out in a traditional marriage isn't the same as just simply saying the words. The pursuer (of any dynamic or gender) will write to letters; one to the person they are interested in, which is very heartfelt and private. It normally containings information about why the pursuer is interested in the pursuee, things that have caught their eye, why they might be a good match, and other sweet nothings. The second letter is to the pursuee's parents/family (or pack if they are not a part of the same one) detailing how the pursuer sees themself fitting into their community, the skills they possess, any wealth/connections they have, and other information that shows the family they would be a valuable addition. Parties would exchanges letters back and forth until a decision had been reached, specific information exchanged by a pursuee and pursuer is kept private, but the pursuee's family must inform the pursuee about their correspondance with their potential bondmate.

Courtship Period - once the pursuer and the object of their affection agree to enter into courtship it begins. If they do not live close together, the pursuer will move to wherever the pursuee is. Courtship may last anywhere from 4-18 months. This period of the process is conducted 100% publicly/semi-publicly. Partners are not allowed to convene privately and may be escorted by 2+ (for witness accountability) chaperones. Courtships may be broken off at any time, but no matter how serious a couple is, they may not move to the next step for 118 days (4 lunar cycles/approximately 4 months).

The Sitting - a ritual that comes between courting and bonding. Lasts one full harvest season/one heat cycle. A couple sequesters away together (normally in designated housing) to get to know each other deeply and experience living together without distractions. Neither partner works, meals are provided by community members. In most cultures, the couple is either expected to abstain from intimacy throughout the duration of the sitting including during any heat/rut period. It is split into two sections - an closed period in which the couple may not be seen in public or be around other people, and an open period where they are free to move about freely. The closed period is extremely difficult but it forces the couple to examine the viability of the coupling beyond the lust/infatuation period. Couples may bond one another after the heat or rut has broken, or the harvest is complete or they may choose to separate.

Bond Ceremonies - A high ranking pack or ministerial official will guide the partners through a vow ceremony which will be performed in front of their community, the community or pack normally then arranges a dinner/meal to celebrate with dancing, and then the couple will retire to perform bonding privately. To ensure the bonding has been completed, within two weeks of the ceremony both partners must show their bond marks to the person who conducted their vow ceremony and as well as one witness picked at random. All four parties will then sign an official document, signifying the bond is now legally binding.

[empressofthewind]

Fun Facts About Near:

He is the youngest character in the series! Right after him is Matt by a margin of 569 days (1 year, 6 months and 23 days), and the oldest is Watari by a margin of about 58 years.

He is also among the shortest - an inch taller than Misa according to some translations of Volume 13, and equally as tall as her in others. Rester is the tallest, standing at approximately 6'3", which is around 1'3" taller than Near.

From chapters 59-108 of the manga, Near appears in a grand total of 724 panels. This includes panels that show any identifiable part of him (e.g. his hand, the top of his head), but excludes Linda's drawing of him and any official art in the chapter that was not part of the plot. If you count the drawing & art, he's present in 741 panels!

Of all the chapters he's in, he makes the most appearances in chapter 82, appearing in a total of 49 panels. For comparison, the next highest is chapter 101, in which he is shown 33 times.

He's shown twirling his hair 84 times, split across 18 chapters and 59 pages. He always uses his right hand, and his left hand is often resting on his knee.

He can be seen smiling in 32 panels across 12 chapters. The majority of these happen in chapter 78, where he is shown smiling in 11 out of the total 19 panels in which his mouth is visible.

According to Volume 13 (page 210), Near estimated that he spent 4080.02 USD on toys over the duration of the SPK's work on the Kira case. Out of 25 total items listed, 7 of them were purchased in Japan, and the other 18 were purchased in New York.

Of all his toys, the puppets make the most appearances, showing up in a total of 11 chapters. The second highest is his robots, which were present in 10 chapters. Despite being commonly associated with him, cards and puzzles were among the least popular, each appearing in only 2 chapters.

He has 28 rubber ducks (as far as we know).

Four of his toys are handmade! These are the finger puppets, the radio tower model he assembles out of paper, one of his darts, and the figures from one of his Lego sets (which are pre-made but he draws on the details and faces with a marker). The L mask he wears in the warehouse is also handmade.

He has a very bizarre-looking set of Christmas ornaments hanging from his Christmas tree, including 2 robots, 3 video game consoles and what looks like a black cat peering out of a gift-wrapped box.

The last person to address him by name in the manga is Light, in chapter 107. After this, he is only addressed once more by Aizawa, who refers to him as L.

[seoafin]

pairing: megumi fushiguro x fem!reader warnings/tags: just your typical horny teenager thoughts & 2 idiots in love. you might be an idiot but you're his idiot! word count: 1.8k

-

You had fallen, scraped your face and probably bruised your collarbones. Stupid ice skates. That would be the last time you attempted any highly advanced ice skating maneuver you had seen approximately once on youtube. You gingerly press on the bandage attached to your face, one of many your boyfriend had stocked in his pocket, ready for your inevitable crash.

He’s always been an over thinker, that one. Always prepared for the worst with a penchant towards the negative. It’s so uncharacteristic of the outwardly rough and tumble delinquent you had first met, you never miss an opportunity to regularly joke about the contrast while your boyfriend pointedly ignores you. He’s responsible now. Diligent and cautious to the point of being overbearing. He loves the same though. In the end, he’s still your Megumi.

And now you sit on a bench in the park overlooking the ice skating rink you had taken an embarrassing tumble in, waiting for your boyfriend to come back with a promised hot chocolate. God, you hope you didn’t flash anyone when you fell. Your knees are still stinging from the hit they took.

The white dog lying at your side perks up as Megumi approaches, getting to its feet to greet its black counterpart with a nuzzle.

“How are you feeling?” He asks as he hands you a steaming cup of hot chocolate and takes a seat right next to you. In your eagerness, the scalding heat of the cup almost burns your hands. “Careful,” he grunts. “It’s hot.”

“Yes father,” you say mock seriously, reveling in the pinched look that settles on his face at your words. You want to kiss him, and all the tight lines of his face away. Instead, you gently blow on the surface of the drink to cool it while Megumi eyes the bandage on your face with concern in his dark eyes.

“I’m fine," you reassure him. "Just going to be a little bruised in the morning.” And not even in a good way. You take a sip and audibly sigh and the warm velvet of the chocolate on your tongue. You’d offer some, but Megumi doesn’t like sweet things. You finish the small cup, perfect for warming you back up. You glance at him, licking the chocolate off your lips.

You start. “Well—”

His eyes narrow, suspicious at once, and all too familiar with that tone. You soldier on innocently.

“You could…” you clear your throat, slightly pushing your cheek forward, despite the warmth building in your face. “...kiss it better?”

He stares at you, almost unimpressed.

Your face burns but you refuse to falter as you stare him down right back.

Even you get embarrassed. Rarely, but it happens. He could at least say something! You can take rejection, especially from Megumi. He rarely means it. He just gets embarrassed.

You fall back, ready to stand and pretend you didn’t say anything in the first place, but he takes your wrist and sharply tugs you back down in place, another hand cupping the back of your neck to bring you towards his lips.

It’s a relatively chaste kiss, gentle and firm. So modest, your boyfriend. You could take him by the hair, yank him closer, and make him moan into your mouth. If you really wanted. But Megumi would refuse to look at you for the remaining duration of your date, and it’s hard enough to see him already.

He’s blushing though, and that’s a plus. His face is red as he gazes at you, eyes lowered, flitting from your eyes to your lips, and he’s so close you can count his insanely long eyelashes, and your breaths have become one in the cold. Warmth flutters in the pit of your stomach, and you hate and love the feeling. How stupid it makes you, desperate enough that you might beg for another just to get another dose of that high.

His eyes sharpen as he once again presses forward. You think he might kiss you again, but instead he lowers his head. 

His lips brush against the cut right above your collarbone. You can feel your heartbeat hammering against your ribcage, and then— 

You jerk away at the sensation, startled. His eyes go wide. 

112!!?@>!@>!@@@#????@!!@???

Your hand slaps down on your neck. At the unintelligible shrill mess that erupts from your throat, he freezes, blinking.

You blink. Did he just—!?

“Did you just—” you swallow, shocked at his unusually brazen behavior, “—lick me!?”

His face is flushed. “Yeah,” he forces the words out, quickly regaining composure. “I did.”

Now you’re embarrassed, albeit a little pleased. “Oh.”

“I was going to—” he bites off his words, looking anywhere but at you. “Nothing,” he says quickly.

Oh no he doesn’t. “If you did it, then it’s only fair that I get to do it too.”

Megumi looks as if he’s contemplating all the series of events and decisions that have led him to this conversation. “What are you even saying?” His words are sharp with embarrassment. His ears are red. “Just forget it.”

You grab him by his shirt and wrench him towards you. He could easily escape your grasp, but he doesn’t. He relaxes, no longer as tense.

He thinks you’re going to kiss him.

You swerve last second towards his neck, find the flesh of his neck, and bite. You feel his body jump, the rigid snap of his shoulder, and then you smile smugly.

It’s his turn to gawk at you. “Y-you…” he seems at a loss for words, torn between glaring at you and shaking his head. 

You can already see the indent of your teeth, a ring of red that stands out starkly from the pale smoothness of his neck.

“Now we’re even.” Satisfied, you stand and face him. You take the scarf wrapped around your neck and wrap it around Megumi’s. “There,” you say, with a small laugh. You press a small kiss to the tip of his nose. You can’t help it. “Now we can protect your modesty.”

He looks like he’s given up at any attempt to reprimand you. His expression settles on resignation. Well, he knew what he was signing up for, didn’t he? Honestly, acting as if he hadn’t given you hickies for days on end when you had told him some baseball player at your school had confessed to you with flowers of all things.

You turn on your heels to trash the plastic cup in your hand. When you come back, unfortunately, the dogs are gone. Your scarf is in Megumi’s hand. Before you can say anything, he wraps it back around your neck.

“Take it,” he says roughly. “You’re barely wearing anything.”

Now that he mentions it, the cold biting wind of winter feels even colder on your bare legs. You’re used to it by now. Japanese high school uniform regulations had little leeway. You had petitioned the school board of your high school to allow pants to no avail.

You could say you regret wearing a skirt in winter, but you had seen the way Megumi’s gaze had dropped to your legs for a good minute, so you really don’t. Worth it. 

“You sure? Your neck is kinda scandalous.” 

“And whose fault is that,” he replies flatly, readjusting the scarf around your neck. His hand comes up to gently cup the bandaged scrape on your face, eyes fond, and you can't quite feel the cold anymore. Just warmth.

“Well I won’t say no," you force out. "I’m freezing! I wore this skirt just for you, after all.”

As if reminded, his eyes flicker to your legs. You bite the inside of your cheek from grinning. You take his arm into yours and lean into him as you start to lead him to a less crowded area of the park.

“You know,” you say idly, “most boyfriends are controlling about what their girlfriend wears. Mika-chan and her boyfriend got into a hugeee fight because he made her cover up at the beach! Said that some guys were looking at her funny, and that it was her fault, can you believe it?”

“Wear whatever you want,” Megumi says plainly, lips verging on a frown. “I can fight.”

