#but also like I hate that each time you assign the spell to the button it gives you a tutorial about how to assign a spell that doesn’t go

[alyona11]

Ok but can someone explain to me why Hogwarts Legacy is such a frustrating game to play?

[that-one-weeb-but-starwars]

A Marriage Arrangement with death pt 4

All I can say is well. Well my bad-

Read Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 3.5

Y/n's eyes slowly opened, turning her head she was face to face with Savage.

Smiling softly her hand reaching out for his face, rubbing Savage's cheek with her thumb lightly.

He slowly woke up, his irises bright in color and lowly shining in the dark room. Y/n said nothing- thank the gods for black out curtains. She thought his eyes were so pretty with there soft glow

He kissed the palm of her hand softly as she smiled, leaning forwards they shared a soft kiss.

"Well good moring." She smiled.

He only sighed, pulling her into his chest as she chuckled.

"Go back to sleep."

"Come on we can't stay in bed forever." Y/n responded kissing his chin, he was rubbing her bare back with one hand she smiled at him, relaxing in his grip she sighed happily.

"We're getting married today."

"Again."

Y/n chuckled, "You don't want to get married again?" She teased.

"Why unify again and tell the galaxy when my galaxy is infront of me."

Y/n flushed deep red, as she moved her gaze away, her chest tightening and butterflies filling her stomach.

"Oh...I..." she spoke trying to come with a counter. His hand carassed her cheek as he sat himself up.

Y/n kept her gaze away the headboard seemingly more interesting, but soon then she realized she was laid down on her back, Savage over her frame as she looked at him to catch his gaze- and hold it.

"Hello there..." y/n spoke trying to cover her akwardness.

He leaned down kissing her softly without another word, her arms wrapping around his large frame, hands rest at the top of his back.

Pulling away softly Y/n whined playfully, chuckling he held her, she pulled him back down into a kiss happily as a leg wrapped around his bare waist.

A soft groan of pleasure was drawn out into the kiss and the two pulled away softly with a pant.

"Moring sex sounds fun." Y/n joked as he chuckled, going to kiss her again there was a knock on the door.

Y/n groaned in displeasure, its always someone. Pulling herself from under him she covered herself with a robe. Walking towards the door it opened with a push of a button.

"Oh- Misses Gladlys-" y/n responded, "I uh...why are you here?"

"I was requested to get you on account of your mother Princess."

Y/n nodded, "uhuh for?"

"Well to get ready of course. It is your big day."

"The ceremony isnt till later in the day?" Y/n questioned.

"Well yes but-"

"Misses Gladys I love you. And you know that. But I have another matter- Very Very big matter."

"But Princess."

"Just this once. Give me..." She spoke looking back at Savage, his hips and below covered by the blankets as his top half was put on full display for her, "Give me 45 mintues-"

"Fourty-Five Mintues!? Princess you're mother-"

"Sorry Misses Gladlys! I promise just once! Bye!-"

"But Princess-"

Y/n shut the door, locking sealing it shut from the inside.

"Now." Y/n spoke turning back to him walking towards the bed as she dropped her robe.

"Where were we?"

"Sleep."

"Right."

She climbed into bed as she curled up to him, his arm drapped over her hip in protection.

"The sweet glory of sleeping in." Y/n smiled nuzzling into his chest as he chucked, both going back to sleep for another hour.

Yet she would be woken up by a loud knocking, causing her to groan. Savage was also woken up as Y/n pulled away from him recovering herself she opened the door.

"Do you have any idea what time it is!"

"Yeah Yeah Im going." Y/n spoke walking back into the room and going back to Savage.

"Wish me luck with her- and someone will be here with a set of chlothes. My brother's will want to talk to you before hand," Y/n spoke kissing him softly, "Love you."

"I love you too."

She smiled as she left, being yelled at as soon as she opened the door.

"Yeah yeah lets go."

Savage sat up rubbing the back of his neck, meanwhile getting dressed his chlothes from the other night, pulling the boots on and bottoms, leaving his armour off he pulled on the turtle neck. That's when he received a transmission.

Picking up the hologram fromed as Ventress stood there.

"Savage."

"Mistress."

She crossed her armors, "has she trusted you?"

"Yes." Savage spoke, "I believe this may be a strong allyship between the two worlds-"

"You fool! This is an infiltration! Do not get attached!" Ventress argued.

"I thought this was ment to be Unification. Not a hoax." Savage tried to defend, but it was useless.

"Count Dooku will be present today both at the ceremony and to sign documents. Its when we will attack, killing Count Dooku and the royal family. And Dathomir will finally regain what was lost to them."

What was he suppose to say- No? He couldn't do that, he did belong to Ventress after all. The spell did what it was ment to.

"You will kill the royal family! And that Pathetic thing you call your wife." Ventress demanded.

"Yes. Mistress."

"Good."

The transmission was cut as his head felt like it split open, holding it in pain he growled.

The doors opened.

"Hey! Savage! We wanted-" it was one of Y/n's brothers, "You okay?"

"I-I am fine." Savage lied.

"Oh. come on then."

He followed the group leading him into a lounge area, all her brothers sat there. They cheered for him as he ended.

"Big day huh! Must be exciting!"

"You idiot he was married at Dathomir as well."

"Your an idiot!"

"Sorry for them." Fresco spoke apologizing for the twins, handing Savage a cup, "for your headache."

Savage nodded almost immediately downing the water, leading him to come sit down

"You heard fathers coming back?"

"Good maybe mother will finally stop being so mean."

"Please you know she bullies him too."

"You havent met all of us have you?" Fresco spoke.

"No I don't believe I have."

Fresco smiled, "there is a lot of us. You know the twins and Attiucs."

The twins were busy arguing but Atticus waved looking up from his book.

"Ezio here is the oldest." The older teen raised a cup taking a drink.

"Im after him, and Jacob's next, after are the twins but you met both of us" Fresco added, "Juniper is next."

The teen with his hair half buzzed the other side long and braided lifted up a lazy hand, sitting upside down on the couch as he listened to his brother.

"After Juniper its Atticus, and then the triplets."

They were busy dualing around the room with sticks, "Cornelius, Hamilton, and Magnus."

Hamilton stopped to wave Politely but was ran into by his two siblings as they fell onto the floor.

"What about you? And your brothers? Sisters?" Juniper questioned but Atticus kicked him.

"You little shit!-"

"I don't have any brothers. Not no more." Savage responded his glass being refilled by butler standing by.

"Hey! We got you. We're all brothers now." Fresco spoke a fist to Savage's shoulder playfully, "we're an off bunch but mean well."

The group contuied to talk to Savage, it was odd how accepting they really were. Somewhere in the back of his mind made him regret all of this.

He'd have to kill all these people.

So what was the point of getting close?

Soon enough all of there suits came, Savage the only one in white.

"Who do you think Y/n will recieve?" Juniper asked the group.

"I believe a moder. Perhaps Sutur." Ezio explained fixing the flower pin in his hair.

"What is receiving?" Savage asked.

"Hmm?" Fresco asked, "Oh it-"

Mid word Juniper cut in, "It's part of the religion. The 12 gods are believed to comibned to become the earth beneath us. Sutur is just one of the gods, mostly know for being a core due to its controling of everything hot. When you marry one born on this planet goes through a 'receiving' its rare but only twelve can get a god, but you can also get an enity or a passed loved one though that's super rare. They give you there strength within battle."

"But Y/n's much more powerful than a core- which is why she should be getting Hela." Jacob cut in.

"Hela hasnt been someones beck and call since Father." Ezio argued, "and we all know how he ended up. You wish that upon your sister?"

The group went quiet.

"I was given the impression your father was alive." Savage responded.

Fresco sighed, "when he was assigned Hela he descended into madness with each kid born. They think he's in Helheim and will return- He'll be Y/n's receiver."

"I think he's dead dead." Jacob responded, "like he deserves and mother better follow him"

"You can't say that!" Atticus argued.

"Please Attiucs grow up." Juniper spoke.

Savage listened intently, as Fresco looked back at the Zabarack, "We may have a large family, but the heads of the family aren't...the best"

"It sounds like my family." Savage told him as they all started filing out of the room, leaving just him and Fresco in the room alone, "I. Unfortunately grew up without one of my brothers, he was taken away due to his special ablities."

Fresco listened as he poured them both a glass of whiskey, "And my younger brother. I don't remember what happened, or if he's even alive."

Handing Savage the glass they stood by the window.

"Makes you not want to have kids." Fresco questioned, "I know it scares me. Becoming the one thing I hate."

"On Dathomir men are only used for mating and then usually killed off." Savage spoke.

Fresco frowned looking out the window- how was he ment to respond to such information.

"I know my sister will treat you with Kindness." Fresco spoke, "it seems you're already growing on her. I seen you two at the dinner."

Savage felt his chest tighten, he was falling in love with her, and he liked it. He loved the idea of her.

"Guys hurry up or it will be the groom walking down the Isle." Ezio told as he had quickly come back.

The two left with each other side by side. Both enjoying the silence as they walked down the steps. Thats right, He had only been down and up these steps a few times, but those few times were some of the best times of his life.

Stopping outside the castle he looked back, seeing it all shiney as the sun hit it perfectly, looking like something out of a book. The whole walk was like that- there was no reason to take out a whole planet for the sake of Dathomir, Dathomir didn't need another planet- he would of liked them to fix theres first atleast.

"Savage?"

He turned his head seeing Y/n standing there, when was she here? Looking around a bit shaken she stood in her wedding dress- it looked perfect on her, with a full bottom and a lacey top that had the same matching sleeves. When were they at the alter already?

"Are you okay?" She whispered softly, the priest reading off religious text.

"I-" he spoke looking at her what was he suppose to tell her?

Her white dress would be bloodstained within a matter of mintues due to what Mother Talzin was planning?

"I have a headache is all." He responded.

Y/n frowned, "maybe some food afterwords will make you feel better. Caf was even skipped this moring."

"Right." He responded, and left it at that.

"Do you take this man to be your husband? To take of him in sickness and health? To love him without doubt?"

Y/n smiled, "I do."

Her hand gripped onto his in excitement, that small squeeze made him happy, feeling her hand in his.

He had no idea what the woman infront of them said but only said the words as quick as he comprehend.

"I do." He cut the lady off.

Y/n flushed as she looked down flustered.

"Then I do pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride."

Y/n was pulled in quickly, shocking her, but it wasn't unwelcomed, kissing back the large church full of people cheered as they pulled away and as he did He seen Count Dooku sitting next to Mother Miranda. The group of people settling down, calming themselves once more as the woman cleared her throat Savage being gestured over by her brothers who were off to the side as he went over.

"With the coming of age you Y/n will be the caller of one of our twelve gods. You may be choosen for something greater, or passed by as a common folk." She spoke, "are you ready to give yourself to the twelve gods and let them judge you as one!"

"Yes head preist." Y/n spoke as her wrist was grabbed and palmed opened where it was sliced open Y/n gritting her teeth slightly as she was dragged to the floor, only following as her hand was put face down on the alters floor.

The woman moved to the side as the doors behind the alter creaked. Atticus holding onto Savages leg as Savage put a hand on his shoulder telling him he'd be okay.

"By the twelve gods..." Fresco spoke as the door opened a large hand crawling onto the carved in wood.

"I-its Hela..." Ezio asperated as the door swung open heavily crashing into the wall. Which it was hinged to.

The room silent and still as the other swung open.

The figure large, made up of what seemed to be Ash, body exposed and what looked like to be burnt half way just to show her dark innards, she was on all fours as Y/n looked up at her, slowly standing up as it went quiet for a moment.

Y/n reached out her cut hand, Hela reaching out her hand as well as Y/n looked forward keeping her eyes on Hela.

Somewhere some how Helas hand had shrunken along with part of her arm as they were bound by the cut on Y/n's hand.

'They're here-'

A warrior bursted into the doors as Y/n turned her head, "We're being attacked! The ships! They've all been destroyed!-"

The man stopped stabbed through the back, and fell to the floor.

"So sorry to ruin this happy momment."

Y/n growled as her hand was let go, and in place of Hela's hand held a sword, as Ventress walked down the isle.

"Damn are sister really is a bad ass-" Ezio spoke under his breath.

Dooku stood up as well, saber in hand.

"You were foolish to come alone." Y/n argued Hela still behind her looming in all her darkness.

"Who says I'm alone?"

Just as she spoke, a Battalion of night sisters filed into the room from both sides of her.

"Savage." Ventress spoke.

"Yes Mistress."

Almost immediately Fresco who stood besides Savage was lifted up into the air, force choking him as Fresco grabbed at his neck.

"Savage! Stop! Now!" Y/n demanded, "Stop now!"

"Kill him. Now." Ventress demanded.

There was a large crack as the filled church was still in shock, the young man thrown to the floor as his brother immediately surronded him.

"He's dead! He killed Fresco!"

Thats when the chaos started, when one had been pronounced dead.

Y/n could remember, it was all a blur. All the fighting- the blood shed. All she remember was ripping through people with her new found sword, swinging at heads and abdomens, she was luck that her skirt hadn't had a train.

Atticus had ran to her as she fought on the stairs stabbing a nightsister in the face and kicking her back, her white dress covered in dirt and blood, "Y/n!"

"Attiucs! Run away now!" Y/n argued, blocking another weapon, kicking the women in the female Kenobi's

"I'm not gonna leave you!" He shouted.

"Damn it Atticus!" Y/n shouted slicing the woman's flesh and grabbing his hand, "Come on! Lets go!"

Atticus ran hand in hand with her, somehow and some way some of her brothers caught up, they running and escaping to the castle.

"We have to be quiet take off your shoes." Y/n whispered the group hiding behind a wall as they all pulled there shoes off, "You have your run away bags all ready?"

"What?" Magnus asked, his other brother Cornelius, holding his hand, he had lost one of three to Ventress.

"Shit thats right, they never made there's. I'll go with them." Ezio spoke quietly,

Y/n nodded taking a quick head count, they had lost so many already, Fresco, Juniper, and Hamilton.

"I'll take Cornelius and Magnus." Jacob offered.

"I'll take Atticus. Ezio- weapons and maps?"

Ezio nodded, "becareful."

They all nodded, spliting up, Y/n had lucky gotten Attiucs up the stairs and to his room, as he was grabbing his things.

"Y/n." Atticus spoke as she was making sure he had everything for a final time as they carefully walked to her room, once inside she answered him.

"Yes Atticus." She responded going for her own bag.

"Savage...he isnt that mean. I know he isn't." Atticus spoke, "I know we didn't know him long but- he didn't wanna kill Fresco did he?"

Y/n tossed her dress the the floor dressed in trousers now fixing her top.

"Atticus." Y/n spoke kneeling down to him, "I know you liked him. I did too, but I don't even know anymore."

Attiucs frowned, as she held his shoulder's, "Are you going to kill him? Savage?"

Y/n frowned, "I don't know."

[annkdarar]

The Little Things You Do

Turns out Anders isn't that much of an asshole after all...

Words Count : 1,839

Pairing : Anders Johnson x Fem!Reader

Warning : NSFW→Mentions of sex, brief mentions of period sex, menstrual cycles, sex jokes (ofc)

Author's Note : This is my very first Anders fic and I'm so nervous I'm literally SWEATING. I hope you guys will like it.

Also thanks @laurfilijames for proof reading this. You're the best!

The office was still plunged in darkness when you came in. It was no surprise, really, for Anders was always late. There wasn’t much that the man actually cared about, and sometimes you wondered if his company was even one of those things. 

You turned the light on, revealing a pretty much empty room, and you walked over to your desk with an exasperated sigh. There were still a ton of things left to do, emails to be sent and names to research. And many other things Anders was too lazy to do himself that you had been assigned to do.

As you sat down, you felt the faintest pain in your lower stomach, causing you to frown. Of course, that very morning, you had been graced by mother nature’s monthly visit. If only it could have waited until the next day when you wouldn’t have had a million things to do. 

Ignoring the upcoming pain, you turned on your computer and got to work, which was easier said than done. With each passing minute, the pain became stronger, heavier, more intense, and you had to stop every now and then to take a breath. You forced yourself to focus on the too-bright screen, typing endless courtesies to men and women who wouldn’t even work longer than a month with you due to your boss’ unnerving and arrogant behavior.  

To say the man was an asshole would be the understatement of the year. Yet, you were fond of him. Not only because of the occasional festivities you and him would partake in, in the privacy of his bed. No, that was just a bonus. Oh, you did want to punch him, quite often, but you also wanted to remind him to drink some water when it was really hot outside and not forget to get enough sleep. 

Another spark of pain pierced through your body and you closed your eyes, burying your face in your hands with a loud groan. The day was going to be long, extremely, and painfully long.

Caught up in your suffering, you didn’t hear the door opening. Or perhaps you did hear it but decided to ignore the loud steps that filled the room. You didn’t flinch when you felt a presence behind you, so close that the warmth of Anders’ chest spread through your back.

“Working hard, I see.” His hot breath crashed against your ear and you rolled your eyes, dropping your hands off your face. “Wanna know what else is hard?”

“Bearing with your existence?” You replied, turning around to look at him.

Somehow, he always looked professional with his white button-up shirt and black tie hanging from his neck. If you didn’t know him, you would say that he was a pretty respectable man. But that, he wasn’t.

He brought his hand to his heart with a pout, in a faked hurt expression. “Ouch. But no, I was thinking about something a bit more...Fun.”

“Not today.” You cut him off, spinning your chair to face the computer’s screen again. You read the email you had typed once more before hitting the send button and getting on to the next one. 

“Actually, I think today is a pretty good day.” He insisted, grabbing your shoulders. “What would you say about coming to mine later on tonight? Pick up where we left it last time?”

With an annoyed huff, you wiggled out of his grip. “I said not today, Anders. I’m on my period.”

“Nothing we haven’t done before.”

“Yeah, but today it hurts like hell.” You explained. “I’m not in the mood for sex. At this point, it will be an achievement if I even survive the entire day.” He snickered and mumbled something you couldn’t understand as he walked away. 

The first half of your day went...okay. The pain was strong, but nothing you couldn’t handle. It was around lunch break that it got worse. The pain had gotten into your lower back, causing you to wiggle in your chair in an attempt to find a comfortable position. The food you had brought along didn’t look appetizing anymore, and you picked at it without eating anything.

You thought the pain had reached its peak but oh, how wrong had you been. You began to feel nauseous, and soon enough, you find yourself running into the bathroom to empty your stomach from what remained of your breakfast. Rinsing your mouth, you closed your eyes. You were exhausted, and there were still several hours to go before you could leave.

A knock on the bathroom door startled you and you almost choked on the water that filled your mouth. You spat it out in the sink and opened the door.

“You look terrible.” Anders pointed out. “How about you go home before you throw up everywhere and soil my floor, uh?” 

The thought of refusing his offer and staying to keep working crossed your mind. But you quickly nodded as another wave of pain washed over your body. Without another word, you grabbed your belongings and rushed out of the office. 

The ride home was equally terrible. Despite turning the heater on, you felt cold. And of course, the traffic was slow. Everything was against you today. At least, Anders had the decency to dismiss you, even if it was only to keep his floor clean.

“What an asshole…” You cursed. Was your anger towards him, the cars in front of yours, or the excruciating pain? You didn’t know. 

When finally, finally, you reached your apartment you almost fell down several times as you rushed in and exchanged your work clothes for a sweatshirt. And when your head hit your pillow, it was like a spell had been cast upon you, and you fell asleep almost immediately, your knees pressed to your chest.

The sound of your apartment door opening dragged you out of your sleep and you sat up abruptly. Inside your chest, your heart was pounding. You weren’t waiting for anyone to visit you. Panicked, your eyes scanned the room for your phone. It was nowhere in sight. You had probably left it in your car when you had rushed inside. If someone was breaking in, you wouldn’t be able to call for help.

“Someone there?”

The familiar voice made you sigh in relief and you flopped back down, one hand on your chest to try and slow your heartbeat. “Bedroom!” you yelled. 

