#bet you were expecting a fantasy AU

[mononijikayu]

bed chem — nanami kento.

“Are you free next week?” Your breath hitched, caught off guard by how effortlessly he turned the tables on you. It was exactly what you had been thinking, the question that had echoed in your head. He had beaten you to it, but his tone told you this was no ordinary invitation. There was more behind that simple question—an invitation to something deeper, something physical. You raised an eyebrow, smiling to yourself, already knowing your answer. “I think I could be.”

GENRE: alternate universe - modern au;

WARNING/S: romance, love at first sight, nsfw, rated 18 and above, explicit content, kissing, making out, fingering, p to v sex, orgasm, humor, characters speaking in sexual innuendo, mention of sexual euphemisms, depiction of explicit sexual content, nanami kento is that MAN, reader really wants to have bed chem with nanami <3;

WORD COUNT: 4.8k words.

NOTE: i keep thinking about how much i wrote and how it could be a treat for the entire october in terms of kinktober but i think i realize i'll be too busy starting the 11th, so i won't be showing up to anything, so i'll just be doing all this stuff i can now and posting some in between so i can at least have something for yall, you know? also im realizing my actor sukuna series and this is a minor part of it. its such a good story!!! if you wanna read it the latest chapter is here chapter four; anyway, i hope you can feel my love through out. i'll be seeing you soon enough, though. wish me luck on my upcoming exams <3

masterlist

if you want to, tip! <3

kayu's playlist — side 1500;

YOU’RE NEVER GOING TO FORGET THIS NIGHT. And you were happy about that thought. You remember the day you met him vividly, as if it happened just yesterday. You were dressed in a sheer, ethereal gown, moving gracefully through the grand corridors of a buzzing fashion venue.

Models, designers, and staff rushed around in a whirlwind of fabric and creativity, preparing for the show. You were part of that beautiful chaos, your mind focused on the evening ahead. But then you saw him.

Nanami Kento, the famous actor.

He stood out, calm amidst the frenzy, wearing a sharp white jacket that contrasted with the hectic energy around you. His sandy-blonde hair fell neatly into place, and his tall, sturdy frame exuded a sense of quiet confidence.

You exchanged brief pleasantries—just a moment's conversation—but the connection felt palpable. His presence lingered in your thoughts long after. You can’t help it. He was just that enigmatic. He was just that awe-strikingly beautiful.

Later that evening, a friend of his reached out, suggesting the two of you connect. You think that maybe they think you guys are going to be good for each other. Or maybe you could just be friends.

Who knows? You hadn’t expected it, but before you knew it, there was a message on your phone from Nanami Kento himself. And just like that, you found yourself scrolling through his texts, your pulse quickening with every new notification.

Who's the cute guy with the white jacket and the thick accent? The thought danced in your mind, replaying your brief interaction. You wondered if you were imagining it, but something told you this connection was real.

He wasn’t just like any other guy you’ve dated. A lot about him was already an improvement, but you were sure, one hundred percent — he would be everything. Everything that you could ever want in a man. 

Maybe it was all in your head, just a fleeting crush, but you couldn't shake the feeling. You have never felt like this before.  You began to picture more than just idle conversation. You bet the two of you would have incredible chemistry—on all levels.

Your thoughts spiraled into fantasies, growing more vivid with every passing moment. You imagined him picking you up with ease, spinning you around like you were weightless, his strong hands firm but gentle. It just made sense, didn’t it? The way he looked at you, the way his words were always so calm and collected, but with an underlying intensity that pulled you in.

There was chemistry—bed chem, as you started to call it in your mind.

You saw it all clearly: the way he’d pull you close, lower you down, his voice teasing but sweet. And his hands—how they might trail over your skin with a deliberate touch, a mix of sweet and sinful. You were obsessed with the idea. He didn’t even need to say anything when you saw him, the look in his eyes was enough to spark that connection.

You imagined asking him, casually, Are you free next week? You were certain that if you met again, everything would fall into place. You’d fit together seamlessly, like two puzzle pieces made for each other. Your fantasies painted the perfect picture: soft sheets, the thermostat set just right—maybe at 69—and the two of you in sync, moving as if you’d done this a thousand times before.

You saw him later that night at the after-party, his blue eyes scanning the room until they landed on you. Your heart skipped a beat. Nanami wasn’t just an actor anymore, not just a face from the big screen or a billboard. He was real, standing right there, closing the distance between you.

As he approached, you couldn’t help but think, I bet we’d have really good bed chem.

The thought made you smile to yourself, a secret desire that hung in the air, just waiting to be fulfilled.

He moved closer, his stride confident but unhurried. The noise of the party seemed to fade into the background, the music and chatter dissolving as your attention zeroed in on him. You could feel the air between you thicken, an unspoken pull drawing you together. Nanami’s eyes never left yours, his intense gaze making it clear he hadn’t forgotten your brief encounter earlier in the day.

He stopped just a few steps away, close enough that you could see the faintest hints of amusement tugging at the corners of his lips. You exchanged a polite smile, but beneath the surface, the tension was palpable. It was as if every look, every subtle movement, was laden with meaning. Your heart raced, but you kept your composure.

“I didn’t expect to see you here.” he said, his voice smooth, with that same deep cadence you had replayed in your mind over and over again.

You offered a light laugh, something casual, but even the smallest exchange felt charged. “Fashion world is small, I guess.”

The conversation was polite, yet every word held weight. You both knew there was something more bubbling beneath the surface. And that’s when it happened—he leaned in, just a fraction, and his voice lowered, the faintest hint of something playful lacing his words.

“Are you free next week?”

Your breath hitched, caught off guard by how effortlessly he turned the tables on you. It was exactly what you had been thinking, the question that had echoed in your head. He had beaten you to it, but his tone told you this was no ordinary invitation. There was more behind that simple question—an invitation to something deeper, something physical.

You raised an eyebrow, smiling to yourself, already knowing your answer. “I think I could be.”

Nanami Kento chuckled softly, his eyes gleaming. It was a small moment, but it felt like a confirmation—like a prophecy about to be fulfilled. You both lingered in the silence for a beat longer than necessary, the electric tension between you undeniable.

As the night went on, the party flowed around you, but your attention never strayed far from him. Each glance, each word exchanged, only built on the anticipation. By the time you said your goodbyes, you were already planning out the next week in your head.

When you finally parted ways, your phone buzzed almost immediately. A message from him.

Next week, then.

You smiled, already thinking about how things would unfold. In your mind, you could see it—how he’d pick you up like it was nothing, his strength and control so effortless. You pictured the way he’d pull you close, then spin you around, always so deliberate but never rushed. The chemistry was undeniable, it was practically written in the stars. Bed chem, the kind that left no room for hesitation.

And when that moment finally came, you knew everything would fall into place, just like you imagined. The perfect rhythm, the thermostat set just right, every movement in sync.

It was only a matter of time.

The days that followed felt like a slow burn, each one stretching out as you found yourself replaying that moment over and over. The anticipation built, winding tighter with every passing thought of him. Every time your phone buzzed, your pulse quickened, hoping it was another message from Nanami, and more often than not, it was.

His texts were short, simple—never too much, but just enough to keep the flame alive. He didn’t need to say much for you to read between the lines. Each message held a certain calm confidence, like he knew exactly what he was doing, just like when you saw him at the party.

Each message was a spark, feeding the fire of your fantasies. Your mind wandered constantly, imagining every possible way the encounter could unfold. You knew it wouldn’t be rushed—it was never rushed with someone like Nanami. Everything about him was measured, thoughtful, intentional.

How’s your week?

Thinking about that conversation.

Looking forward to next week.

By the time the day finally arrived, you could feel your nerves dancing in your chest, excitement pulsing beneath your skin. You chose your outfit carefully, something that balanced elegance with subtle suggestion. You wanted to look as effortlessly composed as you imagined he would be.

When you arrived at the restaurant where he had suggested you meet, the atmosphere was warm, dimly lit, and intimate. Nanami was already there, sitting at a table near the window. He looked up as soon as you walked in, his eyes locking onto yours immediately, that same intensity you remembered from the party.

As you approached, he stood to greet you, his hand resting lightly on your back as he leaned in for a polite kiss on the cheek. His touch was brief but electric, and you felt the heat rise in your chest.

“You look stunning, darling.” he said, his voice deep and smooth, just as you remembered.

You smiled, brushing off the compliment with a modest shrug, but the way his eyes lingered told you he wasn’t just being polite. The dinner itself was a dance, every word exchanged adding to the tension that simmered between you. You talked about the show, your careers, little moments from your lives—but beneath it all, there was the unspoken promise of what was to come.

It wasn’t long before the two of you found yourselves alone, walking down the quiet city streets. The cool night air did little to cool the heat that was growing between you. His hand brushed yours as you walked, a casual but deliberate touch that sent a shiver down your spine.

Then, as if on cue, he stopped, turning to face you. His eyes held yours for a long moment, the city lights casting shadows over his sharp features.

“Should we continue this somewhere more private?” His voice was calm, but there was a subtle edge to it, the tension in his question making your breath catch.

You nodded, your heart racing as he reached for your hand, his grip firm but gentle as he led you toward his place. The walk was quiet, the air thick with anticipation. When you finally arrived, it felt like the world had slowed down, the moment you had been waiting for was finally here.

YOU WERE ASTOUNDED HOW SUAVE HIS EXISTENCE IS. The sight of his apartment took you by surprise, sleek and minimal yet warm, much like him. Everything was perfectly arranged, clean lines and subtle comfort that mirrored his understated charm. You couldn’t help but admire him, drawn in by everything he was. The more you were around him, the more you wanted—his presence, his touch, his everything.

He glanced at you, his gaze never wavering as he slipped off his jacket, hanging it neatly over the back of a chair. In an instant, he was standing before you, hands on your waist, drawing you close with a quiet, commanding energy. The world outside faded into the background, leaving only the two of you in the dimly lit room.

His lips hovered near your ear, his breath warm as he whispered, "I’ve been thinking about this all week." 

The sound of his voice sent a shiver down your spine, and before you could respond, his lips found yours. The kiss was slow at first, deliberate, as if savoring the moment. You could feel the excitement become even more palpable in you.

Each movement of his mouth felt carefully measured, like he had been imagining this for far longer than you realized. His hands moved with an easy confidence, sliding across your body, each touch making you feel as though he had memorized every inch of you.

When he lifted you, it felt seamless, effortless, as though you weighed nothing at all in his arms. He carried you to the bedroom, his strong grip both protective and possessive.

There was an undeniable chemistry between you—every brush of his skin against yours, every touch electric and charged with desire. His movements were slow, savoring the build-up, as if he had waited too long for this moment to rush through it.

Your breaths came out shallow and uneven as his lips moved from yours, down the length of your neck, leaving a burning trail in their wake. Each press of his mouth against your skin felt deliberate, purposeful, sending sparks of heat coursing through you. 

His scent filled the space between you, rich and heady, mixing with the warmth of his body as he pressed closer. Every inch of you was aware of him—the solid strength of his frame, the way his breath hitched slightly as his hands roamed over you.

Kento’s fingers grazed the curve of your waist before tightening on your hips, pulling you against him with a quiet but undeniable hunger. The sensation of his body molded so tightly to yours made your heart race, your skin tingling with anticipation. 

You bit your lip, trying to steady your breath, but it was impossible under the weight of his touch, his presence. His knee nudged between your thighs, parting them with a gentle yet insistent pressure, the friction sending a fresh wave of desire flooding through you.

"You feel so good, sweetie." he whispered, his voice low and rough, filled with want.

A soft moan slipped from your lips as his hands roamed lower, teasing the edge of your clothes before slipping beneath the fabric. His fingers dug in, just enough to make you gasp, his touch hot against your skin. The sensation of him—his rough palms gliding over your bare skin, the tension coiling between you—was intoxicating, leaving you breathless.

You felt his lips curl into a smirk against your neck, clearly pleased with the effect he was having on you. "I love hearing you like that, sweetie." he murmured, his breath warm and teasing as his mouth hovered near your ear. "Don’t hold back."

His words sent a shiver down your spine, your body arching toward him as his fingers dipped lower, exploring you with an eagerness that made you ache. You gasped, unable to stop the sound that escaped your throat as his fingers slipped inside you, moving with a skill that left you trembling.

"Oh—Kento. Oh, baby….." you whimpered, the intensity of the moment overwhelming you. Your fingers tangled in his hair, tugging slightly as your body pressed closer to his, desperate for more of his touch. He groaned softly in response, the sound vibrating through you.

His fingers moved inside you with purpose, every stroke calculated, every flick of his wrist sending waves of pleasure coursing through you. His thumb found the sensitive bundle of nerves that made you cry out, your hips bucking instinctively against him.

"God, you’re so responsive. I like that." he growled, his voice rough with desire. His free hand gripped your waist, holding you steady as his fingers moved faster, building a rhythm that had you teetering on the edge of control.

"I want you to come for me, sweetheart." he breathed against your ear, his voice low and commanding.

You couldn’t help it. The way he touched you, the way he knew exactly what you needed—it was too much. Your body responded without hesitation, muscles tightening as pleasure coiled deep inside you, ready to snap. His name fell from your lips like a prayer, broken and breathless, as you reached that sweet crescendo, your body trembling in his arms.

Kento didn’t want to stop, didn’t slow, as you rode the wave of pleasure. His fingers stayed inside you, coaxing every last bit of sensation from you, until you were left breathless, trembling, and utterly undone in his arms.

Kento’s fingers slowly withdrew, leaving you sensitive and aching, but he wasn’t done. His sharp gaze darkened as he looked down at you, his breath hot against your skin. He shifted, positioning himself between your thighs, and you felt a fresh rush of heat flood through you as his hands gently spread your legs wider, exposing your most sensitive, intimate places to him.

"You look incredible, slick like this." he murmured, his voice husky with desire. His eyes roamed over your body, lingering on every curve and soft line before settling on the glistening heat between your legs. The way he looked at you, so intent, so focused, made your heart race even faster.

Without a word, he lowered his head, his lips brushing the inside of your thigh with soft, teasing kisses. You shuddered beneath him, anticipation buzzing through your veins as his mouth inched closer to where you needed him most.

When his tongue finally flicked against your sensitive folds, you gasped, your back arching off the bed as pleasure shot through you. His touch was gentle at first, soft and exploratory, as if he was savoring the moment. You could feel the warmth of his breath against your skin, sending shivers down your spine as he took his time, each lick and kiss slow and deliberate.

"Kento—" you moaned, your voice breathless and needy. His hands slid up your thighs, his fingers digging into your skin as he held you steady, his mouth working against you with a precision that drove you wild.

"Mm, s’ good." he hummed against you, the vibration of his voice sending a fresh wave of sensation through your core. His tongue swirled over your clit, slow and deliberate, before he sucked gently, and the world around you seemed to blur as pleasure bloomed deep in your belly.

"You taste so sweet. So so sweet." he growled at you, his voice low and full of hunger. He didn’t give you a moment to recover, his mouth returning to its work, tongue stroking over you in long, languid movements that left you trembling beneath him.

Your hands gripped the sheets, your body writhing against his mouth as he worked you closer to the edge. Every flick of his tongue, every soft press of his lips had you teetering on the brink, the tension coiling tighter and tighter inside you.

"Please, please." you whimpered, your hips bucking against his face. "Don’t stop, Kento—"

He growled softly in response, his hands tightening on your thighs to hold you still as he intensified his pace. His tongue moved faster, more insistently, flicking and stroking your clit with a pressure that made you cry out. You could feel yourself unraveling, your body trembling uncontrollably as he pushed you closer and closer to release.

The heat inside you built with every stroke of his tongue, every soft moan he let out against you, until you couldn’t hold back any longer. Your body tensed, your muscles tightening as the pleasure overwhelmed you, and with a final, desperate cry, you came undone, your release crashing over you in waves.

Kento could only find himself addicted in your taste, his mouth continuing to work against you, drawing out every last bit of your orgasm until you were trembling, breathless, and utterly spent beneath him. Finally, he pulled back, his lips glistening with your arousal, and he looked up at you with a satisfied, almost possessive smile.

"You’re incredible, sweetie." he whispered, his voice rough and low as he moved back up your body, his lips finding yours again in a slow, heated kiss. You could taste yourself on him, and it only made you want him more.

"Kento..." you breathed, your voice barely audible but full of want. The way you said his name made him pause, his eyes darkening with desire as they met yours.

He leaned in again, his lips hovering near your ear, his voice deep and rough. “Gonna keep making you feel good, sweetie.” 

His thumb brushed against your lower lip before claiming your mouth again in a kiss that was no longer soft or patient but filled with raw, undeniable hunger. His need for you was palpable now, every kiss, every touch pushing you both closer to the edge.

The night unraveled slowly, deliberately, as if time itself bowed to the intensity of the moment. His movements, once restrained and careful, had given way to a raw passion that filled the air with a palpable heat. The soft glow of moonlight slipping through the curtains cast fleeting shadows on his face, highlighting the quiet hunger in his eyes as he gazed down at you.

His lips, warm and persistent, traced a slow, deliberate path over the curve of your neck, sending shivers cascading down your spine. Your breath hitched as his mouth moved lower, each kiss searing your skin with a promise of what was to come. 

His fingers followed, brushing against your skin with the lightest of touches, drawing a soft gasp from you. Every time he whispered your name, his voice low and filled with desire, it felt like the room itself pulsed in response, his words sinking into your very core.

“God, you’re so beautiful, sweetie.” he murmured, his breath hot against your collarbone, his eyes dark with an intensity that made your heart race.

Your body arched beneath him, a mixture of pleasure and anticipation building with every gentle caress. He paused for a moment, hovering above you, his gaze locked with yours, the weight of his control making your pulse quicken. It was as if he could sense every thought, every want, every need—knowing exactly how to unravel you. And you, caught in the tide of his desire, could do nothing but surrender.

“Please...” you breathed, the word slipping from your lips before you could even stop yourself. A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes remained focused, intent.

His hands moved lower, his touch no longer teasing but commanding, each movement calculated to drive you closer to the edge. Your fingers tangled in the sheets, the anticipation almost unbearable as his lips brushed against your ear, sending another wave of heat through your body.

“I’ve got you, sweetie.” he whispered, his voice a dark promise that sent a jolt of desire straight through you. And then, finally, after what felt like an eternity of delicious torment, he positioned himself above you, his body pressing against yours in a way that made you ache with need. “Doin’ so good for me already, aren’t you?”

When he entered you, it felt like the culmination of everything—the tension, the desire, the quiet longing that had simmered beneath the surface for so long. A soft moan escaped your lips as he filled you completely, his movements slow and deliberate, each thrust deep and steady, leaving you breathless.

Your hands found his back, your nails digging in as you clung to him, the intensity of it all building between you like a storm ready to break. His breath was ragged now, mingling with yours in the heated air, every thrust a silent declaration of the connection that bound you together.

“Don’t stop, Kento…. Don’t…Oh—” you whispered, your voice breaking as he moved faster, his control unraveling just enough for you to feel the full force of his desire. His lips found yours again, his kiss rough and hungry, matching the rhythm of his body as you moved together, lost in the heat and the need for more.

Each movement, each breath, felt like an unspoken promise, his body telling you everything he couldn’t say aloud. In that moment, there was no space for hesitation, no room for anything but the overwhelming intensity of him, of you, of the way you fit together so perfectly.

When you finally came, it was everything you hadn’t known you needed. Kento’s name fell from your lips over and over, a soft chant as waves of pleasure washed over you, your body tightening around his. The intensity of it left you breathless, your fingers clutching him as if afraid to let go. Moments later, he followed you, his body tensing as he found his own release, his low groan sending shivers through you all over again.

For a long time, neither of you spoke, the only sound in the room the quiet, shared breaths of two people completely undone by the moment. He pulled you close, his arms wrapped around you protectively, his warmth enveloping you as you lay tangled together, the weight of what had just passed between you still lingering in the air.

Finally, he broke the silence, his voice soft but filled with satisfaction. “Well, I think you got your answer.” 

“Oh? About what?”

“We have bed chem.” He grins at you, kissing your shoulder. 

You blinked and then laughed.

You could feel your heart still racing, and looked up at him, knowing that this moment was just the beginning.

epilogue 

The sunlight filtered through the bedroom window, casting a warm glow over the rumpled sheets that barely covered your body. You stretched lazily, feeling the soft, comforting weight of the blankets and the familiar presence of Nanami beside you.

His arm was draped over your waist, his chest rising and falling steadily as he slept. The peaceful moment was too perfect to pass up, so you quietly reached for your phone, snapping a quick picture of the two of you in the soft morning light.

The sheets barely covered your bodies, your bare skin visible beneath the white fabric. The scene was intimate, cozy, and full of the quiet warmth of a morning spent wrapped in each other’s arms. You couldn’t resist adding a cheeky caption before posting it online:

“Come right on me, I mean camaraderie.”

The double entendre made you giggle quietly as you hit "post" knowing it was bound to get some playful reactions. You leaned back into the pillows, snuggling against Kento, who stirred slightly at your movement, his hand tightening around your waist.

“What are you up to?” he mumbled sleepily, his voice rough from sleep. His eyes opened just enough to catch your mischievous grin.

“Nothing… Just posting a little morning memory, darling.” you teased, unable to contain the laughter bubbling up inside you. Kento’s brow furrowed, clearly suspicious but too tired to press further.

It didn’t take long for the comments to start rolling in. Within minutes, his phone buzzed repeatedly on the nightstand. Kento could only feel himself groaning, reaching for it, and as soon as he saw the notifications lighting up the screen, his eyes widened in realization.

“You didn’t…?” His voice trailed off as he stared at the picture you had posted, the cheeky caption front and center.

You couldn’t help but burst into laughter, watching as Nanami’s expression shifted from confusion to mild horror, a faint blush creeping across his cheeks. He scrolled through the comments, and you could see the flood of teasing messages from his castmates already coming in.

@/GojoSatoru: Nanami, my man! Didn’t know you had this side to you! 😂

@/Geto Suguru: Yo, Kento…….You really kinky IRL, huh?

@/HaibaraYu: Is that what we call ‘teamwork’ now? Guess I’ve been doing it all wrong… 😏

@/IeiriShoko: Honestly? Kinda iconic. But also, never gonna let you live this down.

Kento could feel his blush deepened as he kept scrolling, his lips pressed into a thin line, clearly flustered. His hand ran through his hair in frustration, and he glanced at you with an exasperated but fond look.

“I can’t believe you posted that, sweetie.” he muttered, shaking his head as more notifications flooded in. “They’re never going to stop teasing me about this.”

You couldn’t stop giggling, leaning over to kiss his cheek, which was now bright red. “Come on, it’s cute. They’ll forget about it soon enough… maybe.”

Kento groaned again, but there was a soft smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he pulled you closer. “You’re impossible, hm.” he said, though the warmth in his voice made it clear he wasn’t actually upset. He kissed your forehead softly, the tension in his body relaxing as he resigned himself to the teasing. “Too impossible.”

“I don’t mind being impossible if it makes you blush like this.” you teased, running your fingers through his hair, enjoying the rare sight of Kento looking flustered.

“Don’t push your luck, sweetie.” he replied, though the way his arms wrapped around you betrayed the affection behind his words. He sighed, resting his forehead against yours. “I guess I’ll have to get used to being the subject of their jokes for a while.”

You grinned, pressing a kiss to his lips. “I’ll make it up to you, promise.”

Nanami chuckled softly, the sound low and comforting. “You already have, sweetheart.” he murmured, his hand brushing a lock of hair away from your face. His eyes softened as he looked at you, the teasing forgotten as the moment between you became tender again.

“I don’t care what they say, though.” he added quietly. “All that matters is this. Us.”

Your heart fluttered at his words, the teasing moment giving way to a warmth that spread through your chest. You snuggled closer into his embrace, feeling the steady beat of his heart against yours, and smiled.

“Good. So do I.” you whispered, kissing him again, the teasing fading into the background as the two of you enjoyed the quiet intimacy of the morning.

Nanami Kento could feel his phone buzzing again, but this time, neither of you bothered to check it. Let them tease—it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the two of you, wrapped in each other’s arms, finding comfort in the simple joy of being together.

[edenesth]

TWTHH Spinoff: Stitched Hearts [1]

Pairing: dressmaker!Hongjoong x noblewoman!reader

AU: historical au (Joseon era)

Word Count: 6.5k

Summary: Throughout his entire career, Hongjoong has received nothing but praise for his work. Never once had anyone suggested his dresses were anything short of perfection. That is, until he met the youngest daughter of the Baek household—the family's black sheep, an enigmatic spinster whom he found utterly confounding.

A/N: As stated in the title, this is a spinoff. If you have yet to check out the main story, it's probably better to read that before starting this.

Main Story | Spinoff Masterlist | Part 2

"Father, mother, we're back!" called out Haeun, your eldest sister who had been married for years now, returning home with her husband and children to celebrate the birth of your middle brother's first child.

"You're home, our dear daughter!" Your parents enthusiastically rose from their seats to greet her, showering her with praise for leading such a successful life, whatever that meant; it was a concept you still struggled to comprehend to this day.

After exchanging pleasantries with your parents, she made a beeline for your brother, completely disregarding your timid presence in the corner of the room, "Hajoon-ah, congratulations, my brother! It's high time you joined the parent club!"

Your brother-in-law, displaying a touch more consideration than his wife, offered you a warm smile before joining 'the adults' in conversation, leaving you to quietly observe your nieces and nephews playing joyfully in the courtyard. At times, you were envious of the simplicity of children's lives—so carefree, with no expectations weighing them down. Unlike them, you felt constantly burdened by the expectations placed upon you.

This had been the pattern for as long as you could recall—living in the shadows of your successful sister and brother, both excelling in nearly every aspect of life. Haeun, intelligent and outgoing, had swiftly found a suitable match upon reaching marriageable age, becoming the epitome of a perfect daughter in your parents' eyes. Hajoon wasn't far behind, securing a position in the local government and dutifully marrying the girl your parents had chosen for him.

And then there was you.

The black sheep of the Baek household, the peculiar one, always kept to yourself, showing little interest in feminine pursuits such as cooking, gardening, embroidering, or any similar activities. Your days were spent predominantly at home, frequenting your father's extensive library and immersing yourself in the countless storybooks it housed, often seeking solace in the realms of fantasy they offered. Your lack of enthusiasm for conventional interests rendered you an enigma even to your parents.

You maintained scant friendships, lacking any love interests or potential marriage prospects. Unlike other young women, you harboured no desire to adorn yourself or enhance your appearance; you appeared strangely content in your plain white hanboks and minimal hair accessories. Your demeanour led most people to forget the existence of a third daughter in the Baek family altogether. Those who did recall you were hesitant to consider you as a potential match for their sons, and the young men themselves showed no interest.

While your parents had initially held onto hope that you would eventually find your own path to settling down, their concerns began to mount as you surpassed the ideal age for marriage. Beyond mere age considerations, most young women your age were already married with children, leaving you perpetually single.

Though you concealed it well, you weren't oblivious to the whispers and rumours circulating about you already being labelled a spinster. The servants of your family estate often used you as a topic for gossip and entertainment, speculating whether you would ever find a spouse and placing bets on your marital prospects.

Finally deciding to acknowledge your presence, Haeun heaved a sigh before addressing you, "And how have you been, maknae? Will I be hearing news of you getting hitched any time soon?"

Glancing at her, you simply shrugged and shook your head, "Same old, unnie. And no, I don't think you will."

Hajoon frowned in resignation at your customary bluntness, "With that attitude, definitely not. Do you even have any intention of settling down? What are your plans for the future, hm? Are you going to keep causing our parents to worry like this?"

Your mother shook her head, silently urging him to be gentler with you, a twinge of sympathy stirring within her. In your younger years, her favouritism was evident in the way she showered attention primarily to your sister and brother, especially since your father was often away for work. While your siblings made efforts to bond with him during his brief returns, you showed little interest. Consequently, your relationship with your parents wasn't as close-knit as theirs.

It wasn't until Haeun had married and left home that your mother attempted to show you some affection, though by then, it seemed too late to truly connect with you. Despite her earnest efforts, she struggled to understand you. The rest of the family faced similar difficulties. You remained a mystery to everyone, always lost in your own world.

For once, instead of reacting with anger or responding passive-aggressively out of frustration, your sister nodded slowly, as if making a concerted effort to remain patient with you. Despite her occasional harshness towards you, she hadn't always been unkind. As your only elder sister, she had tried to foster a bond with you throughout your childhood, but your reserved nature made it difficult, and your straightforwardness often unintentionally wounded her.

Deep down, she harboured a hope that her harshness might somehow elicit some sort of response from you. But by now, she had come to realise its futility, as you consistently maintained an unbothered demeanour, regardless of what others would say or do to you. Ultimately, she grew tired of attempting to decipher your mind and heart. The same goes for your brother.

However, despite their frustrations, you were still their youngest sibling, and they sincerely hoped that you would one day settle down, have someone care for you, and perhaps start a family of your own.

"I think I know what might help," Haeun began, capturing everyone's attention before continuing, "I've heard about a renowned dressmaker in town who has worked wonders for countless women. If I'm not mistaken, his craftsmanship has even garnered recognition from the King and Queen. I was just thinking... maybe all our youngest needs is just a little makeover?"

Your father's eyes widened in astonishment, "His work is recognised even by His and Her Majesty, you say?"

Haeun nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, father! I couldn't believe it myself, but it's true. He's the mastermind behind Lady Park's stunning white and gold wedding hanbok!"

"He must be truly exceptional! Well, then, it seems worth a try. Perhaps this is just what our youngest needs to catch the eye of a potential suitor," your mother chimed in, her gaze hopeful as she turned to you, "Are you on board with the idea, dear?"

All eyes swivelled to you, and you once again felt yourself shrinking under their scrutiny—this familiar sensation of never being enough for them. The truth was evident: they were all tired of you. You had been a disappointment your entire life. If all they desired was for you to marry and depart from the household, perhaps it would be best to acquiesce to their wishes. It wouldn't hurt to entertain their request.

With another indifferent shrug, you replied, "Sure, if that's what everyone wants. After all, I don't have much to lose."

For the first time in forever, your family's faces lit up with smiles because of you, cheered by your response. As you retreated to your quarters that night, your sister eagerly taking charge of contacting the renowned dressmaker they had discussed, you pondered whether their enthusiasm stemmed from a desire to see you gone.

In truth, your parents' neglect and blatant favouritism toward your siblings over you during your childhood had moulded you into someone who wore indifference as armour, a coping mechanism to shield yourself from the constant sadness you felt. The weight of constantly letting everyone down had driven you to suppress your emotions, opting instead to feign apathy. Eventually, this façade became your reality; it felt safer to shut yourself off from feeling anything at all.

As you attempted to drift off to sleep that night, thoughts of the acclaimed dressmaker they had been praising occupied your mind. You couldn't help but entertain the idea that, like everyone else, he too would eventually grow weary of you. Surely, upon seeing you, he would deem you a lost cause.