You laugh, leaning into his warmth. Some things, it seems, never change. “That’s not the right answer Megumi.” There’s a teasing lilt to your smile. “You should tell me to change! And then I’d say are you sure you want me to? I wore a really cute matching set today, and if you’re really good I don’t mind going to the bathroom and giving you a peek—”

“Alright,” he grinds out, flustered to the tips of his ears. “You’ve made your point!”

He’s just so easy sometimes. You can’t help it. You wonder what it would take for Megumi to actually take you up on your offer though. You weren’t joking. But, to save your boyfriend any further embarrassment, you decide on a change of subject.

“So,” you start. “When do I get to meet Itadori and Kugisaki?”

“...”

You poke him in the side. “Don’t ignore me!”

Out of the corner of his eye, he glances at you. You stare expectantly back.

“...I took Itadori to Akiba.”

“Akiba?” Interesting choice of place. The last time you had been in Akiba it was with friends to go to some new neon arcade. You had been flagged down in the middle of the street and asked to apply to some maid cafe. You contemplated it briefly, if only to be able to show Megumi a picture of you in a maid costume. “Did you go shopping for something perverted? An ero-game or something?”

It’s a true testament to his will that he doesn’t flat out ignore you. “No.”

You shrug. “I wouldn’t blame you if you looked.”

You’ve been in one or two of those r18 stores. Bought a game here and there. No judgment. 

“Not interested.”

“Hm. I see.” Your lips twitch. “And Kugisaki?”

“Shopping in Ameyoko.”

The girl’s got taste. Ameyoko was a thrift paradise. She has your approval. “I can’t wait to meet her.”

Megumi looks like he’d rather the earth swallow him whole than have the two of you meet. If anything it makes you even more determined to meet this female classmate of your boyfriend’s. You already know you’d like her.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop hassling you about them.” You observe the pigeons gathered around a frozen fountain off to the side. “Thank you for indulging me today,” you say, and you mean it. You know Megumi could care less about ice skating and Christmas trees and the romance of it all. You know he would prefer to be indoors with a nice book and some tea like an old man. “Even though you hate crowds and PDA and loud noises—”

“I don’t mind.” He swallows, eyes darting away when you catch him looking at you in an uncharacteristic act of shyness. “Not when I’m with you anyway.”

You mock sigh, despite the heat in your cheeks. “You’re too much. If you keep this up, I might really have to pull you into the bathroom and have my way with you.”

He chokes.

[badbatch-badfics]

Padawan (TBB x Male Reader) Part 2

Part 1

Characters: The Bad Batch - Cross hair + Cid.

Relationship: All platonic

POV: Only 2nd (you/yours)

Pronouns: he/him

Species: Unspecified

Content: Smidge of angst and worry, but mainly found family growing into fluff

Warnings: General TBB stuff, a little bit about Order 66. Cringe lol.

Word Count: 2,796

Notes: If anyone has any requests/ideas for this 'series,' please let me know! I'd love to learn more about what ya'll like and incorporate it. (and i'll obviously credit you in the notes for whichever part it goes in)

The Bad Batch was sound asleep, exempt from their designated pilot.  Tech was comfortably cruising through hyper-space, multitasking on a new upgrade for Echo’s arm-scomp and watching the scanners.  A light beep alerted him, signaling that they were approaching Ord Mantell.  He lightly pushed his goggles upwards, before pressing a series of buttons.  The Marauder shook as it dropped from hyperspace, the tremors waking Hunter up from his nap in the co-pilot's seat.  He would usually sleep in his bunk until Tech needed a break, but his bunk was… preoccupied, so to speak.

“We close to Ord Mantell, Tech?” Hunter asked groggily, cracking his neck.  “Approximately 11 minutes and 36 seconds until we enter the atmosphere, and then another 23 minutes until we reach the landing pad.  I would begin waking everyone else up.”  With a sign, Hunter stood up, arms reaching far above his head, ever-so-slightly leaning backwards.  He turned around and started heading towards the bunks, wondering how he should go about waking you up.  He didn’t know how much you would remember, and he certainly didn’t want to find out the hard way.

Of course, there was always the option of letting your body wake up on its own time, and just having someone stick with the ship until then, but there was the risk of general clatter and ruckus occurring and startling you awake anyway, which would be a harsh wake-up call, to say the least.  After a second more of contemplation, he finally settled on leaving you be, and simply shushing Wrecker the moment his eyes opened.  He walked up to his brother, shaking his arm.  Wrecker awoke with a large grunt, like an ancient monster waking from a coma in an echoing mountain, before Hunter aggressively shushed him.  He sharply pointed across the walking strip to your body, an absolute tangled mess of limbs and droll.

Wrecker got the hint, making an ‘oohhh’ sound before slowly sitting up, careful to minimize the amount of creaking.  Hunter walked on, heading towards Echo and Omega, shaking them both awake- Omega more gently.  She yawned and stretched, smiling and greeting Hunter, before quickly grabbing her day-clothes before heading off to the fresher to change.  Hunter went back to the cockpit, where his brothers were already making quiet discussions of what to do with you, the ‘teenager-that-had-essentially-magic-powers-and-was-being-hunted.’  Primarily how they would handle Cid.  She tolerated them because they did jobs for her, and they didn’t really matter to the Empire- except for Omega, it was appearing.  But a Padawan?  That would be a lot of credits, and it would put someone on the Empire’s good side- at least for a little bit.  Cid wasn’t above ratting them out for that kind of profit.  Or, at least, she wasn’t above ratting out the Padawan while keeping them away from the Empire’s eyes for the sake of missions.  “Perhaps we can convince Cid that his use in missions, among other things, would outweigh the reward from the Empire.  Even without using the Force in a physical push-and-pull manner, it can still be used for mind tricks, sensing danger, and much more, depending on his skill set.  We could increase our efficiency and time duration of missions greatly, which would hold a great profit for Cid,” Tech explained, preparing for the Marauder to enter Ord Mantell’s atmosphere.

“That's true, but there’s no way to know what Cid will say- if she agrees, great, but if she doesn’t…” Hunter responded, eyes glancing back at your sleeping form as he trailed off.  If they told her about you, and she decided to tell the Empire, then no one would be safe.

“There’s no way for Cid to be kept in the dark long enough to find a better solution, and we can’t exactly just hide a whole person in the Marauder,” Echo added on, waving his scomp-link around the cockpit for emphasis.

“Of course, this is all assuming that (Y/N) will want to remain with us.  He may know someone, or someplace, that is safe.  Additionally, he may even know Cid.  Echo said that she would occasionally report to the Jedi,” Tech countered, briefly glancing back towards his brothers, away from the planet and control panel.  Echo nodded in confirmation.  “Do we…” Hunter trailed off, sighing, and pinched the bridge of his nose, “do we have any place to go if Cid decides to tell the Empire?  Echo, do you know anyone else who would help?”

“Rex, obviously- but he’s more involved with defeating the Empire than we are, so it’d be an extra risk to the kid.  Maybe Cut and Suu, if we can get a hold of them.  But I don’t think either of us want to put that kind of risk on them- not with Jek and Shaeeah.”  Wrecker made a comment of agreement, briefly looking up from his game of Chopsticks with Omega.  A heavy silence fell over the group, uncertainty thick in the air.

“Entering the atmosphere,” Tech reported, breaking the awkward silence.  The Marauder shook as gravity’s presence took its toll.  It settled back down to a smooth ride within a minute, the greens and browns- mainly browns- of Ord Mantell’s natural landscape coming closer.  “I think Cid will understand, plus, like Tech said, (Y/N) can help us out!” Omega added, not looking up from her hands.

Hunter looked down, contemplating.  Would the reward of Cid accepting the kid outweigh the risk of her turning him in to the Empire?  Tech did have a point, your presence would make things go smoother- but if Cid didn’t care about that point?  What then?  Would they be able to escape the Empire, find a new place to settle down- there was bound to be some planet that was safe- but would they find it before the Empire found them?

They could keep you holed up in the ship for a while, but sooner or later, Cid would find out.  And once she found out, that could damage their… relationship, so to speak.  Assuming she wouldn’t tell the Empire immediately, anyway.  So that wouldn’t work either.  There was no good solution, and everyone knew it.  Finally, Hunter spoke up- “Wrecker, Omega, you two stay with (Y/N) and help him with anything- food, water, applying new bandages.  You get the idea.  Echo, you're with me- we’ll get anything we’d need for a long-term stay on the ship; med kits, food, supplies, whatever.  Tech, make sure the ship has enough fuel, and make any necessary fixes.  Don’t let anyone else know.  After you're done, I’ll tell Cid about… the kid.  We’ll see where it goes from there.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Marauder drifted down, landing neatly in the center of the dock.  Tech quickly pulled out his data-pad, scanning for any previously unnoticed internal damage.  Luckily, the report came back negative- as he had guessed, there was no new damage.  Satisfied, he checked the Marauder’s current fuel level, so he’d know when to stop filling.  Tech, Echo, and Hunter exited the Marauder, swiftly closing and securely locking the ramp behind them.

The innards of the Marauder were quiet, Omega and Wrecker not really knowing what to do.  They both sat on the bunk opposite you, staring, just in case you’d wake up and need something.  Wrecker had rations and a water canteen to his left, while Omega had fresh bandages and bacta-spray to her right.  “Uhhh…” Wrecker broke the silence, glancing down at Omega, “do we just… wait for him to wake up?  It feels weird, just staring.”

“I don’t know… on Kamino, we would usually wait, but this is nothing like injured clones on Kamino.”  She sighed, wringing her hands together.  “I just…feel so bad.  I mean, our home was destroyed, but at least we have each other.  (Y/N) doesn’t have anyone, and he’s been alone on that ship since the Empire took over.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like…” 

“Well, at least we found him before the Empire did, and any situation we’re in will probably be better than Bracca.  Plus, he’s probably dead to the Empire, so they won’t be after him!”  Wrecker responded, finding the silver lining.  He and Omega looked at eachother, smiling.  It felt good to help people.

On cue, the blankets opposite the pair began shuffling, a long groan sounding out through the metal walls of the Marauder.  You turned over, eyes droopy and your Padawan braid/beads hanging by the corner of your mouth, covered in drool.  Slowly, you put your weight onto a hand and pushed yourself up, leaning against the back wall of the bunk.  Your head lolled back, another sigh escaping.  Everything hurts.  “Good morning!  Er, afternoon!  You slept forever, little Jedi!” Wrecker enthusiastically shouted, causing you to immediately sit up straight, hand shooting down to your waist for the familiar feeling of your lightsaber, only to be met with nothing.  Kriff.

Wrecker immediately sensed your panic, and put his hands up in an attempt of looking unhostile.  “Don’t worry, you're safe!  We’ve had our heads cut into, so we won’t be doing any of that Order 66 stuff!”  All you could do was stare, a comically surprised expression etched across your face.  He had an interesting way of wording things.

Wrecker stood up and handed you the canteen and ration bad.  “Here, rations and water!  They’re not the best, and we can pick up some better food soon, but I bet you're starved!”  And you were.  True, the mantell mix Omega had gifted you was delicious, but after so long of never having a proper meal, you certainly wouldn’t refuse any more food or water.