After a  few seconds, your bedroom door was pushed open and the light turned on, causing you to close your eyes. 

“You could’ve taken your clothes off, now I’ll have to do it myself. Not that I mind of course.” The bed dipped under his weight as he came to rest above you, his elbows supporting his weight on each side of your head. 

“I told you I wasn’t in the mood for sex.” You groaned, pushing at his chest. He moved to lie next to you and you looked at him intently. “How’d you even get inside? You don’t have the key.”

“I don’t. But I saw your neighbor and kindly asked her to let me in.” He explained with a wink.

“Great, now that I know how may I know why you came here?” You asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I texted you in case you had changed your mind but you didn’t answer. So I came here. More questions or are we ready to go?”

“You fucking suck, Anders.” You said, turning your back to him. 

“No, that’s your job, darling.” He retorted, poking your ribs. You clicked your tongue and reached behind you to punch him, causing him to laugh. “Also, brought you this.”

Anders dropped something close to your stomach. Something hot and soft. You looked down at the hot water bottle and pulled it against your belly, its warmth spreading in the area. 

“You got me a hot water bottle?”

He hummed and scooted closer to you. He pushed your hair away from your neck and leaned down to press gentle kisses to the sensitive skin. You tilted your head to the side to give him better access and closed your eyes. Anders’ hand found its way on your hip and traveled down your body slowly. His fingertips brushed against the naked skin of your thighs and went back up.

“Anders, I swear to God if you even try to go anywhere near my underwear, I’m chopping your dick off in the next twenty-four hours.” 

He groaned and pulled away. “You’re no fun, really. I came all the way here to take care of you and that’s how you treat me?”

“Why don’t you go out then? Find someone to replace me.” You said, bringing the blanket higher on your body.

Gentle, yet strong fingers grabbed your face and you were forced to look at him. His blue eyes were on yours, soft, but intimidating. Sometimes, he looked as if he was reading right through your soul, and you hated it.

“No one can ever replace you.” He said, his voice filling your ears with a pleasant buzz. “You understand that? No one.”

You nodded eagerly and he let go of you, a smirk painted on his lips. Hesitantly, you grabbed his arm and brought it around your waist, keeping his hand close to your chest.

“Stay?” You asked quietly, placing your head back onto your pillow. 

“Depends,” he said. “Can I touch your boobs?”

“Go away, you perv.” you groaned, pushing him away. He laughed again and dragged you against his chest.

“Ok, ok. Just kidding.” 

It was comfortable, to just lie down with him. You felt warm, and the pain was not as intense as before. You didn’t know how long you stayed like that, but you wished it would happen more often. You were beginning to drift off to sleep again when he spoke.

“Does it still hurt?” he asked, putting his hand onto your stomach. You gave him a small nod and you felt his fingers digging slightly into the soft skin.

The moan you let out as he started to massage your belly gently could have been mistaken for one from an adult movie. It felt good, extremely and utterly good. You leaned closer to his chest, almost purring under his ministrations. This definitely soothed the pain.

“Oh, God, don’t stop.” you moaned, grabbing his wrist in case he was considering pulling away.

“The name’s Anders, but as you wish, darling.” he said jokingly, and you pinched him. Not harshly, of course. You were too tired to fight for real and you didn’t want to hurt him.

And now, it didn’t matter that he was the biggest asshole to ever walk the earth, nor that this was way more intimate than sex. At this moment, you felt safe, he made you feel safe. And good, oh so very good, as he massaged the pain away. And if he was still holding you the next morning when you woke up, well, neither of you mentioned it. Not yet.

[cozy-neko]

The Cherry On Top • Character Introductions • 01 | And so it begins • 02

With each cup of coffee Y/N placed in the cupholder, a low grumble accompanied the action. Each thunk of coffee that slid into each holder was a little more aggressive and heavy-handed than the task need be, but the air of irritation that emitted from the girl was undeniably strong, and the unfortunate barista that was tasked to make this foul-mood customer’s drinks handed her the last of her order before quickly slinking away.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Y/N continued to grumble under her breath the entire frigid three blocks back to the campus of where her office was located.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid.” A scowl was evident on the girl’s face the entire elevator ride up the tall skyscraper until it dinged and stopped at the 70th floor. It wasn’t until the doors slid open that Y/N sucked in a shaky breath and plastered a Crest-worthy, Splenda-sweet smile on her face as she exited the lift and entered the bustling office.

“Coffee’s here!” Y/N sang out and placed the two cup holders down on top of the front office’s counter tabletop.

“Y/N’s back!”

A scurry of workers crowded around the 21-year-old girl as she animatedly read off orders off the top of her head and handed them out, one-by-one to its rightful owner.

“You’re the best, Y/N-chan!” A senpai from the tech editorial department ruffled her head, earning a small whimper of protest as she tried to sooth her hair. It wasn’t like she spent twenty-minutes this morning trying to tame her unruly mane for nothing.

“Isn’t Y/N the best? She’s always so good at remembering who gets what.” Another senpai from the lifestyle editorial department chimed in and took a sip from her latte.

“Oh no, no! I’m just doing my job.” Y/N let out a forced chuckle, but it went unnoticed as her coworkers slowly disappeared back to their corner of the office to get back to work.

"Alright, you can drop the act, you fake."

The instant Y/N heard a snort coming from behind, the fake smile that was plastered to her face immediately dropped as she whipped around to face a chestnut-haired male.

"I hate it here," Y/N groaned and leaned her upper body onto the countertop. She let out a huff of air and blew a stray piece of hair away from her eyes. "I can't wait to graduate from coffee intern to staff writer."

"You're meeting with the Chief later today, right?" Oikawa Tooru removed his hands from the pockets of his slacks and eyed the remaining drink leftover.

"Mmm, yeah." Y/N let out a distracted sigh as her thumbs flew across the keyboard of her smartphone for a quick text. With the click of a button, she locked her phone and shoved it into her pants pocket and gave her full attention to the older male. "Chief told me that she had good news for me, and judging by all the overtime work and random projects I picked up over the past few months --"

"You mean bitch work?" Oikawa interrupted, earning a glare from the girl.

"For your information, my 'bitch work' got published last week! And that's besides the point. All that matters is that Chief has noticed that I'm a responsible worker who is willing to go above and beyond my day-to-day tasks and now I'm definitely getting the promotion that's been long due!"

There was a smug grin on Y/N's face while Oikawa rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, you are a hard worker, Y/N-chan, but that doesn't mean you should be doing other people's tasks when it should be their job to do them in the first place."

"Can't you just be happy for me?" Y/N whined. "I didn't graduate from UTokyo with over $100k in student debt just to go on coffee runs. And I don't even get to have my own drink!"

Oikawa sighed and placed a hand on top of the shorter girl's head. "I am happy for you. And proud of you. I hope you get the staff writer position you wanted, and when you do get assigned to my department, I'll make sure to run you dead with ten articles simultaneously." 

There was an evil, teasing glint in Oikawa's eyes which Y/N responded to by sticking out her tongue.

A ding! interrupted the teasing banter and Y/N checked her phone. She let out a quick squeal and a small hop.

"Gotta go! Ayame-san from tech has an article she wants me to write!"

Y/N waved goodbye and scurried away.

"Hey! I asked for a dirty Chai, not a mocha! What the fuck, Y/N?" Oikawa yelled after the retreating girl.

"Serves you right for making me do your coffee run too, Oinkawa!" Y/N's bubbly laughter echoed through the hallway as she skipped towards the tech editorial department.

Oikawa sighed and tugged at the front pieces of his hair. It was already nearing the end of the day, but he was still at least half an hour away from completing his remaining task for the day. He was currently in the middle of copy-editing an article one of his staff writers submitted earlier today when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

Oikawa removed his glasses and pulled out his phone, rubbing his tired eyes while unlocking his phone. It was a text from Y/N.

She must've finally talked to Chief, Oikawa thought. He swiped his thumb to unlock his phone and read the text.

Oikawa grimaced at Y/N’s text. It was obvious the meeting did not go the way Y/N had wanted it to. Sighing, Oikawa stood up and packed his things. Looks like the article was going to have to be pushed back a week; there was a more important meeting he had to attend to first.

Y/N glared at her phone and bounced her leg, a nervous tick that Oikawa absolutely hated whenever she did. Maybe if he was here right now, he would've had the opportunity to scold her. Except his train was running five minutes late. Y/N groaned as she watched another minute go by.

Where's Tooru?

How much longer was he going to make her sit in agony at their favorite bakery and tea shop? 

Right when Y/N was about to hit send on her phone, the shop door jingled, and in waltzed Oikawa.

"Alright, alright, I'm here. What happened?" Oikawa was slightly breathless, having sped-walked from the station and down the block to meet up with Y/N. He rolled up his button-down sleeves and removed his work badge from around his neck.

"So I got the promotion," Y/N began to which Oikawa cut her off.

"Okay, congrats, but that's hardly an existential crisis."

"No! Let me finish!" Y/N stomped her foot once, irritation beginning to seep in. Oikawa rolled his eyes, completely immune to Y/N's temper flare ups. Instead of retorting, he opted to take a sip of her fruit tea. "I got the promotion, but it wasn't the promotion I wanted."

"Did you get placed in lifestyle with Iwa-chan? I heard that department's kind of a mess right now. Iwa-chan told me their lifestyle editor's too busy hooking up with Hanamaki's layout intern to even run the department --"

"Tooru, for kami's sake, I'm begging you to shut up." Y/N groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I'm TK Mag's new gossip blogger. Chief wants me to freaking exploit influencers under the alias of 'Cherry' for the new Cherry on Top blog."

“The new what now?”

end notes: 

→ the timestamps at the top of each photo are irrelevant. the timestamps that you want to pay attention to (or not. it really doesn’t matter) are the ones within the text chats.

→ if you see the word shanchou in oikawa’s and y/n’s texts, i accidentally misspelled the word shachou which means “president of the company.” i was debating whether i wanted to use the japanese spelling or just keep it as Chief. i changed my mind multiple times and decided to just go with the english version but got too lazy to correct the photo. 🤡

→ props to authors who only explicitly write smaus. creating each social post is so time consuming and slightly frustrating that i almost threw my phone across the room.

→ don’t come at me for my nonexistent and try-hard humor. 😔✋this is why i only write angst.

→ no kenma and akaashi this chapter, but they will be introduced in the next!

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[wyofabdoms]

Undercover I Do - Chapter 8

Characters: Javier Peña x female reader

Summary: While on an undercover assignment posing as a married couple, you are attacked and nearly assaulted. Upon waking, all you remember about Javier Peña is what you remembering seeing from two photographs of the two of you posing as the happily married couple. As you struggle to regain your memories, Javi struggles with his own feelings for you.

Rating: Mature (Eventual smut)

Warnings: fake/pretend relationship, married and undercover trope, temporary amnesia, early morning spiciness, Javi hanging on to his self-control by a thread

Word Count: 3651

Notes: Not much memory recovery here, I just wanted some lazy, early morning sexiness...And a little bit of Javi trying to deal with the angel and devil on his shoulders!  Also, I’m really trying to stick to the whole, one chapter a week, thing but so far it doesn’t seem to be going well.  But I’m going to keep trying my damnest.  Be well!

Read on Ao3

***

You don’t want to open your eyes.  You know it’s morning...you can hear the sounds of your neighborhood waking up outside.  But you wish more than anything that you could make yourself slip back down into the deepness of the warm sleep you were just cocooned inside of.  You try not to move a muscle; do your best not to change your breathing...desperately trying not to disturb the man lying next to you.  You don’t want to do anything to break the beautiful spell that is your husband resting against you in your bed.  This has become your favorite time of each day; these short lived moments when you can just take him in without any barriers, without any thoughts or struggles trying to remember.

Javi.

Right now, his face is buried in your hair and pressed into the back of your neck, the sounds of his soft snoring muffled against your skin.  Your back is pressed against him and somehow in sleep, your hand has entwined with his and rests parallel with his arm around your waist, holding him closely against him.  He’s bare chested, wearing only a pair of sweatpants and you have still not gotten over how incredible warm the man is; he’s like a human sized space heater on the other side of the bed. Pressed against him, you can feel every edge and angle of his firm body.  Javier Peña is solid...deceptively so, and though it sometimes gets lost beneath his suits or button up shirts and jeans, he’s strong.  And you have enjoyed the peace that having that strength next to you every night and every morning has brought.

Since that night of the storm, you and Javi have slept in the same bed.  The warmth of his body, the weight of his arm around your waist, his breath heavy with sleep on your neck...all of it had become such a seamless part of your sleep pattern.  Even though you couldn’t remember anything about your marriage to Javi, the sheer ease with which you had shifted into sleeping next to him told you plenty: having him next to you as you fell asleep and next to you when you opened your eyes in the morning felt right.

He deserves a medal for what a trooper he’s being through all of this.  One thing you did remember was how your husband had been a bit of a playboy prior to your relationship with him.  He had had quite a reputation and, though you couldn’t seem to remember when it was that your relationship with him had changed from partner to significant other, you were absolutely certain that when it had, it had also become a sexual relationship.  Javier Peña’s libido was a given...you imagined that sex with your partner (now husband) was as interesting as you had remember hearing whispered about around the office.  Disappointment slips through your chest every once in a while at having no memory of what that experience was like, and as the days wear on, you’ve caught yourself studying parts of him, curious about certain...things.

This morning, as you lie awake and listen to your husband’s snores, you marvel at how his slightly soft tummy feels pressed against your lower back.  You smile as you remember seeing him stretch after dinner last night, causing his shirt to ride up over his abdominal muscles and reveal that softness.  He had quickly pulled his shirt back down and gathered your plates, but you hadn’t been able to stop smiling at the time, too.  You had also not failed to notice the soft trail of dark hair sprinkled above his waistband and disappearing beneath the denim of his jeans; a very obvious road map to other interesting parts of him that you were also suddenly very aware of this morning…

Though you didn’t ever start out that way, during the nights your legs would tangle and you would often find one of your legs hitched over his or vice versa.  This morning, one of his knees has wedged its way between yours and now, you can very clearly feel him pressed against your inner thigh, hard and heavy and it causes something feral and molten and rich to unfurl inside of you.  Despite not wanting to wake him, you can’t stop yourself from shifting slowly into him, feeling a spark shoot through you at the friction the movement caused.  You wait for a few moments, not sensing any change in Javi’s breathing and you shift against him again...again feeling a jolt spread through your belly.  

You’re not entirely sure how much time passes, but eventually, you realize that his hips are gently moving with yours, too.  His breathing is still heavy and his movements are languid and slow; you think that he must still be sleeping.  You rock into him a bit more firmly, shifting your body up slightly so that now the hardness between his legs hits you exactly between yours, on the very spot that aches from the friction this movement is causing.  Your curse the material of his sweatpants and your sleep clothes; you feel as though a dam has burst inside of you and you suddenly want to feel more than just the skin of his bare chest against you...you want to feel all of him.  As your body moves, you feel his muscles tense and hear a small snuffle of air through the nose and you know that he’s suddenly come awake.  You squeeze the hand that is still entwined with yours and pull it up to your chest leisurely, placing it gently against your breast and continue to move your hips back against his pointedly. 

You turn your face towards him and rather than the eager passion you imagined you would see on your husband’s sleepy face, his eyes are wide, his face taut and drawn in a pained expression.

“Javi?” you whisper, worried.  He swallows hard, and the next thing you know he’s scrambling out of the bed as though he’s been burned.  You sit up quickly, afraid that you’ve done something wrong.  “Javi!”

“I’m sorry…”His voice is rough with sleep and it comes out in a growl.  “I…I’m sorry…”  He starts to say more but stops.  You shake your head and start to reach for him, wanting to tell him there’s nothing to be sorry for, that you had started it, that you wanted to keep going...but before you can do any of those things, he practically flies out of the bedroom, gruffing something about “coffee” and “needing to get going”, leaving you sitting amongst the rumpled sheets, feeling completely at a loss.

****

Javi knew he had been in a grumpy mood all day.  And he knew he had taken that grumpiness out on all of the wrong people.  But he couldn’t help it, not after the events of that morning.

He had thought he’d been dreaming, feeling her rubbing against him like that.  He hadn’t wanted to wake up from that dream and, in his dream, he’d had her laid out beneath him, completely bare and open to him as he’d thrust into her.  But that dream had slipped away as he had groggily become aware of his partner...his partner whose memory was still missing and who still mistakenly believed they were married...his partner who had explicitly told him more than once that she did not ever intend to sleep with him....that same partner was grinding herself against his embarrassingly hard cock while he just snored away.  For several long moments he had almost given in; when she had put his hand on her breast he recognized it for what it was: a green light for more…

...but he also imagined how betrayed she would feel if and when her memory returned.  There was no way she would ever trust him if he had taken advantage of her like that.  Their partnership would be over; she would hate him, he was sure of it, and she would most likely shoot him before he had two seconds to think or even begin to apologize.  But, worse yet: their (and, Javier Peña did not use this word lightly) friendship would be over, too.

So instead, he had taken his throbbing hard-on, thrown on yesterday’s wrinkled clothes and proceeded to grouse around the office all day, biting anyone’s head off that made the mistake of coming too close to him or asking him a question.  As the day wore on, he had started to panic about returning home that evening.  What would she say?  What would she do?  Was she going to be waiting for him, waiting to pick back up where they’d left off?

His mind flashed to a brief image of his beautiful partner laid out seductively on her couch, wearing a sexy, skimpy little red lace number that had been floating on the periphery of his vision since he’d caught a glimpse of it that first day in her underwear drawer.  She’d smile at him and crook a finger “come here” and he’d acquiesce like a moth to a flame.  And then…

“Fuck!”  He bit out under his breath as he slammed the file folder shut he had been trying to read for the past hour.  He stood up, accepting the futility of hanging around the office anymore.  He knew that his fantasy was not at all plausible, but just the thought of returning to her warm apartment and seeing her again made him ache deep inside.  How had he ever managed to be away from her before?

The simple answer to that question was: he hadn’t.

Both of them spent so much time at work, relentlessly tracking down leads, hounding the world outside their office walls for clues...the only downtime he ever really seemed to have these days also seemed to always keep him in her orbit.  When he went to a bar for a drink, he usually went to one knowing he would find her there shortly before or after.  When he chose to pull an all nighter...even when he didn’t tell anybody his plan to, somehow she always seemed to show up in his office door with an actually tolerable cup of coffee.   The poetry book he had stowed in his desk drawer, the pitiful shrine he seemed to be maintaining for her without meaning to all made him feel pathetic.  He stared at the wall of his office as he tried to tick off the weeks that had passed since he had darkened the door of one of his informant’s for something other than just information. That, in itself, was a clear indication that he was, by all accounts, losing his fucking mind.

But there was no one else he’s rather lose his fucking mind for right now; no one else he wanted to speak to or sit next to and have dinner than his partner

He couldn’t bring himself to even acknowledge the words to describe how he felt, the ones that simmered beneath his brain.

But he recognized them all the same.

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

When he crept into the apartment that evening, he had thought maybe she would be angry with him.  Or that maybe it would be awkward.  Or that she would maybe just ignore him all together as she so often had done as his partner when he had pushed her buttons and pissed her off.

Instead, she sat at the kitchen table, a glass of wine and a notebook spread in front of her.  She clapped the notebook shut when he entered and greeted him with a smile. He waited for the other shoe to drop, but she just proceeded to move about the kitchen and get them something to eat for dinner.  He changed quickly and devoured his food, making small talk and very mindfully and carefully avoiding getting anywhere close to this morning’s events.

After dinner, they settled onto the couch.  Javi had brought home several folders full of reports and he relaxed into the cushions and proceeded to try to focus.  She curled up on the cushion next to him and he stretched one arm behind her on the back of the couch, careful not to touch her or send any signal that might be misconstrued.  This did leave his body open, though and she carefully leaned her weight over and into his chest, her arm relaxing on the cushion alongside his thigh, her head propped on his shoulder.  