Heh, at least he'll be paid to deal with me.

"Thanks a bunch, hyung. I promise I'll treat you to the finest meal once this is over!" Wooyoung exclaimed, hugging the disguise crafted by the dressmaker at the eleventh hour for his latest case—more like a mission to play knight in shining armour, one that might finally win him the affections of a girl, unlike the silly crush he harboured for Lady Park, leading absolutely nowhere.

With a shake of his head, Hongjoong gave the younger man's shoulder a reassuring pat, "Yeah, you better. Off you go then, you don't want to keep her waiting a moment longer now, do you?"

"Yes, sir!" The private investigator saluted playfully before setting off in pursuit of his new dream girl.

Once he was out of sight, the dressmaker returned to his shop, settling comfortably back into his seat, ready to resume work on his latest batch of orders. His fingers moved with practised ease, guided by the rough design sketch before him. A faint smile lingered on his lips as he worked, a swell of pride warming his chest at his friend's development. It wasn't just Wooyoung; everyone had left the general's estate weeks ago, returning to their own lives. While part of him missed the chaos of their shared moments, he was content to give the newlyweds their well-deserved privacy.

Still chuckling to himself, he reflected on the fact that the once-intimidating Park Seonghwa was now but a lovesick fool. He had once worried about the general's prospects for finding love, but now he realised it had been a needless concern. Who would have thought that General Park would find love before him, or even before the ever-charming Jung Yunho?

As he put the final touches on one of his dresses, he couldn't help but wonder how the couple was doing. It had been weeks since he last saw them, and he shook his head when he recalled how 'excited' his friend had been, even when he was injured. Now that they had all the time in the world together, he imagined Seonghwa would struggle to keep his hands off his wife. He pondered whether he would soon hear news of a new addition to their family.

Before he could become further engrossed in his thoughts, his sharp senses alerted him to the presence of a man and a woman entering his shop. Without hesitation, he plastered on his best business smile—a façade rarely seen by his friends, perhaps except for Lady Park. It was part of his practised persona, an outwardly amiable demeanour he employed to win over customers and potential clients, doing whatever was necessary to secure their business. This isn't to say he wasn't genuinely pleased, but his true passion lay in designing and dressmaking rather than customer service. Unfortunately, the latter was an essential aspect of his job.

Hongjoong had never been naturally a people person, but as he had previously made it clear to the general, he was reluctant to hire assistance for such a simple task. So here he was, stuck with doing his least favourite part of the job: greeting customers.

"Good day, sir and ma'am! Welcome to Kim's Dress Shop. May I inquire what you are searching for today? A hanbok for a special occasion, perhaps? That happens to be one of my specialities. However, if you're seeking an upgrade in everyday attire, I also offer a selection of simpler yet elegant designs," he recited, sticking to his customary script upon each patron's arrival.

The couple glanced around in amazement before eagerly beaming at him. The woman spoke, "Um, are you the renowned dressmaker Kim who crafted Lady Park's famous wedding gown?"

Grinning proudly, the dressmaker was pleased to once again be acknowledged for his recent accomplishments, "Indeed, that would be me," he confirmed. He couldn't deny that his orders had doubled since news of the iconic hanbok he had designed for his friend's wedding had spread. Perhaps he owed Seonghwa a debt of gratitude for hiring him. Without him, Hongjoong might not have achieved the level of success he enjoys today.

Stepping forward, the woman bowed respectfully, "It's truly an honour to meet you, Mr. Kim! You see, we are interested in engaging your services, but it's not for myself—it's for my younger sister."

"Oh? Will she be coming by soon for me to take her measurements and discuss her design preferences?" he inquired, surprised that the intended recipient of his hanboks was not present.

Shaking her head sheepishly, she clarified, "Unfortunately not. Forgive me for not starting with a self-introduction. Good day, Mr. Kim. I am the eldest daughter of the Baek household, and I'm here on behalf of our youngest."

Upon hearing this, Hongjoong immediately grasped the situation. Having worked extensively with noblewomen, he was well-versed in local gossip about nearby noble families. He had heard of the mysterious third daughter of Official Baek from the local Civilian Office, who rarely ventured outside her home—a well-known wallflower who, if he wasn't mistaken, remained unmarried despite being well past the ideal marriageable age.

With a nod, he smiled warmly, "Ah, Miss Baek! Or should I say, Mrs. Heo," the dressmaker corrected with a grin directed at the man beside her, presumably her husband, "It would be my pleasure to create hanboks for the youngest miss of such a prominent family. I assume that means I will need to visit the Baek estate to meet her."

The couple nodded with a slight grimace, "Yes, I'm sure you're aware of her reputation. Whatever rumours you may have heard are true. She remains single, and our entire family is deeply concerned for her. We've heard of the wonderful work you've done for others, and we were hopeful you could work your magic on her. My sister has always been a unique individual. I apologise for the inconvenience of asking you to leave your shop just for her. However, I assure you we will compensate you for any inconvenience."

As he listened to her plea, the dressmaker's mind raced with excitement. That was because no challenge was too daunting for him; he thrived on the opportunity to showcase his talent. The woman was right in what she said; he had indeed helped numerous single young women find matches after they had worn his designs.

This time would be no different.

What truly fueled his enthusiasm was the knowledge that the youngest Miss Baek was known to repel potential suitors, making her a particularly challenging case. If he could help her in finding a match, it would undoubtedly bolster his reputation, adding another significant achievement to his already impressive portfolio.

Moreover, the Baeks were one of the wealthiest noble families in the area. It would be foolish not to accept this job, even if it meant temporarily closing his shop more frequently to visit their estate. He was certain that the compensation he would receive for his services would more than make up for any inconvenience.

With a feigned understanding expression, he nodded, "Oh, please don't worry about it, Mrs. Heo. Nothing brings me greater joy than helping young women gain confidence and find love. Miss Baek clearly needs my assistance. If it means I can help one more woman escape singledom, any inconvenience will be worth it."

The couple cooed at his kindness, profusely thanking him for his selflessness, while he celebrated internally, eager for the opportunity to make that buck. Reassuringly, he welcomed them into his shop, offering them seats and some tea as they made the necessary arrangements for the special job: determining which days he would need to close his shop and visit the Baek estate as well as negotiating the payment. Fortunately for him, they had even provided a down payment to demonstrate their sincerity.

After a lengthy discussion that may or may not have interfered with his current orders, Hongjoong happily bid the couple goodbye. He couldn't care less about any disruptions; his pockets were full, and he was content. With the success of the business that Seonghwa had brought him, he was sure that this would be his next most satisfying endeavour. As he watched the couple leave, a sense of anticipation washed over him, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Thank you, Miss Baek, for this wonderful opportunity. I'm certain we'll get along just fine, you and I. Gosh, I just love it when rich people are gullible, and money is easy to make," he muttered to himself, brimming with excitement for what lay ahead.

Oh, I'm going to have the time of my life.

Perhaps the dressmaker might have spoken too soon, been a tad overconfident in his abilities, and underestimated the true enigmatic nature of the youngest Miss Baek. He would soon discover this the hard way during his very first visit to the family's estate, which was nearly as large as the general's, albeit slightly smaller.

He remained confident and pleased as he was warmly welcomed, not only by the couple he had met at his shop the other day, but also by Official Baek and his wife, Lady Baek, along with their middle son and his new wife—everyone except for the one he was hired to make clothes for. The youngest Miss Baek was nowhere to be seen.

Nevertheless, he refused to let it dampen his spirits. If anything, it only heightened his curiosity about you. He was eager to finally lay eyes on the girl whom so many noble families and men tried to avoid.

The more your family emphasised how hopeless you were and expressed their concern about you remaining a spinster, the more determined he became. His fingers were itching to work another miracle. No ugly duckling could remain ugly forever, especially not if he could help it.

"We're terribly sorry our youngest is not here to greet you, Mr. Kim! We specifically informed her that you would be arriving by this time. She must still be holed up in her father's library. We'll fetch her immediately!" Lady Baek exclaimed, her urgency and embarrassment evident in her tone.

Hongjoong shook his head, waving his hands to signal that it was fine, despite feeling a slight disbelief at your apparent disregard for his presence. He tried his best to play the role of a considerate man, reminding himself that it was your family who wanted him here, not you. He tried to be understanding of how you might be feeling, "It's quite alright. Perhaps I could go meet her in the library if she doesn't want to come outside."

"Oh, is that really alright? You've come all this way, Mr. Kim. The least she could do now is come to you and make your job easier," Official Baek remarked with a slight wince.

"I assure you, it's perfectly fine. My task today is simply to take Miss Baek's measurements and discuss her design preferences. For that to happen smoothly, it's important she feels comfortable. Conducting it in her own space might be the best approach for all of us," he responded.

Your brother nodded, "If you insist, Mr. Kim. We'll have the maids escort you there. Let us know if there's anything you need."

Hongjoong bowed, "Thank you, sir. I will."

"We entrust her to you, Mr. Kim," said your sister, her hands clasped together to show her gratitude and hopefulness.

"Please do not worry, Mrs. Heo. I have a feeling Miss Baek will find love in no time."

"We're counting on it."

As a few maids escorted him towards the library as instructed, the dressmaker's mind buzzed with speculative thoughts. Considering all the talk about Miss Baek's perpetual singleness, he couldn't help but imagine you to be hideous. If that were indeed the case, he surmised it might stem from low self-esteem.

Throughout his career, he has developed a knack for identifying his customers' underlying issues. Just as he had done with Seonghwa's wife, he could often discern precisely what they needed, whether it be a boost in confidence or a transformation in appearance. He was almost certain he'd be able to figure you out in an instant.

Upon arriving at the destination, one of the maids spoke up, "We're here, Mr. Kim. You should be able to find the young miss somewhere inside. Just call out to any of us if you require anything at all."

Hongjoong nodded, expressing his gratitude, "Of course, thank you," he replied before heading inside. His heart quickened for some reason as he stepped into the room, uncertain of what to expect.

Taking a cautious step after gently closing the door behind him, he called out softly, as if afraid of disturbing the tranquil atmosphere of the silent and peaceful library, "Miss Baek...? Sorry for the intrusion, but this is Kim Hongjoong, the dressmaker your family hired to provide you with a new wardrobe. If you would be so kind as to come out, we could proceed with the initial stages of the dressmaking process for you."

Releasing a small sigh at the continued silence, he called out again, "Miss Baek...? If you won't respond, I'll have to enter."

While he understood your potential shyness, he struggled to contain his displeasure at what felt like disrespect towards him. After all, he had made the effort to come all this way and even prioritised your comfort. Yet here you were, still playing hard to get.

"Very well, don't say I didn't warn you."

With that, he began to make his way down the aisle, scanning the spacious room from left to right in search of you. It was only when he was about to pass by a hunched figure between the rows of tall bookshelves that he halted, doing a double take before fixing his gaze squarely on your form. There you were, seated on the ground, completely absorbed in the book you held in your hands.

Whatever he had anticipated, you were none of that. The girl in front of him was nothing like what he had imagined. Bathed in the sunlight streaming through the open window, your delicate and refined features were illuminated, accentuating your natural beauty. In that moment, you appeared almost ethereal. With such looks, finding a match shouldn't be a challenge at all.

Huh, guess I was wrong about her looks.

Yet, it wasn't your appearance that posed the issue. He had expected as much, considering the attractiveness of your family members. However, he could understand why you were often overlooked. The problem lay not in your physical attributes, but rather in that god-awful attire you chose to wear – a plain, white hanbok devoid of any embellishments. Furthermore, you seemed to lack hair accessories and makeup. He dared say that even some of the maids had put more effort into their appearance than you had.

Goodness gracious, you looked like a prisoner in that outfit. In his opinion, you ought to be arrested for donning such a monstrosity. Perhaps you weren't aware yet, but today you would be encountering the fashion police, and he was not pleased with what he saw. It was evident to him that you were in dire need of his assistance.

Kim Hongjoong was here now, and he intended to effect swift change. By the end of his makeover, he was confident you would be fit to enter even a beauty pageant.

"Hello, Miss Baek," he greeted, finally drawing your attention as you glanced up to see him approaching.

"Oh, you're here. Mr. Kim, right?" you responded, acknowledging him with a nod. Folding the edge of the page as a makeshift bookmark, you carefully slid the book back into its place on the shelf before rising from your spot on the ground.

The dressmaker's grip tightened around his bag of tools, a hint of displeasure flickering behind his façade of a smile, "Yes, that's correct, my lady. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I've heard much about you," he attempted to charm you, a tactic that typically worked wonders with his clientele, eliciting blushes and smiles. However, his heart sank as you remained unfazed.

"Did you really? I can't imagine it's anything favourable," you murmured, turning to face him squarely, "And there's no need for pretence. I highly doubt there's anything pleasurable about meeting me. I prefer unvarnished truths to false pleasantries."

What in the world.

Taken aback by your bluntness, he paused briefly to compose himself before clearing his throat, "Ah, I see... If you insist, Miss Baek, I won't sugarcoat my thoughts on your choice of attire. Your family has expressed concerns about your ability to attract suitors, and I can see why. It's pretty clear to me that you struggle with dressing in a way that appeals to others but fear not. I'm here now, and I'll help you enhance your style."

Just when he thought you couldn't possibly surprise him any further, you shrugged in disagreement, "I don't believe I'm struggling at all. I know exactly what I like, and this is it," you gestured to your hanbok, "It's not my fault nobody shares the same opinion."

Baffled by your words, he finally grasped the true extent of your problem. Yes, your fashion style was the main issue, but more crucially, it was your entire character. Throughout his life, the dressmaker had encountered his fair share of eccentric individuals, but you seemed to easily surpass them all in peculiarity.

Your blunt honesty was one thing, but it was your overall lack of emotion or ability to read social cues that truly puzzled him. Perhaps it was simply your indifference. Regardless, one thing became abundantly clear to him: he did not like you. Despite having only just met you, he eagerly anticipated the moment he could leave your presence.

Lord help me, I cannot stand her already.

Blinking rapidly, he struggled to maintain the smile on his face as he responded stiffly, "I... I understand, Miss Baek. Perhaps that's your belief for now. However, I'm confident you'll change your mind once you see my designs. They never disappoint. I've never had a dissatisfied customer, and I fully intend to keep it that way."

Not wanting to dwell on your comments, he quickly clapped his hands together and continued, "Now, without further ado, let's proceed with taking your measurements."

Forget discussing your preferences, you had made your stance clear. But Hongjoong remained determined to impress you with his work. He was eager to unveil his best design, he couldn't wait to see the look on your face when you would realise how stupid you were to prefer prison clothes over his hanboks.

Retrieving his measuring tape and notebook from his bag, he turned to you, making an effort to conceal any hint of displeasure on his face as he approached, "Stay still, my lady. This will only take a moment," he instructed, beginning with your shoulders before proceeding to measure your height, sleeve length, and neck size. His breath caught and his hands trembled as he reached the final step, assessing your waist and chest measurements.

While he typically performed these tasks with ease, it was usually in the familiar surroundings of his shop, with others present. Now, it was just the two of you in the expansive, quiet library. For some reason, the atmosphere felt almost... intimate.

Focus, Kim Hongjoong!

Suppressing the sudden spike of his heartbeat, he maintained a composed expression and directed, "Please raise your arms, my lady. I'll need to measure your chest and waist next."

Flustered, he attributed the fluttering of his heart to the persistent, unabashed curiosity in your gaze throughout the measurement process. That must be it, he reasoned. You didn't possess goddess-like beauty, nor were you sweet as an angel. There was no other reason for him to react that way than sheer embarrassment under your scrutiny.

Little did he know, you experienced similar, if not more intense, emotions than he did. But who could blame you, really? It was the first time a man had ever been in such close proximity to you. The only difference between you was your adeptness at concealing your feelings, contrasting with the subtle shifts in his demeanour and the slight tremor in his hands, which did not evade your perceptive gaze.

He was merely a man, after all. You supposed it was only natural for him to exhibit such reactions in the presence of a woman.

But that didn't mean much.

You could tell he disliked you, a sentiment you had grown used to. Like everyone else you met, it seemed no one genuinely liked you. Your family's acceptance stemmed from obligation, your servants' compliance from their employment, and Hongjoong's engagement from his professional duty. Once that was done, you were certain you would never see him again. Armed with this notion, you maintained your stoic façade.

"Very well, Miss Baek. Thank you for your cooperation. I'll return when the first batch of your hanboks is ready," the dressmaker stated, swiftly gathering his belongings and offering one final bow before hurrying out of the library, pink tinting his cheeks.

"Goodbye, Mr. Kim."

Back at his shop that evening, he struggled to focus on his work. His thoughts kept wandering back to the moment your faces were inches apart, when he had to briefly encircle his arms around your waist to take measurements. Despite the unattractive hanbok you wore, he couldn't deny that you smelled quite pleasant. At the very least, you had good hygiene, he had to give you that.

Get a grip, you fool!

Giving himself a sharp slap on the cheek, he shook off the distraction. He reminded himself of the sheer frustration of being around you. From your perplexing bluntness to your questionable taste in fashion, it was enough to raise his blood pressure. How could someone like you even exist? He realised now that he had vastly underestimated your peculiar nature. Once confident he could see through anyone, he was beginning to have second thoughts.

Nevertheless, one thing remained certain: you would surely admire the designs he had in store for you. His work had always been his stronghold, never failing to impress. If even royalty had been impressed, why wouldn't a mere noblewoman like yourself? You claimed to dislike fashion, but that was only because you hadn't seen his masterpieces, he was sure of it.

No one, no one could ever resist his work.

Determined to swiftly overcome this minor obstacle, he reassured himself that you were just a small hurdle on the path to another remarkable achievement. In the end, when you were basking in the glory of the century's most sensational makeover, all the effort would be worthwhile. He could not wait for you to shed tears of gratitude, thanking him for opening your eyes to the true essence of beauty. With that conviction, he delved into his work, flipping through his sketchbook until he reached the section reserved for his finest designs, carefully curated for an occasion like this.

Pausing at one of his personal favorites, a masterpiece he had been saving for a worthy client, he decided that now was the perfect opportunity to bring it to life.

Oh, you were sure to adore it.

You had to.

But he should have known better than to actually believe that. He was, once again, in for a surprise a few days later when he arrived at the Baek estate with the first hanbok done. Only once he had your green light would he be able to proceed with making more for you. As the maids escorted him to your quarters, they noted his bright demeanour; you had risen late today and were still having breakfast in solitude, "You seem quite cheerful today, Mr. Kim," one remarked, arching an eyebrow.

He smirked confidently, "Indeed, I am. Your young miss will be very impressed with what she is about to see today. With this makeover, she'll surely catch the eye of potential suitors in no time."

The maid hesitated, cautioning, "I'm not sure you should be so certain. The young miss isn't like any other girl you've worked with."

"Ah, I know, but my work speaks for itself," he retorted, "She'd be silly not to like it."

"If you say so, sir," the maid replied, her tone conceding defeat. She knew better than to doubt his skill, but she also understood that you were unlike any other. He would soon discover that firsthand, and she was almost certain he wouldn't leave the estate with the same confidence he arrived with.

"Well, what do you think?" inquired the dressmaker, proudly unveiling his newest masterpiece to his latest customer.

Eyeing the elegantly colourful hanbok, which was a departure from your usual plain white ones, your gaze remained impassive. After what seemed like an eternity, you responded with a slight furrow of your brows, "It uhh... it looks nice, I suppose."

As you watched Hongjoong's reaction falter momentarily, it appeared as though he was experiencing a million emotions per second before settling on a deeply offended expression. With an audible scoff, he clenched his jaw, "Nice, you say? Just... nice? You suppose? Miss Baek, that is utterly outrageous! Throughout my career, I've only ever been praised for delivering perfection."

You stayed silent as he continued to extol his successes, boasting about being the best dressmaker in all of Joseon and citing his most illustrious achievements, such as the wedding dress he crafted for Lady Park, which even impressed Their Majesties. It dawned on you that your simple response had deeply wounded him.

"I-I mean... it's not bad," you interjected, hoping to fix the damage, but your heart sank as he only glared at you, "Not bad...? I'm sorry, was that supposed to console me?" he chuckled incredulously, "You know what? Now I understand why you're still single. At this rate, you'll never find a husband."

Ouch.

The awkward silence that followed was deafening, causing the maids who were waiting in your room to quickly shuffle closer to you, noticing you had finished your meal, "Young miss, we'll just be clearing this up and excusing ourselves."

"Thank you." You nodded curtly, watching emotionlessly as they hastily picked up the table containing the empty plates and bowls and left with a deep bow. Meanwhile, the dressmaker remained in his spot, visibly heaving deep breaths as if trying to calm himself from the outburst, before carefully setting the hanbok down.

After you were left alone, he took a deep breath before apologising, "Gosh, I— I'm so sorry, Miss Baek. That was uncalled for, I—"

Shaking your head, you cut him off, "No, please don't be. You were merely telling the truth. As I've said, I prefer unvarnished truth to false pleasantries. In fact, I believe you are right about that. You are not the first to say that, and you certainly won't be the last."

As he absorbed your words, a wave of discomfort washed over Hongjoong. For some reason, he would have preferred if you had yelled at him or thrown a tantrum rather than accepting his insults like that. Surely, it couldn't feel pleasant to hear such remarks, no matter how unaffected you made yourself appear. It made him feel terrible, and he hated it — hated the guilt that filled him for uttering such words.

Clearing his throat, he sighed, "I... my lady, please don't say that. It's just that... I really need your approval before I make more of these for you. At the end of the day, you are the one who has to wear them." His voice softened, an attempt to make up for his earlier harshness.

You detected the familiar pity in his tone, and you despised it. Raising a brow, you shrugged, "Why does my approval matter? It's my family who's paying you, not me. You owe it to them to make me look perfect, whatever that means. I've made it clear what I like, and if it's not to yours or anyone's taste, so be it. I see no point in consulting me on your designs, Mr. Kim. Just do what you're hired for; it doesn't matter what I like."

It never has.

While that should have brought relief to the dressmaker, knowing he had the freedom to pursue his vision without worrying about your approval, something about your words left him feeling... melancholic. It struck a chord within him, reminding him of his own struggles when he initially embarked on his fashion career. At that time, it was met with disapproval from society, which deemed it an unfitting profession for a man. Despite the opposition, he chose to be himself.

However, seeing you succumb to societal expectations, suppressing your true self to please others, including him, stirred a sense of empathy within him. It mirrored his own past battles with conformity. Unlike him, you were forced to adhere to societal norms, sacrificing your individuality for the sake of others' expectations.

And he didn't like that.

But what he hated even more was how you managed to evoke emotions he hadn't signed up for. Despite his efforts to push thoughts of you aside and concentrate solely on his goal—to craft the finest hanboks in all of Joseon and transform you into a vision of beauty, one you did not desire—the memory of your somewhat disheartening expression, as you dismissed the importance of your preferences, lingered in his mind. It unsettled him, he hated the way it was causing an uncomfortable tightening in his chest.

« Preview of Part 2 »

"I'm telling you, Yunho, she's infuriating!"

The physician, busy tidying his clinic counter, rolled his eyes, "How could I not know, hyung? You've been talking about her since my lunch break. We're almost at closing time; are you finished?"

Hongjoong crossed his arms, scoffing, "What, do you have somewhere else to be? Don't think I haven't noticed you've been going to that apothecary more often lately."

Yunho stilled, a faint pink dusting across his cheeks as he cleared his throat, "What do you mean? I've always gone there for herbs."

"Yes, but not as frequently as you do now. Ever since you met a certain herbalist," Hongjoong teased, wiggling his brows.

"If you have nothing important to say, please leave," the physician grumbled, tired of the older man's rambling.

Uncrossing his arms, the dressmaker said, "W-wait! Look, you're the most rational one among us. I just... wanted to know your thoughts on the matter."

Sighing, Yunho softened, "You know, she's right. You're hired by her family, your job is simple, and you know what you have to do. The only reason you're so affected by this is probably because you care."

"I do not care about her—"

"Sure, if you say so. Then go on ahead and complete your job. You'll receive your payment and all the benefits that come with it anyway. So, what's really bothering you?"

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for 1.6k followers! Same as Wooyoung's spinoff, the next part will be the second and final part. I've decided to standardise the format, so all the spinoffs will be two-shots.

As always, thank you for reading and let me know your thoughts! <3

Tag list (1/7): @itstheghostofmypast @huachengsbestie01 @minghaoslatina @weedforthoughtz @minkiflwr @cheolliehugs @the-kpop-simp @writingwieny @stayatinykatsy @skzline @green-agent @stayinhellevator @vampzity @tinyteezer @evidive @vantediary @superbbananananana @kimyeolchan @chocolate-scoups @decadentstrangernacho @vic0921 @foxinnie8 @marievllr-abg @sunnyhokyu @seungmin-in-thebuilding @heyitsmetonid @sansaurora9904 @darkestacademiamindsx12-blog @pay13 @kpop17 @professormingisglasses @newworldwritings @chicken-fifi @thunderous-wolf @shythinggiver @madnpan @yandere-stories @anxiousskylar @frobin4ever @starssongs98 @kamabokogonpachro @dollce-exe @jan-l @lovelyred2 @haven-cove @watermelon2319 @dreamingofyeo @akimkim @scuzmunkie @satsuri3su @mismatchfluffysocks @borntoshineateez @st4rhwa @ddaeing @tropicalsstuff @bts-army380 @skteezcursed @beauty143 @naps-over-degree @idfkeddieishot @sis-101 @lemon-sage17 @jcalicocatj

All Rights Reserved © edenesth // DO NOT REPOST, TRANSLATE, PLAGIARISE OR REPURPOSE.

[fourtyforever]

Get in losers were making a fic rec masterlist

Hi y’all it’s me, your local multishipper, and I’m about to be the change I wish to see in the world by putting all the best f1 fics in one place.

Maxiel

cool things to say to your soulmate by @powerful-owl (E, 14k)

A collection of shorter soulmate stories by the great em powerfulowl. Essentially the maxiel thesis as far as I’m concerned. If you ever catch me talking about the goose fic, this is what I’m talking about. Fun story: this was actually the first F1 rpf I ever read and I blame it for why my standards are so fantastically high.

Thursday girl by @boxboxlewis (M, 3k)

Max is outed by the press. Shocking emotional impact to word ratio and off the charts tenderness. Short and sweet and low key a comfort read to me.

the being unknown by anonymous (E, 12k)

Body swap with really unique and emotional vibes. Ngl this one hurt me (in the best way). A fantastic and heart-wrenching take on the horrors of 2022.

Charlos

win or lose (it’s how you play the game) by @f1-stuff (E, 18k)

Hickey bet between charles and carlos. Cannot get over this fic for as long as I live: the silliness is off the charts, the vibes are literally the most perfectly balanced tenderhorny I’ve ever read and the writing is just really that good. I think about this fic minimum once a day.

last night by venerat (E, 24k)

College au. Ngl this one is just especially spicy, but also very very funny and fully captivating top to bottom (see what I did there? haha). Also a great ensemble cast here, which I always love.

Once more (before we die) by @f1-stuff (M, 6k)

Fantasy AU where charlos are princes of warring kingdoms. I love this AU and I love the tenderness between Charles and Carlos that we get out of it. I’m usually not really an AU type of gal but this one really did change my mind.

Playing games by @vegasgrandprix (T, 4K)

Gay chicken. WIP, but I can already tell so clearly exactly where this is going and that is delightful to me. Honestly this really is how they act like 90% of the time already.

Yukierre

match made in heaven by venerat (T, 4K)

Pierre is yuki’s matchmaker. this one is just so sweet and sooooo silly. Comfort read 100%

Loscar

Are they gay or European? (the answer is both) by periwinkle_bumper_cars (T, 30k)

Logan keeps walking in on other drivers in compromising positions. 100% balls to the wall silliness from beginning to end and just completely delightful the whole time. Background carlando, kmag/hulkenberg, brocedes, maxiel, and honestly the ensemble cast is what takes this one from great to top tier.

Landoscar

By a thread by @mctwinkdom (E, 32k)

The classic Australian thongs misunderstanding (gone sexual). Incredibly silly, amazingly hot and honestly a top-tier character study of both Oscar and Lando. A great study in unreliable narration as well (probably part of what accounts for my previous point).

carried away by orphan account (E, 22k)

Fake dating. Honestly this one got me in my feels so much more than I expected from the premise. Sweet and a little bit angsty and just a delightful read all the way down.

Strollonso

green light, red wine (and I don’t feel fine) by @vicsy (E, 19k)

Mafia AU where lance is the son of Fernando’s arch nemesis. THEE strollonso fic of all time I tell you. Unparalleled characterization on the part of both nando and lance, fantastic ensemble cast, FANTASTIC writing, and off the charts unreal spiciness. If you haven’t read this yet then what are you doing

El dick plan by @waddlingpenguin (E, 800)

Lance says ‘daddy,’ both Fernando and Lawrence answer. Short, sweet and SILLY.

camera roll by @penaltyboxboxbox (E, 5k)

Sexting/sex tapes. Overall nice and spicy and just fantastic characterization. Also absolutely crucial is the companion art also by dave penaltyboxboxbox which is literally like the ice cream on top of the cake for such a wonderful fic

silver platter by @wewentcarracing (E, 10k)

getting together fic featuring long suffering estie bestie. Honestly the fic is amazing and spicy and just so well written but Esteban’s ever growing dismay is lowkey my favorite part. Works as a pretty great lance character study as well.

Brocedes

Roseberg’s vs haminkton by @jean----ralphio (E, 16k)

Tattoo artist versus flower shop, except they’re rivals. This is like…just how they are honestly. Absolutely stunning ensemble cast and absolutely hilarious buildup to lewis and Nico finally getting together. Side order of seb just being a massive shit stirrer which honestly I think is the role he belongs in

The real reason nico rosberg retired by periwinkle_bumper_cars (G, 3k)

Secret Santa (gone horribly wrong). This is…..also just how they are unfortunately. The rancidest of vibes but also screeching-out-loud funny.

will be updating this on the reg so stay tuned for more good fics. also maybe if I am very lucky someday I will have my own fics to add to the list. definitely I need to become slightly more insane before I can start writing for this fandom but believe you me I’m well on my way.