“Thank you…”  You glanced down after taking the food, quietly chewing on the ration bar, occasionally taking sips from the canteen.  You were never good socially at the Temple, and you certainly weren't any better at the moment.  Omega asked you some more questions; if there was any pain, did you bleed through any bandages, and such.  You responded in short answers, so quiet she was struggling to pick up what was said.  Eventually, she deemed you healthy- or, at least, as healthy as you could be, given the circumstances.  She stayed with you, telling stories about Kamino and the few trips she’s had away from it.  Mainly, though, she talked about her brothers.

After Maker knows how long, the Marauder’s ramp opened, Tech, Echo, and Hunter coming in, one by one.  Tech was lugging fuel, and the other two held general equipment, food, med-kits, and more.  While Tech didn’t pay as much mind to your waking, Echo and Hunter sure did- Echo more so.

After setting down the cargo, he practically spritened to the bunk you were on, crouching down on one knee and using his scomp-link to lift up your jaw, and do other inspections.  “You need a shower- desperately.  And new clothes, these are completely ruined!  Our old room is nothing compared to this!  Even Fives smelled better!  And you need some proper nourishment- I know how I felt after being in that stasis chamber for so long.  And mantell mix is not nourishment, no matter what Wrecker and Omega tell you, got that?”  He finished his spiel, pointing his scomp-link at you.  “Iba’ oskik’la…”

* (“what a mess” in mando’a)

“Yeah, I think he’s got it, Echo,” Hunter chimed in, smiling.  “C’mon, kid.  I need you to meet someone.  She used to work with the Jedi, so I don’t think she’d do anything.  But, just in case, we have everything ready to go.  And if all goes well, ”  You swallowed, a large lump forming in your throat.  You really hoped she wouldn’t do anything bad- you were already enough of a burden.  You and Hunter walked down the ramp, Omega gleefully waving goodbye.

He could hear your heartbeat, your anxiety- but he didn’t know much on how to help, given the circumstances.  Kriff, you didn't know about the chips until they found you, and he couldn’t imagine what that must have felt like.  When Wrecker had been affected and tried to kill everyone, at least they all knew it wasn’t his fault, that he hadn’t betrayed them, and that he would never try to do that when he was in control.  But you had no clue about any of that.  You thought all the clones who were your friends, or even just ones you were polite with for the sake of being a good person, had all wanted to kill you, and all the other Jedi.  You had thought that for months.  Cursing yourself, wondering why, and if there was anything you could have done differently to prevent it.  And now, irony at its best, you had been rescued by clones, coming to remove their chips.

“We’re on Ord Mantell, by the way… don’t know if anyone told you.  Ever been?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.  You shook your head, eyes darting from sign to sign, stall to stall.  “Most planets I’ve been on, except for Coruscant, were just… military occupations, occasionally the natural landscape of Separatists planets.  Never got to travel outside of that,” you said, still taking in all the colorful decor and people of the city.  “I mean, you know what that’s like, obviously- being a clone and all, you went to the same type of planets I did.  I think, at least.”

Hunter nodded his head in confirmation, not really sure where to go from there.  What you said was pretty accurate, but he felt like he shouldn’t talk about the war much.  And in any case, they were approaching Cid’s.

You and Hunter trotted down the steps, the automatic door sliding open.  Cid’s bar was empty, spare for an Ithorian and Weequay who were bickering over who knows what, and obviously, Cid herself.  You placed yourself behind Hunter, something you would do with your Master during the war to avoid any interaction with… anyone.  Slicing droids was easy, making conversation with soldiers was not.

You slowly glanced around the parlor, taking in anything that could be a trap, or could help you escape if this ‘Cid’ decided she didn’t want a padawan on her doorstop.  Hunter called out for Cid, and the distant sound of claws tapping against the cold, hard floor echoed out.  Emerging from the back rooms was a rather short female trandoshan, a cane gripped in her three claws.

Her eyes went back and forth between your semi-hidden figure and Hunter.  “Where’s the rest of ya?  And who’s that kid in the terrible robes?  They stink.”  There was an obvious scowl on her face, her left brown rose in an annoyed and questioning manner.

Hunter took a deep breath, and then- “He’s… a Padawan.”  Cid’s brows rose, and then lowered into a vicious scowl.  “Before you say anything- hear me out.  He was trapped at Bracca, and the scavengers didn’t know- Tech checked the Empire’s wanted, and he’s dead to them.  The Empire won’t come here, and it’s not like anyone on the street will know- he’s just a padawan.  Not a full-on Jedi, not a general.  But, he can still help.  Even without using the Force to push and pull, he can still sense danger and… stuff.”  Hunter wasn’t really sure how the Force worked.  But he knew it was useful.  Before Cid could rebuttal, he continued.  “And imagine how helpful a padawan would be in making sure your deals go right!  Being able to sense a bad deal, or if someone unwelcome is coming.  And some of them can do mind tricks.  He’ll be very useful to you- just let him stay with us.”

Cid looking down, in thought, a scowl etched on her face.  Finally, she sighed.  “Fine!  But if the Empire comes knocking, I’m not keeping his hide a secret.  Too much heat.”  She walked away, already planning what to do with you.

Hunter looked back, smiling.  You tried your best to smile, but you knew full well it looked incredibly awkward and forced.  Not that you weren’t happy, by any means.  You just weren’t prepared, and he knew that.  Hunter placed a hand on your shoulder, attempting to provide comfort.  And it worked.  For the first time in months, despite the constant dread of what was to come, everything seemed to be going right.  You could stay with them, and they could stay with Cid.

“Let’s go get you some proper fitting, and smelling clothes, yeah?  Echo wasn’t wrong when he said it was worse than our old barracks.”  Your smile shifted to a natural one, not forced or awkward.  You certainly didn’t think you’d ever see a clone again; and it certainly wouldn’t be a happy experience, but it seemed like this batch was going to be the best thing to happen in a while.

[alex51324]

It's Almost Here! North American Solar Eclipse, 2024

As I mentioned in that other post, it will be visible as at least a partial eclipse to most of North America, with the path of totality cutting a diagonal from Sinaloa, Mexico to Newfoundland, Canada, including 15 US states from Texas to Maine.

Don't be fooled by how we just had one back in October, and another one a few years ago in 2017: total solar eclipses are rare! They only happen when the Sun, Moon, and Earth line up just perfectly--and only for a small portion of the Earth's surface each time.

It's a wild coincidence that North America/the US has gotten three in such a short span of time; the last one before the recent trio was in 1979, and the next one won't be until 2044. (We do have a big partial coming to us in 2033!) The Northeastern US won't see another until the 2070's.

(Note: If you are not in North America, you can use these maps to see when your continent will have its turn!)

This eclipse is also really special in that its path of totality sweeps across a lot of heavily-populated areas. About 31 million people live within the path of totality, and millions more are expected to visit.

So, it's a pretty big deal, and now's the time to get ready!

If you live in the path of totality:

Lucky you! Look up your location on these maps to get the exact time and duration of totality.

Be ready for extra traffic & crowds--especially if you live somewhere with stuff for tourists, or a place that people outside the immediate area will have heard of.

Totality times are in the afternoon, ranging from about 1:30 in Texas to 3:30 in Maine (local times), so if you'll be at school, or at work in a setting where you can't choose your own break times, now's a good time to talk to whomever you need to. It's not unreasonable to ask to step out into the parking lot for the three minutes that people will be coming from far and wide to see--but depending on your setting, it may take some arranging ahead of time. (If you're in school, hopefully your science teachers have already thought of this, but if not, ask them. And if your science teachers are jerks, try other teachers.

If you live near the path of totality:

Try to go! As the American author Annie Dillard says, "Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane."

(Link is to the Atlantic; if you hit a paywall, the 12-foot ladder works.)

Here's a map of approximate driving distances to the path of totality, in the US (from this page).

If you're close enough to think about going, here are some Google maps with eclipse overlays for more detailed planning. (I like the Xavier Jubier one.)

Once you're inside the path of totality, anywhere you can see the sun is a valid viewing location, but if you're making a day of it and you want to find a special spot, check local visitor's bureaus or tourism offices for the area you'll be in. They'll probably have a list of parks and other places. For instance, here's what Erie, Pennsylvania has.

Seriously, If you are able to drive/have a car, live within day-trip distance of the path of totality, and can be away from work/school without losing your job/being arrested for truancy, you should go. This is a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing, and there's still loads of time to plan a day-trip.

(Note: If you aren't in day-trip distance, but now you want to go, you don't have a lot of options: hotels and flights have been full for ages. However, if you're in two-days-driving distance, you might be able to find a Sunday-night base camp, from which you can get up on Monday morning and drive several more hours to the path of totality. For instance, in Pennsylvania, there are still reasonably-priced hotel rooms to be had in State College, which is--in normal traffic--three and a half hours from Erie. (You might even be able to get a little closer than that; I just checked State College because they have a lot of hotels for the Penn State football crowds.} So if you're coming from, say, Maryland or Virginia, that could work, and there may be similar creative options for other regions. Again, if this is something that's feasible for you to do, without bankrupting yourself, getting fired, or other long-term consequences, I would strongly consider doing it!

If you live in North America, but have no way to get to the totality:

A partial eclipse is still pretty cool! And again, it'll be a while before you have another chance to see one, so it's worth it to make the time.

All of the 48 contiguous US states will be able to see some amount of eclipse. So will Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and most of Canada and the Caribbean islands, plus a little bit of South America. (Alaska and part of the Yukon are SOL, but you will have your turn in 2033!)

Use these maps to look up the time and extent of the eclipse in your location.

As of this writing, you can still get eclipse glasses here, among other places. If you run out of time to get them, check for eclipse-viewing events at local parks, libraries, etc.--they may also have some to give away ahead of time, but even if not, if you go to an event, there will almost certainly be some to share.

The plus of a partial eclipse is that you have a fairly relaxed viewing window--as much as a couple of hours, depending how far you are from the middle of the eclipse zone--rather than a standout moment that you want to make sure you're in position for.

That makes it pretty easy to get a chance to see it even if you're at work--everybody can take turns stepping outside for a look. You can share eclipse glasses, too.

[whifferdills]

stopped watching the game and made soup instead:

WHIFFERDILLS BUSTANUT SOUP

->cook this first

1x large butternut squash, split, seeded, and roasted face-down on a sheet pan til soft. parchment paper or silicon mat unless you love scrubbing pans. duration of time for temperature? 400? idk. time. half hour? depends on the squarsh. scoop the flesh out from the rind. there is no graceful way to do this, but a nice big spoon helps.