God her hair smelled fucking good.  He flipped a page on the report he was reading perhaps a bit too hard and bit the inside of cheek to get himself to focus.  He was only half listening to the chatter from the news program on the television, but he zoned in when he heard her softly saying something.  The lift at the end of the sentence told him it was a question, and he closed the file in front of him and looked down at her.  He sucked in his breath when he saw her face tilted up towards him, her eyebrows raised, waiting for an answer.

“Sorry...I was,” he gestured at the folder on his lap.  “What did you ask me?”

“I was just wondering…” She gestured to the television and he turned to look, seeing a headline blurb saying something about birth rates in the country. “...have we ever...ya know.  Have we ever talked about having a family someday?”  Javi gulped and he felt his heart pulsing and pounding behind his eyes.

No lies.

He was quiet for a minute while he thought about how to answer her.  When she said his name again, quietly, a question even heavier in her voice this time, he knew he needed to give her an answer.

“Um…..no.  No, we haven’t ever talked about it.”  He hoped that was enough.  He held his breath.  Don’t ask, don’t ask, don’t ask…She made a small noise of understanding and shifted her attention back to the TV.  He waited for a few more moments, feeling like pressure was being let out of balloon and then…

“Do you want to?  Have kids, I mean...someday?”  Despite the fact that she kept her eyes on the screen, he could see a tinge of self consciousness on the edges of them. Her voice was soft, almost like she was afraid to ask.  Javi felt his mouth go dry and for perhaps the first time in his life, he felt as though he could not physically make himself speak.  His initial attempt at words dragged along his throat and came out garbled.  He paused and cleared it, trying not to make himself feel more of a fool.

“I uh….” What the fuck was he supposed to say?  This wasn’t just chatter with a friend, a simple getting to know you question.  She believed he was her spouse.  Whatever he said next would mean something to her, would have weight behind it more so than if they were just shooting the shit during a stake out chat.  She kept her face away from him, but he could feel the tension radiating off of her as she waited for his response.

No lies, Javi.  Tell her the truth.

“I...never really thought about it.  Wasn’t ever something I thought’d be on my radar, not for me.  Never really thought I was the parent type, ya know?...”  He took a deep breath, steadying himself. She looked at him then and the question in her eyes and the curious look on her face made his chest feel like it was being split open.  “But then….uhhh...then I met you and….” He couldn’t.  He couldn’t bring himself to form the words into being.  He dropped his gaze and glanced at her from beneath his lashes.  She just waited, looking at him with her soft eyes and an open expression.  He barely managed to push the words from his throat, and they came out in a strangled growl.  He brought his gaze up to meet hers.  “...Then I started to think...differently.”  He finished lamely, letting the vague word land in the slight space between them.  It was all true.  Every single word.  She looked at him carefully for another moment or two, her eyes searching his for something.  Then she leaned further into him and kissed him carefully.

It wasn’t chaste like the kiss in his office, but it wasn’t lustful, either.  It was simple, sweet, soft.  She brought a hand up and threaded it through his hair, slowly carding through it almost experimentally.  She nudged herself a little bit further into him and slid her other and along his shoulder and down his chest, resting it over his pounding heart before opening her mouth and tracing his lips with her tongue.  He received her eagerly, letting them dance and reacting to a soft noise of pleasure he distantly heard coming from somewhere.  It took him a few moments to realize that it had come from him, a soft half moan, half sigh of unadulterated pleasure.  He felt her hand on his chest start to slip further south and he pulled his mouth away from her, pressing his forehead to hers, panting.

“It’s gettin’ late.”  She nodded against him.  “We should try to get some sleep.”  Again, she nodded and he saw a small smile flick at the corners of her mouth.

Shit.

She stood and tugged on his hand, trying to pull him with her to the bedroom.  He hesitated and gently pulled his hand out of hers, gesturing at the folders spread on the coffee table and making a feeble excuse that he would join her in just a few minutes, that he needed to pack things up.  He saw uncertainty flicker across her face again, but then she smiled again and headed to the bedroom.  

Javi sat for several long minutes with his head in his hands, trying to decide what to do.  Every single fiber of his being was screaming at him to get the fuck into the bedroom and make love to her.  That he could deal with the consequences later.  But a tiny, shrill shred of reason screamed just as loudly that if he did that to her, that would be the end for him in her life.  She would see it as a betrayal.  It would be taking advantage.  Javier Peña knew he could be a cold-hearted bastard, a real piece of shit human being sometimes.  But he couldn’t do that...not to her.

He sighed heavily and hauled himself off the couch.  When he reached the bedroom, she was already tucked under the covers, the bedside lamp on his side still on.  He grabbed a pair of sweatpants and changed quickly in the bathroom before crawling into bed next to her and snapping off the light.  Almost as soon as he was settled beneath the sheets he felt her shift and turn towards him, sliding across the expanse of mattress between them and wrapping herself around him.  Her lips found his again in the dark and this time they were filled with heat and longing.  She snaked a leg up and over his hip and rocked her pelvis into him, moaning against his mouth as she felt him respond to her touch.  Her hand scratched gently through his hair and down along the back of his neck and he felt himself shudder at the sensation.  She started trailing kisses down his jawline and further down onto his neck, back to just beneath his ear, along the furiously pounding pulse point, whispering his name with every press of her lips against his skin.

Javi nearly cried as gently cradled her head in his hands and carefully pulled her face up and away from his neck.  Her lips dived down to devour his again and he leaned his whole body weight into her, pushing her backwards to lie on her pillow flat on her back.  He drew out the kiss for a moment longer, then cupped her cheek with his hand while using his other to reach behind his head and carefully untangle her hands from his hair.  He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers once more before murmuring against her warm cheek.

“Gotta big day tomorrow, sweetheart...lots of meetings.  I think we should just...go to sleep.”  

Even though he couldn’t see her in the darkness, he could feel his words land on her like a slap and he hated himself for it.  Her body went rigid and wanted to frantically rip the words back from the air around them and shove them back down his throat so that they had never been said.  But it was too late.  He pressed a kiss to her forehead, then trailed another soft kiss to her temple, her eye, her nose, her cheek, her jaw...trying to make her feel how much he wanted to do this, and trying to make her feel, too, how much he just could not.  She softened a little beneath his lips, but he still felt a firm line of disappointment as he gave her a chaste kiss on the lips.  

She said nothing, but just carefully rolled over, her back to him and settled into herself in the darkness.  After a moment he slid over next to her carefully wrapped his arm around her waist, assuming the same position next to her that he had every night since the thunderstorm.  He felt her tense for a moment against his touch, but it quickly slid away and he felt her relax.

As he started to drift off to sleep, he felt her reach up and twine her fingers between his in the darkness.  She sighed deeply, but he knew that everything was ok again…

...at least for now.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 9, Chapter 10,  Chapter 11,  Chapter 12,  Chapter 13

[queen-scribbles]

(Art’s by hes-per-ides, edit: link to template by spell-struck)

Abigail Eliza Jenings November 13, 1992

5′8″ slender/athletic build

 mid-shoulder blade curly red hair, dark blue eyes

----

INFODUMP:

*She’s Irish by heritage, mostly from her dad’s side. And since she looks stereotypically Irish--crazy curly red hair, blue eyes, freckles EVERYWHERE--kids in school(especially secondary school, but junior wasn’t kind either) used to tease her to see if they could get a rise of the stereotypical temper, too. They called her “Abby the Red” both for her hair and how red her face would go trying to ignore them. Bonus round, called her “Gabby Abby” when she talked too much.(there was a really low threshold on “too much”)

*As a result, she has iron-clad self control. Even if no one’s given her any crap for anything like that since secondary school, she’s careful to always be polite, professional, not slack off from any assignment--school or work--she has to complete, etc. 

*Also hates the nickname ‘Abby’ as a result of said teasing, not super crazy about ‘Red’, either. No one gets away with the former, only her college roommate(so far; Felix miiiight turn out to be another exception) has gotten away with the latter.

*Despite not having a choice a couple times, she doesn’t swear. Like, ever. If other people want to, whatever, she’ll roll her eyes but deal with it.

*Doesn’t really drink much, either. This is not to counter any stereotype, she just doesn’t like how most alcoholic stuff tastes. Tina can, occasionally, coax her into a single fruity drink that she then nurses for approximately six hours before finishing off.

*She and her mum have a really good, close relationship, despite how often Rebecca’s away for work. There’s lots of phone calls etc even if they can’t talk for long and Rebecca can’t really say anything about work.

*Loves cats. She had a grey and white one named Rascal until a few months pre-game, but the poor thing was old and she had to put her down. She’ll probably get another cat eventually, but she’s not ready quite yet. She’d had Rascal since she was about ten, she needs a little longer to grieve before replacing her.

*Absolutely, totally 100% shot Adam. Both regrets it and doesn’t. (Hey, she warned him.)

*Quickly moving toward being besties with Felix, which is good; she needs a friend like him who gets her to loosen up and let her sarcastic side out to play more often. Tina tries, bless her, but since they work together, AJ’s still reluctant to completely let her hair down.

*Cares about people, always quick to offer comfort or leap to the defense of others, whether physically or otherwise. Empathetic almost to a fault.

*She has a couple old flannel workshirts of her dad’s that she wears to be comfy when she’s lounging around her apartment. They have his initials sewn into the inside of the collar. Since his first name was Aiden(purely h/c), that means his initials are her initials and it’s always made her feel closer to him. Wearing those shirts feels like she getting a hug from him, and she’d give up every other article of clothing she owns before parting with one of those shirts.

*Loves to read.

*Coffee fiend; likes just a little flavored creamer in there so it’s sweeter but she can still taste the coffee.

*Is allergic to strawberries

*Her apartment is extremely cozy, comfy furniture, lots of pillows, and one whole wall in her bedroom is bookshelves.  They’re full, with books laid on top as well as lined up like they’re “supposed” to be.

*Has a frankly ridiculous and yet still-growing collection of throw pillows. She loves them, and really, it’s partially Tina’s fault--she keeps giving them to her as birthday/Christmas presents. AJ’s favorite, though, is the one her mum gave her as a house warming present when she first moved into her own apartment. It’s blue with a hummingbird embroidered on the front and is the perfect size to cuddle when she’s reading or watching tv or whatever. 

*Despite their very limited interactions, Bobby makes her skin crawl and she hates people who exploit others’ pain/misfortune for their own profit, so she thinks he’s a weasel and a snake(no, wait, that’s an insult to weasels and snakes everywhere) and he’s one of the very, very, very few people she’s not sweet as apple pie to.

*Will kill for raspberry chocolate muffins.

*Has a ladybug tattooed on the inside of her left ankle

*While when given the choice she tends to wear button-down shirts(usually solid colors, but occasionally patterned), nice jeans, and a waistcoat--sorta nice and professional but still casual--she sticks to Doc Marten boots for shoes. She has two pairs, one’s black and the other very dark blue. She’s had the blue ones since she was seventeen or eighteen so they’re very, very beat up but still going strong.  She’d probably call them her favorite shoes. (three guesses what she was wearing when Murphy grabbed her, bc I am that mean) She likes them for the durability and comfort, sure, but also bc the soles are thick enough it gives her another inch of height, and there’s something about that magical shift from 5′8″ to 5′9″ that makes people take her more seriously.

*Wears an Italian charm bracelet, with links for her birthstone(orange topaz), each of her parents(a gladiolus for her dad, a white carnation for her mum), when she joined the police force(squad car) and made detective(a badge), her interests(a cat and a book), and Tina bc they’re friends(Gerber daisy). She adds a crescent moon between Book 1 and 2.

*Always has a hair tie around her wrist, even if her hair’s already up, bc you never know when you’ll need another one.

*She loves photography and has a really good eye for it. It’s never been more than a hobby, but it was a pretty serious one for a while in college, and she still looks at everything through that lens(pun intended :D) (also she’s just artistic in general, but more on that–potentially–later >:3)

*After photography,her primary artistic outlet is pencil sketches. In recent years it’s been largely limited to doodles in her notes when she’s bored or stuck working her way through a problem, but she’s still pretty good.

[kireihan]

[Ficlet] bastard flirting

ship: solomon x horizon

word count: 911

summary: What happened before Han Solo became a thing 

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

THEY WERE at eachother’s throats lowkey ngl

Hori was like “hello dude you’re good looking at all but you’re hella shady i don’t like you”

“Bitch”

I ACTUALLY DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT SOLOMON SO might be ooc but whatever

Teachers shipped them so they kept being assigned together for projects and pe class

And solomon is a really annoying flirt. Bastard flirt.

Aka he would “fall” on top of her and be like “aha oops” and get up and hori knows full well it was on purpose but the bitch won’t admit it

RIVALS TO LOVERS OKAY

Who fell in love first?

Solomon

I almost wrote colon someone help

Now one may ask, “yo if the dynamic was like a little wonk how did they spark that romance?”

Thats a dumb question have you not seen the sexual tension mY GOD

But i do have an answer for you, the answer was classic fantasy novels!!

Despite “hating” each other, they were still pulled together by ancient magical blood

ANOTHER TROPE I LOVE OK

This is also like Dom x Dom so this will be interesting gjhfjdkl

Hori has really nice pencils so Solomon would do annoying things like steal them during class or write dumb things + notes in pen on her paper

Solomon once held one of her books hostage above her head (satan is that you) and was like “ahahaha a feisty girl i like it” back at it again with the bastard flirting

“Feisty eh?” bam solomon isn’t sure if he can have children anymore but Horizon is marching away with her homework book looking quite pleased with herself and that’s when Solomon’s heart did a flip

Are you a masochist too damn smh

ANYWAYS

This dynamic continues and it’s like really aggravating for everyone because first we have mammorons with their tooth rotting ness and now this new ship that has enough sexual tension and pheromones for asmodeus to go apeshit

It’s cold and Horizon would steal Solomon’s hat and wear it and Solomon would be like “damn bitch give it back” and she’d be like “lmao fuck off”

Honestly despite looking like they hate each other’s guts, THEY’RE NEVER FUCKING APART

It’s almost as if,, they’re going out of their way to go see/annoy the other person hiNtHiNt

Hori is usually really lax with her uniform while Solomon is lowkey more stuck up about following it

“Why do you wear your uniform like that?”

“Do you have a problem?”

“Loosen up a bit”

So she reaches over the table and fucking undoes Solomon’s tie thing and the top few buttons “see just loosen up it wont kill you to air out sometimes”

We all know you just wanna see some wizard collarbone

But still hot and Hori was like “oh no what is this feeling” after seeing slightly disheveled looking solomon bc he fought back

WHATS WITH THE TENSION STOP IT

Now im sure yall have been waiting for this

How and When did they get together???

Well actually it was this:

Horizon was being teased by a demon, doing the same thing he did before with the book holding except this demon was an incubus which is already spelling not good

“Aww what’s the matter? I thought you usually liked this kind of treatment”

Needless to say Horizon is not pleased and is ready to fight a bitch because we aren’t going weak damsel in distress here

Solomon was going to just go by since he was like “whatever im supposed to hate her” but news flash you don't you’re just deceiving yourself

Anyways Horizon decides to bastard flirt back(hmm i see you learned from someone) and the incubus is quite intrigued/happy so he thinks she’s interested so he starts leaning down

Hori fucking knees him in the gut once he’s low enough and grabs her book back

Get fucked sexual harasser smh

With a hmph, she kicks him again for good measure before walking away

But guess what, demon is mad and when he recovers he starts to go after hori but in bloodlust not lust lust

Horizon looks around to see demon about to attack her and that’s when Solomon steps in. since Solomon is a powerful sorcerer, and the demon was rather lowly so it’s an easy take out

And horizon was like “what the heck i had it all under control” and Solomon was like “yeah i know, i saw” but they both know that he just happened to have the upper hand with knowing magic

“So it’s only good if I do it?” and Horizon is like “bitch your audacity-”  and he’s like, “I think I’d prefer it if only I do it too.” and horizon is like “hello?? What??”

Oops accidental confession and Solomon is like fuck it we’ll just say it since asmodeus already called me out on it earlier

And horizon is like,, “ffffffffffhgfkdhslh fine whatever i like you too eventhough you’re an annoying dick” and he’s like “as long as I can keep mine”

Just kidding

Not really

So now they’re like kinda together

AND SOLOMON DECIDES TO TEACH HER MAGIC AND SWORDSMANSHIP SO SHE CAN DEFEND HERSELF SINCE HE CANT BE AROUND ALL THE TIME LIKE SOME ANIME PROTAG AND HE STANS A STRONG WOMAN THAT DOESN’T ALWAYS NEED A MAN NEXT TO HER

Does the quarreling get any better?

No it doesn’t it’s the same and the tension is through the roofs

[phonaesthemes]

a list of asks

@padawanyugi tagged me in this, but Tumblr decided to eat any notification that I got tagged, so I’m glad I saw it on my dash because I like filling these things out. Thanks for tagging me! I may have typed A Lot.

Favorites: What types of books do you enjoy? Tell about what you’ve read recently (Or maybe about a book you hated recently!)I like spec-fic and sci-fi, although less “hard” science fiction, and I also enjoy fantasy. I read a lot of YA even though I’m in my 30s just because it seems easy to find a story I want to read and I’m not usually in the mood for dense prose.

I’ve been rereading the Wheel of Time series since it’s getting an Amazon TV show; it was my first non-LOTR fantasy series and I love it to death, warts and all, although I love joking about the weak points with other people who’ve read it. I think the last other thing I read was A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, which was a queer YA historical fiction, and it was a lot of fun. I wish I’d had access to all these queer stories when I was an actual teenager, but better late than never.

What types of music do you like to listen to? Share five songs from your music library. I really do like a bit of everything, although I gravitate towards certain genres more often depending on the season or time of day, so I’m going to cheat and pick 5 per season. Summer for me is lots of peppy pop (pride playlists!), punk and rock and punk-adjacent stuff, just upbeat stuff in general. -Weekender, by The Royal They -Break My Heart, by Dua Lipa -Toutes les femmes savent danser, by Loud -Ruby Soho, by Rancid -Womanarchist, by Bad Cop, Bad Cop

In the fall, my inner goth kid craves darkwave, goth rock, dramatic folk, roots rock, and also anything that reminds me of Halloween. -Iuka, by the Secret Sisters -Bela Lugosi’s Dead, by Bauhaus -How’s It Gonna End, by Tom Waits -Under the Milky Way, by The Church -I Put a Spell on You, by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins I could go on about the Christmas music I like at length (Boney M’s Christmas album slaps, ngl) but I’ll just skip that and say that I listen to more classical and piano pieces in the winter. I’m terrible at remembering names, so artists only: -Ludovico Einaudi -Chopin -Debussy -Saint-Saëns -Dvořák And in spring I’m usually just depressed af and listen to whatever. -FML, by K.Flay -Weird Part of the Night, by Louis Cole -Juodaan Viinaa, by Korpiklaani -P.O.H.U.I., by Carla’s Dreams -Marryuna, by Baker Boy

Do you have a show or movie that you can just put on anytime and it’s your comfort? Definitely Star Trek. I’ve rewatched the various iterations (except TOS) so many times. Also Mean Girls and Bring It On, idk why.

Do you have a favorite dessert? Tiramisu or creme brulée! Or macarons. I don’t eat dessert really unless I’m at a restaurant.

Do you have a favorite cold drink? Sparkling water, hands down.

Do you have a favorite game? The hours I have put into the SIms in my lifetime is probably shameful, although I haven’t played in a while. Don’t Starve is another contender for hours played, but I am also really fond everything by Amanita Design

Do you have a favorite part of your self care/beauty/health routine? I haven’t been doing it much lately since I’ve been dealing with some uncertain health issues with my joints (actually have a rheumatologist appointment later today), but savasana after a long yoga workout is borderline ecstasy.

Do you have a favorite type of take-out food? Indian for sure.

What’s your favorite type of exercise/physical activity? I have a love-hate relationship with running. I don’t actually love it but I love how I feel after. I really enjoy yoga. I love playing in the water at the beach, bodyboarding and swimming.

Pick between: (you choose the context)

Cook or bake? (I love cooking A Lot)

Space or ocean? (Hard to pick, but I grew up by the ocean and it’s 100% my happy place)

Chocolate or vanilla?