[fxtalitygod]

EPILOGUE. ~Survival~

Genre: Historical AU, angst, mature, suggestive, arranged-marriage

Warnings: Dark themes, gore, graphic imagery, theme/depictions of horror, body horror, swearing/language, suggestive, pregnancy mentions, mentions and acts of suicide, arguments, mentions of adult murder, Pet name (Little Flower 1-2x) implied Stockholm Syndrome, grief imagery, images/depictions of dead bodies, murder, character death(s), slight misogynistic themes (if you squint), implied incest mentions

Word Count: 5.9k

A/N: Today marks the day I finish this series. Guys, I cannot believe it took me two years to finish this damned series. Do not get me wrong, I loved writing it, but boy, it was a major pain in my ass. As corny as it sounds, thank you all for sticking with me throughout this series. When I originally posted the first chapter, I did not expect ANY attention whatsoever; it was just a self-indulgent thing I wanted to write because I wanted a better representation of (Y/n) where, yeah, she may not be the strongest. However, she still knows how to make do with what she has and make that her strength. I also wanted to give a more realistic relationship with the pairing. As much as I love Sukuna's character, I did not believe him to be a character capable of "true love" but a character that values others but not in the way you might think. I'm talking literal value, currency value, and benefit value. I wanted a more realistic take on the story because I did not know how many more historical "Kuna," "Suku," or "Kunie" stories I could take. No hate for those who write it or those who enjoy it; it just isn't my personal cup of tea. I like true crime and dark stories (I have this serial killer project that I'm stoked about because I know I will get my group an A+), so I tend to enjoy those darker sides, which I believe is why I like Sukuna's character so much, he just feeds into that side of me. There are some of the fantasies I enjoy where Sukuna is non-canon, such as AUs and all that, but when it comes to JJK's storyline or his historical AUs, I tend to fall short of enjoyment of that type of fantasy.

Anywho, thank you all for sticking around and enjoy the epilogue. I hope it was worth the wait. I may or may not have written three times because my perfectionism kicked in every time I proofread it, and I found something I did not like and scraped half the chapter. I bet I'll find a little thing here and there when I post this. Still, it won't be anything noticeable, something along the lines of my tags and probably my TW, though Im usually very on point with those kinds of things. Still, it always seems that AFTER I make the post, I really start to notice things even after proofreading it 50x.

P.S. I plan to do a behind-the-scenes post on all my original ideas. I have worked on this little project for two years, so you bet I had alternatives. Feel free to send me asks or messages asking me about things you are curious about, and I will gladly answer.

JJK Mlist•Taglist Rules• • Pt.I • Pt. II • Pt. III • Pt. IV • Pt. V • Pt. VI • Pt.VII • Pt. VIII • Pt. IX • Pt. X • Epilogue

The market was bustling at this time of day. Workers were heading home from a hard day of work, rushing through the roads as they grabbed ingredients and materials for their households to prepare their meals and homes; everything was so normal...and if she were being honest, it felt strange. The confined life of the temple had practically become a comfort, so when presented with a slice of normalcy, it was foreign and, if she were being honest, alarming as well.

Having so much freedom was intimidating and overwhelming– the fear of having something good and it being taken away was a looming thought that brought many anxieties.

Years have passed since that fated day, Sukuna Ryomen's downfall. Since the fire and the slaughter that had immersed, Sukuna's actions had remained silent. There were whispers of sightings and rumors that the curse user had met his demise, but she knew better. Sukuna Ryomen was unkillable, and if anybody had truly caught a glance of him, they would be dead before they could live and tell the tale.

"Mama."

The world seemed to stop as the word processed through her head. Blood ran cold, and breaths of air seemed to come in at a faster rate. The woman turned to the little girl holding her hand, causing her heart to shatter.

"Darling, I told you not to refer to me as your mother, remember?"

The question remained as a statement rather than an inquiry as if refamiliarizing the child with a rule she had been reacquainted with on multiple occasions.

"I-I know that, but why can I not? You care for me like a mother, so why can I not call you my mother?'

"We have discussed this before, child," the woman sighed, "I believe it unfair to be taking the title of your actual mother."

"Well, if my real mother had not given me away, it would not be like this..."

Pausing mid-step, the caretaker held her breath, controlling the emotions and memories that flashed through her mind. The girl's sentence rang through her head, eliciting a feeling she was not commonly met with... aggravation. With no hesitance, the woman's minimal steps turned into longer strides, her grip even firmer on the young girl's hand. Getting to their place of lodging was more vital than anything, as she wanted to avoid discussing such sensitive matters in a public setting. Prying ears were close enough in such a crowded setting.

Upon reaching the home, the stand-in mother pulled the child inside before shutting the door. She swiftly bent down to the young one's level and took the child's shoulders into her hands. The little girl was shocked by the woman's reaction, staying silent and still as if afraid of what was to come next.

"Child, I will not hear you speak such false claims of your mother. You do not know the sacrifices she made to get you here."

The girl's expression of fear shifted from dread to shame. Her face was red from embarrassment after she was caught for her prior statement. However, as children do, she made it her goal to justify herself.

"What is the point of her sacrifice if she left me. Did she not want to be around me?"

"She did not leave you; if she were still in this world, trust me, she would be right here with you!"

The caregiver's words came out with little thought; all she knew was that she would not tolerate the little girl's false assumptions. However, now that the words spilled out of her mouth, she began to regret them. Seeing the tears well up in the girl's eyes made her wish she had phrased it differently.

"What do you mean?"

The caretaker cursed under her breath before inhaling through her nose, exhaling softly before speaking.

"You deserve the truth, my dear, and the truth is that your mother sacrificed her life to ensure you had a good one. She loved you so much that she valued your life more than hers. You might not understand this now, but that is a mother's love." The woman's breath stuttered, "She loved you more than you could ever know. I will not claim the title as your mother for that reason."

The girl was overwhelmed with emotion, only knowing how to express it through tears. The woman could not bear it and brought the girl close to her chest, embracing her to give any form of comfort that might help– it broke her heart to hear the child's quiet sobs.

After calming down, the kid spoke, though with some light chokes.

"W-what s-should I call you then?"

The warden took a sigh as she thought over her charges question. In all honesty, she had no idea what to say. What answer could she even give her? She could not allow her real name to float between the child's tongue as it would expose her identity. What name could she let the child speak?

"Hmm," the woman loosened her embrace, looking the little girl in the eye with a soft smile, "What do you think you should call me?"

The girl tilted her head, wanting more elaboration.

The lady chuckled softly, "What do you think my name should be, child?"

The caregiver had expected the girl to take some time to come up with an answer; however, the kid took no hesitation when she blurted out...

"Makato-san!"

Silenced engulfed the home as her caregiver failed to respond.

"Makato-san, I'm going to the market. Do you need anything?"

Another prolonged stillness as the young lady waited for a response.

The girl scrunched her brows in concern, extending her neck to look further into the room as if the individual she was looking for would appear. With the growing silence, the young adult searched the home for her guardian.

"Makato-san?"

She searched and examined the silent home with slight panic before finally stumbling upon the older woman, staring blankly at the floor she was kneeling on– unresponsive as she continued to stare.

With caution, Y/n's daughter reached her hand out to her caregiver's, placing it on the woman's shoulder. The response she got was one she had not expected.

The Makato turned suddenly, grabbing onto the young woman's wrist with an ungodly strength that even the girl was unaware of. This caused the girl to wince in pain as she tried to pull her arm away. Her arm was turning a light purple from the lack of circulation, proving the grip's vice.

Despite her fear, the charge could only feel concerned as her caregiver made eye contact, tears welling up in her eyes. It stayed like that for a couple more seconds before she snapped back into reality, gasping as she was presented with the image of her actions, quickly letting go of the young lady's arm.

"I'm so sorry, my Dear. I did not mean to...I was just..." The woman paused, swallowing her following words; however, her stutter did not disappear: "D-D-Did you need something, m-my, Dear?"

"I was preparing to leave and was going to ask if you needed anything from that market," the girl paused, choosing her next words carefully. Makato-san, you've been acting strange as of late. Is everything alright?"

The young woman was old enough to recognize the hesitance in her caretaker's features and the short lack of response.

"Whatever do you mean, Darling?"

"Please do not take me a fool," the youthful female voiced before sighing and looking at Makato in pity, "I'm worried for you, Makato-san. Ever since the refugees from the other village came, you have been behaving irregularly."

The refugees.

To say that their arrival was a shock was an understatement. At first, Makato thought nothing of it until the newcomers began to tell their stories. Their village was burned in a monstrous fire by a "crazed" sorcerer, and their home was now unsustainable to live in as it was left entirely in shambles. Despite this information, Makato thought little of it as there had been few stories of criminal sorcerers destroying homes, most being "inspired" by Sukuna's actions after his sudden hiatus. It was not until an elderly woman, who she happened to hear at random, described the appearance of the sorcerer.

"He was monstrous, the vile thing; he had four arms and two faces if you do not count that horrid mouth on his stomach. I watched both of them grin as it chewed on the remains of my eldest son." the elder choked and sobbed as the memory came back to taunt her.

Makato's heart dropped to her stomach. Rushing home in search of her charge, she found the girl working on her studies. Seeing the child she worked so hard to raise brought relief, but it was not long before the memories and visions began to haunt her. Sometimes, she would see you standing there, looking down at her, motionless and silent, with a pained, pitful look.

She hated it.

When you looked at her that way, she felt weak and vulnerable—as if she were failing. She was not as cool and calculating as you were, nor as confident or intimidating. Had you been here, you would have more than likely been able to disappear from society and find a nice, quiet life for yourself and your daughter. But you were not here; that was the problem– you were just a figment of her imagination.

Even then, she wanted you to stop looking at her that way.

Sometimes, she was left in her privacy and saw your vision appear to accompany her. It would drive her mad as she tried to convince you, even herself, that she was doing enough. She would speak into the silence of the room and get no response.

"What else could you want with me? I am doing everything I can!"

Silence.

"I am happy. She is happy. We are happy. Is that not enough for you?"

Silence.

"He thinks she is dead– he thinks I am dead! There is no possible way that..."

Silence.

"Please, stop looking at me that way. I am capable of doing this...please have faith in me."

"Makato-san?"

Pulling herself from her thoughts, Makato tracked what the girl had said earlier, not wanting to worry about her charge further.

"I apologize for my irregular behavior, my Dear. I can assure you that I am alright. I have had a lot of stress these days regarding the refugees. I want to do my part to assist them, but I have been running myself ragged and am just...tired."

The girl hesitated, not wanting to accept her caretaker's excuse, but she knew pushing the subject would not do her any good, so she nodded in understanding. The worst part is that Makato knew your daughter was aware of her white lie, but she would not admit it for some slim hope that the girl honestly did not know. Sometimes, she wished your daughter had not inherited your intelligence and perception.

"Do you need anything from the market, Makato-san? I plan on leaving soon to aid the refugees."

"No, I believe we have enough supplied for quite a while. All that I ask of you is to be safe, Darling."

Your daughter agreed, letting a soft smile slip onto her face before hugging Makato. The woman accepted the embrace before experiencing a wave of realization. Intelligence and perception were not the only things she inherited from you; she happened to be a real beauty as well.

"My Dear, if you plan on seeing that boy of yours, speak your peace now and know that I only want you to be safe and happy."

The girl struggled to find words before lowering her head in embarrassment, her face bright red with fluster.

"You are of age now, and I want you to know the responsibilities that rest on your shoulders."

"Makato-san, I never meant to keep it a secret. I just...I was afraid of your disapproval."

The more experienced woman could understand where she was coming from. Long ago, she was in the girl's position. However, she was never allowed to pursue her love due to the circumstances of her arrangement, but that does not mean she did not try. Despite her efforts to keep her relationship together, it was all for not in the end. She was given away as a sacrificial lamb to a monster.

Your daughter had a chance of love, and the caregiver would not squander it for her. She wanted your daughter to have a chance at a relationship she never had. Maybe it was questionable on her part due to the circumstances of her mission, but she did not entirely care. She just wanted your daughter to have a normal life.

She knew that was what you had wanted for your child.

"I do not disapprove, Darling. I just want you to be happy and to be careful."

"I promise that I will Makato-san."

There was a pause of awkward silence before the young woman embraced Makato once more.

"Thank you, I'll be back soon."

Makato smiled as she watched her ward leave the home. She had no problem admitting she was happy for the girl, but something deep within her told her it was a bad idea. It was hard for her to come to terms with, but she had an itching feeling that did not settle with her.

The world was perfect at the moment. Your daughter had put smiles on faces from her charity and was now being rewarded with a proposal for her marriage. She hugged her lover, showing her love and adoration in any way appropriate for their stage in relationship. If you were here, you would be beaming with joy, giving consent to the marriage with no hesitation because this is all you could ever want for your girl, and it would have been all you wanted for your twins.

You never had a chance of love and a happy life; seeing your children be able to pursue their lives to the fullest, especially in romantics, would have been considered a blessing to you.

"This is the happiest day of my life, honestly, but have you received my guardian's blessing?"

The young man chuckled, caressing her cheek reassuringly, "I plan on coming over for dinner tonight to ask for your hand properly if you will have me."

The girl could only agree eagerly through her expressions, unable to speak in fear of shouting instead of politely inviting him. Hugging him one last time before parting to rush home and prepare their meal; however, a chill went up her spine the moment she left; everything felt cold, and she could not explain why. Maybe it was the lack of his embrace, but she had never felt that way. There was only one good reason she could name.

Her nerves were getting the best of her...

"What if Makato-san declines."

The young woman's moods changed throughout the day as she prepared for the most significant evening of her life. One moment, she had the goofiest, filled with overwhelming joy, but there were other times when she would find herself chewing her nails from anxiety, and right now, she was having one of those times.

"Dear, stop that. This behavior is far from healthy. What has you behaving this way?"

"Nothing, everything is fine. I suppose I'm just hoping dinner will turn out acceptable tonight."

"Dear, please do not insult my intelligence with these excuses. What is going on that you are not telling me?"

"Well, I—" there was a pause. How was the ward supposed to say anything without giving anything away?

"You what? Spit it out, child, you are worrying me."

"I cannot say. I am sorry. But do not worry, please; something good is about to happen. Please trust me on this."

Makato chewed the inside of her cheek. She did trust her ward, but she had this gut feeling, this sickening feeling that she could not name. Maybe it was just her nerves getting the best of her, so she pushed it aside. She trusted your daughter, the only trustworthy person that Makato knew.

"Alright... is there anything you need help with?

The younger one smiled sweetly, taking her caretaker's hands in her own.

"No, I have it handled. You have been so stressed the past few days that you should just relax. Tonight, all your worries will be washed away." With that, she parted to continue her work for the big news. She was all but too excited.

She was also naive.

She was a sweet little girl, but she was naive. To think all of Makato's worries and problems would go away by simply relaxing, through sweet and simple gestures, was an innocent way to think. It was how Makato raised that girl because she wanted that sweet little girl to have that luxury. There were times she wondered if she had made the right choice, but then she would remember what pain looked like and what too much experience could do to a person.

No, she made the right decision. This is what you would have wanted.

Right?

Yes.

Makato went, and she sat as the young woman finished her final preparations for the meal. The girl looked more stressed than ever, rushing at the final threshold, but it seemed that preparations were finished and she was filling time. She found little things to do that held no significance. She was in her head, making Makato question if everything was truly fine.

Then, the footsteps could be heard. He was here, and everything was going to change. Life was going to change, and it was between her and that door. The biggest day of her life was only a dinner conversation away. So she opened the door and was presented with an image she thought she would never see or experience.

"We must leave. The village is under attack, and we do not have much time."

The smell of smoke was strong, and embers could be seen from a not-to0-far distance. The world came crashing down, and she could not say a thing. She could only stand there with an oblivious smile.

"What?"

Fear, confusion, anger, any negative emotion she could feel, she was feeling. This was not how it was supposed to go. She was supposed to get a blessing and marry the man of her dreams. Why now? Why this? This could not be real, there was no way.

If the world had crashed down for your daughter, the heavens collided into the earth, dissipating everything in its path in Makato's eyes. The older woman stood, no thoughts running in her head as she strided to the boy, grabbing him by his garments

"You tell me now, and you tell me true, boy! What did you see?!"

Her sudden actions left him too stunned to speak, but after some shaking and calling for his attention, he found himself capable of a response.

"Makato-san, what is happening?" It was like everything hit her at once, but she was still trying to understand why it was happening today– why it was happening now at the most crucial moment of her life.

"I do not know what it was, but it was a man of stature. He was disfigured; he had two faces and four arms. He came without warning, started flames, and began a massacre. His face was cold, as if he felt absolutely nothing."

There was no doubt in her mind that it was him, no doubt her former husband as reigning terror; however, based on the emotionless state of his ambush, bloodshed was beginning to lose its flavor. It was comical, but as much as it had some humor, this was no joke. This was all too real.

Makato grabbed your daughter's shoulder, pulling her out of her shock. Tears were in her eyes, looking at her caretaker pitifully.

"Makato-san, what is happening?"

She was naive, and being naive was safe, but being naive was also unrealistic. Makato gave the girl a sheltered life, eliminating the possibility of danger to the girl. That was no way to live.

"Your father, that is what is happening."

"What?"

And the shock returned. Makato made an effort to avoid mentioning Sukuna in conversation, only mentioning you in light memory. As far as your daughter was concerned, her father did not exist...until now.

"That so-called man is your father, Ryomen Sukuna. That is the man who drove your mother to eventually kill herself," A pause, licking her lip as she readied herself to elaborate, "Your mother sacrificed herself to protect you from him. He drained the life from her and left her no choice but to die, but she gave it purpose. She died to give you a life, a life away from him."

"I-" Your daughter was at a loss for words. Everything was hitting her too fast.

"I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping it from you. I wanted you to have an everyday life, but I should have noticed sooner or later that the truth would reveal itself and that he would present himself one day."

There was nothing to say, only to exchange expressions of fear and dismay.

"W-Well, what do we do now?"

"We run."

Taking the two charges, Makato grabbed whatever necessities they needed to start a new life. She had been planning this since the day she ran from the temple. She would admit that now, with a third party, it would be more complicated than she had intended, but they would make do.

They exited the home frantic. The smell of smoke became more potent, and the embers were closer than before. The flames became more evident as they spread. Any entrance to the main road would have been a route to death, but Makato had never planned to use that path. There was a back trail through the woods, one she had discovered when your little girl was merely five years of age.

They ran towards the thicket, avoiding as many obstacles as possible. Things were looking smooth, with hardly any disruptions. It was almost serene, but that was the issue. To have such tranquility was a nauseating notion for mayhem being at their backs.

It was too quiet to be safe.

And that is when she knew to push the girl and her lover aside, veiling their presence with her technique before everything went black.

Ringing...

Ringing...

And more ringing...

The lights were brighter, and the smoke and ash came straight from the source. She woke up coughing and gasping for air. For a moment, she thought she had been dreaming, immersed in a life that was not hers. Maybe she was waking up, back to her village, back to her parents, back to the life before she got caught in that awful nightmare.

"I am surprised that it was you, of all the women she let live." Sukuna started, looking down at what he believed to be the scum of the earth.

No, it was all too real. His voice registered through her head instantly despite not hearing it in years– at least in person. She had repeated memories, but sometimes she wondered if she had deformed his voice from years of not hearing him speak down on her. Turns out she remembered it accurately. It still managed to send chills down her spine and make her wish to be six feet under the ground.

"I was probably too forgettable for her to ever really care about whether I lived or died." Makato spat.

"That is reasonable enough, but that would not serve her memory well and rather insult her intelligence. I will say that, if anything, my Little Flower was too clever to let such technicality slip from her. She probably pitied you and your fruitless womb, so she gifted you with a child for you to care for in her absence. And knowing your broken state, she probably knew you would be eager at the opportunity."

Makato scowled, turning her gaze to the ground. How dare he speak of you in such a way. He said that as if you were on his level, as devious and conniving as he was, and claimed your actions were selfish when they were the opposite. You did this for her daughter, not for yourself. If you had it your way, you would be there.

"How old is she now?"

She refused to answer, turning her gaze back to the dirt. She did not want to give him the satisfaction of belittling her more than he already had. It was humiliating, but she still had some dignity and a promise she wished to uphold.

"What does it matter? She is dead. (Y/n) told you herself that she was gone."

A sharp pain was felt at the back of her head as he pulled her hair to force the woman to look up at him.

"Do not picture me a fool! For a woman whose last words claimed her daughter was gone, she left me the most humorous smile. I know that age of the girl, but I would rather hear from you, bitch, how long you have been holding her captive."

No response.

"Answer me!" Sukuna snarled, pulling at her scalp once more.

"Nineteen years of age," Makato smiled. Why? Do you wish to act as a father now? Well, you are too LATE! While you were out throwing tantrums, I raised her child, which you would not know how to do without being given exact handwritten instructions."

"On the contrary, you let her potential slip, and now she is nothing but another womb to breed. Unfortunate, due to the heritage of her mother and myself. However, a womb is still useful regardless."

Out of anything Sukuna had done, out of anything he had said to threaten her, that was the most horrifying.

"You are a disgusting bastard."

"Do not speak as if you can fill her shoes as if you have her confidence. You would not be in this position if you were half the woman she was."

"You are right; if I were half the woman she was, I could have easily manipulated you and have you play the role of the arrogant man with an ego so big, he does not notice the knife pointing at his back," A pause as she licked her lips, swallowing to try and quench her dry throat, "Everything that woman did was out of fear, much like everyone else; however, she knew how to tick your interest and she used that to her advantage. Honestly, I am ashamed. I only noticed it when she told me about her plan."

A twitch in his eye, he was irritated. It was known through body language and the knowledge of his nature that he wanted to tear Makato apart, limb from limb, until her body was unrecognizable.

"What? Afraid to face the truth of her decision. She could have run away with ease; she could have killed you, but both of those options would have been considered a mercy for you. She took away the one thing that you valued: herself. That must eat at you a lot."

With a swift motion, he scooped the former wife from her neck, squeezing her throat as he raised her to face him eye-to-eye.

"You are a worthless bitch who cannot even reproduce, summing you up to nothing. What is your worth?"

Nothing but the struggling breaths of the woman attempting to pry herself from this monster's grip.

"Exactly, you are worth nothing."

Darkness, wherever they were, was dark. The girl and her lover were still in the woods, alive as well as they could manage. She could only remember running into this place before being shoved into the dark area. She felt the ground around her and reached her arms out into the pitch black as she tried to navigate this strange place. It scared her.

"Makato-san? Where are you?"

No response, only silence.

It was dark and frightening, and she did not know what to do. What could she do? She could cry, so she did; she cried as she tried to find her way back. This had to be some kind of night terror. She would wake up, and she would be at that doorway, welcoming her lover into their home, eating their meal, and then sharing the news. Her lover would get her caretaker's blessing, get married, and live happily ever after, right?

Dreadfully wrong.

Instead, a hand reached out and pulled her out of the darkness. The world was still unlit, but moonlight and the flames dancing in the distance could be seen nearby; however, she was not a part of the conflict.

She was about to scream, cry for help, anything to get attention drawn to her location, but was stopped by a large palm to the mouth.

"Shhh, my love. It is only me. It will be alright."

For the first time that night, she felt genuine relief. Turning her head to see her man, she looked down at her disheveled features. She weakly smiled, moving herself to embrace him. It all lasted for a few seconds until she realized the missing member of their little group.

"Where is Makato-san?" she whispered.

The man looked down, not daring to respond. She attempted to make eye contact, but he would only look away.

"Where is she?" she insistently asked, but louder.

" I do not know; a couple curse users emerged from the woods. Makato shoved us into the ditch, and when I came out, she was gone."

"Well...Well, we must go look for her."

A grasp to the wrist effectively stopped the girl.

"No, I cannot risk losing you, and I know Makato-san would agree. She would not want you going out to risk your life to save her."

How could he say that? How dare he say that! What right did he have in this decision?

"Then you do not know her." she scowled, trying to withdraw from his hold, but his hand did not budge.

"Then why would she tell you everything had she not already predicted the possibility that she might die."

"Because... because...she needed me to know because if we were going to run away, I would need to put in my own weight by knowing our threat...yes, that was it! Now let me go!" She tried to reason, but not to him—herself.

Denial.

"It was a confession! As if she were lying on her deathbed, she confessed everything to you. She wants you to move on, knowing there are dangers like your father. She wants you to kno-"

"Well, she may not be dead yet, so we have to try!"

With whatever strength she had deep down, she broke free from his grasp, sprinting towards the village and the flame. She could hear him following her, but in her mind, she wanted to believe he was doing it because he could see her reason. He would help; she was sure of it.

She was almost there, and she swore she could see the silhouette of her caretaker, but then she found herself on the ground. It was only for a second before being lifted into the air, a hand covering her mouth as she got further from her destination.

Kicking, muffled screams, and the distant cackling of flames could be heard. She bit her partner’s hand in an attempt that he would let her go from the sudden pain, but he was resistant. He merely grunted and winced while continuing his journey back. But then there was a halt.

There she was, Makato, thrown onto the ground. She could see her in the distance. The woman looked weak but very much alive, and she was right there. The daughter kicked, shoved, jabbed, and bit even more, trying to get loose. However, her lover would not budge because although he could see Makato, he could also see the shadow hovering over the woman, the shadow your daughter was refusing to look at.

Then the shadow disappeared, and the dreadful monster emerged, Sukuna Ryomen, hovering over Makato with disdain. Watching as she tried to crawl away but failed miserably. She was fighting, doing her best, but her fate was inevitable.

Death was the only option, and death is what she got.

Ryomen Sukuna caved into his impulses, ripping her limb from limb until she was unrecognizable. The daughter watched, horrified, as the woman who raised her was mutilated to nothing but a pulp. What sort of sick joke was this? She remained silent as she tried to think of who would pull such a childish trick, watching as the image got smaller until nothing was left. Eventually, it was just a tiny yellow dot in the distance and nothing more; all she could do was look at it.

"Promise me you will live."

Breath in

Breathe out

Breath in

Breathe out

Breath in

Breathe out

Breath in

Breathe out

Breath in

Breathe out

Breath in

Breathe out

Breath in

Breathe o-

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

The scream echoed through the dark room, and you tried to comprehend where you were. The walls were closing in, and the air was too thick to breathe. It felt like like suffocation.

What was this?

Why now?

Where is this?

Why is this?

How is-

"Y/n!"

You snapped back into reality, frantically looking at your surroundings to notice you were in your bedroom.

"Y/n, what happened? Are you okay?"

The silence was tense as you sat there, trying to remember your nightmare. You thought long and hard, but in the end, you had nothing.

"I...I don't know."

You heard a sigh, a hand rubbing your back, and another reaching for your cheek, wiping the stray tears you were unaware of.

"Do you want me to stay with you tonight, again?"

Some of you wanted to say no, but the opposing side longed for it. You stared at the clock on the wall before you, reading the time. It was a little past midnight, and you had hardly gotten any rest. You had a big day tomorrow, and rest was crucial to get through your day. God knows the things you would do if you did not properly sleep.

Turning to your twin brother, you weakly nodded, "Okay."

He did not hesitate to tuck you under his arm as if in an attempt to protect you from any harm to come your way, to shield you from the nightmares. However, despite his presence, it was like a part of the dream appeared that you remembered but didn't at the same time.

"Do you think I'll be a good mother?"

"Why are you asking me that?"

"Please just answer me...for my sanity."

Your brother sighed, resting his cheek on your head as he rubbed your shoulder to comfort you.

"Y/n, I have no doubt you will make a great mother. Come on, let's go back to sleep. I'll stay here, and everything will be better in the morning."

"Promise me it will be better in the morning."

"What?"

"You don't have to hold up to it. I just...I just want to hear you say it."

"I promise it will be better in the morning."

"Okay..."

New series?? Sequel???Maybe, but first, a little break ☆~ (˃̵ڡ‘˶ )

Taglist (Thank you all so much for being a part of this series):

@littlemochi @mistalli @youngbeansprout @bbylime @bangtan-forever1479 @idktbhloley @izayas-rings @o3o-aya @pyschopotatomeme @persephonehemingway @otomaniac @meforpr3sident

@fourcefulcupid @nezuscribe @my-simp-land @zukuphilia @niya729 @spiritofstatic @bbittersw33t @kashasenpai @decaysan @honeybaegle @ygslvr @outrofenty @esposadomd @ali2426 @anmath @yazzzmints @lovingnahida @sincerest-one @rosemaydone321 @j0dios @k-ki3rd @maki-zenin1944 @shadowywizardarcade @ae-mius @xiangping-28 @loaves4me @aloraaaxcrystalzx @chariotwaves 

[ichorai]

the wolf and the beast ; toji fushiguro.

part of the A SONG OF CURSES AND CROWNS collection!

pairing ; assassin!toji fushiguro x stark!f!reader

synopsis ; nobody told him that his target had a direwolf.

words ; 3.3k

themes ; fantasy, asoiaf au, assassin au, prisoner au, enemies-to-???

warnings / includes ; mentions of murder, descriptions of injury/blood, classism, foul language, toji hates your wolf, toji stealing from a whorehouse LMAO

main masterlist.

Lannisters paid good money for their dirty work to be done by someone other than them. Toji was more than happy to comply once he heard the price for your head was enough to last him a few years, maybe even more if he stopped betting on jousting events. He asked no questions, and didn’t bother dwelling on the reason why they wanted you dead. Though, if he had to guess, it might have been because you were the most eligible noble lady to be married off to the king (a white-haired cunt, Toji liked to call him). Being Queen Regent of the Seven Kingdoms was clearly a position the Lannisters were hungry to get their claws on. 

Toji didn’t really care. He was just happy to get the gold.

It was supposed to be a simple, easy task. After all, you lived in a cushy castle, draped in expensive furs and coats, eating the softest of breads and drinking the sweetest of nectars. The spoiled brats were always the easiest to take out. 

Getting into Winterfell went smoother than he’d expected. A few miles down the road leading to the castle, he’d killed two men driving a horse-led cart full of wine barrels—meant to be delivered right to Winterfell. 

And so he got through the South gate with ease. The guards interrogated about the wine, and Toji prattled on about the aging process of the alcohol, the special concoction of grapes and infused spices, the sweetness of the reds, the tartness of the gold wines, and whatnot. None of it was really true, of course. Toji just spoke out of his ass, pulled out product papers he found in the satchels of the men he killed, and smiled charmingly when the guard waved his hand to let him pass.

A gangly, young stableboy with red hair and blue eyes escorted him to cellars, where the wine barrels would be stored. And, after asking the little boy, Toji realized, to his utter delight, the Great Keep was just above him. 

Up the cobblestone staircase he went, far louder than a mouse, but Toji moved quick enough for it not to matter. 

There was one problem, however. He hadn’t taken into account the possibility of you not being in your chambers. Which, you clearly weren’t. The entire Keep was silent and vacant, save for a few handmaidens he spotted collecting soiled laundry. He made sure to keep out of their sight.

And so, Toji settled for waiting in the largest chamber—which he assumed was yours, being the Warden of the North and all. He glanced around, inspecting all the trinkets laid about on your desk: silver jewelry, shoddy wooden carvings of wolves, and, interestingly, various scabbarded daggers. He pocketed what looked to be of some value. He inspected some more, lazed around on your large bed, and rifled through the many furs and fine garments in your closet. Many of the dresses he held up to his chest spanned only half the width of his broad shoulders, much to his amusement.

Hours later, once footsteps echoed down the hall, Toji sprang up from the polished wooden chair (he totally hadn’t fallen asleep) and hid behind the door. 

You strode in, covered in dirt, snow, and dried blood. There were leaves clinging to your hair. It seemed that you’d just gotten back from a hunting party. You had yet to spot the tall, burly man in your chambers, your back still to him as you began to shirk off your boots.

