#but at the same time... @ people who says she's wrong: [LOUD BUZZER NOISE]

[edelgards]

i think some ppl in the fandom don't actually understand the meaning of "morally grey"

[horansqueen]

You & Me : chapter 29

A Niall Horan fanfiction ; rated MA

Sequel to AM CONVERSATIONS

CHAPTER 1 || CHAPTER 2 || CHAPTER 3 || CHAPTER 4 || CHAPTER 5 || CHAPTER 6 || CHAPTER 7 || CHAPTER 8 || CHAPTER 9 || CHAPTER 10 || CHAPTER 11 || CHAPTER 12 || CHAPTER 13 || CHAPTER 14 || CHAPTER 15 || CHAPTER 16 || CHAPTER 17 || CHAPTER 18 || CHAPTER 19 || CHAPTER 20 || CHAPTER 21 || CHAPTER 22 || CHAPTER 23 || CHAPTER 24 || CHAPTER 25 || CHAPTER 26 || CHAPTER 27 || CHAPTER 28

NOTES:

-one chapter is her pov, the next is his. -4.8k -im sorry, i never proofread, i hate it. -there WILL be smut. but not only smut. -this is a romance, comedy, smut story. -for the summary, check my MASTERLIST.

- notes: id love your feedbacks now that theyre happy together and id love to know what you think will happen of what you want to happen so if you read these notes please tell me!

if you want to be on the list of blogs i notify when this is updated, just message me :)

requests! : 4 requests! :) thank you so much!

Chapter 29 : His chapter

NIALL

I kept glancing at her as I drove and I couldn't take that stupid smile off of my lips. Her hair was dancing around her head, sometimes tickling my arm, cheek and neck, and it didn't bother me at all. In fact, I enjoyed it. She put her hand out of the window as it moved in waves because of the wind and the speed of the car on the high way and I loved watching her. She was wearing her stupid heart shaped sunglasses but they were new because these had purple tinted glasses, unlike the pink ones she used to have, and the smell of honey and vanilla reached my nose from time to time. I loved it. I loved her. She looked stunning in the golden hour and despite everything we had been through, at that exact moment, I was so fucking happy I could start flying.

She reached for the volume when one of my songs came on and I laughed as she started singing loud. The smile she was wearing told me I was not the only happy person in this car and I started singing with her, tapping on the wheel as she moved her upper body with the music. When the song was over I felt her reach for my thigh and she squeezed it a bit before turning the volume down again and leaning back against the seat. I could feel her gaze on my side and I was wondering what was burning my skin more : her eyes, or the setting sun hitting on my other cheek?

"Was this song written for a specific one night stand or was it just general?"

"Slow Hands?" I asked, raising my eyebrows before chuckling. "Who says I didn't write it about you?"

"Pretty sure you wrote it when we were not together anymore." she said with a frown.

"No!" I quickly replied after trying to imitate the sound of a 'wrong answer' buzzer from a tv quiz. "I started it when we were together. I just didn't really plan to add it to the album but I ended up thinking that album needed a bit more grit, i wanted something a bit more.. daring?"

She raised her eyebrows as I exited the high way and replaced her hair quickly without much success. It was adorable and I loved it a lot but I didn't mention it.

"That's daring alright. Are you talking about your fingertips or mine?" she asked with a chuckle, making me laugh.

"You decide!"

She chuckled again and I could swear she also rolled her eyes but it was hard to see because of her sunglasses. I parked a bit farther on the road and her eyes left me to look by her window. She shook her head before looking back at me and smiling.

"What?"

"I don't know, I'm always amazed at the number of beaches we can drive by here." she shrugged. "I'm just not used to it."

"You like it?"

She licked her lips and shrugged a bit, glancing down and then looking up at me. "I guess, yea. But I miss London. All the time."

I moved my own glasses up on my head and she took hers off, tilting her head and sending me a soft smile. It was a stupid thought, but at that moment, I felt the need to say it.

"You can always find your home in me." I let out, reaching for her hands and squeezing them. "You're mine, too. You're my home."

Her traits softened and she slowly moved closer, holding herself with both hands on one of my thighs before her lips reached mine. She kissed me softly and I didn't try to deepen the kiss, I just enjoyed the way he lips pressed gently but firmly against mine.

"You're my home too." she whispered, letting her eyes fall down to my laps after moving slightly away. "Unzip your pants."

"Excuse me what?" I asked with a nervous chuckle.

"Unzip your pants." she repeated without skipping a beat.

"I parked here for a walk on the beach, not for.. whatever you had planned." I explained, raising my eyebrows.

"You're not gonna say no to a blowjob twice in a row will you?" she asked, losing her smile but I could still see how amused she was in her eyes. "I'm gonna start doubting my skills."

The left corner of my lips raised and I unzipped my pants, my eyes never leaving hers. Of course I was not going to say no but damn I just hoped we wouldn't get caught. Her lips curled into a big smile before she quickly bend down. It took her half a second to have her lips around my cock and my hand gripped the wheel tight as the leather made an annoying noise. I could feel myself grow hard fast and I whimpered low. She took my dick completely in her mouth and I let out a low 'Jesus Christ' when I felt her fingers play with my balls. I looked around to see if anyone was getting closer and finally blinked a few times, looking down at her head moving up and down on me. I pushed her hair out of the way to see her better and pressed my lips together, feeling one of my legs shake. She normally goes slow and makes sure I can feel her lips on my tip, under my foreskin and down to my balls but this time, she just went fast and hard, letting the tip of my cock hit the back of her throat every time she could. I gripped her hair and licked my lips before they parted.

"Don't move, I'm gonna cum."

Quickly, I moved my hips up and down, thrusting my cock in and out of her mouth fast and hard until my eyes closed and my grip tightened.

"Holy f-, swallow it." I whispered without thinking, only half a second before I felt myself cum hard in her mouth.

I pushed her more on my cock as I felt an intense orgasm hit me like a wave and when I let go of her head, she took my dick out of her mouth but let her tongue run on the length before moving down to my balls and sucking on one. I felt my cock twitch and let out a groan as I heard her chuckle.

I quickly put my cock back in my pants when she moved her head up and the smirk she was sending me made my heart skip a beat.

"You came so fast!" she laughed, making me grimace.

"Shut up! You went so hard on my cock how was I supposed not to cum?"

I could have delayed my orgasm but I didn't see the point, especially since we were in a public place, but I didn't mention it. Of course, it made me nervous to get caught, but at the same time, the thrill was amazing.

"Do you still want to go on the beach?" I suggested, trying to talk about something else, before she nodded.

We both got out of the car and I grabbed my cap, putting it on my head and reaching my hand out for hers. She looked at it for a few seconds and stopped walking before looking up in my eyes. Something stirred in my stomach when she shook her head slightly and my arm fell back on my side. Ouch.

"You just sucked my cock in the car but you don't want to hold my hand?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "No one will recognize us, no one cares!"

I didn't want to be rude but I couldn't pretend her behavior didn't hurt me a bit. I was normally the one who didn't want affection display in public whenever I was in a relationship but I never understood how the girls I dated could feel when I said that. Now, I had a good idea.

"I thought we... agreed that we would just.." she stopped herself and shook her head with a sigh. "I'm sorry Niall, i'm not ready for that, and you don't want that either. You hate PDA remember?"

My traits softened and I sighed, nodding slowly.

"I'm sorry, you're right, and I shouldn't have been so rude."

She licked her lips and after a few seconds, she followed me and we walked side by side on the beach with a small breeze against us. I kept glancing at her and after a while, I felt her fingers brush against mine.

"I love you, you know?" she said in a low tone, making me turn my head her way completely.

"I know, I love you too, I'm sorry, Olivia."

"I'm just.. I'm scared, Niall. Last time ended so badly, and now we're so happy. I don't want things to get bad after we make it official. I don't want what we have to vanish or even falter. I want this to last, and right now, it works, so, why risk it?"

I understood what she meant even if technically, it didn't really make sense, but I was pretty sure she knew that. I sat quickly in the sand, my knees up and holding myself with my elbows slightly behind myself, half laying down. She smiled and sat next to me in the same position, except she spread her legs out and crossed her ankles together. She was wearing soft black pants and her ridiculously dirty rainbow converse and I liked it without even knowing why.

"Okay, would you rather be always 10 minutes late or 20 minutes early?"

I raised my eyebrows and smiled slightly when I recognized the game. We used to always play that game when we were younger but as the years went by, the questions changed, and the answers too.

"20 minutes early, of course!" I frowned with a chuckle. "That was easy. Okay my turn. Would you rather have whatever you are thinking to appear above your head for everyone to see orrrrrr have absolutely everything you do live streamed for anyone to see?"

"That's an absolute shitty question." she complained. "Anything I think about appear above my head. That would imply a lot of people seeing your cock, though."

I let out a loud laughter and turned to her. "Are you thinking about my cock right now?"

"Of course!" she replied quickly. "Can't you see it above my head?"

We laughed together and she licked her lips.

"Mm, would you rather have edible spaghetti hair that regrows every night orrrr, sweat maple syrup."

I grimaced and shook my head. "This is horrible. Sweat maple syrup I guess."

"I guess I'd lick your armpits all the time, then." she shrugged, bringing a smirk to my lips.

"Oh I know you'd do it even now." I pointed out. I could swear I saw her cheeks turn a soft shade or red and chuckled. "You love my armpits. One time you literally put your face there and kissed it."

"That was an accident." she blatantly lied. " I was trying to kiss your... your shoulder."

"Liar. I was smelly too, I was just back from the gym." I added, knowing I was embarrassing her even more.

"Okay, Niall, your turn now!"

I laughed as I stared at her and finally pressed my lips together, trying to find a good question.

"Would you rather... have 10 orgasms every time you have sex but they're not that good, or just one every week but a fucking strong one."

"That's a horrible question and I'm sorry but I'm gonna go for the fucking strong one." she shrugged with a grimace. "I would be so annoying all week though, you wouldn't be able to live with me. I'd hump you all the time."

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "How often do you masturbate?"

Her eyes roamed on my face and she pressed her lips together, trying not to smile too much.

"Normally maybe, twice a day?" she just replied with a shrug. "These days, though, I don't. You're the only one who makes me cum."

I turned to her and sent her a big happy smile that she sent back.

"I would kiss you right now." I pointed out, making her smile too.

"I would kiss you back."

We stared at each other for a while and she finally looked away, turning her head to the water for a few minutes as the sun was disappearing into the horizon. I knew we should get up and leave to find a place to sleep but I didn't want to.

"Would you rather marry a 10 with a boring personality, or a 6 with an amazing personality." she let out, turning her head to send me a smile again. "Choose wisely."

"You're not asking this about yourself, right? Because you're not a 6."

"You're right, i'm a 4, at best. No wait, Heidi said a 3, right?"

"You're still thinking about that?" I asked in a lower and soft tone before she shrugged and turned again to the water. "You really shouldn't. She was just jealous."

"Heidi isn't jealous of anyone. What she says, she means." Liv pointed out. "You know, just because I know you're out of my league doesn't mean I'm not confident, or that I hate myself. I know society's beauty standards and I don't fit in. I never will. You do though." she pointed out, turning to me. "You've always been the pretty boy, the one everyone liked and wanted to be around. I was never jealous I was fucking mesmerized. Because you were my best friend and no one else's. You had picked me."

"I'm still picking you. I'm choosing you every single day, Olivia." I pointed out, sitting up and crossing my legs, looking down at my hands. "And you have no idea how many girls I flirted with that turned me down." I chuckled. "Before I was famous and even now. You could be surprised."

"That's because you seem to always fall for stupid fucking bitches. You always choose them for what they physically look like. You never try to see deeper because for you, everyone is good. But it's not true. Not everyone is good, Niall. Some people will just use you and throw you away when they're done. Some people will pick you because you're rich and famous, and some other won't pick you because you're not glamorous enough. Why do you think Heidi wanted to date you so bad but was totally okay to let you sleep with one of her best friends?"

I looked up and frowned. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"Gia Christenson? That's literally the only friend Heidi has left, yet she sent her to flirt with you at that bar when we were dating? She gave her your number so she could send you nudes when we were camping? And you literally ended up sleeping with her a few weeks before you started dating Heidi?"

My lips parted slightly but I shook my head. No, Heidi hadn't done all that just so I would break up with Olivia, that was impossible. I didn't want to believe that someone could ever do that. To anyone. I was not such a bad judge of character.

"No I mean, it's a coincidence."

"It's not. And I'm not blaming her for our break up. She didn't force you do to anything, she didn't point a gun to your head either. But when you started dating her I couldn't help but think that she had gotten exactly what she wanted and I had lost."

"And now?"

"Now?" she asked, raising her eyebrows as she turned to look in my eyes with a sad smile. "Now I'm just not playing anymore."

We kept quiet again, just listening to the waves and feeling the slightly cooler breeze hit our cheeks. It felt amazing to be here, alone, with her, but her words kept resonating in my head. Was I that oblivious?

"I don't want to marry a 6 or a 10, no matter what their personalities are." I finally just replied with a shrug. "I want to marry you. No number. Just you."

The way she smiled at me and tilted her head, I knew she liked my answer, but I kept quiet and after a while, she got up and I followed her back to the car. The sun was gone and the sky was dark but I drove to the first motel I saw and grabbed our bags before putting my sunglasses back on.