City or suburb or rural? (I grew up in an isolated rural village and I miss the quiet and the slower pace of life, but I do not miss the lack of amenities and opportunities, or the smalltown gossip. I also don’t drive bc of epilepsy, so I’m fucked as far as transport in rural settings.)

Past or future?

Shower in the morning or evening?

Mac/Apple or PC/Android? (Linux in general!)

Sing or dance?  (I don’t have an amazing voice but I can carry a tune without it being painful, and I love singing along with songs.)

Get up early or sleep in? (I actually love sleeping in but with two kids, early morning is my only time to myself, so I wake up before 6 most days AGGH.)

Shoes, socks, or bare feet? (Hate socks. I’m barefoot at home all year round.)

Marker, crayon, or pencil? Pen!

Tea, coffee, or hot chocolate? (Coffee in the morning, tea later on.)

Random questions:

Have you ever had any pets? (Had dogs and a cat as a kid, and as an adult I’ve had betta fish and cats, and I have a cat currently.)

What is your academic background/job field? I did my undergrad in linguistics, and I am currently a stay-at-home dad lol. I do freelance editing and transcription on the side. I don’t think I’ll ever work in my field bc I really don’t have the energy to go to grad school.

What’s something random that you’re into (even if you aren’t good at it)? I signed up for a Cape Breton step dancing class in university and I loved it.

Are you good at putting away your clean laundry right away? It depends on the day, but generally yes. Mine and everyone else’s. When I lived alone? Absolutely not.

What’s one of your pet peeves? Someone trying to have a conversation with me when they have the radio or TV on. I can’t follow what you’re saying if someone else is speaking! I hate having that stuff on as background noise in general.

What’s something you’re pretty good at? I’m a great cook.

What’s the most recent nice thing you bought for yourself? A new conditioner ig? lol

Can you sew? I can mend a small tear or sew on a button, but it’s been years since I did more than that.

What’s a chore you hate (or a chore you enjoy)? I hate vacuuming so much. So much. Maybe if I had a better vaccuum cleaner I wouldn’t mind it, but I just feel like I’m fighting with the stupid thing, getting caught up on its own cords, caught on furniture, can’t quiiiite reach a spot... HATE IT. I like shoveling snow sometimes, though.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself. I am 20 years older than my youngest sibling, and five minutes younger than my “oldest” sibling.

Never have I ever... Gone fishing, even though I’m from a fishing community.

What extracurriculars did/do you do in school? In high school, I played trumpet in band until the band got dissolved from lack of funding. I played soccer one year, was in a play another year. We had an art club for like a semester that I was in. In university the first time round, I did step dancing and intramural hide and seek  Second time around, I was in the linguistics club to help with assignments. (We were very much encouraged to work in pairs or groups for a lot of different classes. The only thing was that you did need to list your group members on the assignment so the prof knew who you worked with. My first morphology class in particular, we had a whole homework club where a huge portion of the class got together to work through assignments and help each other understand, and the prof would quite often show up. </tangent>

Deeper questions:

How’s your quarantine/last few months been? The cabin fever was really bad before the weather warmed up. I struggle with seasonal depression every spring, and it’s gotten much worse since we moved to Edmonton because of how long the winters are. (Snow from September to May/June? Fucccck.) It’s frankly horrifying to look at what’s going on in the US, but even though we have far fewer cases here, I’m really anxious that we’ll see another wave soon. Otherwise, I think I’ve adjusted. Home-schooling, hand-sanitizing, social distancing, masks...All feels kind of normal now, which should maybe concern me.

What do you think of human nature/society/etc.? I am like the least philosophical person you will meet so I don’t think I really have many thoughts.

What’s something you are insecure about? Writing my L2 if a native speaker is gonna read it.

What do you think is the meaning of life/reason that humans exist in the universe? I don’t think there is one, and that doesn’t bother me.

Do you think you’re better (whatever that means to you) than you used to be? Definitely. My adolescence and early adulthood was rough. I was dealing with a lot of trauma, untreated bipolar disorder, and I self-harmed for a very long time. I could not imagine making it to 30, let alone being stable and happy. I actively avoided thinking about the future because it made me spiral. But I was lucky enough to get help, consistent help from a doctor I clicked with, and it made a world of difference. I think younger me would be disappointed at how mundane my life is, but I’m thrilled to be boring because boring means no life-upending mood episodes. I have a happy partnership and two delightful kids and I couldn’t ask for more.

What are your thoughts on religion? I’m not religious and my own experience being raised in the Catholic church was frankly traumatic, but I know that it’s a source of comfort and community for many others and I think that’s awesome for them.

Do you think that there are aliens out there? I think so, although I think that we may not even know what other kinds of life to look for and may not recognize it even if we find it.

What’s something that’s been on your mind recently? We’re moving cross-country in less than a month (driving, no less, nearly 5000 km) and I still have so much to do to get ready aosjdoajdoasijdoaijsd

[bewitchingwitch]

Constellations pt. 10

It had been days since you had been home. Ever since that girl from the Ministry had whisked you away after you got back with Theseus you had been training nonstop. You had no idea what was going on in the outside world, or what was in the post. You had even been sleeping at the ministry they had assigned you a small room that had a pull out bed.

You were training under the instruction of a strict yet kind man named Cecil who had long black dreadlocks weaved with gray that he pinned up in a bun. No matter the training exercise he always wore nice clothes. Today he was wearing brown slacks with a white button up rolled up to his forearms with suspenders.

Today's training had you dodging spells while he fired them at you. You were dressed in simple workout clothes you couldn't pull off the dressed look like Cecil. He would fire them at you and you had to deflect them with a counter spell or dodge. Eventually you had to get close enough to him to take the apple from him that he carried in his right while he wielded his wand in with his left. You thought it was a stupid task but Cecil insisted you do it anyway if you wanted to keep working here.

"Come and take it (y/n) it's only an apple it's not that hard!" He chuckled, his voice had a South African accent attached to it. He fired another spell at you that you barely avoided.

Your let out an agitated growl in response.  You were getting better but the past few days you hadn't managed to take the bloody apple from him. They said that once you could get it from him that you could finally go home. And you were determined to get it from him today

You sprinted forward deflecting three spells and fired one in return that he lazily avoided by tilting his body to the side. "Is that the best you got (y/n)?"

"Not even close Cecil!" You shouted back as you made your way closer to him. You came to halt a few feet from him. He just smirked at you. Now you had to figure out how to get the apple from him.

"Come on girlie I thought you would have gotten this sooner." You circled one another, anticipating each other's next move. "You're what? Thirty something?"

"30 to be exact." You replied.

"I'm pushing 65 I'm considered to be an elderly in the muggle world. And yet you can't seem to beat me." He smirked.

"Don't be so sure of yourself." You mimicked his expression.

"And why is that?"

"Because while you were monologuing I took the apple." You rubbed it on the sleeve of your shirt and took a bite out of it.

Cecil looked surprise from a moment before chucking deeply. "Congrats! You can finally go home little one!" He clasped your shoulder.

"I know I'm so tired, the beds here aren't soft at all." You remarked as you gathered your things.

Cecil just laughed. "I'll be looking forward to working in the field with you."

"As will I." You said a quick goodbye and apparted out of the training arena and onto the steps of your apartment. You sighed contently as you opened the door and stepped into your apartment.

You immediately plopped down on the couch in your living room. You body melted into the soft cushions. You shifted uncomfortable feeling as if something was underneath you.

You reached your hand back and pulled out a piece of paper that you had rumpled form laying on. It was a perfectly square and folded four times.

You unfolded it and noticed scribbly writing. It said, Remember Quidditch tomorrow morning at 7 sharp. I'll swing by to take you there.

Sincerely,

Newt.

You smiled at the note, you were happy that Newt had left you a note. And you couldn't wait to play quidditch with him and Theseus tomorrow. It wad unknown to you just how much that quidditch match would mean.

*******************************************

At exactly 7 that morning Newt had knocked on your door expecting to see you sleep eyed and half awake. But instead you were wide awake already carrying your broom and a duffle bag. You were dressed in jeans very uncommon for the era, with a white shirt that was tucked in and a red bandana that pushed back your hair. Though a few strands still escaped.

Your broom was sleek with golden bristles and a mahogany handle it had two worn strings wrapped around the hand colored in red and yellow. To symbolize your gryffindor status. There was also a carving on the top of the handle. It was a heart with your first name initial and the initial of an A written in it. He felt a pang of jealously and looked away from the carving. You noticed what he was staring at and moved to cover it with your hand

You had never seen Newt in casual clothes before. He was wearing a loose and stained blue button up with suspenders and black jeans. He looked good. You couldn’t help yourself from scanning him up and down. He carried his broom in his hand it had a crooked handle and it was very simple and worn out.

“Are you ready?” You asked as you hopped down the steps like a child.

“Yes.” He smiled at you and took your hand in his which surprised you. You looked down at your fingers interlaced and Newt began to pull his hand away. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have grabbed you hand.”

You gripped his hand tighter and gave him a reassuring smile and he relaxed into your touch. “How are we going to get there?”

You began walking down the street together your brooms tucked under your arms. “Well we play in this abandoned quidditch field a little ways out of town. It had the hoops and everything it’s just a little rusty. We can apparate or we can walk if you’d like.”

You thought for a moment while Newt watched you. Your hair way blowing lightly in the wind. He wanted to tuck the stray hairs behind your ears but felt that it would be too out of line. He didn’t even know what you thought of him.

“We can walk if it’s only a little way.” You wanted to spend more time with him.

“Okay.” He squeezed your hand and you walked together talking endlessly about his creatures and what chapter he was currently writing. You told him about your adventures at the Ministry leaving out your mission with Theseus.

You arrived shortly after to see Theseus and three other people already in the air flying around on their brooms and scouring. Theseus flew with ease his hair whisking in the wind as he through the Quaffle through the hoop. Newt had mentioned that he was a seeker but you figured that since they were only playing two on two they decided not to use the snitch. You gave a big whoop as the ball sailed through the hoop.

Theseus circled around and was surprised to see you and Newt. One of his buddies pulled up next to him and then the other two followed. “Oi, who’s that?” The guy asked while they were still out of earshot.

“The girl’s pretty.” The guy on his right mentioned.

“Can it Andrew.” Theseus hated his friends.

“They guy isn’t too shabby either. To be honest I wouldn’t mind shagging either one of them.”

“Thats my brother.” Theseus glared back at his friend who just smirked.

“What I’ve been dying to get into your brothers pants since Hogwarts let me live a little.”

“Andy keep your mind out of the gutters. ” The guy on his left remarked he had a Spanish accent.

“Quiet Diego.”

“Oh boys I recognize her she’s the girl from the papers! The one who Theseus is snogging on the cover!” The last guy whose name was Blaine whistled.

“Oooooooo.” All the guys circled around Theseus mocking him and making kissing noises.

“Piss off.” Theseus grumbled as he flew away from the crowd as he descended he called out to Newt. “Well, well, well it looks like baby brother decided to join us and without a notice!” He stayed on the broom and stopped a couple feet from the ground floating in front of you.

“Hello (y/n).” He smiled.

“Hello Theseus.” You returned it feeling blush creep onto your cheeks. Newt watched you two interact and felt anger settle into his chest.

“I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“I’m been training.”

“Is that so?” He moved his broom closer to where his face was inches away from yours. “How’s That been going?” Newt opened his mouth to interject but someone else did it for him.

“Not to interrupt this little flirting session but we came out to play Quidditch Scamander. Not to watch you undress your girl with your eyes.” Blaine’s said as he slid off of his broom and took it in his hands, balancing it on his shoulders wrapping his arms as around it.

“Yeah Theseus you promised us a game.” Diego stayed on his broom as Andrew jumped off of his.

“And now that we have two more we can play three on three and use the snitch. You kept saying how you could catch the snitch in 5 minutes flat and have yet to shown us.”

“He’s always bragging with nothing to back it up.” Blaine made his way over to you. He was tall with blonde hair that was due for a haircut as it crept past his ears and curled at the ends lightly. With bright blue eyes and a million dollar smile.

“Yea he’s been bragging that he could beat me in catching the snitch and Merlin knows he never has before. “ Diego had black hair that was slicked back and he had cute dimples.

“Nonetheless He was a quidditch star you know that all the girls flocked to him. They couldn’t keep their hands off of him.” Andrew was wearing a sweater despite the warm weather with an A on it.

“Ha ha now I now know the A on your sweater stands for asshole.” Theseus shot back.

“Touchy aren’t we?.” Andrew had red hair with freckles. He had long limbs and was build like a linebacker. He was fetching a box that was laying in the field. He picked the snitch up and held it out to Theseus. “Care to finally show us and your girlfriend what you’re made of?”

“You’re on Weasley.” Theseus took the small golden ball from his outstretched hand.

“So you’re team captain Scamander and I’ll be the other team captain. You can pick first.”

Theseus looked over his options. “Well I’m a seeker so we need a chaser.” Newt assumed that he would pick him that’s what he always did. Theseus picked Newt because he didn’t like to compete with him, but today was different. “I’ll take (y/n).” You we’re leaning on your broom and your hand nearly slipped when he called your name. You jogged over to stand by his side. “Your turn Weasley.”

Andrew scanned the crowd. “Well I’ll need a chaser since I’m a beater. Newt I choose you.” Newt walked over to Andrew bitter that his brother had pulled that dirty trick of picking you and putting him on a different team. “So I know the girl’s taken but what’s your story handsome?” Andre winked and Newt turned away not sure what to make of Theseus’ flirty friend.

“I’ll take Blaine he’s the only other beater.” Theseus called out.

“Thanks Theseus you sure know how to make a guy feel welcomed.” Blaine sauntered over to stand by you and started up light conversation while the brothers watched.

“Diego That means you’re with me.”

“Always a pleasure.” Diego who was already in the air watched as everyone else gathered their stuff and flew into the air. Everyone got into position.

“So it’s good old fashioned street quidditch you want to toss for who goes first?” Andrew asked as he held out a silver sickle.

“I’m feeling generous you can go first cherry.”

“Such a tease in and out of the bed.” Andrew teased as he got back into position.

Blaine was floating next to you his beater under neath his arm as he pulled out a stopwatch from his pocket. “I don’t believe that he can get get the snitch in under 5 minutes especially against Diego.”

“Is he good?” You asked.

“Good? He was the best Seeker Gryffindor had while we were there.”

“You were a Gryffindor?”

“Yep me, Diego and Andrew were. Newt and Theseus were Hufflepuffs.”

“Yeah I knew what house they were in. I’m a Gryffindor.” You winked at the playful blonde.

“Nice I figured. I know a Gryffindor when I see one. We’re all a rather charming bunch.” Blaine floated a little closer nothing romantic just friendly banter.

“Indeed.”

“Blaine, new girl stop talking and lets play.” Andrew called.

“It’s (y/n)!” You corrected.

“(Y/n) stop talking!” Andrew called back playfully. “And someone hurry up and release the snitch so we can start.

Theseus flew over to you and handed you the snitch cupping your hands around it. He kissed your hand. “Will you do me the honors of releasing it. I think I’ll have a better chance at winning if you do it.”

“Isn’t that romantic.” Blaine interjected. He was now hanging from his broom upside down like kid do on monkey bars.

“Blaine stop that you’re gonna fall off! We’re like 50 feet in the air!” Theseus reprimanded.

“Oh piss off mom I’m fine.”

You let yourself fall back and hang upside down mimicking Blaine while Newt and Theseus chocked back a scream. “(Y/n)!”

“It’s fun Theseus! Plus what did you expect?”

“We’re Gryffindors!” Blaine finished.

You released the snitch and sat upright as the game officially began. You saw Blaine start his timer before slipping the stopwatch back into his pocket.

The game was intense. You currently had the Quaffle and zoomed past Newt as Andrew shot a bludger at you. You dodged it and chucked the ball into the center hoop sinking it. You raised your arms up in triumph as Blaine cheered. You were the only scorer for the team. Andrew’s team was up by ten points. Newt had scored ome more time than you had. He much better at Quidditch than he had let on.

You had once let him get past you because he looked so bloody good with his hair all disheveled by the wind and his suspender slipping off of his shoulder. Theseus had noticed and lost track of the snitch during that time. He was now back on the hunt against Diego. “You only have a minute left!” Blaine called out as he shot a bludger at Newt who avoided it but dropped the Quaffle. You dived for it and grabbed in stuffing it underneath your arm.

You pulled up and sped towards the goals where Newt was blocking. Even though he liked you there was no way he was going to let you win. Andrew shot the bludger towards you and there was no way you could avoid it by shifting to the side. You made sure your grip was good on the Quaffle before you leapt up off of your broom. They all stopped to watch you. Especially the brothers both of them terrified at your reckless move. As you jumped though the air the broom continued to zoom below you.

The bludger flew past you and you fell back down and grasped onto your broom with one hand. One handedly you flew and tossed the Quaffle into the the hoop. Once you got rid of the ball you swung yourself back on and did a victory lap as both teams cheered you on.

“Bloody Merlin (y/n) that was fucking amazing!” Blaine abandoned his post to give you a high five. Diego gave a holler in support as he continued to search for the snitch.

You laughed. “That was my signature move when I was at Hogwarts. It always got everyone in the stands on their feet.” While you were preoccupied with questions about the stunt you pulled Theseus only had about thirty seconds left to catch the snitch.

He finally saw it. It was flying circles around Diego’s feet. Diego wasn’t paying attention he was congratulating you on your save. Theseus made his move. He hugged his body close to the broom as he zoomed forward and outstretched his hand. Diego didn’t notice what Theseus was aiming for until too late.

Theseus’ hand enclosed on the golden ball and he held it up in triumph as Blaine called time. He had caught the snitch within the five minute mark. You and Blaine swarmed him you had won the game because the snitch gave your team a 150 points. You moved close and your lips were inches from touching, Newt was watching in heartbreak until Blaine’s voice interrupted you.

“Oi who is that?” Blaine had his hand up to clock the sunlight and was squinting down towards a small figure that was coming closer.

You all moved down a couple feet and the figure became a little clearer. You eyes widened in realization. The guy was calling your name. “(Y/N)!”

“Who is that?” Theseus and all the other followed down to where you were.

“Is that-? It can’t be.” You were in disbelief. “I still have three months he wasn’t suppose to come yet.” You mumbled to yourself as you let yourself descend the figure was storming closer until he was a couple feet away.

You jump off your broom and grab it all the boys land to and you then to face Newt. You know what’s coming and you don’t want to face it. “Hold my broom please.” You give it to him and your hands longer for a moment as you give him a quick peck on his cheek that is visible to none.

You move closer to the guy. Newt and Theseus realize who it is as he gets closer it’s the guy from the photograph on your mantle and down the photograph that you carry in your briefcase. He had the same tousled raven hair but he wasn’t smirking now. He had a deep look of anger etched into his face. His hazel honey eyes blazing.

He was wearing a smart grey three piece suit without the coat jacket. He as wearing a dark grey vest with a tie and matching slacks. His white undershirt was rolled up to revel his muscular forearms. He was about the same build as Blaine. Muscular but it was subtle. Not much bigger than Theseus but as tall as Newt.

You caught up with the guy and placed your hand onto his chest to stop him from moving and closer. “Adonis this is a surprise!” You were looking forward to seeing him but not like this. “I’m glad to see you.”

“(Y/n)...” His chest was still rising up and down you could tell he was pissed.

You reached your hand up and caressed the side of his face a soothing gesture you had always done to calm him down when he got like this. He was a sweet but a very temperamental young man. You rand your hand down to his cheekbone opening up your palm. And he placed a light kiss onto it. It was a sign to you that he had calmed down for the moment bring. A trust symbol between you two.

“Excuse but who the hell are you?” Theseus stepped forward you could see he had pulled his wand and so had the others they were holding them hidden behind their backs.

Adonis let out a low growl in response. “You.” His voice was deep and you knew that if you didn’t stop him someone was going to get hurt bad.