->this at the same time but it's in a pot, i didn't want to confuse you

2x spanish onion roughly chopped and sauteed down to not quite carmelized, along w a clove or three of minced garlic and a thumb of minced ginger. let the onion cook down a little before adding the garlic and ginger, it'll keep it from burning. if it starts drying out add a little water

little bit of salt. bay leaf, if you remember. other herbs? whatcha got. rosemary is nice sometimes. pull these out before the next step

->then everything in big bowl. add in:

1x pack silken tofu (problems with this? maybe coconut milk and a little less stock down the line. but i really love the sort of ascended 'shitty diner slop' texture silken tofu gives, and it adds a little extra protein)

2c ish vegetable stock

1x confident sploosh vinegar-y hot sauce OR dash of cayenne and some apple cider vinegar

1x sprinkle nutmeg, some black pepper. you can get kind of wacky here, have fun with it! pumpkin spice that shit!!

hand blender time. blitz to shit, salt to taste. i am King MSG so of course, add some here if you have it on hand. maybe more stock if it's too thick but remember: it is difficult to go backwards! add in increments. if you run out of stock, water is fine (try to find the line between 'perfect consistency but a little weak' and 'too thique but taste great')

if you don't have a stick blender, any type of food processor works, just go in batches

if you have no devices: grab a whisk or fork and feel the burn

but seriously a half-decent stick blender is pretty cheap and it WILL change your life

✨immersion blender✨ whatever

->also

i always add in some crunchy vegetables cooked just past raw, since creamy soup like this is so samey-samey. went w brussel sprouts tonight bc that's what's in my fridge but cauliflower works well here. chop to approximate mouth size, toss in oil and salt/pepper, put in Lazy Fuck Steamer Box (hotel pan covered with sheet pan, although any covered cooking vessel is the same). cook at temperature until done (15 minutes at 350? idk). this is the happy idiot way to cook vegetables, the results are average but BOY is it easy. i guess you could roast things instead if it's important to you

great with crusty bread obviously but it's nice sometimes to cook up some wild rice or etc and toss that in for your carb-on-carb action

serves a lot, get your tupperware out

[billiedeansbitch]

Hiiii, this idea just popped into my head and since u’re one of my fav writes i’d love to see ur take on it.

It can be either larissa or miranda x reader (i imagined with larissa but it really doesn’t matter), so she’s cooking or baking something and like little things just go wrong in the process which frustrate her but she keeps going until the end when the whole thing just comes out wrong (she burns it or something like that) and reader starts laughing cause it’s just a big ol’ mess until she hears larissa crying cause it was her breaking point so r is like “oh shit sorry” and tells her it’s okay and smothers her with kisses until she sees a smile

Hope u’re doing good, byeeee :)

𝐛𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞

(𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐚 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐱 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫)

a/n: I'm a sucker for fluff and this prompt is just *chef's kiss* also I am doing good I hope you are too :>

warning/s: none.

The sound of the electric mixer buzzed in the kitchen (while she could have mixed the ingredients with her hand, Larissa believed it would be more time efficient this way) and she let it mix for approximately a minute or two as advised in the book until it became fluffy as desired. Nothing could possibly go wrong, so she read the directions once in her thoughts before repeating them loudly and clearly to ensure she didn't miss anything before moving on to the next step.

She cracked in the egg and added a teaspoon of vanilla, her hands trembling in the process. It was quite ridiculous and she was sure that if you were around, your laughter would have echoed in the room. After everything was blended, Larissa added two and a half cups of chocolate chips knowing your affinity for sweets.

And like she would know the difference between a good dough and a bad one, she scraped the side with her finger and let it dip into her mouth. It was sweet, flavourful and soft. She was a little bit impressed by this accomplishment.

“Into the baking sheet you go.” She started scooping them into balls, and transferred each into the cold metal surface with calculated distance. Sated with the outcome, Larissa smiled to herself and placed the sheet into the oven to bake for about twelve minutes.

For the whole duration of the baking process, the woman stayed planted in front of the oven, her lower back pressed on the island counter, her eyes fixated on the cookies like it would do anything to help the cookies bake. Twelve minutes later, as soon as the alarm went off, Larissa put on her floral patterned oven mitts ready to judge her creation.

When it came out, the smell was okay but not heavenly as she was expecting, then her smile dropped. This batch was unevenly baked, some were undercooked and some were burnt, she also had problems with over-spreading making all look like a big mess.

Her brows furrowed, staring at the mess in silence, thinking what she could have done wrong. That was when she took out her phone from her apron’s pocket and started searching. One potential cause was the butter, she could have overly softened the butter or overworked the dough and she blamed this to the electric mixer.

Larissa didn’t let this mishap discourage her, so she tried again, gathered a new batch of ingredients and scraped the mess off into the trash. This time she didn’t rely on the cooking book, she searched online for ways to perfectly bake cookies and looked for some tips. She preheated the oven, chilled the dough, and used the middle rack of the oven. However, something still went wrong with the cookies, it ended up tough and dense. Larissa frustratedly sighed, her shoulders sagging.

So she went over the internet again and found out stale baking powder could cause this problem so she checked the box and facepalmed when she found out that it was already expired. Thirty minutes later, Larissa came back with a fresh tray of eggs, baking soda, and some flour. She was determined to make this one work.

Sweat ran down her back, attempting again for the third time. She checked her phone. It was only two o'clock. She still had plenty of time before you came home. Although fifteen minutes later Larissa heard the front door opening and your familiar footsteps reverberating in the house.

“What are you doing?” you had a smile on your face as you inquired, shrugging off your coat while you sauntered toward the kitchen to see what your girlfriend had been up to while you were gone.

“Oh, nothing…just baking.” Larissa met your eyes in a fleeting glance, her cheeks already glowing red. She watched you from the corners of her eyes, going around the counter and planted yourself next to her, brushing her hair off her face.

“You have flour on your face, love.” you wiped it off gently with your thumb before you focused on what she was doing, and simply taunted her with your presence.

Larissa felt the growing pressure, felt how heavy your eyes were as you watched her, distracting her, “It says only a teaspoon, love.” your hand locked around her wrist stopping her from pouring more vanilla into the dough.

“Could you check my emails? See if anything’s out of the ordinary?” she requested.

You didn't think so much of it and agreed, “Yeah, of course. Right now?”

She nodded.

“Okay.”

In all honesty, she didn’t need her emails to be checked, she just didn’t want you there to witness her fail over a supposedly simple task. Baking should not be this hard and complicated, it shouldn’t be exhausting, it was designed to be relaxing and refreshing. She was supposed to be enjoying and not stressing over this. God, she just wanted to bake for you.

Somehow she still scored the next, making it three consecutive fails. This time she didn’t bother checking what went wrong, she was tired, it was her breaking point, and to make it worse, you walked in after smelling the burning sweet smell of sugar and broke into laughter.

It wasn't your intention to insult or upset her; you just laughed because it was a mess and you had been with her for so long to know Larissa wasn’t fond of messes, and this proved to you that even after being so perfect all the time, she still had her flaws.

But it was the last thing she needed from you.

Larissa undid her apron and tossed it unceremoniously on the floor, her face buried on her hands softly sobbing. She couldn’t take it anymore. She was upset and tired. She felt pathetic. She watched a fucking child baked cookies over the internet and it turned out decent so how the fuck a grown woman couldn’t achieve the same result when clearly she should be better, if not best, at doing it.

The smile on your face faltered, altered by a sad look once you saw how Larissa broke down on the floor. “Fuck.” you expressed out loud, dashing forward to where she sat.

“Hey,” you sat next to her, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She wasn’t responding. It broke you. You should have been more sensitive, should have seen the sign that it was something you shouldn’t have laughed about no matter how pure your intention was.

“Baby, I’m sorry. I only laughed because I thought it was funny because you finally messed up. It’s silly, I know, I just…you’ve always been perfect and seeing you get so frustrated over baking makes it so refreshing to the eyes and I laughed at the first chance I got when I shouldn’t have.”

Larissa stopped and turned to you, staring at you with a gentle expression, she wasn’t mad at you, she could never be. You leaned, fondling her cheek, “I should have been more careful and sensitive. I’m sorry.”

When all was said and still she hadn't moved, you began apologizing the alternative way by pressing kisses to her brow, her cheeks, her nose, her lips, everywhere.

You kept dropping another after another, more gentle, more soothing than the last, more sincere until a beam stretched her lips. Then you see the spark, one you had seen a hundred times, returned to her eyes, they looked so beautiful. She kissed back, accepting your apology. It was tender, very delicately pressed on your cheek.

You then pressed your forehead to her shoulder, catching a moment for yourself, “You almost gave me a heart attack. Seeing you like that I thought I had to go over every reason why you shouldn’t break up with me.” you let her know your thoughts, she chuckled lightly.

“Oh you did huh?” you felt her combed through your hair, planting a kiss on your head.

“Mhmm.”

“In retrospect I think it was a bit dramatic.”

“Hmm, no comment.” it was better safe than sorry. Larissa hummed as well and asked you to stand up. She did too and eyed the mess on the counter.

“We should clean this up. I need to cook dinner soon.”

When you faced her, you saw there was still a remnant of sadness in her eyes. She couldn’t hide those, not even with the smile on her lips.

“How about we try one more time?” you suggested, smiling at her, convincing her.

She was apprehensive, “Are you sure?”

“Positively sure. Don’t worry, okay? I’ll help you and if we fail we can try again tomorrow and then the day after that until we have perfectly edible chocolate chip cookies.”

Two days later, at twelve midnight, the mouth watering, warm scent of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies engulfed the kitchen and it was worth it as a priceless grin possessed Larissa’s lips and spun you around and kissed you.

Perhaps all that was missing was love. She had to bake with love.

[ayyy-pee]

Strangers in Love

Chapter 8 - Malaysia

Discord 18+ - Twitter - Kofi

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Nanami Kento x Female Reader

Summary: You did it. You and Kento have rekindled your romance, gotten to know each other again. Things couldn't be better. It's been a few years now, you and Kento saving up just for this moment. Now it's time to really enjoy each other.

Genre: Divorced to Lovers AU

Warnings: Smut, Vaginal Sex, Jealousy, Jealous Behavior, Divorce, Unprotected Sex, Cunnilingus (vaginal), Implied sex, Creampie, Arguments, Ex-Husband Nanami Kento

Art by: K

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome onboard Flight 380 with service from Tokyo, Japan to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We are currently second in line for take-off and are expected to be in the air in approximately seven minutes time. We ask that you please fasten your seatbelts at this time and secure all baggage beneath your seat or in the overhead compartments. We also ask that your seats and table trays are in the upright position for take-off. Please turn off all personal electronic devices, including laptops and cell phones. Smoking is prohibited for the duration of the flight. Thank you for choosing Malaysia Airlines. Enjoy your flight.”

You stretch your legs out, sighing at the spaciousness as you relax into your seat. The large cabin you share leaves you more room than you know what to do with. You’ve never been on a flight this nice before. It was usually a coach seat for you, struggling to shove your carry-on into the overhead compartment and trying your best not to smother the stranger in the middle seat with your ass.

This time was different. 

This time, you splurged on first-class and all of the amenities that came with it: free drinks, nice meals, seats that had so much room they could convert into private beds, the works. You splurged on luxury because you deserved it.

“Comfortable?” A familiar, deep voice asks next to you.

You glance over to the blonde man beside you and grin. This long awaited trip was finally happening and you couldn’t contain your happiness. Leaning over, he meets you halfway as you press your lips to his. He hums into the kiss, his large hand coming up to rest on the back of your neck and pull you closer. All you can think about is how you can’t wait for this adventure you’d be on after this long plane ride to Malaysia with your lover, Kento.

“So comfortable. I’m so glad we waited a little longer to save up a bit more for these seats,” you say, kissing him once more before pulling away. You lean back into your chair. “This is going to be the best flight I’ve ever had.”

