#c) having gotten an Actual Eight Hours of Sleep in One Morning for the first time in months or

[cjgladback]

[Video ID: A 6 second long, mostly 4 frames per second, 3D animation of two cartoonish bipedal dinosaurs in a sun-dappled fig grove with beds of clover and purple flowering bushes. The dino center-frame is a hadrosaur (duck-bill) with a large wedge-shaped crest, keeping its eyes closed while it does a slow windup and punch toward a wooden board out of reach on the right of the frame. The other dino has pointed features and is sneaking up toward the hadrosaur's neck from the left of the frame, dodging the sweep of its tail twice before being caught off balance with the tail's sudden movement with the punch. The predator is knocked flat on its back while a fig caught on its foot claw flies in an arc to knock the board over the tree root it was leaning against, revealing a line drawing of a toothy dinosaur head on the front of the sign. The final brush of the hadrosaur's tail as it returns to its rest position hits the unconscious predator's chin, causing its tongue to loll out. The hadrosaur opens its eyes to see what happened to its target. End ID]

This is not done yet! But! Yesterday was the first time in an embarrassingly long time I had the patience to place a layer of figs and leaves through the lag, save, render a test frame, wait for the computer to calm down so I could save the test frame without the file crashing, and continue. I even got back on the horse after one false move caused a crash anyway!

I've got about 20 or so leaves and figs to place/move to finish this off. And these test frames brought to my attention that I'll need to set a render time limit for my final pass--though with the 6-frame step they should have been done in under 8 hours, two of the frames (the second of which provides no reasonable guess of how it is different from the rest) decided they should take 8 hours each. I stopped the second one when it was one hour into its siege and directly saved from the viewer node but the first fully got away with its shenanigans overnight. The normal frames take under 18 minutes each but I've just downloaded the Super Image Denoiser add-on and am checking what settings might have a positive impact without glitches. (The temporal denoising on first blush introduces a ton of jittering with its own vector motion blur or other issues with the real motion blur instead; and trying regular SID right after without letting the computer fully cool down resulted in a crash when it was supposed to start compositing the first frame so...I'll do more tests once the file's really ready but those rounded-up-to-20 minute frames might be here to stay.)

The trees' trash rookie geonodes setups are bothering me again. Especially when the first extra-long-render frame seemed to be due to the ilokelesia (aka owl aka predator) getting too close to the overhanging branch when it jumps, interfering with the leaves and their many light bounces. But I know that it would be several more hours of work to maybe get a better branch shape (scattering something like the bush nodes in place of the branches so I didn't have to get the roots and their surroundings completely overhauled?) for no guaranteed improvement in render time. And this project has already taught me its lessons; I've already put them into practice. Even with drastically more complex characters and plenty of environment assets the more recent project's files were a relative breeze to work with. I just need to place my leaves, render this, and get it published as an honest milestone of where my environment skills were at the start of this year.

Soon.™

[young-dumb-and-vaccinated]

A Deafened Bard (Stephen Strange x Female!Reader) pt. 2

Doctor Strange and y/n confide their tragic backstories in one another. Y/n struggles with her feelings for him.

Trigger warnings: abusive parenting, use of firearms, discussion of death and grief, mention of alcoholism

"On the outside, always looking in

Will I ever be more than I've always been?

Cause I'm tap, tap, tapping on the glass-"

You stopped yourself before you could indulgently belt out the titular lyric.

"Ew, why was I singing that?" You muttered to yourself. "I don't even like that song." 

You knew, subconsciously, that it was because you were trying to avoid what you really wanted to sing. For the first time ever, you had an audience. Someone was paying attention. 

"Love of my life, you've hurt me-"

"Oh, come on, butterfingers." He interrupted. "Love of my Life by Freddie Mercury. Give me something hard." 

"I wasn't aware it was classic rock trivia night." 

"Then why were you staring straight at me while singing?" He smirked. 

"Was I?" You cocked your head, expertly deflecting his implication. "I'm so spaced out I don't even know where I'm looking." 

"It's Freddie Mercury." He insisted.

"Uh, yes and no." You corrected, drawing on your encyclopedic knowledge of Queen from one particularly weird summer in high school. "While Freddie Mercury wrote the song, it was recorded on a Night at the Opera. Which was accredited to the whole band." 

"That's a nitpick," he shook his head. "I'm still right." 

You couldn't wear your heart on your sleeve anymore. You could only distract him with 70s glam rock trivia for so long before he started to notice a pattern. Although a sappy love song was in your heart, you sang the anthem of the depressed theater kid. 

You were staring straight at him, though. But who wouldn't? You studied his features only for artistic inspiration. His sharp jaw and high, high cheekbones were… inspiring. 

You couldn't lie to yourself. You fell and fell hard.

"Butterfingers!" Master Strange called out from the other side of the sanctum. "I need you!" 

You dropped your pencil and pushed yourself out from the chair. "Coming!" 

You followed the voice into his chambers. This was a new development, you thought. Out of respect for his privacy, you'd never dared to snoop around in his bedroom. But this was practically a written invitation. 

The room was spotless. Not a book or a scrap of paper out of place. Nor was there much to look at at all. A handful of picture frames, some magazines from when he was a surgeon, all featuring himself on the cover. 

"Butterfingers!" He called again, as if he knew you were about to snoop.

"I'm here!" You yelled back, eyes wandering around the room. "What do you need?" 

"I left my watch somewhere in the library!" He sounded disproportionately panicked for what was just a minor inconvenience. "I need you to go get it for me." 

"What does it look like?" You asked. 

"It's a $27,000 watch." He snapped impatiently. "It looks like one." 

"Jesus." You cursed.

"Don't give me that shit, [F/N]." He ordered, slamming his fist down against the sink. "Just do what you're goddamn told." 

"Alright, alright!" You put your hands up. "Fine, I'll get it." 

You hurried down the stairs and into the library. On the floor between his favorite chair and a stack of musty old books was a slim, silvery watch with a plain black band.

You picked it up and examined it. Apart from the price tag, was there really any reason for him to be so worried about it? He knew exactly where he left it. Did he have reason to believe it wouldn't be there when he returned? 

All you needed to do was flip it over to get your answer. You read the inscription on the back. 

Time will tell how much I love you -- Christine 

You should have known that his massive ego wouldn’t keep the women away forever. Hell, it certainly didn’t deter you. Much uglier douchebags have gotten far prettier girlfriends than they deserved.

You closed your fingers around the watch and sighed. The fantasy you created for yourself, of slowly, deliberately earning his love was shattered. Christine already beat you to it, it seemed. You tried to smother the part of you that resented this person for her exclusive right to Master Strange's affections. You didn't know her, but you loathed her. And you felt filthy for it.

With a heavy heart, you brought the stupid, criminally expensive little timepiece back to its rightful owner. 

"Here's your all-important watch, master." You mumbled, placing it on the bedside table. 

"I know I told you I would give you space to question things," He said, swiping it from the table and expertly affixing it around his wrist. "But I'd really appreciate it if you didn't question this." 

You tried to sound as non-passive-aggressive as you could. You attempted a more forgiving tone, but you couldn't hide your hurt. "It's fine. I don't care." 

"I didn't mean to get short with you, [F/N]." His voice softened. "I'm sorry. But this watch-" 

"It's fine." You cut him off, peering at the floor. 

"It was a gift." He finished anyway. 

You felt the lump in your throat rising. You knew what the watch represented and you wanted to smash it to pieces. Along with the sting of rejection, you felt the sting of tears in your eyes. "I know. I saw the engraving."

"She died two years ago." He lowered his head. 

Suddenly, all your ill will towards this woman turned into guilt. 

"I'm sorry to hear that." You said. "I can't imagine what it's like to lose someone who loved you so much." 

"She had agreed to come to a speaking engagement with me. As a second chance, and-" Pain wrapped his voice. He closed his hand tightly around the watch and held it close to his chest. "Have you ever been in love before, [F/N]?"

From the way your heart ached, and how easily the thought of never being with him made you cry, you knew the answer. You'd been avoiding speaking it into being thus far, but you couldn't lie to yourself anymore.

"Yes." You whispered. 

"You'll learn soon enough." He muttered. "It only brings more suffering." 

The tears finally breached and you tried to blink them away. You didn't know what emotion was causing them: guilt, shame, contempt, anger, sadness-- they were all present.

"Master Strange, I-" you stuttered, tripping over your breath. "I respect what you've gone through, I really do, but it's not fair to take it out on me." 

"You're right." He conceded. "I'm sorry. Please, go get some sleep.”

You nodded. “Right.” 

You slept as late as you could get away with the next morning. In apprentice terms, that only meant sleeping until eight thirty. Your dailies could wait an extra hour while you laid in bed, feeling like garbage. 

You stumbled down the spiral staircase in your pajamas. No bra, no makeup and no effort. You didn’t even run a brush through your hair. Why try, you thought. Why make an effort for the man who would never see you as anything but the help? 

When you saw the piano, though, you did a full 180.

In the living area was a French cherry baby grand piano that definitely was not there before. You certainly would have noticed it before. You placed your phone on the counter and approached the new addition. 

As if the memories were woven into the very muscles and ligaments of your fingers, you ran down a few octaves of C Major. The keys were smooth as porcelain and the sound that emanated from the instrument was next to heavenly. 

A bright orange post-it note was stuck to the music rack. 

“Love of my Life”, Queen, A Night at the Opera. 1975 

Was this a request, or an admission of wrong? Whatever the case, it made you smile. 

"You weren't being entirely honest with me, Butterfingers." He said, randomly materializing behind you. 

You turned around on the piano bench and looked up at him. "What was I not honest about?" 

"I'm so glad you asked." He sat down on the bench next to you, phone in hand. "Because when you said you used to play piano, you didn't specify you were actually a student prodigy." 

Sure enough, on his phone, he was scrolling through your Instagram. Dozens of videos of a much younger [F/N] playing hundreds of different songs, singing with too many vocal runs and doing so with the entire content of her soul behind the music. 

"Student prodigy is a bit strong." You turned your head to hide your blush. 

He scrolled up and found a picture of a young, zit-faced teenage [F/N] holding an acceptance letter. "Last I checked, Juilliard doesn't give full-ride scholarships to just anyone." 

You covered your face with your hands, smothering an embarrassed smile. "God, please. I'd rather you'd found my OnlyFans." 

He raised his eyebrows. "As tempting as that sounds, I'd still rather hear your explanation on this. Why did you give up on something you loved?"

You looked at him in surprise. "You really want to know?" 

"Well, I told you mine." He playfully nudged you in the side. 

You took a deep breath in. "Well, it was about two years ago, now-”

"Cheers to you, [F/N]!" Your best friend Holly raised her glass of champagne in your direction. "Juilliard ain't gonna know what hit ‘em."

"I'll drink to that." You said, bring your own flute up to your lips and taking a swig. You wretched in disgust as the vile liquid ran down your throat. "Or maybe I won't."

"You're gonna have to get used to it." Holly nudged you with her elbow. "I think most professional musicians are alcoholics."

You narrowed your eyes at her. "I don't think that's right."

"Is too." She smirked. "Conductors are mad strict. Abusive even. Drive musicians to drink all the time."

You laughed. "Is everything you know about the world of music from Whiplash?"

"And The Perfection." She added.

"Thank you, Holly." You said, attempting to take another sip of champagne, purely for dramatic effect. "Very cool."

You felt a pair of hands on your shoulders. "Hi, Holly. Enjoying the party?"

Holly took a step back. "Hey, Mrs. [L/N]. Yeah, it's great."

"I hope you don't mind," Your mom said, her fake nice voice eeking through her clenched teeth. "I need to borrow [F/N] for a few minutes."

Holly's face fell. "Sure. I'll catch up with you later, [F/N]."

Your mother tugged you off to the side. With a stressed huff, she began. "Jason is out in the fields with his ROTC friends."

"And what do you want me to do about that?" You asked, knowing her drunk self couldn't read your sarcastic tone.

"Could you go get him and bring him home?" She said, squeezing your upper arm.

"Are you kidding?" You spat.

"[F/N], he's drunk." She scolded. "Do you want him to get another strike on his record?"

"I don't care." You mumbled under your breath. "Have him call an uber. Hell, let him sleep it off in the field. Not my problem."

"You know what he's like when he's drunk." She rationalized. "He gets rowdy. It had better be you."

You tensed up. "No. Holly and I are going to the French Quarter. I don't have time to babysit Jason."

"Just pick him up on your way there?" She pleaded. "It won't take long."

You knew this wasn't going to stop. "Fine, but this is the last time."

You were both dressed far too well to be trekking through the swampy ass nowhere when you should have been fucking your way through the French Quarter. Luckily for your evening plans, all you needed to do was follow the sound of gunshots.

You slammed the car door shut and Holly followed suit. Finding him was the easy part. The hard part was hauling his drunk ass back home.

"Fun's over, shithead." You announced, heels sinking into the sod as you spoke. You didn't have much trouble projecting over the gunfire and getting their attention.

"Shit, [F/N]?" Jason sputtered, so drunk he could barely keep his head straight.

"Holy shit, I didn't even recognize you in that dress." One of his dumb fuck friends added. He jabbed Jason in the side. "Why didn't you tell me your sister's hot?"

"Buster, I-'' You clenched your teeth. "I don't care if you live or die, but my mom needs me to bring Jason home."

"If you get in the car now, we won't have to use the chloroform." Holly added.

Jason scratched the back of his head with the barrel of his gun, then pointed it at you. "You're gonna have to make me."

"Jesus fucking Christ!" You exclaimed, hitting the deck. "What the fuck, Jason!?"

Jason and his dumbass friends laughed. "You should have seen the look on your face, [F/N]!"

"Put down the fucking gun-" You seethed. "And get in the fucking car."

He lowered the gun and looked like he was going to concede. Just when you thought he would cooperate, he stuck it up again. He keeled over in a fit of laughter when you and Holly panicked again.

"Look at them!" He shouted. "They're so fucking scared!"

You knew out in the middle of the swamp, nobody could hear you scream. So you used it to your advantage.

"Jason, you're going in the car, or under it." You raised your voice. "I will mow your drunk ass down like eight day old roadkill right here in this field and you will be LUCKY if anyone finds your bloated, shit-covered remains before the crocodiles get a whiff of you."

That seemed to get his attention.

"Sorry, boys." He pouted. "You heard her."

He had to 'get you' one final time, though. Only that time, the gun went off. Just centimeters from your ear. You clutched the side of your head, trying to drown out the deafening ringing with your screams.

You vaguely remembered Holly pistol-whipping Jason before loading you into the car to drive you to the hospital, leaving him desolate and drunk in the field.

"It was a one-in-a-million shot." The otolaryngologist tried not to sound impressed at what was clearly some kind of anomaly very few got to witness in a medical career. "When the bullet fired, the gunpowder traveled down your ear canal, burning the cells of your auditory nervous system and... singing your eardrum... clean off."

Your eyes widened. "Off?!"

The doctor lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Miss [L/N]. I'm afraid you'll never return to full hearing again."

You didn't want to kill the messenger. You knew she was only doing her job. "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

"If we could do a tympanoplasty, which, given the condition of the drum, is unlikely-" she began. "There would still be no way to fully repair the hair cells along the ear canal."

You took deep breaths to try and quell your simmering rage. "I'm leaving for Juilliard in three months."

"Hearing aid technology has improved significantly over the last decade." She said, a somewhat hopeful upturn in her voice.

That was when your mother decided to join in on the conversation. "Oh, we can't afford that."

You thought you were going to crush your teeth into bits from how tightly your jaw was clenched in fury. "Take it out of Jason's college fund, then."

"Oh, [F/N]." She said as if you had just told the funniest joke imaginable. "Please. That wouldn't be fair to Jason."

"You can afford to send that blithering idiot to the Citadel." You hissed. "You can afford to buy me a hearing aid so I can play piano."

"Beethoven was entirely deaf." Your mom pointed out. "And he became the greatest composer of all time. It's really just mind over matter, sweetie-"

"Sure, that makes perfect sense!" You plastered on a deranged smile, feeling driven to the brink of madness. "I can repair my destroyed eardrum with the power of positive thinking! Jason gets thirty-five thousand dollars a year to play soldier, but I have to just use my imagination."

She covered her face with her hands as if she was being attacked and went into kicked-puppy mode. "Don't be mad at Jason, [F/N]. He didn't mean to hurt you-"

"Fuck this." You said, releasing all your tension in those two words. "Fuck all of this. I'm tired of you defending that chauvinist asshole. The next time you see me will be when one of us is dead."

"Where are you going?!" She wailed.

You snatched your purse from the table and threw it over your shoulder. "I'm moving out."

“Disgraced at age nineteen?" Master Strange said, leaning back on the piano. "Let me guess, you turned to alcohol to cope?"

"You'd think, but actually no." You shook your head. The tone of the conversation had taken a sharp left turn from sadness to dry, apathetic amusement. "I probably would have if I could have afforded it."

"You missed out." He said. "Drinking a whole bottle of eighty year old scotch was definitely the highlight of my grieving period."

You'd never joined the clauses 'Master Strange' and 'drunk off his ass' in the same sentence before then. It was an odd mental picture for sure. One you needed to see to believe.

"I got desperate." You admitted. "Luckily, New Orleans had a lot to offer someone like me, so I didn't have to go far to find people claiming to have answers. But it was all essential oils, incense, binaural beats-"

"I'm sorry," he cut in. "What kind of dickhead suggests binaural beats to someone with only one functioning ear?"

You threw up your hands. "Right? Doesn't make sense. Anyway, I came across a woman named Mistress Fantina and she pointed me in the right direction. How to heal my body through control of my spirit."

He looked at you with that fascination of the human body characteristic of those in the medical field. "It worked, I assume?"

"I figured it out." You shrugged. "But I got so invested in the Mystic Arts that I forgot all about Juilliard. Became a full-time student. Ever since, I never once thought about returning to my old life."

"I suppose if I'd discovered this world because I had lost, say, my ability to perform surgery, it would be hard to leave it behind and return to the operating room." He thought out loud. Sighing, he closed his hand over his watch. "But no matter how medical science evolves, you can't reverse death."

You let the quiet linger for a moment.

[ssamie]

six. “friends die together”

kozume kenma x fem dazai!reader

(bsd x hq)

tw: mentions of suicide 

masterlist.           suicide freak!

kenma slowly opened his eyes. the dim rays of the sun were slowly peeking through his bedroom window as he stretched and rolled around his bed, wrapping himself up in a blanket burrito as he felt his eyes slowly fluttering close once again. 

it had been atleast a week since he's actually gotten sleep, and now he's just trying to relish in the feeling of rest before he completely disregards it again. 

all of a sudden, his phone rang. 

"what the.." he mumbled with a groan 

it was currently five in the morning, and he knew kuroo was smart enough not to call him. especially since kenma would usually just be gaming or would just straight up ignore him. 

"hello?" he muttered to the phone, not bothering to check the ID 

"good morning!" y/n's chirpy la-di-da voice resonated from the phone 

immediately, kenma groaned and rolled his eyes. he had to fight the urge of hanging up the phone then and there. 