“Adonis...” your vocie had a warning edge to it.

“It’s him! That bastard!”

You pulled yourself away from him. “Hold your tounge how dare you insult him!” You poked your finger at his chest. Your other hand resting on your hip.

“How dare I? How dare you defend him! You know what he did!”

“No I don’t have any clue what you’re talking about Adonis!”

“Really? You want to play innocent?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” You raised your voice. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” Both Newt and Theseus were at the ready both of them wanting to send this newcomer to hell but they knew you wouldn’t want them to. You could handle yourself. And despite how this guy was acting now that one intimate moment you had had with him earlier proved that you cared for him. And would not approve of the Scamander brothers destroying him.

“YOU DID NOTHING WRONG?” He was practically red with anger now. You knew you needed to stop arguing with him before he blew his top.

“Adonis breath. What’s wrong?” You placed your hand back on his chest and he took in and he closed his eyes. He opened them and began to pull out something from his back pocket.

He pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet that had been rolled up in the back pocket of his slacks. It was a little crumpled he handed it to you. “Explain this.”

“What is this?” You held the paper still not looking at the cover. Theseus knew what it was and his heart dropped.

“Read the headline.” And you did and you placed your hand over your mouth in horror. The picture below the title was a moving picture of you and Theseus kissing. It was from when you were on the mission someone had taken it of you guys without you knowing. It moved on repeat the way Theseus bit your lips and you leaned into it depending it. “Oh Donnie I-“

But Adonis had already pushed past you and was standing chest to chest with Theseus sizing him up. “So war hero, you think just because I’m not here you can make a move on my girl I don’t think so.”

Theseus want backing down. “You’re girl, you talk about her like she’s your property. Who do you think you are.”

Adonis turned back to you in shock. He glanced down at your hand and you hid you hand behind your back in shame. He couldn’t believe that you didn’t tell these people about him.

“You ask who I am War hero? I’m her fiancée.”

Taglist: @hearteyesmotherclucker @c8n10n4o2-geek @martarosado17 @nanjaeminniee @moisoverennyi-thestarlessone @profangirllex @gaenahelleborus @melodramaticmelon2118 @michellekstr @nctyong-xo @preppy-by-the-c @sweetlyshinylady @emo-plaidin @dreacantsleep @theetherealbloom @lily2089 @mywckdmind @barbarachern @imbiandiwanttocry @ollyoxenfrees @newtslatte @pettylady @februarycalum @justanothereducationmajor @feelthefeelingsinsideyou @ombriescent @ztinge @liloefuru @reindeerdaisies @babywizardoll @heckin-kat @thewitchmadness @bunnie-kookie @the-fandom-life-forever @missanonyma @frozen-blue-eyes @newletas @sassycassyhoneybee @spookysunflowr

[raendown]

Chapter: 5/9 Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 3534 Rated: M Summary: Walking patrol around a university for mages probably sounded like a wild time but Tobirama has never found it all that exciting. He’s not even technically supposed to be here. When responding to a tripped alarm becomes a desperate attempt to stay alive, however, excitement is the last thing on his mind. All he’s ever wanted is a quiet life alone with his books until he finds himself bound to Uchiha Madara in the most impossible way and finally learns to think about more than just himself - in a way.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Chapter 5

“Can you brush my hair for me?”

Tobirama paused in buttoning up his shirt to give the man on his bed a flat look. “What?”

“I said can you brush my hair for me? I want to look at least halfway presentable and it always looks better when you do it. If I pretend to be polite and say please will you do it?”

“One of these days I’m going to invent a spell that will brush your hair for you. Levitation or something. No, wait, I hate levitation spells. They’re so finicky.” Snatching the brush being wiggling enticingly under his nose, he asked, “Why do you even care what you look like? They’re just dumb adolescents.”

With a satisfied smile Madara turned away from him and settled in to a cross-legged position.

“It doesn’t hurt to take a little extra care with one’s appearance,” he said. “You should try it sometime.”

“Are you calling me a mess?” Tobirama demanded. Just for that he made sure to catch a knot in the thick chuck of locks within his grasp and pull hard. Madara gurgled out a protest.

“Careful with that! I was not calling you a mess!”

Scowling, Tobirama let it slide. He wondered if Madara had noticed the same thing he did when they woke up that morning. The longer they were able to stay apart the less he seemed to be able to sense what the other was thinking and that bothered him more than it should. If anything he should have been celebrating getting a little more privacy back but somehow he just felt oddly alone. It was, embarrassingly, a relief every time they had to touch again and he could once more feel Madara just on the other side of that thin wall between their thoughts.

Pulling the brush a little more carefully – he didn’t really enjoy the echoes of pain their bond fed through to him, after all – Tobirama sat quietly and listened to Madara rambling on about his lesson plans for the day. He didn’t have a lot of opinions to give other than admitting that a lot of it sounded quite boring to him. But then anything that involved sitting still and being lectured on a subject he had already studied would always sound boring to him.

When Madara finally announced that he was satisfied with his own appearance Tobirama nodded and stood up.

“Finally. Now turn around so I can change out of my sleep pants.”

“At least I down have to hold your hand and close my eyes anymore.” Madara turned away as asked and pulled the notes Hashirama had sent over in to his lap.

Tobirama scoffed. Now that was a bit of separation he actually didn’t mind. His partner was right that those first couple of days learning how to function when they had to stay attached were mortifying. Tossing on a pair of pants to match the button down shirt he’d already changed in to, he paused and looked down at himself with a frown.

“I look fine, right?” he asked. Madara was smirking when he turned around.

“Who’s worrying about their appearances now?”

“You got in to my head!” Tobirama reached over to tug on a lock of that perfectly brushed hair. “I can’t help it! We’re rubbing off on each other more and more with every day. Next thing you know we’ll show up somewhere in matching outfits talking in unison. Actually, can we do that? I want to freak out Hashirama.”

Madara rolled his eyes and didn’t answer, though when Tobirama dropped a hand on his shoulder he could feel that the man was at least a little intrigued by the idea.

Since it was well past breakfast by the time they left home there weren’t actually many people around for the first few minutes of their walk. The residential areas were barren, anyone not currently sitting in their first period class probably still sleeping or just getting up, so the two of them held hands with the assurance that there was no one there to see and start rumors from it. It wasn’t until they passed the residential hallways and turned in to the wing where the classrooms began that they let go, instead walking so closely their arms brushed on nearly every step. Still a bit suspicious looking but not enough to confirm any of the ridiculous rumors that neither of them had been seen in days because they were on their honeymoon.

As if that would ever happen.

The twenty minutes it took to get to the right classroom were mostly spent in silence, both of them trying their hardest not to make eye contact with anyone wearing that weird hunger in their face people get when they’re trying to confirm something they think they already know. Madara did nod to some of the students that called out to him. Tobirama didn’t much bother looking around; the only people who ever waved to him were Hashirama, Mito, or his cousin Touka who had left the university after one year of classes, declaring them much too boring. He would have been bothered except that he much preferred it that way. Socializing had never been his strong suit.

Despite knowing intellectually that Madara’s students had missed him, they were both startled to open the door and find several dozen faces staring back at them with brilliant smiles and neatly folded hands, every one of them with their textbooks out and placed at the top left corner of their desks. It was nothing short of surreal.

“Students or thralls?” Tobirama muttered out the corner of his mouth, shrinking away from all the creepy eyes focused on them. Madara grunted and turned to scowl at him.

“They are not thralls,” he hissed quietly. “A bit odd, though, they’re not usually this well behaved.”

One of the nearby students overheard them, apparently.

“We thought we’d surprise you, Uchiha-sensei! Everyone knows how much you like it when things are neat and tidy.” The young man smiled proudly, teeth stretching from ear to ear, and Tobirama tried his best not to think about how cute he looked with all that curly hair and those cheekbones that so closely resembled the man at his side. “I like your new shirt, too!”

“Flattery will get you nothing, Kagami,” Madara told the kid with a note of suspicious in his voice.

“Aw come on, we were just trying to do something nice for you!”

“Do your homework on time for once,” Madara snorted. “That would be nice.”

Kagami, as was apparently his name, wilted and turned away to sulk in the other direction. While his appearance was undoubtedly similar to Madara’s his personality seemed to be uncomfortably reminiscent of Hashirama instead. Tobirama really wasn’t sure what he thought of that. It was a relief to follow his partner towards the front of the room and slip behind the ancient desk covered in perfectly neat little stacks of paper and pens all sorted by color.

If there was one invention he would always be grateful to the non-magical community for it was pens. Sometimes Tobirama still came across an old ink pot in one of his closets and he always shoved it right back in to the mess with a shudder of memory. Normal folk were almost lucky not to live half as long as anyone with magic, saving them the trouble of remembering such dark times as the days when homework was done with quill and scrolls. Keeping track of it all had been a nightmare no matter how many extra pockets he sewed in to his clothing.

Settling himself in to the very center of the staging area at the front of the room, Madara swept his eyes over the class before him with an expression that Tobirama had come to realize meant he was looking for something specific.

“There’s a few faces missing,” he noted eventually.

“Uh, I think the Transformative Spells class last period had an accident,” Kagami piped up from his seat. “So anyone who was there is probably in the infirmary right now.”

“Ah.” Madara frowned, worry flashing through him so strongly that Tobirama felt it even from several feet away, although he let nothing of it show on his face. Without saying anything more on the subject he launched right in to a recap of what they should have been learning over the week while he’d been gone.

While he spoke he moved back and forth across the empty space at the front, stopping at the desk every couple of minutes to reach for a random object or tidy something that Tobirama had fiddled with, anything to use as an excuse for their arms to brush together and reestablish their connection. When he wasn’t getting smacked on the shoulder for messing with stuff Tobirama explored whatever items had been left out in easy reach. He passed over the homework assignments that someone else seemed to have graded – Madara just didn’t seem like a happy face sticker kind of guy – and instead pulled a binder towards himself that had no label at all. In his experience the things that went unlabeled usually had the most interesting things inside.

Generally they were also forbidden or taboo but that only made them more interesting.

First making certain that Madara was focused on his lecture, Tobirama flipped the binder open. His first reaction upon finding nothing inside but lesson plans was of irritated disappointment. Upon taking a closer look, however, he realized that he had accidentally stumbled on to something beautiful after all: Madara’s handwriting.

There hadn’t really been any need for his partner to write anything down over the past few days and suddenly Tobirama mourned that fact. He’d never seen more elegant script in his life. Each letter was a masterpiece, perfectly crafted with a patience he would never have himself. His own writing was usually cramped and rushed as he tried to get as many words on to the page as he could and as quickly as humanly possible. Not once in his life had he taken the time to make anything half as pretty as the lettering in front of him now. Madara’s writing was so nice just to look at that it took a couple of minutes for Tobirama to actually read what was written on the pages.

When he’d seen the title ‘Lesson Plan’ and a date from nearly a week ago he had assumed it would be nothing but a general outline of the material they were expected to cover. He was surprised to see the level of detail this plan included, complete with notes in the margins about which subjects his students were doing well on and could advance quicker as opposed to which they seemed to be struggling with and needed to have covered in more detail.

In all the years he’d spent here at the university – and despite still enjoying his earlier centuries it had already been a lot of years – he’d never known any of the teachers put this much effort in to planning their classes. Although to be fair he had no evidence that anyone other than Madara made their plans so detailed but that only worked as a point in the man’s favor. Tobirama had always assumed that lesson plans were no more than a rough outline, lazy and thoughtless, copy and pasted from all the years before. Knowing they were more than that gave him a little more respect for the position and it only got better as he kept reading down the page.

Underneath all of the technical details was a small section where Madara had penned in a few notes about specific students, who seemed to be having trouble with what and how to help them work through those issues, sometimes a personal reminder that this student or that one had reacted a certain way to his teachings and even suggestions to himself about how to tweak his lecture for the future. It was thoughtful.

Tobirama closed the binder and pushed it away from himself, uncomfortable suddenly and unable to pinpoint why. It was interesting having everything he thought he knew about someone slowly flipped upside down, there was no denying that, but it was also jarring and brought up a lot of introspective questions he wasn’t at all prepared to deal with.

No one liked to think they were so self-involved that they could judge someone else so wrongly.

Madara trundled over to brush against his arm a few moments later and Tobirama tensed, eyes darting up to make sure he’d replaced the binder of lesson plans exactly where it had been before. With the obsessive organization system it would be all too obvious he had touched something if it were even an inch out of place. Luckily for him Madara wasn’t even looking at the desk. He stopped at Tobirama’s side to put a hand on his shoulder and look down at him with an expectant expression.

“I wasn’t listening,” he admitted quietly. Oddly, Madara didn’t even look annoyed. He turned back to the class without removing his hand.

“Take Tobirama here as an example. His natural element is water, the complete opposite of mine, but I have seen him both invoke fire and use fire runes. Can anyone tell me why that’s possible for him?”

“Because I’m just that good.” Tobirama smirked when a handful of students tittered.

“No,” a quiet voice piped up from the back. “It is because fire runes channel raw magic from the closest ley line and do not rely on a caster’s abilities while invocation begs power from the spirits themselves with no magic passing through the one invoking them at all.”

Madara squinted around the room until he found the one who had spoken and then nodded once in satisfaction. “Very good Shino, that’s exactly correct.”

“Good to know they have their basics down,” Tobirama muttered under his breath. “They’re only, what, fifth year students?” He grunted when the hand still resting on his shoulder clamped down extra hard in retaliation.

The lesson went on to a discussion of when it was best to use fire runes over any other options, always easier than invocations though they were also less powerful, and Tobirama let his attention wander off again. He considered going through the desk drawers when he ran out of things to inspect on the top of it but one look from Madara had his hands curling together in his lap. As much as he did enjoy riling the man up he wasn’t looking to become a visual aid by having his hair set on fire. Madara wore sparks much better than he did.

Boredom had set in again long before one of the students casually asked whether fire or water was stronger since the two elements were considered natural opposites. He was in the process of opening his mouth to gleefully suggest they make a demonstration of it when a bell began to chime to signify the end of the period, Madara’s eyes rolling back with visible relief.

His partner called out homework assignments over the sounds of everyone packing up their things and warned them that he probably still wasn’t back on a permanent basis so they should expect their substitute again. While he was busy shouting Kagami made a point of stopping by the front.

“It was nice to meet you,” he said, leaning over the desk to smile at Tobirama.

“Probably. I’m an absolute delight.”

The boy laughed at his joke, peeked over at Madara, then covered his mouth to laugh a bit more. “I’m sure you are.”

He was gone a moment later, joining the flood of bodies rushing off to their next class. Luckily for Tobirama’s attention span it was Thursday and Madara only happened to teach one period of class on Thursdays. For years his only social interactions had been the rare occasion he made it down to the dining hall at proper meal times or when Hashirama deigned to stop by his rooms. Even the librarian had stopped trying to pull him in for a chat when he went down to check out more books. He understood that his partner needed to get out more often than once a week but personally his own quota for human interaction had more than been met.

Madara didn’t count as company, not with their minds so closely intertwined that they couldn’t bear to be apart.

When the room was empty and the door snapped shut behind the last student Tobirama eyed the binder of lesson plans before standing up to watch his partner clear off the various things he’d written on the whiteboard. Yet another invention to be grateful to the non-magical community for. Chalkboards were so messy. It had actually taken Mito several years to convince her husband to install them in all the classrooms; not because of any budget concerns but simply because he stubbornly clung to the aesthetic of chalkboard classrooms in the castle which housed the university. Sometimes Tobirama wondered if Hashirama had only taken the job of Headmaster so he could pretend he was still living four centuries ago.

“Learn anything new?” Madara asked after the whiteboard was clean.

“Yes, actually, although I didn’t listen to a word you were saying.” Tobirama dragged his eyes away from the binder of treasures and pulled as innocent of an expression as he could manage. It had exactly the desired effect of making the other man roll his eyes.

“How–? No, never mind. I don’t think I want to know what you think you learned if it wasn’t anything from the class.”

Tobirama cocked his head to one side and noted that it seemed Madara was getting to know him as well as he was getting to know Madara. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing but it wasn’t really something he could stop so he simply allowed the thought to pass him by.

Standing up from the desk at last, he made his way over to stand next to his partner and weave their hands together with a sigh of relief that Madara immediately echoed. All the small excuses for brushing together had been the only thing that kept him sane throughout the past hour and they had another twenty minute walk ahead of them until to make it back home. It was good to know they could separate now but it was still better when they didn’t have to.

“I used to hate you,” Tobirama grumbled, personally offended that he couldn’t say he still did.

“Yes and I still have no idea why.” Madara lifted one arm like he meant to cross them and then awkwardly aborted the motion after he realized he couldn’t with his other hand occupied. “I’m lovable! Your brother always says so!”

“Hashirama’s opinion doesn’t count, he loves everything that breathes in his general direction.”

Madara puffed his chest up to argue back and then deflated almost immediately. “Or things that don’t breathe. I caught him naming all the flagstones in the front courtyard once,” he admitted. Tobirama closed his eyes to block out the exasperated shame.

Together they puttered around cleaning up the classroom and putting away all the things Madara had used to demonstrate whatever he’d been talking about. As much as Tobirama normally couldn’t care less for having everything put away so long as he remembered where to go find it again later – laughable considering he never remembered where anything was – he found himself pointing out things that were still out of place and dragging Madara along behind him as he popped over to put something else away.

Once everything was back where it was supposed to be and all the books on Madara’s desk had been set at right angles again they were free to head on back home at last. Madara spent most of the walk making a case for why they would go back to class again the next day, whining that Fridays he only taught two classes and that it wouldn’t be too much different than just one class, especially since they were hours apart. Tobirama mostly let his wrinkled nose make his opinions on that known. It wasn’t the classes he objected to in particular, just the upset to his daily routine. Ever since this whole thing began his life had been steadily changing bit by bit, again and again, and all he wanted was to find a little equilibrium again.

Finally turning down the hallway where their rooms were located and finding Uchiha Izuna leaning against the wall with both hands in his pockets certainly was not a path towards finding his equilibrium. The mental connection between him and his partner lit up with startled happiness at almost the exact same moment Izuna looked down to see that they had once again linked hands as soon as they were out of the public eye.

“What the fuck Aniki!?”

Tobirama closed his eyes and prayed for patience. Hopefully the gods would see fit to send enough for both of them.

[slytherinknowitall]

That Stupid Old Man!

A Christmas one-shot: Hogwarts’ snarky Potions Master, its smart but naïve Head Girl and an enchanted mistletoe – could it get any worse?

Disclaimer: I don’t own the “Harry Potter” book series. The story of “Harry Potter” is the property of J. K. Rowling, it is not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

As much as Severus Snape hated most aspects of his teaching position at Hogwarts, doing early morning rounds through the school’s countless corridors wasn’t one of them. He was a morning person by nature and loved roaming through his beloved castle, having it all to himself without any pesky pupils – or looney headmasters, for that matter – disrupting his complex thoughts. He would often use this time to ponder over how to further perfect his brewing technique or even to try out new spells; every once in a while, however, he would also just enjoy the utter silence that was so rare to be found in a place like this filled with so many people.

It was during one of those rounds on a Monday in late autumn that something eventually disrupted that peaceful quiet. Walking through a particularly remote part of the castle, the wizard suddenly heard what sounded like soft humming coming from the corridor to his right. A gloating smirk crept across his hook-nosed face – longing for solitude or not, one of his favourite pastimes was and would always be catching unsuspecting students in the process of doing something prohibited.

That joyful feeling was rather short-lived, however; because the person he laid eyes upon after turning the corner was none other than Hermione Granger – the school’s current Head Girl who was definitely allowed outside of her common room past curfew as she too was expected to patrol the castle from time to time.

But Snape’s mood did lighten up a little when he noticed that she was wearing Muggle clothing – perfect! While students were normally permitted to wear their own clothes outside of class, they were required to dress in their uniform while fulfilling tasks given to them by staff; and doing rounds was certainly one of them. The Potions Master thought about it for a good second and ultimately figured that he could deduct at least 30 house points for that. And from what he could see, she was also not wearing her official Head Girl badge – that would be worth another 15 points.