“Agreed,” the man brings his hand down to hold yours in your lap. “And the best trip. I’m glad we’re finally doing this.”

“Me too, Ken,” You giggle to yourself. “It only took what? Like ten years and a divorce?”

Nanami chuckles beside you, nodding and giving your hand a gentle squeeze, “Well worth the wait, love.”

You and Nanami have been dating for about four years now and everything has been great. Of course you have your ups and your downs, arguing every now and then, but it’s a complete 180 from your marriage. You’ve moved in together again, the apartment feeling like a blend of both you and Kento. You have Friday dinner where you cook together (well, mostly Kento), you sit down for the week and you make sure to talk, really talk about your days, anything new and your feelings. 

Work no longer interrupted your routines. Nanami was sure to take a few days off a month to spend time with you and to simply relax. On those days, you took short trips outside of Tokyo to smaller towns to explore. You tried new foods, drinks, took part in activities you would have never experienced when you and Nanami were together the first time.

Things feel familiar and new all at the same time. Kento is so differentt…in a good way. You’re happy.

The flight attendant makes his way down the aisle, checking passengers and their belongings. He nods curtly to you and Nanami as he moves along. 

“What do you want to do once we’ve arrived?” Nanami questions, checking his seatbelt and adjusting his neck pillow, then doing the same for you. You roll your eyes playfully, shooing his hand away. Since you’d resumed dating, Nanami was more protective of you than he’d ever been before. He walked you to the train station daily, met you outside of your office after work, checked in with you when either of you were out to be sure you were safe. It was cute. A much appreciated change from him.

“Well, we need to stay up and fight the jetlag so we can…” you hum quietly, mentally kicking yourself for not letting Nanami build an itinerary like he’d wanted.

“Should’ve let me build an itinerary,” he mumbles next to you. He reaches into his pants to pull his phone out of the pocket, leaning over to show you his screen. 

“You built an itinerary, didn’t you?”

“Not an itinerary,” he corrects. “Just a few places I thought you may enjoy the few days we’re in Kuala Lumpur before we head to Kuantan.”

Nanami’s phone vibrates in his hands, a notification from an unsaved number rolling down on his screen. He sits back, pulling his phone away, fingers quickly moving across his screen before he switches his phone off and places it back into his pocket. He clears his throat quietly and you don’t miss how the tips of his ears are suddenly a bright red. 

Strange, but you don’t think too much of it.

“What was that?” You ask, trying not to sound suspicious.

“Hmm?” Nanami plays dumb. “Oh, nothing important.”

You can see the way Nanami’s jaw ticks as he turns his head to look out the window. He’s thinking hard, likely debating on if he wants to tell you what the text says. You don’t want to pry though. Nanami is a shy man, no matter how confident he came across to others. When he was ready to confide in you, he would.

“Alright,” you tell him. “Let’s go over the list, then. See what we’re going to do when we get there since it’ll be pretty late.”

The plane bell rings throughout the cabin. You and Nanami look on as the flight attendants line the row and go over the safety instructions. Once they’ve finished, they take their seats. Shortly after, you feel the plane begin to speed up, faster and faster until you feel the wheels lift off of the ground.

Nanami has his fingers laced through yours, squeezing subtly as he watches the plane cruise higher and higher into the air. 

Another cabin ding.

“Good afternoon passengers. This is your captain speaking. I'd like to welcome everyone on Flight 380. We are currently cruising at an altitude of 33,000 feet at an airspeed of 400 miles per hour. The time is 12:25 pm. Weather looks good and with the tailwind on our side we are expecting to land in Kuala Lumpur approximately fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. The weather in Kuala Lumpur is clear and sunny, with a high of 30 degrees celsius or about 86 degrees fahrenheit for this afternoon. If the weather cooperates we should get a great view of the city as we descend. Cabin crew will be coming around in about twenty minutes to offer you a light snack and beverage. Until then, sit back, relax and enjoy the rest of the flight.”

Nanami lowers the window shade, leaning his head back against his seat.

“Actually, will you mind if I sleep for a bit?” He asks, voice already dripping with exhaustion. You giggle quietly next to him. Nanami - ever the planner - had hardly slept the night before in anticipation of this trip. He packed and unpacked his bag, your bag. He’d probably redone his secret itinerary over and over to make sure it was perfect. You’d taken trips together in your “new” time together. He’d taken you to Sendai to meet his old colleagues and friends from his time living there after your divorce. You’d traveled to Kyoto together for his company’s Christmas party. Even then, you’d never seen Nanami so all over the place before traveling.��

“Of course, Ken. Get some rest. We can talk plans later.”

It takes only a few minutes before you hear Nanami’s light snores next to you. You can’t stop the small smile spreading across your face as you close your own eyes. You were finally on your way to Malaysia together. You hoped this trip was everything you both wished for it to be.

It doesn’t take long for you to let sleep take you as well, jetlag be damned, your fingers still intertwined with Nanami.

----------

When you land at the airport, Nanami collects both your bags before you head to pick up your rental car. You’re sitting in the front seat as he drives, carefully glancing at his phone where the navigation directs him.

“I’m so hungry,” you whine dramatically next to him. He chuckles.

“I tried to wake you up when the stewardess came by. You wouldn’t budge.” He exits the highway.

“You could’ve waved a carrot under my nose and I would’ve woken up. I’m starving.”

Nanami laughs loudly at this, a laugh from deep within his chest. And your cheeks heat up even after all this time. Because hearing Nanami laugh like that is so rare…and reserved only for you. The sound makes you relax, a smile plastered to your face as you sit back in your seat and enjoy the rest of the ride.

When you arrive at the hotel, it’s early in the night. The moon is high in the sky as you enter the lobby and Nanami takes the lead, checking you both in and carrying your bags to your room. The room is nice, a large and luxurious suite. Nanami really splurged when he made the reservation.

There’s a dining table with a beautiful, large bouquet of tropical flowers in the center, a gorgeous mix of red and yellow petals and long green leaves. You’d never seen anything like it.

“Wow, this is the nicest place I’ve ever stayed in,” you say in awe while Nanami moves past you to the suite’s bedroom. He sets your things down and stretches before taking a seat on the bed. He’s on his phone while you wander into the bedroom after him, looking through the suite. There’s a small bar cart next to the large balcony doors with an empty glass and bottle of smoked whiskey sitting atop, no doubt for Nanami. He does love a glass before winding down for the night.

You peer out into the night, the city of Kuala Lumpur still active. The skyline is lit with a beautiful array of white, golds and blues. The Menara Kuala Lumpur is lit a gorgeous shade of purple. And it hits you that you’ve finally made it to Malaysia with Nanami Kento of all people. You would have never guessed you’d end up here. There’s a strange feeling beginning to form inside you and it’s making you emotional. You can feel the sting of tears in your eyes before Nanami’s voice pulls you back to him.

“It’s a little late, but would you like to get some food? There’s a night street market nearby with plenty of options to choose from.”

You subtly wipe your eyes, turning to face your boyfriend. “Yes! Let’s go.”

----------

The market is not insanely busy, which is nice. After hours of sitting on the plane, you were eager to stretch your legs. Less people meant less standing around struggling to maneuver through a crowd.

Nanami squeezes your hand next to you as you walk together, grabbing your attention.

“Anything specific you’re craving?” He asks, eyes scanning the different stands and their options.

You hum, looking around. “I’m open to trying new things. I mean, when’s the next time we’ll be in Malaysia?”

“That is true,” Nanami agrees as he comes to a stop in front of a stand. There are so many options here, you think you may be able to try all Malaysian cuisine in just this one spot. The worker is friendly, smiling patiently as you both weigh your options.

“I think I’m going to try the char kuey teow,” Nanami decides, pointing up at the menu. The worker repeats the order, nodding as he writes it down. He then looks at you, waiting.

“I think I’ll do the…” you shift your weight on your feet, taking another second to choose. “Okay, I think I’m going to do the satay and the rojak.”

Nanami tells the worker your order, the worker nodding and taking his payment. He waves you over to a set of tables next to the booth to sit and wait. You sit next to each other, Nanami’s hand never leaving yours.

“Do you know what you ordered?” Nanami asks, to which you laugh.

“No, but I did say I’m open to trying new things.” Nanami nods, smiling softly. You catch the glint of humor in his eyes and you have to ask: “Why? Do you know what you ordered?”

“Definitely not,” he snorts, chuckling. You lean your head against his shoulder, laughing harder than before.

One thing you enjoyed about your second time around dating Nanami was his openness and his ability to allow himself to let go. Even before the divorce, he had a hard time simply letting himself enjoy the little things. You were glad to see this had changed.

The stand worker brings your plates over and sets everything down. You both thank him graciously as you look your dishes over.

Your first plate - the satay - consists of chicken skewers. It’s beautifully seasoned and grilled to perfection, the steam carrying the delicious smell to your nose in soft waves. Your second plate looks to be an arrangement of fruits and vegetables, a salad of sorts. You fork through the dish, seeing pineapples, mangoes, apples and even star fruits. The dish is topped with a sticky, sweet and spicy sauce, sugar, chillies and peanuts. It smells amazing.

Nanami’s plate consists of flat rice noodles stir-fried with shrimp, chinese sausage, eggs and bean sprouts in a mix of soy sauce. His plate also smells incredible and you reach over and grab a fork full and take a bite. It’s delicious, so flavorful you think you might cry.

Nanami rolls his eyes. “Now what’s the point of you ordering your own food if you’re just going to eat mine?”

“Hey! I said I was open to trying new things!” You pout, sliding your plates over to him as well. “I was going to share with you, too.”

“I’m teasing, love. I don’t mind.” He leans over and presses a kiss to your lips. “I want you to try everything. And I want to try everything with you.”

You smile as Nanami kisses you again before he tries a bite of his meal. He practically moans when the flavors burst in his mouth.

“It’s good, right?” You ask, taking a fork full of your salad and holding it up to his mouth. Nanami nods.

“These flavors are incredible. I don’t know what it is…maybe the shallots? They make all the flavors pop. Not to mention that bit of heat from the red chilies. I’ll absolutely be making this for dinner when we get back home.”

You giggle as he takes a bite of your salad. “You’re such a food nerd. I swear you should’ve been a chef after we graduated.”

Nanami shakes his head, again relishing in the flavors of your salad. “I only enjoy cooking for you.”

He resumes eating his food, but you’re staring at him, eyes wide as a result of his honesty. You had never realized it before, but Nanami truly never cooked for anyone but you. When having friends over, you typically ordered takeout. He really reserved the love he poured into making food for you only. The thought makes your heart pound hard against your ribcage.

“Love, you okay?” Nanami asks, reaching a hand up to cup your cheek so he can turn your head to look at him. Those brown eyes are filled with concern for you. And so much love. He loves you so much, it practically radiates off of him.

“Yes,” you reply. “I’m just thinking about how happy I am to be here with you.”

And Nanami gives you that shy smile you’re so familiar with, something else he saves just for you, before he kisses you softly.

“I love you, baby,” he whispers. Even with the hustle and bustle of the street market, you hear it loud and clear.

“I love you.”