"what do you want? and why are you calling me so early in the morning?" kenma asked 

"now, now! don't be so stingy kenma-kun!" she laughed "i just wanted to check up on ya, that's all" she said, followed by soft humming of a melody 

kenma blinked as he groggily listened to her words. "oh. okay.." 

"thanks for that, i guess.." he said 

"aww! your voice is all deep and gravelly in the morning! very hot." she chirped 

kenma sighed. he could practically sense the stupid flirty smile appearing on her face. "and you sound oh so happy. as always." kenma chirped back sarcastically

a small smile grazed his lips as she started laughing on the other line. 

"oh, kenma! you're so funny!" she chuckled "when have i ever been happy?" 

"wait what-" 

"anyways, kenma-kun.." she trailed off, her cheerful tone now dropped as an eerily serious and guarded one replaced it. 

"y-yes?" kenma gulped 

"im afraid im in a tight spot as we speak. its quite critical. please come to the location i will send you." she spoke in a monotonous tone 

"huh? wait!" kenma exclaimed. he sat up on his bed, subconsciously reaching for his nekoma jacket which was messily laid out on the foot of his bed. "what are you talking about?" he asked, his hands were shaking, as well as his voice. 

"its a crisis! only you can help!" she said 

"okay. i-i'll be there.." 

humming under her breath, y/n patiently waited for kenma to arrive. she didn't have so much faith at first, but once she heard the soft thumping of feet on the ground, she grinned. 

"w-what happened?" kenma asked through ragged breaths as he skidded to a halt infront of her "a-and what are you wearing?" kenma asked 

he took notice of her rather formal attire, laying underneath the sand colored coat she had. his brows then shot up as he calmed his ragged breathing. 

"is this because of your weird detective work thing? did you get trapped?" kenma asked worriedly. when she didn't answer, he simply panicked even more. "why did you call me?! you should've called those other detective people!" kenma exclaimed 

"i got in myself" she admitted with a small innocent smile 

"what?" kenma deadpanned, now starting to regret running atleast eight blocks just to help her 

"well, you see.. i heard there's a way to commit suicide by getting stuck in an oil drum. so i decided to give it a shot" she said with the same innocent smile. she then chuckled sheepishly as she started sinking deeper into the oil drum. 

"but now that i've wedged myself in this deep, i can't get out on my own" she said 

kenma simply stared her down, looking unamused, tired and annoyed. "i see." he says 

"i think i might die" she pouted as she sank deeper into the drum. 

kenma grunted and sat on the ground, sitting a few feet from the drum she was stuck in. he was kind of impressed on how her whole body hadn't snapped in two yet. 

"well, isn't that what you wanted?" kenma said with a huff of annoyance 

"i like suicide" she said with a scoff, sounding somewhat offended "but i don't like suffering and pain! why would i?" 

"i see" kenma said with a sigh. he sat up from the ground and narrowed his eyes, trying to look for a way to free her from the oil drum

"also, i learned this only after i stuffed myself in here, but it wasn't even a suicide method!" she laughed 

"but, it was actually a torture method from the-" 

before she could even finish her sentence, she was cut off as kenma pushed the oil drum over, sending her and the drum rolling off. he let out a huge breath of air as he cradled his aching hands. 

"ni-nice job, kenma-kun" she squeaked out as she wiggled free of the drum. "but now.. we have only an hour left before school starts" she said as she patted down her clothes and combed her fingers through her hair 

"and i heard from nekomata-san that he has some news that you boys would surely love" she said as she stretched her aching muscles 

"are we really gonna move past the fact that you wedged yourself in an oil drum!?" kenma exclaimed in aggravation 

". . ." she looked at him with a dumb smile before sending him a wink and a thumbs up. 

"yep! we sure are!" 

"i hate you so much" kenma muttered 

she smirked teasingly and loomed over his shoulder "hehehe~ well if you hate me so much, then why go through all the trouble to help me?" she cooed 

kenma scoffed and flicked her away. "because we're.." he trailed off "nevermind.." a small blush covered his cheeks faintly, but it was enough to get her attention. 

she chuckled lowly and poked his cheeks. she narrowed her eyes and tauntingly stared him down. "oya? what's this, kenma-kun? do you like me or something?~" she teased 

kenma flinched and covered his cheeks with his hands "no! no i don't!" he quickly denied "i just thought that.." he muttered quietly

"since we're friends and all.. i thought it'd be right to help you.." kenma admitted bashfully 

stunned from his words, she couldn't really do anything but stare at him blankly with widened eyes. "we're friends?" she asked 

kenma spluttered at her response, suddenly feeling anxious and embarrassed, thinking that he overstepped their 'relationship' 

"um- i mean.. i just thought that since we've been hanging out but.." kenma said nervously. he fiddled with his hands as he looked down at his feet, too embarrassed to look her in the eyes. 

"sorry, i guess i overstepped. sorry for misreading things" he apologised 

finally realising what she's done, she gasped in horror as she looked at his heartbroken expression  "oh my gosh." she muttered "im so sorry!" 

she frantically patted his back, and stroked his hair "i-i meant like- i didnt know you considered me as a friend!" she exclaimed  "i kind of thought you just see me as a suicidal leech or something!" she shrieked 

"im sorry kenma! kill me now!" she exclaimed dramatically 

kenma finally looked up to see her tearing some of her bandages off, only for her to tie it tightly around her neck. 

"im sorry!" she cried as she squeezed tightly, trying to strangle herself to death 

"wait! don't do that!" kenma said in panic. his hands pried the bandages off and hastily threw them away. 

"you don't have to kill yourself over me" kenma sighed 

she sniffled and crushed him in her arms "kenma! you are most certainly my most treasured friend!" she cried 

"i would die for you and with you!" 

"let's not go too far" kenma said with a small smile 

"shall we start with the double suicide now?" she asks, fully ignoring his interjection 

"no <3" 

"fukurodani?" she muttered, looking quite confused and clueless 

"yes. it seems a three-day practice match has been scheduled" nekomata said with a smile  "their coach suggested the idea and who was i to decline, am i right?" nekomata chuckled 

"this will be a good opportunity for the team to train and explore new ways of playing for future tournaments." nekomata then looked at y/n and sent her a close eyed smile. "and a chance for you to test your managing skills, y/n-san" he said 

she nodded in agreement. 

"well then, now that that's settled.. you’re free to go! rest up and eat well! you'll be playing nonstop starting tomorrow" nekomata said as he ushered them out of the gym 

"thanks, coach!" the team yelled 

as the team arrives by the gate, they started to disperse. fukunaga, inouka, teshiro, and shibayama ended up declining the offer of an afterschool hangout. they claimed they needed the rest for upcoming games, so they left them be. 

"bye guys! bye y/n-senpai! see you tomorrow!!" inouka yelled from across the street. the energetic first year was waving both his arms around while shibayama drags him along. fukunaga sends them a quick nod and a small wave before they completely disappear from sight. 

"hm, so what do you guys wanna do?" kai asks with a smile 

"let's eat!" lev suggested with a grin 

"sure. where should we go? i don't really have a particular craving right now" kai said as he looked at his friends expectantly 

"we should eat at the diner near that convenience store" yaku says "it's cheap and they serve great food" 

simply humming to herself, y/n takes a quick look at the boys who seemed to be lost in their own conversations. her (e/c) colored eyes then landed on kenma, who seemed to busy with his game. 

kuroo was holding on his bag, making sure the pudding-head wouldn't walk into oncoming traffic. she smiled at the boy, taking in his overwhelmingly beautiful features. 

yamamoto was beside her, ranting about his friends from karasuno and their 'goddess of a manager' 

"we’re here!" lev unnecessarily announced as he skipped into the said diner.  "what should we eat?" he asks 

"fish-" ; "meat-" 

yaku and kuroo freeze and look at each other. their eyes silently roam one another as they look at the other with judgment. 

"hah? are we really doing this again, yakkun?" kuroo scowled. the taller bedheaded male leaned down to get all up in yaku's face, while the latter simply did the same 

"dont call me that stupid nickname, bedhead!" yaku scowled as well "and fish? pssh, what are you a grandpa?" yaku said with a snicker 

"could you stop making comments proving you lack docosahexaenoic acid?" kuroo sneered in aggravation 

"you're ought to eat more fish to fix that.. maybe even your height problem!" kuroo taunted 

yaku scowled and gripped the taller boy's collar "your stupid face is begging to be hit!" 

"no! kuroo-san, don't let him hit you!" lev yelled "he's feral!" 

"oi! shut up!" taketora hissed as he covered lev's mouth with his hand 

yaku turned to face lev, evidently irked and angered by his comment. "hah?! come here, you tall lampost! -" 

"wah! yaku-san i didnt even do anything!" lev exclaimed with teary eyes as the shorter boy continued to kick him 

kai and taketora then took initiative to calm their friends down. partially because they didn't want anyone injured. but mostly because they were fighting infront of the diner, and it was starting to get embarrassing. 

"ke-n-ma~" she cooed in a sing song tone 

kenma sighed and quickly glanced at her, before averting his attention back to his game "what?" he said 

she smiled and laced their arms together. she then pointed to a bridge not so far away from where they were standing. "you see that bridge?" she asked "and the pretty river under it?" 

"oh god. i see where this is going." kenma groaned. he turned off his game and followed her finger, eyeing the bridge she was talking about. 

"wouldn't it be so nice if we just jump off-" 

"how about we don't do that?" kenma cut her off with a sigh 

"but you're my friend right?" she whined childishly "don't friends die together?!" 

"how about we don't die at all. doesn't that sound better?" kenma tried to convince her with a sheepish smile 

her smile fell as she narrowed his eyes, seemingly disgusted and offended by his statement. 

"what? no, not at all." 

[strangerthingsharrington]

Can’t Fight This Feeling

-24-

Steve held my hand tightly as we climbed up the escalator slowly. My body had had enough. I was exhausted, tired...just drained.

After reaching the top, I stopped and looked behind us to the others in the party moving slowly up the steps. Max came up first with tears streaming down her face, which still bore a shocked expression.

She looked to me and her lip trembled. I let go of Steve’s hand and walked quickly to her wrapping my arms around her in a tight hug which she reciprocated. My tears overflowed as Max let out a sob.

“It’s okay,” I told her quietly, closing my eyes, “it’s gonna be okay, Max. He saved all of us. Billy is a hero.”

She continued to sob into my shoulder, I leaned my head against the side of hers and opened my eyes, seeing the party around us with sad, solemn looks on their faces.

Lucas stepped up and put his hand on Max’s shoulder, “Come on, Max,” he said gently, “let’s go outside.”

Max slowly removed her arms from my waist and looked at me, I pushed some of her hair behind her ear and smiled sadly at her, “We’re gonna get through this, all together. I promise.”

She nodded to me before turning to Lucas and reaching for his hand.

Steve had come up and stood next to me, he put his arm around my shoulder, “Come on,” he said quietly.

I nodded, turning with him to walk towards the doors to go outside and away from the devastation.

I could hear the guards yelling at one another back in the food court. I could smell the fire burning. I was trying to think about how I’d explain marks on me to my mom when I saw her.

Most importantly, I needed to figure out how to get Dustin and Erica back from the Hilltop.

Steve pushed open the mall door for us and the fresh air hit me like a ton of bricks. Even though it hadn’t been long since I was last outside, it felt like an eternity especially after being that close to fire and smoke.

There were police, ambulance and fire trucks all coming from what seemed like everywhere trying to park and get into the mall. I wondered if they managed to move the monster out of sight in the food court. I wondered how this story was going to be told to the public.

“You okay?” Steve asked me gently.

I looked up at him and shrugged, “I’ll give you an actual answer tomorrow. I need to get Erica and my brother.”

He nodded, rubbing my arm. He began looking around, hopefully trying to find someone who’s car we could use to get them.

“Louise!”

My eyes went wide and I looked around until I spotted her. My mom.

I let go of Steve’s hand and ran to her and hugged her tightly as the tears began to spill over and down my face.

“Where’s Dusty?” she asked.

I sniffled and pulled away from her, “He’s at the hilltop,” I said with a shuddering breath, “we have to get him.”

She nodded and wrapped her arm around me, I looked behind me to Steve and saw him scanning the crowd. Was he looking for his parents?

I looked around and caught sight of Lucas and Max walking towards his mom, before she began looking around frantically.

“Mrs. Sinclair!” I called to get her attention, “I know where she is, she’s with my brother! I’m going to get them!”

Relief flodded her face and she nodded, “Thank you!” she called before turning her attention back to Lucas.

I looked back to Steve and he was looking down at his shoes.

“Steve!” my mom called to him, he looked up instantly, “Come with us!”

He looked quickly around again before jogging over to us, “Come on, Steve,” she said, looking over his face, “you’re just as much a member of the family as anyone, so let’s go.”

At that, tears fell from Steve’s eyes and he pulled my mom into a hug, “Thanks, Mrs. Henderson.”

They broke apart and she smiled softly at him, “Lets go and get these kids.”

We walked to her car and got in, she questioned what had happened and between Steve and myself we managed to tell her about a fire that had broken out in the mall. Where one of us would falter with the story, the other would step in and continue to spin the lie.

Steve gave directions to my mom, as she told us about how her and Mrs. Sinclair came to find out they hadn’t seen any of us for two days, and that they came to the mall to look for us.

Erica was right, Mrs. Sinclair really did want Erica back for Uncle Jacks party. She went to the Byers house to see if Lucas and Erica might have been there, but obviously the house was empty. She then went to the Wheelers house that was empty, before finally coming to my house. They deducted they hadn’t seen any of the kids in about forty eight hours and thought we might have been at the mall, since that was where we all had been spending most of our time.

“When I pulled up I could see the smoke billowing up,” mom explained, “I was so worried but no one would let me in!” she told us as she parked at the bottom of the hill after Steve told her to take the left, giving her more time to make the turn than what Dustin gave him.

Once the car began slowing down, I hopped out and began running up the hill, with Steve calling out my name behind me.

I just needed to get them back. My legs were burning and I felt like I couldnt breath anymore. But I needed to get them.

“Guys!” I called once I almost reached the top.

“Lou?” I heard Dustin call out.

I reached the top, and bent over trying not to vomit.

“Whoa, Lou, you okay?” Dustin asked me.

I breathed in deeply and stood back up, “Come on,” I said ingorong him, “let’s go.”

“What happened? Is everyone okay?” Dustin asked.

I looked over to him, “The national guard came in, if anyone asks there was a fire at the mall,” I said looking between the two of them.

“Lou, is everyone okay?” Dustin asked again a bit more stern.

“Billy died,” I said quietly.

His eyes went wide, “Holy shit. Are you serious? Is-is Max okay?”

I shook my head, “No,” I answered honestly, “come on,” I said, extending my arm out towards them, “mom drove us, your mom is waiting for you at the mall,” I told Erica.

I turned around just as Steve took the last couple steps to the top of the hill.

“Lou, I would’ve gotten them,” he told me breathlessly, “your legs have to be killing you,” he said when he reached me.

I nodded, not even bothering to deny that fact.

“I just...needed to get them,” I said quietly to him.

He watched hesitantly, before reaching out to me and putting his arm around my shoulder, “Come on, let’s get Erica to her mom and then you need to sleep.”

Without saying another word, I put my arm around Steve’s waist and walked carefully back down the hill with Dustin and Erica in tow.

Steve helped me into the front seat of the car as Dustin and Erica talked to my mom about what they had been up to. Steve got into the backseat right behind me, with Dustin going next to him and Erica behind the drivers side.

Mom drove us quickly to the mall with none of us really talking. I stared out the window, watching as my small town of Hawkins passed me by. A week ago this was my boring town. Nothing exciting ever happened here.

I knew differently. Too much had happened in the town. More than anyone would ever believe.

We got out of the car after reaching the mall and Erica ran back with her mom and Lucas. Robin was at an ambulance with her parents talking, she caught my eye and waved to me before making a phone sign with her hand and mouthing tomorrow at me. I nodded to her before I saw El wrapped in Mrs. Byers arms, as they both cried.

I looked on in confusion, unsure of what had happened since I left.

I looked to Jonathan and Will but Jonathan was already looking back to me.

Glancing quickly around the group, I realized who was missing. Hopper.

‘Where’s Hopper?’ I mouthed.

Jonathan looked to El then back to me before shaking his head softly.

In an instant I understood. Police Chief Hopper didn’t make it from the underground lair. Another victim to the fire at Starcourt, I assumed they would tell everyone.

“LuLu?”

I looked over to my mom who pushed some of the hair that had fallen out of my ponytail behind my ear, “Come on, baby. Let’s get you home and get cleaned up and go to bed.”

I nodded, taking another look at the mall that was still smoking, with police and firefighters around the doors looking in.

I turned and walked back to the car with everyone. Dustin went to the front seat while I went to the back seat, with Steve taking the middle seat so we were next to each other.

We kept our hands wrapped tightly together, and I had my head leaning on his shoulder.

“Steve,” mom asked softly looking into rear view mirror to us, “do you want to stay at our house for the night, or are you heading home?”

I lifted my head up and looked to him, he lowered his head and sighed, “I should go home...my parents might be wondering where I am, and I need the extra key to my car.”

“I can come get you in the morning to pick up your car?” I offered.

He looked down at me with a small smile, “Thank you,” he said softly.

I smiled a little back at him and laid my head back on his shoulder for the rest of the silent drive to his house.

When we pulled up the lights were all off and I felt Steve deflate slightly. I guess neither of his parents stayed up to wait for him. Even though he hadn’t seen either of them in almost forty eight hours at least.

“Are you gonna be able to get in?” I asked as mom put the car in park.

“Yeah,” he answered quietly, “I hid a key outside...not the first time this has happened,” he explained to me.

I nodded solemnly, lifting my head from his shoulder and opening the car door, our hands staying locked together even when getting out the car.

“Thank you, Mrs. Henderson,” he said once he got out of the car, “see ya later, Dustin,” he added before closing the door.

“Call me tomorrow when you’re ready and I’ll come get you, okay?” I asked him.

He nodded before letting go of my hand, only to let his arms go to my waist and pulled me to him, resting his face on the side of my head. My arms laced around his neck and I held him tighlty to me, ignoring the pain going through my arms.

He moved his head back a bit and made eye contact with me. His eye was incredibly swollen, dried blood was still around his nose and mouth. He was tired. But he held my gaze with such a sincerity that everything, for just an instant, felt okay.

He leaned down and lightly pressed his lips to my forehead, kissing me softly for a second.

“I’ll call you tomorrow, Lou,” he whispered, with his lips still pressed against my forehead.

I nodded slightly, “Okay,” I whispered back.

We let each other go and Steve took a few steps backwards towards his house I smiled lightly at him which he reciprocated before turning around and walking up to the front of his house.

I got back into the back seat of the car and watched him go.

“I just wanna make sure he gets in,” mom said quietly.

Steve bent down once he was at his front door and went into a flower pot that was out there, he straightened up and opened the front door a second later. He turned to face the car and brought his hand up in a small wave, before turning and going inside the dark house, closing the door behind him.

Mom started the short drive back home, thankfully leaving us in silence, aside from her oldie music station in the background playing quietly. I think she knew we had a rough little while and didn’t want to pester us. For the moment at least.

Once we were inside our house, that’s when she began her different line of questioning.