"I'll give my name." she just said as we reached the counter.

I smiled a bit and nodded before she asked for a room, gave her name and paid for it. I stayed behind her slightly and finally followed her to our room as she opened it and let me in. I dropped everything near the bed and when I turned around she was locking the door behind us.

"How much do I owe you?" I asked, putting my hands on my waist.

"Nothing, I got my check." she giggled, making me raise my eyebrows. "The number on it was astronomical, I almost came just looking at my bank account."

"Okay but this is literally a suite." I pointed out, making her roll her eyes.

"A suite in a motel I mean who cares?" she rolled her eyes, sitting on the bed.

I walked to her and bent down to kiss her lips as her hands found my cheeks. I had wanted to kiss her for hours and feeling her lips on mine after that long felt incredible.

"You want to add more fluids to these dirty bed sheets?" she asked with a smirk, making me grimace before she started laughing hard. "I'm just kidding! I'm sure these are extremely clean."

"Yea not so sure anymore."

She got up and tilted her chin up to look at me. Instinctively, my arms wrapped around her waist and I pulled her closer to kiss her gently.

"Maybe we could sleep on the floor?" I proposed in a low tone, half-joking.

"The floor is probably even worse." she mentioned just as low before chuckling. "Come on, I'll fill the bath for us. I saw it on the brochure and it looks incredible."

"For a motel room suite, maybe." I complained as she moved away.

I heard her laugh again and opened one of my bags to get some comfortable clothes for both of us, leaving the sweatpants and shirts on top of my luggage. I finally grabbed my phone and looked at all the notifications popping up with a grimace. I deleted all of them and went to check my contacts. I clicked on Heidi's name and picked the 'delete' option before doing the same with Gia and a few other girls. I was not really sure who they were, probably because they were insignificant to me, and threw my phone on the bed just as she was calling me. When I stepped foot in the bathroom, the bath was filled and the lights were dimmed, which surprised me a bit, considering what kind of motel we were in.

I looked at her sitting in the bath, definitely naked but all I could see was her breasts out of the water and slightly covered with foam. I could still see her nipples and I groaned.

"Can't believe you didn't wait for me to get undressed."

She shrugged and smiled. "Your turn. Take your clothes off."

Quickly, I took my shirt off and laughed when I noticed the way she was looking at me. She didn't say a word and I took my pants, boxers and socks off before joining her. The bath was large enough and I sat in front of her, grabbing one of her feet and massaging it gently, my thumbs pressing against her sole.

"Mm, don't stop." she whispered making me laugh as she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the side of the bath. "I didn't expect that but this is amazing. Oh, and there's a beer behind you. Thought you'd enjoy."

I grabbed the bottle with one hand and she immediately started shaking her foot to get my attention back.

"You’re so needy."

"Shut up and keep going." she just replied, making me roll my eyes, a small smile still on my lips.

We remained in silence for a while, just enjoying the warm water and the presence of each other, but after a while, my mind went from blank to filled with questions and I breathed in.

"What are we, Olivia?"

She moved her head up and her eyes opened, meeting mine. She seemed a bit taken aback by my question but she shook her head a bit before tilting it.

"We're... two best friends who... love each other, and fuck more than occasionally." she proposed slowly, raising her shoulders up. "I guess."

"What if I want you to be my girlfriend, Olivia? What do I have to do for that?"

She breathed in and out slowly, still looking at me, and took her foot back. I thought she was mad but she moved in the water and got closer, placing her knees on each sides of me and sitting on my thighs. She looked down at my chest,  bringing warm water on my shoulders and sighing before looking back up in my eyes.

"I love you, Niall. I'm in love with you. I want to date or fuck no one but you." she confessed in a very low tone. "But I'm not ready. And I don't know when I'll be. Or if I'll ever be."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and frowned a bit. "So we may never get back together?"

Her face changed and she licked her lips. "Shit happens, so we never know? I want to, and I'm trying. But I can't promise anything. It's too stressful for me. Can we just.. live today? You're going on tour, I'm about to film again and... we'll both be extra busy. We can have that discussion again after your tour?"

"My tour literally ends in september, Liv." I pointed out. "That's in over 7 months. What will happen if we don't see each other for weeks?"

Her eyes roamed on my face and she licked her lips again, as if she was trying to find the courage to talk again. "I'll do everything I can to come see you every time I have a few days off. You can come back here whenever you have a break, too. We can talk every day, text each other, facetime each other. It's not our first time apart, and... I know it'll probably be the hardest but if we want to make this work, we will, right?"

I stared at her, unsure if it was really possible but I swallowed. I wanted it so bad, whether we were official or not, and I was going to do everything I could to make this, whatever it was, work.

"I'm not gonna date, fuck or even see anyone else." she added. "Just you. I sort of expect the same from you although I can't force you but... if you decide you don't want to be exclusive I want to know who you... who else you're gonna have sex with, please? I'm honestly just scared of what an official relationship will do to us. The girlfriend and boyfriend title is just.. too big for me. For now." she paused. "Okay?"

"Okay." I whispered, nodding but feeling like shit.

She slipped her fingers in my hair and pressed her lips gently against mine.

"I love you." she murmured before kissing my cheekbone. "I love you." she repeated, kissing my jaw. "So fucking much." Her lips brushed against my neck. "More than anything." She went back to my lips. "I'm in love with you." I closed my eyes as she peppered kisses slowly and gently on my face and neck until my shoulders fell and I relaxed.

I felt her bring water over my shoulders again and she let her hands run on my chest, moving up on her knees. I kept my eyes closed until I heard a whimper escaping her lips and when I opened my eyes again, she was biting her bottom lip. I wanted to tell her that the song I had written was about marriage and that all I could think about since we went to that stupid wedding was how bad I wanted her to be my wife. It was ridiculous, knowing that I was not 100% in the relationship when we dated and that I was now in this 150% and we weren't even dating. I couldn't tell her that, though. Not after she had just told me she didn't want pressure and stress. Not after she had told me that she needed time and that she was not ready. But the words got stuck in my throat and I swallowed them hard.

"You okay?"

"Mmhm." I just replied, bringing one of my hands between her legs as I stared in her eyes.

She stiffened and finally bit her bottom lip as I slipped two fingers inside her, moving them in a fair rhythm and make her hips jerk slightly. I knew we were having a serious conversation but I was on the verge of spilling all my thoughts and feelings to her and I had no idea how to stop myself from doing that except by making her cum. I brought my thumb to her clit and stared at her seriously as her lips parted.

"Niall, I think we should wait until we get out of t-the bath." she let out in a mix of whimper and whisper. "I bought something special, just for you."

"Tomorrow. Today I'm just gonna watch you fuck yourself on my fingers." I argued as I kept brushing her clit with my thumb. Then I'm gonna finish my beer, I'll kiss you, wrap a towel around you and bring you in bed, and we'll talk in the dark the way we used to always do."

She reached for my wrist and stopped me for a few seconds. "Are you gonna sing something to me?"

I breathed in and nodded. "Any song you want. As many times as you want."

It took her a few seconds to nod and I reached for her hand, moving it away from my wrist as I started rubbing her clit again. "Come on, pet, do it now."

She started moving slowly up and down on my fingers and after a few minutes, I could feel her throb around me. The sight was amazing but I couldn't help myself and wrapped my free arm around her to bring her breasts close to my face. I ran my tongue on one of her nipples before sucking on it as she let out a louder moan. She started shaking and I felt her pussy clench around my fingers. I looked down at my fingers disappearing inside her and groaned low.

"Fuck I love your pretty little fanny. So fucking wet all the fucking time."

She started shaking and watching her body quiver from an orgasm was the most incredibly hot thing I have ever seen in my life. She came down from her high and I took my fingers out before she sat back on me and her mouth found mine again.

"You didn't tell me." she whispered, kissing me hard again. "Are you gonna see other girls while we're away? You're going to meet a few on tour..."

I grabbed her waist and pulled her away to look into her eyes and I could read in hers that she felt bad for asking me, almost scared of my answer. I wished she knew how I felt. I wished she knew I wouldn't do anything that could risk hurting her again, and I knew that just telling her wouldn't mean she'd believe me.

"You're all I think about. You're all I care about. Nothing feels good without you. I told you. That year without you was the most miserable of my entire life, Olivia. I have no desire to be with anyone else. So no, I'm not gonna see anyone. I'm not gonna kiss anyone. I'm not gonna fuck anyone. I'm not even going to flirt with anyone because I just don't give a fuck about anyone else."

"This is gonna work." she whispered, trying to convince both of us. "This distance thing I mean. We'll do it right."

"We will." I confirmed with a smile. "And every single night, I'm gonna sing about you."

[naturaldisasterfanfiction]

26. Part 3

Looking around my daughter’ room, I just need to know I have everything ready for her. Like I am just being random, but I just woke up because I needed to pee but then it came to mind, have I got everything I needed. I know I did, I got everything, but I need to make sure I got plenty of diapers, but I am just wondering. I am more than happy with this room, she is getting everything I never got, and she is a queen, will be treated like one. Chris has yet to do the crib in our room, you never know we may keep her in our room for a while, but this room is perfection, it looks like a queen is giving birth to a future princess, but she is. She is super lucky; her room is direct opposite of our room. Because the way the stairs come up, it breaks the rooms up in a way, but her room is opposite ours which I like but I know this whole house would need babyproofing badly, everything here is not childproof at all, it’s scary. But I should go back to bed, but I will just go down, I did sleep better then I usually do so that is ok and that is thanks to Chris for snuggling me, putting the cream on me and also giving up his side of the bed. I am lucky to have him with me, I sighed out turning back on myself. I feel myself waddling, it’s actually not cute but I am waddling now. I did think I would have an easier pregnancy, like the model type but in real life I am a mess. I have not got ready for much, just Chris coming back, I don’t feel sexy like Chris says but Chris has no filter, he would say it to me in a joke, but he hasn’t so maybe it is just me feeling it.

The blinds rose up automatically as I got down the steps, one of many fancy things this place has which I like. It senses its morning and the sun is rising so the first person that comes down triggers to put the blinds up, let me open the door for the dog. He is probably waiting on someone to open the door so he can come up. It’s a little cold downstairs, looking out of the window, oh it’s snowed a little so no wonder. Opening the door for the downstairs “Zeus, come up boy” I said, he will come up when he pleases, I been contemplating on if I should get my chef back in my life, I think I may do it until I am back to normal functioning life but maybe I can just do it myself, why can’t I just be a normal pregnant woman. Hearing the scurrying behind me, either Chris cuts his hair, or he gets some professional. The dog’ hair is long as fuck “morning” Zeus always sniffs my bump, I don’t know why “yes, it’s a baby in there. Shall we cook breakfast, you don’t want to go out today. It’s cold out there” Zeus walked with me side by side to the kitchen, I am getting used to this big thing now, he’s not all that bad, he is better then Chris anyways because he keeps me company for longer then he does when sleeping, Chris moves off after a while.

Bopping my head along to the radio playing in the background as I made breakfast for all “hey Google, can you wake up the house” I said aloud, we going to wake up the house without walking up no stairs. I can’t wait for this home to be filled, after the baby born then I can start having my people back, holiday will be over. I can get family here to see me, it’s just going to be good vibes “waking everyone up now” I like the Google shit I have in this home, looking down on the floor, Zeus is laying there and doesn’t move unless I leave the room. It’s hard to get him to go downstairs, he doesn’t move at all because he wants to come with me but it’s very protective of him, I like that “oh, not heard this in a while” as No Guidance started to play on the radio, going to my phone. Mel has been texting me, she misses me for once. We are usually in each other’s pockets but since being married and pregnant this is the main priority in my life, but things will be back to normal, she will be back soon. Unlocking my phone, tapping on Instagram. Tapping on the plus sign and adding to my story, aiming my camera at Zeus and panning to the cooker and stopped it, tapping in a caption ‘who needs a man when you got this big ball of fluff’ pressing send, let them have a meltdown over that, which barely shows much.

“Robbie, I don’t like this loud noise that be waking up. It’s not nice” my mom is the first to come down “but you’re here, I made breakfast for us. I hope the boys come down next” my mom is not impressed, she is not impressed because the way she has come down with her wig lopsided and a robe on “come here mommy” walking around the counter “you look very happy today Robyn” fixing her wig “I am” pressing a kiss to her forehead “I am in less pain, and I just saw a different side to Chris. Like you know he is an idiot, every time he is stupid about things” moving back from my mom “I had a warm bath like the nurse said, he helped me out of the bathtub, so I don’t fall. He watched me that I didn’t fall in the bathroom on the marble flooring then, I didn’t want him to do it. Like I was nervous about it and I wanted the pads, but I did it, he put cream there where it’s hurting. I was scared because what if he did it wrong, but he didn’t, he was so gentle with me mom, and it was then I knew how much he loves me, like that love is deep to be doing that. For anyone” my mom’ eyes widened “he did that?” my mom said “he did, like he did it. I wouldn’t even get my own mother to do that, just the nurse because they are trained in that and generally, partners don’t do it?” my mom looks impressed “and you feel better too?” nodding my head “he has impressed me, not even your own father would do that” I chuckled.