----------

The sun beams through the balcony doors of the hotel room. The room feels much too warm. It makes Nanami peel back the blankets for a hint of relief. It’s only then he realizes it’s not the blankets making him too warm, or the room temperature. He peers down, finding you latched onto his side. You’re sleeping peacefully and Nanami can’t help but drink in your beauty, how lucky he is to witness how stunning you are. Nanami always thinks you’re a sight to behold, but you’re ethereal beneath the glow of the Malaysian sun. 

He brings a hand up, gently caressing your cheek. He knows he should begin his day; maybe go for a run in the hotel’s gym, have his coffee and wake you, but part of him wants to just lie with you a little longer. He opts to stay in bed.

On the bedside table, Nanami’s phone buzzes with a text message. He carefully reaches for it, reading the message over and sighing.

Unknown: what are u doing now?

Nanami: Getting ready for the day.

Nanami: I told you not to text me while I’m here. She’ll get suspicious.

Unknown: K so u haven’t told her yet

Nanami rolls his eyes, sends one last message.

Nanami: Don’t text me again.

He puts his phone back on the bedside table after setting it to Do Not Disturb. You begin to stir against him.

“Who’s texting you so early in the morning?” You grumble against his side.

“No one important,” he tells you. He places a kiss to the top of your head. “We should start getting ready, love. We have a lot to do today.”

You groan, whining about how tired you still are as you turn away from him to hide your face in your pillow. Nanami chuckles lightly.

“Okay. You get a little more rest. I’ll get ready and come back for you in a bit?”

You mumble in agreement, your light snores coming shortly after your answer.

Nanami climbs out of the bed, heading to the closet in the suite. He fishes around for his workout clothes and shoes before quickly changing. He’ll let you get more sleep. You’re probably jetlagged anyway. He has a fun day planned for you and he wants you to be well rested.

Before heading out to run, Nanami makes a call downstairs to room service. He orders breakfast to be delivered for you both in the next hour, which gives him time to complete his workout and make it back to shower. 

----------

When Nanami returns, you’re already up. He stands in the living room area just in time to catch you getting out of the shower and entering the bedroom.

“Hey,” you greet him, coming into the main room. You’ve got that gorgeous smile he loves so much spread wide across your face.

“Hey,” he says back, and he fears the tips of his ears are glowing red. You look so good right now, all fresh faced and wrapped in a towel. Again, you’re always stunning but wow. Is it Malaysia that’s making you look like an absolute vision? Nanami can’t pull his gaze from you.

“Kento? You okay?” You ask, adjusting the towel wrapped around you as you step forward. “You’re staring.”

His eyes zero in on your smooth skin, the water droplets cascading down your shoulders and between the valley of your breasts. The way your beautiful lips part as you await his response. How that towel you have wrapped around yourself is barely hanging on and it would take little effort from Nanami to remove it, letting him see every bit of you in all your glory. He can’t bear to be away from you a second longer.

Nanami is aware that he should shower. That he should wash away all the sweat and grime from his workout, but he can’t take his eyes off of you or the way that thin towel hugs all of your dips and curves. The way the scent of your body wash assaults his senses. And before he knows it, he’s crossing the distance of the suite until he’s got your face between his hands and his mouth is crashing into yours.

The kiss is dizzying, all tongue and teeth. A mix of mint, your lipgloss and his sweat. The taste makes Nanami moan into your open mouth. Your arms wrap around his neck, not caring about pressing your body to his sweaty form.

Nanami’s hand glides down your cheek, down your neck and your chest until his fingers find the top of your towel. He hooks a finger under and pulls, the towel loosening and falling quickly to the floor. And then one of his hands is cupping your breast, pulling moan after moan from you as his callous hand runs over your hardening nipple.

With a quiet whimper, you break the kiss to lean back and look at Nanami, eyes blown with lust. “Kento,” you pant. “Not that I don’t love this aggressive side of you, but are you okay?”

Nanami leans down, pressing kisses to your neck. You tilt your head to the side to give him more access. “I’m amazing, love. I just can’t believe we’re here.” He licks along your collarbone, his large hands running down your back until they find your ass. He squeezes, pulling your hips against him and you moan when you feel the evidence of his arousal.

His lips are back on yours soon as he moves you both backwards until your back is pressed against the dining table in the center of the room. He cups your ass and lifts you onto the surface and he’s thankful that he moved the flowers last night and that room service hasn’t been delivered yet.

He pulls away from you, peering down at you through half-lidded eyes. Your lips are kiss swollen and Nanami brings a hand up so he can run his thumb across them.

“I love you. You know that?” He tells you softly.

You nod. “I know, Ken.”

He runs a hand down the valley of your breasts, pushing softly for you to lay back across the table telling you: “You’re so beautiful.” And then he’s kneeling down, placing his hands on your knees and spreading your legs before him. This is one of his favorite sights. You spread out in front of him.

When you first began dating again, it really felt like the first time. You were shy, almost embarrassed when exposed to Nanami and he was patient with you because he couldn’t blame you. You had stopped being intimate long before your divorce, so it really felt as if you had to get to know each other’s bodies again. It took a few instances of intimacy for you to open up to him again. But once you did, you often found you couldn’t keep your hands off each other.

Nanami takes in the sight of you in front of him, legs spread wide. His gaze takes in the puffy lips of your pussy coated with your arousal. He licks his lips groaning because he can still taste you on his tongue. But he wants more of you.

“Open your legs for me, love,” he commands, voice husky. He can feel his cock straining against his shorts. He’ll take care of that later, though. Right now, he only wants to take care of you.

You do as you're told, spreading your legs to further expose your aching cunt to Nanami and he can’t wait to run his tongue through your folds.

“So pretty,” he whispers, hands coming up to caress the inside of your thighs. Nanami plants sweet kisses along the plush of your thighs before he leans forward and presses a soft kiss to your pussy lips. You gasp quietly, back arching off of the dining table and Nanami takes that moment to slip his tongue between your folds.

The groan he lets out comes from deep within his chest. It vibrates through your core and the sensation makes you reach down, weaving your fingers through Nanami’s golden tresses to grab hold.

“O-oh, fuck. Kento,” you breathe. Nanami presses his tongue to your clit, grinning when he feels the slick pour from your core and into his mouth. 

“You taste so good, my love.” He groans against you. You moan in reply, hips coming up to grind your cunt against his mouth, pleading for more. And Nanami gives it to you, lips sealing around your clit and sucking, licking, nipping at your swollen bud until you’re practically fucking yourself on his tongue.

“Kento, oh my god, Kento,” you keen, back lifting off the table again.

“Let me hear you, love,” his hands squeeze your thighs. “I want to know I make you feel good.”

You moan loudly, fingers gripping Nanami’s hair and pulling him further into your pussy. “You do, baby. You make me feel so fucking good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes, Ken, so fucking good.”

Nanami brings his hands up to your cunt, presses his thumbs to your lips and spreads your pussy open for him. He leans back, just enough that he can get a good look for himself. The sight damn near brings him to climax, your pussy throbbing before him, your little hole clenching around nothing.

He wants to fuck you. He wants to fuck you so bad, but he’ll wait until later for that.

Instead, he leans forward again and slides his hot tongue straight into your aching hole. He has to stop his eyes from rolling back when you cry out and he feels your soft walls clamp down on his tongue immediately. You’re whining, pushing your hips up to meet his mouth, grinding your soaking cunt against Nanami’s face.

And he loves it.

Nanami loves the taste of you, it’s intoxicating. 

Nanami loves the feel of you, soft and pliant beneath his strong hands.

Nanami loves the sounds you make, quite literally music to his ears.

Nanami loves you.

And he hopes you can feel how much he loves you by how he curls his tongue inside your walls. By how he brings a hand up and presses his thumb against your swollen clit where he rubs tight circles. By how he groans into your pussy when he feels a gush of your slick rush into his mouth. By how he’s so painfully hard, he’s now rubbing himself through the front of his shorts to find some sort of friction. 

You really must feel it, because you tug on his hair until he pulls his mouth away from your center. 

“Come here, Ken,” you whisper. “Fuck me.”

Nanami’s brows knit together, a small frown gracing his features. “I’m sweaty, love. I just worked out.”

You shake your head. “I don’t care about that. I need to feel you. Please.”

So Nanami stands, hand still stroking himself over the fabric of his shorts as he eyes you, all spread open on the table. So enticing, so sexy. You know he can’t resist you. All you have to do is say the word and he’s at your beck and call. 

Nanami reaches into his shorts and pulls his cock out before he moves to stand between your legs. A string of precum drips from the tip onto your cunt and Nanami inhales sharply at the sight. You’re driving him insane. He didn’t plan on fucking you right after the gym. If anything, he would’ve finished himself off in the shower. Now he hovers over you, so damn aroused, he’s certain he won’t last long. He slides the tip of his length up and down your folds, collecting your slick and then he leans over you as he positions himself against your entrance.

He gazes into your eyes, absolutely drinks in the fucked out look on your face.

“I’m so in love with you,” he says softly, honestly. Then he kisses you so sweetly, both of you moaning into each other’s mouths as Nanami pushes into you. You wrap your arms around his neck, deepening the kiss and shivering as he enters you, parting your walls for him.

He doesn’t stop moving forward until he feels his balls meet your ass. His tongue presses against yours, both of you whimpering and groaning into each other’s mouths as Nanami finally sits fully inside you.

“Shit,” Nanami curses under his breath. “You feel so good. Every time. I’ll never get tired of having you like this.” He pulls his hips back slowly before he rocks back into you. And maybe it’s the buildup for you, but that first thrust has your pussy gushing against him, soaking straight through his shorts.

“Fuck,” Nanami grits his teeth, the sudden extra slickness making his hips stutter slightly.

“Ah- fuck, Ken,” you whine, holding Nanami close to you as he rolls his hips into yours, filling you over and over. 

The room is filled with Nanami’s soft grunts, your sighs and moans, the sounds of your skin slapping together as Nanami fucks into you, the occasional screech of the table legs sliding across the floor echoing through the room. 

It’s intimate, your arms wrapped around Nanami, one of his hands holding your waist and the other cupping your cheek. Nanami’s eyes are closed, mouth slack against your own as he pumps into you. You’re so wet, so tight, so soft and as much as he wants to keep fucking you like this, he can feel his balls get a little tighter with each thrust.

He reaches a hand between you both, finding your clit easily and rubbing circles on it. A small smirk spreads across his face when you arch your back with a loud moan, your breasts pressing against his chest. Nanami sits up slightly, head dipping so he can place sweet kisses along your chest and down your breasts. 

Your hips come up to meet Nanami’s, the loud smack of your skin meeting pulling a deep groan from within him. He dips his head back down to capture one of your nipples in his mouth, gently grazing his tongue over it while he uses his free hand to grab your other breast, his thumb flicking your neglected nipple.

You’re writhing beneath him, rolling your hips against Nanami’s, panting and Nanami can feel the telltale flutter of your walls. You’re –

“‘m about to cum, Kento,” you cry out. Nanami releases your nipples, crashes his mouth into yours as he keeps his steady pace, thumb rubbing your clit until he feels your pussy tighten around him. It sends him over the edge with you.

“Yes, love. Cum for me,” he groans, his hips stuttering with his own release. And he’s so sensitive, but he fucks you through your orgasm anyway, thrusting his cum deeper and deeper into you until he can’t anymore.