“So...why haven’t I heard from you guys for almost two days?” she asked once she closed the front door.

I sighed and turned to face her, “We’re sorry, ma,” I told her, “I’ve been hanging out with Robin and I have this thing with Steve that I’m trying to figure out...Dustin’s been hanging out with the party and talking to Suzie on Cerebro...then we were at the mall and the fire and everything...” I drifted off, looking to Dustin to confirm my answer to her new question.

Dustin nodded quickly to her, “Yeah...we’ve just been hanging out.”

“Why are you so bruised up, Louise?” she asked me, “what happend to Steve’s face?”

My breathing stopped, “Um-huh...my arm um-someone grabbed me when we were trying to get out of the mall, to make sure I kept up,” I told her before lightly touching my neck, “I think I was grabbing my throat because of the smoke...I was scared, ma. I don’t really remember,” I explained trying to think quicker.

“Steve got in a fight,” Dustin chimed in, “he won this time at least.”

Mom looked back to me, eyeing my arm and neck again, “Are you sure you’re okay, Lou?”

I nodded, “I’m really okay, mom. A little sore and...yeah, I think I just need some rest.”

Mom sighed and wiped her face of the few tears that had fallen, “I beleive you guys,” she told us, “I do...I was just so afraid when I found out...when I heard that Mrs. Sinclair hadn’t seen Lucas or Erica for a while either...I just couldn’t stop thinking that something bad had happened, to both of you. I don’t know what I’d do if something...” she looked away from us and shook her head.

I glanced over at my brother and saw him looking down at the ground, feeling probably the same way I did. Terrible. Mom was reiterating back to us to reason why Dustin never told me about any of this from the beginning. If something happened to both of us, she was going to be alone and that wasn’t fair.

I looked back to mom as she sniffled loudly, and I knew that was the end of the questioning and she would be changing the subject immediately. When the conversations got to heavy and started making her or us upset she always tried to change it to make us all feel better.

“Go to bed guys, I’ll make a nice big breakfast in the morning, sound good?” she asked looking to us, with tears ready to spill over from her eyes any moment.

“Yeah, sounds good mom. See you tomorrow,” Dustin said before turning and going down the hall to his room.

I nodded once, “Night mom,” I said before following Dustin down the hall.

I followed Dustin to his room and stepped in.

“What is it, Lou?” he asked, taking a seat on his bed and looking at me.

I closed his door and walked the few steps to the bed, taking a seat next to him, “I’m sorry you guys went through this before.”

He sighed and shrugged, “It’s not like we went out looking for this before, and we definitely didn’t this time. But we got through it.

“We’ll all meet up tomorrow with the party and talk out everything. Fill everyone in on the last little bit...talk about Billy and Hopper...” he drifted.

I nodded and stood up, “Yeah...yeah, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow, Dustin.”

“Lou.”

I turned to him again and saw him watching me, “It’s like I said before,” he started, “you just gotta...close your eyes and eventually, no matter how scared or nervous or upset you are, you’ll go to sleep. And another day will start again. It’ll pass. The fear and shit...feels overwhelming to start, but eventually it’ll lessen. It’s worked out for me before.”

I felt my chest tighten just thinking about how Dustin and the rest of the group ha been through this before. How they had to keep quiet about the things that had gone on. That must have been extremely difficult for them to deal with.

“Night, Dustin,” I said softly before turning and leaving his room, closing his door behind me.

I walked right to the washroom and turned the shower on as hot as I could stand it.

I stripped down and stepped in washing off the past forty eight hours worth of grime and dirt and blood and vomit, probably.

My brain was too tired to process anything else. It felt like it was the longest and shortest two days of my life. I couldn’t explain it...it was too much going on all at once.

Once I felt sufficiently clean and like I rubbed my skin raw, I turned the shower off and stepped out, wrapping myself in a towel.

I went to my room and changed into pyjamas, placing my towel on a hook to dry off.

I laid on my bed for hours. I tried to just close my eyes and let sleep find me like Dustin said. But I couldn’t do it. I wanted to scream and cry, out of both relief and sadness. Relief that this was finally over, sadness over all the turmoil we had all gone through and that we were going to continue to go through because we lost Billy and Hopper.

When I couldn’t pretend anymore I opened my eyes and looked at the clock on my nightstand. 3:47am.

I sat up and got up off my bed and heading to the front door, hoping that fresh air would help me in someway.

The house was quiet. I was positive that mom and Dustin were both sleeping, or pretending better than me.

I opened the front door, stepped out, and closed it quietly behind me. I turned to the small two seater we had on the porch, but someone was already there.

“Steve?” I questioned.

He was already looking at me with wide eyes, “Hey...why aren’t you sleeping?”

I tilted my head at him, “I couldn’t sleep...better question is why are you here?”

He grinned at me as I sat next to him, “Same reason.”

“How long have you been out here?” I asked.

He took my hand in his and sighed, looking out across the front yard to the quiet street, “I was home long enough to shower and have my mom and dad wake up because I had the shower on so late, and then my dad got mad at me. I grabbed the spare key and just...started walking,” he told me before looking over to me, “so maybe...two hours.”

I adjusted so I could look at him a bit better, “Steve, you should’ve knocked on the door or something! You didn’t have to sit out here for two hours!”

He breathed out a laugh, “I thought you’d be sleeping!”

I smirked and shook my head before it faded, “What did your dad say?”

Steve hummed and looked to me, “He was mad about me using the shower so late. I asked if he even noticed that he hadn’t seen me in two days...he didn’t,” he said sadly, “I asked my mom and she thought I had been home. I asked them if they even noticed my face. Mom asked if I was okay, dad asked if this was another losing fight of mine. Then he said he was going back to sleep and for me to ‘stop whining’ and get a hold of myself.

“So I left,” he explained looking down at our hands, “they just...whatever,” he sighed.

“Hey,” I said, shaking our hands, he looked over to me, “if it upset you, then it’s not ‘whatever.’ It matters and is-it’s valid, Steve. And it’s important to me, how you feel.”

He brought our hands up and kissed the back of mine, “Thank you,” he said quietly barely moving his lips from my hand.

I smiled shyly at him, “Come on, Steve. I can get the couch ready and you can sleep there, or I can and you can take my bed?”

He shook his head and leaned back, “Can we just...sit for a while longer?”

I bit my lip with a small smile, sitting further back in my seat, leaning my head on his shoulder, “Okay,” I whispered.

Then, in what felt like an instant, sleep finally found me.

——

Title credit to REO Speedwagon and gif credit to owner! I’m so sorry, there’s probably so many spelling/grammar issues!

[kyber-crystal]

fluff alphabet || poe dameron

a/n: for @jangohshit​!! sorry this was so late—i thought it was queued already but oh welp ,.,.,., thank u for being literally one of the best mutuals anyone could ever ask for <3 also leia is peak mom material in this friendly warning :) angst to fluff thrown in, as well

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

we all know he’s the most affectionate person ever despite his seemingly intimidating persona—he loves giving you forehead kisses, back hugs, and picking you up and spinning you around when he gets the chance. 

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

the friendship started because leia had introduced you to him. you ended up clicking right away and spent nearly every waking moment you had together to the point that the entire black squadron would joke about how you and poe shared one functional braincell (i mean, they weren’t entirely wrong). he’s very overprotective—one time you tripped and fell off a ladder while helping rey fix something and he was freaking out about it more than you were. and you were completely fine, asides from a few scratches. again, the squadron loves teasing him about his ‘mama bear’ persona that he develops when he’s around you

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

YES. poe absolutely loves cuddling. he’ll take any chance he gets to hug you—whether that’s hugging you from behind during meetings, running into your arms when reuniting after a mission, or wrapping his arms around you as you relaxed with him and the others by the campfire several nights. you rarely ever slept alone, it was always you sleeping together in yours or his room, and jessika or finn would have to run in and wake you up several times in a row because you got too comfortable and nearly overslept. in short, you and him are attached at the hip

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

it was a mutual agreement between you two that you’d settle down and get married once the war was finally over. you hadn’t had many opportunities to actually sit and talk about it so the conversation was often brought up late at night when nobody else was awake.

poe isn’t the greatest ever at being tidy, but he isn’t bad at cleaning up stuff when he needs to—and any messiness is made up for with his beyond amazing cooking skills. he’s constantly pressured week after week to cook for everyone because the first time he’d made something it was love at first taste. now he’s dubbed the ultimate pilot and sous chef of the resistance

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

if you had to break it off with each other, it would be because of the war. getting into a relationship while trying to fight for your lives could put you into a compromising position and poe hated knowing that he could lose you at any point. this ultimately led to a huge argument—coincidentally, right before you left for an eight week-long mission. there were many tears involved.

you wouldn’t get together right after you claimed victory, but instead, took time building your relationship back up again before finally doing so. there were no real hard feelings involved—it was just a matter of reconstruction :3

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

once poe is committed to something, he’s committed—he’s in it for the long run. of course, he wants to make sure you’re comfortable first before anything else—and in terms of marriage, he’ll probably wait about a year or two. nothing too fancy. 

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

even though poe knows that you’re one hell of a fighter and can take practically anything that’s thrown at you, he’s very very gentle with you—same goes emotionally. he knows you’ve also been through a lot and makes sure to constantly remind you that you’re not alone and that if you ever needed someone to turn to, he’d always be here. 

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

alright, this man NEVER misses an opportunity to hug you. hugs from behind, picking you up and spinning you around until both of you got dizzy, surprising you and then hugging you, holding you in his arms to help you fall asleep after a nightmare, you name it. you joke around about how you don’t need therapy when you have his arms within reach :)

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

he says it first. you recalled it being after you returned from a quick little recon with a few other pilots and ran straight into his arms (as always, because mans loves getting hugs from you yk). 

“I love you.”

“I know,” you responded.

“I taught her that!” -han, shouting as he approached. “You really didn’t think to say hi to me first?”

“Dad.”

poe only laughs and kisses you again.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

ooooof so when poe’s jealous, he doesn’t like to show it but you can tell when he is. it’ll be little death stares from across the room or tightening his arm around your waist, even if it’s another squadron member jokingly flirting with you

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

poe’s kisses are either very gentle or very passionate—it depends. he likes kissing you on the lips but he loves forehead kisses the most. it gives him a sense of protection over you and he loves knowing you’re his special person :3

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

the kids absolutely LOVE him. you always get this warm & fuzzy feeling inside whenever you see him interacting with the younger ones on base; sometimes he’ll catch you staring and just winks at you in response (this little shit KNOWS how he makes you feel and loves it)

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

it’s pretty relaxed most of the time (that is, if it’s the weekend or you’re on break) and poe likes to stay in and cuddle for a little bit before you actually get out of bed. if not, both of you are up at the crack of dawn LOL. you often start off the day with a relaxing morning walk around the base before settling down to eat :)

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

on nights that neither of you can fall asleep, you’ll go outside and stargaze. it’s a very soothing habit you’ve learned to develop and 9/10 times it has one of you (it’s usually you) nearly knocked out cold after just an hour or two. (poe also sees this as an excuse to carry you back inside in his arms)

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

poe’s naturally a very open person but there are some things he prefers to keep to himself. but once he fully trusts you he tells you everything—though this takes maybe a couple months or so. 

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

both of you are aware he’s the more impatient of the pair, although when it comes to you he doesn’t mind waiting. when putting that aside, his patience runs a little bit more thin.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

alright mans knows you like the back of his hand. literally. like. the back. of your hand. everyone on base knows it, too—he remembers the smallest of things about you that even you don’t remember sometimes. this was the biggest giveaway for him that told everyone he was most certainly in love with you. you can guess who hosted your surprise birthday that one night after exegol : ‘)

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

your first kiss—not just because it was a first, but because of how it happened. it started pouring heavily as soon as you returned from a mission and everyone ended staying outside and having a giant water fight. while high on adrenaline, you jumped straight into his arms and before either of you had the chance to think, his lips were on yours and you were kissing underneath the stormy sky. everyone stopped what they were doing halfway and noticed, lowkey it looked like some scene from the notebook (arguably more romantic)

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

even though the two of you claim to share one braincell, poe is very very protective over you no matter how much you protest and claim you were capable of taking care of yourself. usually he’s the one who’s more freaked out about any injuries you get. other than you understood that you had to look out for each other and stick by each other no matter the cost—a promise you two intended to keep for as long as you possibly could.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

a lot. he’s very, very extra. very. han pokes fun at him sometimes for it but he too, was initially like that with leia so he can’t really argue—so instead, whenever poe’s in need of help with planning stuff he’s off to the rescue : ‘) fam rlly went from “no, you are NOT dating my daughter” to “why haven’t you guys gotten married yet?” one time for your birthday, with the help of your parents and the entire black squadron, he put on an entire air show for you complete with firework displays, and needless to say you were head over heels that night. 

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

he doesn’t sleep. poe has a very fucked up sleep schedule and often counts on you to remind him to get some rest—you found him working on his x wing one night and he told you he hadn’t slept in the past thirty-six hours—after which you scolded him and dragged him to bed. he ended up dozing off until noon 0_0

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

he’s not very concerned. though when he notices you staring or whenever you compliment him about his looks it does boost his ego :)

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

oh definitely. so much to the point that it has also become a joke among fellow rebels, even your parents (leia often tells you that she’s worried he won’t function properly unless you’re around and tbh she isn’t wrong lol). you’re his soulmate and other half whom he wouldn’t trade for the world

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

poe has the best taste in music. straight up. nobody argues nor complains when he’s in charge of music for the day, they’re always satisfied with whatever tunes he’s playing throughout the base and it puts everyone into a good mood

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

lack of respect. being inconsiderate. coldhearted. you’re thankfully none of these and for that very reason he’d chosen you—you’re everything he could ever ask for in a person

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

poe doesn’t snore, but he has a SOLID iron grip when fast asleep. “best friends always sleep in each other’s beds!” he’d claim as he crawled in next to you many nights and fell asleep hugging you very tightly. everyone knew it was again, an excuse to get closer to you. but you didn’t mind : ‘)

[pokeexehasstoppedworking]

Love Doesn’t Do Encores Ch18 Battle Gym Leader Melony

It wasn't too surprising all of you fell asleep on the train again that night, seeing how late it was getting when you all hurried onto it like an army of onix was chasing after you all. Thank goodness you managed to catch it and settled down into a couple empty seats to sleep for the night. Come morning the lot of you were already digging into your rations for breakfast to comfort your hungry stomachs that growled for food. And made small talk as the world went flying by outside the windows.

"So how long until we reach Circhester?," you asked biting into come kind of breakfast bar that tasted like bacon bits and oatmeal.

"It's the farthest town from all the others in Galar except for the town in the Crown Tundra Valley but that's farther in the mountains than we need to go," Victor explained after he had pulled out his own phone and pulled up his regional maps to look through them, "It's also deep within the Galarian Mountain Reign so it'll take us about three weeks to get there by train."

"Oh really?"

He nodded again. "The stop we want is Steamdrift Station. From there it's about an hour walk down Steamdrift Way until we get to Circhester and it's gyms."

You paused before blinking and looking at him. Drizzilie taking this chance to pull the rest of your food away from you to eat itself. "Gyms? As in plural?...Like more than one gym?"

"Oh yeah! Guess we haven't told ye!," Gloria cut in leaning into her hand. "The Ice and Rock Type Gyms are located up there and are handled by the gym leader Melony n' 'er son Gordie!"

You paused...eyes blinking wide at them for a moment before pointing. "Hey! Wait a minute! I remember those guys!" YEAH! You did remember them! Ironic since you couldn't remember much of anything else in game. Melony according to in game info was supposed to have a harsh battle style and supposedly be an incredible coach. She ran the Ice type Gym while her son Gordie was in charge of the nieghboring Rock Type Gym also in Circhester. He's supposed to be really popular in a similar way to Raihan and have his own fan base as well that he treats respectfully. ..But the mother and son had a fight over Gordie not wanting to take over his mother's gym and instead but somehow she still became the very first member of his fan club. ...Also he was supposed to have younger siblings as well but you didn't think they were ever shown in the game. You remembered!! That's great! Maybe now you'd start remembering things much more now!! ....You blinked upon noticing the three staring at you. "Uh!...I m-mean I remembering some people talking about them before. Apparently Gordie's pretty popular in Galar."

Hop nodded. "Yeah he is! Last year he was voted Galar's third most eligable bachelor behind Raihan and Lee himself. But unlike Raihan he actually throws a lot of his own events and showings. Lee mentioned once he trained under the old Rock Type Gym Leader before he retired and took over the gym after."

You sighed. Bullet dodged! "Oh. Sounds like he's really nice then." And hopefully won't flirt with you like Raihan did.

Thus began your group's long, LONG trip to the Galarian Mountain Range. Just like your trip back to Motostoke, you all slept on the emptied seats at night but being more prepared Victor had set up his Rotom phone's gps to set off an alarm once the lot of you reached the likes of the station you wanted so you all wouldn't have to take turns staying up all night again to keep an eye out for the right station you wanted. Which was a great idea! Over the next few days you all fell into that repeated pattern minus taking turns staying up at night and during the day just talking about random things while eating food from your rations or looking at whatever the teens pulled up from the internet to show you. Gloria at one point even pulled out her dex books again to finish putting the rest of her pictures into them and showed you the new addtions courtesy of her twin before passing the books over towards the two boys for them to flip through themselves and admire Gloria's handy work. A few more days went by this way until one day Victor all of a sudden said you all should stop at the next town to restock up on food again since it wasn't as much as he thought it was. To which everyone agreed too and at the next town, got off the train and went into one of the random stops which turned out to be a small town like Postwick. From there the four of you gathered supplies and did everything else to prepare to travel again by the time the next train came around before getting back on it and back on your way to Circhester. Day in and night out you four traveled and traveled and traveled. You were starting to get train sick with how much this was going on and found yourself walking up and down the walkways in turns with the others to keep up the exercise and not let yourselves turn your legs to jelly. Until one particular night when you woke up with a shiver. There was a chilly atmosphere inside the metal train from when you were last awake and it was enough for you to make yourself get up groggily. Only to find your drizzilie was lightly shivering as well curled up against your warmer body and stayed clung to you as it groaned in protest at the cold.

"What the-"

"Hey you." You rubbed your eyes turning tiredly to Hop who had his own coat thrown over his shoulders and smiled. "So you're finally awake huh?"

You yawned. "What time is it?"

"About ten in the morning. We're getting closer to the mountains," Victor said and you turned to him next as he rechecked the map on his phone, "We'll be at Steamdrift Station within 'bout three days but you might want to throw on a coat. It's gonna get a wee bit more colder from 'ere on out."

That wasn't a too bad idea actually. You were quick to pull on the coat you had bought and with a bit of a tussle you somehow with Gloria's help managed to pry Drizzilie off of you and put him inside your bag's main opening with Gloria holding it open before you pulled both him and the bag into your lap to make room. And to help keep the lil guy warm. Your pokemon gave a bored expression as he settled down into using the bag as his personal sleeping bag.

"Hey. Don't get too comfy," you reminded him, "Cuz when we leave Circhester you're going back to walking with us again Mr. I-Refuse-To-Get-In-My-Pokeball." Other than rolling his eyes with a sigh, Drizzilie didn't say anything against what you said. "You heard me. This is just to make sure you don't go from a water type to a frozen-water type."