Lurking in the shadows, he waited until Granger had come close enough so that jumping out of his hiding spot would score maximum dramatic effect.

“Tsk, tsk, what do we have –“

But before he could finish his sentence, Severus was suddenly pushed forward so violently that is almost knocked the air out of his lungs. He didn’t even have time to whip out his wand in order to fight of the invisible assailant before the exact same thing happened to the young woman, practically launching her into his arms. The two of them were now face to face, close enough to where he could have counted the individual freckles on her button nose if he’d wanted to.

“Professor Snape?” the Gryffindor shrieked, her eyes the size of saucers.

“Get off me at once!” But even after pushing her away, they were still uncomfortably close to each other. He tried to take a step back; however, his feet wouldn’t move. “What is the meaning of this! What did you do, Miss Granger?!”

“Nothing, I swear!”

“Don’t lie to me, you brat!”

“But I really didn’t do anything, sir!”

“Then what is going on?!” he snarled, turning his head left and right looking for the jokester that had trapped them, whether it was a student or Peeves – but there was no one. It wasn’t until Severus looked up that he saw the source of their problem.

“That stupid, old man!” he cursed under his breath. He had forgotten that today was December 1, the day that marked the beginning of Christmas time at Hogwarts. He’d been assigned one of the more secluded areas of the castle to patrol for this morning and since those were usually not as heavily decorated, he hadn’t caught on yet. And because he hadn’t been looking out for it, he was now stuck underneath Dumbledore’s ridiculous mistletoe with one third of the idiotic Golden Trio.

“Sir?” Granger was visibly confused.

He pointed towards the ceiling. “Another one of the headmaster’s glorious ideas: An enchanted mistletoe that traps any two people of age that stand underneath it at the same time. He puts it up every year on the first day of December and only takes it down the day after Boxing Day.”

“An enchanted mistletoe?” she asked, examining the decoration with obvious curiosity. “If Professor Dumbledore puts it up every year, how come I have never heard of it before?”

Snape smirked – the fact that there was something about Hogwarts that she hadn’t already known was obviously bothering her, and he enjoyed that wholeheartedly.

“He started this senseless tradition only a few years ago which is the reason for it not being mentioned in Hogwarts: A History, and since he always puts it up at random spots throughout the castle, there are some years during which not a single soul stumbles across it. Furthermore, most of the people living here aren’t adults yet, so it doesn’t work on them.” He made a short pause. “Last but not least, most of its victims get stuck unexpectedly, and unless they were lucky enough to get trapped with someone they fancied, I think that it is rather understandable why they wouldn’t want to broadcast their experience to the entire world.”

“But why?”

It was frustrating how naïve the girl was. “Because the only way to break its magic is to kiss.”

“Oh …”

Severus said nothing, patiently waiting for the dreadful epiphany that was sure to come.

“OH!”

Yep, there it was.

“Does that mean that we also have to …” The witch abruptly turned beet red.

“I am afraid so, Miss Granger – that is, unless we find another way out of this.”

She gasped loudly. “But is it even supposed to do this? Trapping teachers with students?!”

“Believe me when I say that I have voiced this as a concern to the headmaster multiple times in the past,” he answered, his voice almost too low to be heard. “Now, make yourself useful! There has to be something that will set us free.”

But ten minutes as well as dozens upon dozens of different spells and hexes later, they were still in the same uncomfortable position as before. The Head of Slytherin groaned in frustration – just why did that moronic geezer have to be such a highly skilled wizard! Already knowing that it wouldn’t help, he tried one last charm.

“I don’t think it’s working, sir.”

Severus could feel anger starting to erupt inside of him – not only was he trapped in such an inappropriate position with his fourth least favourite student, but now that brat also dared to speak to him in such a disrespectful tone!

“Miss Granger, if you really do know everything better, then please, use your humongous head to get us out of here, would you?!” he screamed just inches away from her face.

Granger’s eyes immediately started to water, and it didn’t take long before she broke out into tears, but he didn’t care. For a while, no one said anything; the only sound resonating from the stone walls was the brunette’s sobbing.

Suddenly, a loud chime interrupted the silence – it was the Clock Tower, indicating that it was now half past five in the morning. “Fuck!” Severus thought. Soon, the first wave of early bird students would start to stream out into the castle, and as they weren’t far from the Ravenclaw Tower, he knew that it wouldn’t be long before someone found them in this delicate position. He shuttered at the thought of having to kiss the Gryffindor Princess in front of the entire school – no one would ever take him seriously again!

“Oh, bloody hell!” And with that, he grabbed her tear-streaked face with his calloused hands before pressing his thin lips against hers tightly.

He had expected the surprised squeal that escaped her – but what he hadn’t been prepared for was the sudden bolt of electricity that travelled through his entire body at the speed of light upon their lips making contact. The Dungeon Bat’s eyes grew big, and he could see hers do the same; just two gigantic honey brown circles staring back at him with a mixture of shock and wonderment.

For what felt like an eternity, neither of them dared to move; Severus was still holding on to the sides of her round face, their lips were still joined together, and they were still looking at each other with an intensity that could set a room ablaze. But suddenly, to the black-haired man’s horror, Granger started to slowly close her eyes and her chapped but voluptuous lips, which at first had felt so hard against his, started to softened as her small hands came to a rest on his chest.

“What in Merlin’s name is she doing?!” the voice inside of his head screamed in a panic. But it was almost as though he wasn’t in control of his own body as his left arm found its way around her petite waist, pulling her closer to him, and his right hand got lost in the entanglement of curls at the nape of her neck, tipping her head up to create a better angle. He could feel his body melt into hers, painfully aware of the way her curves were pressed against him. He wanted to stop, wanted to just push her away from him and give her detention for the rest of the school year, but he couldn’t. He had kissed a fair share of women in his lifetime but it had never felt like this – it was a type of ecstasy that no potion or spell could ever give you. He wanted to possess the woman in his arms and give himself to her completely at the same time.

Whatever little self-control he had left, it was all gone as soon as the Muggle-born parted her lips just enough to let out a nearly inaudible moan. Snape attacked her open mouth with his tongue and relished in her taste – the tears running down her face made her taste salty but sweet, like sea water mixed with honey, like popcorn covered in powdered sugar. He pressed himself against her – close enough to where he was sure that she could hear and feel the rapid beat of his heart – and felt chills run down his spine when she wrapped her arms around his neck. He used his teeth to bite her lower lip – not hard enough to draw blood, but just enough to give her a sensation of that good kind of pain – and the sharp breath she drew in response only egged him on further.

Neither one of them had come to the realisation that the mistletoe’s spell had long been broken, or maybe they just didn’t care anymore; and was only when Severus felt something starting to stir in his lower region that he remembered who he was kissing and finally managed to pull himself away from her.

The Potions Master was absolutely horrified – he had just snogged a student! Oh, but it had felt so good; he had never felt this alive! He was trying hard to catch his breath after such an aggressive kiss, having a difficult time keeping his shaky legs from folding, and while he certainly did not want to, he forced himself to look up.

What he saw was a pale-faced Hermione Granger who was staring right at him but somehow still appeared to not notice him at all. In what seemed like a trance-like state, she slowly brought one of her hands up to her lips, touching them just ever so slightly, before looking at her fingers with what could only be described as astonishment.

Having long forgotten about how he had planned to obliviate her, Snape had to clear his throat before managing to say, “I think that you should return to your dorm now, Miss Granger.”

At last, the girl seemed to become aware of his presence again, and her white as chalk face quickly regained some much-needed colour as she started to blush.

“Yeah … I think so, too.” she mumbled. “Goodbye, Professor.”

“Goodbye, Miss Granger.”

[hannah-khoury-deserves-better]

Take Me Home Chapter One

Summary: Hannah gets some unexpected news and she and Tammy have to figure out their new reality.

Words: 2387

Warnings: none

Pairings: Hannah Khoury/Tammy Gregorio, Tammy Gregorio/Sebastian Lund (Friendship) others to be added.

                                               A Wind of Change

Sitting at the table in the breakfast nook at Sebastian and Tammy's house. Hannah let a soft smile come across her lips as she looked over at Tammy. With Tammy Gregorio it was easy, easy to love her, far easier than it had been with Ryan Porter.

Tammy then spoke “Hey did you hear my question?”

“Huh? Sorry lost in thought.”

“I asked what you wanted for breakfast.”

“I want waffles,” Sebastian called out while he walked into the kitchen. He let out a small gasp once he recognized Tammy's house guest. ”Wait. Hannah? Why are you here? Do we have a case?”

Hannah let out a small groan, “You said he was getting back this afternoon, I knew we should have gone to my place. I'm going to go get dressed.” Standing up in the FBI tee she had stolen from Tammy’s dresser that morning and walking past Sebastian even though she was sure that Sebastian had seen the heart print briefs she had on as well.

---

“Easy baby, I'll handle it.” Tammy said as she shoved Sebastian back towards the living room.

“What the hell aren't you supposed to be at some nerd thing?”

“Comic-Con is not for nerds it's for enthusiasts. And I got in last night, I see you didn't wait up for me. Wait, that was your shirt she had on. Why is Hannah here?”

They stood quietly. Tammy raised one eyebrow at him.

“Oh my god your seeing Hannah. Wait how long has this been going on?”

“Look, me and Hannah have a little thing going on, and it's been six weeks. Let me go try and calm Hannah down before she decides to kill you, you know she could do it and get away with it. Do not mention this to anyone or I'll hurt you got it.”

“Yeah no I understand.” Sebastian nodded nervously.

“Wait. Six weeks, you've been dating for six weeks?” He watched as Tammy slide into her room and hearing her greet Hannah softly and sweetly before her door closed in front of him. He shook his head and headed to make coffee for three.

---

“I'm sorry baby, apparently he meant last night not tonight.” Tammy said as she closed the door.

Hannah paused in buttoning her red shirt and looked at her, “It’s fine other than the fact that I'm not supposed to see my subordinate, oh and no one other than you even knows I like girls! But it's fine, I'm just going to get fired or transferred to Siberia, it fine, you know except I hate the cold, my daughter is here, your here, and I'm exhausted all the time now.”

“Wow I think that's the most words I've ever heard you say at once,” Tammy said as she slid closer to Hannah “now should I kiss you to make up for all this, see if I can get you out of your jeans.” And pulled Hannah against her both arms looping around Hannah's waist.

Hannah laughed, “Sure, let’s see what you can do,” one hand coming up to rest on Tammy’s face the other sliding around Tammy's back then Hannah's phone began blaring and she groaned in response.

She turned to look for it. Finding it under her shirt from the day before she scooped it up.

“Hey Lasalle, what do we got?” She chirped and heard the Alabama accent chatter, nodding.

“All right call Loretta have her meet us there, no I'm near their house I'll stop and pick them up. Ok see you there.” Hanging up the phone.

She turned to Tammy “So let's put these plans on hold, double murder of two sailors.” She said as she gave Tammy one last kiss. Then moving to finish getting ready “Tell Sebastian please.”

---

“Right what do we have Loretta?” Tammy asked.

“We have petty officer third class Regan Clark and petty officer first class Damon Sims both served on the Chinook, both were found this morning, Regan was stabbed in the neck, but Damon well.. Christopher will you help me?” Loretta asked, pointing at the corpse.

“Oh course Ms. Loretta” as they turned the body over on the ground.

Tammy noticed Hannah's face turn almost as she clamped one hand over her mouth the other over her stomach. A wave of shock rushed through Tammy as she watched Hannah's reaction. Hannah hadn't been bothered a bit by the shrimp boat case, where the body had been bloated by the ocean, but this one while bad wasn't nearly on the same level of smell.

“He has been sliced into to spell out, from six to one the spell is spun, no time to run, the curse begun and some kind of symbol I’ll know more once I get them back to autopsy.” Loretta commented, scribbling on her notepad.

“Okay what curse?” Tammy asked looking down at the body.

“This is New Orleans, this city was built on curses” Hannah said, having managed to swallow her nausea.

“Yeah there a ton of them, wait how do you know that you've only been here about five months.” Chris said as he looked up from photographing the body.

“I've got a degree in history, I like it so when I moved here I studied up on it, but my master’s thesis was on New Orleans history.” Hannah replied.

“Okay Tammy, Chris deep dive the victims, I’ll call their COs see if they were working on anything worth killing over, Sebastian.” Hannah said, giving the orders.

“Heading to the lab.” Sebastian replied.

“Great. Anything you get us can help us get this guy really look into that symbol as well I think I recognize it and if I'm right, I have a sinking suspicion that he's not done yet.”

Upon arriving at headquarters, Hannah went straight to the bathroom, having had to try very hard not to throw up while in the car with Tammy, she expelled what she was fairly certain was the contents of her entire stomach, noting that she seemed slightly bloated. But she stood slowly and washed her mouth out, heading back in to the bullpen, ignoring the fact that both Tammy and Chris were giving her concerned looks, pulling up the Chinook’s list.

She discovered they worked under Senior Chief Petty Officer James Shal, calling his number she discovered that the officers had been on shore leave and were rumored to be dating, but that Clark had a ex that she had been trying to seek a restraining order against, but neither had any type of security clearance, Clark was a culinary specialist, and Sims worked radio.

Chris glanced over at Tammy and she nodded, she was ready to present, but when he looked over at Hannah he thought she looked like she was asleep so he walked over towards her desk.

“Boss, you ready for us to present? Hannah?” He tapped on her desk and she jerked, waking up from where her head had been resting in her hand.

“Yeah, go for it.” She said as she blinked several times to wake herself up.

Chris lifted the remote “Petty officer first class Damon Sims age 30, no money troubles, not much a personal life, joined the navy when he was 18. He is interested in treasure in particular anything to do with the so called, ‘Crystal Cove.’”

Tammy grabbed the remote from him, “Petty officer third class Regan Clark, age 25, up until recently was in fairly deep debt but made several big payoffs, has an ex that lives in the city. Joined the navy only 2 years ago, seems to have no hobbies, nothing at all even connecting her to Sims.”

“Well that is not quite true,” Hannah said as she leaned over her desk, one hand dropping over her abdomen and running lightly over it, “According to their CO, neither were on any kind of classified assignment, Clark worked as a culinary specialist and Sims worked radio. They were on shore leave together and were rumored to be seeing each other. As for Clark’s ex, she tried and failed to get a restraining order against him. Gregorio look into why.”

“Chris, I want you to go to the morgue and check in with Sebastian, help him with the symbol, concentrate on pirates that may have connections to the Crystal Cove. I'll look into the legend here. I’ll be back in a minute.” Hannah said as she rushed towards the bathroom.

Tammy looked over at Chris, “She seem okay to you?”

“Not one bit, keep an eye on her Gregorio.” Chris replied as he grabbed his keys before going to the SUV for a visit to the JPSO for results.

“Always, you know that.” Tammy said as she turned to look towards where Hannah had disappeared.

----

Chris walked down the hall and turned into the morgue, “Alright Ms. Loretta, tell me what do we got here.”

“Well like I said at the crime scene, Ms. Clark’s, cause of death was a stab wound on the throat. The killer severed both of her carotid arteries, she would have died nearly instantaneously.” Wade explained, circling around the table where the corpse laid on.

“While Mr. Sims, well he died very slowly, the wounds on his back where likely caused by a very sharp straight blade, and he was tortured before his death, he was punched repeatedly in the abdomen, there was blood in his stomach.” Wade said gesturing towards the next table, “He has three broken ribs, and seven of his fingernails were ripped out very close to the time of death, the final cause of death was exsanguination, the symbol and words on his back were done pre mortem.”  

“This killer wanted to cause pain to this young man.” Wade sighed, putting a hand on her hip.

“Alright thank you. Do ya know if Sebastian is done?”

“Yes and I found something very interesting” Sebastian said as he burst into the morgue.

“Alright, what is it?”

“Quartz dust. But not from any known mines in this area, this is different. It’s also been worked.”

“Well how can you know that?” Chris asked with a quirked brow at him.

“Trace minerals but old ones, lead and sulfur.”

“Meaning” Chris pulled out the word, lowering his head.

“This is old quartz, like Spanish conquistadors. Old.”

---

Chris and Sebastian walked in “We've got a problem. The quartz dust is old, really old.” Sebastian announced.

“That makes sense,” Hannah said as she looked up “everything I can find on this Crystal Cove, says it was created by Spanish conquistadors to protect what they thought was the fountain of youth. They landed here to collect supplies and then were planning on sailing back to Spain, but then a hurricane came and hit so they built the cave to protect their loot, a crystal fountain and other crystal pieces they collected.”

“That’s-that’s accurate.” Sebastian’s jaw dropped with astonishment, nodding slowly.  

“It's rumored to be worth over 10 million dollars.” Hannah continued as she blinked out of a dizzy spell.

Sebastian noticed that she was still shaking, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I'm fine just stood up too fast.” Hannah replied, before turning to Tammy.

“Gregorio you got anything on this ex of Clark’s?

“No nothing, I've got what might be a first name Adam, but I can't find anything else, Patton’s running one of his searches and is diving into her records. But I did find this, she's been making a lot of calls to various unknown numbers, Patton is looking at them but my guess is burners. She's also been making payments to some company called Fire Dive, and Wreckage, can't find anything on them, but look who owns it, David Finch.” Gregorio said.

“Okay maybe it's because I'm still new to New Orleans but who's David Finch?” Hannah asked.

Chris grabbed the remote and clicked it over “Only one of the biggest mob boss in the city, he has a finger in every pie, and nothing ever links back to him.”

“Alright, let’s deep dive the company and the employees, if we can. Sebastian I want you to try and narrow down the dust as much as you can, anything that will tells us where it might be from. Lasalle look into why Sims was wanting to find the crystal. Gregorio have you found anything on who Clark was in debt to?”

Tammy shook her head.

“You said that she had recently done several payments that didn't back up to her salary right? Let's look at why.” Hannah said as she leaned back in her chair.

As they hit yet another wall, Hannah still fighting to keep her eyes open, looked at her watch “Okay, I don't think we're going to get any further information tonight, let's all go home, and reconvene in the morning, hopefully Patton’s dives into the company and some of the phone scans will be done.” As she pushed up from her desk she felt the world spin and only her tight grip on the desk kept her from falling.

Seeing Tammy glance towards her she shook her head, she needed to be alone tonight. As she made it into her car, and pulled her phone to check to see if Naomi had texted her about her dance program she saw the date and the blood drained from her face.

Her symptoms, the nausea, the exhaustion, even the random bouts of hunger and the dizzy spells, and now the fact that she was late for the second time.

She carefully drove towards her apartment stopping only at the CVS down the street walking in and not looking at anyone she went to an aisle and picked up a single box, one she hadn't bought in almost 5 years checking out she paid in cash not wanting a record of this, finally arriving back in her apartment.

She dropped her bag and jacket over the table, clutching the box though the bag, heading towards to the bathroom. With a shaking hand she slid a single package out and took it.

Five minutes later, she flipped it over, not sure what she wanted the test to say.

But her heart sank just a little when she saw the screen. A pair of blue lines in it, confirming her suspicions that she was pregnant.  

[levi-ish]

Breakfast and Runaways | 2

Summary: After a big night out, you find yourself in a complicated scenario; laying on a strangers bed.

Pairing: Tom Holland X Reader

Warnings: Mentions of sex, language.

A/N: Hi there, since you guys asked too much about a second part, I decided to turn this into a small series, and I’m also opening a tag list. If you want to become a part of that, let me know.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]

Masterlist

You stared at the man right in front of you with eyes wide open, not daring to blink or look down, even though it was such a temptation — I mean, have you seen that V-line? 

“Actually” you shifted the weight of your body to the other leg, trying to lean into the wall in a cooler way, almost falling and regaining your composure immediately. “I’m in a rush right now.”

“Really?” The man arched one of his eyebrows and smirked slightly, being cooler than you without even trying. He must have been drunk as fuck to sleep with me, right?!