You’re catching your breath as Nanami stands to look you over. You’re glowing with a sheen of sweat covering you. You’ll both need to shower after this. Nanami grips the base of his cock, pulls out of you with a quiet hiss. And just in time because the moment he’s pulled out there’s a knock on the hotel door.

“Room service!”

You scramble off of the table, scurrying around the room to find your towel on the floor, throwing it around your naked form. “Just a minute!”

Nanami chuckles, making his way to the suite door. He cracks it open, coming face to face with the attendant. “You can leave it outside the door and we’ll grab it in a moment.”

The attendant nods, setting the tray down on a small folding stand in front of the door. “Thank you,” Nanami says before he closes the door again. He turns to find you peeking out of the bedroom and it makes him laugh that deep laugh he only lets you hear.

Nanami crosses the threshold to you, takes your face in his hands and presses a tender kiss to your lips. He gazes into those beautiful eyes of yours. He could drown in them when you look at him like you love him more than anything on earth. And he hopes you do because he loves you that much, if not more.

He kisses you again, pulling back just enough to whisper against your lips, “meet me in the shower.”

----------

You never imagined Malaysia to be so beautiful. You’re grateful to Nanami for being such a planner because you don’t think you’d have been able to find these incredible places. You’re only here a few days, and Nanami makes sure you make the most of it.

On Day 1:

After finishing breakfast (and your other extracurriculars in the shower, on the bed, against the wall and back on the table), you finally leave the hotel and venture out. It’s a beautifully sunny day. Perfect for your first real outing in Malaysia. 

Nanami takes you to the Wilayah Mosque. And while you usually wouldn’t be interested in something like this, Nanami keeps your attention, doling out interesting facts that keep you engaged.

The mosque guides take you along and stop by the most stunning spots so you can photograph the geometric patterns. The pictures truly don’t do it justice. It’s breathtaking.

“What did you think?” Nanami asks as he buckles his seatbelt. He puts the car in reverse, his hand coming up behind your headrest as he cranes his neck to look behind him. He’s so hot without even trying.

“It was gorgeous. Not something I would’ve picked myself, but I’m glad you did. I liked it.”

Nanami smiles as he turns back around to begin driving. “I’m glad.”

Later that evening, Nanami takes you to Bukit Bintang Shopping District. It reminds you a bit of Shibuya. It’s very busy. You’re a bit surprised that Nanami wants to go somewhere so similar to home. Nanami spoils you here. He offers to buy you whatever you look at for more than a few seconds, stating “get it, love. When is the next time we’ll be in Malaysia?”  

So you give in. You let him treat you to whatever you desire (within reason of course). 

On Day 2:

Nanami takes you to the hotel’s rooftop pool to enjoy breakfast before you head out for the day.

“What’s on the agenda today?” You ask, sipping your drink. The sun is just rising, painting the sky with hues of pinks, yellows, and oranges. The view is stunning, the city still buzzing even after a long night. Though it’s only been a day, you love it here.

Nanami seems to love it, too. He’s so much more relaxed than you’ve ever seen him. After all of the years you’ve known each other, you’d never seen this side. He’s been so sweet and considerate, taking into account what you’d enjoy and going above and beyond to make sure it happens. He’s been so doting and loving, almost always touching you as though you’re his lifeline. Even now, he’s got his ankles locked with yours under the table and his fingers intertwined with yours on top of it.

It’s something small you didn’t know you’d wanted when you were together before. Now you love this almost…clingy version of Nanami. It made your heart flutter.

Nanami hums, gulping down the last bit of his coffee, his thumb lazily running back and forth across your knuckles.

“I booked a massage for you this morning before we head out.”

“A massage? Just for me?”

He nods, squeezing your hand. “You deserve some time to yourself, too. A nice, relaxing hour just for you seemed like a good idea.”

He wasn’t wrong. You’d been sitting on a plane for several hours just a couple days ago. You’d also been spending a lot of time walking around. Not to mention adjusting to the time change was exhausting and only added to your body feeling a little stiff lately.

“Okay!” You agree happily. “What will you do while I’m gone? I’m sure you’ll be bored out of your mind, missing me and crying with snot and boogers running down your nose, huh?”

“Mm,” Nanami smirks. “You caught me. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to hold back my tears.” He wipes his eyes, sniffling quietly and you laugh because he’s just so cute. Your serious man bantering with you. Ugh, you love him way too much.

“What time is the massage, babe?”

“You’ve got a couple hours. We can just relax in the room until then if you’d like.”

You nod. “Sounds perfect. You can give me a massage before my massage.”

Nanami’s thumb caresses your knuckles. “On the table again? Or maybe the couch this time.” He suggests, his voice dripping with seduction. You feel your cheeks warm.

“Kento!”

----------

You feel beyond refreshed after your massage. There’s an extra bounce in your step as you make your way back to your room. You’re not sure if it’s from the massage from the hotel masseuse or the massage Nanami gave you before you left for your appointment. Maybe both. You’re excited to see Nanami, tell him about how he needed to sign up for a massage next. It was life changing.

But when you enter the room, Nanami is nowhere in sight. It’s quiet. You think for a moment that he’s left, but he would have told you so. He was so much better about communicating than ever. So you wander the room, starting first in the living room area of the suite. You glance through to the balcony. He’s not there. You wander into the bedroom and find it empty as well. He’s not on the bedroom balcony either.

You’re about to text him to ask where he’s wandered off to when you hear his hushed voice in the bathroom connected to the bedroom. You think maybe he’s talking to himself, or maybe taking a work call, but it’s what you do catch that makes you creep a little closer to the door.

“I already told you I will. She’s having a good time. I don’t want to potentially ruin this trip for her.”

You can’t make out what the person on the other end of the line is saying, but it makes Nanami chuckle quietly. Your stomach tightens.

“We’re heading to Kuantan for the day tomorrow. I’ll let you know if I’ll be returning as a single man and if I am, I’ll be blaming you…Okay…Yes…I know...You’ll hear from me once it’s done…Bye.”

Your stomach is in knots, and you feel yourself begin trembling when you hear Nanami shifting around in the bathroom. His footsteps are getting closer and you know you need to pull it the fuck together. You don’t want to jump to conclusions about who was on the phone. Another woman? Nanami never seemed like the type to cheat. But then again, he never seemed like the type to be a neglectful husband, but he was at one point. Had he also gotten into the habit of being unfaithful?

You hoped not.

The doorknob turns and Nanami stands before you. His face lights up when he sees you.

“Hi, my love. How was your massage?” He asks, leaning down to press a soft kiss to your cheek.

“Good,” is all you can muster. “Who was that on the phone?”

You don’t miss the way Nanami stiffens briefly. “Oh, just a work call.”

And you know him. You know Nanami Kento better than he knows himself, you think. Because you can tell he just lied to your face. You don’t know who he was actually talking to or why he felt the need to lie about it. You want to give him the benefit of the doubt because deep down, you do trust him. He’s never given you a reason to doubt his faithfulness to you. If he was withholding the truth, there had to be a good reason for it. So you let it go…for now.

“You okay?” Nanami asks when you don’t respond.

You smile, nodding. “Yes, I’m okay. The massage was great.”

You fill Nanami in on how your appointment was, even recommending he get a massage as well.

“Maybe tomorrow morning before we head out to Kuantan for the day. Get changed. I want to take you to the Batu Caves. It’s absolutely breathtaking.”

You tuck away this strange feeling blooming in your chest and nod, smiling up at the man you hope with all your heart you can trust. “Okay, Ken. Let’s go.”

On Day 3:

You and Nanami have been driving for the last three hours and to say you’re exhausted is an understatement. You’ve been letting Nanami’s little white lie eat away at you and it’s been putting a damper on the trip. You’re trying your best not to let on that something is bothering you, but as you approach your destination, you’re not sure if you can keep your feelings to yourself.

You’d tried not to think too much about it, not to assume the worst of the man you love, but a part of you can’t help but wonder if maybe this trip with Nanami truly would be your last.

“Love, can you check the navigation for me please?” Nanami asks next to you. “I want to make sure we’re still on the right path.”

“Sure.”

You grab his phone from its position clipped to the dashboard and look at the map. It’s then that a text notification rolls down Nanami’s screen.

Unknown: tell her today

Unknown: if you don’t tell her before you come back i will!

Now, usually you wouldn’t pry. That’s a boundary you crossed when you suspected Nanami of cheating on you before you asked for a divorce. The suspicions didn’t seem valid at the time and yet you still looked through Nanami’s things to find something that confirmed he was being unfaithful.

Now, it seemed the evidence was right before you. You tap the notification, eyes widening when you see a text thread leading back to the day you left Tokyo to fly to Kuala Lumpur. It’s a bunch of “have you told her”’s and “i can’t wait for you to tell her” and even a “make sure to film her reaction. she’s gonna lose it and i’m gonna laugh so hard”. 

You feel sick. You feel like you want to cry. You feel like you want to scream.

He’s cheating on you. Nanami is cheating on you.

You check out, completely focusing on staring ahead of you as Nanami continues to drive.

Shortly after seeing those texts, Nanami pulls up and parks at Sungai Pandan Waterfall. He opens your door for you and stretches a hand out for you to take. You’re staring up into his pretty brown eyes, wondering how he could do this to you and still bring you here. It seems Malaysia is destined to be nothing but a reminder of pain for you.

You take Nanami’s hands regardless, your ears immediately flooded with the sounds of rushing water. The falls are enormous, multi-tiered and picturesque. It’s not especially crowded, a few families scattered around the falls, either climbing up the rocks or jumping into the large pool at the bottom. Maybe if things were going differently, you’d be able to appreciate the beauty.

Nanami leads you up a path that would take you up the sides of the waterfall, but your mind is racing a million miles a minute, still thinking back to the way Nanami hid his phone from you on the plane ride here. Nanami telling you it was no one important when he got that early morning text on your first day. Nanami’s hushed conversation in the bathroom and now that long chain of text messages.

It’s all eating away at you and you can no longer stand by and pretend to have a good day when Nanami is betraying you right to your face. You yank your hand back, the tears already threatening to spill.

Nanami looks down at you, clearly confused. “Are you okay, love?”

“Kento.” Your voice is shaky, but serious. You want to let him know you mean business right now and when you ask for an answer, he better damn well give it to you.

“What’s wrong?”

“We’ve known each other a long time, Ken. I would think you’d be honest about your feelings with me.”

Nanami is still looking at you, utterly confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play stupid. I know what you’ve been up to. The secret texts, the secret phone calls and the lies.” The tears are spilling now and you’re trying to keep your composure, trying not to make a scene when Nanami reaches for your hand and you pull back again. Nanami’s eyes widen as he begins to put two and two together. 

“I can explain,” he begins hurriedly.

“Explain what? That you came on this trip just to tell me your deep dark secret? That’s what your little friend said.” 

“My little friend?”

“The one you’ve been secretly texting throughout the whole trip! The one you were probably on the phone with while you were hiding in the bathroom yesterday!”

He opens his mouth, but you cut him off with a warning. “I saw all of the texts on the way here, too. So don’t you dare tell me that was a work call or I swear, Kento–”

“Okay. Okay. It’s really not what you think,” he sighs as he fishes his phone from his pocket.