The rest of the three days there was pretty much the same, only now it was hard for any of you all to get to sleep now curled up in the seats because of the cold. Why you even dug out a scarf and wrapped it around your neck and half your face. Didn't these trains have darn heating!? The landscape outside the windows changed too. Going from looking like fall-ish time of the year to mid way between fall and winter, until the last day when you all woke up to have found yourselves so, so...SO!! Cold, and you shivered yanking the hood over your f/c hair more as you looked around and noticed white snow was being blown against the windows like some snow storm. And for all you knew there could actually be one out there.

"ZZZTT. Attention Passengers!," the conductor announced over the speakers to anyone left on bourd. "We'll be arriving at SteamDrift Station within ten minutes. That is all."

"That's our stop!," Victor confirmed, "Make sure you all grab everythin' before we get off."

You all made sure to gather your things, you especially making sure to pull the small hoodie over your Drizzilie's head before pushing him into your bag and telling him to stay in there until you said it was safe for him to come out before zipping your bag up but leaving enough of an opening to allow fresh air to him. Slowly after a few minutes the train finally came to a stop and you all followed Victor out towards the door, you grunting as you stuggled to sling the bag over your shoulders. You had forgotten how heavy this lil guy actually was when carried. You were extremely thankful for the guys getting you the thick coat and scarf too because the familiar full force of Winter hit you as soon as the you all stepped out the door and you shivered from the frosty cold greeting you all. The entire sky was painted in grey snow clouds that made the day look a little dull while snow gently fell from them and down towards the earth below. Around you was a plain looking station that looked more deserted since no one not even a station master was there, and surrounding you all was cliffsides and hills like in Stow-on-Side except unlike Stow-on-Side these were absolutely COVERED in snow and ice as far as the eyes could see as the four of you stood there taking in the sights. The only living things besides you all being pine trees scattered across the snowy land with a cobblestone road leading away from the station that Victor after a moment pointed at.

"That's Steamdrift Way," He explained holding up his phone with a gloved hand to the lot of you showing a map with a red blinking dot that signalled where you all were. "It's connected to Route E-E-Eight. If we go this way we should be at Circhester w-within an hour after crossing Circhester Bridge."

"T-T-Then w-what are we waiting f-f-for?!," Hop stuttered in the cold before pointing a hand forward. "L-Let's get there before we become on thin ice!"

There wasn't any arguments with him as you all headed off. Snow and ice crunched under your all's feet making your group sound like a couple of wooly mammoths trudging through the snow. You all (even you through your scarf covered mouth) could see your breath as snowflakes stuck to your bodies like someone glued white confetti to your clothes as you all followed Victor and his map through the snow. Thank goodness it didn't cover the road up, or else you all might've gotten lost. As you all trudged alone keeping your hands in your pockets after pulling the ends of the sleeves over them to help keep them warm, you all FINALLY came to the stone bridge Victor mentioned before. A cold river running with cold water ran under it as you all crossed and as you walked over it you prayed your drizzilie didn't decided to pop out wanting to swim or see what was going on.

"W-W-We should be there in t-t-ten m-m-more minutes!," Victor shouted back pulling his beanie further over his head.

"B-B-Bloody heck, V-Vick! 'M freezin' my t-tail off 'ere n' I-I ain't even got one!," Gloria yelled back complaining.

"The sooner we git there the sooner ya can rest! So take the energy from ya yappin' mouth and put it to your feet!," He yelled back and Gloria mumbled under her breath.

So you all continued to walk and walk, until you finally reached the end of the road that lead into a metal fenced entrance to Circhester. And you all had a collected sigh of relief once you all got there. It was decently big with it's many story stone buildings you could make out in the snow with cobblestone roads leading everywhere and the figures of two large stadiums on either side of the town as you all got to walking into it. You all passed the pink pokemon center near the entrance of the town and turned right heading towards what you guessed was the town square. A hot spring like fountain was dead set in the middle and there was people walking all around in winter wear with some ice type pokemon or pokemon who could stand this cold weather. Two men had stands selling food in the square as you walked past, one selling some kind of hot wraps and the other......ice..cream??

"D-Dang nabit, V-Vick! W-W-Where's the b-b-bloody hotel a-around here?," Gloria asked rubbing her arms in a failed attempt to warm herself.

"I-I'm with G-Glory on this," Hop added looking around, "I d-don't feel like camping out here at all."

"I'm WORKIN' on it!," Victor spat scowling at his phone hand lightly shaking.....before he pointed ahead of him at a BIG building in front of you all. "H-Hotel is there! L-Let's go!"

You all didn't hesitate to RUN your way to the building he pointed out jack frost biting at your ankles as you did. You all didn't even care if the door was flung open with a loud noise. The rush of warm air greeting your skins was enough to make up for it in your minds as you sighed. Turning your head up to the ceiling in the bliss of getting out of the cold. After a moment or two you finally opened your eyes and blinked them wide open at what you were all looking at. If you thought the Budew Drop Inn in Motostoke was Fancy this place was absolutely F A N C Y with a capitol F!!! It was like one of those luxery hotels in Paris you'd sometimes see in movies or on tv. Complete with marble floors and chandeliers lighting the place up. It was also HUGE!! And this was just the lobby as you gawked around. The other three were busy shaking snow off themselves as Victor walked up to the man at the lobby counter most likely to book your rooms. You hope they weren't too expensive by the looks around here. A moment later he returned with two keys handing one to Gloria before he gestured to the elevator.

"Let's go get settled in and rest for a bit. I'm too cold to think straight. You guys got room fifthteen on the first floor." Whelp! You couldn't argue with that as you all headed towards the elevator and got inside. The trip to the first floor wasn't a very long one as you all piled out and Victor motioned for Hop to follow him to one of the very first rooms closest to the elevator. "I say we all get warmed up and meet up in the lobby to talk 'bout what's the game plan for us 'ere."

"Alright," you agreed with a nod before following Gloria, "We'll see you two in a bit."

Both boys nodded as well before they turned back, Victor unlocking the door with his key before opening it and they disappeared inside. You sped walked to catch up to Gloria who was already standing in front of a door and turning the knob and throwing it open-

"So that means the culprit must be among us!" Gloria paused in the doorway. Eyes wide and hand still out from throwing the door open. "....Wait....Who are you!?" ..You wanted to facepalm. Oh NO!! Don't tell me Gloria opened the wrong door and walked in on someone. You sped up your walking pace as she blinked again. "After all the trouble of deducing things don't go messing it up now!"

By the time you got to Gloria she was already scowling before pointing her frozen hand at him. "N' who might the likes o' you be!?"

You blinked when you looked inside the room....There was a man there along with an older man, a 'hipster' looking girl, a young boy, and some kind of squirrel looking pokemon chewing something as you all stared at one another...Until the middle aged looking man coughed.

"*cough* I suppose I should introduce myself," he proudly put a hand to his chest, "The name's Howses. Yes. THAT Howses. The great detective. I've been hired by the hotel. At present I have corner the culprit of a most heinous crime!"

"What happened?," you asked. Did someone get robbed? Did something go missing? Something worse?!

"I'm glad you asked," Mr. Howses stated, " And that crime is!..The strange case of who ate the large quantity of berries in the lobby!" He shouted pointing to a random basket of apple cores....You and Gloria both gave each other a look. "I've gathered the three people who were present in the lobby at the time of the crime but because of the noise my marvelous deductive reasoning seems somewhat muddled at present."...The hotel...Hired a private detective ..to investigate missing fruit.....What a waste of time! He suddenly pointed at Gloria. "That's it! You interfering child! You will be my assistant!"

Gloria gave him a blank look. "...What?"

"Listen to the stories of each suspect and find the culprit," he said as if what he had just said wasn't crazy or unprofessional at all.

"....Yeah. I ain't doin' that." Gloria dead panned before pointing at the obvious pokemon in the room. "'Sides. I already know who it was-"

Instead of listening the man waved her off and laughed in her face. "Heh heh heh. After listening to everyone's accounts deduced the culprit!"....NO ONE SPOKE!! He pointed at the young hipster looking gal who looked just as deadpanned and done with this as Gloria. "Dancer! You are the culprit!"

"WHAT!?," she demanded angrily, "Why me?!"

"Because you're a dancer! You move and shake your body so much that you needed all that food for extra energy! That's evidence as clear and sharp as the leek of a farfetch'd!"

"WHAT!? What does that even mean!? You're no detective! You're a fraud!" Your thoughts exactly!

The man gave a nervous look all of a sudden. "W-Who are you calling a fraud!? You can't be referring to me! The great detective!"

"I can't deal with this disrespect! I leave it to you! You find the real culprit-"

"*AHEM!!*" Everyone looked back to Gloria who scowled and pointed to the small pokemon chittering at everyone around them. "IT. WAS. THAT!! They ate the darned fruit ya ninnies can't seem ta take a hint of."

The 'detective' blinked before turning to the pokemon. "What? That skwovet is the one responsible?" He looked closer at the small pokemon who looked at him curiously covered in food. "A-.....As expected of my assistant!" He loudly proclaimed all of a sudden proudly and crossing his arms looking pleased with himself. "Splendid! Just splendid! I'm overjoyed!"....He peeked an eye out at all of you annoyed and angry at him before coughing. "Well now that's taken care of...I must be off now." He suddenly sped walked towards you and Gloria and you both scrambled to move aside as he took off down the hall. "Take care, Everyone!"

"Hey you! Just wait a minute!," the girl yelled before running right after the 'detective'.

"Hahaha! I guess I'm supposed to chase after him too," the old man said before also jogging after the two as you and Gloria squished against the sides of the doorway to give them room...before looking after them....and blinking to one another.

"What the world was THAT about?," she asked.

"Honestly I have no idea and I'm too tired to really care," you mumbled gesturing her towards your actual room. "Let's go set up our room and take a break before we have to meet back up with the others."

Fast forward about an hour after finding the right room and getting yourself settled, you all made it down to the lobby to meet up with Victor and Hop. After you had let your Drizzilie out, thankful that he didn't seem to be hurt or even bothered as she walked out and stretched out like a cat before you all left. Promising you'd bring him back some food. Finding the boys already waiting for the both of you with their winter wear and waved the two of you over.

"There you guys are," Victor greeted seeing the two of you walk over, "We've been waiting for ten minutes and I wanted to try and get things as done here as soon as possible."

"We've only just got here this morning," you calmly reasoned raising a questioning brow at him. Yeah you wanted to leave as soon as you all could too since it was freezing and obviously the weather probably wasn't good for your pokemon, but you didn't think you've ever seen Victor this insistant on leaving somewhere so quickly. "What's gotten you into wanting to leave so soon?"

"Vick here hates the cold," Hop explained before humming, "Scratch that. He absolutely despises it."

"Well it's not MY fault that ice is so dangerous and you have a great chance of freezin' ta death," Victor snapped back pouting.

"Nevermind that! Did you guys figure out what you wanted to do yet?," you asked changing the subject to avoid more fighting.

Surprisingly both boys nodded and Hop spoke again. "I wanted to try my hand at beating the Rock Type Gym since I think I've come up with a strategy to beat him."

"I was actually thinking about taking on the other Gym 'n town, "Gloria pondered thoughtfully, "I got a good idea 'bout how to defeat Melony after watchin' a lot of her battles on the train ride 'ere. But first I need ta stop by the center and switch out some of me pokemon in order to make it work."

"Well I wanted to stop by around town and get some pictures of the famous Circhester hot springs," Victor explained holding up his camera, "The legends say that the great Hero of Galar rested in the springs and it healed all his wounds. ..Plus I wanted to try the famous Bob's Your Uncle cafe here too. They're supposed to have THE best curry in all of Galar, and who knows when I'll come back here again." He then looked at you. "What about you Y/n?"

You looked at him interested. "Well if I'm being completely honest I think I'll come with you. It's been a while since I've been able to walk around and go sight seeing."

"Then it's settled! Let's meet back 'ere in the lobby when we're all finished."

You all agreed and after tightening your coats around you more, all made off your own ways. Gloria heading in the direction of the pokemon center on the other side of town before going off to battle with you and the boys heading in the opposite direction towards the rock gym since the famous Hero Springs Victor wanted to look at. Eventually parting with him too as soon as the both of you got there. Wishing him luck against Gordie before he left and you followed Victor to what you could only describe as a bath house modeled closely to the buildings of the ancient roman times back on your world. You followed Victor around marveling the sights and old looking structure as he smiled despite his hate for the cold and snapped plenty of pictures of everything as he did back at the Hammerlocke Castle Ruins. You walked up to the steaming water that almost looked boiling hot that was roped off from the public just touching it and watched the warm steam rise from it. Sighing as the warm steam was welcomed against the biting cold you couldn't get away from right now. Victor having getting his share of the old historical sight mentioned there was a few other places that the spring water came through, like the fountain in the town square and mentioned wanting to check out the extended parts of the underground spring as well and offered for you to come if you were interested in coming with him. Of course you agreed since you really had nothing else to do at that moment while waiting for the other two to complete their Gym battles, which by now you were sure they were doing or at least finishing up any gym challenge they were doing at the moment, before going back to the meet up spot anyways. So together you two traveled from the front of the rock type gym to the center of town so he could document more of the springs, before following him again as he moved somewhere else and you followed him down a small flight of stairs to another but much more smaller part of the springs that wasn't so visible or visited by the public. And then another small spot just like a little farther aways on the other side of town. It was...Pretty peaceful despite the chilling cold and snow lightly still falling around you, Victor, and everyone else walking around. It was quiet except for your footsteps crunching through the snow and anyone else walking around or talking. Walking around the decently big town with Victor you noticed there was also a few businesses besides the pokemon center. Your resident barber shoppe, an antique store, a few small little thift shops that sold merchandise of what looked like the two gyms and their gym leaders at the brief glances through the windows you gave, a grocery store, a clothes store, of course the hotel, and a strange looking cafe with the Logo of a man out in front. A sign above the door told you the name of said establishment. Bob's Your Uncle. Hey. Wasn't that the cafe Victor mentioned back at the hotel he mentioned wanting to see? You pointed it out to him and he seemed to light up! Mentioning how you two should drop by and seeing it even if you didn't eat anything. You agreed since by all the walking around and sight seeing you did, you two must've been out here for nearly two hours by this point. So it'd be nice to warm up for a bit. So you two happily walked up to said store and pushed the door open before walking right in. The warm air of the cafe combined with the mouth watering smells of the food made you sigh in relief. Another bigger picture of the logo man was inside on one of the walls, with the place being a color scheme of yellow and red, and a few people sitting around eating already. Including one particular boy who looked up from his seat in the back when Victor pointed him out.

"Hey Hop!," Victor called over to him and Hop looked up from where he was sat phone in one hand and hot coco in the other but smiled when he saw you two approuching. "What are you doing here? I thought we were gonna meet back at the hotel."

Hop shrugged. "Yeah, but I thought it'd be fine to stop by for some hot chocolate. Who doesn't like hot coco?"

"I know I do!," You agreed with a smile, "How did your battle go?"

"Arghhh." He slumped back turning his head up to the ceiling with a groan. ""I lost. It all went to pot. There must've been something wrong with my strategy but I just did what I've seen Lee do in battles!"

"Huh..Well maybe that's the problem."

He paused before blinking back to you as you looked at him. "....Huh? Whaddya mean?''

"Well, everyone has different fighting styles. Including you and Gloria, and if these guys are a part of the league and you're trying to fight like Leon, they'll probably be able to beat you because they've seen how Leon fights and knows how best to counteract his style."

"But he's the unbeatable champion! If I use his method I should be able to be unbeatable too! I've studied his style for years!"

"It may seem like that," You explained, "But it IS Leon's style and he's perfected it. If someone tries to copy him they won't be as perfect as it compared to someone who's mastered his own style to a degree that makes him such a powerful trainer. And everyone's style is constantly changing. Think about it. If Lee kept his style the EXACT same then eventually someone would've found a flaw in it by now and taken the title from him. Leon doesn't have 'just one style' either. Like everyone else they train and adapt to better themselves that's how he's unbeatable. It's ok to use things you learnt other people do, but you said yourself you were thinking of new strategies. Instead of trying to apply what you think Leon would do, ask yourself what would YOU do."

Hop paused seeming to stare at you for a while before humming and looking back to his phone. "...You actually might have a point. I'll have to rethink a few things then."

You smiled. "Glad I could help. Speaking of which Where's Gloria? If you're finished with your battle then that must mean Gloria is too right?"

"Maybe she's waiting for us back at the hotel."

"Oh hey!" You yelped and jumped around at the lady's voice that suddenly came up behind you, and found yourself face to face with none other than said brunette Girl and Sonia who chuckled at your reaction. "There you are."

....You sighed before giving her a frown. "First Leon and now you too Sonia?" You crossed your arms. "Seriously. Give a girl a warning you're gonna do that first...Wait. What are you doing here anyways?"

"Got that Gym badge, Glory?," Hop asked politely.

Gloria nodded with a proud hum. "I jus' had ta switch out for some fire n' steel types I caught. Wasn't easy tho."

"Nice one!," Hop complimented before holding something out to her, "That reminds me. Here. Take this. It's the rock leader's league card. You should check out the gym leader you'll have to face too. And me. I've gotta figure out what to put on my team once and for all and no more of this doubting! Especially when I have to defeat at least one of the gyms here for their badge."

"Gee thanks!" She eagerly took the card from him.

"I've been trying to found out more about the Darkest Day and the sword and shield pokemon, but still no luck." She sighed before shaking her head. "I was hoping to investigate the Heroes Bath after studying the tapestries and castle ruins in Hammerlocke." Oh. So she had been there before. "And I haven't been able to get more intel on the strange discovery in Stow-on-Side since the Chairman's team is still researching and the area's become off limits to anyone who isn't the League or authorized. But I just ran into Gloria here and figured the rest of you couldn't be far behind her."

You chuckled. "Well you aren't wrong. I'm really sorry about all the dead ends stopping your work Sonia. I'm sure you'll get a break through somewhere." And you DID know since according to the game she does.

She smiled. "Well thank you, Y/n. It's much appreciated." Her blue eyes glanced behind you. "It's really nice ...." She paused staring right over your shoulder. "...to..see you...Wait."

You rose a brow. "What?" Your f/c eyes blinked in confusion when Sonia all of a sudden grabbed you and pushed you aside a bit as she moved behind you. Unintentionally making you bump into the table Hop was sitting at making him scramble to hold his hot coco out of harm's way as you gave her a look. "Sonia!?"

"Hold on!" She exclaimed back looking at a wall. But more importantly what was ON the wall. Which looked like half a tapestry. And in the very SAME art style and people on them from the Hammerlocke Vault!! "No way! What's this!?"

"Uh...A fifth tapestry??"

"The heroes!" She exclaimed pointing to both of the same men from the first tapestries. "Look..sad. And where are the sword and shield?" She hummed before scanning it more. "What was the meaning of this picture?" Ever the fast thinker wasn't she?