They eventually came down; I mean I did need to call Dennis twice, but he finally came down “the pancake is cold” raising an eyebrow looking at Chris “you came down late? The hell you want me to do. Warm it up for you when I am eating myself?” Chris nodded his head “your thighs are warm enough” rolling my eyes at him “I heard what you did for my daughter, it just brings me so much peace that you will be there for her. No matter what people say about you, they don’t know you and I am so happy with you. That is something many men will not do for their partners, even be here for them like this. You are someone many don’t know, the real you” I died a little inside, my mom is mentioning it at the table “did Chris make your butt better?” Dennis snorted laughing “be quiet you!” Chris looked shocked, he was not expecting that “uh thank you Monica, it wasn’t a choir for me. I did it because it’s what is right for her, with Robyn I would do anything for her. I know she felt a little weird about it but like I seen it. she is the only one I would do that for. Like I joke about it, but I would. I know like how it will be for her; she will take lots of rest. She seems happy so I am happy” the buzzer went off for the gate “I will check” Chris said, nodding my head “things are quiet, don’t you think?” I said to Dennis “to you! You’re in your bubble” Dennis said laughing “things are still a mess, oh girl. Nothing is quiet, Roc Nation seemed to have tried to handle it weird enough. I think they are scared of you; they are scared on what is next” they should be “it’s a parcel, I will get it” Chris got up “cool, probably for the baby. I be ordering a lot of shit” which I have been, some things I don’t think I needed to get.

Furrowing my eyebrows “where that nigga go?” it’s so quiet and he never came back “so I was thinking, we could sell this to Netflix. Remember how Amazon outbid Netflix but I think with this we should aim for Netflix” pulling a face “but Amazon, I like them. As a team, they are very much involved. See what happens, I am warming to the idea anyways. I am just literally counting down the days until this lady is here, I feel it so much Dennis, the tightening. The heaviness. I feel my pussy is coming out” Dennis laughed out “he is so sweet Robyn; I have to say it again. I am in shock, to hear he did that for you. I am happy to go back once this is over” my mom is so impressed with Chris, Dennis looked behind me and then I felt a hand on my shoulder “there is so much mail Robyn, like there is boxes of things. Also the team are fixing the tree up for us” looking up at Chris “I didn’t do that, really? Where is the stuff?” I mean I have been ordering but not that much “in the hallway, just filled. I see some Fenty boxes too, and also Adidas. Maybe they are gifts” my eyes lit up “I love gifts, I want to see” getting up from the chair “come and help me” looking up at Chris “and I need you to shave this stubble” I grinned at him.

I gasped “oh my god, what is all this!?” I half shouted, “can you like move it all to the second living room, because the people are doing the tree aren’t they?” Chris sighed out “man, do I have too. Is Dennis going to help me?” turning around “I will help you there brother Chris” I laughed at this bromance, they have bonded “I think this is gifts from Bey, she has some new line from Adidas and I remember seeing the box so that is it. I won’t be able to fit in that yet. That is Dior” I know these boxes “also that is Fendi, why did these all come at the same time. Roc Nation too? Chile, what they sent us” I am scared about that box now, it’s probably some dead rat in here, they hate my ass “how does that dickhead know we live here?” Chris said, seeing the box “OVO, ok then. Erm, possibly Mel may have, I am not sure but Jay Brown knows where I live, I did tell him” Chris is not impressed, Chris is picking at the tape to open it “he has a fucking nerve to do that, he wrote a whole diss track about you” Chris managed to rip it open, I wonder what he gave and the nerve of him anyways. Taking the packet from him “a baby grow” I held up and then looking into the box “he’s given baby clothes” looking up at Chris “he disrespected you so badly, that shit has pissed me. He fucking made a diss song about you” Chris is so angry “there is a note” taking it out before Chris did, opening up the note “It’s handwritten too” oh this is Drake’ handwriting “wait there!” I pointed at Chris, he is ready to come and get it at me “Rihanna, I spent days thinking about you. I spent moments where I cried, I was hurt, and I made a bad decision to make such a song. I am sorry and I hope you are happy even if it’s not with me, I want the best for you because in my eyes you are queen. Accept the gifts from October’s Very Own, and I can’t help but think Adonis will have a play friend now and we can meet and just have kid day. Love Aubrey” looking up at Chris “not even a mention of Chris?” Dennis said, oh Chris is mad “no” I pointed at him.

This is wrong but we don’t need trouble “Chris listen to me” he went to get his phone “Chris, do not and I mean do not post anything! We don’t with that, we have moved on. We are not going to write any Instagram post, because I will” Chris furrowed his eyebrows confused at what I meant “I will post some shady shit, not you. What he did was wrong. I am shocked he had the nerve to send that, he knows you are here with me. He also knows you are the father, just don’t’ get involved. I will do it. Please move the things in there” Chris will do it and then it will be something bigger, I will do it because I know what he did and I know he fucking tried to make a song about me “just calm down, help him Dennis” taking the note with me walking off, I don’t think it’s the best idea to ever get Chris to do that, not when I am trying to help rebuild his profile so people can like him again, I don’t want them to say look at the man she is with “what is it?” my mom asked “Drake” holding the note up “he didn’t mention Chris in this, he made a diss song about me. He shamed me in that studio, he didn’t know that Chris was the father, but he does now” placing the note on the kitchen counter, taking a picture of the note “so what are you going to do baby?” my mom asked “I am going to write a nice little thank you” typing out the caption ‘Octobers very own bitch sending me gifts when you wrote a diss track about me, this fatherless child doesn’t need owl for clothes! She is ok and she kindly declined the dinner date, she doesn’t like blondes boo. Imagine being such a pussy all your life that you then bully a pregnant woman….. Trash!’ pressing send, I want to say more but then I am causing havoc.

Dennis took the picture of me with all the gifts that are for my daughter, I am super happy about this, I didn’t expect it “Roc Nation doing baby grows and shit, or was that just to be cute” Chris is never happy “it works, Chris standing there complaining looks good” Dennis crouched down to me, I am like drowning in kids clothes “mhmm, it does actually. Chris, you better post a thank you, I mean it. Send it to my phone, Chris help me up” this what happens I try to be cute on the floor, now I can’t get up. Chris yanked the hood off my head “hiding in the jacket” I smiled at him “let me pick you up, don’t get up. You might hurt yourself” before I could disagree he picked me up “don’t drop me, am I heavy” the face he pulled, I am heavy for him “no” he placed me on the couch “thank you baby, I am super shocked at the gift that have been sent” Dennis held my phone to me “write the caption, and Chris, I sent the picture to you also” I hide my face with he hood on the jacket and hid my bump, I look a mess but they still know it’s me ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you! For all of the gifts sent by everyone. So many to name, this could be a long post but thank you to my Barbados family for the gifts, all of the toys, auntie the outfits are the cutest. To @kimkardashian and Kanye, her first Yeezy’s and all of the Yeezy clothing, thank you. @Beyonce @Adidas the baby grows are the cutest, Also to @Fendi @Dior @Burberry @blackpyramidofficial and my record label @rocnation my family. And such surprise from @Fenty, these unique baby clothing that my team have made, you know I would love that. I am so blessed with love and support. We are thankful!’ that is long “you done?” I asked Chris “I put thank you everyone now my back hurts from moving the boxes” shaking my head at him, he is stupid.

Poking my lips out, I feel like a baby with diaper rash because I mean it was bad enough Chris had to do it last time but it’s another night and we have to do it again “are you ready? I am going back down after, Dennis and I are playing pool” nodding my head “sure, I love the tree by the way. It makes me all gooey inside because it’s Christmas and I love Christmas. I didn’t feel it but now I do, and I get to spend it with my husband” I am super happy about the tree “it’s ok, well I wanted you to feel it. Oh and I saw the picture you posted; I was shocked. Why?” he posted a very personal picture of me, like I wasn’t even looking for him but we was sat in the living room, I was talking to my mom but I look so well, like I feel I don’t but I am just concentrating on the conversation, I don’t hate the picture but I am glad he didn’t get me looking fat “you like it? I was just playing around with my phone and I realised it was a dope picture. I was like that fucking dickhead deserves a beating for that shit. He disrespected me” he got me choked up “it was very loving from you Chris, I loved the picture and the caption, thank you” I am so loved by him “it was nothing, come on. Get on the bed” smiling at Chris “no wait, let me read the caption again” unlocking my phone, it’s the cutest “go on then, than I can put it on” such a softie he is, letting me waste his time “You said she is for everybody but she is for me, you know Rihanna but I know Robyn. That really warmed my heart thank you” Chris kissed my forehead, I love him so much.

[oxnardsart]

New update!  Also, the website has most Lesbini's chapter's pages up, aside from the finale:

http://boxerbeats.thecomicseries.com/comics/26 After defeating the Nameless Bird, Lesbuni heads to the stadium, passes a Boxer Briefs protest, and has to fight Don Badger, her romantic rival!

-----

    Lesbuni was ready for another day at the boxing competition. Things weren’t going as great as she’d expected. On her way there, she noticed a protest going on - it was small, but the few people protesting were huge. As Lesbuni walked closer, she saw that they were all boxers!

    The shy rabbit walked across the street so that she didn’t have to be on the same side of the road as them, but she perked an ear up to hear what they had to say.

    “Hey! She looks like a boxer!”

    “Well she’s gotta come over here some time.”

    Lesbuni saw the muscle-heads looking right at her, and she realized, she was dressed in her boxing uniform - gloves and everything! She remembered hearing how professional boxers were upset about the competition not focusing on pure boxing anymore. This must have been the group, and no doubt they’d start trouble with someone enjoying the new Boxer Beats competition.

    “Come on! Show us how to get in there.”

    Lesbuni gasped - WHERE exactly did these guys want to get into?

    “M-Maybe we have to ask the bunny nicely...” a strong, white wolf suggested. “Little bunny! How do we get inside the Box-o’-Briefs?”

    Lesbuni was thrown off by that, “You mean Boxer Beats?”

    The white wolf bent down and lifted up a cardboard box with ‘Box-o’-Briefs’ written on the side of it. “Nope, it’s Briefs! Not Beats. See?” he held up the cardboard box, “We want to get into the competition and express our feelings.”

    “YEAH! Like my fist feeling Oxnard’s butt!”

    “And my butt expressing a kick with my foot on his butt from mine!”

    More of the protesting boxers started to yell out obscene, violent things. Lesbuni didn’t like that. She raised her snout and kept walking away - she knew bringing the professional boxers to the Boxer Beats competition would cause trouble. She made sure no one followed her there, feeling bothered and paranoid.

Round 2

    The little rabbit made it to the stadium safely and enjoyed the show with Nishi and some of his friends. It looks like after a few days, she had some new friends-of-a-friend! She met Gaydar, the glue-loving gator from the other day - he was an absolute sweetheart. They were both sitting with Macaroni Penguin - a kind old lady Lesbuni had seen fighting earlier. Lesbuni had fun hearing them all talk together - she didn’t say much herself, she usually needed time to open up to others. They all wished her luck as she headed off for her next fight.

    “Good luck, sweetie!” Macaroni waved, “Never quit!”

    “Show the nextht boxther what you’re made of, girl!” Gaydar cheered for her.

    Lesbuni couldn’t help but smile, showing her big bunny buck tooth. It was nice feeling like someone out there was rooting for her.

    BZZZ-KT! A loud, sharp buzz blasted out the speakers as Lesbuni got on stage.

    “Aw shoot, sorry guys! And non-guys.” Oxnard chuckled, “Some technical difficulties going on...”

    “Shorry shir, almosht ready.” The husky voice of a nervous technician could be heard in the background.

    “Hehe, your voice is so cute! Did you guys hear her accent?” Oxnard gleamed over the microphone, “Say something else!”

    “Uh-uh. Jusht let me finish up here and I’ll be on my way.” The technician sounded a little panicked.

    “Alright, al-”

    BZZZ-KT-KT! The mic fizzled again, causing everyone to groan from the noise.

    “Gosh dangit Bushy, what was that?” Oxnard yelled.

    “I’m shorry, I’m shorry! Jusht ushe thish mic inshtead.” Bushy sighed, “You kept the shecond one up here?”

    “Well, you didn’t wanna be my co-host, but maybe I’ll have someone up here chatting with me sometime!” Oxnard started to sound flirty, “Technically, you’re up here with me~”

    BZZZZ-ZZZ-KT-PLUNK!

    “Eeeeek!” Oxnard squeaked.

    “Aaaahhh!” the audience yelled. Weird. For a crowd that hated noise they sure made a lot of it.

    “You know what - while we fix this issue, let’s watch Lesbuni fight Don okay bye.” Oxnard’s voice disappeared quickly as the audience focused on the boxing ring. The referee counted from three on his fingers to avoid any more noise.

    “What’s the rule for this fight?” Lesbuni whispered to the referee. The hummingbird shook his head while pointing to his beak. Lesbuni had an idea!

    “What is it?” Don Badge looked at the two, clueless.

    Lesbuni smiled and pointed to her mouth, shaking her head.

    “Don doesn’t understand.” The badger looked around. “No one is. Telling Don.”

    “You’re not supposed to talk...” Lesbuni whispered, “It’s the quiet game!”