That was when Toji moved. 

Curved blades in hand, Toji surged forward and aimed to stab you right through your heart—

You turned around just in time to see your direwolf lunge at the figure, her sharp teeth sinking into Toji’s shoulder. The man let out a startled cry of pain, the weight of the wolf sending him careening down to the ground, his head cracking against one of the posts of your bed. Stars danced about his vision as pain shot down from nearly every part of his body.

Its teeth tore through the musculature of his bicep and collar, its claws tearing through his tunic and the skin of his abdomen with each swipe. Toji landed a poorly aimed strike to the direwolf’s midriff, but she merely grew more aggressive in her ministrations. 

Nobody had told him you had a fucking direwolf.

If he’d known, he would’ve reconsidered taking the job. He still would have agreed, in the end, the gold was too much to turn down, but it would’ve been good information to know beforehand. 

Curse the Lannisters. Curse their gold. Curse you and your stupid pet—

“Down, Reika,” you ordered, which had the accursed beast backing away from him with snarling, bared teeth, dripping with what he assumed was his blood. “Good girl.”

Toji made a strangled noise of pain as he attempted to sit up.

“It’s been a long day,” you stiffly told him, eyes narrowed as you knelt down and pressed one of the daggers from your desk—now unsheathed—right over his jugular. The cold metal kissed his skin and he immediately stopped moving. He could see his weapon scattered an arm’s length behind you. There was no way he could possibly reach it without you slitting his throat first. “Hunting party gone wrong. I wanted nothing more than to come home and take a long, hot bath. And what do I have to deal with? A sad attempt at an assassination, and my carpets covered in your blood.”

Toji scowled, but said nothing in return. 

“Guards,” you said, strangely calm for someone who had nearly (if not for your wretched, overgrown dog) been assassinated. “Take him to the dungeons.”

As Toji was dragged away, leaving a dripping trail of blood in his wake, he caught a glimpse of you kneeling by your wolf, your hand shaking with adrenalized fear you hadn’t dared show in front of him. He was glad he was able to see it—just a glimpse of weakness was more than enough ammunition for him.

The dungeons were cold and dreary. Much like the rest of the North, Toji bitterly thought. It was hard to see as well, for the sparse few torches hanging on the walls only barely lit the walkway. 

He could hear everything, though. Dripping of water in the distance. A raven cawing outside. The torch’s flame whispering greed to the air. Footsteps growing louder—

Toji sat up against the wall when a figure stepped in front of the wrought metal bars, dark with decades of use and age. 

“Food,” came your voice. “I don’t usually do this, you know.”

The man, your prisoner, lazily tilted his head up from his position on the ground to look at you, his gaze dropping down to your hands where one carried a bowl of braised meat and the other held a chalice of wine. The chalice alone was probably worth more than anything he’d ever owned in his life.

“Bring food to a man? I can tell,” Toji dryly responded.

Your expression remained unchanged. “Bring food to a prisoner.”

It was then that Toji noticed a pair of glowing eyes by your legs, the beast’s tale curling over the back of your knees. The maester might have bound him up nice and clean (though not without pursed lips of obvious disapproval), but his wounded shoulder still throbbed with terrible pains. 

“You brought your dog,” he observed.

“Wolf,” you corrected. “Her name is Reika.”

“Wretched thing,” Toji half-heartedly snarled.

The beast snarled back at him. Its eyes, amber and sharp, only grew brighter with agitation.

You decided to ignore his comment. “Do you want to tell me what you were doing in my chambers?”

There was clear disdain in your features, from what little Toji could see of it anyway, but he could also pick up on the evident curiosity there—it wasn’t every day you had to deal with a Southern commoner.

“Won’t make much of a difference now, would it?” he drawled, kicking his feet out so he could rest his elbows over propped-up knees.

“Your choice of words could very likely spark up a war between houses,” you said. It was said as a jest, though you knew it was a large possibility. 

“Would be no fun to start a war if I’m not there to partake,” came his reply. His stomach cinched as he inhaled sharply, the warm smell of peppered venison wafting through his cell. “You came here to give me food and yet you’re still clutching onto it like a babe with its mother’s teat.”

“You have a foul mouth,” you said, now slightly amused. Who knew the Warden of the North had a sense of humor? “Tell me who sent you. Then comes the food.”

Toji glowered some more. For a minute, he considered what you’d do if he simply refused to say anything. But his tummy grumbled, and his resolve dissipated into mist.

“The Lannisters paid me a pretty sum to have you dead,” he said. 

To his interest, you didn’t seem a single bit surprised. “Ah. Yes, I suspected so. Jenna Lannister was particularly prickly to me last we met.”

“Are you going to give me the food or what?” Toji barked, words heavy with irritation. He really couldn't care less about your snooty endeavors.

“I don’t want the throne,” you went on, much to his chagrin. Though, you did lower yourself to his same position and slipped your wrists through the bars to place down the bowl and chalice. “Not the Iron one, at least. The burden is heavy… and the North is enough for me. Marrying the king means I’d have to sire heirs, and I have no interest in doing so. Winterfell is not short of Starks—my brother and his lady wife have had enough little children for our name to carry on the family legacy for centuries.”

Toji could have easily grabbed at your wrists and slammed your head bloody into the bars. Your stinking mutt made him pause, however, and you pulled away before he could make a move. 

Besides, he was hungry.

Toji tore at the meat like a rabid animal. It fell apart in a deliciously tender manner. Hot soup dribbled down his palms, which he ravenously licked away. You didn’t seem to mind at all. In fact, you took a seat opposite his cell and watched him with clear fascination.

“How’d you get that scar?”

Toji chewed at a particularly large chunk of meat and swallowed it with little effort. “Not everyone grows up in a lavish castle eating pastries and meats and sucking squire cock.”

It took you a moment to respond, but when you did, your words were calm and flat. “I’ve brought you meat. If it is pastries and squire cock you require, you need only ask. Give you a taste of a lordly life.”

Now you really must have been japing. Mocking him, even. Toji didn’t find you all that funny. 

“Why are you here?” he gruffed around another mouthful after taking a long swig of wine. “Are friends hard to come by in the North? Or is it just you?”

That seemed to strike a nerve. You sucked at your teeth. 

“I saw you,” he pressed. “As your guards dragged me away. I saw you looking scared. Cowering by your wolf because I nearly got you. If that beast hadn’t been there, you would have been long dead. It would suit you.” Toji’s eyes gave you an intrusive onceover, despite all the layers you were wearing. “You’d make a lovely corpse.”

“Only a fool fights back fear,” you shot back, though it was quite obvious that your confidence had taken a blow. “Fear keeps us alive.”

Toji made a humming noise into the bowl that he picked up to slurp at the last remaining drops of soup. 

“More,” he demanded once he pulled his face away, tongue laving over his lips to catch what had smeared over his mouth. The portion you had given him was ridiculously small.

Perhaps that was a calculated choice. Toji only realized that when you spared him a cold little smile. 

“Hey!” he growled out when you pushed yourself back onto your feet. “I’m fucking starving here!”

Silent as a wraith, you strode out of the dungeons with Reika padding along beside you.

Much time passed. Each night (Toji assumed it was night, he could hardly tell since there were no windows anyway), you would come down with a bit of food and drink. You would sit and talk with him about the most mundane of things, the most asinine of topics, and the most boring of subjects. Toji yawned and yawned so you would take the hint, but you ignored him each time.

He was beginning to think you truly didn’t have any friends up there. Other than your stinky mutt, of course.

There was even one time where you had opened the grating. From what he heard, Starks were quite religious folk—slobbering all over their bloody trees and old gods. He’d told you he wanted to see the Godswood as he himself was devout (he, of course, was nowhere near devout and hadn't prayed a single day in his life), and you, with softened eyes, reluctantly agreed on the condition that he remained shackled and quiet. 

He killed a guard that night trying to escape. You struck him with a terribly strong blow to the back of his head, and your damned wolf sunk its teeth into his shin. The maester was none too happy to see him again. No milk of the poppy was administered, so he suffered through the pain. It was all worth it, though. He was outside of the dungeons for a grand total of two seconds, and the air had never tasted so clear and so sweet. 

You were angry at him for quite a while but still found it in you to visit nearly every day, which Toji found highly amusing. Then you grew soft on him again (which took many moons), and Toji oft wondered if you usually pardoned prisoners this quickly. 

“Why haven’t you killed me yet?” Toji asked on the seventh moon of him being your prisoner. Of course, he had asked this question multiple times before, but your answer seemed to always vary.

You may be of value. You do not deserve death. The gods smile at mercy. Reika likes you. 

Those were all reasons you’d given him before. Though Toji had a very hard time believing the last one.

You regarded him with knitted brows. “If I’m being honest… I’ve grown quite fond of you.”

Toji drew his head back in surprise. Then, an arrogant, flirtatious smile flitted over his scarred mouth. It was the same smile he used to use on whores in the Street of Silk so they would take him to their seducing chambers—he could never understand how the drawers and shelves of whorehouses seemed to always have an abundance of loose coppers and silvers. 

“But—” You began to continue but Toji quickly cut you off.

“I know what you’re going to say,” he said, lifting a hand up. You frowned. “You’ve fallen in love with me. And you’re thinking that if the circumstances were different, we’d be pawing at each other’s bodies like there was no tomorrow. And you worry that your people wouldn’t approve. You needn’t worry about such matters—I’m sure Northern folk would regard me as your equal if you let me out of the cell and force me into marriage. That would make me their liege lord, wouldn’t it?”

An indignant look settled over your features, your skin flushed as if you’d downed a heady drink.

“Are you mad? Of course I’m not in love with you, you imbecile,” you retorted, crossing your arms. “Besides—I’m not looking to marry anyone. And if I was, you’d be the very last on my list, thank you very much.”

Toji didn’t even have the gall to look embarrassed at his bold assumption.

“I had to try, didn’t I?” He gave you that lazy smirk once more. “Being Lord of Winterfell sounds like a cushy life. Cushier than this one, at least.”

“Well…” You toyed with a frayed thread on your robes. “I can offer you a life cushier than prison.”

Toji snorted. “I’m not going to be a glorified stableboy or a squire. I’d much rather sit here and have you bring me food than the other way around.”

“I considered sending you to the Night’s Watch,” you admitted with a ponderous look. “There are plenty of men like you there—I’m sure they would welcome another good fighter.” Toji didn’t have time to snark about how you’d complimented him before you were already speaking again. “But then I realized that you might still be of use to me.”

“I’m a good bed warmer,” offered Toji. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laid on a plush bed. Not since yours, at least. He thought about your bed often. Usually without you in it. The times he did imagine you there, your wolf always came in and ruined his entire lovely daydream.

You spared him an unamused look. “I want you to be my spy. Ears and eyes for me down South. Particularly in the West, where the lands crawl with Lannister cock-sucking houses. I need to know what they plan so I can be five steps ahead.”

A moment of silence passed by. Toji’s upper lip curled into a sneer.

“No,” he began to protest. “Why in the seven hells would I—”

“I’ll pay you with enough gold to sink you to the bottom of the ocean. And once you have tired of gold, I’ll fill you with as much venison stew as your heart desires. And once you get sick of that, I will find you a Northern castle and grant you the title of a lord for your services. You’ll live the rest of your days comfortably. Granted you do as I tell you, of course.”

That made Toji pause and consider your offer.

“Why me?” he finally asked. He drew nearer to the bars, nearer to you. 

“You’re a Southerner, aren’t you? You know the lands better than any of my loyal Northmen. You’d… fit in.”

Toji wanted to laugh. He wasn’t ever very good at fitting in.

“How do you know I wouldn’t just lie to you and ally myself with the Lannisters?”

“Because,” you huffed, nose wrinkling. “You think they’re all cunts. You’ve said it yourself plenty of times. And—I’m not foolish enough to have you as my sole plant. If you lie, I’ll know. And I’ll have Reika hunt you down… and she won’t be held back this time.”

She was holding back the previous times? Toji distantly thought with a scowl. 

“What do you say?”

“It’s a far journey down South. You’ll miss me.” Toji’s cheek pressed up against the uneven metal bars. They were so cold it felt as if they were burning right through his flesh. 

“I’ll find another prisoner to entertain,” you replied, eyes glimmering. Another jape. You didn’t deny his words, however.

A moment of considerable silence passed. Toji bowed his head ever so slightly. The first time he’d ever done so to you.

“I’m in, Wolf.” It didn’t pass his notice how your eyes lit up, how your back stood a little straighter, how your fingers curled excitedly into the fabric of your riding cloak. You didn’t even seem to mind the nickname he’d given you. “When do I start?”

[deus-sema]

My dear Haladriels/Saurondriels,

I understand that we all here are very passionate about this ship of ours. But, as responsible and law abiding citizens of whichever country each of us belongs to, it is also our duty to weed out the bad apples in our midst who besmirch the good name of our community within the fandom.

Unlike the rest of us sensible and well meaning souls who know how to ship in a proper and decent manner, these notorious shippers have crossed all limits when it comes to delusion and their audacity knows no bounds. In the name of all that is good and just, they need to be called out.

Here are those individuals. If you come across them anywhere do NOT engage. They are beyond saving. Just block/report and move on. If it were upto me, I would have them jailed and locked away from civilized society but alas.

(1) Lost Cause #1

This guy is unbelievable for he comes up with the most outlandish headcanons about Sauron and Galadriel. He romanticizes the hell out of them and spends the entire day writing fluffy AUs where they end up happily ever after and have five kids or angsty ones where they pine for each other. Tch tch. I bet he doesn't know or understand anything about the books or the characters and is simply projecting onto Galadriel and trying to live his fantasy of fixing Sauron through her. It's okay if he wants to do that but then he starts acting like it's canon and it gets annoying. Someone please tell him Galadriel and Sauron aren't star crossed lovers.

(2) Lost Cause #2

Then there this dude who is legit dangerous. The first one was just an ignorant soul who romanticizes them whereas this one sexualizes the ship. Can you believe it?! He sexualizes the Lady Of Light and the Dark Lord. His fics are all porn and no plot. His fanart is blasphemous NSFW. He also prefers the ship when it involves dead dove, non con, stalking and obsession, all of which are supposed to be unhealthy, dangerous and illegal. I'm worried about his well being. If you ask me, like the other guy, he is projecting onto Galadriel too but instead of fixing the sexy bad boy, he wants to make Sauron worse. He,too, understands nothing about the books.

(3) Lost Cause #3

Last, but not the least, there is this guy who is.............hopeless. The other two shippers can still be rehabilitated with some time and effort but stay the fuck away from this one. He doesn't believe Sauron and Galadriel don't end up together. Those two live in AUs but for him, his AU is canon. He fully expects Sauron and Galadriel to ride off to the sunset together and won't let anyone stand in his way. Be it Amazon or the Tolkien Estate. As we waste time on social media, he is devising a means to travel back in time, hold Tolkien at gunpoint and force him to make Saurondriel endgame in the books.

Now, remember everyone. We are NOT like these shippers. We are good shipperses. Nice shipperses who stay in our lane. Sweet shipperses.

[flightfoot]

ML Fanfic Recs for 2023: 10K - 20K Words

So I’ve been going through and adding particularly good fics I’ve read throughout the year. Only Complete fics, of course. Enjoy!

Chat Noir and Marinette decide to fake date in order to get Buttercup jealous enough to confess. Why won’t that boy make a move on such a wonderful girl as Marinette? And why is he beginning to hope that Buttercup stays blind?

Adrien wakes up in Nino’s arms. Neither of them have any explanation for this, considering they were nowhere near each other the night before. 

Marinette and Zoe uncover a ring stashed away in a closet. Why does it have an unusual effect on Chloe?

Felix isn’t careful enough when he goes snooping around the Agreste Mansion. Gabriel decides that he can’t let him roam free.

Kim bets Alix that she won’t be able to attend all of her friends’ weddings in a row. She has never been one to turn down a challenge.

All this and more below the break!

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May I Introduce Myself, Your Highness? by @chocoluckchipz

Whether picking up a stray animal off the streets or saving a dying child at the market, Adrien had always strived to be the best version of himself. Truly, he would've been the perfect candidate to be snatched up by a kwami, were he an orphan, dying somewhere remote after a short life full of nothing but suffering and misery. Yet as it stood, the sole heir to the French throne had little to complain about. Apart from, perhaps, a complete absence of a love life. That is until a mysterious girl, wandering around his gardens at night, catches his attention.

I love Fantasy AUs. It’s a bit unclear what’s happening at first, but it all gets explained in the last chapter. Also don’t worry about the age gap between Marinette and Adrien at the start of the story, I promise it’s not a problem in the end.

---

do you think I have forgotten about you? by @roseinaugust

Based on the song 'About You' by The 1975. Memory Loss. Told in alternating time lines, one leading up to and one dealing with the aftermath of Marinette relinquishing the Miracle Box and the guardianship. Marinette struggles with her life after losing her memory, though there is a persistent voice that calls to her that always seems just out of reach in her memory.

Beautiful memory loss fic here, with seeing Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s relationship before she gave up the Miracle box, juxtaposed with the present day, when Adrien is only a stranger to her. I could really feel how Marinette was struggling with navigating these new circumstances, with her friends seeming to expect her to remember, to be who she was to them, to Adrien especially, before, and her just... not knowing whether she can do that. It’s got a happy ending though, for those who are concerned about that.

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Creative Lies and Destructive Truths by @azuriteartist

Alya and Lila are two sides of a never-ending fight. The fight between truth and lies, between honesty and deception, between justice and personal gain. And now they have the powers to elevate that fight to a city-wide level.

Can Alya stop the deception before it destroys the city? And can Lila stop the truth before it destroys her?

So everyone who’s been around my blog for awhile knows how much I love Alya getting the spotlight (I mean my sideblog alyaappreciation is dedicated to her, because frankly, she needs it), and azurite’s lovely fic here is no exception. Fu ended up giving Tikki to Lila and Plagg to Alya. There actually isn’t tension between them at first, they get along well to start with, but Plagg knows Lila’s lying about things and eventually pushes Alya to take action once they grow alarming, until the two of them are both accusing each other of being liars as superheroes, and the public doesn’t know what to believe. 

I’m betting there’s more of this AU to come. I hope so, I love the consideration and agency it gives to both Alya and Lila.

---

How Marinette Learned to Stop Worrying And Love The Ball by @rosie-b

Hidden from the crowds thronging around the busy fairy portal in Paris's town square, a fae gate sits at the edge of the forest, locked, rusty, and full of ancient magic. Marinette thinks that this abandoned gate must not work anymore... but one day, a fairy disguised as a black cat steps through it.

Ah, Fantasy Soulmate AUs, my beloved XD. This ain’t the only one of this fic type I’m gonna be recommending. This is just a cute fluff fic without much strife. I love Marinette and Chat Noir being able to be childhood friends via his visits, even if he has to pretend to be her cat whenever he comes over, and I ESPECIALLY adore Alya being his chaperone and quickly becoming friends with Marinette in her own right. It ain’t a complicated plot, but it is a nice and warm fic.

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Vengeance Noire by @phiellydinyia

After a horrific argument with his father, Adrien escaped from the mansion with his heart in pieces. In hindsight, it made sense why an akuma was sent his way. He shouldn't have let his emotions get the better of him.

But he never expected Plagg to be even more upset than he was. He never expected his own kwami to be akumatized. To become the threat of a city he swore to protect. And what's worse is the fact that Chat Noir can't jump in to save this one.

But Ladybug can. And that's why he has to find her as quickly as possible, suit or no suit.

I love some good Adrien angst, especially with a delicious side order of Plagg and Adrien’s bond with each other. Even as Adrien’s barely functional, though, he’ll do everything in his power to save Plagg, even if Plagg wishes he wouldn’t go quite that far. 

---

the best laid plans (of bugs and bakers) by @mexicancat-girl

Paris is buzzing with the appearance of a new ladybug-themed hero, Scarabella.

Alya decides to use her second hero identity to help her best friend Marinette. A bit of her flirting with Marinette is bound to make Marinette's crushes jealous and finally ask her out! Her plan is fool-proof…!

Except when it's not. Not enough people are talking about Scarabella flirting with Marinette. How can Alya properly help her best friend if the news can't be bothered to cover Marinette's budding romance with Scarabella and only posts things about Marinette with Chat Noir?! So Alya puts her all into her plan, upping up her flirting each time she appears as the newbie hero Scarabella.

This totally does not backfire in any way.

I adore fics that center on Alya, I haven’t exactly been shy about that fact. This is a nice one for some Alyanette adorableness! (And some Scarabella and Chat banter, I really enjoyed reading that as well). “Fake” flirting to make crushes jealous tends to turn real very quickly, and this is no exception. It’s hilarious, Alya’s the last one to figure out that her romantic relationship with Marinette is very much real XD.

---

Control by @generalluxun

A fun and rebellious gesture by her friend Zoé leaves Marinette accidently in possession of something more precious than she ever expected to hold.

It's a blessing. It's a curse. It's life itself.

She has no idea what to do. There is so much wrapped up not only in WHAT, but also WHO. Her friends and partners can offer advice, consolation, and support, but in the end when you are both Ladybug and the Guardian you are the one in control.

This is a fantastic SentiChloe fic. Marinette ends up with Chloe’s amok and isn’t sure what to do with it, whether to try to give it to Chloe, whether to try and use it to make Chloe a better person, or whether to just hold onto it secretly. Along the way, she ends up getting into Chloe’s head, getting a better idea of Chloe’s mindset, what she thinks and feels when she does the things she does. I loved seeing her struggle with figuring out what to do, it ended up being a great character study for both Marinette and Chloe!

---

Within Your Heart by Inkyibis

It's Valentine's Day and Ladybug just wants to her superhero partner to find his love.

And what she wants, the Lucky Charm will create.

If only she could remember what it is she did last night.

Adrino fic here! Marinette’s drunk and feeling awful that her superhero partner is alone on Valentine’s (she’s in a loving and committed relationship with Alya), so she creates a Lucky Charm to help Chat find love! In this universe, Ladybug’s Lucky Charms have the power to create new rules for the universe to follow, such as making one that demands that if you have any magic in you, you have to tell the truth or else you’ll freeze. Or in Adrien’s case, that he has to wake up in the arms of his true love every day XD. It’s very sweet and I love both Adrien’s and Nino’s relationship, and the relationship between the rest of the Miracuteam members as well, even though that’s not the focus.

---

This Distance Between Us by @coffeebanana

After defeating Monarch, the search for the Peacock Miraculous brings Ladybug and Chat Noir to a hotel room in London. But it's hard to enjoy the victory when Ladybug can't figure out why Chat's been so quiet, why he seems so sad. How's she supposed to help if she has no idea what's wrong?

This is a great Sentiadrien fic, with Chat freaking out about it and feeling like he’s not worthy of Ladybug’s affections, but not telling her what’s actually wrong because he thinks she won’t want him anymore if she knows. Of course, he’s wrong about that.

Also there’s a pretty intense confrontation with Felix, pissing Chat Noir off is a bad idea.

---

Auspicious by The_Rabbit42

Entry #6 for AU April 2023: Reverse-Crush Kwami-Swap

Adrien is quiet and reserved whenever he's not consumed by stress. And between extracurriculars and modeling and his responsibilities as Mister Bug, he's often stressed. He appreciates his kitten, but he loves his bright and outgoing classmate. Not that she knows that.

Marinette's parents have always allowed her a good deal of independence, but she's felt her confidence skyrocket since getting Plagg. Simply being Lady Noire allows her to be more flirty and free. She likes her friends, but she loves her stoic and heroic partner. Not that he knows that.

This is just a lovely fic that’s exactly what it says on the tin. I like how Rabbit goes into what Lady Noire’s and Mister Bug’s dynamic is like here especially.

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Of Crisp Days and Crispier Cakes by @scribeofrhapsody

Gabriel wants to not be sick. Adrien wants to make a cake. Nathalie wants a chill birthday. Maybe they can help each other. Maybe it'll be a disaster.

So this starts off as just the cute fluff fic of Adrien and Gabriel attempting to make Nathalie a birthday cake that the summary indicates, but soon evolves into a more action-filled drama fic when Gabriel makes the terrible decision to akumatize a cashier while sick... a cashier who happens to be in the same shop as Nathalie and Adrien. Who are willing to put their secret identities at risk in order to save each other.

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After Irritation Do Us Start by @scribeofrhapsody

It was the most difficult decision of his life, but Gabriel did it. He let go of Hawk Moth. He moved on from Emilie. Now, all he wants is to enjoy life with his son and new wife. Unfortunately, a certain nephew of his seems to be determined to unearth what Gabriel needs to remain buried.

I love this look at what could have happened if during the season 3 finale, Gabriel had decided enough was enough and given up on being a supervillain, moving on with Nathalie instead. How much better things could have been if he’d just decided to stop - though Adrien still wouldn’t be happy to discover why Hawk Moth had suddenly stopped attacking.

Oh yeah, there’s an OC here called Gerald who Adrien’s puzzled by, since he’d never heard of this guy before the past year. At the end of the story you find out why he’s included in the story. It’s not a major thing, but it is kind of funny and fits well with the rest of the story.

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Rocking the Cat-Eyes by @buggachat

“I like being a girl.”

“That’s the alcohol talking,” Marinette snorted.

“I’ve always been a li’l jealous,” Adrien admitted.

“... Of what?”

“That you get to be a girl,” Adrien murmured, “and I don’t.”

—

When Marinette and Adrien host Girls' Night at their apartment, Adrien is easily welcomed to attend as "one of the girls"... but has a bit too much to drink. Some drunken confessions are spilt, some assumptions are made, and most of all...

Adrien is confused.

This is a great Genderfluid!Adrien fic. Marinette actually figures out that Adrien’s not entirely cis before he does, and tries to let him know she’s supportive... but unfortunately Adrien comes to some incorrect conclusions...

Anyway it’s a lot of fun, and Adrien rocks a dress and makeup!

---

Desperation by OuzoAthena11

Marinette is at the end of her rope. There seems to be no hope for defeating Monarch, not now that he has most of the Miraculous and has figured out how to transfer their abilities to others.

Tikki has an idea: Awaken the memories of who Marinette was in the past to see if any of their knowledge across time and the multiverse could help.

But this means that Marinette might forever be changed, and so will Chat Noir, if he should choose to do this.

Little did they know that they knew each other in their past lives, and how frequently they crossed paths and even were a couple... well, that meant that they are soulmates.

Star Wars crossover fic here, with Marinette as Obi-wan and Adrien as Quinlan. I like how the reincarnation aspect was handled here, with Obi-wan’s and Quinlan’s memories being prominent and them “waking up” in a way at first, but those settling back down after a bit and Marinette and Adrien going back to being mostly themselves, but with a lot more life experience under their belts and some cool new abilities - which comes in handy for taking down Monarch!

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Family by @unecoccinellenoire

“You know,” Nino grins, “if you need advice on being a big brother in a year or two I’m sure I could help.”

The bottom of Adrien’s stomach dropped out.

---

Adrien struggles with the concept of his father and Nathalie having children.

So this is a world where Adrien and Marinette managed to defeat Gabriel, taking his Miraculous, with them giving him an ultimatum: they won’t out him as being Hawk Moth so long as he doesn’t cause any more trouble and does right by Adrien. Gabriel does, in fact, move on finally to Nathalie, giving Adrien a lot of mixed feelings to deal with. He still loves them both despite everything, but he’s also angry at them and he definitely does NOT want them to have children, both because he thinks they’d like any biological child they had more (he’s also harboring guilt from indirectly being the cause of his mom’s death), and because frankly, they screwed up too much with Adrien for him to want them to inflict that on another child.

And then there’s also Adrien dealing with the realization that he’s a Senti on top of that and wondering why he and Felix look the way they do, what Emilie’s reasons were.

It’s mostly just Adrien getting to talk things out, navigating this emotionally fraught situation he finds himself in now that the dust is settled.

---

Galaxy In Your Eyes by @liiinerle

Arriving in Paris, Kagami almost immediately finds herself assaulted by a dark, infectious butterfly. When she wakes up, a ladybug-themed superhero is standing over her, and her eyes are like holes into an empty, vast, and incredibly alluring universe...

An AU where the two main Miraculous function differently from the norm.

Nice Marigami fic here! Or should I say, Ladygami - technically Marinette doesn’t exist, only Ladybug, who’s an immortal creation goddess, or something like that. But she still fights to protect Paris from Hawk Moth alongside Chat Noir, who is still a normal, squishy human underneath the suit.

Anyway, there’s a but of inspiration from Nimona here, with a lot of people being scared of Ladybug because she’s a bit... out there, especially when she shapeshifts to have like, 6 extra arms and a lobster tail. Kagami’s into it though XD

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Stay Weird, Ladybug by @diadraws

Ladybug receives an invitation at the end of a patrol!

Contains some of my own headcanons, most notably: MIRACULOUS HOLDERS ARE CREATURES!!! They get actual animal traits when transformed instead of just a costume. My tumblr is diadraws where I elaborate some more on my headcanons which may add some additional context to this fic if you are interested!

CONTENT WARNINGS: *major* depictions of panic attacks, discussion of child neglect/abuse, and a minor emetophobia (vomiting) warning towards the end.

I’ve loved the comics and fanart I’ve seen dia create for this AU, with Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s more animalistic designs, so reading a fic set in that AU was a real treat! It’s mostly just a Ladrien sleepover at Adrien’s house, but it’s very nice and cozy, with some good character development of Adrien helping Ladybug with panic attacks she keeps having.

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Trapped by @consistent-chaos-corporation

Felix asks to visit Adrien as soon as his father is gone. Gabriel catches him snooping, looking for Adrien's Amok.

Everything gets worse from there.

Damn, poor Felix. He came to try and help Adrien, but instead Gabriel stole his Amok, forcing him to obey his commands, holding him prisoner in his basement for months. If you want some quality Felix whump, this is the fic for you!

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When Secrets Come Undone by SortaArtsy

Ladybug promised not to tell Adrien... but she never promised not to confide in Cat Noir. What happens when Ladybug unintentionally vents to the one person who wasn't meant to know any of it?

****MAJOR SEASON 5 SPOILERS WARNING! ****

May not be season 6 compliant when it comes out.

This is a “Adrien finds out what everyone’s been keeping from him post-S5″ fic, and I think it’s handled really well! He feels very hurt, betrayed, and disbelieving initially about being a Senti and his father being Monarch (...mostly being a Senti, it ain’t that hard to believe that Gabriel was a supervillain), and is angry at everyone who kept it secret from him, but he still handles it well, going and talking to the people involved, getting their reasoning and perspective. 

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Wanted: Catnap by SortaArtsy

Adrien Agreste has barely been sleeping, trying to be everything expected of him. What happens when he spreads himself too thin? Sick!Adrien/ Cat Noir

Adrien’s just pushing himself so hard, trying to do his regular duties, until his illness forces him to rest. I love how concerned everyone is over him - even GABRIEL eventually relents and wants him to rest. It’s just cute and nice and fluffy.