You pushed yourself from the table dusting your still slightly snow covered self off before shrugging. "Well those behind them look kinda like grave stones or some kind of sealed tomb." You pointed out pointing at the tapestry and Sonia squinted harder at where you were pointing. "This probably just means the end of the legend. Y'know. Where the hero finally gets to have peace after his long battle? It happens all the time in fairytales."

"You think so?," she asked giving you a glance. As you shrugged she looked back to the tapesry, or what seemed to remain of it, with her hand to her chin blankly staring at it. "....Didn't think I'd see something like this in Bob's Your Uncle. I guess it could be they passed on or that they were sealed away. Or maybe they've gone into some kind of sleep?"

"Well...I mean they call it 'rest in peace' for a reason."

"Well.." You flinched when Hop spoke, not expecting the boy to be studying the tapestry too. "Based on those statues we saw at Stow-on-Side, the sword and shield were actually two pokemon right?"

You rose a brow. "Since when did you see those statues back in Stow-on-Side?? You and Victor left before Bede's stunt."

"Gloria showed me pictures she took of it before you left. But it kinda dawned of me seeing those sword and shield symbols on them. Couldn't they have been pokemon?"

"That's right! That's my take on it at least."

"......Hey." She suddenly turned to Hopand blinked as he pointed to Gloria. "You remember the pokemon we met that day?" ...Gloria rose a confused brow as he spoke. "You remember. That weird giant blurry pokemon we met in the Slumbering Weald."

"Oh yeah! I've completely forgottin' 'bout that by now." She shivered. "Still gives me the heeby jeebies."

Hop chuckled a bit. "Do you think...it could've been one of them?" he gestured the hand holding his phone to her. "Either the sword or shield pokemon? The blurry fog monster we saw kinda looked like those pokemon statues in Stow-on-Side you showed us."

"You..." Sonia was slow to blink and look at Both the kids wide eyed as she talked. The only one who looked super confused was Victor who you guessed hadn't heard of the 'mysterious fog pokemon' bit. "Met them?! Like...Really REALLY met them!?"

"Come on. You know what I'm talking about right, Glory?"

She nodded, "Yep. Right before Lee bailed us out o' the Slumberin' Weald."

"Exactly! We told you too Sonia remember. The mad pokemon we ran into in the fog! Although..I can't remember seeing it too well. Don't you think that could've been it?", Hop pondered.

"Oh right! You lot have been in the Slumbering Weald!"

"Duh."

You gave Gloria a small tap to her shoulder as if to say 'Don't be rude.' "As much as I agree this is all strange, don't you all think you're jumping the gun here a bit? That could've been any big pokemon in the fog, and you said it yourself. You don't remember much of what it looked like. We shouldn't just make assumptions without proof."

Hop hummed. "I guess you're right. It'd be too much of a coincidence anyhow. But it's not an assumption, just a guess. Doesn't hurt to theorize ideas."

Sonia on the other hand smiled happily and held up her hands excitedly. "I only started on this journey because my gran told me to, but this is turning out to be so much fun! You've got to tell me more! How about we discuss this over a meal? Go on. What do you want to eat? Let's get our orders in!"

"Whoa! Hey there buckaroo!" She blinked when you grabbed her shoulder and she blinked. "As much as I love the food as much as the next person, maybe you should slow down there a bit. Didn't you just get here or something?"

...She gave a bashful face. "Oh yeah. R-Right. Sorry I must've gotten caught up in the moment. But hey! How about I treat you all to a nice curry and hot chocolate anyways? It'd be the least I could do for all the kindness you've shown me."

"I dunno. I don't wanna leave my Drizzilie in the hotel room for too long. I'm afraid he's gonna come looking for us if we're gone for too long and I don't want him outside in this weather."

"How about the sweet instant noodle curry they serve here?," Victor suggested as a compromise pointing to the counter the two men were currently cleaning, and the stack of supplies, food, and other things lining the wall behind them. "All they would have to do is poor hot water in it and it's the cheapest curry on the menu. Plus I don't like the spicy ones too much. I may hate the cold but I'm not up for burning my tongue."

Sonia nodded. "Quick and simple. Sounds like a good match to me!" She turned towards the two men and waved a hand gaining one's attention. "Yoo hoo. Sir! Five instant noodle curries and hot cocos please! Uh. Sweet wise." The man nodded before putting down the cloth he was wiping the counter with and turning to grab a few things from the shelf as Sonia gestured for the five of you to sit with Hop at the big table he was currently at. "While we wait, I'd love to hear about your experiences in the Slumbering Weald again. Maybe it'll help me piece together something."

"Sure!"

So the five of you at around the table as you all patiently heard Hop recount the entire events of the Slumbering Weald incident starting from the wooloo banging against the gate to the Slumbering Weald to when you all left it. In the middle of him retelling his your food was delivered by one of the men behind the bar and you gladly took it wanting something warm in your stomach before having to go back out in the cold, Gloria taking a quick picture of it before you all began eating it. It looked and smelt a lot like those instant ramen cups you'd sometimes had to resort to have for lunch back at home since money was tight with your mother working hard as a single mother now and you having to work summer, weekend, and afterschool jobs in your spare time to help with bills. If you didn't then she'd say you were being lazy with your music and games again...Anyways. It looked like instant ramen and was sprinkled with curry sauce. You were a bit doubtful of how it'd taste but when you ate it it wasn't that bad. It had a bittersweet kinda taste that wasn't too sweet or sour thanks to the sauce covering the noodles when you ate it, and it was a bit more like pasta than a curry. But you weren't going to complain about free curry and hot coco in this cold weather and neither was anyone else as they ate and listened to Hop, and then Gloria as she recounted her own point of view on the events which was pretty much Hop's as well but you all let her speak her mind. By the time she finished everyone had already finished eating and drinking their food even Hop who had gotten a second hot coco thanks to Sonia's generiousity.

"-and then Lee found us and marched us both back home where we met up with Y/n," Gloria finished pointing at you. "Mum was...not very happy about it all."

"Fascinating," Sonia commented thinking again, "All right." She suddenly stood up making all of you blink. "The next thing to do now that we're done eating is to have a look around Circhestester! Let's inspect the Hero's Bath."

"Huh? But we were just there. Wasn't anything that could be tied to your research," Victor said.

You shrugged as you stood up. "Well we were going to leave to go back to the hotel soon anyways. Let's go have a look since we'll have to go that way anyways."

Victor looked like he wanted to protest but sighed as his Best friend and twin also stood up to follow Sonia out the door. The cold outside nipped back at all of you as you tightened your scarf around your nose and mouth. Following Sonia back to the steaming waters of the spring under the town as you all entered back under the historical sight. Hop and Gloria looking out in awe at the place.

"The Hero's Bath, "Sonia commented looking around the place, "They say this is where the two heroes came to soothe their wounds after the battle to bring down that evil presence long ago. Nowadays only pokemon really use the Hero's bath though. Hmm. Who exactly were the heroes that bathed here? I think I'll have to look into that...Gloria! Hop!" She turned her head to shout at the two and both looked up from one of the carvings in the stone at her. "You two met a mysterious pokemon back in the Slumbering Weald. Perhaps...you two can become new heroes."

You blinked at her. Where did that come from?

Even Hop looked at her confused and skeptical. "What? Like some hero waving around a sword and shield? Psh. Pull the other one."....But he hummed. "Though...I guess I'd fancy a shield if I had to take my pick."

"Hm. What kind of battle do you think the heroes had back then?"

You shrugged and went to say something- "Why don't we show her, Glory?" Hop asked giving his friend a playful shove, "Think we can pull off a real heroic battle?"

Gloria giggled back before giving him her signiture determined look. "Oh I think that'd be just the thing ta warm up me bones!"

"Sonia treated us to a great meal. After all that curry I feel like I've got the energy to wrestle a bewear!"

Sonia returned her hands to her hips amused. " A battle now? I don't entirely understand your reasoning but I might as well see what you can do."

"FORG-G-GET IT!!", Victor yelled as you all looked at his shivering form turn on his heel and stomp off towards the hotel, "Y-Ya'll can battle if ye want! 'M headed inside the warm hotel!"

"..Hm. I'd hate to say this, but I think I getting get back too." You gave Sonia a look. "Thanks for the food. It was really good seeing you again, but I REALLY wanna go back and check on my drizzilie."

She nodded understanding. "Of course. I'd feel the same thing about Yamper if I was in your position."

You nodded before turning to the other two. "And you guys don't stay out here for too long. Come back when you're all done battling."

"We will!," Hop quickly agreed before pointing away from the Springs, "Time for a little exhibition match starring the future champion!"

With a wave to them all you all turned and jogged to catch up to Victor who was rubbing his arms and muttering to himself as he stomped his way back towards the hotel. And you didn't blame him, you wanted to get out of the cold too and see how your Drizzilie was doing. You two made your way across the town and into the familiar fancy hotel, through the elevator and immediately headed onto your own seperate rooms. You were kinda worried your pokemon might've wodnered out of the room but when you entered you found him in the same spot you left him in. Curled up on one of the beds and barely even opened an eye at you as you came back in gave giving a small thrum before curling back onto it's side away from you and going back to napping. Hmm...Maybe Hop was right about your drizzilie developing a new lazy habit. Or maybe it was because he was cold blooded or something like a snake and had a hibernation thing?? You shrugged it off and instead sighed as you finally had a moment to shed your winter coat and relax for a little bit, flopping onto the bed next to the napping pokemon who again barely moved as you did so. And you remained there eve when Gloria returned and you gave a small wave as a greeting.

"Hey. How was the battle?"

"Fine! Although I won Hop seems to finally have gotten out of the lil funk he was in thanks ta Bede!," she answered happily, " 'E's with Victor right now."

"Hey that's great to hear! It's good he's getting back into a healthier mindset."

"Yeah! I still can't wait ta see him compete in the champion finals this year! It's gonna be so much fun! I-....." She stopped talking for a second and then you heard frantic shuffling about and footsteps. With a sigh you turned your head up from the spot you were laying down at and was met with the sight of her shaking her coat upside down frantically over he bed as she looked worried. When nothing dropped from the coat she unceremoniously dropped it and whipped her head around back to you. "Y/N! My camera's gone!"

"..What?," you asked pushing yourself up as she patted herself down searching her pockets.

"Victor's camera he's lettin' me borrow!," she yelled sounding more concerned,"I was supposed ta give it back ta him once I finished fillin' me dex books!! He's gonna kill me!"

"Whoa! Hey!" You were quick to push yourself up into a sitting pose as you watched her start to likely panic. "Gloria!" She paused blinked wide eyed worried at you as you groaned standing off the bed and stretching out your back. "First you need to calm down." You held up a hand rubbing your back. "You probably just accidentally dropped it somewhere."

"WHERE!?"

"I have no idea." She looked worried again. That was probably the wrong thing to say apparently. "Whoa. Don't freak out on me here. Look. There's still plenty of daylight left. I'm sure if we just retrace your steps then we'll find it for sure. When's the last time you remembered having it?"

.....She blinked. "Uh! A-At the cafe! Then we went to the hero's bath."

You nodded. "Ok. Then let's go look over there and see if we can't find it ok?"

Gloria nodded and you sighed again. Looks like you all were going out yet again. You both quickly put your winter wear back on and out you went again. The winter weather nipping at you even colder now that it must've been about near sun down by how limited light there was too. There was still enough to clearly see the snow and all the surroundings but it was noticably colder as night drew nearer as you both stopped in front of the warm springs in the town square.

"A-Alright! 'Eere's the plan!," Gloria said pointing at you, "I'll go check the cafe you go check the bath. We'll cover more ground like that!"

You nodded wanting to get this over with as soon as possible. "Alright. But hurry, and keep an eye out in case you dropped it on the ground somewhere. Meet me back here as soon as you can."

She nodded and before you could get another word in she turned and scurried off towards the cafe area. After a moment to relax you sighed shaking your head and started walking off towards the Hero's Bath, making sure to scan the road and ground around you for any signs of a camera dropped in the snow. But you saw nothing as you looked around. Your footsteps crunched in the snow once again and you shivered rubbing your arms as you made your way towards the hero's bath still looking for it. Just when you thought you'd be able to rest for the rest of the day. You just wanted to find the darn thing and return back to the warm hotel. As you circled the large building needed to get to the Hero's Bath you paused blinking at the sight in front of you. Oh great what was it now? In front of the Hero's Bath was a small crowd of anywhere from fifthteen to about twenty people mostly women huddled around...something? Sure the Hero's Bath must've been a really cool historical sight to see but you didn't think such a crowd would gather here all of a sudden especially when it wasn't like this the other times you passed by it. Oh well. Right now you could care less and just wanted to find that darn camera and return to the hotel as soon as possible. Besides you could easily just walk around the happily chattering crowd without having to bother anyone. Get in, look around for a camera, get out, and then meet up back with Gloria. Easy enough. Or so you thought. With a sigh behind your scarf, you braced yourself and began walking your way over towards the crowd, and like you had suspected there was plenty of room to walk passed them, or so you thought again when a woman dressed in all while and with white hair suddenly appeared and you both ran right into each other. With the speed walk you were going it was impossible to stop on time before you collided with the white blur with a yelp. Stumbling back your foot slipped on some snow and down you went arms flailing landing on your bottom on the hard stone ground. Luckily you weren't hurt but you hissed and mumbled something under your breath at the feeling of the cold seeping into the back of your pants now.

"Oh my goodness gracious!," an older woman's voice exclaimed above you and when you looked up you were met with a woman who looked about the same age as your mom as she held her face in an 'Oh no' kinda pose as she looked at you. All decked out in white winter wear. "I'm so sorry, Young Lady. I didn't see you there."

You waved her off as more people turned their heads at the commotion. "Nah. It's ok. It's my fault I wasn't looking where I was going-," you had begun to say before another's voice much more louder and angrier sounding made you both look over.

"MOM!! What are you doin'!?," A man's voice shouted out as people parted and a guy who looked vaugely familiar marched his way forward. The man wore...Shades of all things in this not so sunny weather with a tan-ish coat thrown over himself and blonde-white hair that draped to just above his shoulders as he pushed his way through the small crowd of people until he stopped right in front of you and the woman. He looked right at your confused self still sitting on the ground for a moment before looking over at the woman with a deep frown. "Seriously!? Ya knocked one of my fans over?"

"I'm so sorry, Honey. Really I am," she said calmly as if she had all the patience of an ancient monk. "But it was an accident." Oh. So this must've been his mom. But what does he mean by fan?? You didn't even know this guy.

"Tch!," he scoffed before crossing his arms, "Yeah right. You crash all my events especially after I win against a gym challenger." Your eyes widened. ....Gym chall-..OH!! Now you remember! You looked between the two who had a resemblance now that you looked at them. Gym Leaders Melony and Gordie! So that's why he looked semi familiar to you. These were some of the few characters you actually remembered from your time playing the game! ..Oh. And they were known for fighting of course. "You're lucky you didn't cause her to hit her head during the fall!" You looked back up blinking wide eyed at him as he scowled at his mother. "Did you even apologise to her or were you just gonna forget that too?"

You stared wide eyed at him. Who says that to their own mother!? Through all this Melony just calmly and sadly watched him as he angrily spewed out. You WISH your mom was like Melony- "HEY!!" You were quick to try and rise to your feet stumbling a bit on the snow as you did. Rising up with your own frown behind the scarf covering your face and quickly dusting yourself off.

"Ah man. Are you alright there?," he asked holding his hand out. "Sorry about my mom-"

"Oh be quiet!" You bluntly said as you snapped your face to him, which combined with your sharp tone seemed to make him pause in the moment. "I know exactly who you are!! What is WRONG with you man!?" You couldn't help but shout at him. Well considering Gordie's only a side character who you wouldn't probably see again after Gloria defeated him, it would be ok to shout at him. Especially since you weren't in the game's storyline at the moment. So you jabbed him in the chest which made him blinked and take a couple steps back. "Of course your mother apologized to me but that's NOT the point! It was an accident and I happened to run into HER! Not the other way around!! Are you kidding me with your behavior right now, Gordie!? Don't you see what you're doing!?" You gestured towards Melony who looked shocked herself seeing you jab at her son. "You're yelling at your own mother who didn't do anything wrong in front of a bunch of your fans in public!? Are you trying to embarrass her or something!? Your mom's so much nicer than you!! Geez! What were those guys thinking!?"

"I-...W-Wha-" He sputtered but you shut him down real quick.

"NO! You're not allowed to talk to me! You know why? Because your mom's one of the nicest people in all of Galar!! DUDE GET OVER YOUR STUPID EGO!! You both had a fight like..years ago!? So WHAT?! You're running your own stadium you wanted and you have like loads of fans! Don't you think that bashing her in front of your fans would make her look bad!?....No. Scratch that." He blinked as you took a step forward and he stepped back. "It makes YOU look bad! SO I am NOT a fan of yours! I'm just here looking for a missing camera but even if I didn't I'd still feel bad for your mother! Don't you think the reason Melony makes an effort to be in your fan club and trying so hard to support you is her way of showing she cares about you and is actually sorry about the fight you two had!?" You shook your head. "Gosh. Your head must be thicker than a onix if you missed that!!"

There was silence all around as the once crowd of chattering people were all shocked and staring at you, Gordie, or Melony or looking between the three of you as Gordie just stared jaw dropped and making noises like a fish out of water as you scoffed and turned around. Melony watching with equal reaction to her son and even passing people who weren't a part of the crowd was staring right at you as you turned your back to him.

"So don't apologize to me. Because the only one you should be apologizing to is your poor mother." You gave him one last very SERIOUS look over your shoulder. "As someone who wished for a parent like her, you need to get a reality check man." You turned back to his shocked mother before sighing. "I'm really sorry about all this, Ma'am. But I gotta go. I have to meet up back with my friends."

With a new sour feeling that combined with your annoyance with the cold and falling down, without looking behind you, you turned on your heels and stomped off back towards where Gloria was headed when you both split up. You didn't feel like staying at the Hero's Bath any longer now with the eerie silent you left behind. Everyone watched after you as you disappeared....until a single THUNK sound broke the silence as Gordie's shades fell off his shocked face to the cold ground below.

[alitaimagines]

“you should let me love you. let me be the one too, give you everything you want and need. baby, good love and protection, make me your selection. show you the way love supposed to be. baby, you should let me love you.” 

character: keigo takami - MY HERO ACADEMIA 

note: sorry for all the Hawks! im just in a fluff mood for him. sooo, I might take requests after all. if any of you want to send something in particular, I’ll see if I can write it out! 

you had been together with Hawks for a few months now. 

was it hard? fuck yeah. did you regret ever telling him yes? absolutely not. being with Keigo was one of the best experiences of your life so far and you never wanted it to end. 

-

the two of you met after he saved your university from a villain. you were stuck as a hostage in a room with the villain itself. the class was filled with a bunch of students screaming, crying, or both but you were so paralyzed with fear that you weren’t able to say or do anything. 

once Hawks swooped in to save the class, he quickly defeated the villain before sending in the rest of the pro hero response team to grab everyone. 

you, being so struck by fear, didn’t move an inch. Hawks had seen this happen before and knew that the tears would be coming soon. your face was tucked in between your knees as he tapped you on the shoulder. 

“sweetheart, it’s fine, you can come with me.”

finally looking up, you seen the winged hero before slowly getting up. your hand trembled as you walked out of the university. a few of your friends instantly ran up to you as they wiped their tears to make sure you were okay. 