    “Don will use. This quiet moment. To talk about.” he paused, “Foxy.”

    Lesbuni gasped! She knew that name. But she eyed the video screen showing their scores, and Lesbuni was in the lead with her silence...

    “Special Foxy Lady.” Don began, “If you see. Don here. Don must say. How Don feels.” Lesbuni eyed him suspiciously as he continued, “Don is bound. To you. By his heart. Forever”

    Her jaw nearly fell open.

    “Foxie!? THE Foxie?” Lesbuni screeched, demanding an answer.

    “No. It’s Foxy.” Don corrected her.

    “Foxie, yeah. Foxie Farewell.” Lesbuni nodded.

    “Saying it wrong. Her name. Is Foxy Farewell.” Don started to sound snooty.

    “Foxie.”

    “Foxy.”

    The two argued back and forth. The ref tried to point towards the screen.

    “Are you saying... you like MY Foxie?” Lesbuni bared her bucktooth.

    “Don has liked. Special Foxy Lady. For many years.”

    “Well...” Lesbuni cracked her knuckles, “You can’t have her.” She took a quick swing at Don, and hit right at his stomach. The badger rolled backwards. She went in for another hit, but he raised his spiked bracelets to defend himself in time.

    “Ahhhhh!!” Lesbuni screamed. Those spikes sure hurt when you hit them!

    The ref was flapping his wings all around, pointing at the video screen so Lesbuni would see. She saw she was about to lose the quiet game! It wasn’t only about being quiet and saying the least, but noise level too! Don always talked calm, but Lesbuni’s painful scream nearly pushed her over the limit.

    She realized she had to use any words wisely. It would be tricky making Don yell louder than her. However, she had something that would work - the truth.

    “I dated Foxie,” Lesbuni whispered - Don looked disgusted, “I kissed Foxie.” The bunny continued, the badger’s mouth hung open in awe, “I love Foxie.”

    Don began to scream.

    “YOU CANNOT.” He ran after her, chasing the rabbit around the ring, “DON DOES NOT. ALLOW FOR SMOOCHIES. ON HIS FOX. UNLESS DON KISSES.”

    Lesbuni smiled as she saw Don’s noise level catch up with hers.

    “DON’S LOVE. CAME FIRST.” His raspy voice whined in desperation, “FOXY AND DON. HAVE SECRETS TOO. WHEN FOXY. WAS A NURSE. WITH DOCTOR DON. THEY-”

    The buzzer went off! Don had officially lost the game. All his all-caps screaming pushed his volume over the edge.

    “We have a winner!” the referee jumped up happily. “Lesbuni won!” The little rabbit jumped for joy. As nosy as she was about Foxie’s past, she was more happy that Foxie’s future was one step closer to involving her instead of Don.

    “NO. NO NO NO.” Don screamed. His guard came on stage and removed the upset badger from the ring. “DON’S STORY. IS NOT OVER. DON WILL. HAVE HIS FOX.” Don glared his rabid, unblinking eyes at her as he was dragged away.

    “Wow, that guy’s seriously distressed.” The announcer chuckled, amused, “Great job Lesbuni! Not only did you win the quiet match, but my microphone is all better now! Thank you, my bushy technician.”

    “Not’a problem, bossh,” Bushy beaver casually replied before exiting the booth.

    In the audience, a particular tanuki and flapinko team were talking up a storm. Nikki, who had been through multiple resets in the boxing competition remembered Bushy Beaver being a co-host. For some reason, she was now a technician. It seemed like a small detail, so why did Bushy’s job change?

    Nikki remembered Bushy Beaver and Sweaty Beaver both went missing near the end of the last reset... could they have encountered Dawn as well?

    That wasn’t the only change either! Nikki noticed tag-teams like Team Dino Pubes, Team Arthbound, and The Quick & The Angry were all gone! The boxing competition itself changed to one-on-one matches. Lesbuni was no longer on a team with Foxie, and Don wasn’t paired with Anger Mouse. Why were parts of Boxer Beats changing during the reset?

    Nikki and Thanks left backstage to start investigating. Meanwhile, Lesbuni smiled as Nishi, Gaydar, and little Macaroni gave her a cheerful group hug. (She didn’t mind them touching her!) She opened up about herself on stage, and her friends-of-a-friend became her friends. They were all rooting for her to meet with Foxie!

[sailor-cresselia]

Zero One 02: Shot through the heart, and Vulcan’s to blame

He gives wolves a bad name.

…I’m not sorry.

I’m bouncing between the three non-TV-Nihon sub groups right now – OverTime, Rider Time, and Genm Corp. Since all three had their subs available quickly, this’ll make it easier to compare differences. Also, Genm Corp was the only one of the three who bothered subbing the OP when it appeared as an insert in episode 01, so I’ve only seen the one style for it yet.

Zero One 02: START

––––

We open with Izu and Aruto stepping out in front of Hiden Intelligence, where she formally introduces herself as his personal assistant.

He’s still in very justifiable disbelief that he’s been named President. He’s a comedian, for crying out loud! Izu points out that not only was he personally selected by the founder, the point of the HumaGear is to make people smile. That lines up with his own goal of making people smile, so he is well suited for the job.

Aruto: I mean?! TECHNICALLY?!

As they walk further into the building from the lobby, Jun and one of the other members of the board peek out from behind a vase of flowers and a table. He swears that he’ll pull the chair out from under their new chairman.

Shesta stands there, unimpressed.

The security system is pretty cool! At first glance, it appears to be the standard ‘bioscanner and glass pane’ set up that you see in all sorts of media – and then you realize that once a person has been let in? The ‘glass’ door is just a hologram. It’s a holographic door that says STOP on it, and it disappears when  it’s ‘open’. Which raises the question of ‘do we have solid-light holograms’ here. I wouldn’t put it past this season.

Unfortunately for Aruto, he. Uh. Hasn’t been added to the security system just yet. Instead of the circle saying that it’s okay to pass, he just gets a big old X and a buzzer noise.

After several attempts of smacking the scanner, a security HumaGear briskly steps up. He scans Aruto, and greets him as ‘President Hiden Aruto,’ bowing formally. Aruto returns the bow and greeting…

And still can’t get through the gate.

–

Daybreak Town.

Horobi watches a delivery HumaGear on a screen.

…oh. Oh dear.

After my last liveblog, I had a thought that I worked out with some others, that the selection of which HumaGear get hijacked probably isn’t random. That Taro’s smile was geniune when he thought back to the audience, and that he’d reached sentience – he’d hit the evolutionary singularity.

I thought that Horobi and Jin might be specifically using HumaGear who had hit singularity to turn into monsters. They’re not trying to bring on the singularity, they’re weaponizing it.

And Horobi just said that the one he’s watching is approaching it. That satisfied little nod to himself as he hoists up a package… yeah. That sure seems more like Taro than the other HumaGear we’ve seen.

Handing a Progrize Key to Jin, Horobi tells him to go collect the data.

…After Berotha was defeated, they plugged the broken key back into the holder that he’d pulled it from during his expository monologue.

So, maybe… trying to weaponize the mechanical rise, and bring it about en masse? Or something?

–

Back at Hiden, Aruto is ‘exploring’ his new office.

Looks like I was right on the money with my ‘dumb puppy’ comparison, he’s all over the place.

The 3D printing studio is just part of a big mechanical work bench section of the office, down a level from the office section of the office.

It’s also clearly up really high, because one of those tv-drones can be seen at the same level outside.

The workstation can be neatly hidden away, as well, when a wall builds itself back into existence, blocking the whole thing from view and leaving the room more like a normal office.

That’s the point when Izu decides it’s time to go over his schedule. He’s got a morning meeting with some government representatives… right now.

(Aruto has a brief, quiet panic about not being dressed for this – he’s wearing his day-glo sneakers, a formal pair of pants, and a formal suit jacket… and the jacket is on over his hoodie. It barely fits over his hoodie.)

We’re finally formally introduced to our two main members of AIMS; Techinical Advisor Yaiba Yua and Agent Fuwa Isamu.

Apparently, they’re going to be questioning all of Hiden’s personnel. Yua is much more reserved about this, and Isamu-

Okay, wow, if I didn’t hate him just from last episode, I’d hate him already. He slams a hand down on the desk, leaning way into Aruto’s space, ‘warning’ him to be thorough, because his answers could land him in jail.

Come on! He just got here! Aruto has had this job for less than a day, he doesn’t know jack!

–

…Oh, come ON!

STILL NO OPENING?!

–

Delivery HumaGear is doing his job, when a playful voice calls out from on top of the truck. How’d Jin get up there? Who knows! But he’s already calling the deliveryman his friend, as he forcefully places the false driver onto him, saying that he can start by destroying this company.

The deliveryman, wracked with pain and red sparks, mind you, says that HumaGear are supposed to make people smile!

We see from his perspective as Jin crouches in front of him, a progress bar filling as Jin tells him he’s wrong. It’s to make people extinct.

Connection established.

–

Back at Hiden, we see that Aruto has exactly zero idea what’s going on, and that Isamu gives zero shits about acting professional during an interrogation.

Basically, AIMS suspects Hiden Intelligence of covering incidents up. Currently, the specific incident in question is the one at the amusement park yesterday. They’ve clearly gotten the remains of most of the rogue HumaGear, but there wasn’t a trace of the one in charge.

Because he was very thoroughly destroyed, not that anyone but Aruto and Izu know that.

Izu, connecting to the server, states that there are no records of anything matching that description… as phrased by Genmcorp. Going by Ridertime, she says that they can not validate those records. Overtime has her saying that there’s no data to corroborate Yua’s claims.

In any case… something is going on. Hiden is very definitely covering this up, and using Aruto to do it. He’s just following Izu’s ‘lead,’ because he has zero idea what’s going on.

Isamu implies that this isn’t new, that Hiden has covered things up before.

Yua tells Aruto that AIMS has the authority to prosecute HumaGear-based violations.

Not that Aruto actually knows what that sort of thing would be, so he asks Izu, who recites off the good ol’ First Law of Robotics: A HumaGear may not allow a human to come to harm, for any reason.

Isamu – area speciesist – basically threatens Aruto, telling him not to think he can keep this quiet, these HumaGears are killing machines.

Yua, who is a few bullet-shaped microaggressions away from punching her ‘partner’, tells him to cut it out, they’re not here to commit slander.

Being the dumb puppy that he is, Aruto thinks he can break the tension with one of his old stand up routines.

This doesn’t work.

In fact, it looks like it does the opposite of work, and I’m pretty sure that Isamu’s about ready to kill a man with his bare hands.

It’s a little ironic that the giant ‘emergency’ warnings flashing around the room are what probably just saved Aruto’s life. Mind you, they also confuse the heck out of all three humans in the room. Izu, who often looks about two steps away from saying ‘screw the first law’, lets Aruto know that he has a trespasser.

–

Said trespasser is a very-much hijacked deliveryman, tossing people around – human and humagear alike. His transformation into the Kuehne Magear is no less terrifying than the one into Berotha last episode, although it is thankfully over much faster.

Kuehne is based on the Kuehneosuchus, a late Triassic gliding reptile. This is most easily seen in how he has a pair of wing-shaped boomerangs.

A security humagear manages to block said murder-rangs from killing Jun and the other board member, but that wound up redirecting them to the balcony where Aruto and the others were, dividing the party as everyone dodges.

And these blades are dangerous, too. They can cleave right through the display stands, which appear to be made of poured concrete.

As Isamu and Yua fire, I can’t help but notice her saying he’s disobeying orders again – he is not supposed to have the transformation gun right now.

Oh, goody! As an arboreal gliding lizard, Kuehne is able to crawl along walls! Right up until he takes a hit from Isamu’s Shot Riser, which makes enough of an impact that it knocks him back to the ground.

Isamu, pulling out a Progrise Key, says that he’ll transform and scrap it.

Or, he would, if the key would open. He’s a bit distracted by his non-functional transformation trinket as Kuehne launches his boomerangs again, so Yua literally kicks him to the ground to dodge the return path.

I love her.

I love her even more now that I know that she’s the weapons administrator, and that key isn’t going to open without her authorization.

Yua, I love you, please don’t die.

The security humagear are evacuating the remaining civilians, as Izu all but hurls Aruto out of view. “President Aruto, it would be wise of you to do something before anyone dies.” Emphasis mine, but I strongly suspect she would be placing the same if she were allowed to have emotions yet.

“However… please conceal your identity from AIMS.”

Aruto seems really reluctant at first… and then he hears the screaming again, and turns around, his expression level. “Henshin.”

There’s a brief scuffle between Zero One and Kuehne, which moves the fight outside, and Aruto does okay… until his sweep kick is dodged very handily via Kuehne landing on the wall. That sort of jumping ability does tend to put a damper on knocking someone off their feet.

As Aruto’s hit by a few shots from Kuehne, he gets knocked down, and as he gets to his feet, here come Isamu and Yua, guns drawn and aimed at him. Oh, uh, not just aimed at. Isamu’s shooting at him. Aruto’s protests of ‘you’ve got the wrong guy’ are useless, as Kuehne’s disappeared. Zero One proceeds to take off, as well, dodging gunfire and leaping off of walls to get distance.