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Felix is Fine by SortaArtsy

Felix wakes up sick, but is determined to keep it under wraps. Kagami refuses to be fooled. Feligami fluff. Implied past trauma/ abuse, though nothing explicit. Set post S5 so there are SOME SPOILERS!

If you want a Felix sick fic, this story’s the fic for you! I like how Felix and Kagami actually talk about why Felix is so determined to keep the extent of his illness hidden, what caused him to feel like he needs to do that, and Kagami’s understanding about it. Colt sucks.

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Our Tales Are Endless (That’s Why I Tell Them) by @joonapeach

Marinette lives a simple life - one surrounded by pretty dresses, fresh macaroons, and the calming view of Paris. It's a life she thinks she has always fit in.

And yet sometimes, when a certain boy comes by her shop with a flower and a new adventurous story, she can't help but wonder if there's something else she's missing.

This was a truly gorgeous story. It’s the classic “Marinette gives up the Miracle Box and loses her memories” storyline, exploring her life two years later. Even though she’s had time to heal and recover, she still feels like she’s missing something, something big. At least Adrien’s stopping by regularly to tell her stories about Ladybug and Chat Noir, even if she doesn’t understand why they resonate with her so well.

---

a winter so warm by @rosekasa

winters were hard for even the best of vampires, but at least adrien had marinette to keep him warm with her cuddles.

december was going to suck without her. so it was only to be expected to get extra cuddles in before she left, right?

(well, not really, considering those heating supplements he was taking, but she didn't need to know about that).

This one’s mostly just cute cuddly adorableness! It’s basically like all those “Marinette gets the Ladybug trait of needing to cuddle up to someone for warmth”, but with Adrien instead. And of course featuring Marinette being a very talented witch who just wants to help Adrien stay warm when she isn’t there XD.

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The 8 Weddings of Alix Kubdel by The_Rabbit42

The bet is simple: with the Rabbit Miraculous, Alix will be speaking at all of her friends' weddings. No matter what age they tie the knot, she'll be there looking the same. From Alix's perspective, she's going to each ceremony and reception one right after another in a nonstop bender.

This fic’s a lot of fun! I loved seeing all the different weddings, as well as how Alix slowly felt more and more out of place, with going forwards in time. Some of the weddings could get, uh. Exciting as well XD. And while there’s been years in-between Alix’s appearances for her friends at the wedding, for Alix, it’s only been a few hours, if that...

---

and I thought I heard you sing by @into-september

When Hawkmoth has been defeated and unmasked, Marinette is left with two problems and no solutions.

First, that Adrien is further out of her reach than ever before, and no-one can tell her how to get to him.

Second, that Cat Noir is far more troubled than she knew, and the only thing she can do is wait for him at the place they agreed to meet.

It’s your classic “Hawkmoth’s defeated and taken into custody but that means Adrien’s in for a rough time” sort of fic. Everyone’s worried about Adrien and wants to give him what comfort and support that they can, but he’s being hidden away from everyone (which I mean, honestly that’s a good move), so that’s not really possible. Plus, Ladybug’s noticed that Chat’s having a tough time in his civilian life, which worries her.

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Time Locked AU by PumpkinPatchworkQuilt

In Time Locked, instead of just fixing the damage it puts everything post akuma back to exactly how it was, people, buildings, memories, time. Since it’s more extreme than in canon it requires both The Cat and The Ladybug to complete the Cure,(and visually contains both as well). Because of this only those with a miraculous can recall the events and only those who cast the Cure will have any lasting effects from the fight and even then it’s limited to scars, phantom aches, getting a tad more muscle definition and of course spatial displacement in extreme cases.

Since technology is slightly resistant or incompatible with the miraculous magic, footage of right after the akuma attack will survive, on a technicality and as such only reappears when the time catches up the the recorded time, that could be minutes, hours, or days depending on how long it took to defeat the akuma.

First story: Alya’s Guide to Surviving a Magical Terrorist Which You Can’t Remember

In a world where the fight against Hawkmoth is kept secret from the public, one Alya Césaire sets out to bring the whole thing to light, (and possibly win a journalism award while she's at it)

This was an interesting AU, I loved the focus on Alya especially and her investigative abilities, figuring out that there was a battle between good and evil taking place in the background of everyone’s lives even though most signs of it are wiped clean after the battle’s over. And Adrien and Marinette pick up on her cleverness and want her to help! I love how much appreciation this fic shows for Alya.

---

Stitched Together by @nedjsmlfavs

Stitch Witch Marinette was just supposed to be having a nice, terrifying outing with her best friends. She never expected to find a magically trapped kitten, but here we are! Whatever happened to this poor little guy?

Poor Adrien, being transformed and chained up for ages, having no idea that he was gonna be rescued. But at least he got to have fun at Marinette’s place as a cat! 

Most of this fic is adorable, though with some dark undertones lying in wait. After all, SOMEONE chained up that poor little kitty...

---

Love Remains by @kasienda

Marinette stood in the center of her own room. The pink walls were adorned with sketches and photos, and other unfamiliar souvenirs of her life. Her eyes jumped curiously from a hand made purse to a bowler hat decorated with a feather to a cork board covered in pictures of her friends.

She loved her room. Which made sense, she supposed. She had theoretically been the one to decorate it, but she didn’t remember decorating it. And now, the room was like a cave filled with treasure.

Because each little piece of it held a secret - some part of herself that meant something to her, a clue to what her life had been like before…

Before she had woken up in the arms of a boy wearing a magic black catsuit. His heartbroken sobs had caused something in her chest to twist painfully. She hadn’t understood why then, but from that very first moment she knew she had wanted to make things better for him.

She had no idea how to do that now that she understood what she had lost.

Sixteen years worth of memories.

The echoes of which were papered onto the walls and notebooks of her room just waiting to be rediscovered.

No one else seemed to share her excitement.

Unlike most “Marinette loses her memories” fics, this one isn’t super angst for Marinette - she takes it in stride. Now, everyone else, not so much. It’s really interesting seeing her contrast who she appeared to be before with who she is now, particularly when it comes to her previous self being in love with Adrien and not Chat, while she’s in love with Chat and not Adrien. Of course eventually she finds out certain things that makes that make a lot more sense. She isn’t so different from how she was before after all...

---

Betrayal by @jennagrinsoverml

MAJOR EPHEMERAL SPOILERS!!

Ladybug planned to use Viperion's power of Second Chance to get Chat's identity to Su-han without Chat knowing or agreeing.

Of course, then the world went crazy, and she didn't go through with it.

But when an akuma exposes Ladybug's plan to Chat, he doesn't know that. He just knows that his Lady betrayed him.

He deals with his feelings in the best, most mature way he can think of.

He disappears.

So I, like a lot of others, wanted more follow-up on Ephemeral, and particularly on the betrayal of trust it was for Marinette to try to trick Chat Noir into giving up his identity to a third party without his knowledge or consent (I wrote my own take on that at the time, called Transcient, that I’m proud of). This fic did a good job of exploring that, with Adrien reacting in a manner that made sense to me (repressing his negative feelings about the situation as much as possible and trying to justify it to himself, but still feeling terrible despite his own best efforts), and how Marinette realized that she messed up, since Luka keeping it secret that he knows hers and Chat’s secret identities caused her to be upset as well. It did a great job of exploring those negative feelings and letting everyone talk things out, explain their viewpoints, and rebuild their relationships afterwards, which is something I really value.

---

Swimming in Circles by @generalluxun

Life has moved on for Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She's not where she thought she would be seven years ago, but she's still in a good place. Classes, hobbies, friends, her life is full despite the lingering shades of her faded yet sweet middle-school romance. Then just as quick at the first time, someone drops into her life and turns her into an absolute mess once more.

Love and crushes might be her undoing, but she's got a little more experience this time to weather the storm. This fateful stranger stirs memories as well as emotions inside of her, and with a forthrightness her old self would be jealous of, Marinette takes the plunge.

So this is a Trans fic, with Marinette’s new crush being a trans version of a certain classmate who she doesn’t recognize, who’s changed a lot, for the better. I like how it deals with the baggage she has with that person, has her think that through.

---

Three’s company by @torvalvt

Kagami has been doing her best for years to ignore her feelings for her friends. It doesn't help that Adrien and Marinette insist on spending as much time as possible with her, even going so far as inviting her along on their dates together. If only the affection she felt for them wouldn't get in the way of their relationship. Because it is growing harder and harder to tamp down her feelings with how close they are getting to her.

This is adorable. Adrien and Marinette really want Kagami to join their relationship and she just doesn’t dare hope for it. If you want some adorable Adrigaminette from Kagami’s perspective, I recommend checking this fic out!

[neowinestainedress]

© neowinestaindress; all rights reserved. do NOT repost, modify, or translate any work from this blog on any other platform and claim it as yours. you can find my works on ao3 (neowinestaindress) and wattpad (winestaintedress_; currently inactive).

LONG FICS

rock, paper, scissors ; 11k — johnjaenomin fivesome [s] — five friends rent a house together for a few weeks to enjoy summer like they used to do when they were younger, thinking that nothing could change their friendship. But teasing leads to pent-up tension and tension leads to problems. Problems that can’t be fixed by playing ‘rock, paper, scissors’ like when they were young.

can you handle it? ; 12k — johnjaenomin fivesome part 2 [s] — Johnny drags her wildest fantasies out of her mouth, or to be more precise, out of her phone. But can she handle it?

rose-colored glasses ; 18k — requested | bet!au [a] [s] — a long-lasting crush for her brother’s best friend, a bet, obsession, devotion and jealousy; all things that cannot lead to anything good. But the world that Jeno showed her was perfect and she couldn’t see what it really hid behind the rose-colored glasses. It was all distorted.

shattered glasses ; 28k — rose-colored glasses sequel | yandere [s] [f] [a] — there’s only one way to survive in a cage made of rose-colored glasses: don’t shatter the glasses, reality will be painful to accept. 

10 things I love about you ; 3k — requested | [f] [a] — she feels like Jeno’s only dating her for sex, and he proves to her how much he loves her by telling her ten of the things he loves about her the most (spoiler: they are more than ten).

wrapped around your fingers ; 8k — requested | CEO!au [s] [f] — Jeno finds out he has his girlfriend wrapped around his fingers... well, in a way he doesn’t quite expect.

drippin’ ; 18k — requested | x reader | haemarknomin fivesome [s] — you need relief from this strange pain you’re feeling, but you don’t know what to do. Your boyfriend and his friends offer to help, giving you a solution you didn’t quite expect coming.

into the woods ; 11k — inferno event | werewolves (feat kun, jaehyun, johnny, yangyang) [s]  — ‘don’t go in the woods, past the first two rows of trees.’ It’s a simple rule, planted in every kid’s mind in the village since they are born. Nobody knows why, but nobody dares to question why. But pride leads to do dangerous things and what’s supposed to be a silly bet to prove something, gets you lost a bit too far into the scary forest. And those who seem to be polite strangers turn out to be something they’re not.

sweet lies ; 7k — inferno event | ghost [s] — you find out what’s the weird sensation that’s been torturing you for years, but just when you think things start to make sense, he confuses you even more. Are you really who he thinks you are?

sweet deception ; 19k — inferno event | x reader | various monsters, multiple members [s] — on Halloween, nothing is as it seems. You end up in a room with six guys thinking they have amazing costumes only to be struck by reality when it’s too late; those are not costumes at all. But remember, on October 31, nothing is as it seems.

enough for you ; 5k — requested | traitor sequel + haechan [a] [f] — all she ever wanted was to be enough for Haechan, even now that they aren’t together anymore. Until someone opens her eyes and makes her realize that she is already enough the way she is.

happier ; 20k — requested | enough for you sequel + haechan [a] [f] [s] — Haechan can’t live with the weight of losing her forever, he can live even less with the fear that she might be happier with Jeno. He wonders if he’s still in time to fix what he tore apart or if he’ll have to pay the price for what he did forever.

wait for me ; 6k — gift | sequel | x reader [s] — jeno keeps his promise of turning you into a mess under him

secret ; 10k — gift | sub!jeno | x reader [s][f] — jeno has a secret he can’t tell anybody, not even you

do you want to play a game, detective? ; 10k — ghostface/scream!au [s] — in these past months your only goal is to find the killer that is terrorizing the town of Woodsboro, but when you get close to him and feel like you finally have the upper hand, Ghostface turns the game around again. Or, Ghostface wants to play with you but not like he does with his victims, and you let him.

SERIES

SOUR — COMPLETED distorted — COMPLETED

DRABBLES

nipple sucking— requested | x reader [s]

phone sex + innocence kink — requested | x reader [s]

villain!jeno + rough anal sex — requested | x reader [s]

shibari + hard!dom + toys — requested | x reader [s]

vampire!jeno x human!reader + sweet love making — requested | x reader [s]

game over — gamer!haechan + mark, jeno, jaemin | requested | x reader [s]

insecure reader — requested | x reader [f]

insecure jeno — requested | x reader [f]

fingers sucking — requested | x reader [s]

sub!jeno — requested | x reader [s] (it's more like a blurb but longer)

subspace — requested | x reader [s]

BLURBS / HARD HOURS

nominhyuck humiliation + filming [s]

nominhyuck humiliation [s]

[sirthisisa-wendys]

Sis, I need Mistuya x reader x Draken smut PLEASE! On my knees crying

the dragon bros need some loving

Draca: Mitsuya Takashi x Fem!Reader x Ken Ryuguji

wc: 741

tw: smut, fantasy AU

masterlist

Laughter booms in the tavern as you post up near the knights in the back, spreading mugs of mead into the circle.

"I've never seen a basilisk that big," a blonde man chuckles, tipping the mug back and listening to his friends continue the story. A purple-haired knight picks up the tale, giving props to each member at the table for their part in the battle.

"Another round?" you wonder, sweeping by and filling the empty mugs. "It's on the house."

"Here, here," the blonde laughs, raising his cup. "A toast to the lovely barmaid!" Everyone echoes the cheer, and you giggle. It's not long before a few take off, but you keep the knights full with mead as the night goes on.

Once the tavern is close to closing, you notice only two are left. There's a purple-haired one and the same blonde who cheered you earlier, both seeming unphased and stone-cold sober.

"Are y'all doing alright?" you wonder as you pass by, smiling at the handsome men.

"I actually have a bet with my friend here," the blonde begins, pointing at the purple-haired one. "Mitsuya thinks you've been at this business for a while, so you've seen many knights pass through here. Were you here when the Black Dragons were the knights of the land?"

"That was before my time," you chuckle, leaning over to grab their empty cups. "I learned the business - right before the group ended their first generation - from my father about how to run a tavern when I was just eight."

"So you're not too old," Mitsuya jokes, and the blonde swats at him. "What, Draken?"

"Be a gentleman!"

"I'm not too old," you smile, wagging your brows. "I've seen a few things here and there."

"Have you ever had someone try to flirt with you as you're working?" Draken wonders.

"Sure," you shrug. "I have two knights trying to flirt with me right now." Mitsuya and Draken blush, but one tries to hide it while the other smirks. "I'm gonna shut this place down for the evening, but you two can stay for a nightcap if you want." You wink and sashay away, expecting them to scurry out of the tavern and never reappear. But when they remain long after you've closed, you know they want something you've got to offer.

You find yourself stuck between them, making out with Draken as Mitsuya fucks you from behind, his hands holding your hips with care. Draken's fisting his cock, stroking it leisurely while you suck on his bottom lip.

"Bend over," Draken urges you, his dark eyes watching as you bow at the waist and hold onto his hips. "Pout for me." You obey, and he taps his dickhead against your lips, humming while staring at you. "So pretty..."

You open your mouth and let him slide his length over your tongue, tasting the salty precum with pride. Draken slowly thrusts into your mouth, holding your head and angling his hips back and forth. "Ah, fuck." Draken leans his head back and groans just as Mitsuya deepens his strokes. You bob back and forth on Draken's girthy cock, saliva trailing from your lips as you gag.

Mitsuya speeds up, and you moan around the cock in your mouth, making Draken hiss and buck his hips. You reach a hand down to play with your clit, the tips brushing against Mitsuya's balls while he fucks you.

"Such a sweet girl..." Mitsuya mumbles, reaching up to tweak your nipples. "Haven't felt the warmth of a woman in so long, have we, Ken?"

Draken grunts in agreement, pulling out his cock and jerking it in front of your face. It isn't long before he cums in your open mouth, each ribbon of cum coating your tongue. You swallow, then show Draken your empty mouth, to which he hums and pats your cheek lovingly.

Mitsuya doesn't take too much time cumming on your ass, pulling out just in time to get every drop right where he wants it.

"We'll come back at the end of every campaign," he promises, huffing softly. "You're truly skilled at being a good host."

"If anyone asks, this place has the best hospitality," Draken grins. "The kind we like."

"Come back anytime," you urge the two of them, standing up and wiping your ass off with a bar towel. "I'd be happy to have you here to keep me company."

taglist: @bertholdts--butt

[gamerwoo]

[Tales from the Pack] Soonyoung: Imperfect (Part Eleven)

Characters: Soonyoung x female reader

Genre/warnings: werewolf au, fantasy, angst, fluff at the end, they talk a lot about like rut and stuff but nothing happens, murder, suicide, lots of blood and gore, guns, mind control, lmk if i missed anything!!

Word count: 7,116

Summary: Soonyoung has always been desperate to find his mate, often going out into town at night to fill the void of imprinting that he craves so much. Then suddenly, you (quite literally) appear in front of him. He’d always dreamed and fantasized about what having his mate would be like, but the reality is nothing like he expected.  

a/n: dialogue in bold is meant to be english and whenever soonyoung says reader’s name it’s meant to be reader’s surname  

Previous | Next | Imperfect Masterlist

Kyung had stopped by the first day Soonyoung’s rut started just to let you know. It was only a couple days after you’d gone back with Hanbin to your old house, and the only thing you’d heard for the last two days was Jinyoung, Jaesang, and Hyojun making jokes about your mate’s situation that you could half understand.

You weren’t sure if it was because you knew it had started now, or if your instincts just knew, but it got harder for you to just stay home after Kyung went to visit.

The first day was pretty easy, but there was still a part of you that considered sneaking over despite what Soonyoung said. But your conversation with him -- and Kyung...and Joshua -- had you thinking: were you only feeling this way out of instinct, or did you really feel this way? Did you want to help him because you wanted to or because your instincts told you that you wanted to? You considered asking Rika, but you were also afraid that if you showed any interest in sneaking over that Hanbin would worry too much and make the boys take watch shifts or something.

Even though Jiung always very understanding and adamant that everyone in the pack could take care of themselves, no matter their gender or power or any circumstance, you were always ‘the baby’ along with Baekhan --and Minhun for the few days he was there. While Jiung and everyone else in the pack trusted you to take care of yourself and even others when needed, you always knew you were treated differently. More carefully. Like Baekhan, you were shy. You didn’t like new people and so your pack would step up and do it for you. It was partly why you took so long to even learn the language of the place you currently lived. You didn’t have any chance to try because you knew someone else would do it for you. But on top of that, you were the two that the pack was always most likely to jump in to save if you ever needed help. You were one of the middle members, but they treated you like the youngest. So you were sure if they sensed you were going to leave, Hanbin would surely make sure you couldn’t as to keep you safe.

So, you kept your thoughts to yourself.

Maybe your thoughts were making it harder, but you wanted to go even more the second day. You were starting to now silently consider your options for escape if you did decide to act on your wants. You knew your bedroom window was the best bet, but you also knew someone would no doubt hear you when you landed on the ground. You could try to jump to the tree and climb down, but you weren’t sure if they’d question hearing the leaves shake so suddenly. Maybe you could try sneaking downstairs after everyone went to sleep and exiting through one of those windows since the doors were kind of creaky lately. But someone would notice an open window, right?

‘What are you doing?’

Hearing Baekhan in your head made you jump. You knew he could hear thoughts, but that was never an issue for you since he couldn’t understand English. But you forgot that if you were visualizing something, he could see it.

When he saw you thinking about instances with past members of the pack the day before, he didn’t think anything of it. But now you were imagining yourself climbing out of windows? Obviously, that was suspicious.

‘Fuck off, Baek.’

‘You’ve learned more words than that,’ he chuckled.

You just ignored him and tried to distract yourself with reading instead.

By the third day, you were getting antsy. You were walking around downstairs just trying to find something to do. When you started getting questioned about that, you went back to your room and couldn’t manage to sit and be distracted. You found yourself reading the same paragraph of your book over and over again because you couldn’t focus on the page, and even trying to knit or draw wasn’t holding your attention. You were too fidgety.

You were going to go. You had decided.

Your eyes looked to the window. It was still broad daylight out, but maybe you could--

A knock on your door made you jump.

“Come in,” you replied, sounding painfully up to something.

The door opened, only to have a very unamused Baekhan standing in the hallway, staring at you with yellow eyes. After a moment of you saying nothing, he quirked a brow.

“Can you leave me alone?” you groaned.

‘Your pronunciation needs work.’

You sneered at him before rolling your eyes and telling him, “I’m trying. You don’t even know English.”

Baekhan gave you a questioning look before all you could see in your head was you sneaking out the window. Then you saw Seungcheol’s house -- your house. He was asking if that was your plan, probably.

“It’s none of your business,” you muttered, unable to meet his eyes as your cheeks heated up.

Suddenly, you were being bombarded with different scenarios. One where Hanbin caught you and reprimanded you. One where Seungcheol caught you and reprimanded you. Even one where you did happen to make it to the house with nobody in your way, but Soonyoung was made to look overly-feral in this scenario with bright red eyes and wild hair as he ran at you.

Baekhan stopped before Soonyoung reached you, and then shrugged when your eyes focused back on him.

You rolled your eyes and sighed. While you knew Soonyoung wouldn’t do anything malicious like what it seemed in Baekhan’s weird image, you knew he would still attack -- even if it wasn’t in a dangerous kind of way. 

The youngest showed you a final scenario, but this was a memory. Hanbin was explaining the situation to the pack, stating that Soonyoung requested you to be kept away from him until his rut had ended. He was basically reminding you that this is what Soonyoung wanted and you shouldn’t go against him.

You knew he was right. Despite wanting to go see him, you knew you shouldn’t go against what he wanted. He’d probably blame himself for anything that would happen because of you showing up, even if you said you wanted to help. It didn’t matter what you wanted, it was about what he wanted.

‘Do you want to go to town?’

You met his eyes again. This time, Baekhan was looking at you with soft eyes and his signature small, shy smile. 

Even though you and Baekhan were often considered the babies, you two rarely hung out together. Not only did he never talk, but he could never understand you. Even though his power was all about the mind, he couldn’t understand you if you thought in a language he didn’t understand. He had sometimes talked to you by showing you things, like he’d done now, but still, the two of you didn’t interact that often. 

So the fact that he was offering to go to town with you as a distraction was actually really sweet. And, of course, the fact he didn’t snitch on you was also nice.

-

The opposite for you was happening to Soonyoung. Every day, things got a little bit easier. Only a little, though. By the third day, he was still a mess, but he seemed to be coherent longer and had more breaks in between.

Still, he had to be chained up, and for at least the first day, they had Soonyoung on consistent watch as per his request after the first incident. He had first tried to leave the house to get to you on the first day, and Joshua was the first to spot him and immediately go after him, not knowing where he was going but having a pretty good idea.

“Chan, get Soonyoung!” Josh had called as he raced out of the house after the rogue alpha.

It took a couple of seconds, but suddenly, a gust of wind blew by Josh before Soonyoung was tackled by the blur onto the ground. It only stayed that way for a second before Soonyoung threw Chan off of him, but it was enough to stall Soonyoung for Josh to get to him, and for other members of the pack to realize what was happening and race outside, too.

Josh tackled Soonyoung as soon as he tried to get up, pinning the alpha to the ground.

“I took a chunk out of one ear, and I can do the same to the other,” Soonyoung threatened.

“Relax, hornball,” Josh deadpanned, fighting to keep Soonyoung pinned down. “If you go to _____, you’re going to regret it later.”

But Soonyoung wasn’t listening. His instincts were fogging up his mind and he couldn’t think clearly. Had he could, he wouldn’t have attempted to use his powers to get Joshua off of him. His eyes glowed to life, a cold silver that signaled to Josh that his mind was about to no longer be his, but he still refused to move. Just as the healer’s arms started to shake, a translucent blue color appeared around him and he let out a breath of relief. Soonyoung’s eyes flickered to the side to see Wonwoo’s eyes focusing in on Joshua, so the alpha zeroed in on his new target. 

Seungcheol got to him just in time to slap him across the face and snap him out of his power, and Wonwoo visibly relaxed. Joshua got up, allowing Seungcheol and Minghao to take Soonyoung under his arms and hoist him up. Seungcheol used one arm to hold onto Soonyoung, and the other to hold his head down so he couldn’t look at anyone to use his power.

After they’d gotten him chained up again and that wave had ended, Soonyoung weakly called out for whoever might be listening. By that time, Kyung, Hansol, and Jihoon had returned from Hanbin’s, so it was the latter who entered.

“Don’t let me get out again,” he panted. “Do whatever it takes.”

“Want us to set up a watch schedule?” Jihoon scoffed.

Soonyoung just nodded, “Whatever it takes.”

However, he only tried to escape one other time, and it was technically Jooyeon who caught him. He tried sneaking out through the window, which the ex-thief had tied a string to that would snap and ring a bell if it were opened. That would alert the wolves that Soonyoung was escaping so they could catch him.

The second trap, she never thought would actually work, but it did. And boy, did the pack have a laugh seeing Soonyoung hanging upside-down from one foot under a tree.

After that, he seemed to have stopped trying to escape. Maybe it was because his senses were slowly starting to come back to him, and maybe the waves were less intense. But either way, the pack started to think they could be more lax with their constant watches. 

“Almost halfway over,” Seungcheol sighed, his head tilted back as he ran a hand through his hair.

“I think he’s one of the roughest ones we’ve dealt with,” Soomin nodded.

“Who knew he was so full of pent-up sex aggression,” Yeji snorted, only for almost everyone in the living room to raise their hands.

“Absolutely everyone,” Danbi chuckled. She let out a sigh afterwards and looked to Seungcheol. “We should’ve assumed how bad it would’ve gotten if he found his mate, though.”

“Well, in a perfect world, his werewolf mate would be perfectly suited to take whatever he can throw. Unfortunately, there’s a language barrier along with _____’s anxieties and overall shyness,” Seungcheol explained. “As we’ve discovered time and time again: the world isn’t perfect.”

Jooyeon entered the kitchen, having been upstairs in the shower after her turn to watch Soonyoung. She stopped when she noticed her mate lounging in a kitchen chair, still drying her dripping hair with a towel.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on watch, alpha?” she asked.

He shrugged and closed his eyes, seeming tired. He had a lot to deal with the last few days so it was understandable.

“He’s been fine,” he decided with a yawn. “He’ll still be fine if I rest my eyes a couple minutes.”

“You can rest your eyes sitting in front of his door, too,” she pointed out.

“Nobody wants to sit on a floor to sleep, Jooey,” Jun stated.

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, nobody wants to sit on a wooden floor to sleep because a wooden chair is way more comfortable, right?”

“I let you take leave to shower and you’re complaining at me anyway?” Seungcheol asked, peeling an eye open to playfully glare at his mate.

“Isn’t my thing complaining?”

“Much less so lately,” Chan shrugged with a nod.

It was just as the conversation turned away from Soonyoung that the door to Soonyoung’s room burst open, sounding like it had completely splintered in half. All bodies sat up straighter for just a second as they listened to loud footsteps before everyone sprung into action. Soonyoung was already barreling out the door before Seungcheol could shout for Chan to catch up to him.

“Nice slacking, alpha,” Jooyeon said, side-eyeing Seungcheol.

He just slowly turned his head to glare down at her.

-

The Capitol was amusing enough. Since it was so large, there were plenty of places to go and walk around. Lots of parks, lots of markets, and lots of neighborhoods that were nice to just stroll around in. Jiung never taught the pack to steer clear of populated places because nobody within the Capitol ever asked about newcomers. Too many people lived in the Capitol to ever be fussy about people ‘not belonging’ in a neighborhood.

But with so much to do at the Capitol meant easily losing track of time. Typically, you and Baekhan would’ve thought that was fine. Plenty of people stayed out after dark to go wandering bars or to continue their shopping under fairy lights strung about the market or in trees.

“Curfew call!” guards began to bellow, hands cupped around their mouths.

As townsfolk began to hurry out of the market and to their houses, you and Baekhan paused and looked at each other in confusion.

“Curfew?” you asked.

You recognized the word. There was a time not too long after you’d joined the pack when Jiung set a curfew. Luka was murdered in the woods and Jiung was concerned for the safety of everyone else. You had no plans of leaving the house anyway, mourning the only other wolf you’d become close with in the pack, but you remembered Jiung saying the word over and over again, warning the wolves to remember the curfew.

Baekhan looked at you with a mix of confusion and worry. He didn’t seem to know there was curfew, either. The Capitol had never implemented a curfew. Why did they suddenly start now?

He didn’t let you hear his thought, but you knew Baekhan was panicking from the way his eyes started around and he started to get antsy. His shook his hands out at his sides like they were wet, swiveling his head like he was trying to find an out.

You placed a hand on his shoulder, “It’s okay.”

His brown eyes finally landed on you, still looking wide and scared. But he suddenly seemed to remember your power and relaxed, taking a deep breath and nodding.

The two of you start toward the direction of home, making sure to stay within the Capitol. If a guard saw the two of you sneaking off into the woods, it would be suspicious. You’d have to find a secluded area for you to use your power and then sneak out. Even though you knew you could get the two of you out, you still felt anxious. If a guard approached you, you weren’t sure if you’d be able to keep your cool and cover for you and the youngest member of the pack. You’d have to, though, since Baekhan was nonverbal. Everything rested on your shoulders.

Baekhan suddenly gripped your wrist and halted you. His eyes seemed to light up as his head perked up. He must’ve heard someone’s thoughts that he found to be important.

Wordlessly, he tugged you off to the east, and you let him without protest or even questioning it. He weaved between houses and short pathways behind them until he poked his head around a small alleyway between houses. You shuffled around him to look, already sensing whoever was back there was a werewolf. Your eyes found a man crouched down, eyes trained to the ground before his head suddenly snapped to the side and his eyes locked on yours. His hair was blonde and tied half-up. He slowly stood and he seemed to be only a few inches taller and a little thinner than Baekhan. He had full lips and sharp eyes that despite knowing you were just like him, seemed to study you warily.

“A-are you okay?” you asked shyly.

You didn’t quiet understand his reply, but using what words you caught, you assumed he wanted to go home but was unsure how to do so with the curfew. At least you weren’t the only ones who seemed taken off guard by the curfew thing.

The man suddenly took a startled step backwards, eyebrows furrowing but eyes widening.

“What was that?” he asked.