“Yeah! Totally!” You snapped and looked away, your focus being painfully placed anywhere far from his sweatpants, or abs, or jaw, or him. “And if you could give me my phone back, I would be thankful.”

Even without looking at him, you could feel his gaze burning into you, making you remember flashes from last night and the same sensation of interlaced fingers while your bodies melted into one, being molded from the start to the end, not like a race, but like the warm feeling of being blessed with covers in a warm night — with the exception being that he was your cover that night. 

“I have a better idea.” His back now found the door frame and he crossed his arms, covering part of those abs (and you thanked him for that). “I’m in a rush right now, so what do you say about a dinner tonight?”

Again, your eyes widened at his suggestion, accentuated by his raspy-voice. “W-What?”

“A dinner, love. Haven’t you ever heard of those?” He grinned at you, making you feel even more ashamed than before. “Since you don’t want breakfast, I can cook you another meal.”

It wasn’t that you didn’t want to go out with him — you could assure anybody that it wasn’t a problem, at all — but the fact that you slept with that guy one night after meeting him in a bar was getting on your way. You always felt like you had to meet people you wanted to date on places where you could talk about each other, the same old getting to know you shit, make jokes or even fall at silence for a bit, just enjoying each others company. 

And with Tom was different, since you met him in a bar, drank three cocktails and were attacking each others mouths without a second thought. 

“I-I have work almost every night, and— “

“Almost.” He interrupted you.

“What?”

“You said almost.”

You rolled your eyes and bit on your lower lip. “—The nights I don’t work I use to study for...”

“College, you already told me.” He smirked again, showing those pearl-whites while exhibiting the expression of pure sass. “Also, you told me that you are always free on Mondays since your boss hates them.”

Fuck my drunk self. 

“Why do you want to go out with me so badly?” You asked, slapping yourself mentally. Really?

The man took a minute to analyze you. You followed those brown orbs going from your hips, where his fingers touch still feel like burning, to your chest, where his mouth explored every inch, worshiping your skin with so much passion, to your lips, where his attacked without even thinking of the consequences, and, then, he stepped closer, turning the gap between you almost non-existent. 

Now, your faces were so close to each other that you felt his breath fanning over your lips in a slight motion, warming your cheeks and making your heart feel like falling from your chest. You didn’t dare to look him in the eyes, because you knew that, that way, he could see into you and get into your mind, controlling your thoughts, not only your body. 

“Tomorrow, at eight. Dress nice.” He whispered and your eyes fell to his lips, moving so slow that you had to hold yourself from attacking them.

You can’t let him win this round.

With a quick sight, you regain your composure and stood as tall as you could, showing him confidence in every inch of your body and movements you made. Crossing your arms over your chest, you arched one of your eyebrows and licked your lips slowly. Two can play this game. 

“What if I don’t show up?”

He got a little closer, knowing what you were doing. “Then you’ll have to wait and see.”

Without any addiction, the man put your cellphone on your hand, stepped back and closed the door behind him, leaving you all alone in the hallway. What the fuck was that?

“He sounds dreamy.” Ceci sipped on her mug while closing her eyes.

Your threw your legs in the air, letting them hang against the counter and balancing your weight between your arms. The look you gave the girl was harsh, but, yet, she didn’t care. “Did you listen to everything I just say?”  

“You talk too much, I just chose which part I wanted to hear and started to think about the assignments I haven’t done yet.” You kicked the girl playfully and joined her into giggling. 

“I’m serious! I don’t now what to do.”

“Maybe go out with him. You have already seen him naked, so what’s the problem?” She put her mug down, staring at you while licking away the coffee that stained her upper lip. 

“That’s the problem. Every time I look at him I remember him being naked.” 

“I’m just saying that it’s not a problem to go out with him when you have already been on him.”

“Remind me again why we are friends.” You jumped off the counter and rolled your eyes with full force.

“Because you love me and you know I’m right” she smiled and left the room to wash the mug. 

You wouldn’t admit, but she was actually right. You didn’t have to worry so much, and still, there you were, thinking about everything and every detail, even knowing that it wasn’t necessary. So what? You guys slept together. Be a grown up and deal with it. You felt like a teenager all over again, and now, your face was red from all the slapping-yourself-mentally. It was almost eight pm and you were still in your pajamas, arguing with yourself whether you would go out with Tom or not. 

Until adrenaline rushed into your veins and you went to your bathroom, showering quickly, deciding that you would go. And that was final. 

Dress nice. You reminded his words and smirked to yourself. Honey, you don’t know what’s coming for you.

You found your burgundy dress hidden in your closet, put on the last hanger since you never used that — since you preferred the sweats on daily basis. You paired that up with your black knee boots. You blow-dried your hair quickly and let it loose over your shoulders, putting only a small bit of makeup and picking up your handbag and your black button overcoat. 

You only forgot a small fact that could change everything; you didn’t know his address.

Looking over your cellphone, you decided to see if you could find anything about the guy, anything that you might have added while drunk; and you found something, but it wasn’t added by you, since he put his contact with the name “Booty call patrol (Tom)”. Rolling your eyes, you clicked on the icon and texted him asking for his address. In a minute, he texted back, and you inhaled deeply, grabbing your car keys.

When you had passed through the elevator, you found his apartment door and knocked twice, waiting while fiddling with your fingers nervously, trying not to think too much about it. 

You heard noise inside the door and furrowed your brows, trying to figure out what might have happened in there, until the figure of Tom appeared right in front of you. A gasp escaped from your mouth instantly.

Tom was wearing a long sleeved maroon button-up shirt with black trousers and boots. His hair was gelled back and a rebel strand of hair hung around his forehead — it could be used as a metaphor; he was the forehead and you were the strand of hair who didn’t want to stay away from him.

“You look marvelous, love” again with the pet name that made you almost melt in place. 

“Thanks” you twitched your lips, trying to shape them into a small smile. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”

He giggled lightly, his voice sounding as soft as silk. The man offered a hand. “Shall we?”

You nodded and took it, being guided by him into the apartment you were in such a hurry to get out two days before. Tom turned you around and his hands hooked around your coat collar, slightly touching the skin on your neck, making chills run down your spine. 

He walked over a coat rack and hung the coat there, turning around again while sliding his hands down his shirt in an attempt of adjusting it. 

“Since you are a little early, dinner is not finished yet” he said and pointed the counter behind him. “Could you wait for a bit, darling?”

“Sure” you said and sat down on a red stool, resting your elbows over the marble surface on the counter. “Do you need help? I’m not a good cook, but I can chop some veggies.”

“Don’t worry, (Y/N). Tonight i’ll take care of everything.”

“Are you sure you don’t need me to do anything?” You asked again, trying to use the manners you were taught to. 

“Perhaps do me?” He turned around and smirked, making you blush immediately. “I’m kidding, love. Do you want wine?”

You froze for a few seconds, clenching your tights together to relieve some friction while you were almost screaming and running away again. You only knew this man for two days and he already had a spell on you.

“S-Sure.” You nodded and he picked up two glasses from the cabinet and a bottle of wine from the small cellar, checking on it and opening quickly.

“Do you know that Pinot Noir has aphrodisiac properties?” His eyes were focused on the liquid pouring from the bottle to the glass, fulfilling it in such a quick yet satisfying motion. 

After that, he lifted up his glass and you did the same, offering you a toast, and you did, sipping on the wine right away. 

“So... what do you do?” You asked him, lowering your glass. 

The man shifted his posture and inclined his head a bit. “What do you mean?”

“Work and stuff. You know a whole lot about me but I don’t know anything about you.”

He furrowed his brows. “You don’t know me?”

“Should I?”

“Actually, I—”

Before he could say anything, you heard a noise approaching you, similar to a...

“A dog!” You jumped off the stool and kneeled on the floor, petting the dog on it’s head and playing with it’s tummy when she turned around. “What’s her name?”

“Oh, this is my princess, Tessa” he answered while kneeling right next to you, caressing the dog’s fur. “For what I can see, she likes you.” 

“I love dogs” you told him and your eyes left Tessa to find Tom’s brown ones.

You could see a lot in those eyes — what he was feeling, trying to say or not saying anything at all — just by analyzing carefully. You felt like you were naked again, but not in a carnal way, but in a way that you could see his soul, not hiding underneath layers of concealment. 

He smiled at you. Now, it wasn’t another smirk, like the ones before, but it was a nice and innocent smile. Just like the ones you used to wear whenever you felt that something was right.

What you didn’t know, was that Tom was thinking the same thing.

TAGLIST:  @yxxnjae @penisprkr @thegirlofgardenias @fesslasuisse @imhereforthewaffles

[blizzardfluffykpop]

Young K X Reader

So your a Gryffindor and he’s a Slytherin

In another time it would be unacceptable because of that Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry like the North/South in America back then and now it’s acceptable

And it didn’t really matter to you if it wasn’t acceptable you still would have tried to like him nonetheless

Guess what you do like him no matter what he does, even if he acts like a brat so you and that other Gryffindor call him Brian when he does so, and you started doing it on purpose acting like it was a slip off. Because honestly he was so hot when he was angry at it. You wouldn’t admit out loud but you can’t deny me thinking that is one of the hottest thing he does

The first night you ever interacted was because you had just joined the group and everyone is into doing dares on the weekend and you were perfectly fine with that, so that night, Friday you were all talking and then someone showed you, your dare.

What kind you ask? A very fun kind... One where you had to kiss Young-hyun, at that time you didn’t even know who he was until you asked your buddy in Gryffindor and she tells you it’s the one who you thought was really hot that first time, and your like, ‘I have to kiss him’ she’s like if you don’t want kiss him we can assign it to someone else, and your like no that’s not it...And she’s like *wiggles eyebrows* Ohhh? and you just glare at her and shove her slightly. You put the slip of paper into your back pocket drop down in front of him and put your hand under his chin and kiss him

No it wasn’t that kind of kiss where you see sparks it more like that awkward kiss that your like, ‘oooh... that’s what a kiss is...’ no you weren’t a first year but a second year and he was a third year so it was just odd that you gotten in so late but you wanted to focus on studying anyways.

You both move from each other a blush evident on our cheeks

And that’s really all that happened for about a month

Neither of you talked about it, seeing as there was nothing really talk about, but your ever growing crush on him that pissed you off to no end that you developed a crush over someone that you kissed once, and it’s no longer only physical attraction but also emotional attraction. Like his personality was so great

That’s when your gryfindor best friend that you had made that day tells you about ‘Brian’ and you’re like who is that? And she’s like, ‘your crush’ ‘pfft like I have a crush’ and they just give you a side glare and that’s how it started again

You started calling him, ‘Brian’ and he started calling you, ‘Dork’ and you weren’t going to deny it but one of these days when you develop confidence your going to be like, ‘but I’m not just any dork’ and he’ll be like, ‘what’ and you’ll be like, ‘I’m your dork’ and everything will fall into place, right?

No not really because it was 3rd year and he’s a 4th year and he said ‘dork’ to you after you called him ‘Brian’ and you said, ‘I’m not just any dork’ and he’s like, ‘yeah, your a big dork’ and wow did you kick yourself over that for about a week

Your poor pillow was abused to no end due to like those dream and also punching it. The dream where you just droll all over that thing and you were like, ‘eww’ you wouldn’t believe how many times that Gryffindor took pictures and sent them to the group, ‘like look at this disgusting dork’ now you didn’t mind it as much when others called you dork because your like I am a dork what am I to hide it, but when Young K does it just pushes your buttons to no ends like why can’t he just like me instead of calling me a dork and acting all buddy buddy with me... I just wanna date him

That really was where you were just like, ‘come on you have to be kidding me’ if you were one of those people who believed that love potions don’t hurt anyone except it hurts both sides of the part because you have to force someone to fall in love with you and then the person never really loves you or that the person is only going under this and it’s really just hurting their system and desensitizing them to love. Love potions are just hazardous and you do your best to avoid them. Even when you go into ‘Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes’ the twins are such a pair (okay I don’t care what you think Fred was one of my favorite characters and J.K can suck it because he’s alive) they act like the brothers you never had and you loved it.

Really every time you enter the shop their just like, ‘how’s my favorite little prankster’ okay you would be lying if you didn’t pull pranks. That was just you, poor Longbottom good thing he’s able to take a joke. And doesn’t deduct your points or grade as long as you clean up the room. Minerva doesn’t mind a joke but will deduct your points for your house even though she’s the head of the house and wants Gryfindor to win. But with you in the house it take twice as much work to keep the points steady... That just means, you having to get the highest grades in the class to make up for it.

Seriously, you are an over achiever even getting extra credit when you don’t need it so, your pranks don’t do your house in. After all, you need to win the house cup

You’ve pulled one or two pranks... okay really understatement... Let’s just say April Fool’s is your favorite holiday besides Halloween. And one year-- your now in 4th year--you didn’t pull any pranks on April Fools in the 3rd year and everyone was on edge when you finally pulled it a week later giving everyone a relief and a heart attack at the same time to be honest.

If you could count how many times you’ve pulled a prank on Young K you would need a calculator because there is not enough fingers or toes for this, it’s just that many...

Maybe it was because you liked him? You would deny that to yourself even though you were sure you liked him.

You’ve been plotting this prank for about a month, getting everyone in on it, meaning the teachers. Needless to say the prank is simple, but it’s not noticeable at first, being as a star student and a prankster, the teachers like you, but Minerva asked since she never seen the prank done, she could get all the teachers in on it, and it will be the greatest, Hogwarts has ever seen. Exception to Fred and George’s leaving to start Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes.

We will have changed all the classrooms by tomorrow morning, and people will head to class as usual, except, when they get there they will find something very different...

What once was Transfiguration room is now the defense of dark arts room, what once was the defense of the dark arts room is now the charms room, what once was the charms room is now the arithmetic room, and so and so on.

All the professors will be in their room, of that period

Everyone will think they have it figured out, that they have phones that they text people, but every period it will change, the last period before dinner, the end of the day essentially will be placed in the original classroom.

How will the professor’s pull it off you ask? They have floo powder and an opening and they already have the place where the are going, by word of mouth from mine to Minerva. We even got good ol’ Filch in on it, against his will, he already hates the students its more of, he especially can’t give them directions day.

The thing is the whole group is thinking I’m only doing a little prank, for Merlin’s sake, which  just because it’s my 4th doesn’t mean I should make it anymore light should I?

I have a simple classy prank of dying everyone’s hair a sickly color, that doesn’t look good on them, like me will be receiving Neon green, black and pink, which modified into a spell will have neon green, black stripes, and pastel (so they clash) pink polka dots. Everyone will be receiving a different treatment being as I was dared by a Hufflepuff named Dowoon, and I’m going to make his sickly too don’t worry. To get everyone’s hair charmed ugly colors.

To make sure no one will expect it right I know you don’t really get what I mean by saying I will be receiving that, and Brian won’t? Well, it’s because revenge is sickly, and I’m going to make sure everyone in the whole school thinks he’s the culprit, oh and do you think I left the professors out on this one? No, I asked Minerva to make everyone wigs, charmed for tomorrow to be different raunchy colors.

Why am I blaming it on Brian? Let’s just say last year in 3rd year he blamed me for a terrible prank that had people coughing up bugs for 4 days, gross right? I was one of them, the rest of the group wasn’t making me seem suspicious, not this time buddy oh boy.

I’ll take credit for the big prank with teachers, but not this little one. The poor group, my best friend found out that I was doing it and brought some hair dye to school, she doesn’t know about the big prank. But I do.

It ended up being a riot, where people literally gave up and went outside and sat on the lawn, busying themselves, except when they were shooed to get to class by Filch

Whilst I was glared at for, being the cause of his turmoil of the day

I get to dinner and everyone is mumbling about the big prank, when I get up on the Gryfindor table and announce that I was the cause

And that’s when Brian yells, “NO! I WAS!”

We started literally fighting over it

Both of us knowing I was, but no one else exception to Filch and the professors knew. (giggling like the little kids they are)

When Minerva gets up as headmaster and says, “Settle down... Now, can you please talk it out who did it outside, people are trying to have a lovely dinner, children.” I scowl and I mutter something like, “traitors” knowing full-well she heard me.

We get out there and I’m ready to fite, like I know I was the one, who did and I’m about to spew about how all my hard work has just been thrown away because he decides that he is the one that is-

When that’s not what happens at all I feel myself pushed towards the brick wall, his lips smacking against mine, I was in shock, I slowly wrap my arms around his neck, as I kiss him back

That’s when I hear hoots and whistles I pull away and shy into my robe, great these raunchy colors will not help me blend at all, so I decide to pull my hood up and shove my face into his sweatshirt when I hear an incantion being muttered under his breath and I look up to see my hair back to normal and his the color I dyed mine, I laugh

“So who did the big prank”

Brian answers, “She did both-”

“I’ll let you take some credit, for making this bigger than it was-”

“And I take some credit” he laughs and kisses my forehead

“You two a thing?” I hear Minerva ask from the back

I nod up at Brian, “I guess we are-”

“Officially? Thank Merlin, I couldn’t live without kissing you for another day” With that he places a swift kiss on my lips, grinning from ear to ear.

[ekebolou]

New Book: Chapter Twelve

I’M STILL SORRY

But also, not going to leave you on that chapter.  Here’s the next.

Prelude

Chapter One

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Thirteen

It turned out there were things to enjoy about the sea. 

Rev was perched near the very top of the tallest mast (the main), feet balanced across the short beams that spread horizontally around the point where the next-highest mast began (the crosstrees).  A sailor fluent in Sivery, and taken more with Rev’s enthusiasm than with Rev, had told him he was perched in the ‘main t’gallant crosstrees.’  That sailor also told him that he was under no circumstances to climb a mast up, and thereby put himself on the ‘main royal crosstrees.’ That was just for real sailors, he said, but he said it with the somewhat disbelieving scowl that Rev knew indicated the sailor had already resigned himself to the fact that it was only a matter of time before Rev did it anyway.

It was glorious.  The wind whipped around him, pushing and swirling like it was the living thing legends said it was – only rather than the breath of some bastard-god, it was like a great bounding puppy, a hound too big for heeling.  So high up, the gentle sway of the ship was a precarious rocking, always leaning as if the ship wanted to keep Rev warned there was water down below.  For the first time in days, he could hardly hear the water. 

He hadn’t noticed that the first few times he’d gone up, but then again, the first few times, he hadn’t gone so high, and always had either Anik or Thespasian beside him, feeding him translations of the signal flags.

“Donkey,” Thespasian shouted, fighting the wind whipping his voice away.  “What does Jatin say?”

Thespasian had started calling Rev that in moments of extreme peevishness.  Rev didn’t mind, as he usually drove Thespasin into those moments just for entertainment.  He’d learned all sorts of new Baathian insults.

Jatin was in charge of the division responsible for the majority of the Baathian artillery.  Rev swung his spyglass up (he was getting good at this, whipping it about in a neat arc that both brought it to his eye and caused it to extend.  Thespasian hated it – he said Rev was going to dislodge the lenses – but it made Anik laugh).  Jatin’s ship was a great cow, waddling somewhat behind them, and tacking awkwardly around the paths of the other ships.  The sailors tended to make jokes about Jatin’s ship that Rev didn’t understand (not that he was supposed to understand anything). 

She was last found three points abaft the starboard quarter; she’d gained some, now three points abaft the beam (Rev’s uncle hadn’t had any such fun terminology).  Rev mouthed the meanings of the flags strung up her masts as he read them.

“Jatin is bringing croutons to your salad party.”

“Siveric ass.”

Rev grinned, not that anyone could see it.  “Jatin says the landing point will do, provided his fat cow of a ship can get to it without scraping her ass off.”

“...Rev.”

“No, really,” Rev glanced down to the fighting top, where Thes stood and peered up at him.  “If you read all the flags he hung over the side of the ship, that’s what it says.  He had to spell out things like ‘cow’ and ‘ass.’”

He could see Thes consider, then shrug in acquiescence. 

“I might like Jatin,” Rev called, laughing like a gull.  “That’d be a shame.”

“Sadly, yes, you would, probably,” he shouted up.  “I suppose that’s it until we anchor.  Does Bohdan have any last words?”