Aruto has just barely dropped his transformation when the AIMS agents make it to where he wound up. Isamu grabs him by the lapel, shoving him into a wall and ‘asking’ where he’s hiding ‘the yellow one.’

“I’m not hiding him! He went that way!” Aruto points at the fucking sky, and this somehow works, so as the agents move away from him – only a few yards, mind you – Aruto nopes the heck out of there.

Isamu, the Key dangling from his fingers, demands that Yua unlock it.

“Why would I do that for someone as stupidly reckless as you?!” (The only part of that sentence that’s subtext is ‘stupidly,’ everything else is just straight up text.)

Isamu, getting in her face, all but yells that he’s the captain here.

She gives as good as she gets, retorting right back that she’s in charge of the entire arsenal. If she doesn’t think you should be using the super gun, you’re not getting to use the super gun. They split up, to go look for the rogue HumaGear.

–

In the Hiden lobby, Shesta and that same security guard we’ve been seeing assure the small crowd that it was just a security drill, nothing more.

As the relieved crowd disperses, Aruto jogs up, thanking the guard for protecting everyone.

“President Aruto, it is my task to protect the people of this company.”

Izu smiles a little bit, looking slightly away from her dumb puppy of a boss. Most people don’t treat HumaGear on the same level as humans – not quite. But Aruto talks to her like a regular person, and he greeted one of his coworkers at the park by name – Yui, one of the greeters.

Aruto notices the damage to the guards arm, and flashes back to his father – humagear legs revealed, synthetic skin torn away. He pauses, just for a moment, his smile dropping a little, before he turns back to the guard.

“Then, tell me your name! I won’t forget it.”

Implying that people don’t usually bother to remember HumaGear’s names.

“Mamoru. President Korenosuke named me.” The guard – Mamoru – looks a little less stiff at that, a little less pre-programmed.

“I see. We’re basically family then, right?” Aruto pulls out a handkerchief, tying it around Mamoru’s damaged arm. (Oh, for the love of – it’s got those comedy paper fans on it. Aruto, please.) He pats Mamoru on the shoulder. “Get yourself patched up.” He grins as he heads back into the office.

Mamoru looks down at the inexplicable impromptu bandage… and smiles. A real, authentic, smile, not the programmed one.

A distance away, Jin spins a key in his hand, and smiles as well.

–

Isamu interrupts a ‘talk’ between Jun and Aruto, the second of whom has zero idea what’s going on.

He brings Aruto to the roof to talk, because that’s totally a good idea… but it’s nice and private, at least.

He starts going on about how the company hasn’t changed, that it’s still building itself on a foundation of victims. Aruto protests that HumaGears are supposed to make peoples lives better, that they’re what people dreamed of!

“So you’ll just let the nightmare repeat itself?!” Isamu pauses after yelling, and then resumes talking, more calmly this time. “An entire city was destroyed in an accident.”

Ah. There’s why we came up here. It’s to give us a visual. The roof has a wonderful angle of Daybreak Town.

Aruto grows somber at the mention of Daybreak, thinking back to an explosion of blue fire engulfing a school building, and his younger self crying over his fathers broken body.

“But that catastrophe was no accident. The truth was that HumaGears went on a murderous rampage. I was there, that day…”

Holy shit. Isamu was… late middle school, maybe a first year in high school at most, waking up in a blasted, ruined classroom… and it sure looks like the other students in there are dead. Red-eyed humagear – an earlier model, going by the less detailed faces – are crawling at the windows, hurling themselves after him as he runs.

“And Hiden Intelligence covered it all up. They claimed it was an accident!”

Aruto stands, shocked, his eyes wide, before growing serious as Isamu storms up to him, glaring. “I will expose your company, and their sins.”

While Isamu walks off… I’m pretty sure that Aruto’s vowing to do the same.

–

Kuehne reappears, where the press is hounding for answers in front of Hiden, tossing people aside.

Mamoru charges him, trying to tackle him away, before being similarly tossed aside. As he gets up…

No.

No, no, no.

As Mamoru gets up, Jin places a buckle at his waist.

–

AND THEN I HAD TO SPEND 15 MINUTES WAITING FOR MY COMPUTER TO UPDATE.

–

As Mamoru gets up, Jin places a buckle at his waist, saying that he can be one of his friends, too.

Mamoru, on one knee, in pain, tries so, so hard to reject this. “To protect this company…” he clutches at the arm that Aruto had wrapped for him. “That is my task!” He’s not saying this in the scared manner that Taro or the deliveryman, named Okureru, according to KRWiki, did. He’s defiant, and angry, and glaring right up at Jin, even as he gets grabbed by the chin and forced to look directly at him, as the download completes.

–

Yua and a team of AIMS troops ‘corner’ Kuehne, firing on him.

–

As people evacuate, Aruto runs up to Izu.

Slowly, Jin comes up the stairs toward them. When Aruto asks who he is, he says “Me? Hmm… the pioneer of a new world… I guess.”

A security door opens behind him, Mamoru stepping through, his face vacant… and a little bit haunted. None of the fear or loss of control from the other two. He looks like he’s been erased far more than they had.

“Mamoru!? Why did you let him in?”

“It is what I was commanded…” He pulls out a key, and inserts it into his murder belt.

Aruto already recognizes those belts, too.

Mamoru’s transformation into Ekal is terrifying, yes, but he doesn’t scream through it, like the previous two magear did. He’s silent, and since we don’t see as much of it, that is where the terror comes from.

The tragedy comes from how it happens. His uniform burned away… but near the end of the transformation, we see that the handkerchief didn’t disintegrate. It fluttered to the ground. On fire, yes, and definitely not the same size it used to be. But it wasn’t completely destroyed.

Ekal takes his theming from Ekaltadeta, a type of carnivorous marsupial. They can tell it was a carnivore, or an omnivore with a preference for meat, by the “large buzz-saw-shaped cheek-tooth” found in the species fossils. That description of the tooth is a direct quote from Wikipedia.

Aruto grabs Ekal around the waist, calling for Mamoru, to try and wake him up. This isn’t him, so please, snap out of it!

He gets thrown against a pillar for his trouble.

Izu chooses now to speak up. “Once HumaGear code has been modified, it cannot be reverted.” There’s no other option. Aruto has to eliminate him.

“no…”

Ekal, in a robotic monotone, advances. “Humans must be…”

–

“-Eliminated!” Kuehne, growling, finishes the sentence in the loading area where he’s cornered Yua. She backs away to reload her gun, but Kuehne is on top of the shipping container already. She aims her weapon-

And a shot passes right past her ear.

Isamu, stop doing that. I swear, if we lose her to friendly fire of all things…

He stalks up, the belt for his Shot Riser in his off hand, swearing that he will crush all HumaGears.

Yua yells at him to stop, even as he latches the Shot Riser in place, he doesn’t have clearance yet!

“I said I’m going to do it! And I make my own rules!”

Someone needs to knock this asshole down a few pegs.

He pulls out the Progrise key, and as he strains to get it to open, there are momentary flashes of the red-eyed HumaGear attacking, and him running. “The HumaGears are going to pay…”

–

Aruto is flung against a column, again. “HumaGears are the reason I’m here today…”

We flash to when he was a child, with the blue explosion… and see that his father shielded him from it, pushing him to the ground and covering him with his own body.

“A HumaGear protected me.” In the present, he drags himself to his feet. “HumaGears aren’t killing machines!” Izu watches in the background as he puts on the driver and furiously glares. “They’re humanity’s dream!

–

Isamu pulls at his Progrise Key. “HumaGears are a threat, they’re humanities enemy!” He keeps forcing at it. “And I’m going to obliterate every last one of them!”

The Shooting Wolf Progrise Key opens.

Bullet! Authorize!

The belt plays a sound clip of “Kamen Rider” over and over, looping, the background music effect audibly looping with it. And then Shooty McAsshole gets a STUPIDLY COOL TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE.

“Henshin!”

SHOTRISE

He fires the gun, and the bullet looks like it’s a seeker round, by the way it zooms around Kuehne, and then back toward Isamu…

It starts to ‘split apart’ as it returns, and then he pUNCHES THE BULLET IN MIDAIR. It breaks apart and the suit forms. The armored portions are the first to appear, latching onto him, as red circuit lines trace down his body, which presumably turn into his undersuit.

But the best part, especially for me, a Double fan, is seeing his helmet form. The individual pieces start as little disks, before spinning out into the shapes on the helmet. Those same red circuit lights that made the base for his suit also trail up his face, before the helmet segments close in and form the helmet proper.

For those who haven’t seen Double – and you should – that helmet formation is almost the exact same way it happens for Double, Accel, Skull, and Eternal. Literally the only difference is that the helmets in Fuuto form out of… like, fragments? They aren’t distinguishable until they’re actively part of the helmet, basically. And the lines are darker in a Gaia Memory based transformation, instead of glowing, but still.

Kamen Rider Valkyrie had better get an even better transformation than Vulcan is. I refuse to let her be shown up by this asshole.

The elevation increases as the bullet is fired

–

Jump! Authorize!

Aruto, I am begging you to get your mechanical grasshopper under control, because once again, he’s causing even more damage to the surroundings. Also, he is very definitely being teleported down from the satellite – the 3D printing doesn’t seem to go through things, and that grasshopper just crashed in through a skylight.

…Aw, man. We’re not going to get a cool robot wolf or cheetah, are we?

Just one more way that Aruto’s transformation is different from the others. He has the undersuit form first, they have the armor. Zero One has a giant robot, Vulcan has a literal bullet. He has a belt, they have a gun.

Hm.

Zero One charges to battle-

–

-and the shot transitions smoothly to Vulcan doing the same. He and Kuehne are swapping blows in the enclosed spaces between shipping containers, while Yua films it with her RisePhone.

“Fuwa Isamu has become Kamen Rider Vulcan. It’s finally begun…”

…Honey, what do you mean by that?

–

Zero One and Ekal have made it to a parking garage – and. Uh. Okay, so. He knocked Ekal down, and said magear landed near a row of motorcycles.

Remember how Berotha used those cables to reprogram the other HumaGear in the last episode?

Ekal just used that to jumpstart a motorcycle to get away.

And then it gets WEIRDER!

Izu shows up, telling Aruto that his phone can summon his company motorcycle.

And by ‘summon,’ we’re being quite literal here. I think we all assumed that the phone was going to be like the Machin Builder. It’s not. The phone has a bike app, that he has to scan on his belt, same as the Progrise Key.

This is where the ‘Changing to Super Bike, Motorcycle Mode’ voice clip comes from.

Then. We see the satellite – which Genm Corp and Over Time agree is called ‘Zea’, as opposed to ‘Z-A’ like Rider Time had chosen. A section on it rotates, and it is definitely straight up sending the grasshopper down for the transformations. How can I tell that?

Because a panel on the satellite opens up, dropping a giant Risephone to earth.

Regular phone, in a polite female voice: “Please watch your head.”

Aruto, confused: “Eh?”

Ceiling: destroyed

The giant risephone is floating over the rubble – yes, it’s definitely floating in mid-air, I can see it bobbing up and down. Aruto presses the giant bike app icon, and there’s the ‘phone becomes a bike’ aspect.

Aruto just sort of goes with this. His life has already become weird enough in the past day and a half, why not just get on the floating phone-bike-comet?!

Zero One and the Rise Hopper nyoom down the street in hot pursuit.

–

Ekal, meanwhile… seems to be following traffic laws much more closely on his stolen Honda than Aruto is on his company vehicle. Case in point, Zero One just used a car as a ramp to get some air. He got too much air, and drove on the side of a building, shattering the windows, several stories up, before finally going back down to the actual ground.

This show is wild, and I think that insert theme is kicking back in.

Oh, no, maybe it’s just normal fight music. Everything looks like it’s going at a weird speed, because they’re allegedly fighting each other by punching and kicking while driving motorcycles next to each other. And it looks really slow! I. You know what, it gets us some NICE stuff, so whatever. Such as Ekal having extendable fangs that nearly knock Zero One off of his bike, but him hanging on by literally one hand and foot, and pulling himself back upright in time to avoid getting hit directly by an oncoming truck.

Then he does some truly absurd kicks to Ekal’s face… while standing on the bike seat.

Our protagonist, ladies and gentlemen!

The second kick is the one that knocks Ekal completely off of his respective bike, so Zero One skids to a stop, and goes back to fight, pulling out his Attache Calibur, going after Ekal.

–

The shot of Zero One rushing off screen with his sword transitions directly into Kuehne’s perspective of attacking Vulcan with his own swords. Vulcan blocking a strike and pushing it away transitions directly into Vulcan’s perspective as he shoots.

The cinematography of this show so far is just. Mwa. Beautiful.

There’s some time with Vulcan dodging the boomerang blades, before Kuehne must catch them and leaps down to attack-

–

-transitioning right into Zero One parkouring up and off of a shipping container to kick Ekal.

Wait. A shipping container? There’s. Uh. Your new location has a lot of those. And Vulcan’s already surrounded by them.

And AIMS thinks Zero One is another rogue HumaGear.

Uh-oh.

…Oh.

Oh, my heart. We’re not even getting that conflict yet.

We’re getting the end of the Zero One versus Ekal fight.