“You could’ve at least saved your mistress' number,” you mutter, unsure if Nanami heard you over the sound of the waterfalls.

Nanami holds his phone up, showing you the text thread you saw in the car earlier. “Are these what you saw?”

When you nod, he hands you his phone, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. You give him a questioning look.

“Go ahead and call it.”

You want to scream at him that you’re really not interested in talking to whoever he’s cheating on you with, but the pleading look in his eyes pushes you to dial the number. You turn to face away from Nanami as it rings. It feels as though the dial tone rings for an eternity before you hear shuffling and then:

“NANAMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN! Did you do it? Did you tell her?”

Your eyes widen in shock…and embarrassment. “...Satoru?”

On the other end of the line, Satoru is quiet. After a moment, he says “Heeeeyyyy, babe.”

“Satoru, you’ve been texting Kento this whole time?”

“Yep!”

You’re relieved to know you were in fact crazy for thinking Nanami would ever choose to hurt you by cheating. You should have known better, should have trusted that he wouldn’t do that to you. You feel ashamed. But, you also have questions.

“Why doesn’t Kento have your number saved?” You ask, suddenly curious.

Satoru gasps loudly on the other end. “He doesn’t?! Ugh, that asshole. After all the help I gave him.”

“Help? With what?”

“He didn’t tell you?”

You’re beginning to get annoyed.

“Tell me what?”

Nanami calls your name from behind you.

“Hang up,” He says. You’re so frustrated. You want answers and Satoru seems to be the one willing to give them right now. Regardless, you turn around…only to find Nanami down on one knee gazing up at you.

Your mouth drops open and you tighten your grip on Nanami’s phone so don’t drop it from the sheer shock you’re experiencing.

“Babe, are you the–” you hit the ‘end call’ button on Satoru, still staring down at Nanami before you.

“Ken…what–”

“I would never cheat on you,” Nanami swears. “You know that. I’ve told you this before. And I’m sorry for all of the secrets, for lying to you. But trust me. I have good intentions here.” He reaches forward to take both your hands in his. “I have been so scared to tell you this because I was afraid you’d run. Or that it would completely change everything for us in the worst way. It’s been Satoru pushing me, encouraging me. If it weren’t for him, I would never take this next step and tell you that…”

Nanami is so red, so flustered. You’d only ever seen him like this when you first reconnected. It takes you back to the elevator after your big argument in the restaurant. He’s being open and vulnerable with you. You give him your full attention.

“Tell me what?” You push softly. Because even Nanami – strong as he is – needs a nudge.

He takes a deep breath, letting go of one of your hands to reach into his pocket where he pulls out a small blue velvet box. You watch with wide eyes as he flips the box open, revealing a beautiful ring. It’s different from the last one Nanami gave you, this one with your birthstone sitting in the center. It’s gorgeous.

“Tell you that I have been the luckiest man on this planet to have been given a second chance with you. I am the luckiest man to be able to wake up next to you everyday, to hold you every night. To kiss you whenever I feel like it. There was a point in time when I didn’t appreciate that or you and I came to regret that. But now that you’ve given me a second chance to show you how much I love you, how much you mean to me, I know I’ll never make that mistake again.

You fill my heart beyond measure. Not a moment goes by when my mind is not preoccupied with the thought of you. I take you to the train every morning and meet you at work every afternoon because any minute longer than the 8 hours a day I’m forced to be away from you is too painful to bear. I want to show you the same love you’ve always given me from now until forever, if you’ll let me.”

The tears trail down your cheeks, lip quivering as Nanami pours his soul out to you.

“I love you. I’m in love with you. I want to be with you always. So,” he releases your other hand to pull the ring out of the box, whispering your name as he asks, “Will you marry me…” he chuckles softly as he adds, “again?”

Your mind is reeling. You went from suspecting Nanami of cheating on you five minutes ago to Nanami now proposing to you for what would be the second time in your lives. You peer down at this man you’ve known most of your life, who you’ve experienced so much with – love, pain, loss – and you ask yourself if you could do it all again with him.

There will be fights and disagreements, tears shed and slammed doors. But there will also be laughs and kisses and shared moments making memories together. You’ve seen the changes Nanami has made, you’ve experienced them firsthand. You know this time around could be different if you let it be.

You soak in your surroundings – the rushing waters of the falls, the tropical smell in the air, the sounds of families screaming and laughing. This is what you and Nanami had worked toward. 

The simple idea of Malaysia once tore your relationship to pieces, ruined your marriage and had you moving forward without Nanami Kento in your life. You couldn’t stand to look at Nanami without thinking of Malaysia and the pain it caused you. You once hated this place with every fiber of your being.

Now standing here, in the place that once brought so much turmoil into your life, you stare down at the love of your life and you see hope. You see a real future of true happiness. So you kneel down with Nanami, face to face, eyes locked onto each other and whisper a quiet:

“Yes.”

----------

You and Nanami spend the remaining days in newly engaged couple bliss. You hardly leave your hotel room when you get back to Kuala Lumpur, spending most of the trip tangled in the sheets together. 

As you sit on the plane, awaiting your flight back to Tokyo, you hold your hand out in front of you, admiring your engagement ring. Nanami has a hand resting on the back of your neck where he rubs small circles. He laughs quietly when he sees you wiggle your fingers, the gems sparkling on your hand.

“This ring is so beautiful,” you breathe.

“I’m glad you like it. Satoru had a friend who helped design it.”

“Speaking of Satoru, why don’t you have his number saved in your phone. Would’ve saved me the headache.”

Nanami shrugs. “I did have it saved at first. But he annoyed me once and I deleted it and I don’t care to save it again. Because it’ll only be a matter of time before I delete his information again.”

You nod in understanding, your mind suddenly thinking about how quickly you jumped to conclusions when you thought Nanami was cheating and an idea hits you.

“Maybe we should do couple’s therapy before getting married again,” you suggest.

Nanami hums beside you. “I’m willing. I have no intention of letting this marriage fail for a second time.”

The ding of the airplane cabin goes off, signifying you’ll be taking off soon.

Nanami takes your hand in his, squeezing gently before he leans and runs his nose along the bridge of yours. Then he kisses you sweetly.

“I love you, baby,” he whispers. Even as the plane signals ring and the captain speaks loudly over the speaker, you hear him loud and clear.

“I love you.”

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[feralkwe]

Ask and ye shall recieve- anyway, I'm thinking these might be fun prompts for you! Especially the "How am I supposed to sleep next to ypu knowing what you did?" Ish one

https://www.tumblr.com/forbodium/751308726972104704/the-person-watching-their-partner-become-a-villain?source=share

(On phone, so I'm approximating that prompt)

“how do you expect me to sleep next to you at night knowing what you did?”

oh you. oh you.

i had to do some bending to make this work. i'm not precisely sure that time exists for this to play out as it does here. also, i had to put kit in a pretty bad place at this point of shb. not a far leap, but definitely a darker, most self-loathing one. i'm also not sure this question she asks would ever be a consideration, but that's the beauty of an au, you can do almost anything if you try hard enough.

under a cut because... i suppose some of it is dodgy, considering their respective mental states and the fact that this is ardbert's stolen body. nothing is nsfw, but it's implied.

if you want more context, i did write an au fic i reference.

~*~

Kit stared across the room, bedding pulled around her. The chill of the floor beneath her feet was the only thing grounding her to the reality of the moment. To the gravity of what she’d done. No, not done, past tense. Of what she was doing. Present tense. Again.

The first time had been… a fluke. An indiscretion. Perhaps even a moment of weakness rooted in morbid curiosity. A poor decision born of loneliness and isolation. Elidibus’ confession at the lookout over Lakeland had sounded confused, irrational, and impossible. The words of a man who was no longer engaging with reality, mistaking her for another. But then he’d used her name—not a title bestowed upon her, but her actual name—and he was no longer the only one confused. What he claimed was impossible, and yet she needed to believe it so desperately that she indulged it.

She had no excuses after that first time. Or the second. Or the third. It was past time to admit that she was actively participating in something that she should not have been with someone she should not have. Someone who one moment was buried deep inside her, proclaiming how much he missed her, loved her, and the next reassuring her that he fully intended to end her very existence all the same. Angry at himself for weakness in the face of all which was at stake, and angry at her for… causing it. Apparently.

After she realized she could accidentally summon him to her, she quickly learned how to do it on purpose. And she did. She called him to her to see what would happen. To see how far his obsession went. And, were she honest, to see where her own ended.

He paced behind her. He always paced after, sinking into his rage and determination once more as their pulses settled and he focused on redressing. Though, anger wasn’t exactly what she would call it. It had morphed over the short time they repeated this mistake into what felt more akin to self-loathing. A feeling she knew too well, as it turned out. What froze her in place and trapped her in her thoughts compelled him to rail about her Pendants room for the duration of the brief time he ever remained.

“This changes nothing,” he repeated. Another familiar refrain, the reminder that for all his proclamations of love, she was still his enemy. The one with who fault for all his woes lie. The one whose death was the only path to his victory. His duty. The obstacle to, as he put it, saving the world. Both heroes from their perspectives, their purposes at an impasse, even this bizarre, mutual allure of what was forbidden could not resolve it. In fact, Kit was fairly certain it only worsened everything.

“I know.” She couldn’t look at him. She didn’t need to. He would still be naked, moving about the room in a stolen body and avoiding looking at her.

“Yet you continue to call me forth.”

She glanced over her shoulder. “You continue to answer.”

Silence, apart from the forced breath through his nose.

She closed her eyes again, waiting. Why he just did not carry out his plan when she was like this—unarmed, confused, and vulnerable—she could not say. Certainly it would be faster than whatever mutual misery they inflicted upon one another. Did he not want his vengeance? For what reason did he prolong the inevitable? In a few minutes he would roughly gather her to him again, crushing her against Ardbert’s chest and inhaling into her hair. Then he would grind out between his teeth a lament for what he could not remember. And she would welcome it.

Kit swallowed. “Next time—”

“There will be no next time,” he said. Cold. Defiant.

“Next time, maybe you could not… use that body.”

He spun about, a cruel smile touching the mouth. “I would be a fool to surrender my greatest weapon.”

“He was my friend,” she murmured. Another thing that did not exist in the past tense, yet something she could not be bothered to explain. “And you violated him. His memory. His legacy.”

He sniffed. “How the Warrior of Darkness spouts hypocrisy.”

She looked up at him, a useless feeling of longing continuing to spur her forward into foolishness. “How do you expect me to sleep next to you at night knowing what you did?” As close as she could come to an invitation. One she could not decide if she wanted him to accept or not.

“That,” he said, cold blue eyes boring into her even as grief hung over him, “will never be something about which you need worry.”

“Elidibus.” She stood, feeling small before him despite her height over him. “We could… stop this. All of it and—”

“No!” he shot. “No. This cannot be stopped. Do you not—” He clenched a hand into a fist. “Of course you do not. You could not understand. How could you ever understand?” He frowned, a conflict waging across his face. His mouth moved as if he would say more, then the more familiar vacancy took over his eyes, and it was lost. The air shifted, a rift opened, and he strode forward toward it. “Do not summon me again. I will not answer.”

“I won’t,” she growled.

They both knew it for a lie.