“lets get you to a medic,” one of your friends exclaimed as she slowly walked you to the paramedics. you still hadn’t uttered a word nor were you in the mood too. 

after your friends left you and the paramedic finally started checking you, they chalked up your frightened emotions as shock. they placed a weighted blanket on you before they noticed Hawks walking to them. 

he snapped his fingers as he told them to give you a few minutes alone, “I don’t think she’s in the right state of mind to be asked questions,” one of the paramedics said. he sighed, “I’m not asking her questions now leave,” he lectured as the paramedics finally listened and went to check on someone else. 

you were leaning up against the wall, your eyes still as hazy as they first were when he saved you. 

“you okay?” he asked as you didn’t respond. he sat next to you before sighing, “listen, I know what happened to you was traumatizing-,” Hawks didn’t even get through the first half of the sentence before hearing you bawl your eyes out. 

he watched as you hid your face between your blanket, “I could’ve died. my family could’ve had gotten a call that I was murdered. oh my god, how am I going to tell them?” you sobbed as you felt Hawks move you against him. 

“they’ve been notified,” he murmured as your eyes widened, “where’s my phone,” you yelled as you dug into your bag to see the 100+ messages from your family and friends. 

“call them in the morning, they know you’re okay but if you call them in the state you’re, it’s not going to help anyone here.” 

you knew he was right but you didn’t care. you immediately dialed your mom and heard her sobs racking through the phone as she asked you a million and one questions. 

“m-mom, it’s fine! i’m okay,” you managed to say as she tried to calm herself down, “c-can I c-call you tomorrow? I need to talk to the paramedics,” you lied as she agreed and hung up. 

Hawks saw you grip your phone as the tears kept flowing down, “thank you for saving me, I know you’re a very in demand hero and you probably need to get going but you saved me,” you admitted as he nodded. 

he had never seen anyone this shaken up before and truthfully, a part of him was disturbed. he saved hundreds of people before but for some reason, your reaction and you alone enraged him. 

Hawks never dealt with the aftermath of villains but he was going to make sure that the villain who did this actually served as many possible years as they could. 

“nah, I’ll stay behind and make sure you’re okay. don’t need you ruinnin’ off somewhere and getting hurt,” he replied as you shook your head, “it’s fine. I’m okay. I’ve received a few emails that I’m excused for classes for the rest of the week so I’m going to take the few days to recover,” you finally said without stuttering.

Hawks remained sitting as he watched you wrap the blanket around you, “do you have a car here?” you nodded as he finally thought of a way to keep an eye on you but make sure you weren’t going to noticed him, “I’ll walk you there,” he added on as you hesitantly agreed. 

you walked to your car in silence as Hawks held your backpack. your car was a bit on the beat up side but you were a college student, a brand new car probably wasn’t even in your financial means. 

you put your bag into the trunk before going to the drivers side and giving Hawks one final look, “thank you,” you whispered before getting into the car. 

he let you drive off for a few more minutes before deciding to fly and follow you to your house. he didn’t mean to be the creepiest person ever but he was just concerned about you getting home. 

your apartment didn’t look to be too far from your university but as soon as he watched you get into the complex, a sense of relief washed over him and finally decided to fly back to his agency.

-

it took Hawks a while for you to come around to the idea of you dating him. your fears were warranted though. you didn’t want to be so publicized in the media nor did you want any of his enemies coming after you.

you didn’t want to be in the hero field. far from it. so dating the number two hero was in the complete opposite side of the spectrum for you. 

there would be days where Hawks would just come by your house for a ‘glass of water’ in the middle of his patrol. you would be so adorably cute and make him not want to leave but he had people to save and villains to defeat. 

when you finally cracked down and accepted the idea of dating him, Hawks hadn’t felt so happy in so long. the idea of Hawks coming home to you and you greeting him with a hug and kiss basically projected him to cloud nine. 

that’s where you were now. it was a rare day off for him and you were cuddled up in his arms when he woke up in the morning. you were probably still dead asleep as you had a tendency to sleep without waking up to any commotion. 

you had your hair sprawled all over your face as he softly moved it away to get a good look at you. in a sense, you were like his own version of heaven. he didn’t even know if he believed in a God but if there was one, he felt like they placed you in his life on purpose.

Keigo didn’t really fall for the fake corny romantic bullshit but ever since becoming official with you, it was hard not too. you would greet him at your apartment when he stopped at your place after his shift and on the days where he asked you to go to his house an hour before his shift ended, you were there to greet him with a kiss. 

he truly never believed he would ever get the taste of such that life but here you were, in his arms peacefully asleep.

Keigo still hadn’t told you he loved you yet but he knew that would be coming sooner than later. he had no intention of letting you go now. you were stuck with the number two hero whether you liked it or not. 

it was already reaching ten when you started shuffling in place. he looked down at you as you opened your eyes and gave him the sleepiest smile you could have. 

“morning,” you muttered, “how long have you been up?”

he shrugged, “eight, maybe nine?” he estimated. your eyes widened, “that long? you haven’t gotten up to eat? would you want me to make you something?” you asked. 

“in a minute, I just want to hold you for a few moments,” he admitted. you gave him a kiss which he quickly deepened, “what has you so soft this morning? you’re usually teasing me by now,” you joked as he shrugged. 

“waking up to you this morning felt different,” he mentioned, “I’ve never waken up next to someone I love before.” 

your eyes widened as you grabbed his hand, “aw, Keigo, I’m honored. I know your life has been considerably harder in comparison to mine but you don’t have to feel like I’m going to leave you or something,” you responded as he nodded, “I love you too,” you said back making him smile. 

he immediately plopped you on top of him and kissed you again, “holding you this way is going to get addicting, you know that?” you giggled as you snuggled up to his chest, “really now?” you mocked as you got up, “well that sucks because I’m making you breakfast and you’re helping,” you told him as he chuckled lowly. 

you got off of him and grabbed his shirt before slipping it on and making your way to his bedroom bathroom. you and him brushed your teeth before he got into the shower. 

once he finished and put on a pair of grey sweatpants with a white shirt, he met you in his kitchen that went hardly touched. he maybe cooked once or twice in it? Keigo tended to order takeout and never did learn how to cook. 

you had headphones popped in as you took out a few things you bought yesterday and mixed them together before pouring milk. watching you do the most domestic thing ever made his heart flutter. it was like the two of you were married and in a way, he longed that this relationship would lead to that. 

“are you gonna help?” you exclaimed as he laughed, “coming love! you know you’re able to connect your phone to the stereo that’s in the wall, right?” 

he made his way over to you before giving you a kiss and helping you connect the music you had playing in your headphones to the speaker built into the wall. 

ALITA

[benevolentbirdgal]

A guide to 13 Jewish holidays / Jewish Writing Advice

Depending on how you want to count, there are theoretically 47 Jewish holidays, assuming you count all minor, major, and modern celebrations, both minor and major fasts, special shabbats, and each Rosh Chodesh (new month) individually. Since that post would be A) neverending, B) probably not useful in its entirety here, and C) really not applicable to most Jews you meet or write, I’m going to tell you about 13 celebrations (12 holidays plus the category of Rosh Chodesh and the category of special Shabbats), which will be plenty long enough. Maybe I’ll write a super-niche passionate post about the minor fasts or modern holidays later, but today is not that day. 

Usual disclaimers: I’m one me. The Jewish community is 14 million and super diverse. These are broad strokes and local tradition may vary. I operate from an American context and communal gathering/food sharing practices come from the Before Times (in some cases, the long before now times). 

I’m going to go in the order of the Jewish calendar, instead of likelihood of celebration, and note the most popular ones as I go. Three general notes as well: I will be using the most common transliteration/translation of the Hebrew names, Jewish holidays (and days in general) start at sunset and operate on a separate calendar that fluctuates relative to the secular Gregorian calendar. The Hebrew dates are listed with the months they generally fall in on the Gregorian calendar. Holidays marked with an * will likely merit their own list at some point. 

Additionally, how long many holidays last also varies depending on location. For some holidays (NOT fasts), diaspora (outside Israel) Jews celebrate an extra day for Jewish-diaspora-is-complicated-story-for-another-time reasons. I will note these holidays. 

*Rosh HaShanah (Tishrei 1, September-October): Jewish new year (well, one of four, but for the purposes of our discussion today, the Jewish new year). 1a. Typically celebrated by synagogue attendance, consumption of foods that are sweet and/or round (or have heads, like fish heads). Longer services than normal Saturday morning services but not by much, even when combined with regular Shabbat services. Big time to gather with families for a large meal. 1b. Lots of blowing of shofars at specific times, shofars, which are cleaned and sometimes painted ceremonial ram’s horns (we’re operating on 1200 B.C.E. tech here). Some of us are very good at blowing the shofar. Some of us are assuredly not.  1c. One of the most common holidays to celebrate, part of the “High Holidays.” If your character is remotely observant or has a very Jewish family, they celebrate this holiday.  1d. One day in Israel, two in the diaspora. 

Yom Kippur (Tishrei 10, September-October): The second holiday in the “High Holidays.” Yom Kippur is ten days after Rosh HaShanah, known as the “Days of Awe” (or the “Days of Repentance”). The Days of Awe, outside of orthodoxy and people who do prayers every day, aren’t really celebrated outside of asking people for forgiveness and tashlich (throwing away sins by yeeting small pieces of bread or other small foodstuffs into a pond). 2a. Yom Kippur is a 25 hour fast. Fasting on Yom Kippur means the following: No food. No water. Medication is typically okay (and most denominations are 100% okay with food/water necessary to accompany medication). No sex. This is usually extended to no sexual contact in general. No wearing of leather. You’ll see a lot of sneakers on Yom Kippur. No perfumes or lotions. Bathing/washing. This one is the one most people ditch. 2b. Jewish “adults” who are not health-impaired are expected to fast. Pregnant women, sick people, and the elderly explicitly get a choice and most of the former two do not fast. Lots of old folks do and have very strong opinions about it (I fast, but have gotten second-hand awkward watching a healthy 23-year-old explain why they aren’t doing so to an 89 year old survivor who is). There are young/healthy/not pregnant people who choose not to fast, but this is generally frowned upon. 2c. One day holiday regardless of location. Starts at beginning of sunset one day and ends at complete darkness (ideally with three stars in the sky) the next. Fasts are typically broken as a group over a large meal.  2d. It’s very likely that your Jewish character “celebrates” Yom Kippur and whether they fast or not is likely a point of contention with their family. 2e. There are a bunch of different services and they are usually heinously long.  2f. Shofars are also super important here.  2g. Wearing white is traditional in many communities.  2h. Napping is a popular way to pass the time, especially among less traditionally observant Jews.

*Sukkot (Tishrei 15-22, September-October): The Festival of Booths, basically the Jewish Harvest Festival.  3a. Fairly common to celebrate but not as much as the High Holidays, Passover, or Hannukah.  3b. Celebrated by building a Sukkah, which is an at-least-three-sided TEMPORARY structure with a natural roof (corn, leaves, bamboo) that you can see the stars through. People will eat and sleep in the Sukkah, and go “Sukkah hopping” to visit other families’ Sukkahs.  3c. In addition to regular guests, there is kabbalah and traditional mysticism that the a different guest from Jewish history will join you in the Sukkah each night, known as the Ushpizin. The Ushpizin  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David) are all male, and in the 20th century some Jews began the custom of honoring Ushpizot (female guests as well, adding Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Abigail, Hulda, and Esther (although some obscure lists of Ushpizot date back to the 15th century). 3d. Your Jewish character may not have a Sukkah. Their temple will have a communal one.  3e. It is customary to shake a lulav and etrog, also known as the four species. Three leaves and a citrus from specific plants are held together and shook in all six directions after the recitation of a prayer. I like to call this shake-the-plant, but it actually has a ton of different spiritual meanings traditionally ascribed to it. There is also a processional in synagogue with the lulav and etrog. 

Shmeni Atzeret (Tishrei 22, September-October): In Israel, the one day after Sukkot and in the diaspora the last day of Sukkot and the day after. There are some extra prayers and it marks a seasonal shift in prayers pertaining to rain. Unless your character is particularly religious/observant, they aren’t going to do anything extra. This holiday’s functions were mostly relevant during the Temple Periods in ancient Israel. 

*Simchat Torah (Tishrei 23, September-October): Simchat Torah celebrates the restarting of the Torah-reading cycle and overlaps with the second day of Shmeni Atzeret where there is a second day. Unlike in some other faiths where the congregation or leader generally chooses the text of the day, Jewish congregations are bound by the Parsha (portion) of the week for formal services/readings (as opposed to other forms of study). The 54 parshas are read over the course of the Jewish year, and the resetting of that cycle is Simchat Torah. In synagogues during services readings from from Torahs, which are large, heavy, physical scrolls. This is relevant during Simchat Torah particularly.  5a. Two days in the diaspora, one day in Israel. Intermediate level popularity.  5b. Seven hakafot (professionals) are performed by dancing around the synagogue while members alternate carrying the Torah. This is considered an honor. Simchat Torah is usually the only day all the Torahs are brought out (or at least the ones that are in good enough shape to be carried). Dancing is mixed outside of orthodoxy and separated within orthodoxy. Only Jewish adults are permitted to carry the Torah. Outside of orthodoxy this includes both men and women. Within some orthodox congregations, women-only circles will also include Torahs in their dancing.  5c. There are also smaller not-Torah-but-still-Holy scrolls and Torah-shaped-stuffies that children will sometimes carry and dance with.  5d. After the dancing, the final parsha is read aloud. This is the only time we read Torah at night (from the physical object Torah - we read books of the Torah in other forms at any hour). The scroll is then rolled back all the way to the first reading. Reading the first or last reading is a great honor. 

*Hanukkah (Kislev 25 - Tevet 2, November-December): Hannukah celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the political and cultural oppression of the ancient Greeks in the 160s B.C.E. After the victory of the priestly-class-turned-warrior-bros over their oppressors, the Maccabees found the Temple seriously wrecked, both on a physical and spiritual level. They wanted to rededicate the temple, but only found one itty-bitty little jar of oil for the Menorah (seven-branched candelabra in the Temple), enough for one day. They figured it was better than nothing, and immediately sent out for more oil, which took eight days. That was the miracle of the lights, and where the Hanukiyah (eight-branched variant of the Menorah) comes from since the oil for one day lasted eight.  6a. Hanukkah is an immensely popular eight day festival. 6b. Religiously, Hanukkah actually isn’t super important. Religiously-significant practices for the holiday are lighting a Hannukiyah, telling the story of Hanukkah, and eating greasy foods.  6c. There are approximately a shabillion ways to spell Hanukkah, it’s not just  you. There are actually only two acceptable (really only one 100%) Hebrew spellings but transliteration is a bitch sometimes.  6d. Although not “Jewish Christmas” gifts on Hanukkah are a thing because of the proximity to Christmas. Hanukkah gifts as they now are are really a 1950s-forward thing because Jewish kids were starting to have Christian friends en-masse who were getting Christmas gifts at the same time a lot of the U.S. was experiencing an economic boom. Purim is actually the traditional gifting holiday.  6e. Related: Hanukkah parties are very popular, but much more cultural than religious.  6f. Dreidels have a weird AF history and their dubious origins (and half-dozen possible theories) truly merit their own post. In the U.S. they are played with chocolate coins or other not-money, elsewhere children frequently use their local equivalent of pennies instead. 

Tu Bishvat (Shevat 15, February-March): The Jewish new year/birthday of the trees. Functions like a Jewish Earth day - planting trees is popular. Fresh fruits are consumed in celebration of what trees give us. Some more religious families also do a ceremonial meal, a Tu Bishvat seder, but most Jews don’t. 

*Purim (Adar 14, February-March): Purim, an immensely popular holiday celebrates the survival of the Jews during the first exile period in the ancient kingdom of Persia. The text celebrates the strength of our community and the chutzpah of a Jewish woman, and is usually celebrated in practice like Jewish Halloween.  8a. The story really merits its own post, but the short of it is because shenanigans, antisemites, and booze-hound kings a Jewish lady named Hadassah became queen (hiding her Jewish identity and taking the Esther to do so), the king’s head advisor Haman wanted to kill-the-Jews-tm, Esther was able to prevent it by convincing the king that the Jews should be able to fight back, the Jews did so and won, Haman was executed, and Esther’s cousin/bestie Mordechai became the new advisor. [really, the full story is Hollywood-level drama, another post to come.] 8b.  Communities gather together to do communal readings of the book of Esther (in Hebrew or the lingua franca), it’s only about 10 chapters and takes an hour or two. The megillah is read once in the night and once in the day. Technically there are several megillahs for different books/holidays, but Jews are usually referring to Megalilat Esther (the book of Esther) when they say the megillah, definitely so on Purim. 8c. Costumes are donned by adults and children alike, both inspired by the story and otherwise. This is in honor of the hiddenness in the story (with both Esther and some other stuff we don’t have time for today). Synagogues often hold costume contests as a small break between chapters.  8d. Readings get ROWDY. It’s customary to boo and make noise using little noisemakers when Haman’s name is said aloud, as with the names of his also Jew-hating sons (which are traditionally said in one breath). There are also certain lines of the megillah read out loud together.  8e. It is a mizvah to give gifts (typically of food) to friends as well as to charity on Purim (two separate mitzvahs).  8f. It’s also a mitzvah to have a big special meal.  8g. It’s a common misconception that it’s a mitzvah to get so lit on Purim you can’t tell the difference between Haman the wicked and Mordechai the blessed. It’s not a Mitzvah, but there is some commentary in the Talmud saying that, so while not a commandment, “get lit to honor the party king goy who vouched for us and also because Jewish history requires drinking sometimes” is a historically-rooted take. Consequently, it’s very popular to drink a lot on Purim.  8h. Purim is, for all of the above, immensely popular with both children and adults despite being dark AF.  8i. Purim is the last holiday in the Torah itself (Hannukah is after).  8j. Purim is a one-day holiday unless you’re in a walled city (long story). 

*Passover (Nissan 15-22, March-April): Arguably the most important holiday, theologically. Passover celebrates the Exodus from Egypt.  9a. Families gather for Seders on the first night (Israel) and second night (Diaspora). The holiday is 7/8 days long and one of the most common to celebrate. In normal years it’s common for families to travel to have large gatherings together.  9b. In addition to regular kosher laws, “chametz” (basically leavened bread and bread-like things and most foods that bring joy). There are five grains that can make chametz, wheat, rye, barley, oats, and spelt.  Some communities historically forbade other foods that could be mistaken for chametz, like the Ashkenazi forbiddance of kitanyot (legumes, rice, corn, certain seeds), although that was revoked/voted on to be not an official custom by nonorthodox denominations in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  9c. Seders are ceremonial meals with 15 steps, including the actual meal itself. The quickest Seders run maybe an hour plus the meal. The longest can run upwards of 6-8, depending on the denomination, family, and customs. It almost goes without saying that there’s a lot of food and wine involved.  9d. In addition to be prohibited for consumption, Chametz cannot be possessed or consumed on Passover, so Jews clean out their houses of Chametz, and temporarily sell it to a gentile friend or family member for the duration of the holiday.  9e. Passover-specific hanger is very real, especially after the post-Seder food-coma wears off. Especially if you already have dietary restrictions and can’t just do a meat-fast.  9f. During the Seder, the story of Passover is gradually told from Moses to the plagues to the Exodus itself. It is a fairly interactive telling/ceremony and the specific rituals to different parts of the Seder merit their own post.  9g. Synagogues also hold Seders, but at-home ones are very common. Whose home to go to for the Seder is often a very political choice. 