Breathing heavily, Aruto pulls his Progrise Key out of his driver. “There’s only one thing that can stop you…” His voice is shaking, he does not want to have to do this. We see a shot of him tying the kercheif around Mamoru’s arm. He looks at the key, and then back at Ekal. “And that’s me!” His voice is breaking, and so is my heart, and I’m pretty sure he’s trying not to cry under that helmet.

The music is dark, dismal.

There’s nothing heroic about this sunset victory.

–

Yikes.

So. Uh. Vulcan’s initial finisher.

He, naturally, activates the progrise key and shoots. That’s as expected. Four over-sized energy bullets come out. That’s as expected, it’s a superhero finisher.

What’s significantly less expected is for said energy shots to then turn into energy wolves, which track down the fleeing Kuehne. And bit onto his limbs. Okay, yes, fine. When the first two have him by the arms.

They pin him against one of the shipping containers as the other two go for his legs, and when I say ‘pin him against’ I am being incredibly literal.

The wolves turn into spikes and literally pin him in place.

This shipping container isn’t even anywhere Vulcan can see. He fires again.

The energy sphere literally burns straight through three consecutive containers before it reaches where Kuehne is pinned and then presumably melted.

I say presumably, because we don’t see any remains. We do see that the fourth container has had a hole melted through, same as the others. Zero One sees this, as well, since he’s right on the other side, and just barely didn’t get hit by the massive ball of energy that was still going.

Vulcan looks at him, gun still raised and shaking slightly with his rage.

A cloud of smoke billows past Zero One, obscuring his escape.

Vulcan stands alone, a full moon hanging low in the sky.

–

The next day, Jun is heading a press conference – or, trying to. Nobody seems to believe that he doesn’t have any comment with regards to any potential HumaGear having gone berserk. Yua and Isamu watch the chaos unfold as they stand along a back wall. Also, Isamu must have screwed up his shooting arm in that fight, because it’s in a sling.

“It’s the truth!”

And just like in the board room, all it takes is a short, sharp phrase from Aruto to silence the room, even as the theme song intensifies in the background.

Hiden Aruto strides forward, in a well-fitted suit, Izu following a step and a half behind him as he takes the stage. She starts a video as he speaks.

It’s Mamoru, and Jin, right before Mamoru was turned into Ekal. From the direction of the camera… this is taken from a feed from Izu herself.

Aruto, at the podium, in front of reporters and government officials, tells them that the true people behind this are the terrorist group Metsuboujinrai.net, that they hack HumaGears and corrupt their programming.

Going by Yua and Isamu’s reactions, they had no idea that anything of the sort was happening. They also know full well that the third person in the video is Aruto – they recognize that hoodie from the same afternoon.

If he was trying to cover this up, why would he film himself being attacked? Why would he film it with one of his own security guards doing the attacking?

He swears that he will prove that the HumaGear are not at fault.

(He doesn’t say this, but… he’s not doing this as a CEO, but as a person. It’s not a corporate desire driving him to prove his companies innocence, it’s because it’s what’s right, and humans and HumaGear alike deserve better than this.)

One of the human reporters asks who he even is.

“Chief Executive Officer and President of Hiden Intelligence, Hiden Aruto.”

Jun looks like he wants to do a murder.

Aruto has come off cool and collected, serious throughout this entire section… and then a HumaGear reporter brings up that it seems unlikely a comedian like him could be a company president.

This was a mistake.

He steps out from behind the podium, looking like he’s going to make a grandiose statement, and… no. No, it’s one of his terrible, nigh-untranslatable jokes. Something about bright futures and shining and whatever. Izu is now his accomplice, helping him out by shining a light from her tablet.

The room is left silent for a completely different reason.

…Oh no. It’s not going to be heroic resolve that wins Isamu over to Aruto’s side. It’s going to be Aruto’s terrible, awful, no-good sense of humor.

Because Isamu wasn’t fighting the urge to punch him in the office.

He was trying not to break out laughing.

This aspect will not end well.

Isamu and Yua leave, him trying to regain his stoicism, as Aruto desperately begs Izu to stop explaining his jokes.

––––

Zero one zero one zero one zero one zero one I DON’T HAVE A GOOD END COMMENT

UH.

Okay, so. The special effects in this show. The cinematography. They’re SO GOOD.

I acknowledge that Yua’s going to have a very hard time getting a better transformation into Valkyrie than Isamu has into Vulcan, but by gaim, I need her to beat him out.

The cuts between shots tying into each other during the fights was just. Ugh. Yes. It’s beautiful.

The only problem I have right now, that I’m willing to get into, anyway… where are our opening credits?! Are we going to have to wait until episode four for them?! Because episode three is where we’re finally getting Valkyrie, so they might just be waiting until we have our three main riders. Might.

As for the problem that I’m not willing to get into just yet… I know that I didn’t mention, during the press conference, that there’s a shot of… a new Mamoru. I don’t want to get into the topic of “can you ‘recreate’ an AI” at the moment. I’m not good at dealing with things like the Ship of Theseus Paradox in the first place, and since it looks like we’re going to be getting more into the ‘do HumaGear have hearts’ next episode, I’d like to at minimum wait until then.

Until next week!

Zero one zero one zero one zero one- PLEASE JUST GIVE US OUR PROPER OPENING SEQUENCE ALREADY I BEG YOU.

(Takahashi-san, please. Please don’t start off doing the thing from Ex-Aid, where Excite wound up being an ending theme for a good third of the season. Please.)

[homebody-nobody]

We pair one, right? How about...uhh... "People lie all the time" and, uh... "real smooth, tripping over air" Not sure if that's what you meant and kind of late to the party but there you go

Hi hello I am a  trash  blogger who had finals… and then ADHD. I’m assuming this a prompt which like !!! thank you !!! I never get sent these !!! Since you didn’t send me a pairing and my blog Is The Way It Is I’m assuming you’re a bellarke fan or at least tolerant of said pairing so that’s what you’re gonna get

Bellamy doesn’t really do parties. It’s not because he doesn’t have a lot of friends (okay, so he has like, three) but he tells himself it’s because he hates the crowds, the noise and the sweat from a mob of unruly drunken bodies. Also, he never gets invited to them. So it’s pretty normal that he’s sitting in his apartment on a Friday night, alone and tuning out the noise from upstairs. The room glows softly, all three sets of his fairy lights and his desk lamp on to keep the night at bay. Sitting on his messily made bed with its ancient, pilling dark green comforter, he holds his guitar on his lap, making a smudged mess of a piece of notebook paper as he strums a chord progression and tries to put his raspy voice over it.

His phone starts to buzz relentlessly just as he’s figuring out the chorus, and he curses as he digs through his nest of pillows and blankets he’s created. When he finds it – directly under his left knee – the name on the screen drops a stone down his throat. It’s Clarke. In a panic, he jumps off his bed and stands in the middle of the room. After pacing a few times, he picks up.

Also on ao3

“Hey,” he breathes, and even though she’s not in the room, every sense is trained on what he can read of her reaction through the phone. His vision blurs, his hearing dulling until it’s just her voice, her breathing on the other end. They haven’t spoken in over six months, since their relationship ended, bloody and loud, at the beginning of the previous semester. She’d come back from the summer different, stony and just as impenetrable as she had been when they first met as bullheaded, impetuous underclassmen. They fought, but it was beyond the usual teasing and bickering. She never told him what happened. She shoved him away so violently, slammed all her walls down so fast he never really understood what he’d done wrong.

“Bellamy?” her voice cracks on his name, and he hears the tears, thick in her throat. “I didn’t mean – Oh God, I’m sorry, I –” her breath gasps and quakes in her chest. “I was just –”

“Clarke, breathe,” he says, fighting to keep his voice even, to not let his own growing panic show through. “Take a breath, princess, you can do it.” The nickname slips out softly, a habit he never got past, and she squeaks on a sharp inhale. “Breathe with me, sweetheart, come on.” He squeezes his eyes shut, so tightly the world turns to stars, and leans his forehead against his door, one fist opening and closing, the other hand white-knuckled around his phone. His own breaths are shaky still, but hers finally slow to match. Flexing his hand against the door, he listens to Clarke’s shuddering breaths, and all he wants to do is find her, hold her, get so close he can’t tell his limbs from hers, let her fall asleep, safe in his arms.

But he’s not allowed that, anymore. She left, and for all he wishes, he doesn’t think she’s coming back to him. “Can you come over?” she sniffles. It’s a weak and searching question, and she seems reluctant to even ask it.

He pauses, remembering the last time they were in the same room, the hurled insults and the crackling tension. “Do you… think that’s a good idea?” he asks, and he’s hopeful, too, but cautious. Scared, like she is.

“I –” she coughs and sniffles again, “I don’t care,” she huffs out on a sob. “I need you, Bellamy,” She cries for a moment more and he’s caught, frozen, logic and desire at war in his chest. Then, she says the word that breaks him, the word that always will. “Please.”  

It works. It always does. “I’m on my way,” he says, and it’s an exhale, a relief. It’s been half a year, but he still feels her absence as if it was fresh, like her voice on the other end of the line has ripped off the bandage over a festering wound. He tries not to think as he walks the few blocks downtown to her apartment. She lives in the complex in the center of downtown in their small college city, with the pool on the rooftop and the huge LED screens that plays the football games on Saturdays. It was a source of tension when they first met, what with Bellamy’s particular relationship to wealth. But then he got to know her, how sarcastic and hardworking and hilarious she was. How fiercely loyal and confident and determined.

He fell in love with her. It was inevitable; they were two cosmic bodies orbiting each other, pulling one another in, a collision course destined to end in fire and destruction. But it was a gorgeous supernova while it lasted, red and golden and orange flashing in the darkness, light and fire, passion and flame. And then, like everything, it died. And he never knew why. He’s not sure how this is going to go, as he walks. He’s hopeful, as he always is. A life like his has taught him that as long as there’s still breath in his lungs, there’s hope. But he thought he knew Clarke, knew how her brain worked, how she thought and what she wanted. He understands humans, for the most part. Clarke used to tell him he was “good at people,” sometimes as a compliment, sometimes because she was being belligerent.  

But he lost her. She pushed him away, far enough that he couldn’t see her anymore, couldn’t reach out and hold her when she needed him, couldn’t feel her warmth in the cold. Stepping up to the buzzer, Bellamy reaches out his hand, and falters. Every piece of advice Octavia’s ever given to him echoes through his mind, her unyielding criticism of everything Clarke had done, everything Octavia had blamed her for. But then he remembers his sister’s eyes, green and sharp as winter, desperate to prove herself, and push through anyone who gets in her way. Bellamy, with Clarke’s help, had begun to discover the ways his sister used him, how he had settled back into a secondary character in his own life. Octavia hated Clarke for that, and Bellamy hated himself for ever listening to her. He rings the buzzer.

Clarke responds immediately, the door to the lobby clicking open. Hood up, hands planted firmly in his pockets, he’s not eager to meet the eyes of Sterling, the kid at the desk, or anyone he might know hanging out in the ground floor lounge. He recognizes the voices of Harper and Monroe over by the pool table; praying they don’t recognize him, he scratches the back of his head through his hoodie, using his arm to block his face. It doesn’t work, and Monroe calls his name, he turns, and their face lights up at the sight of him. “Bellamy!” they call, “hey!”

He turns, slowly, his mind filtering through a thousand different responses and finding none. “Hey… dude,” he responds, and then physically flinches. Knowing he looks wrecked, his eyes stay on his shoes.

Monroe’s cheerful expression slides off their face, replaced by a fleeting look of concern, immediately followed by understanding. Harper opens her mouth, but they nudge her in the ribs without looking. “Tell Clarke I hope she’s okay,” is all they say, before tugging on Harper’s elbow and directing her attention forcibly back to the game. Bellamy has some idea that they know something about the reason Clarke was crying on the phone, and that nags at him.

He hates not being the first to know everything, anymore. Telling secrets was something Clarke was never good at; she struggled with every aspect of sharing her feelings, and Bellamy was the same. They were a grumpy, sometimes malaligned pair, but they fit, somehow. They were each other’s confidants, steady points, rocks in a frothing river. She has someone else for that now – maybe more than one person. That hurts most of all, that he’s become insignificant. But, she did call. So maybe he still is her secret keeper. Monroe keys him into the elevator vestibule, so Clarke doesn’t have to come down and let him in.

However, since he already rang the buzzer, she’s in the hall when the elevator opens, her keys in her hand. “How did you –” she starts, just as he says “I ran into –” She laughs, a half-made, awkward thing, and it hangs. Stepping out of the elevator, Bellamy notices the tear tracks on her face, the salt collecting in her eyelashes, her cheeks, bloated and red. It’s only second nature to step forward and cradle her face, his thumb sweeping over her cheekbone. She starts, when he touches her, and he freezes, but it’s only for a moment before she leans into his hand. “Clarke…” he says, and it’s a whisper, a breath, the fall of a crumbling wall, the dissolution of a half-made barrier.

Rushing forward, she stumbles and crashes into his chest, tripping over her own feet. Her keys jangle behind his back, her face buried in his shoulder. His arms pause, hanging in the air for a moment before they clasp around her, his palms flat against her back. He can feel the warmth of her skin through her thin t-shirt, and her lips find their familiar place on his shoulder. It feels right, to have her back in his arms, to feel her breath and her pulse matching up to his.