You assumed it was Baekhan as he started to approach. The man seemed to relax. You wished Baekhan would let you in on what he was saying, too, but he must’ve assumed you wouldn’t understand most of it anyway.

“I’m Hyunjin,” he said, looking between the two of you. He must’ve been informed of the language barrier. “What’s your name?”

Instead of replying with your name, you gave your surname as a reflex. Baekhan noticed the slip-up and looked at you with a smirk. You just jabbed him in the arm with your shoulder.

“Do you need help getting home?” you asked, changing the subject.

Hyunjin nodded toward Baekhan, “He said you can...disappear?”

At least this Hyunjin guy seemed to mostly know English. You could definitely have helped him even if he only knew Korean, but this made it way easier for you to communicate with him.

“I can turn invisible,” you nodded, and Hyunjin seemed to nod like you’d reminded him of the word he was trying to think of. “Just hang onto me and I can get all of us out of here.”

You held your hand out to him, and Hyunjin walked the rest of the steps toward you to gingerly take it. Then you held your hand palm-up for Baekhan, who slapped his hand into yours. With a tight grip on both boys for good measure, you disappeared from the rest of the world and traveled back up the alleyway and toward your destination.

Despite wanting to know more about Hyunjin, the three of you kept quiet as you led the way through the Capitol, silently walking by people going to their homes as well as guards keeping watch. Even after you were in the trees, you didn’t let go of the two until you had walked for another 10 minutes, and the two boys stayed silent for the same amount of time.

“I think we’re safe,” you declared with a sigh, letting them go.

“Thank you guys,” Hyunjin offered you both a warm smile. “I should’ve been more mindful of the time, but I got distracted helping this lost kid find their mom and next thing I know, the mom’s thanking me while the guards are calling curfew. I thought my ass was toast.”

Baekhan replayed his words in your head like a short movie so you knew what he was talking about.

“What is the curfew for?” you wondered slowly.

“It’s a new law implemented by the royal family,” he explained. “There’s apparently been an increase in werewolf sightings -- but I can guarantee it hasn’t been any of my brothers. We’re all so careful.”

When you saw the flash of the royal family, you didn’t even need the rest of the explanation. You should’ve just assumed it was another law they put in place. They were the one who outlawed werewolves, anyway. King Moon Yeongcheol, Queen Lee Eunjeong, and Princess Moon Chaerin. While the King and Queen made all the laws and oversaw the country, the Princess was in line for the throne and was to follow in her parents’ footsteps. Everyone knew who they were, even if they’d never seen them. Baekhan had only seen photos of the royal family, but you knew some of the pack had seen them in person.

You heard Baekhan’s question in your head, but you knew it was directed at Hyunjin. He just didn’t want to leave you out of the conversation this time.

‘How many other packs are around?’

Hyunjin scoffed, “You’d be surprised. A lot of strays, too.”

“Hyunjin,” you spoke up, “where do you live?”

He turned to point toward the northeast, “That way.”

‘We’ll walk you,’ Baekhan offered.

“You guys don’t have to, it’s seriously fine. I’ll be fine.”

But even with Jiung gone, it was still ingrained in you to help others. So the two of you insisted until Hyunjin sighed and agreed, saying maybe it would be nice for his brothers to make friends outside the pack. Something about protection in numbers, which you didn’t really believe in anymore but you wouldn’t burst his bubble.

“Our place is a little...obscure,” he explained, Baekhan making sure to show you pictures of anything he possibly could to translate. “Our house got burned down by hunters a while back so we’re living in a pretty strange place. It’s nice, though. They’d never find us. It’s this huge cleared out space underneath this giant old tree. Looks like something you’d read in some fairytale, honestly. But it fits us all, it hasn’t collapsed, and it’s hidden. But yeah, just...ignore all the dirt.”

You listened as Baekhan explained to Hyunjin what happened with Seungcheol’s old house and how that was how your first alpha got murdered. Hyunjin let out a soft gasp and gave his condolences, but Baekhan moved on to talk about how they were offered your old house as a place to live.

“Yeah, our two eldest members have been out trying to find a new home,” Hyunjin nodded slowly. “One of them is the alpha, so our third oldest is acting alpha for now. His name is Changbin. He’s like you guys. He has a power. Him, Felix, and Chan.”

“What can they do?” you wondered.

“Changbin can control earth, Felix can shapeshift into other animals, and Chan can take away pain. The only catch with Chan’s is it make him feel it instead.”

You sucked in a breath between your teeth as Baekhan scrunched up his nose.

“Ouch...” you muttered.

“It’s honestly so fitting for him,” he chuckled. “You’ll get it once you meet him. He’s the nicest guy you could ever meet.”

Hyunjin began to ramble about the seven other members of his pack, and you were vaguely catching on. Your thoughts were starting to wander back to Soonyoung anyway so you weren’t too focused either way. 

But you were brought back to reality suddenly when you heard what sounded like a gunshot, followed by another, and then another. All three of you froze, turning to look toward where the sounds had come from.

Baekhan may have taken the lead when it came to conversing with Hyunjin, but he looked to you with fear now, hoping for you to have the answers this time.

‘You don’t think it’s...’ his question trailed off, not even wanting to say the word.

But it was. You could sense it. You knew Hyunjin sensed it, too.

“Come on,” Hyunjin said suddenly, already turning back and walking even faster now. “you guys can hide out at my place until it’s safe.”

He started jogging, and then sprinting, and the two of you were following on his heels, trying to get as far away from the werewolf hunters as you could as quickly as possible. You weren’t sure why they were in the woods -- if it they were somehow tipped off to your presence or if they were out there looking for one of the other werewolves Hyunjin claimed to be in the area -- but you weren’t sticking around to find out.

You wished maybe you weren’t going so fast. Then maybe you would’ve paid better attention. Maybe you would’ve caught a glimpse of shining silver buried underneath the leaves. Or maybe you wouldn’t have and it was inevitable. But there was no fixing your mistake once it was done.

You let out a loud yelp as you fell to the forest floor. Your ankle burned, not just from the sharp teeth of the trap that bit into your flesh, but from the sizzle of the silver it was made out of. You let out loud cries and whimpers, your body writhing from the pain as you were unable to escape it.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Hyunjin was frantic when him and Baekhan turned and got on their knees beside you to assess what had happened. He looked up at the younger wolf and worked to take off his shirt while he talked, stuffing it somewhat gently into your mouth to muffle your screams. “Just keep going the direction we were going until you hit the widest tree in the forest -- you can’t miss it. I’ll stay with her.”

You weren’t sure what was being said. You weren’t even sure if Baekhan was letting you hear his thoughts because all you could focus on was the extreme amount of pain you felt. It was the worst pain of your life. It made you feel dizzy and lightheaded. You’d never passed out but you were sure the pain would make you do just that.

“Are you sure?” you vaguely heard Hyunjin ask. Then he was scrambling to his feet. “I’ll come back with my pack, I promise.”

He took off, leaving you and Baekhan in the woods. You couldn’t hear his thoughts but you could tell his was frantic as you tried your best to roll over and look up at him. His eyes were filled with tears that you could barely see through your own.

It felt like the teeth of the trap were being pulled out, slowly and painfully. The burning ache was torture, but your attention managed to be captured. Baekhan let out a wild wail. You’d never heard him make any sort of noise, at least not that loud. But he was fully crying out and yelling, and you looked down to where he knelt by your ankle.

Eyes squeezed shut and biting down on his lip so hard it was bleeding, Baekhan was using his bare hands to pry the wolf trap open and off of your leg. His palms were being sliced between the teeth and his flesh sizzled from the silver, but he persisted until you could weakly pull your leg out. He quickly dropped the thing and let it clamp shut on itself, stained with your blood and his. Then he took the shirt from your mouth with shaky hands, tearing strips from it to bandage his own hands and then your ankle.

Wordlessly, he gathered you in his arms before he stood on shaky legs. He started off jogging, but managed to gather more speed. Maybe adrenaline was kicking in, but you were more thankful than you could ever express that the pup had done any of that for you. 

You tried to focus and use your power. You wanted to protect the two of you as best as you could while Baekhan tried to run with you in the direction Hyunjin pointed him in, but it was hard to focus. The pain was unbearable and you seemed to be struggling to even stay awake. You felt dizzy and out of it. You felt like just going to sleep. You felt--

Suddenly, you and Baekhan were getting close to the ground until he crashed on top of your body with a thud. You let out a cry of pain as his full weight landed on you unexpectedly.

He was suddenly rolled off of you, and you heard angry yelling that you couldn’t understand because everything sounded like you were underwater now. Then you were being rolled over, a man pinning you down with his body and pointing a gun straight between your eyes. He was yelling something at you, his spit spraying your face. You couldn’t even react; couldn’t even struggle against him. You felt drained of all your energy.

But you thought of Soonyoung. You thought of him back at home and how you’d now never get the chance to do any of the things you wanted with him. You hardly even got to experience living with him, and now you’d get none of the other experiences you wanted. 

You continued to stare up at the hunter, eyes half-open as you didn’t even register any of the words he quite literally spat at you. You couldn’t even be afraid of the imminent death you faced. All you could think of was Soonyoung, which oddly brought you comfort through the grogginess and pain you felt.

Suddenly, the man stopped, his eyes glowing a dull silver. Mechanically, his arm holding the gun bent to point it at his own temple before he pulled the trigger, falling the way the bullet shot through his skull. Your face was splattered with the warm, sticky liquid, but you couldn’t find it in yourself to care. You couldn’t even find the strength to be afraid.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a flash of brown. You managed to loll your head to the side to see a familiar wolf tackling the hunter that was on top of Baekhan while he was horrified from what his partner had done to himself. The wolf immediately tore into the man’s neck with his sharp teeth, and Baekhan sat up on his elbows with wide, fearfull eyes as he watched the scene. Then he looked to you, then behind you.

A shadow leaned over above you, and your eyes lazily looked up again. Soonyoung’s eyes met yours, going from a silver to blood red. He looked absolutely heartbroken, even upside-down. His warm hand cupped your cheek that was still stained with someone else’s blood, and you weakly leaned into his touch.

“The rest of the pack are on their way,” he promised you in a soft voice. “Don’t move and someone will get you. I’ll keep you safe.”

You half registered his words, but you had no plans on moving anyway. Soonyoung stood from his crouched position, and now you could see he was only wearing a pair of loose, thin shorts. He stood protectively in front of you, using his power to take over the minds of the rest of the hunters who were following behind the others as backup. Chan tackled two to three hunters at a time, and Baekhan got up and did his best to help. But the trio was beginning to get overpowered with the guns and weapons designed to subdue and kill them. Soonyoung was blindfolded, Chan was taken down with a net and had multiple hunters pointing guns and swords at him, and Baekhan was too easy to overpower with his wounds. His mind control powers were too weak when all he could focus on was the pain in his hands.

Just as things seemed bleak, a roar ripped through the forest. It wasn’t one like a werewolf, though. This one was deeper and more powerful. It shook your eardrums and even made you cringe a bit from how loud it was.

You swore you were hallucinating when you saw a lion leap over you and take out five hunters. Like Chan, he began tearing into them with his claws and sharp teeth, letting out roars in between as he attacked. 

Then more wolves appeared from behind where you laid on the forest floor, helping to free Soonyoung, Chan, and Baekhan. A man with black hair and a fitted undershirt stepped into your view, curling his hands toward the ground and then toward the sky, his fingers turning into claws like he was scooping into sand. Large chunks of the ground rose up, and he pelted them at the hunters.

“_____!” you heard your name being cried out but you couldn’t move to see who it was.

Kyung skidded onto her knees beside you, searching your face and cupping it with warm hands, brushing hair that was stuck to your face with blood away. She looked like she wanted to cry.

“What happened?” she asked frantically. “Where’re you hurt?”

“L-leg...” you managed to croak out. “Trap...”

Her eyes scanned down and she saw your leg wrapped in cloth that was now soaked through with blood. She cursed under her breath and looked back to your face.

“Soonyoung’ll bring you home, okay?” she told you. “We’re gonna take care of these guys. You’re gonna be okay. He’ll bring you to Josh and you’ll be fine. Just hang on a little more, okay?”

“Baek, too?” you rasped.

She nodded quickly, not even asking why you’d mention him, “Of course.”

Just before she stood, you saw her eyes glow to a fiery orange. Large flames ignited in each of her hands before she stalked toward the fight.

You tried to listen to her. You tried to hang on a little longer. But you were so tired and your eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.

The treetops were the last things you saw, and the last thing you heard over the chaos was, “Help Baekhan! Get him out of here now!”

-

It felt like you were being carried. Your legs were dangling, and as you were beginning to come to, it hurt more and more every time your left leg swayed. You let out a soft whimper, not meaning to make any noise but you can’t help it.

“I know, baby,” you heard Soonyoung’s soft voice and it instantly made you feel warm. “I know it hurts. We’re almost to Shua, I promise.”

You were finally able to open your eyes, but they threatened to roll back again from just how exhausted you were. They focused up on Soonyoung who looked down at you and offered a small smile.

“Hey, _____,” he said almost casually.

“Where’s Baekhan?” you croaked.

“Coming,” he promised you. “He’s safe."

He had noticed how he was struggling and ordered his pack and the mystery pack to help him. Before he took you, he made sure someone would be bringing him to Joshua, so he was sure Baekhan wasn’t too far behind the two of you.

That at least made you feel better. You knew he was injured really bad. You weren’t sure how you’d ever make it up to him for what he did for you.

“So, you made friends?” he asked with a chuckle.

You were confused for a moment, and he could tell by the slight furrow in your brow.

“Hyunjin, right?” he asked. “His pack helped.”

Right, the lion. That’s what that must’ve been. And the guy who threw chunks of the earth. He had said two of them had earth and shapeshifting powers. 

“Are they safe?” you asked.

Soonyoung hummed as he nodded and then laughed again and asked, “Can you be a little more worried about yourself?”

As if he wasn’t worried about you enough for the both of you. He sensed the danger as soon as you were in it and he bolted out of the house. He was lucky he could even manage to make any sense when Chan caught up to him and tackled him to the ground. The youngest shifted and Soonyoung got a ride from him to get to you faster while Chan managed to get in touch with Seokmin who wasn’t too far away in his wolf form.

He was even more lucky to find out that a pack closer to your location had come to help. Hyunjin had told his pack of the danger and they all immediately went to help. While Soonyoung felt grateful for them and wanted to show that gratitude, he assumed Seungcheol or Jihoon would speak with the pack further once the hunters were taken care of. Soonyoung’s main concern was getting you back home.

Once you’d made it to the house, you could see Joshua already waiting on the porch with Arinya by his side. As soon as Soonyoung made it into the clearing, Josh went inside and his mate turned to follow, stopping to look back at you again before scurrying off inside. 

He knew to bring you upstairs so Joshua could get right to work. It was difficult healing silver wounds but he would do as much as he could. He warned you might have to go see a doctor but you never minded going to visit Minjee.

“Rika’s good with healing, too,” you yawned as warmth enveloped your ankle. “Not in the same way, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Joshua snorted, playfully rolling his eyes. “Y’know, as shitty as it is that you got hurt, I’m kinda glad Soonyoung didn’t just bust out of here in a lust-filled rage.”

Soonyoung just scowled down at him.

It wasn’t much later that Baekhan was being carried into the house. You could hear the commotion downstairs before you could hear footsteps coming up the steps. Kyung entered with Baekhan passed out in her arms, his lanky body limp and his eyes closed.

“Is he okay?” you immediately asked.

She nodded, “Just really exhausted. Silver wounds take a lot out of you, right?”

You just looked away in reply, knowing she already knew you knew the answer to that.

“Baby, could you get me some fresh bandages from the bathroom closet?” Joshua asked, looking away from his hands emitting warm light onto your wound to look up at his mate.

She quickly left the room before coming back and obediently handing him a pristine white wrap of bandages. You could see the wound wasn’t completely healed, but as Joshua already warned, the silver had burned into you pretty bad and you’d probably need more work that he couldn’t provide. So he wrapped it up now that it was at least cleaned, no longer bleeding, and less painful.

“Be careful on that leg, okay?” he warned as he stood up from where he’d taken a knee to heal your ankle.

“I got it,” Soonyoung assured him before scooping you up off the desk.��“Thanks, doc.”

“Take it easy with her, Soonyoung!” he called after him as he took you out of Joshua’s room.

And to his own.

“Soonyoung?” your voice came out almost worried and unsure.

“Yes, baby?” he replied.

“What about...?” you trailed off, unsure of what wording to use to ask him of his rules before he’d sent you away. “Are you sure?”

He chuckled as he kicked the door shut behind him, “I can control myself. I’m far too worried about you to think about any of that stuff. Promise.”

As he laid you down on his bed, you heard someone giggle something from the other side of the wall, followed by a handful of snorts and more giggling. Soonyoung was pretty sure you didn’t catch what was said and he was thankful, because Junhui liked to point out that, “Sex might help her heal since you’ll be as close as possible!”

Soonyoung slammed on the wall to get his brother to shut up before he looked back down at you, “I’m gonna go get a washcloth and clean you up a bit, okay?”

“What?”

“Um... I’ll be right back.”

Then he left the room. He was only gone for a moment, coming back with a damp washcloth that he held in one hand, and then going over to his dresser. He opened it with his free hand and grabbed a clean shirt before he went back over to you. He put the washcloth on his nightstand and laid the shirt out on the bed before he guided you to sit up. He lifted your dirty shirt over your head before helping you maneuver out of your bloodied pants. You instinctively began to shrink in on yourself, bringing your knees in and covering your torso with your arms, but Soonyoung just chuckled.

“I need to practice more English,” he told you. “Then I can tell you how beautiful you are and you can understand.”

Your face felt hot but you let Soonyoung put his shirt on you without any more type of protest.

Despite seeing you almost completely naked, Soonyoung was able to ignore every instinct to pounce on you. His worry for your wellbeing made it easy. You almost died today. That was all he could think about right now. Rut be damned.

Once you had clean clothes on, he knelt on the bed and began gently wiping away the dried blood on your face and in your hair. Once you were mostly clean, he got up and changed his own shorts, facing away from you as he did so. Then he got into bed beside you, tucking you in and making sure you were comfortable.

“What was said earlier?” you asked him suddenly, still wondering why he had banged on the wall. “Why did you hit the wall?”

“Nothing,” he told you quickly. “I...don’t know...the words, anyway. Get some sleep.”

From outside the door, as Joshua passed by, you heard him say, “Jun said sex helps you heal faster. He might be right.”

Soonyoung sat up at the speed of light and yelled, “Shua!”

You let out a squeak, eyes wide as you asked quietly, “I-is that true...?”

“No,” Soonyoung stated again but then sputtered and said, “Well, maybe. I don’t know! It’s not-- We’re not-- I’m-- Ugh!”

“You sure you’re feeling okay, Soonie?” you heard Kyung giggle from outside the door.

He let out a huff and flopped back down in bed, “Will Hanbin let us live with him instead?”

You couldn’t help but feel a smile creep up on your own face as you turned your head to look at your mate, “So it does actually work?”

He groaned and threw his arm over his eyes, but he still tucked an arm around you and held you close, “Goodnight, _____.”

»»————-　　————-««

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[animeniacss]

So Close Yet So Far - Mingyu x Reader - Chapter 3 - The Gift of Honesty

Synopsis: Your college friend, Kim Mingyu, has had a grip on your heart since the first day you met. Over the past few years, as you acquired more friendships and memories, those feelings only grew. However, recently, Mingyu has seemed a bit more distant, at least when it comes to any ideas of romance. It only gets worse when rumors fly that he's off to Japan to receive a marriage proposal! Unsure what to do, you wonder how you can keep Mingyu by your side without jeopardizing your friendship or your growing feelings. You never expected that waking up one drunken morning next to two hot angels would be your ticket into Mingyu's heart.

Genre: Romance, College!AU, Modern Fantasy, Comedy, Angsty

Length: Approx. 4.5k words

Feat. Mina of TWICE

Chapter 3 - The Gift of Honesty

The sandwich shop, much like the café on campus, was always bustling with college life. Even on weekends, students found themselves comforted by the quick grab-and-go nature of the sandwich shop so they could keep focusing on studying or activities. You were sitting around a table with your friends, all munching on your own lunches as the world continued to move around you. Hoshi and Seungkwan were talking about something involving one of their classes, while Minnie was examining and trying to fix a broken nail she had, a slight pout on her face. You leaned towards her, watching as she did so.

            “It’s about time I get new nails. Want to come next time? It’s been a while. We can go for your birthday!” You smiled, nodding your head.

            “Sure.” You said. “That sounds fun!”

            “What does?” Hoshi asked, leaning forward. He watched as Minnie wiggled her fingers in his face. “Aaaah. I’ll come get my nails done!”

            “You so will not! It’s going to be a girl’s day.” Minnie frowned. “Besides, you’ll probably just get all your nails with a picture of tigers or something.” Hoshi’s eyes basically sparkled at the idea, and Minnie groaned. “See?”

            “What? I think it would look so cool!” He argued, but Minnie only stuck her tongue out at him. He pouted, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. As Seungkwan tried to encourage his friend that ‘yes, Hyung, tiger nails would 100% suit you.” You looked down at your phone. Mingyu had replied to that one comment about Hoshi’s spam messages, but had gone radio silent since.

            I bet whatever he’s doing, he’s very busy. You told yourself as if you needed to convince yourself. He said he would call me later….

            It seemed the rest of the group had the same idea about their friend, Seungkwan being the first to speak up. “So, who wants to place bets as to what the actual hell Mingyu-Hyung is doing in Japan?”

            “Do you think that rumor is true?” Minnie asked.

            “I know his dad’s been pretty strict on some of his after-school schedules recently.” Hoshi pointed out. “He wasn’t able to come with me to a movie a few weeks ago. He said he had to attend an important dinner.”  

            “A blind date?” Seungkwan’s eyes widened. “No way.”

            Minnie looked at you, watching as you popped a chip into your mouth. “That might explain why he looked upset when you brought up the idea of having a girlfriend.”

            “You think?” you asked curiously. Minnie nodded. “I don’t know. I feel bad gossiping about him without him being here.”

            “Well, when he doesn’t tell us stuff like this, what are we supposed to do?” Seungkwan shrugged. “It’s like when Hoshi-Hyung totally had that secret boyfriend freshman year, and he basically forgot we existed.” You saw Hoshi’s cheeks turn pink and he turned to the sly grinning friend to his left. You could immediately sense Hoshi’s demeanor change just slightly.

            “And I told you that is absolutely not what happened. We were friends, that’s it.”

            “Oh yeah, totally.” Seungkwan said, feigning belief at Hoshi’s claims. “That’s why you don’t speak about him anymore. Because you didn’t break up.” Hoshi pouted, and you and Minnie had to chuckle a bit. You remembered that time all too well; two years ago, when Hoshi constantly going to meet a new friend he had yet to introduce you to. Similar to now with Mingyu, you guys all played detective and tried to figure out who exactly had Hoshi so excited that he would basically run off campus once a week to see the guy, the only time during the week the entire friend group was able to meet up last term. It caused a bit of tension, and you worried that it would reshape itself with this new scenario.

            All we have to do is get you two together.

            Joshua’s voice, gentle as it was this morning, flooded back into your mind, and you set your half-eaten sandwich down. How could I possibly help two angels re-enter heaven just by ending up with Mingyu? You thought to yourself. What can they even do? They can’t force him to fall in love with me. This is all silly. It’s only a matter of time before-.

            Snap.

            Your eyes shot up, and you saw Seungkwan leaning forward, fingers close to your eyelids as he readied them again. Snap.

            “Hey!” you gasped.

            “Come back to us.” He begged playfully, smiling. “You were zoning out again.”

            “I was not.” You said. “Also, rude. How would you like it if someone just leaned over and-.” Leaning forward, you extended your fingers to Seungkwan and snap, snap, snap, snap. Seungkwan laughed a bit at the muffling of the sound through your cleaned bandages. He wasted no time, sticking his fingers back to yours and returning the playful snapping in your direction. You couldn’t help but hold back a smile.

            “And I thought nothing could get more childish than Hoshi.” Minnie said in amusement, and Hoshi snickered in agreement.

            “…Wait, hey.” He looked at her, just realizing what she meant as she laughed.

            As you leaned back in your seat, you crossed your arms confidently. It felt like you had won the contest that suddenly broke out at your table, falling into a confident grin.

            …Well…

            Suddenly, you felt two sets of hands on your shoulders, which startled both you and your friends. Immediately, people at the surrounding tables began whispering about the hot men that seemed to simply materialize When you turned your head, your eyes widened.

            “What’s wrong?!” Joshua asked, clearly panicked. “You seemed to be snapping so quickly. Did something happen?” You watched both of them look around the area, trying to see what clues they could find.

            “Wha- What are you talking about….?” Your voice trailed off then, and you looked down at your fingers.

            Just snap anytime you need us, and we’ll be there.

            “Oh, God.” You sighed.

            “Where?” Joshua and Jeonghan asked in unison, eyes continuing to dart every which way.  

“Where did they come from?” Hoshi asked, looking around the nearby area.

“Better question. Who are they?” Seungkwan asked. The both of them took a seat on either side of you, causing Minnie and Hoshi to scoot their seats to the side for more room at the little table. The shop was still bustling at the two attractive men sitting either side of you. They were almost angelic. You rolled your eyes as the few girls behind you whispered among themselves if they wanted to ask either for their numbers.  

The frantic racing of your brain forced you to come up with a response quickly. “We met recently.” You said. That seemed to answer absolutely zero questions, and your friends simply stared at you in hopes you’d provide more information. “Uh, well-.”

            “We’re friends.” Joshua said, leaning forward. “New friends.”

            Jeonghan added to that. “Well, we’ve just transferred here. She’s been showing us around and getting us adjusted. She’s been a big help.”

            That seemed to work. Slightly. “That sounds about right.” Seungkwan said. “I’m Seungkwan.”

“Hoshi~.” Hoshi beamed. When Seungkwan nudged him playfully, Hoshi grinned. “That’s my nickname. I’m Soonyoung.” He added. You watched as Minnie leaned forward, smiling sweetly at Joshua. You could sense her intimidating glance at the two strangers before her. When he caught her gaze, however, he offered her an equally kind smile.

            “I’m Minnie.” She said.

“Is that a nickname too?” Joshua asked. Minnie smiled.

“Yeah.” She smiled. “I’m from Thailand. I’ve had the nickname for a long time.” You watched Joshua nodded as Minnie continued to speak. “What are you guys majoring in?”

            “Law.” You blurted out, stunned by your quick response as the boys both turned to look at you. You closed your eyes, exhaling a bit. Fuck.

            “Law? Oh, so you’ll meet our other friend, Mingyu.” Seungkwan smiled.

            “…Oh, will we?” You could feel Jeonghan’s smirk as he asked that question and you didn’t want to open your eyes. When you finally did, you saw your friends looking at you with a very intense set of expressions. You laughed nervously. It felt as if you were suddenly being interrogated, yet you had no idea what for.  

            “…Why don’t you go buy something?” you asked, motioning to the counter. “If you’re planning on joining us.”

            “Come with us. I don’t know what to order.” Jeonghan begged. His playful desperation made you sigh. Then he added: “Back me up, Joshua.” 

            Joshua wasted no time joining him as he also leaned close to you. “I forgot how to read.” He said with absolute seriousness in his voice. You only knew it was a joke because Jeonghan began to laugh.

            You immediately stood up. “You both are unreal.” You said, before walking over to the counter. Joshua and Jeonghan waved to your friends, before quickly following right behind you, like puppies being dragged by a leash. Minnie, Hoshi and Seungkwan shared look between one another until you all were far enough away.

            “What the hell?” Minnie asked.

            “I know. What just happened?”         

            “Where did they come from?” Hoshi asked again, yet nobody really knew how to answer.

            At the counter, you looked at both boys as they approached you. “I can see why you both got cast out of heaven. You’re the most unangelic duo I’ve ever met.”

            “Harsh.” Jeonghan gasped, a grin continued to remain plastered on his face. “You’re the one that called us here.”

            “I didn’t-.” you stopped yourself, unsure of how you would prove you didn’t when in fact you did. “Fine, but I don’t need you. So, you guys actually can go.”

            “Well, isn’t it important we meet your friends?” Joshua asked curiously. “If we’re going to help you, we should get to know the people you hang out with.”

            “I-.” you again felt yourself unable to finish a complete sentence. “How are my friends supposed to help?” You finally asked.

            “You never know.” Jeonghan said. “We’ve seen crazier. Trust me.”

            You looked up at the menu, crossing your arms as the trio waited your turn. The last thing you wanted was for any drama to arise if these two stuck themselves within your friend group. Especially when Mingyu came back. Looking down at your hands, you chewed the inside of your lip. I don’t think I really have a choice. You thought to yourself. Turning your head, you looked at the boys once again, who were leaned close together and trying to decide what they wanted to eat.

            “I thought you said you couldn’t read.” You said to Joshua. He glanced over to you. Sheepishly, he smiled and let out a playful chuckle.

            “Oops.” He shrugged. You couldn’t help but smile a bit as you turned your head.

            “I know it’s basically guaranteed because of our ‘contract’ or whatever but, when he comes back, the first thing I want to do is introduce you to Mingyu. He’s really nice.”

            “When does he come back?”

            As you took a minute to recall the answer, you remembered something. “…I don’t know.” You said. “He said he didn’t want to miss school but he never said when he was coming back. At least, not to me.”

            “Oh.” Joshua said. “Well. I’m sure he’ll have to come back at some point.”

            “I guess so.” you said. “He promised he’d be back. Mingyu doesn’t break promises.” The men watched as you turned back to the menu, hands clasped behind your back in a tight balled up fist. “’He’ll have to come back.” You looked back at them. “He’s going to bring me a present.”

            “A present?” Joshua asked curiously. You nodded, practically beaming at the thought.

            “Whenever Mingyu goes on a trip, he brings me a gift. When he went to America our freshman year, he brought me back a really cute snow globe with the Statue of Liberty inside. When he went to England, he got me a little music box with Big Ben inside.”  You smiled. “In Hong Kong, he brought me back a lantern wind chime and -.” She you continued rattling off the gifts that littered your apartment, Joshua couldn’t help but smile at you. He listened closely, nodding his head. He had visited a lot of these places, quick flashes darting through his mind as you rattled off Paris, Australia, Singapore, every luxury vacation spot known through the world. “I haven’t gotten anything from Japan yet.” You smiled. “He said the cherry blossom festivals are happening all over this time of year.”

            “Oh, those are so pretty.” Joshua beamed. You nodded.

            “I’ve never seen them.” As you heard the server call the next customer, you stepped forward. Joshua was trying to study your expression the best he could when Jeonghan nudged him. He looked over, and Jeonghan grinned. “I have an idea.”

            “What?” Joshua asked.

            “Let’s go on a trip.” Both you and Joshua now looked at him, waiting for more information.

            “…Right now?” Joshua asked. Jeonghan nodded. “Where?”