Lag BaOmer (Iyyar 18 for Ashkenazi, Iyyar 19 for Sephardi, May): The counting of the Omer is from the second day of Passover to Shavout. Passover is the leave from Egypt, Shavout is the getting of the Torah, the Omer is the in-between time. There are a bunch of restrictions during the Omer for long-story reasons, but  haircuts, shaving, listening to instrumental music, weddings, parties, and dinners with dancing are forbidden during the Omer. Lag BaOmer, the 33rd day of this count, is the exception. 10a. Consequently, for Jews who are abstaining from the aforementioned things, Lag BaOmer is popular to do those things.  10b. Many Jewish schools and synagogues will have counting activities for kids and prizes if they can count all the way to Shavuot on their sticker chart or equivalent.  10c. One day regardless of location.   10d. Bonfires are a super popular activity, usually accompanied by feasts. 10e. Not as popular as some others. 

Shavout (Sivan 6, May-June): Shavout celebrates the day Moses came down with the Torah and when the ancient Israelites in the desert formally chose to enter their covenant with God at Mount Sinai. It was also celebrated as an additional harvest festival in ancient times.  11a. Two days in the diaspora, one day in Israel. 11b. The “dairy holiday” because the Jews didn’t have any kosher meat and had just received the laws, including kosher.  12c. The book of Ruth is read on Shavout. There are several possible explanations, but the most popular is that she choose to be Jewish, just as the Jews did at Sinai.  12d. Torah studying all-nighters are traditional.  12e. Not as popular as some other holidays. 

Rosh Chodesh (varies, 1st of every Hebrew month): There are 12 Hebrew months, except for leap years which have a second Adar. The first day of each month is known as Rosh Chodesh. It is unlikely your Jewish character does anything for it, unless they’re very religious, work at a synagogue, happen to be at shul anyways for another reason, or go to a Jewish school. If any of those are true, their prayers will have extra prayers (especially on Shabbat or another holiday).  12a. Rosh Chodeshes are traditionally women’s time/a moment set aside to honor women. 

Special Shabbats (varies): There are eight special Shabbats scattered around the year right before or after a big holiday. Services are longer and special prayers are added, but unless your character goes to shul or is in another circumstance where they pray consistently, they likely won’t know/care/notice. 

Some of these topics are also totally their own posts, but this is a general overview of the most important/common holidays and already super long!

[lyssismagical]

Boy, I'm so happy, we have been heaven-blessed

Parkner Week Day Eight: “Get some rest tall child” / cuddling / movie nights

 “Babe, babe, babe, babe-”

“Oh my god, what do you want?” Peter says. He sounds annoyed, but Harley knows better. “I’m trying to work, believe it or not.”

“I believe it. You don’t have to convince me on that.” Harley sits up on Peter’s bed, rolling his eyes for the thousandth time since he’d gotten to Peter’s dorm room. “Why am I here when you’re not even paying attention to me? You’re not even looking at me.”

“I don’t have to see you to know you’re pouting like a baby,” Peter mutters, scribbling some more words down into his notebook with his pen. He shoves the pen between his teeth so he could flip through his heavy textbook and try to find a page in the stack next to him.

Harley sighs dramatically. “But I’m your baby, aren’t I? Doesn’t that mean I’m allowed to pout?”

“Stop pouting and stop whining. I’m trying to work, Harls.”

“How do you know I’m pouting if you won’t even look at me?” Harley exclaims, throwing his arms up in frustration. It started out as a game, but now he’s starting to feel a little bit cast aside.

“Are you pouting?”

“…Maybe.”

Peter finally sets down his pen and turns to Harley from his desk, a smile gracing his lips. He looks pretty as always, but Harley can’t help but notice how tired he looks.

“Ned said he was going to move out if he found us in the same bed again,” Peter says instead of acknowledging their entire conversation. “I think he was serious. MJ’s roommate doesn’t live with her anymore.”

Harley rolls his eyes and dramatically flops back onto the bed. “When was the last time we went on an actual date?”

“We went out last weekend, Harley.” Peter’s still smiling, but there’s insecurity shining in his eyes, eyebrows creasing a little more than Harley would like.

“I just miss you.”

“You miss me?” Peter repeats. “Yet you’ve been literally lying a few feet away from me for the past two hours. I’m right here, Harley.”

Harley tips his head to the side, breathing in the soft scent of Peter on the pillow. “But I should be your number one priority.”

“Number one?”

“Mmhm, you’ll never get a catch like me ever again. I’m one of a kind, baby.”

Peter finally gives in and crawls into the bed beside Harley, unceremoniously dropping half onto Harley’s chest. Harley immediately wraps his arms around Peter’s waist, making sure Peter couldn’t leave even if he wanted to. Harley’s getting cuddles for as long as he wants them.

“You have no idea,” Peter mumbles, words muffled by Harley’s sweater.

Harley grins and presses a kiss to Peter’s hair. “I love you.”

“Love you too. Now, get some rest, tall child.”

*

“You know, I thought you were going to murder me when we first met,” Harley says, out of the blue on the next morning. They’re still in bed despite it being way past the appropriate time for sleeping in, even for a weekend. “I literally thought you were going to poison my food or something.”

“What?” Peter says, stifling his laughter. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I thought you’d be as jealous as I was, I just figured you’d act on that jealousy and murder me so you’d be Tony’s only intern.”

This time, Peter does laugh, hiding his flushed face in Harley’s shoulder. “You thought I would get so jealous, I would poison your food? You know how crazy that sounds, right?”

“I thought about killing you. I just knew it was an irrational idea, I didn’t know if you’d think it was irrational too.”

Peter bites on his bottom lip, trying to quiet his laughter. It makes his cheeks puff up a little bit like chipmunks, face rosy and eyes sparkling.

“I can’t believe you thought, even for a moment, that killing me was the appropriate reaction to being jealous.”

“I’m from Tennessee, Peter. Anything goes.”

Peter ducks his head again, muffling his laughter in Harley’s sweater. “That’s- I can’t believe you.”

“Tony thought so too!” Harley exclaims. Peter doesn’t have to see to know Harley’s rolling his eyes. “Maybe not that we’d kill each other, but he thought we’d hate each other.”

“No,” Peter says, voice dropping to a little more serious. “I knew from that first moment I saw you that this was going to be something special.”

Harley smiles, going all soft and mushy in a heartbeat. “I love you like an insane amount. Like I don’t think there’s anything I wouldn’t do if you asked. I’ve never felt like this before, and if I’m being honest, it really scares me sometimes.”

The younger of the two leans up to press a kiss to the older’s jaw. “You don’t have to be scared. I feel the same way, there’s no way I’m breaking your heart. It’s safe with me.”

“I know. Your heart’s safe with me too.”

“Good. Now that we’ve napped and talked, do you think you could let me get back to my homework now? I never got to finish it yesterday thanks to you.”

Harley laughs, relinquishing his grip on his boyfriend’s waist. “I should probably get going anyways. I’ve got a study group in a bit and then I’ve got a few errands to run in the city. Oh, and I think my sister’s calling to make spring break plans this afternoon.”

“You’re spending spring break with your sister?”

“I don’t know if you’ve forgotten but Abbie’s going to UCLA. Her roommate’s boyfriend’s parents are super rich salespeople who are taking the roommate and boyfriend to Europe with them while they’re there for business. Abbie volunteered to housesit and pet-sit. Meaning…”

“Meaning she’s got a huge house to herself in California all week?”

Harley grins. “Precisely. If you want, I was thinking the two of us could crash with her all week. Morgan’s on her break too, and she’s offered to pay to fly us all out.”

“Morgan and Abbie in the same house for a whole week?” Peter repeats, rolling his eyes but the smile doesn’t even falter.

Laughing, Harley finally pulls away from Peter, stretching his arms. “Yeah, it’ll be interesting, for sure… I’ll let you get back to your homework. You want me to swing by again tonight?”

“Please?”

The one thing that’s been weird since they started school is that they have separate rooms. Harley lives on the other side of campus, closer to his own classes, so it’s normally easier for them to spend nights in their own rooms, despite being used to the opposite. Back in high school, May’s apartment was closer to Midtown than the Tower, so Harley would stay with Peter for conveniences sake, and weekends they spent together at the Tower.

Today’s a Saturday, though, so neither of them have obligations tomorrow.

Harley grins, leaning back to press a kiss to Peter’s forehead before he’s tugging on his shoes.

“I’ll stop at mine and grab some clothes and things, and I’ll be over this evening. Six?”

“Sounds good. Movie night?”

Opening up the door, Harley shoots a final smile over his shoulder. “I’ll bring snacks! I love you. See you tonight.”

“I love you too.”

The door shuts behind Harley and Peter falls back into his bed, breathing in the soft smell of Harley, boyish with a hint of the Tennessee smoke that he carries with him, and a bit of the cinnamon body wash he uses. He smiles up at the ceiling, feeling so warm with love and happiness.

* Late that evening, after Peter’s finished his homework from the week and cleaned his room and finished some laundry, after Harley showed up in a flurry of excitement and lit up joy, carrying a shopping bag of snacks for the night along with a few selections from his DVD collection, after they’ve made it through way too many snacks and a few movies, they’re curled up, trying not to fall asleep.

“I wanna marry you one day,” Harley blurts and then he laughs, no awkwardness or worry to it.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I wanna do one of those fancy weddings with all the components like the big, tiered cake, and the expensive suits, and the cute RSVP cards in the mail. Abbie and Morgan could be the flower girls or the ring bearers. Ned and Harry could be our best men and Cassie, MJ, and Gwen could all be our bridesmaids or whatever they’d be. We’d do one of those over-the-top bachelor parties, except we’d do it together because it wouldn’t be as fun to party without you. Tony would have to walk one of us down the aisle because May and Mom would want to do it. Or maybe Tony could officiate. And then we’d get on a plane the next morning for a crazy honeymoon.”

Peter smiles fondly, snuggling closer to his boyfriend and nearly knocking the laptop off their legs. “You’ve really thought about this, huh? Is this your way of proposing?”

“No,” Harley laughs. “I don’t have a ring and I’m going to do it right, when I do. The whole shebang. The expensive dinner, the dramatic speech, maybe I’ll do the stupid ring in the wine or something.”

He shakes his head against Harley’s chest. “I’d accidentally drink it. Don’t do that.”

Harley laughs again, peppering kisses over Peter’s face. “I just really want you to know that this is a forever thing, for me, you know? I want us to be forever. I want us to get engaged, to move in together, to get married, maybe we could think about kids. I’d even go for the white picket fence future if that’s what you wanted.”

“You’re such a sap,” Peter teases before he kisses Harley. “I want that too. Trust me, that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Taglist: @littlemissagrafina  @spidey-reids-2003 @romeoandjulietyouwish @c-artara @shadedrose01 @likeaphoenix13 @pj-hermes-tonystark-obsessed  @you-get-killed-walk-it-off @kitkatwinchester  @emo-girl10 @justme--emily  @hold-our-destiny @imalivebecauseirondad @spiderman-peterman @dykeragee @maryserrao @heeeyitskay @parknerandirondad @lilacsandlilies4 {Let me know if you wanna be added or removed}

[thegreatallie]

My week has been, shall we say, pretty wild.

I was in a good mood going into the beginning of the week, given that I’d won my first blue ribbon at a county fair after about 8 years of never getting higher than second premium. But man, did cruddy things just kind of keep happening, such as the whole bookcase incident and my trip to the water park (season pass visit) that I took to cheer me up made me want to pull out my hair.

But then Thursday. Oh, man, Thursday.

So let me set the scene: Every year that I can, I like to sing in the fair’s talent show. I couldn’t last year due to covid, or 2019 due to cancer, or 2018 due to living in Florida, or 2017 due to it being cancelled for reasons I never found out. But in years past I’ve performed an English translation of Rondo of the Sunflower House from Ponyo, performed Part of Your World on ocarina, played a guitar solo, and also sang Stronger Than You, although that year a bug flew into my mouth near the end and I couldn’t even finish the song.

This year, I wanted to perform Drift Away from Steven Universe: The Movie. I’d been practicing it before for something else, and since I wasn’t actually expecting a talent show this year, I pulled it out and decided to use it. But in the weeks leading up to the fair, I didn’t practice as much as I should have. So I was thinking I was just not going to go after all. It was a pretty rough week and the last thing I needed was to risk adding to it by undertaking something big.

Still, I had a few ride tickets that I had bought on Saturday and not gotten to use, due to running out of stamina. It hadn’t bothered me because I’d planned on going back on Thursday. And while I was there I had meant to pick up a piece of pyrite from one of the vendors. And I’d like to try to win one of those Steven Universe dolls I’d seen at the dart throwing board. After thinking about it, I ended up going.

Well. First, I couldn’t find where to register. That worried me because in the past they’ve had upwards of 30 acts in the show and I wanted to sign up early enough so they’d call me before 9:00 PM, given that I had to get home, take my meds, and be up the next morning at 8:15 (they affect how I sleep.) But I found out that they weren’t even taking sign-ups yet even though it was less than two hours to showtime. It was confusing, but it worked out, and then I had a nice grilled cheese for dinner. So far so good.

Then I went to the dart booth. I’d tried to win a Pearl doll on Saturday and failed so spectacularly that it was embarrassing. At home I just looked up how much it would cost to buy a Pearl doll, but the ones like the one at the fair were upwards of fifty bucks. So then I looked up how to throw darts and sort of practiced the motion with my wrist, trying hard to feel throwing straight. I was confident enough to slap down another $5, but the problem is you need all three of them to hit their mark.

The lady running the booth was nice and friendly. I told her I was gonna try to win the Pearl, and when I lifted up my bag to get out my wallet she recognized it was a Steven Universe bag. I’d purchased it at the Cartoon Network Hotel last September, and it was black with all four of the diamonds on it. She complimented it, and then said, “Let’s win you that Pearl doll.” She even picked out a cluster of balloons that would be the easiest to hit.

The first dart was not so good. It actually missed the balloons entirely, sailed low, and hit the eye of a Mordecai from Regular Show doll. Oof. She gently took the dart out of his eye and put it back on the counter. “Try again,” she said, and it was super kindly.

So I tried again. I took a deep breath, positioned my hand, and threw. And I popped one. Then a second one. I had to take another breath because I was so excited, but I threw the third one, and popped the third balloon. And that was it. I won the Pearl doll.

Things were looking up. I took Pearl on the silly baby roller coaster they had, which is about the wildest ride I can enjoy, and then went to get my pyrite. Next to the rock seller’s booth was a booth for a local diner I like. I chatted with the representatives for a bit and they showed me they were running a contest where you get a free lollipop, and if the lollipop has a dot on the bottom of the stick you win a mystery prize. And if you don’t win the prize, you still get a free lollipop. I did take the free lollipop, and to my surprise I actually got a blue dot! They let me pick a bag, and the bag had a tie-dye kit inside. Sweet.

I was tired, so I went to sit down until the show started. Before that happened, though, I went to talk to the tech guy to see if the accompaniment I’d brought would work, but he was busy with a tech problem. See, apparently someone else performing had the music on their phone, but they didn’t have the right adapter for him to play it. I didn’t want to butt in, but someone spoke up for me. I held up my phone, with it’s USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack, and asked if this would work for my music.

He pointed at it and said, “That’s the adapter I need.”

I took it out and let him use it, and thus the show was able to go on. I felt really fuzzy inside after that happened, and I was so excited to see the show.

The bad news was, only seven people signed up in total: three in the Under-15 section and four in the 15-and-over section. The good news was, even though I ended up coming in last place, I still won fourth premium. And the amazing news is, fourth premium comes with a cash prize. I had to go to the office for them to cut a check, though, and it took forever for the judges to get the judging sheet up to them and for the office to print the checks. The whole time I was thinking, “Man, I hope the prize is worth it. I mean, I’d hate to sit here for twenty minutes for a ten dollar prize that they can’t give me cash for because of regulations and accounting and whatnot.”

Well, It was. It was fifty bucks. Fifty American dollars for singing a Steven Universe song slightly off-key, because not enough people signed up. And that asshole juggler that wins first prize every year wasn’t even there.

So, yeah. I had a pretty amazing night. I was on cloud nine all night and had a hard time relaxing enough to go to sleep. All day Friday I was still on, like, cloud seven or eight at least.

[staytheb]

Moonlight Melody - chapter 3

Word Count: 5,431 previous chapter, next chapter

Moonlight Melody masterlist.

semi-proofread. anyways, the third chapter’s about Jessica as a grim reaper and receiving her next assignment which is Joohyun who later meets Grim Reaper Jessica. happy reading and kthxbai, Admin Lia~

Jessica was thrust awake as she found herself at the Reaper Station's conference room already sitting in one of its seat and in her uniform. She groaned as she flopped her upper body onto the table to catch a nap before the meeting began. It was short lived when she felt someone poke her side.

"I swear, Shannon, if it's you, I'm gonna pushed you in front of a bus again."

Grim Reaper Jessica threatened in a muttering tone with her face still against the table and not bothering to check if it was the death watcher that oversees her duties or not. She heard a male chuckle and turned to see that it was another reaper, Gunwoo, who had poked her earlier.

"I thought by now you would've figured out that we won't die from such mortal incidents."

Gunwoo propped an elbow on to the table and rested his chin upon it while smiling at Grim Reaper Jessica.

"Were you asleep before being summoned?"

"Yes. I took a nap as the heat was getting to me." She responded with a yawn as she sat upright.

"Why suffer with those mortal weathers when you can live here and choose whatever season you want to basked in?"

"That's no fun, honestly. I can't dress up with the seasonal fashion."

"How about giving up your triple life and just becoming a full-fledged grim reaper?"

"No, thanks. I'm sti-"

Gunwoo interrupted her while repeating the words that she always gave him as her reasoning.

"-still waiting on my sister."

He rolled his eyes.

"I remember, but I still suggest for you to cross over. Your sister, too. Isn't it boring being a human though?"

"Not really. Isn't it boring being an immortal?"

"Not really."

He eyed his fellow grim reaper with a grin.

"But who knows, one day I may end up as a mere mortal."

"I doubt you'll make it as one in the end."

"Wow, that's rude."

Grim Reaper  Jessica shot him a grin just as Lucifer's booming voice announced his own presence and everyone turned towards the front.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." Lucifer greeted as he sat at the head of the table upon his throne with a large grin.

He went about their usual discussion and updates before moving on to the last bit of the meeting consisting of assigning the reapers with their missions by Lilith. Grim Reaper Jessica hardly received her missions during the meetings as Shannon always gave them to her at all odd hours of the day. So Grim Reaper Jessica used to wondered why she even had to come to these midnight meetings, but later gave up and just went with it. Still though it got her curious and before she could ask Gunwoo about the subject, Lilith's voice interrupted her.