“Real smooth,” he grumbles to diffuse the emotional weight of the moment before it overflows, “Tripping over air.” He attempts nonchalance, but his heart thunders in his chest and his stomach is somewhere at the base of his throat.

She chuckles, watery and soft against his skin. “Shut up.” Finally pulling away, Clarke swipes under her eyes with the cuffs of her white sweatshirt. Bellamy realizes with a jolt that it’s his, from his high school lacrosse team. She already looks different, even after only a few months. Her hair is shorter, cropped short around her chin, and there’s a shock of hot pink in the bottom three inches on one side, like she’d dyed it a long time ago and already and started growing it out. The sight chips a little deeper in the widening cavern in his chest.

Turning and obviously expecting him to follow, Clarke heads towards her apartment. Once she’s around the first corner, Bellamy releases the breath he was holding, heavy and loud in the concrete hallway. It echoes louder than he anticipated; it feels like all the anxiety it contained settles in his hair and on his shoulders, and he resists the urge to shake it off. He settles for pulling his fingers through his hair before setting off after her. Clarke gives him a small smile when he catches up, and his stupid heart drops to his feet. Even with the tear tracks and the blotchy red face, she’s gorgeous. She’s ruined him – he won’t find anyone more beautiful than her.

Unlocking the door, Clarke sniffs before saying “Excuse the mess. It’s been a rough – while.” Her space was usually fairly messy anyway, since she was both incredibly busy and wildly forgetful. But the scene they walk into looks like a bomb has gone off. Jackets and sweatshirts are on every surface of the living area, a stack of half-finished canvases sat next to the TV, and the dropcloth and easel look like they’ve been in the middle of the floor for over a month. Dust is thick on her bookshelf, and there’s a stack of dishes in the sink.

Bellamy feels a little sick and frustrated with himself. Because she lives without a roommate, there is no one around to monitor her, to pick her up and drag her out of the house when she is isolating herself and hibernating like a bear. When they were together, he usually took over that role; reminding her to eat, to switch the laundry, to not live like a hermit raised in a barn. Six months was too long to go without checking in. Part of him feels responsible for the place she’s in.

Ignoring all of it, Clarke beelines for her bedroom. The bed, for some odd reason, is made, even though the floor is a thick carpet of t-shirts and tops. She clambers up on it and pulls a large stuffed deer into her lap, wrapping her arms around it and clinging to it for dear life. Her watery blue eyes watch him as he stood in the doorway, taking in the scene, his heart breaking even farther with each second. He didn’t realize it had gotten this bad. He should have been around to make sure it didn’t.

She watches his face, and she still knows every line, every twitch and glimmer that gives away Bellamy’s every emotion. He’s shattering in slow motion, hairline crack by hairline crack, and it’s her that’s doing it to him – seeing her in this state. And she’s watching him blame himself; it’s in the pucker of his eyebrows and the shift of his cheeks. The lump rises in her throat again, and she chokes back tears with an apology. “I’m sorry, Bellamy,” she sobs, and then drops her forehead against the stuffed animal. “I’m so sorry.”

Bellamy steps on a pile of t-shirts and sinks down on the bed next to her, already hushing and comforting in his soft, deep voice. “It’s alright, it’s alright” he repeats, pushing the head of the deer aside so that she looks up at him. He’d gotten for her for their first – and only – valentine’s day together, because he’s a stereotypical cheesy romantic and for some reason, deer are Clarke’s favorite animal. “Hey, look at me. It’s okay.”

“It’s not,” she says, shaking her head, looking at him. The sudden closeness almost hurts. After six months – half an entire year – of barely hearing from her, seeing her only at parties and events, and now they’re alone in her bedroom, sitting on her bed, and she’s filling up the space with her eyes and her voice and her smell, and it’s almost too much. Clarke takes a deep, shaky breath, and moves the deer from her lap, turning to face him. Sitting criss-cross so they’re knee-to-knee, she takes his hands, and focuses on them as she speaks. “It’s not, because –” and her voice breaks, and he’s so glad she’s touching him, finally, so he can hold her hands tighter, give her some solid ground to stand on. “Because I hurt you, and I never told you why.”

“Clarke,” he breathes, “We don’t have to do this now.” He smooths the hair off her forehead and he wants so badly to pull her into his chest and let her cry. He wants to let his touch shut out everything, make it just the two of them again, together against the world.

But she doesn’t fall into him, just sniffles and wipes at her eyes again. Taking another deep breath, she seems to be preparing herself for something. “No,” she says, “We do, because –” another shuddering sigh. “Because I lied to you.”

This one hits him in the chest, scooping away at the hollow already there. Bellamy and Clarke didn’t start their relationship well; there was a lot of screaming, and then light hearted banter, and even when they were together they fought and teased and bickered – but there was never any lies. “About –” he stammers, “about what?”

She drops her eyes, and he watches her struggle with what she’s about to say, watches her start to raise her walls again, and then pause, remembering who she’s with. Fidgeting, she adjusts her grip on his hands a few times before she begins. “When we –” She catches herself. “After I –” she tries once more before finally settling “at the end of that summer, I – I left. And I told you it was because I thought we – that we’d run our course and that I –” she chokes on her next words, “that I didn’t love you anymore.” her eyes start to fill. “And that was a lie. God, it was a lie.”

Confused doesn’t even begin to cover where Bellamy’s at right now. Part of him is elated, that she hadn’t randomly fallen out of love with him, but he’s terrified of the possibilities of her lie. Maybe it really was something heinous, something he would never be able to forgive her for… although, he’s not entirely sure that’s possible. “What was it?” he asks. “What did – what did you lie about?”

Clarke pauses and sighs once more. “Do you remember my cousin Madi?” Bellamy nods slowly, not entirely sure where this is going. He’d met Madi at a few of Clarke’s family events. Thanksgiving, Christmas, things like that. Since his mother was dead and he’d stopped answering his sister’s calls, Clarke’s family had become his. Madi was a cute kid, fourteen and full of energy, ready to grow up, but not quite there yet. She hero-worshipped the both of them, but they didn’t mind. She was fun to hang out with, and pretty funny, and loved all the same old-school nickelodeon cartoons they’d grown up with. Bellamy’s stomach drops at the foreboding tone in Clarke’s voice. “She was diagnosed with some kind of rare blood disease at the end of last summer.” She says, all in a rush, like it’s a relief to get it off her chest.

“She got hurt, and her blood was almost black, and I was babysitting her and I had to take her to the hospital and she got put on permanent oxygen and then things just –” Clarke chokes on the words, her eyes filling with tears. “They only got worse from there, and now –” her tears are flowing now, collecting and dripping off her chin, but she just keeps talking, like she’s been holding on to it for too long and it all just needs to come out. “Her mom just called like half an hour ago and she’s in this experimental surgery and they don’t know if she’ll pull through and she’s halfway across the country in Polis and I’m stuck here, and I can’t – I don’t know what to do and I just —” she dissolves into too-quick breaths and sobs, and finally, Bellamy pulls her into his chest. Her face falling against his shoulder, she curls up into his lap, crying, ugly and loud against his neck. It hurts him, to feel her shaking in his arms, to know there’s nothing he can do but hold her, keep his arms as a boundary around the pain, so it can’t get any worse, so it can’t grow beyond something she can control.

When she tires herself out, her breath evening as the tears subside, she laces her fingers around his shoulder and pulls herself closer. “I’m sorry,” she whispers again. She’s torn down and flagging, just so tired. She wants to lay down, to have Bellamy hold her so close she can’t tell where she ends and he begins. She wants to close her eyes and stop existing, just for a while. She wants to forget.

Bellamy lifts her chin off his shoulder and pulls away slightly, enough to look her in the eyes. “If it’s forgiveness you need,” he says, brushing a piece of hair away from her eyes with his thumb. “You’re forgiven, okay?” His heart hammers in his throat, but he means it, every word. There are a thousand other emotions storming around in his chest; grief, for Madi, sadness and empathy for Clarke, and yes, a little bit of anger, too – at the unfairness of Madi’s condition, even at Clarke, for not letting him help – but she’s here, and she needs him, and he’ll do anything, to protect her.

She bites her bottom lip, unable to pull her eyes from Bellamy’s, deep and brown, looking warm and genuine, feeling like home. “But I lied,” she whispers. She knows how much Bellamy values honesty, how he grew up surrounded by lies and treachery and sneaking around, and how he needs people to be upfront with him. She knows how hard this cut, her deceiving him. And as much as it makes sense, as much as she’s justified it these past six months, she hates herself for it, too.

“Clarke,” he says, in a whisper, his voice cracking on the single syllable of her name. And that’s how she knows he’s sincere. It’s the same way he says her name at the end of every fight, the same way he says it when he gives in to every emotion, when he buckles under every burden he makes himself carry. His eyes start to well with tears, and he shakes his head, just the slightest, a bitter smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. It’s him saying don’t be naive, don’t think I would ever hold this against you. So much in this small gesture. “People lie all the time.”

There isn’t anything left to say. She rests her hands on either side of his face, brushing her thumbs against his cheekbones, and rests her forehead against his – a question. Breathing ragged, hands trembling, Bellamy pulls her lips to his. A kiss, so simple – but an answer, a promise, a second chance, all the same. A whimper of relief creeps up the back of Clarke’s throat and – like so many times before – they fall into each other. It’s not perfect; they’re both a little teary and a little desperate, but they find their home in each other, and it feels like the first time all over again. It’s slow and sweet; she falls, and he catches her, again and again.

When she finally pulls away, lips tingling, skin aflame, he nudges her nose with his. She almost laughs. That’s Bellamy’s move, something small that he doesn’t even realize he does. Something comforting; a reminder that he’s still here, present in the moment, all the way with her. “Will you stay?” she asks, smaller than a whisper.

“Of course,” is all he says. It’s late already, and they’re both exhausted, so – after a few minutes more of Bellamy holding her – they separate. Clarke is already in her pajamas. Bellamy pulls off his shirt, and she tosses him a pair of his sweatpants without looking at him, her face red. He chuckles. “I’ve been looking for these.”

“Shut up,” she mumbles, hiding under the covers.

He turns off the light and climbs up behind her, his arm sliding around her waist, solid and strong. She closes her eyes and turns over, nuzzling into his chest. They lay in the dark for a while, Bellamy dozing, dragging his fingertips up and down her spine, Clarke trying to sleep, but with a white-knuckle grip on her phone, willing it to ring. The night wears on; eventually, Bellamy drops off, but Clarke stays awake, breathing him in, trying to find comfort in the circle of his arms, pacing her breaths to his even ones, lightly tracing her fingers over his face in the moonlight that filters through the curtains. She whispers apologies to him, over and over again – not just for lying, but for leaving, for not explaining, for cutting and running right when she needed him most. She knows he can’t hear her, that he wouldn’t want to, wouldn’t let her blame herself, but it makes her feel better.

At five, just as the sky is beginning to lighten, her phone rings. It had slipped between the two of them in the middle of the night, and the vibrating wakes Bellamy as well. Clarke rockets upright and answers it, her other hand clutched in her short blonde hair. Sitting up, Bellamy rubs a hand up and down her spine, attempting to hide the anxiety clawing at his chest. He has to be strong, for her. Her half of the conversation is just “yeah”s and “okay”s and finally, a “thank you. I love you, keep me posted.” She hangs up, and then turns and throws her arms around his neck. “She’s stable. She’s gonna be okay.”

Bellamy holds on tight, feeling her press her smile against his shoulder, where her lips always find their way, where they belong. He lets out his own sigh of relief. “Thank God,” he sighs. Madi had started to take the place of Octavia in his heart, in terms of brotherly affection, and he had his own worry for her. “Oh thank fucking christ.” And then suddenly, they’re both laughing.

She pulls away, puts her hands on his face like she had the night before. “She’s gonna be okay,”

She laughs, and her smile is almost blinding. Clarke is his sunlight, his hope in the dark, and every time she smiles, he’s reminded of it. Her laugh is disbelieving, but bubbling and radiant. She stands up on her knees, her hands on his shoulders, his on her waist. “Oh my god!” she says, like it’s finally sinking in, “She’s really gonna be okay!” She tries to jump up and down on her knees, but only succeeds in destabilizing herself and falling onto Bellamy, pushing him backwards onto the bed.

He lets out a yell of fake indignation and rolls over, running his fingers up and down her sides with ruthless tickles. She squirms and shouts, still laughing, and as the sun creeps up over the buildings, they forget the past six months. In this moment, they never broke. They never spent too much time alone, thinking of the other. Clarke never pushed him away. Bellamy never let her. In this moment, there is only the early morning sun, and their impossible laughter, and the small victory of temporary relief.

Finally, when Clarke is breathless and tears are starting to leak from her eyes, Bellamy stops the torture and leans in to kiss her, long and deep. She tangles her fingers in his hair and can’t stop smiling against his lips, as these last hours have brought her more happiness than she could have ever imagined. She wraps her legs around his waist and tries to pull him closer, but he pulls away. “Wait –” he says. With his hair impossibly messy like that, his lips shining and his cheeks flush, it’s the last thing she wants to do, but she stops. His eyes are wild, and she can tell he wants this as much as she does, but something is (barely) holding him back. “Why did you call me?” They both knew there were several other people she could have called, people that definitely would not have brought even more emotional baggage to the table.