            “Japan, silly.” He said. “If we can’t do anything until we see the guy anyway, let’s go see the guy.” He motioned to you. “Besides, it’ll give her enough time to try to answer all of her friend’s questions.”

            “Questions? You think they don’t believe us?” You asked curiously.

            “Oh, they don’t believe you.” Jeonghan said quickly. You looked at Joshua for some support, and he only nodded in agreement with Jeonghan.

            “Your eyes were shaking and you kept stuttering. It’s clear you’re not a good liar.” Joshua seemed almost sympathetic at the fact. Your face heated up in frustrated, but the men simply turned back to one another and began to chat. Jeonghan looked at you one more time.

            “Do you have a picture of him?” he asked. You lifted up your phone, scrolling through your photos until you pulled up a recent photo of Mingyu and Hoshi, posing ridiculously in front of one of the college buildings during Halloween. “He’s tall.”

            “Yeah.” You said. “My neck hurts just looking at him sometimes.” You smiled as you turned the picture back to yourself. Jeonghan and Joshua looked at one another as you were called to the counter. You approached, greeting the worker once again. When he asked what you wanted, you turned towards Joshua and Jeonghan, expecting them to finally be ready to order.

            They were at the table, shaking the men’s hands and nodding at Minnie as they said their goodbyes and how they were looking forward to being good friends going forward. Your friends seemed to have whiplash at how quickly they were leaving, but still said their polite goodbyes. You watched them hurry out of the shop, some of the girls in the area disappointed as they vanished behind the walls and out of sight.

            “Oh my-.” You turned to the worker, giving a sheepish and apologetic smile. “Never mind.”

🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶So Close Yet So Far🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶

            Mingyu rested against the balcony of his hotel room, drink in hand as he admired the Japanese scenery in front of him. Immediately, when he got back to the hotel, Mingyu ditched the tight suit and slacks for a pair of jeans and a white tank top. He threw on his shoes, and stepped out of his room once again, patting the pocket his wallet and keys were in. He looked at the bodyguard his father had sent along with him to ‘keep him safe’. Mingyu knew he was there to just report back honestly to his father.

            “Take me shopping, please. I need to buy something.” He requested.

            The duo made their way into town, shops lining every street in Tokyo. Mingyu was quick to go on the search for the perfect gift. He had promised you, after all. Mingyu walked down one of the streets, eyeing each and every window to see what each store was selling. There were clothing stores, toy stores, book stores. All kinds of stores. Where would he find the best gift for you? It was like finding a needle in a very large, incredibly bustling haystack. As Mingyu stopped at a local, family-owned knickknack business, he slowed his pace, and decided to head inside. The building smelt of coffee grinds and old newspaper, a very vintage yet comforting feeling of someone who had been working in this place since the walls were wooden boards. An older man greeted Mingyu from his spot at the counter, not looking up as he continued to work on something on his lap. Mingyu looked around, walking past a few rows of carved wooden figurines and over to a large display in the back of the store. As he walked, focused on the items around him, he missed the gaze of two individuals. Thinking that the only view on him was his bodyguard, Mingyu simply brushed off that tingling feeling down his arms. Chilly in here. He thought.

            Jeonghan and Joshua poked their heads out from behind the aisles of wooden figurines and display boxes, watching as Mingyu finally stopped walking and turned to look at the displays on one of the walls. “I wonder what he’s doing…” Joshua whispered. “I don’t see a girl with him.”

            “That doesn’t mean anything.” Jeonghan assured. “He could be out buying something for her right now.”

            “I hope not. It’ll be a lot harder to handle this if the rumors are true. Also, it’ll kill her. I’ll feel bad.”

            Jeonghan smiled at his friend’s compassion. “I know.” He said. Jeonghan looked around for a minute, confirming that there was nobody else around who seemed to be with Mingyu. He nodded his head to the bodyguard who was standing by the door. “Unless he’s on a date with that guy.”

            Joshua laughed at his friend’s joke, playfully nudging him. “Be serious.” He muttered. Just as the duo were talking, Mingyu lifted his head up and looked in their direction. Joshua and Jeonghan slithered slightly out of view as to not be caught.

            “…I feel like some crazy fangirl.” Joshua said, frowning. “We should probably go.”

            “What do we say when we get back?”

            “That he’s not with a girl? I don’t know.” Joshua said. “But now that we’re here, this feels kind of pointless.”

“It’s important to get all the information we can to be ahead of the curve when he comes back to Korea.” Jeonghan stated. “Let’s see if he ends up buying something.” Joshua watched Mingyu began making his way to the front of the store once again, eyes pulling him to something displayed on the wall. When the angel’s followed his gaze, they saw him staring at a variety of keychains, bright and very detailed in their design. Mingyu looked over.

            “Did you make these?” he asked the worker. The old man looked up, smiling. He set down his craft and approached.

            “My wife.” He said. “She’s always been good at making really cute and unique keychains. Her favorite and most popular one is this one-.” He pointed to one, but they could not get a good view from where they were standing. Mingyu nodded. “See one you like? Maybe for a lucky lady?”

            Mingyu let out a breathy, nervous chuckle. However, he did point to one. “That one.” He said. “I think she’ll like it.”

            Both Joshua and Jeonghan immediately looked at one another, the vagueness of Mingyu’s response to the old clerk immediately filling them with dread. They could only stand by and watch, pretending to act busy admiring the things around them as Mingyu passed by, taking the keychain and setting it down to pay for it. Joshua and Jeonghan made sure to wait, listening as Mingyu thanked the worker and headed towards the door.

            “I have to make a few more stops, then we can head back to the hotel.” His bodyguard agreed, and the duo exited, a loud ‘Have a nice day!’ from the worker. Joshua and Jeonghan looked at one another.

            “What do we do? Should we still follow?” Joshua asked, uncertain.

            “I have no idea. Would you buy a gift for another girl when you’re engaged?” Jeonghan asked. Joshua shook his head. “Neither would I.”

            “She said he always buys her gifts. So, there’s no way he’s buying for another girl too.” Joshua pursed his lips, rubbing his chin as he tried to think.

            “I can’t believe we came all this way for nothing.” Jeonghan said.

            “On the bright side, this will definitely be one of the easier things we’ve ever done. They two of them basically did all the hard work for us and now we just need to get them together.” Joshua tried to keep things positive. Jeonghan nodded.

            “I say we follow him until the end of the day. Make sure he isn’t meeting someone later. Dinner is always where things get the most romantic.”

            “Oh really?” Joshua rolled his eyes, an amused smile on his face as the duo exited the shop as well, acknowledging the man as he waved them off. With the bustling streets getting thicker by the minute, Joshua and Jeonghan tried to scan for the tall Korean man walking around with a bodyguard. They could see him faintly, before the duo hurried down the street in hopes to catch up with him sooner.

🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶So Close Yet So Far🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶

            Mingyu ended his day laying on the hotel bed, exhausted from the day. Though his meeting had ended hours earlier, he ended up meeting some old friends for dinner, as he said he would. He was hoping he would have been able to message you and the others sooner rather than later, seeing as it was getting late. Mingyu rolled onto his side and grabbed his phone, sitting up and quickly dialing your phone number. He pressed the phone to his ear, waiting for you to answer as he picked up the room service menu and scanned it, using it to distract him from the ringing sound until he heard:

            “Hello~?”

            “Hey.” He grinned, his attention now fully on you. “Sorry it took me so long to call. I ended up being busier than I thought.”

            “It’s ok. I only graduated and got a full-time job at a local office while I waited to hear back from you.” Mingyu grinned a bit. He hopped off the bed and paced to the balcony.

            “Oh, really?” he asked. When he heard you laugh, his smile only got a bit bigger.

            “Mhm.” You said simply. However, you were quick to change the subject. It was a question Mingyu did not particularly want to hear. “How was your business stuff? You still sound tired.”

            “Do I?” He asked, feeling his hand clamp shut. “Heh, I guess I am. It all went fine.” He thought back to his first meal of the day today, and what transpired.

            “It’s lovely to see you again, Mingyu.” Mina smiled as she stepped into the room. Mingyu noticed her father step out, closing the door and leaving both of them alone. Mingyu nodded his head.

            “You too.” He said. Without missing a beat, he pulled open the first seat he could and motioned to it. “Shall we?”

            Mina smiled, walking towards her seat and sitting down, smoothing out her dress. She smiled up at him as he made sure to sit across from her. “Sorry for having you come out here so suddenly. When I told my father I wanted to see you again, I think he got a bit excited.” She laughed sheepishly. “I apologize for any trouble.”

            Mingyu thought back to the dinner he had to cancel with you. However, he shook his head. “It’s alright.” He assured. As the waiter returned with a drink order and menus, the duo quietly looked at what they planned to order. Mingyu glanced up at Mina. Her delicate round eyes scanned the different items on the menu, deciding what would be the best fit for a midday brunch. Mingyu didn’t care what he wanted to eat, he most likely wouldn’t be able to stomach it all, knowing what was about to happen.

            “Mingyu.” Mina said, and Mingyu looked up. She set her menu down. “How’s your father?”

            “Oh. Good.” He said.

            “Feeling better?”       

            “Here and there. He won’t ever admit he’s sick.” Mina laughed a bit.

            “I hope he does feel better soon. He seemed to tired when he was helping my father with all of that legal trouble in our Korean branch. But he was so professional, he kept working. I admired that about him.”           

            “Thank you.” Mingyu said. Mina took a deep breath.

            “I don’t want to beat around the bush.” She said.

            Mingyu blinked. “Neither do I.”

            “Good.” She said. “You must know why I wanted to see you again, then.”

            Mingyu nodded. “I have a few ideas.” Mina nodded, smiling. “And I’m sorry, but I don’t want any part of it.” The smile on Mina’s face dropped a bit.

            “What?” she asked, sounding sad. “Can I ask why?”

            Mingyu sighed. “I don’t want to be put into an arranged marriage.”

            “Do I upset you in some way?”

            “No.” Mingyu assured. “In fact, I’m hoping that despite this, we can stay friends and maybe business partners one day. I hate being this way, but my father keeps setting me up on these when he knows how I feel about it. I don’t want to hurt your feelings. I’m sorry.”

            Mina paused, pondering her next response. Mingyu didn’t expect being so brutally honest so soon into the meeting. However, a part of him felt good about getting it off of his chest.

            Mina leaned forward, folding her hands together and perching her chin on top. Mingyu had to admit that she was beautiful and regal, carrying herself like a noble princess. When she opened her eyes to look at him once again, a bit of hair fell in front of her eye.

            “I appreciate the honesty.” She said gently. Mingyu felt a sigh of relief escape him. “I admire how you come across so thoughtful of other people and their emotions. That’s what I like about you.”

            “Oh-.” Mingyu turned a bit red and smiled. “Thank you.”    

            “Well, I’m glad it went well.” You said once again. “We miss you here, though. A weekend feels longer when all you have to keep you occupied is Hoshi and Minnie bickering.”

            Mingyu laughed. “Trust me, I’d rather listen to that than be drowning in dinners with my father’s stuffy friends.”

            You laughed once again. “Well, it’s only one more day. You’ll survive. I know it.”

            “Thank you.” He said. When he let a yawn slip, he groaned a bit. “Man.”

            “Get some sleep, Mingyu.” You said. “You’ll be busy tomorrow sight seeing with your friends. Call me when you get the chance.”    

            “Okay.”

            “And send me pictures of the cherry blossoms.”

            “None of me?”

            “Take a selfie.” Mingyu laughed at the suggestion.

            “Goodnight.” He said.

            “Goodnight.” You repeated, before the both of you hung up. Mingyu set his phone down, walking out to his balcony. The cool night air brushed up against his skin, and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on it. He knew that only a few hours way, you were laying beside your apartment window after a long day. Were you looking out to the night sky as well? He wondered if you were staring at the same part of the sky, still so in sync despite being so far apart. Mingyu turned back towards his room, eyeing something on the couch in front of his bed. He thought back to the last question Mina had asked before he left that morning from their meeting.

            If we can still be friends, like you said, do you want to hang out tomorrow?

            When Mingyu’s eyes landed on the small white box wrapped up in a pink bow, he wondered if he made the right choice by saying yes.

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[j-nipper-95]

Fic Rec (plus late Six Sentence Sunday) Monday!

Ok, so I’m late posting this, but oh well. It’s being posted!

I’m not sure if my tumblr notifications are working properly at the moment (I know I missed at least one tag last week, so if I’ve missed your tags the last couple of weeks I’m sorry, I’m not ignoring you, tumblr is acting up!) but I’m still alive. I’m back, and I have words to share!

July’s Camp NaNoWriMo has been amazing for getting words down for COTTA, and I am finally back on track with following the El Dorado plot line again! I managed to double the word count goal I had by 1am this morning, so all in all, a very productive month. So without further ado, here’s six(teen) sentences from that! Thanks for the tags @artsyunderstudy @theearlgreymage and @hushed-chorus (and anyone else if I’ve missed your posts!!)

Baz POV

“Get in the back,” he grunts, nodding at the truck. “I’ll cover you.”

“With what, Snow?”

“Just do it.”

No. I won’t leave him.

“They’ll shoot you on sight,” I say (I plead, I almost beg. Don’t make me face the thought of losing you, Simon). “I can’t get over there without your help,” I add. If there’s one thing I can count on right now, it’ll be Simon’s inner heroism.

“Bet you can,” he says, without thinking.

“Two shillings say I can’t.”

The challenge in my voice is enough to make him turn to glare at me. And knowing how much it irritates him, I cock an eyebrow and tilt my chin up to look down my nose at him.

Snow opens his mouth to argue but snaps it shut when we hear the Now Next almost at the corner we’ve just run around.

“You’re on.”

And then Jas also tagged me in a fic rec post, so here’s a few I’ve been enjoying recently!

Someone Wicked by @artsyunderstudy ([E, 53.9k, Carry On, complete]

I had the chance to beta read this fic with @cutestkilla and oh my God it was a rollercoaster of emotions and tender smut and I loved every single second of it!

Normal AU, complicated family relationships, religious guilt, chronic pain rep, escort Simon, this fic had me hooked from the second Ashton pitched it to me! It’s angsty and soft and emotional in all of the ways we’ve come to expect from her fics, and it ticks all of the boxes.

Ashton managed to tackle some really tough emotions and relationship dynamics in this one, and I don’t really want to say any more and risk spoiling any of it.

Check it out if you haven’t yet, but just remember it is explicit with plenty of on page smut/sex scenes!

More Than Friends by @fatalfangirl [E, 19.9k, Carry On, incomplete]

This fic updated today. It was a good day!

Simon and Baz are roommates, and having survived lockdown together their feelings are becoming much more than platonic. Both of them like the other, but neither is willing to compromise their friendship.

Another Normal AU, this time ‘friends with benefits’, featuring lots of unhealthy coping mechanisms, a sexually promiscuous Simon (which I for one am loving!), Baz as a writer, and some new tags that were added today (trigger warnings for mentions of past ab*se and panic attacks).

This fic is updating currently, and I cannot wait to see what Stacy has in store for the boys! (Again, it’s explicit, so minors begone!)

What Remains After the Storm by @hushed-chorus [M, 86.3k, Carry On, complete]

When I tell you this fic had (and still has) me in a fricken chokehold, that’s an understatement! I still think about this fic on a daily basis, and Demi’s writing is simply stunning.

A fantasy/historical fiction(ish) AU, with fae, curses, much pining, and plenty of cute goats.

Simon is a goatherd on the edge of a fishing town, and while he’s not entirely trusted by the townsfolk, he’s not outright despised either. He works the land, and always pays his tithe to the fae. Until he pulls something from the ocean. Or rather, someone. When Baz flees his fae captors and returns home, he and Simon have to work together to help him remember his humanity.

This fic. Oh. My. GOD! Every update had me on the edge of my seat. Do yourself a favour, and go and read this fic. Especially as Demi is considering writing more in the same AU!

Strictly Professional by @palimpsessed [E, 38.5k, Carry On, complete]

This fic completed a couple of days ago, and I didn’t have time to finish reading it until this morning, and my god was it worth the wait!

Simon is a new recruit at Baz’s firm, and he’s joined the company just in time for the professional conference. But not in time to get his own hotel room. Cue only one bed forced proximity fast burn get together!

This fic pays off so quickly in the best way possible! The emotions Pal has managed to get into such a short space of time for the boys is incredible, and had me so invested in this relationship! Baz trying to remain professional, Simon’s unabashed flirting, neither of them managing to keep their hands off each other. Again, every single box ticked!

The Selkie and his Boy by @hushed-chorus [T, 21.8k, Carry On, complete]

It’s very rare that I pick up a T or G rated SnowBaz fic. I usually go for M and above, but once again, Demi had me hook line and sinker with this one.

Every year, Baz and his family holiday in Cornwall (can I just say how much I love Demi’s writing about Cornwall? It’s so nice to see the South West represented in fic!! As a Dorset girl who holidayed a lot in Cornwall as a kid, I love this so much!). Everything goes to plan … most of the time. One year, he meets a boy with bronze hair and blue eyes that utterly captivates him, and who he expects to spend the whole summer getting to know.

But the boy never shows up the next day. Or the next. Or indeed for the next several years.

Flash forward seven years, and an embittered Baz finally meets Simon again, and finds out why Simon never came back all those years ago.

An AU where Simon is a selkie, Baz is still a vampire, and Mordelia is unabashedly sassy!

Tagging (for both SSS and fic recs): @artsyunderstudy @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @aristocratic-otter @palimpsessed @larkral @orange-peony @dragoneggos @prettylightsbigcity @stardustasincocaine @fatalfangirl @cutestkilla @ileadacharmedlife @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @ebbpettier @martsonmars @erzbethluna @hushed-chorus

[markantonys]

surprise bitch bet you thought you’d seen the last of my WOT recaps! turns out i have two more in me for my thoughts on rewatching s1 after having read the books! this one is episodes 1-4

episode 1

fuck me if the show isn’t still My Main WOT. i read all 14 books, yet as soon as i hit play on 1x01 i was like “ahhh, that was a nice 14-book AU but now we are back to the real versions of the characters and events” jkfjgh curious to see if it will always be this way since the show was my first ever experience of the characters, or if next season when we start to get to characters and events that i experienced in the books first, i’ll switch to the books being my primary version.

moiraine’s much-maligned opening monologue: while it’s telling rather than showing, as a WOT newbie i found it a very helpful quick intro to the lore surrounding rebirth and the dragon reborn and to moiraine’s mission, and i think it was good to lay out the basic facts here and tell us right off the bat what moiraine is trying to accomplish, so that someone unfamiliar with the story and lore can get oriented straightaway, and then these concepts are deepened and expanded upon later in the episode and the season. it also helps to lessen the “eotw is a lotr knockoff” vibes of the beginning of the first book by letting us know some of this unique lore straightaway rather than just starting us off in our little pastoral village with moiraine as the mysterious gandalf whose goals we don’t know. and it makes me laugh that people are mad that she criticizes LTT and doesn’t have the exactly correct version of what happened at the bore. that was 3,000 years ago, there was an apocalypse and a TON of knowledge and records were lost, and this guy caused the apocalypse, so it is no wonder that he doesn’t have the BEST reputation these days (also, it’s book canon that LTT was arrogant so). expecting moiraine to have perfect knowledge of LTT and the breaking would be like expecting us today to have perfect knowledge of something that happened in 1000 BCE!

i will also always defend the much-maligned liandrin chase opening scene. it was an incredibly effective and efficient way of introducing so many important concepts (the red ajah, gentling, madness for men who can channel, the difference between women channeling and men channeling, how terrible it is to be a man who can channel) in only a minute. when i first watched the show, i was hooked after that scene! i saw the guy talking to the other guy and then he vanished and liandrin was like “there’s no one there, the madness has taken him already” and i was like Whoa!

i think it was a good choice not to start with the eotw prologue of LTT and ishamael, for a few reasons. 1) starting with that and then hurtling us 3000 years into the future would’ve been confusing as fuck. it was confusing as fuck to me in the book even though i’d already seen s1 and knew who lews therin was and what his connection to our main characters is! and tv shows do not have as much freedom as books to be confusing as fuck in the opening minutes and potentially turn away audience members, particularly with wheel of time since the show aims to cater to a broad audience whereas the books are not something any but a hardcore fantasy nerd who expects to be and enjoys being confused as fuck would pick up. 2) holding off on showing anything from the AOL until the last episode made it a very fun surprise for non-readers when we find out that 3000 years ago was actually a futuristic society, and getting us settled in this medieval-esque society for 7 episodes and then revealing that pre-breaking was actually super futuristic really hammers home how catastrophic the breaking was and how much devastation the dragon wrought. 3) i’m SURE this scene will make it into the show eventually, whether as a cold open or in-show as maybe rand having an LTT memory or something, and i think that saving it until we know that rand is the dragon reborn and know more about what that means for him will increase the emotional impact on the audience of seeing LTT realizing he killed his whole family and then killing himself. rather than just being like “here is a random guy having a bad time. oh no! anyway” jkfjg

overall i think that among certain readers there’s a tendency to, on the one hand, instantly lambast something different from the books as a bad storytelling choice without stopping to consider how that choice may actually be helpful for people who aren’t yet familiar with anything about WOT or be necessary due to the different constraints of tv versus a book, and then, on the other hand, fret about non-readers not being able to notice or understand something that the show makes fairly clear to somebody with a modicum of critical thinking skills, which show-onlys DO have, despite some readers’ beliefs lmao

the first half of the above point is also why i shake my head at people who said the show would’ve been better if there had been an entire episode in emond’s field and the trolloc attack didn’t happen until episode 2. in a tv show, you CANNOT save your inciting incident until the second episode, it has to be in the first one. it just has to! books have more room for waffling about (even so, i was so bored by how long it took to get to the inciting incident in eotw that i probably would’ve put the book down if i hadn’t already been attached to the characters from the show) but television has to hook the audience quickly. call it consumerism or cookie cutter hollywood if you want, but it’s a simple fact that tv shows are a bajillion times more expensive to make than books are, so they need to earn a bajillion times more, which means getting as many people hooked on it as quickly as possible. and as someone who came to the show without being familiar with WOT already, i’m not sure i would’ve tuned in for episode 2 if the entirety of 1 had just been people waffling about in emond’s field. okay *i* probably would’ve because josha stradowski and zoe robbins are so pretty, but lots of other new viewers wouldn’t have jdkjfg

also, those complaints seem to be borne from people thinking that the ef5 and the Status Quo weren’t established enough in the limited time in episode 1, but i strongly disagree. this introductory portion was short, but very effective. as a show-only first-time viewer, a couple minutes of the boys hanging out together was enough for me to buy their friendship. a couple minutes of mat’s home life was enough to get me attached to him. one shot of rand smiling was enough to make me mark him out as a precious cinnamon roll too good for this world too pure. one shot of nynaeve sending off her lantern alone in the woods and hiding her tears from the village was enough to make me feel for her and get a sense of her Lonely At The Top place in the two rivers. etc! while i certainly would’ve enjoyed rafe’s envisioned 2-hour episode 1 bc i’m always a hoe for more WOT content, i don’t think it was actually necessary and i would imagine that many new and/or casual viewers would’ve been put off by 2 whole hours in emond’s field.

and my next bullet point has a huge book spoiler so i will put the read more here

explain to me why i cried when nynaeve was explaining the braid to egwene! egwene’s death was too fresh, i wasn’t ready to see her again as a little baby!

rand is so HOT god. “how come elayne falls in love with him after 5 minutes and stays in love with him for 14 books despite rarely spending time with him” have you seen him. Have You Seen Him. egwene is so strong for being able to turn him down in favor of her career, i would give up my whole life to be rand’s trophy wife. oh fuck am i min???? jdkfjg oh no

brief randlayne tangent: at the con this weekend ceara said that we first meet elayne at the white tower, so there go my hopes of her getting a meet-cute with rand before arriving at the tower and meeting egwene :( i’m very curious how their eventual meeting will go down because it would be a hugely different vibe if elayne meets him already knowing that he’s her best friend’s ex. i could see maybe elayne runs into him while she’s by herself and instantly vibes with him and thinks he’s cute but doesn’t realize that he’s egwene’s rand because he doesn’t give a name or gives a fake one, and egwene had told her rand had red hair but the cute stranger she just met has no hair djkfgh

i’m also preemptively fretting about how much time they’ll be able to have together in the show, because as we know they’re robbed enough in the books, but the show’s quickened pacing might crunch down their time together even more - what if this season ends with falme and then rand leaves for the waste and elayne for tanchico right away next season? and given the deepening of randgwene, it’d probably feel too soon for rand to already be making out with elayne in like 3x01 before they leave on their trips. maybe they will change the order around so that he and elayne have a Vibe when they first meet but nothing actually happens, and then he and avi hook up in the waste but she rejects him afterwards - this would eliminate the kinda icky feeling of betrayal of elayne on both avi and rand’s parts when they bang in the books, and avi’s very firm and in-character rejection of rand here would provide him a better excuse to go off and fuck other people than elayne’s impulsive ooc plot device letter. but maybe avi knows elayne has a crush on rand although nothing actually happened between them and so she still feels guilty for that reason, allowing her and elayne’s whole relationship arc to still happen. but then rand would have to be able to spend a longer chunk of time with elayne sometime post-waste in order to make their relationship happen. on the one hand, i’m fretting that they wouldn’t be able to do that since both characters are so busy doing hot girl shit in different locations for the whole series, but on the other, i have faith that the show would be able to change things around to allow them to spend more time together in the middle of the series.

basically i’m just terrified they might split the polycule into 2 monogamous pairings, rand/min and elayne/avi, since it WOULD be easier in pretty much all respects, but good GOD i can’t live like that, i’d kill myself if min was rand’s only love interest!! rafe’s comments about polyamory in the show have made me hopeful that this won’t happen though. and i don’t think they would’ve bothered introducing alanna’s polycule if not to pave the way for rand’s.

okay we got way off track, back to episode 1

me on the first watch when lan stepped into the inn, hood up, and stood there silently until every single person in the place stopped talking and looked at him: ooooooh mysterious

me on this watch: absolutely laughed my ass off over what a drama queen he is

i’ve cried over rand like 5 times in the first episode, it’s fine

when he talks about dreaming of his kids running through these woods just like he did 😭😭😭😭😭😭 the last scene in the show better be randlayne’s twins running through some woods while rand watches happily or i’ll riot. anyway, i’m literally in agony over how much rand wants to just stay here and have his peaceful little domestic life and how much he will never be able to do that. A+ writing choice to make rand much more family-oriented and attached to home than he was in the books (and having Plans for his future in emond’s field rather than being like “what does it mean that i get nervous when egwene is around?” lmao), it makes his having to give all that up extra gut-punching. this change, while smaller than laila and mat’s backstory, has the same effect of priming the 3 boys for the major series-long internal struggles they will face in a way that is more obvious and imo more effective than anything the books did.

in nynaeve’s defense, she is minding her business and moiraine suddenly appears and is like “you claim to be a community leader and yet here you are cleaning?” and then proceeds to alternate between being insulting and asking bizarro nosy questions, so I Too would not be the biggest fan of moiraine after that conversation lmao (especially since insecurity about her age and leadership status is one of nynaeve’s biggest pain points, and moiraine just swoops in and starts pushing right on it)

thinking about that post that was like “rand wheeloftime’s gay little jumper in episode 1″ that’s a world heritage post. i’m devastated that rand didn’t get to take his gay little jumper with him on the trip.

lan: we need to leave. now. do you know which one of them it is? moiraine: no lan: [silently resigning himself to the fact that he’s about to acquire 4 kids instead of just 1]

the way i was NOT PREPARED when trollocs showed up the first time i watched jdkfjg we’ve spent so long in a world where GOT is the genre-defining fantasy show despite barely having any magic or monsters or fantasy elements that my subconscious was not ready for monsters to show up in this show. when the arrow hit that guy i was like “oh it must be evil people attacking” and then it cut to the trolloc and i was like WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!!!!!

mat charging into the battle to find his sisters is THE perfect way to establish who he is as a person, i can’t get over it

before i was thinking that moiraine might have announced to the whole village that one of the kids was TDR, but now i see she, lan, and the kids were actually talking fairly quietly and no one else was too close to them or seemed to be listening, so i don’t think the villagers know after all (tho they do leave in front of everyone rather than sneaking out like in the books)

“your life isn’t going to be what you thought” 😭😭😭

me on first watch when moiraine said the whole “there are neither beginnings nor endings” line: okay

me on this watch:

to continue my opening ramble, in my personal experience the complaints of the show not doing enough to get the audience attached to the ef5 were crazy false. i remember that the first time i watched, when i went in knowing 0 about these people, i came out of just the first episode frantically signing adoption papers for rand, egwene, mat, and perrin and a marriage license for nynaeve. and all along i was far more invested in them than in moiraine despite the show making her the main character. but i know a lot of show-onlys genuinely did feel the opposite way with caring a lot about moiraine and not much about the ef5 (or 4, most people did seem to care about nynaeve), so maybe i’m just Built Different, who knows!

one thing i will say is that i vividly remember feeling so At Home in this show just after the first few episodes. rather than 16-year-olds saving the world or middle-aged men politicking and scheming, here our main group of characters are people in their 20s trying to figure out what the hell their lives are gonna look like. and the show is more mature than a YA show/book but not as gritty and graphic as other adult fantasy shows/books. and i remember feeling that it just really hit my “i’m too old for YA but too young for/just don’t vibe with adult fantasy, but there’s no middle ground” sweet spot. not to mention the plethora of well-written female characters and lack of sexism, male gaze, etc in the writing and production. i straightaway felt like this show was For Me! even before it was revealed that queer people exist and are considered normal and treated with respect by the writing and other characters!

episode 2

when episode 6 first aired someone said about mat staying behind at the waygate “[perrin watching the ferryman voice] he’s gone” and now i think about that every time i watch or think about either scene. another world heritage post (although i think this was actually a reddit comment, over on r/wotshow which is the only sane and reasonable wot subreddit)

lan and rand staring each other down after the ferry incident jkjfg lan just immediately clocked that rand is about to become The Problem Child

lorne balfe release the version of ta’maral’ailen that plays 10 mins into episode 2 challenge!!!! it’s so pretty and ta’maral’ailen is one of my favorite themes!!! i’ve listened to the soundtrack so much that i instantly recognize when a snippet of music in the show is not included on the soundtrack and get very sad. oh i can’t wait for new Themes in s2 - i’m thinking full version of the seanchan theme, AIEL THEME, elayne/trakand/andor theme, maybe some sort of zany unhinged Mat’s Luck Theme

when rand says moiraine might kill them like the ferryman if they step out of line, to his face egwene disagrees, yet the second moiraine gets her alone that night she’s like “are you gonna kill us like you did that ferryman? 😤” awww! i love them your honor! i totally didn’t remember that egwene WAS suspicious of moiraine at first, and only softens to her when moiraine shows her some honesty in this one-on-one scene.