Rev grinned to himself at the phrase, but brought up his spyglass to search.  Bohdan was in a fancy yacht that had been piddling back and forth across the fleet for days.  It was well capable of outstripping the whole of them, and jogged back and forth as they raced ahead of the others, then slowed to allow them to catch up.  The sailors must hate it.  Bohdan’s yacht was... four points off the port bow.

“He says something stupid about liberty and fidelity and glorious fate.”

“Rev.”

But Rev wasn’t in the mood for translating that.  He ignored Thes, brought the glass down, and breathed in the whipping wind.  He felt best here; coming down was terrible. Luckily, Anik had provided many excuses for him to be here.  Learning signal flags was Anik's idea – and he insisted Rev do it for him, to the annoyance of both the Admiral and all the avid young nobles, aboard to learn the naval arts.  To their fury he beat all but the most adept young nobles in speed eight out of ten messages.  It depended on if Thespasian could keep Rev's attention focused on the flags.

Fortunately, this time, his wandering attention mattered little.  It’d been hours going through this conversation, as each suggestion for deployment Anik had made (and Rev had helped with) had to be checked with captains, navigators and subordinates at every level, for all seven other officers. A few were doubled up in their ships, but not all.  They’d created the relay up the masts, specifically because Anik had to be down with his maps and plans to respond to any concerns or adjustments necessary. Other sailors, higher up, tediously manipulated the flags in response themselves.  The watch had changed while they’d been up. 

Rev clung to the mast and wondered if this was Anik’s sly way of keeping him away from the Admiral. Something in him wasn’t sure Anik even knew, though another part argued that this was ridiculous – not the way he had run, not the way he had responded, not the way Anik and the Admiral’s already chilly relationship had turned decidedly hot and tense.  (They at no more dinners together; Anik would in the gentlest and most professional tones tell the stewardess the different ways the Admiral could otherwise entertain himself than with their company, and it usually involved body parts and various kinds of shit.  Rev had learned from Thespasian that it was the fashion when Anik young to have an elaborate tie on one’s sword holding it to the scabbard, as an indication of good will, so now Rev had some explanation for why Anik was always rather obviously untying it when the Admiral approached).

The truth of it was that part of Rev didn’t want him to know, and this part felt that so strongly it neither slept nor ate nor entertained any other thought.  But he had to know.  What difference did it make? the other part of Rev responded.  This was not the first time you’ve been whored. It was probably not the last. Only a fool wouldn’t see it.  

He was a soldier, though. Right now – again – he was a soldier, working for his officer.

It hardly mattered, anyway, what the reason was.  Rev got to go up high in the masts and dick around.

It made him smile.

Mimicking the sailors he’d watched for the last few days, Rev slithered and swung his precarious way down the fighting top.  The wind was cut a little a little more by sails and ropes here.  The edge of the water’s noise reached his ears.  Thumps and shouts went from distant echoes to almost discernible commands and meaningful signals.  There was a heaviness to the solid wood beneath his feet. He glanced down over the edge, seeing the deck beneath resolve into something with life and detail.

“Dear gods above, don’t do that,” Thespasian grumbled, then he prodded Rev hard in the shoulder (not towards the edge, though).

“Dear gods above, the thing is don’ting,” Rev repeated in Baathian.

Thespasian had done that in one of their first lessons – prodded him so to get him to translate whatever Thes had commanded.  Rev had started to prod him back; Thes had thrown him to the deck so hard he’d spent the rest of the lesson re-learning how to breathe.  Rev respected this. 

“Your accent is horrible,” Thes grumbled, tucking his notepad into his pocket and heading for the lubber’s hole.  “You speak like you’ve got a mouthful of mincemeat.  And you’re still sliding your consonants together like globs of butter. You couldn’t enunciate a proper ‘r’ is your life depended upon it.  Have you even heard of the 'h'?”

Rev grinned as Thes descended, complaining the whole way, then threw himself over the futtock shrouds. He saw Thespasian glaring up at him from further below on the shrouds – but that was how the sailors did it, so that was how Rev was going to do it.

Anik, the Admiral, and several other officers were waiting for them on the deck.  Thespasian handed over his notepad.  It took him some moments to go over it; they had pretended to teach Rev letter-combinations so he could read them down to Thespasian, adding a level of translation to the notes while preserving the illusion he could communicate nothing sensible in Baathian.  Thespasian had thought this unnecessary, but Rev could see the effect in the great patience with which the other officers waited – they believed wholeheartedly.  As they waited, dozens of sailors, grumpy about their extended assignment, bundled down flags and gear with all manner of haste around them. 

The Admiral had eyes on Rev the moment he hit the deck.

Thumbing through the notepad, Anik was all business.  “It seems we are all in agreement.”  He stopped at the last message.  “What was Bohdan’s last word?”

“Trite,” Thespasian said.

Anik raised his brows; a few of the other army officers aboard stifled chuckles, while others looked scandalized.  Anik decided to let it go, though Rev could tell he found it just as amusing.

“There’s still the issue of no good disembarkation point for the horses aboard this ship,” Officer Shiny-Buttons said.  (Rev had never bothered to learn many of the officers’ names.  They would, for the most part, be dead soon anyway, he figured).

She hadn’t forgotten Rev’s insolence, but was at least not to be distracted from her actual duty by it. Still, she’d attempted once to beat Rev. Anik had looked at her in a pointed fashion, and she grew so embarrassed she stopped. 

Anik was very special.

“Aster will be fine,” Anik said.  “I’m sure the Admiral will assist in creating a crane after we anchor for the rest of you.”

The little flock of officers puffed concernedly with this, exchanging looks and wordless questions. Rev didn’t even know what Anik had planned, but he took his horse very seriously.

“Surely,” the Admiral said, in yet another demonstration of his odd amiability as they approached the final days aboard.  “If weather holds, we’ll make anchor just on schedule, shortly before dusk. If we’ve luck beyond that, there will no roaming nomads to spot the fleet; the two promontories should keep us admirably out of sight from any mapped outposts.”

“Thank you,” Anik replied, “that’s my hope as well; our landing point is so precise in part to keep the ships away from the fortress at Per-Wadjet; if we don’t arrive nearing dusk, or have the ill luck to be spotted by a patrol, the ships will be in range of the fortress’ guns well before ours can even reach the shoreline under it.”

Another one of the officers, who Rev called Ms. Epaulettes, laughed.  “It’s hard to imagine a land of savages would have such weaponry.”

Anik gave the officer a sharp look.  “It would be best to disabuse yourself of the notion this is ‘a land of savages.’ You were too young to participate in the Armistice, but even so – if it is a savage land, then a savage land breeds a resourceful people.  And we are intruders, unused to this ‘savage land’ of theirs.”  Anik glanced out over the horizon, hiding his misgivings in gravity.  “At best, we will be as savages here.”

That straightened them out. Rev almost smiled, but he wasn’t supposed to understand what was being said, so he made faces at the sailors instead. One was glancing back at him, smiling – he started demonstrating how to properly ‘belay’ a line around a pin when he noticed Rev looking.  Rev was sad he didn’t know their names, but that was because he wasn’t supposed to be associating with them, as a ‘valet.’  Perhaps the navy wasn’t so bad.

If only it weren’t on the ocean.

Anik brushed Rev’s shoulder with his, and Rev realized the meeting had broken up.  The Admiral was looking at him with that ill-behaved child look.  It had become familiar.

“General,” the Admiral said, as they turned towards the stern.  “Might I speak with you?”

“Certainly,” Anik said peacefully enough, though his hand rested on his sword hilt and the way his chin tilted down probably signaled to most people their impending doom. The Admiral, feigning conviviality, waved a hand as if brushing away a fly and chuckled. 

“Well, I suppose you can’t blame me for a final request.”

Anik could; everything about his stance proclaimed that he could, and did. 

“We’ll anchor tonight,” the Admiral said, perhaps not realizing he toyed with death, “after which is war.  Forgive me for my... sentimentality–” Rev knew the word for horniness, wondered why he didn’t just say it, “–but a man desires comfort in times like these, and we shall be long guarding the delta, hoping for the success of your army. Times will be deeply uncertain, and my morals prevent me from taking advantage of my subordinates.  My responsibility to them makes such a proposition unthinkable.”  He laughed, and Rev just watched Anik’s body grow tighter and tighter.  “Perhaps if I’d had your forethought, I wouldn’t be in so shameful a position, to plead for such a boon.”

“You have my answer, Admiral,” Anik said, voice even as a taught line, “it remains the same.”

“Ah,” the Admiral said, and stepped forward.  It was Rev’s turn to become tense, as he reached out.  The sudden scream in Rev’s mind to run was interrupted by the sound of steel sliding out of a sheath. 

Anik hadn’t drawn; only a few shiny steel inches showed, as if he were checking the polish.  The Admiral stopped his reach.

“I can see why you’re so particular,” he said, but continued in a voice much less amiable.  “I only hope you can satisfy one such as this.”

The Admiral rubbed his own chin with two fingers.  Using all his strength, Rev kept himself from backing away.

“I do my best,” Anik replied.  “We all go to war, though, and I’ll not part with Rev.  Not for a moment.”

The Admiral fixed him with an evaluative stare.  “We are allies,” he said, putting a weight to the word that spoke to the absence of the word ‘friends’.  “As you said, you go to a savage land, our men are ill-prepared for.  Your officer demonstrated that.  The sailors say that fish are more plentiful in these waters than we expected.  My previous offer stands.”

A deadly silence fell between them; Anik’s grip on his sword hilt tightened until his hand shook. 

“Admiral,” Anik said, voice strained only in that first word, smooth as cream after, “I’m afraid I still have work to do.  If you’ll excuse me.”

Anik glanced at Rev, brief and furious like a comet streaking through the sky.  As Rev turned to follow him, though, the Admiral reached out, seizing his wrist, yanking him back close enough to whisper in his ear.

“If you’ve no wish to die in the desert, my cabin holds more promises than mere satisfaction.”

It was over before Anik had turned back around, the Admiral stalking off in the opposite direction. Anik looked back, but Rev passed it off, jogging forward to join him as if he’d only fallen behind.  The blissful sound of the door shutting let him shudder the feeling of the Admiral’s grip away. 

Rev looked up from the deck, planning to make some gross remark, to see, he thought, Anik smile and cooly pass off what had just happened as inconsequential, as he had so many other things.  All he saw, however, was Anik’s back, hunched over the desk.  When he rose to face Rev, it was as if he were ablaze.

By instinct, when Anik stalked over to him, Rev nearly shielded his head – but this was Anik, he said to himself – this was Anik, yet the sheer magnitude of anger in him seemed to stretch beyond him, to make more of him than could fit in this tiny room.

He stopped short, the cold breeze he brought with him the more chilling in its opposition to the fury Rev saw him contain. 

“He will die, Rev,” Anik said, with perfectly articulated, liquid calm.

Rev stared up at him, not longer shrinking from being struck, but from sheer lack of comprehension.

Anik either didn’t notice – or perhaps couldn’t.  He seemed to be using all that he had to be still, and that all was considerable. Even then, he spent a moment looking down, straightening his jacket, before he met Rev’s eyes again. 

“He will,” Anik said, “and for that.”

Anik’s chill gaze searched his face, but inevitabilities such as he had just pronounced required no response. He certainly got none.  Rev still wasn’t sure where exactly he was, relative to his own body; his spirit had fled before the face of death only to be spared. Or something.  It certainly felt like the last time a cannon ball had bounced over his head. 

Anik turned back, to pick up his papers from the desk.  He started to array them on the floor.

Rev went to the bunk to sit, light-headed. 

“I wish we had better maps of the interior,” Anik muttered, as he’d muttered a thousand times before.

“Sivery does – if only I could remember them,” Rev replied.  Yes – this was easy.  Rev had a lot of practice.  It wasn’t wise to make a big deal of being close to death; death didn’t like gossip, and had sharp ears.  He could pack away everything else – what it meant, what Anik said, especially about what he knew – until there was time to think about it. 

Anik gave him a smile, sweet as the flowers that never saw frost.  “Nobody has a memory that strong, Rev; you only saw them once.”

“Still,” Rev muttered. Holy shit, Rev thought.  Anik was going to kill the Admiral.

“We’ll be fine without them, with a goal this spare,” Anik said, turning back to his papers.  “Let’s just hope we don’t get lost.”

“I can steer by the stars now,” Rev said, settling himself back into the bunk.  That was Anik mad – really mad, not just deeply annoyed or tired of Rev’s shit.  Really, honestly, furious.  “Just get me a backstaff.”

After a pause, Anik said, “I could get you the Admiral’s sextant.”

Rev chuckled, though he wasn’t sure why.  Maybe it was imagining Anik sneaking around like some schoolboy, stealing things from unattended satchels.  Maybe it was nerves, because holy shit, dead Admiral.  “Promise?”

He paused again, but he said, “I promise.”

It both sounded like a joke, and didn’t, but maybe that was only because Rev’s thoughts had so thoroughly turned.

Rev curled on the bunk like a cat, and watched Anik work.

Calm had returned.  Rev only now realized it could leave – or, maybe, only now realized how thoroughly it could leave.  Also, he only now realized how much he relied on that calm. Anik’s calm allowed him to pretend, to forget, to get away for a moment from the fact of his enslavement.  Facts of his enslavement.  More than one thing was true of that, and he was running as fast as he could from all of them every chance he got. 

So what was Anik running from?  The very idea that he would run astounded Rev.  It should have been a thought easily dismissed, but a lot of things that should have been seem to not have been anyway. 

Like Rev letting the Admiral corner him.  Like Rev letting the Admiral do all the things he had done to him.  Like Rev letting anyone do those things, when the Rev Anik had known would not even let people he wanted to fuck him do so. 

Rev would have let the Admiral fuck him, if he had gotten that far.

Maybe that’s what Anik ran from – maybe that’s why he wouldn’t crawl into the bunk with Rev tonight, as he hadn’t any other night so far.  Anik was confronting the notion that Rev – not the soldier he knew back at the Armistice, with his proud resistance – was now a very common sort of whore.  He would not even fight hard enough to keep a man as disgusting as the Admiral out of him. He had learned to bend, and had bent for many.

That sat well with the deep disgust Rev felt for himself, but Rev was surprised to find that it didn’t seem to satisfy him.  Maybe the sextant had been a quick lie, a joke, to comfort him after seeing such a display, but Anik’s anger had been true, and the anger Rev pulled into his chest and held there like a lover’s lingering warmth.  It was, at the moment, the closest he could get. 

Were Anik to offer, he would retreat from even his touch.  He didn’t want to; he relished a moment only yesterday when Anik had brushed against him reaching for something behind him.  Rev wanted it, even if he couldn’t stand it.  He wanted it.

And Rev hated that. Just seeing the Admiral make reference – it wasn’t even the right fingers – Rev wanted to peel the skin off his bones, as if that would help.  What was wrong, though, was not so shallow as skin.  What was wrong was deeper.  Something was wrong with Rev, and he knew what it was, but he could pretend he didn’t, when Anik was around.

But only when Anik seemed calm.  Only when he seemed somehow to have forgotten about the invasion, and Rev’s enslavement, and all the things that had happened both known and unknown between now and the Armistice. 

True, Rev had also explained the fact that Anik didn’t touch him by recognizing that he was busy, and his busy-ness had grown to encompass things Rev couldn’t help him with.  They worked together on the plans, but Anik had moved past troop positioning and Rev wasn’t much help with strategy.  That’s why he had been able to learn so much from Thespasian and the sailors.

In between, Anik taught him Felanese, and practiced Baathian, and answered his questions, and taught him letters, but they spoke of nothing else.  Not even the war.  Their discussions of troop positionings and attacking and defending the cities in Feland they had maps for were cold, sterile things: all theory.  Anik’s old defenses of liberty and just war didn’t seem to come up. Rev wasn’t himself enough to push him on it, as he used to – to make him defend his ideals, so easily stated and so fervently held. 

Rev was pretending, but Anik was pretending, too.  Maybe Anik was pretending because he was worried?

Felan would fuck them. They were all going to die.  He should be worried.

There was the sum of it: Anik wouldn’t fuck him, every other bastard would, and pretty soon they were all going to get fucked by a whole country.  It would have been funny, if Anik weren’t involved. 

Now, at least, he had some idea that something was wrong for Anik, too.  The new question was: did any of it matter, when they were all just going to die in the desert?

Not really.  But Anik mattered.  Not much mattered to Rev anymore, but Anik mattered, and Rev would find out what was bothering him. 

Rev felt his eyelids growing heavy, as long as that was settled.  He would fall asleep here, for at least a few moments, as his mind churned, and never even know if Anik came close to him.  It was probably a mercy.

When he fell asleep, Anik would still be working, and when he woke, Anik would be gone.

Chapter Thirteen

[longroadstonowhere]

SO

neo twewy

i was thinking about making this post earlier, but i was nearly on day seven and i was like ‘let’s see where the plot brings us first’ and then it was like three hours later and i might shouldn’t’ve stayed up this late

oh well

anyway

i fucking love this game

gameplay stuff first - it took me a little while to figure out how the battle system worked, but i’ve gotten into a decent groove where i basically assign each team member a button input, and i switch out their pins whenever i have a new one to level in that style of input, which has been working decently well for me (i hate time bomb psych pins but that’s just a me thing)

i like the rework on eating stuff, how it’s not entirely dissimilar to how twewy had it but it’s definitely also its own thing, and how it plays into the team dynamic stuff more, since you have to feed everyone on the team whenever you eat food - my wallet is less a fan of that aspect, but my wallet is not a fan of many things in this game thus far, haha (my virtual wallet, i mean, no microtransactions to be found here)

the social network stuff is also insanely cool - there were a lot of big and small connections you could make in the original game across the different weeks (like how the specialty food guy in the expensive store area was shooter’s grandfather), but the social network thing makes it way easier to track and gives really fun tidbits about all the random people in shibuya that you happen to interact with

which, you know, i think it’s time for me to make a cut here for spoiler reasons

SHIKI AND ERI MADE A BRAND AND THEY’RE SELLING SO MANY THINGS AND THEY HAVE MULTIPLE STORE FRONTS THEY’RE REALLY DOING IT AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

i fucking love that gatto nero (or however the brand is spelled) is such a huge thing now, and like one of the gatto nero shopkeepers apparently met them and was like inspired by them???? it’s so good, i’m so happy for them, and i’m extremely torn between wanting to see them again and just keeping it to hints like what i’ve seen so far

because honestly, the game is (by the beginning of week two at least) toeing a very nice line between ‘don’t make any references to old game so as not to alienate new players’ and ‘make all the references ever possible for the loyal fans’, where there’s obviously characters and events from the past game being referenced and utilized, and ‘where is neku’ seems to be a central mystery that we’ll be solving, but it’s also not ignoring rindo and his group, or just recycling the entire cast from last time, they’ve made soooooooo many new people to interact with and i love it

so intrigued by who swallow could be (i’m assuming mystery girl? but i just really want to know who mystery girl is, a question we’ve been asking for, what, seven or eight years now? i can’t even remember when that first teaser pic came out), and i’m thinking our savior at the end of week one wasn’t neku (hair seemed too light), but just now i’m thinking maybe it’s beat? the savior almost certainly has to be someone we met before, feels like the most dramatically appropriate thing to do, but who knows!

one of the interesting things contrasting this game with the last one is that in twewy, the game was getting replayed over and over because megumi literally didn’t have the authority to end it, so he had to make up excuse after excuse to roll the game for another round, whereas here it seems like the ruinbringers are rolling again and again for their own reasons (i bet uzuki’s glad she moved up the ladder before this disaster started, seems like the game’s been going on for over a year at this point)

i did find it interesting that kubo said the leader of the ruinbringers wasn’t actually there, so like, who is their leader? is suzukichi pulling everyone into this eternal loop because the leader is who he’s trying to find? and is his leader neku? (is swallow neku? is rindo neku? seriously neku where the fuck are you)

gods

i’m so excited to see where we go from here