Her heart jumps to the base of her throat, a blush rising in her cheeks. It’s stupid, and embarrassing, and she hides her nervous chuckle in his shoulder. “It’s stupid,” she says. He rolls off her (unfortunately), and settles next to her on his side.

“Tell me,” he urges, holding her hand when she places it over his heart.

She focuses on her palm against his bare chest, the heat of him, the contrast of their skin. “Remember when we met at that like – peer mentor thing, and you had to give us all your phone number?” Bellamy nods, remembering the day they met. Clarke was a new freshman, Bellamy a sophomore who had somehow landed a position as a peer mentor for Arcadia University’s honors program ‘freshman experience.’ His contempt for the position had been obvious, and none of his students had liked him, and vice versa. The ‘mentor feedback’ forms from that year ensured it was a one-time gig for him. It wasn’t until he and Clarke met at a party several months later that they discovered they actually liked each other. “Well, I uh…” a smile tugs at one corner of her mouth, and she taps her fingertips against his chest. “I put you in my phone as ‘raging asshole.’”

He barks out a laugh, and she hurries to correct the situation, her hands fluttering as he curls forward with the force of his surprise. “I changed it when we started dating!” she insists. He shakes his head, waving her off, gesturing for her to continue her story. “Well, after we, uh –” she doesn’t want to say it. He doesn’t want to hear her say it. “Well, after, I changed it back. And then, last night, I was trying to call Raven, and I hit your number instead.”

“So… it was an accident?” he asks, wondering why he feels disappointed.

“I guess,” she says. But then; “But you picked up the phone, and I realized – it was you, I wanted here. It was you I needed.” He surges forward to kiss her again, and when she pulls him closer, he doesn’t stop.

After, when they’re laying skin-to-skin and the morning has taken over the room, Clarke looks up at Bellamy from where she’s laying on his chest. Soft golden light filters through the curtains and falls across his relaxed, pensive face, setting his bronze skin aglow, turning his deep brown eyes into liquid amber. His fingers are drawing absent patterns across her skin, and she’s sated and safe and happy. “Bellamy?” she asks, easy, but still worried at the answer.

“Yeah?” he responds, adjusting his position so he can look her in the eyes.

It almost stops her heart, that this beautiful man can be so good, and come back to her again. “Do you –” she pauses to heave a deep breath. “Do you think you could love me again?”

His face softens, and he brings a hand up to pull her chin up, giving her a sweet, slow kiss. “Don’t you know?” he says, “I never stopped.”

[imdoingwhateverisnext]

My Ears and My Head

I forgot my earplugs today. I will never do that again. Loud startling noises that aren't musical or choreographed are painful to me. The sudden ear blasting buzzers, sneakers squeaking, whistles blowing, loud seemingly angry people (at times), who sat next to me yelling at the referees, all while sitting on the bleachers at my daughter's basketball game, was all very overstimulating. To say the least.

Describing the feelings and sensations from my perspective would be very rudimentary at best. I am new to sharing this sort of information. I hope that by the end, it will at least have been a therapeutic writing exercise for me.

I use my earplugs in Wal-Mart sometimes, or when I am waiting in a doctors office, or when I am waiting in line at the DMV. I can hear 5 conversations at once, and there isn't yet a word I can come up with that describes the sensation in my head and ears when I am hearing all of these things at once. It is unpleasant and it causes me to feel like I am being squeezed. It starts at my temples, it moves to my throat, and then to my chest. I begin to sweat and then it feels like I am smothering. Breathing becomes more difficult, and I begin to lose focus on my surroundings. I then hyper-focus on whatever task I am performing. If I am only a spectator, it becomes more difficult.

If I am shopping, often, I will say "fuck it", and hurry to check out, leave the line or just "bail" knowing I will have to come back at another time. That is a crushing defeat, but a short term save of my sanity. More often than I would like to admit, I have finally made it to a check out line without the main reason I was at the store. I will make it to my car in mental exhaustion only to realize I still need several items that were on my list.

Today I was in a crowded gymnasium, I sat in an unoccupied area of the gym on purpose. I chose my spot based on absence of people. Within 5 minutes, several people sat almost right next to me. I noticed immediately that there was still a lot of room in so many other places. Why did they sit right here? Of course they were going to be the loud ones screaming at the referee for the next hour. Their kid and my kid were on the same team. I should have been happy to have "advocates" for our girls out there. If the referee were to get some calls wrong, God knows I wouldn't notice, and apparently a few were missed or bad. I get it, sort of.

Every time someone next to me screamed at the referee or for whatever reason, it was like a gun blast next to my ear. I was trying to focus on my daughter as she was playing while also watching the buzzer to make sure I could cover my ears before it went off; because my dumb ass forgot my ear plugs.

The only way I can describe the sensation that I feel when a loud startle noise hits me when I am unprepared, is an entire body jump, involuntary muscle flex stress reaction. It isn't pleasant. It is like a muscle cramp that lets off after 20 seconds or so. It starts at the ears, but immediately the shoulders jump, the neck tenses, my legs jump and sometimes, even my asshole clenches.

Imagine if someone walked up behind you and blew an air horn next to your head while you were trying to solve a math problem. Even if you knew ahead of time they were going to do it, but you didn't know when. It would be very distracting and hard to focus on the task at hand. My task was watching my daughter's high school basketball game. It sounds incredibly simple, doesn't it? If I were a normal human, yes. This would be incredibly simple. Therein lies the inner personal frustration.

I left the gym twice to go outside and get cool air on my face because it became so crowded and hot. Once I entered the ladies room and tried to put my sweaty hair up in a hair tie. It looked terrible, which added to my stress. When I got back to the bleachers, I could feel the people around me. The closer each person got to me, it felt like I was being gradually smothered. My breathing felt more constricted as more people poured in.

The gym felt hotter and the air felt stagnant. As the temperature rose, so did the noise and the tempers in the room. It was a close game, which didn't detract from the noise and heat at all. This is the most crowded the gym had been since I had been watching these games.

The girls on the team played their hearts out. I watched several wipe outs that actually made me flinch and wonder if the girl needed help. They played great and my daughter was amazing (unbiased of course). Our girls team won a close game. The parts I was able to witness and focus on, were really good. The rest of it seemed like being in a noisy fishbowl with 20 frogs, 50 cicadas, and 200 crickets. I left immediately after I held my ears for the final buzzer.

I didn't even tell my daughter goodbye when I left, but she knew I was there. I had to get out of there. It felt almost as if my life depended on it. I got to my car and navigated through way too many cars and people walking for a high school basketball game. I turned on my loud music, it may sound paradoxical, but it helps me. I turned on my air conditioning, and I finally began to decompress. Within about 5-10 minutes I felt almost normal again.

This kind of thing is frustrating to me and even more difficult to explain to regular people. Whatever that even means. This is a window into my mind for future people who might need to dissect it.

I gleaned a joking entrepreneurial suggestion from this experience. If I ever owned a stadium or gymnasium, I would keep it as cold as I would need to so that a person might see their own breath on a regular basis. It would be like an ice skating arena without the actual solid floor ice. I would put a disclaimer on the door regarding the temperature. I would keep the temperature as low as I could without deaths or lawsuits. I would tell people to come as they are, but also in extra layers, if they were easily chilled.

People who get cold easily don't typically act out, in my experience. It was usually the hot-heads who ruin hings for everyone.

Stay chilled

[shownuslaugh]

SJ’s Day

Pairing: SJ/All Members

Series: Bigbang 6th Member AU

2016

“First question! What is SJ’s favorite fruit?” The MC doesn’t even have time to take a breath before Seungri is practically beating the buzzer on the little side table. “V.I.?”

“Oranges!”

The typical noise accompanied by an incorrect buzzer sounds and the crowd laughs. He looked so happy to be the first with an answer too.

Taeyang is next. “Kiwi?”

“Incorrect,” the MC announces. Another buzzer goes off. “GD?”

“Cherries.”

There’s three dings followed by an annoyed sigh to SJ’s left. She peeks over to see Seungri with his head in his hands, shoulders dropped low in defeat. Out of reflex to comfort him she walks over to his table and gives him a quick back hug.

“It’s okay VI,” She shoots him a finger heart before going back to her seat. A low sound of excited screams can be heard from their audience at the gesture.

“I thought even if I didn’t guess anyone else’s questions correctly I would get SJ’s!” Seungri gestures wildly, competitiveness setting him on edge.

“You thought wrong!” Taeyang remarks with a grin.

“I’m sure you’ll get the next one.” The MC points up to the screen. “What is the first thing SJ does in the morning?”

Seungri slams his hand down on the buzzer. “Calls me!”

“Incorrect!”

“What?” Seungri looks at SJ in disbelief. “I’m your best friend! How is that not the first thing you do? What’s more important than me?”

Top cuts off the tirade by buzzing in. “She wakes up…”

“Do you want to be a little more specific, Top?” The MC prompts.

“She wakes up… and she regrets not calling VI because it means he’ll just complain all day.”

The MC shakes his head. “Incorrect. D-Lite?”

“She wakes up and she calls everyone except VI?”

“Sorry, not quite.”

The fans start throwing out their own answers that are equal parts hilarious and just plain wrong. They know SJ well enough though, since it doesn’t take long for them to start edging closer to the actual answer.

“The fans are getting closer than the rest of you,” The MC exclaims. “Would you like a hint?”

“Yes!” Seungri scoots to the edge of his seat, listening intently.

“It involves her dogs.”

“Takes them outside!”Seungri is so confident he’s correct he jumps up when he gives his answer.

“No, unfortunately not.”

“Talks to them!”

The MC hesitates. “Be a bit more specific, VI.”

Seungri gives SJ an exasperated look. “Why are you so difficult? Can’t you just give a normal answer?”

“I’m not difficult! The rest of you are just dumb and don’t know anything about me!” SJ crosses her arms. “We lived together the majority of our adult lives, VI. I’m disappointed you don’t know the answer to this.”

“You didn’t get those dogs until after you moved into your own place!”

While Seungri and SJ bicker Jiyong quietly buzzes in. “She asks the dogs how their night was.”

The MC looks at the cards, nodding to himself. “Correct! Another point for GD!”

A loud exclamation can be heard from the fans when SJ winks at GD. She puts her head in her hands when they start teasing her about it. This is the way it always goes though. VIPs like to tease their Kitten about their Dragon and make her turn a bright shade of red.

“Yeah, yeah, they’re adorable!” Seungri waves his hands at the crowd in an attempt to calm them. “Can we have the next question please.”

“VI’s upset he won’t be SJ’s favorite after this.” Taeyang can’t resist teasing.

“Who else would it be?” Seungri’s tone is demanding

“Me?” Daesung stands up, raising his hand.

“You’re both wrong. It’s Top!” SJ rushes over to hide behind him when Seungri grabs a bottle of water. Top pushes her away and she cries out dramatically, practically bolting across the stage to get out of range of the water. “Stop! I just had my hair done!”

“You should’ve thought about that before making up answers to questions and making me look bad!” Seungri responds. “Stay still!”

“NO! AHHH!” SJ yells when she collides with Daesung’s solid chest. He wraps his arms around her, holding her in place so Seungri can pour half the bottle on her head. “I hate all of you!”

Daesung and Seungri high five one another in victory. 

“Is any one interested in the next question?” The MC- bless him- does his best to reign in the chaos.

“No, we can move on now.” Seungri settles back in his seat, a huge grin stretched across his face.

“See if I answer any of your questions you little brat.” SJ tries getting the water out of her hair to no avail. She’s soaked and it’s all Seungri and Daesung’s dumb fault. “Why did none of you stop them?” She questions the older three.

“You looked like you had it under control.” Top’s just as bad as the younger Bigbang members. In fact, he’s probably worse.

“Even if we helped you would’ve yelled at us for not helping sooner.” Taeyang knows SJ. He knows there’s no winning if she’s in a position she doesn’t like. “What about you GD?”

GD shrugs. “You didn’t look impressed I’ve gotten your questions right so far.”

SJ’s mouth falls open. “So you let those idiots pour water on my head?”

Daesung presses a hand to his heart. “Idiot? At least I finished school!”

“Don’t use my lack of education against me! I’m street smart, not book smart.”

Top makes a confused face. “Are you sure?”

Taeyang points over to SJ with a playful glimmer in his eye. “Last week she texted me and asked me if I wanted to bring ten other people over for dinner. She made pasta and didn’t realize it gets bigger when you actually cook it.”

“Stop picking on me!” SJ pouts. “GD, you’re the leader. Make them stop.”

“Do you acknowledge I know the most about you?”

“Yes!”

“Do I win?”

“Yes!”

“What will your gift of love be?”

SJ thinks for a moment, a small brush creeping to her cheeks when the fans let out a collective ‘ohhhh’. “You gave Sol a selfie as a gift? We’ll do the same.”

GD nods. There’s a three second pause before he says, “Okay.”

SJ hops off her seat, skipping over to Jiyong. As she passes Top and Taeyang she sticks out her tongue. 

“Here,” she says, handing Jiyong her phone. The two of them press close together and the fans cheer.