the introduction of the three oaths was definitely a curveball for me on first watch! i remember immediately trying to think back to every line moiraine had said to see if she really had told the truth every time haha

it will be interesting to see josha get into actual Darth Rand territory because in this season every time rand gets mad i’m just like “awww he needs a snack, he’s cranky” and i want to squish his cheeks. to be fair, my reaction to book rand getting mad was always either exactly that or “daddy? sorry. daddy?” and no middle ground

rand definitely got too much flak from the fandom for the tension with egwene in this episode. even if we set aside the fact that he’s undergone an enormous amount of stress and trauma in the past few days, it’s entirely valid for him to say “you broke up with me, so you can’t now pretend like nothing happened, i need space” and to feel hurt and confused by egwene seeming to change her mind and want him back. it’s also valid for egwene to want the comfort of him and their relationship back now that she’s also undergoing an enormous amount of stress and trauma! also, when she replies to rand’s above statement by saying that everything’s different now and she won’t ever be nynaeve’s apprentice after all, while egwene certainly didn’t mean it this way, i could easily imagine rand interpreting that (and her overall behavior) as her going “you’re my second choice but i’ll take you back now since my first choice fell through” which definitely wouldn’t be a nice feeling, and would feed right into one of his greatest fears that we later hear from machin shin: that egwene will never love him as much as he loves her. she’s always been his first choice, but he knows that he isn’t hers and that hurts! and yet at the end of the season, he chooses for her to have her first choice even though that isn’t him! oh my heart!! but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. i will also note that in episode 1 he was 100% accepting of her breaking off their near-engagement to become nynaeve’s apprentice (to an almost unrealistic degree lmao) and it’s only in this episode when she starts changing her mind and giving him mixed signals (and when he’s undergoing all his stress and trauma) that his little pufferfish spikes come out.

i’ve noticed several times now that moiraine says “she or he” “women and men” “a girl or a boy” rather than our society’s unconscious standard of putting the male term first (in english). it’s such a small thing but i love it!

the CAMERAWORK in the manetheren story - focusing on rand while we’re hearing about the king, on perrin while we’re hearing about normal people banding together to protect their home, on mat while we’re hearing about holding back a trolloc army for many days against impossible odds, and of course on egwene while we’re hearing about eldrene feeling her husband dying and then dying herself by using too much of the one power. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

bad news: this means egwene will definitely still die in the show good news: it also means we will definitely still get gawene in the show (given that everybody but me hates their romance and thinks it’s pointless and detracts from egwene’s character, i did worry they might cut it haha) bad news: it also means gawyn will also definitely still die in the show

shoutout to the hilarity of mat going “i’m going to cheer the gang up with a nice song!” and moiraine going “i love that song! [proceeds to tell the depressing as fuck true story it’s based on and put a damper right back on the mood]” she’s the kid on the playground telling everyone that ring around the rosie is about the plague

godddddd randgwene hits SO different after reading the books 😭😭 i think this is definitely the Show Thing that having read the books improved the most for me (aside from the ability to recognize foreshadowing and easter eggs, of course). before reading the books, i was like “okay here’s our bland heterosexual couple who obviously won’t last very long so why are you wasting my time trying to get me invested in their romance” and now i’m like “randgwene sweeties i’m so sorry, i’m so sorry an ugly ass bitch (past me) would say that oh my god.” when they were sitting on the mountain talking about the future and crying and holding each other, i broke. when rand turned to egwene in the middle of an argument and said he could never hate her, i broke. when they were standing in shadar logoth quietly holding hands and looking out at the city together, i broke. that last one especially, MAN the “‘you will never be lovelier than you are now. we will never be here again.’ -homer” -troy (2004) energy of that!!!! weeping on the floor. the development of their relationship in the show is going to be absolutely scrumptious.

maybe it’s also that the Heterosexual Nonsense of rand/min was so bad that it made the Heterosexual Nonsense of rand/egwene look wonderful in comparison dkfjg you never know you’re in the good old days until you’ve already left them.

that time when we all shipped mat and perrin for a hot minute! barney harris committed to the “mat is unrequitedly in love with perrin” angle with all his heart in that one scene, bless him. i remember thinking “oooh is this gonna be my ship?” but then they immediately got separated, rip, and instead cauthor came in to take center stage. i love how many “ships you never would’ve thought of in the books but are fire in the show” it served us (i was so onboard with ef4 polycule after watching s1 and then after reading the books i was like “wow i was crazy for that” but this rewatch is ensnaring me in it again!) and can’t wait to see that continue as we meet more characters. manifesting rand/gawyn finally getting recognized as the Messy Gay Angst goldmine it is.

time to talk about the depiction of male friendship in this show, which is very important to me! this was another one of the major things that struck me immediately when i started watching and contributed to that feeling of feeling At Home in this show. the open affection and tenderness between rand, mat, and perrin is so so wonderful to see!!! no toxic masculinity anywhere! they aren’t bros, they’re boy besties! i remember making a gifset of mat and perrin way back when and ALL the reblog tags were people being like “they felt more like friends in 5 minutes of the show than they ever did in 14 books” and i was like “what! how can that be! they are besties!” and now I Understand lmao. the deepening of relationships all around is one of the absolute standout aspects of the show (both in comparison to the books, and on its own merits - on my first watch, throughout the season the relationships were what kept getting me over and over again), and especially the relationships between the ef5. they all feel like close childhood friends, rather than the book vibe of “rand and mat are homoerotic besties, perrin is a third wheel who never thinks about either of them and vice versa, and egwene and nynaeve can’t be real friends with any of them because they are GIRLS”

moiraine waking up just to roast lan and then passing out again is simply iconic

the real reason mat didn’t get hoisted up is because he is a skinny twink who never would’ve been able to bust the door open from the other side. they needed beefcake rand for that one.

and then the episode ends with nynaeve threatening lan’s life, immediately into mashiara as the credits music, amazing showstopping spectacular

episode 3

i heard some whispering and what sounded to me like a magic-ish sound effect just before nynaeve grabbed the trolloc’s weapon in the pool, so i’m kinda wondering if she may have unknowingly channeled a bit there?

the string rhythm of the dragon reborn theme layered under the aes sedai theme when nynaeve emerges from the pool!!!! and i haven’t heard it in the show yet, but in the soundtrack version of the goldeneyes theme there’s also a portion with the dragon reborn string rhythm underneath! It Was About Them All!!!!!

crossing my fingers that mat will get some sort of Theme next season, and i wonder if the al’naito theme might eventually move from siuan to egwene. that would be neat!

can you tell that i have an obsession with soundtracks

this convo between mat and rand exemplifies beautifully the fact that they have 1 shared braincell, like:

rand: EGWEEEEEEEEEENE!!!!!!!!!!! mat: [current braincell possessor] stop hollering who knows what’s out there and can hear us. now, we need to find a way home- rand: [grabbing the braincell] but moiraine said the trollocs will come back if we do. we need to go to the white tower. mat: [grabbing the braincell back] how are we going to get there? just walk??? to the white tower???? rand: they say all roads lead there. mat: [wishing with all his heart that they had a second braincell at their disposal] that’s not how roads work.

perrin being frantic to light a fire and apologizing that he’s not doing it fast enough perfectly encapsulates his book vibe of trying to be the leader and feeling responsible for egwene’s safety, but without the weird condescending and patronizing dimension that his book attitude had.

love the visual contrast between strapping young lad rand strolling along with his preppy sheepskin coat and his massive sword (that’s what she said) and his massive bow (that’s also what she said) vs. weaponless coatless scrawny twink mat scrambling to keep up. rand knows he is on An Adventure, but mat just wants to be removed from the story.

“that’s not how roads work” / “the man who once walked while a little chilly” / “we’ll take turns” “if you think she’s up for it” / “if i wanted a man i could do better” it is just back to back to back iconic lines in rand and mat’s plotline this episode!

the closeup of rand during thom’s song about LTT and you can see tears in his eyes 😭😭

i like thom’s grittier silver fox blues singer show vibe. i feel like in eotw he was just a weird old man with weird vibes jkjfg

thom telling rand and mat to go up and perform if they think they could do a better job than him, don’t tease me with the loss of the cauthor gleeman era 😭 one of the things that definitely had to go, seeing as a) not enough time, b) it’s a symptom of eotw’s Sillier vibe that doesn’t fit tonally with the rest of the series, and for that reason i think i would’ve felt weird in the show, but i’ll always love it in the book.

baby rand’s surprised little distressed face when he realizes mat got robbed. he’s like “you really think someone would do that? go into a tavern and steal someone else’s wallet? :O”

dana trying to make mat get to his knees and beg her while rand watches, she was READY for that threesome. mat was also ready for that threesome. rand, get your head in the game!

what a scene. “isn’t she a bit young for you?” mat confirmed milf chaser “i make exceptions” bi mat rights “we’ll take turns” “if you think she’s up for it” mat unironically down for a threesome with rand, it’s just one thing after another!

mat immediately gets Mean because he’s embarrassed to have admitted he wanted to have a threesome with rand when it turns out that wasn’t what rand meant, that’s my interpretation

still blown away by “you don’t need to go there for her. she wouldn’t do it for you.” mat is IN LOVE with rand. the repressed years-long unrequited crush energy is OFF the charts.

mat when dana makes him serve drinks: i’m being forced to do work and i’m being SO brave about it

ahhhh this convo between mat and dana is so soooo good. obviously it sets up dana’s motivation for joining the shadow, but it also is a perfect little peek into/foreshadowing of mat’s character. his wistful expression when she talks about going someplace new where no one knows you to escape the dirt you were born in - his show backstory really deepens and grounds his yearning to get out of the two rivers and travel far away, by anchoring that in wanting to escape a painful home life rather than just thinking that life as a farmer is too boring and too much work, as is his reasoning in the books. but then he brushes the idea aside by saying he’s got people back home who need him - that is mat to a T, he seems like an irresponsible fool who only looks out for himself but when it comes down to it he always puts his loved ones first.

nynaeve being like “don’t be so sure i’ll stick around with moiraine if you ride away!” and lan just gives her a look like “uh-huh.” he’s already got her all figured out, he knows she can’t resist either a) healing someone who needs her help or b) doing anything for her kids, and he’s neatly snared her with both things.

re: perrin trying to be the leader and protect egwene, in addition to not feeling condescending like it does in eotw, it’s also explained by what happened to laila. the guilt of that is driving perrin to feel like he has to protect egwene and take risks in her stead, etc. as opposed to the book reason for it basically being “i must be the leader because i am the man here and thus it is my duty to protect the delicate flower accompanying me”

overall, the various backstory changes have been perfect for explaining character behavior/traits that in eotw are mostly just silly goose behavior.

i can’t find the post again for the life of me, but it is time to reference the world heritage post that was like “egwene and perrin’s roadtrip is like ‘do you want to talk about your trauma yet? no? okay’ and rand and mat’s is a bickering divorced couple where one got caught cheating”

haha i love egwene perfectly repeating aram’s whole spiel about the song and then perrin just quietly going “uh we don’t know the song” when it’s his turn, that is THEM

the camera cut to the MASSIVE pile of chopped wood next to rand djfkgj he really had to work out those feelings after mat was Mean to him

rand inviting a woman to drink alone with him in his bedroom at night and then being startled that she tries to kiss him, he’s a baby, please protect him! the eotw rand vibes coming through even though show!rand already fucks.

thom lists “asinine attitude” as a defining characteristic of people from the two rivers, bless

“he was murdered by cowards who feared something they didn’t understand” ahh the backstory of thom’s nephew really underscores why he’s so upset about the aiel here :( and since he’s saying this line to mat, dare i hope that show!mat may have a better initial reaction to learning rand can channel? tho i feel like it’s kinda central to his character arc that he does react badly. i will likely speak more on this when i get to episode 5 and The Promise.

the whole scene with the aiel is peak “feeling incredibly smug that i understand all these references now”

dana’s such a fantastic 1-episode character! great writing, great acting, great chemistry with both rand and mat. on first watch, the twist that she’s evil shook me to my core! super effective way to introduce the concept of darkfriends. whereas iirc our first darkfriends in eotw were people that had obvious shady vibes from the getgo, much more unsettling that dana starts off so friendly and likable and nonthreatening.

lmao i remember seeing someone who was mad that rand couldn’t get the better of dana in a fight when he’s much bigger and stronger than her (and a man, as was abundantly clear they Really meant), but rand is just a wee lad, he’s never had to fight anybody before, he doesn’t even know how to use that sword, it makes perfect sense that he would be scared and helpless in this situation. protect him!

rand’s little “we’re gonna leave now” after dana finishes her Villain Speech cracks me up every time jdkfjg he’s a BABY

episode 4

getting so pleased with myself every time they namedrop a location and i’m like “i know where that is!” djkfgj (so far, tear, caemlyn, and ghealdan - though ghealdan, when i watched the show the second time and they mentioned ghealdan in the 1x01 winespring gossip sesh i was like “i know ghealdan! that’s where logain is from!” and was also very pleased with myself then)

the corrupted weaves are THE SHIT they look soooooo cool!!!

i for one am apprehensive about the fact that they’re making changes to the look of weaves in s2 because i love how they are in s1, but we’ll see what it ends up looking like!

why did people get so up in arms about mistakenly thinking the show was trying to imply that logain saw nynaeve’s weaves when moiraine says IN THIS EPISODE that women can’t see men’s weaves, implying that the show intends to follow book lore and make the opposite true as well

“why did moiraine have a dog when dogs don’t like aes sedai!” is THE stupidest hill to die on jkfjg dogs hating women who can channel and cats hating men who can channel was one of the absolute stupidest and most unnecessary pieces of lore and i’m thrilled the show went out of its way to establish that it’s not the case in this version lmao

show!alanna is so pretty and so likable, aaaaaahhhhhhh

very glad that they’re actually using the battle ajah angle as the main characteristic of greens and the main reason people would choose to join, rather than the “greens love men and sex and sex with men” angle

super interesting that moiraine mentions women AND men have claimed to be false dragons

haha i don’t remember previously catching rand saying “wouldn’t it be easier to just ask?” when thom is making the plan to break into the farmhouse to sleep. rand doesn’t want to do crimes!

rand in the last episode making constant snarky comments about how mat always dips out of work vs. in this episode when mat dips out of work, rand’s just worried because he can tell mat’s unwell 🥺

mat with kids 😭😭 the birgitte doll 😭😭 man i’m so sad that the doll got left behind at the farm, imagine if mat had kept it the whole time, promising himself he would be able to give it to his sisters someday, and then he meets birgitte herself and is like “hey i have a doll of you” and she’s like “what the fuck” jkjfg

rand: mat’s not an idiot me: wow Romance..........

the full line is him saying that mat would tell him if he could channel because he’s not an idiot, so rand just roasted himself djkfg

rand’s face when thom’s reply to this is that owyn knew all the stories about how men who could channel will go mad “and still he lied to me” 😭😭😭

look at show!perrin being happy to see egwene have a good time dancing with the tuatha’an! book!perrin take notes. he is definitely the character that was most improved by the show so far. remind me to talk about this more in my post on the second half of the series when we get to min.

i tear up during the way of the leaf speech every time. so so well done!!! standout scene!!

egwene saying she’d know if rand was dead and it’s explicitly meant to be romantic, meanwhile in the books rand and mat BOTH say at various points that they would know if the other was dead, even BEFORE they start having their psychic ta’veren connection 👀👀

“the leaf doesn’t fight the wind. sometimes the wind blows away from the tree.” that’s such a perfect line for egwene and the journey she’s going to go on and how she ends up being the one of the ef5 who leaves home furthest behind, aaaaaHHHH

AND WE GET TO “i’m here. you know that, right? no matter what happens, i’m here.” MY CAUTHOR ORIGIN STORY!!! the moment my brain chemistry was altered forever! let us recall one of my earliest tags on a cauthor post (tho now that i’ve sifted through the archives to find it i see that the post was actually from the next episode):

joke’s on me, i never did end up shifting out of cauthor mode!

anyway, rand blows out the candle so that he can have privacy to cuddle with mat, we all know it

also, on my second watch i lost my mind at that shot of rand’s face behind the candle as he’s about to blow it out because!!!! it’s a candle before the raging sun!!!!

ooh mat’s dagger vs. the fade is a good way to set up the concept that the evil of mashadar and the evil of the shadow are enemies (oh and they did show that trollocs are afraid to enter shadar logoth, of course)

backstory change explaining character behavior strikes again: nynaeve losing her parents at a young age and being taken in by emond’s field despite not having been born there is likely why she feels so fiercely attached to her found family, exemplified by how determined she is to get the ef4 back.

love the battle against logain’s army! great choice to show what aes sedai/channelers in general can do in battle right in the first season.

not to harp on about the missing music snippets but dammit there’s a beautiful sad choral version of the aes sedai theme as the battle is going badly, i want it lorne 😭

nynaeve’s power blast is another thing that makes me tear up every time!!!! like a raging sun!!!!! (which, speaking of the soundtrack, is the best track out of the whole thing.) i remember my jaw was on the floor the first time i watched that, as soon as the episode was over i instantly went back to watch the scene again.

update to add: i’m so glad they made nynaeve way more powerful than logain and are seemingly going to do away with the whole “on average men are stronger than women in the power” which is so stupid and creates a needless male-advantage inequality (once saidin is cleansed). i think there’s supposed to be a flipside that women are more........dexterous with their weaves or something? but whatever the flipside is was so irrelevant in the books that i can’t even remember what it is. i hope they also make it so that either men and women can both sense each other channeling or that neither can, as it’s also a needless male-advantage inequality that they can sense women but women can’t sense them. and also that male channelers who are bonded as warders can’t be compelled by the bond, but female channelers can. these things worked to balance it out while saidin was tainted, but once it was cleansed, it tipped the channeling scales over towards favoring men (and contributed to my overall feeling of a progression from an equal society into a patriarchy during the second half of the series, kicked off by the aes sedai being forced to kneel to rand and the asha’man at dumai’s wells and exemplified by an increase in men in positions of power and previously-powerful women having to submit to men’s authority - the aes sedai with rand, the wise ones with perrin, etc.)

[shadesofnavy]

Howdy, I’m a goofy lil farmer who loves soda and napping🥤

I’m VERY unprofessional and inconsistent with writing and art in general, but I love doing it, even if it takes me ages to get things done lol. I do traditional and digital drawings, may or may not open commissions someday in the future, who knows! 📝

Here's my AO3, and my art tag

I come up with [too many] AUs about my take on the FNF Funky Trio, each of them have their own tags, if interested check ‘em out. Here are my current verses

Burlington Bounty: Pico's School AU where everyone went to the same high school. Keith later becomes a wanted bounty known for ruthless murders, and he somehow manages drag his old friends in too. BFxGFxPico.

The Crooked Kind: Fantasy world AU where Keith is a reaper and Cherry is a guardian angel. Life seems okay before their school is shot up, and several other close lives are completely changed forever. BFxDarnellxNenexCherryxPico.

Mixtape : Swap AU where Keith, Darnell and Nene went through the shooting. Cherry is a rising rapper dating Pico the prosecutor who struggles to handle both his job and danger-magnet girlfriend. BFxDarnellxNene, GFxPico.

Animatronic : FNAF-based AU where Keith, after having became a successful musician and running a hit family entertainment restaurant, gets murdered and spirit now possesses the animatronic mascot of his restaurant. GFxPico

Prototype [ON-GOING FIC]: Regular Take AU where Keith's life spirals downhill. BFxPico, DarnellxGF (Be mindful of this fic's tags)

If you have any questions about them, feel free to ask : )

I try to answer as many asks as I get, just don’t bet on it. I also try to keep away from anything seriously controversial to avoid any kind of drama

My main obsession currently is Friday Night Funkin', but sometimes I'll reblog about other stuff I like. Here's some of my favorite kinds of media

Games: Sonic the Hedgehog, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), Battlefield 4, Cuphead, SSX Tricky, Undertale, Sonic the Hedgehogg, Minecraft: Story Mode (Netflix Interactive)

TV shows: Arcane: League of Legends, Ninjago, Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, While You Were Sleeping (K-Drama), Inborne Pair, Fermat's Cuisine, Avatar the Last Airbender, I Will Be Your Bloom, The Little Woman (K-Drama), Love Next Door (K-Drama)

Movies: Trolls, Nimona, G-Force, Ice Age (the first one), The Lion King (I cannot deny it)

Books: Warriors, Survivors, Bravelands

I'm mostly kid-friendly, (excluding my AO3 though, I suggest you back off if you're not into steamy fics) but I sometimes post about heavy topics, so just keep that in mind. I make sure to tag whenever it gets quirky. Expect to see a lot of angst now and then 🚬

[yanderelovlies]

No and jack reacting to dragon MC? (MC that can transform, hibernates and has the abilities and lifespan of one)

Oooooh bet!

This fanfiction has a fantasy setting but isn't attached to any au

Since he has only lived in a lone village, he had no knowledge of dragons. He has only been taught to be terrified of them when they came to village. So he was surprised when one walked into the village one day looking more human like then he thought.

Besides the scales that cover what skin he could see, you also had a long scaly tail that you seemed to be extra mindful of when around people and wings that were always folded behind your back. When you did open your wingsit was usually away from people or when you left the village. Despite them looking leathery, they still looked gorgeous to him, and he could help but admire.

After a few months of your constant visits, not only did the tiny village get used to you, but he did as well. Enough to the point that he felt like he could approach you to not only get to know you, but your culture as well. Who knew he would falls so fast for you.

Sunny Day Jack

He just couldn't help it, though! Not only were you so kind and compassionate to those around you, but you held power and elegance that he had never seen before. He was sure how dragon courting was done, but with his limited research in the village, he tried his best.

He didn't have much to his name, but he wanted to prove to that he was serious. So when confessed to you, he gave you a gold necklace for your hoard and his promise to be the best mate he would be! Of course you accepted.

From there, it was truly a learning experience for him. After courting for a while, the two of you decided to move Jack to your cave so you didn't have to travel too far to see him. Not only did I see how amazing Hoard looks, but he saw your true foarm. A big beautiful creature. Yes, it startled him at first, but by the end of the night, he was sleeping besides your bigger warmer form, snoring happily.

He also learned that hibernation was the worst. Yes, you left him plenty of food and water to last through the cold months, but it was the fact that you're conscious to talk to. He still talked to your sleeping form, but with you hearing your beautiful voice, it wasn't the same. Once you woke he was attached to by the hip. He didn't want to be without you again.

The last thing he learned about was your life span. You were thousands of years older then and had plenty of stories to share. You shared it all with him, and he soaked it all up like a sponge. He was amazed by everything you had done up to this point. Only making him fall harder for you.

Bo

Your beauty and power amazed him. Bo prided himself as a strong man, but when he met you, he knew he was wrong. He could help but approach you. During your friendship, he was constantly asking you things about your people. The more he learned, the more he wanted to know. However, the more time he spent with you, the more he fell in love.

Early on, he had already asked you about courting rituals for your people. So once he knew he was serious about his feelings, he found the most precious stone he could. He presented it to you for your hoard and confessed his feelings. You practically see a tail behind him wag as he did so. You couldn't help but accept it.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, he immediately proposes moving into your cave with you. You were reluctant at first, but eventually, you agreed. It was nice having his energy around.

Thought there were many things he learned while talking with you. There were two things he didn't expect. Your true form and hibernation. Your true form startled him awake when he found himself under a huge and heavy hand. When he was able to break free, it took him a it to realize it was you. He sat away from you just admire your pure raw beauty in power.

Before hibernation rolled around, you did earn him that you would be asleep for months, but he didn't seem to mind assuring you that he would protect you. However, a month after not talking to you, he was getting upset. He didn't realize it lasted this long! No wonder you live so long.

Once you woke, he talked to you like an overly excited toddler while keeping tonyour side. You didn't mind thought after years of solitude felt nice to have someone actually miss you presence.

[flutter-love]

Ahh so idk if yk but there’s a very cool DnD-esque Spooky Month Fantasy AU on the go by @666melvin666 ! You should check it out! :D

Here is a little short I wrote about their Dragon!Frank meeting lil Elf!Flutter

⚠️ Warning for ONE suggestive bit?

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨🐉🧝‍♀️✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Frank had sought out a healer in a quiet land away from the last town he’d decimated. He couldn’t believe his luck coming upon one in such a secluded place. A little elf with healing magic and soft eyes.

Frank has a problem. During his vengeful rampage he’d lost a scale in a rather important place that had left him quite vulnerable. No, heh, not there. It was under his left arm. If an arrow were to pierce him there it could reach his heart and it would be the end of him. Dragons were long lived beings and their scales grew slowly, and given the mob of angry townsfolk currently crawling out of the newly formed smoking crater he’d made and howling for vengeance upon him, he simply did not have time to wait.

The little thing wasn’t even 5 feet, less than a mouthful in his true form. As it was, his human form loomed over her when he had approached. His shadow falling across her books and causing her to look up at him with wide eyes the green of the forest. She didn’t scream, surprisingly, but uttered a soft gasp as if she’d pricked her finger on a thorn. How apt, for something wicked had indeed come her way.

The elven woman sat very still in the grass in a bundle of green skirts, the way her ears twitched reminded him of a rabbit and low chuckle rumbled out of him, causing a visible stir within her. She hadn’t run away though, that was a start. If he focused he could hear her little heartbeat pounding in her chest. But he could not smell any fear on her.. something else maybe? Lavender..peaches..old books..and..? He cleared his throat, his wings popping up. Well he hasn’t expected that.. just what had she been reading anyway?

While he’d been studying her, she had been doing the same to him. He was probably the biggest dragon Flutter had ever seen. If he wanted to eat her, he surely would have done so by now? Not that there was much she could do about it if he decided to. She’d been so engrossed in her reading she hadn’t heard the leathery flap of his wings until he touched down a few feet in front of her. His presence and sheer size were unexpected, but what she found most startling about him were his features. Not the horns or the tail, not the wings that any bat might die of envy upon encountering. No, it was his face. His strong, angular jaw, the heavy brow shadowing the drowning darkness of his eyes that seemed to pierce right through her. The set of his mouth, how soft his lips seemed where they met his teeth.

But perhaps what was most striking about him was his sadness. The pain that was etched into his expression, how he moved like he’d been wounded by something she could not yet see. It made her chest ache and as a reflex, she had reached out her hand to him. And it was his turn to softly gasp.

Her hand was small and delicate, like a doll’s in his. Gentle fingers that took hold of him. He could feel her magic when she brushed his palm, it tingled pleasantly as he helped her to her feet. Still so small. He crouched down, hoping she would not take it as an insult, it seemed more rude to simply pluck her from where she stood and hold her up to his level, so he attempted to come closer to hers. She did not retreat as he grew nearer, though perhaps she got pinker? She could feel the heat of dragon fire emanating from him, when he spoke she smelled the smoke on his breath. One deep inhale and he could toast her like a marshmallow where she stood. But she bet her life he wouldn’t. At least, not just now.

He had explained his predicament and she had gladly agreed to help him. Fixing his armour had gone well. He had transformed at her request and she had gingerly climbed up him to reach the part of him that he had lost. Flutter could not help but marvel at his scales. Iridescent and harder than diamonds, when the light struck them they held infinite shades of blue that took her to the ocean she had only seen in her dreams. The 30 foot dragon had shivered at the little elf’s touch against his vulnerable skin. Her hands were soft and she had used them with tenderness and care. It was an honour to be trusted like this, few people ever saw a dragon under their armour, let alone got to touch. The both of them had tingled where their edges met that day. Him as the soft light of her magic flowed and ebbed through his skin. Skin that was incredibly sensitive as it seemed, for dragon’s hides were so rarely exposed this side of death. And her at being allowed to touch something so special, so fragile and dear. If he had been able to see her eyes, they were wet with tears as she worked, so moved was she. “Silly, soft little crybaby elf”. She internally chided herself. But her heart felt full and it enhanced her magic. Once the task was completed and she could see the new scale starting to form, as delicate and beautiful as a newly hatched butterfly’s wing, she had sealed the spell with a tender little kiss. The sound that it drew from Frank had surprised them both. Flutter had not known dragons could make such a noise.

Flutter fixed him potions to aid in the speed of calcification, so that his armour might be complete sooner. He was huge. He was powerful. He was hurting and had a target on him and she wanted to keep him safe.

She had confounded him somewhat by not wanting any gold though. For a dragon this simply did not compute, Frank was not sure he has heard her right. Jewels then? Perhaps an emerald to match her eyes? He had several in his horde the size of her head. Oh how she had blushed! And how pleased he was to see it. It had sounded corny in his head, but her reaction gave him confidence. Maddeningly though, she had not wanted jewels either. He had thrown his hands up in frustration, snorting smoke and sending little sparks dancing through the air. Flutter had giggled then, for she would not be cowed by what was- in her eyes- such an endearing display.

“What, then? What would you have as payment from me?” Frank was vexed, exasperated. He could not for the life of him understand her reluctance to accept wealth. But neither could he stand to leave a debt unpaid.

“Promise you’ll come back, so I can see how you’re healing?”

Flutter answered his question with a question.

Frank exhaled a plume of bluish smoke in mild frustration. As far as he was concerned the scale had been replaced, it would harden and then he’d be back to being damn near invincible.

But it wasn’t just the scale she was talking about. Flutter had felt his pain when she’d touched him. She could still feel it, quietly searing her under her fingernails. It burned so cold and she knew if she let it, this pain might freeze his heart. Ice has no place in a dragon’s heart.

“Please?” She implored, taking one of his large, clawed hands in both of hers tentatively.

Frank felt something catch, his breath? Something in his throat? It hitched as he was caught off guard like this. A low, sulky rumble emanated from the dragon as he pouted, although it was hard to tell with those fangs unless you were really paying attention.

Flutter was and she suppressed a giggle.

“Very well..” Frank regarded her with mild irritation, but mostly curiosity. Strange little thing she was. His brow arched as he noted she still held his hand in hers. It was so warm.. a different heat altogether from the inferno of dragon’s fire. More like sunshine? He puzzled, swallowed, suddenly feeling a little restless.

“I will return so you may check up on your patient.”

Yet her hand lingered!

“No more than a moon’s time, please?” Flutter’s gaze was clear and startlingly intense, her concern was obvious, but he fancied there was a flicker of something else in there too? Something that made the dragon’s tail twitch involuntarily and drove up his core temperature.

“Yes!” He huffed, trying to roll his eyes and shrug off the feeling.

“Promise?” Her expression had softened as her grip loosened. He found he missed that touch already.

Frank relaxed his shoulders and gave her a very toothsome, but tired smile. It might have been terrifying under different circumstances, but it got her smiling back at him and he noticed she had dimples.

“Promise.” Said the dragon, closing his large hand around hers now and squeezing very carefully so he did not break her bones.

The action got her to drop her gaze for a beat with a shy smile that gave him a huge rush of satisfaction. Smug dragon is smug. He had to stop his tail from wagging and betraying his sense of triumph.

When he flew off that day, they may have separated physically, but neither of them left the other’s thoughts. Nor would they, for many a year.