"Here's our latest user, pinkbaechu, on our REAPER CORRESPONDENCE site. The user signed up a few days ago."

Lilith announced upon Joohyun's account profile popping up on the holographic screen for everyone to view.

"She's quite pretty judging by her picture, but in all honestly she's really bland in personality."

There were some murmurs before Lilith continued.

"Now on to pinkbaechu's actual profile. Her name is Bae Joohyun. She's in her thirties. Born on the twenty-ninth of March. Height, one fifty-eight centimeters. Weight, forty-four kilograms. Her blood type is A. Her Zodiac signs are the Sheep and Aries. She doesn't eat chicken and dislikes coffee."

Lilith read out Joohyun's basic information before moving on to the real reason.

"This pitiful mortal officially got her heart broken by her scumbag of a cheating boyfriend of six years. Talk about summer romance, right?"

The others began mumbling comments about Joohyun's situation while Grim Reaper Jessica began to doze off feeling extremely sleepy for some odd reason before Lilith spoke again.

"Now, the one major thing to note about this case is that none of us here in the Infernal Realm had sent Joohyun Bae an invite to the REAPER CORRESPONDENCE. Yue Lao of the Celestial Realm took pity on this silly woman and decided upon himself to meddle a little bit in her pitiful love life while leaving the rest to the Grim Reaper Station to deal with."

Lilith's gaze looked about the room at the other grim reapers and death watchers.

"Who would like to take pinkbaechu's revenge as their own?"

A lot of hands went up, but Lilith's eyes landed on the dozing Grim Reaper Jessica. A smirk crossed Lilith's lips as she slammed her hands on the table which sent vibrations in the female's direction to jolt her wide awake.

"Hmm?"

Grim Reaper Jessica hummed sleepily while looking about the room casually.

"Congratulations, Reaper J, you have been assigned to pinkbaechu's case."

Lilith congratulated while snapping her fingers to make a black file appear in front of the said grim reaper.

"Wait, what?" Grim Reaper Jessica stared at the floating file before her.

"Why?"

Before Grim Reaper Jessica could protest Lucifer moved on to the next person and she reluctantly grasped the file into her hand with a tired sigh. Gunwoo laughed beside her and she elbowed him to stop, but that barely did anything as he snickered to himself. Just as Grim Reaper Jessica was about to make a snarky remark she felt herself thrust forward and she was back on Earth in her bed. She felt wonky, but came to her senses. Jessica checked the time. It was seven in the morning. She sighed while trying to return to sleep, but couldn't.

"What should I do now?"

Just as those words left her lips did she know what she wanted to do. Jessica went to the Eternal Twilight and sat upon the swing with the various sounds around her creating a tranquil melody. Jessica hoped that her sister's wandering soul would appear. Krystal did not appear and the melody that Jessica heard around her faded away.

~~~~~~~~~

"I seriously knew it was too good to be true. It had to be. I'm such a gullible person." Joohyun muttered with a frustrated sigh after checking her phone for the nth time since she had signed up for the REAPER CORRESPONDENCE a few days ago.

"What kind of app exists to make one's dream come true? Zilch."

Joohyun sighed again as her mood dampened.

"Why would one even exist if that was so easy to do in real life?"

Joohyun received no responses since creating the account. Heck, she received no replies after making a post in wanting to get back at her ex-boyfriend. She knew that her post had a lot of views, but not one person commented on it. Even when Joohyun clicked on the other profiles of the other users it went to private mode. She could only see her account and the posts of others, but a click into a profile and it just wasn't viewable. She couldn't even comment on any of the other posts as well. It was totally weird.

"Maybe it's just a site for ranting and nothing more. A place that's just another place to escape from reality."

Joohyun reasoned while putting away her phone and resumed work. She debated whether to take some personal days off, but didn't want to mope around the house causing her mother to worry. Her mother had her health to worry about instead of her own child to add to it. Besides, Joohyun needed to work to provide for herself and for her mother so she couldn't lose her job even if she despised it at times. Plus, the bank were running low on staff when one of her colleague that she was close with was admitted to the hospital in critical condition a few months ago. None of them knew when she would return.

Anyhow, at the time her mood was in high spirits when the thought of actually getting payback against Bogum was plausible. Now, after days of waiting and nothing happening her high energy dwindled. So when Joohyun returned home she was too tired that she headed to her room telling her mother that it was a stressful day at work. It was partially true. There were too many angry clients that took it out on her when they couldn't access their online banking account. Anyways, gathering energy Joohyun went about her nightly routine.

After changing into pajamas Joohyun finally sat on the carpeted floor of her bedroom. She had her knees pressed against her chest with her back pressed against the edge of her bed while staring at her dresser absentmindedly. Her eyes landed on the pretty MOLDIR tote bag given by that nice woman as she recalled the tinge of excitement and happiness she had these past few weeks because of that. Joohyun had received pictures of her modeling the products and her mother commented how surprised her daughter looked with them. She grabbed those photos from her nightstand and admired them.

Jiwoo had never seen her daughter looked so stunning and glowing all at once like that before. The both of them were even surprised to see the check with the sum for just that brief moment and her mother joking suggested for her daughter to become a model instead of a banker. Joohyun declined, but went through the photos seeing how happy she did looked in them. She didn't think by agreeing to these that it showed another side of her she didn't think existed. Still, Joohyun's mind wandered and a familiar feeling began to settled within her.

She unconsciously traced random patterns into the carpet with her fingers as her mind soon blanked out into nothingness causing the photos to lay about her. A moment later Joohyun suddenly shivered as her room grew immediately colder than it should've been. She rubbed her arms to keep warm while following the moonlit rays coming through her window and noticed it was closed. Same with the balcony door. She wondered if her mother turned on the A/C by mistake, but dismissed the idea since her mother would be the one to say something first about the coldness as heat comforted her better.

Standing up and moving under the covers of her bed instead, Joohyun decided it must be because she had gotten out of the shower and that night time had fallen with the slightly cool late June air in effect and settling in. As she was about to switch off her lamp's light, Joohyun's eyes caught a glimpse of something moving in the shadow cast by her lamp's light. She looked around her room cautiously, but shook the thought away as she wasn't one of those people for believing of monsters in the dark.

Then again, Joohyun did believed that a text message would help her to get revenge on Bogum. Maybe it was just the spur of the moment or something had overcome her, but still it felt real. Anyhow, she wasn't quite sure what to believe now. Being an adult was so tiresome and just mundane with little trifles of life. Anyways, finding nothing out of place except for the temperature being colder than normal Joohyun sighed as she was about to switch off the light until she heard a female voice speak from the foot of her bed.

"Don't do that. You should really leave the lights on. It makes things less creepy and daunting during the night, especially when something you're not used to seeing or believing."

Grim Reaper Jessica suggested while sitting cross-legged and hovering a few inches above the end of Joohyun's bed.

"Good evening. I'm Reaper J. You-"

The reaper was interrupted by Blanc who materialized right in front of Jessica and spoke instead.

"I'm Blanc. You should hang out with me because that ex-boyfriend of yours is a total douche and I have way better skills than him. Even looking like this."

Grim Reaper Jessica telepathically pushed Blanc to the side and was about to continued with her announcement when Eclare materialized a few seconds later where Blanc used to be and introduced himself as well.

"Hi. I'm Eclare. Wow, for a bland personality, you really are pretty and you smell deliciously sweet li-"

Eclare didn't get to finish his sentence as he was also telepathically pushed away by the grim 1reaper to join Blanc off to the side as Grim Reaper Jessica continued before being interrupted like nothing had happened.

"Like I was about to say, greetings, I'm Reaper J and you've summoned me so how may I assist you?"

Joohyun was still frozen in place with her body lying on her side half-twisted to turn off the light and the other half overlooking her shoulder to stare at the floating gothic-like female and two winged cats in front of her. She could only blinked every few seconds with her mouth agape. Grim Reaper Jessica sat afloat with a neutral expression as she bobbed up and down slowly while letting the situation sink in. After like twelve minutes passed did Joohyun finally come to her senses as she slowly positioned herself in a upright sitting position and pulling the blanket cozily around her.

"Who are you?"

The grim reaper smiled at Joohyun upon finally being acknowledged and instantly covered the mouths of the felines with her magic from interrupting and butting in like always before speaking.

"My purpose is to help you out as much as I can with your revenge, but I need to know all that you want me to know, Bae Joohyun."

"H-how do you know my name?"

"I know some things about you, but I know that you want to get back at your ex-boyfriend, Park Bogum. So I'm here to help you with that."

When the words sunk in did Joohyun's eyes lit up with the corner of her lips curving upwards. The more she thought of it, the more her eyes and lips grew wider and wider upon that realization that both Blanc and Eclare snapped Joohyun from out of her little moment.

"Yeah, so just tell good 'ol Blanc how you wanna go about dealing with dirtball Bogum for ya."

Blanc fluttered over to Joohyun and started suggesting things.

"Do you want me to bite him all over? Leave snakes under his bed? Haunt him in his dreams? Make him drink cat piss every time he drinks something? Or should I scratch up his pretty little face for ya? Just let me know what you want me to do. Don't hold back. Really. Don't hold back. I gotchu."

Blanc fluttered on over as well and did the same thing which Joohyun felt an even darker aura coming from him than Blanc.

"How about I enter his dreams and turned them into real living nightmares as he experienced them, but can't wake up? Like over and over as he reaches the point of awareness that he's gonna wake up, but repeats it again and again. That'll show him! Oh! Oh, I know! This one's my all time favorite out of the others that I do."

Eclare giggled mischievously as his eyes glazed over with excitement.

"Maybe every time he opens his mouth to flirt I have bugs and critters come crawling out. It doesn't have to be the mouth and could be another opening of the body. Or I could call up a buddy of mine who's been itching to possess some fool into doing stupid things or haunt him forever."

Joohyun looked at one cat to the other cat and totally did not think that these cute and adorable felines could come up with all these gruesome things they had just suggested. Grim Reaper Jessica shooed the felines away as they disappeared in a puff of smoke leaving just Joohyun and the grim reaper alone.

"Anyways, don't mind them. Tell me your thoughts."

Soon enough the words fell from Joohyun's mouth as she began blabbering about this and that while the words she spoke appeared automatically upon the black file that Grim Reaper Jessica suddenly had in her grasp that Joohyun hadn't noticed at all. Soon enough Joohyun's blabbering died down and she stared at the grim reaper bashfully.

"Um, is that good enough for you, Reaper J?"

"Quite. Thank you."

Grim Reaper Jessica confirmed while scanning the new content within the file before looking up at her charge.

"Anyways, in a little bit you should be receiving some items and I'll explain each one when th-"

The grim reaper was unintentionally interrupted when Joohyun began cooing at the sight of three black puppies suddenly appearing on her bed as they jumped about and all around Joohyun. She instantly petted the canines who immediately rolled onto their backs for belly rubs with the items firmly held in their mouths. To Joohyun, they were not the ferocious hellhounds you would assumed them to be. They were like all dogs wanting attention.

"I forget that this happens often." Grim Reaper Jessica muttered as she closed the black file before swirling her hand and the item disappeared.

The grim reaper looked about the room and caught sight of an expensive looking tote bag. Grim Reaper Jessica didn't think much about the MOLDIR bag and of the fact that she had met Joohyun before in her mortal form. When she was either a cupid or grim reaper for a part of that human life memory was blocked as if to not interfer with the other. Likewise when she was out supernatural uniform. She recalled bits and pieces, but other than that she didn't bother with it. Anyways, the grim reaper's attention returned to Joohyun who's mood seemed to have lifted.

"Aww, you three are so adorable."

Joohyun quietly squealed while petting the hellhounds.

"Wow, your fur is so soft to the touch."

She hadn't felt like this in a very long time. Somehow the puppies gave her a sense of calmness and washed away her sadness for the time being. The hellhounds could feel the grim reaper giving them a pointed look and reverted back to their upright position to get back on track. The hellhound with the red eyes was the first one to speak after dropping a small black-like wooden doll with a red bow-tied string around its neck onto Joohyun's lap.

"Hi. I'm Flesh. The DOLL in your case will be someone that you desire to be a replacement for your ex-boyfriend to help with your revenge. Once that occurs you'll pull the string from around it's neck and your new boyfriend shall appear soon afterwards."

Joohyun paused in her action and stared at Flesh who had just spoken before breaking out into giggles while petting his head.

"Oh my! You can actually talk, too? Just like the cats. Wow. That is so cute."

She gushed as the grim reaper patiently waited for the woman to have her moment. Flesh responded with a small bark before poofing away in a puff of red smoke as the next hellhound with blue eyes yawned after dropping a small round and flat stone onto Joohyun's lap before giving out his instruction next.

"Hiya. I'm Ukulele and in your case of the STONE, it will turn into five mini ruby red gemstones that you're able to eat while making tiny wishes."

He stretched his limbs as Joohyun petted the arch of his back which Ukulele quite liked before speaking again.

"Wish your wishes thoroughly. It will backfire if you don't and they'll come out differently than you had originally wished for."

Ukulele poofed away in a puff of blue smoke leaving the last hellhound with green eyes to present the last of the items for the revenge. The green-eyed hellhound placed a tiny black coin in Joohyun's lap.

"Hello, I'm Hibiscus and I actually don't know what the COIN will do for you in the time it's in your care," Hibiscus admitted as Joohyun frowned while petting the hellhound, "But when the right time presents itself or when you're in dire need of it when you don't think you won't, then it'll activate on its own accord."

Hibiscus soon disappeared in a puff of green smoke leaving only the grim reaper and Joohyun in Joohyun's bedroom. Joohyun gathered up the three items and stared at them lost in thoughts.

"Heed their words and followed their instructions well."

Grim Reaper Jessica reminded Joohyun as the woman nodded obediently.

"I will."

"Please make sure that these items stay in your care and to never lose sight of them."

Just as Joohyun was going to reply that she will, she was stopped when she noticed the grim reaper's gaze.

"The consequence of another mortal finding it  or being careless of them will be insurmountable. Do you understand, Bae Joohyun?"

Joohyun slowly nodded in slight fear.

"I will, Reaper J."

"Good."

Grim Reaper Jessica stretched out her limbs as she was now in a standing position while still hovering in the air.

"If you agree to your revenge, then you'll also mark a place besides the one you'll take your vengeance upon."

Joohyun's brows furrowed upon hearing the grim reaper's words.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your soul will also take its place in Hell once your life has ended. Do you comprehend what that means?"

"Will I die after the revenge has been completed?"

"No. You will live your life to its fullest and you'll die when your time to die comes unless the Fates think otherwise or it's a sudden death."

Grim Reaper Jessica calmly looked at her charge.

"Do you wish to carry on with your revenge, Bae Joohyun?"

Joohyun looked down at the items and then up at the grim reaper with a slow nod.

"Are you sure?"

The grim reaper asked once more before a final confirmation.

"I'm sure, Reaper J."

"Very well then. Please hold out a hand."

Joohyun was puzzled by the command, but saw Grim Reaper Jessica slightly motioned in the air with one of her hands and suddenly floating in front of her was a feathered quill and a golden parchment.

"This is a binding contract of your wish to take your revenge," Grim Reaper Jessica explained, "When you're ready to go through with it, then please say, 'I, Bae Joohyun, hereby adhere to the agreement with Reaper J', and it'll finished the rest from there."

Joohyun nodded as she recited the words the grim reaper informed her of.

"I, Bae Joohyun, hereby adhere to the agreement with Reaper J."

Joohyun held out a hand once the words left her mouth after reading the contents and winced when she felt a small prick to her index finger. She witnessed as the few drops of blood splattered at the bottom of the parchment sealing her fate.

"The deed is done."

Just as Grim Reaper Jessica finished talking did Eclare poofed back with a mischievous grin while casting his eyes onto Joohyun.

"Now that the agreement is settled, what should I do first, Ms. Watermelon?"

Joohyun wasn't sure how to reply as everything was still fairly fresh in her mind. She instead looked at the black feline clueless even with the weird name he had just addressed her by, but luckily Grim Reaper Jessica intervened.

"For now, Eclare, tail after Park Bogum. Take all notes of his activities, close relations, and other vital information for Joohyun to exact her vengeance on him when it's time."

"Will do. I got your back, Ms. Watermelon."

Eclare disappeared as Blanc looked over at Grim Reaper Jessica.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing."

"You're joking, right?"

"I'm not."

Joohyun watched as the white feline and the grim reaper banter a bit.

"Oh, c'mon, Sica. Let me help out."

"It's not your place to help here in the first place, Blanc."

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"You're no fun."

"We're not supposed to be having fun."

"Says you. This is right up my alley."

The grim reaper eyed the white cat.

"Does that halo of yours need to be replaced?"

"Can't. I figured that out in my first few years as one of Heaven's familiars."

"Make sense."

"Since it does, then le-"

"Anyways, Blanc," The grim reaper was done bickering with the white feline and interrupted him, "Not as of yet."

"So what can I do?"

"Like I said before, but this isn't really your jurisdiction, Blanc."

"But you just said 'not as of yet'. That means I can help."

"For now, just stay on the sideline and I'll let you know."

Blanc huffed knowing that was true, but nodded.

"Fine, but you know my name."

"Indeed."

Blanc looked over at Joohyun

"Remember me, Ms. Watermelon. The name's Blanc and if you need my help just call my name. Like, seriously, I'm being totally serious."

Joohyun just nodded in understanding.

"Okay. Laters."

Blanc poofed away in a cloud of white smoke while Grim Reaper Jessica did some stretching one last time and gave Joohyun a steady look.

"Just call my name, Reaper J, and I'll appear to you when possible. Please only do so if you're in need of me or have any serious questions regarding your revenge plan. Other than that, I'll always be close by even if you don't call for me."

"Um, what about the hellhounds and the cats?" Joohyun asked with a curious look.

"They won't appear on their own unless I send them or they accompany me when I visit you. So you don't have to worry about them unless the need is dire."

Joohyun nodded before glancing at the reaper with a thankful expression.

"Thank you." Joohyun thanked her. "Thank you so much."

"For what?"

Grim Reaper Jessica tilted her head curiously.

"For giving me a chance to get back at my ex-boyfriend for doing me wrong all this time."

The grim reaper shook her head.

"No need to thank me. I'm just here to provide you the means to do so."

Joohyun just nodded as Grim Reaper Jessica gave her another look.

"Now, to seal the deal again."

Joohyun was confused as the grim reaper hovered closer to her and offered out her right hand.

"Your other hand, please."

"But I thought we already did it a moment ago with the quill and paper thing?"

Grim Reaper Jessica continued to offer her hand not explaining what the other deal was so Joohyun did as told and held out her other hand that wasn't pricked before. She winced again when she felt another slight sting to her other index finger as a small pool of blood appeared. Grim Reaper Jessica firmly took Joohyun's pricked finger and placed it against the open page of the black file from earlier.

"Now the other real deal has been finalized, Bae Joohyun. Take care."

Before Joohyun could respond the grim reaper de-materialized along with the black file. She was left alone in her room once again, but this time around she had the three items from the hellhounds in her grasp to let her know that it wasn't made up and very real than before.

~~~~~~~~~

Joohyun glanced at the clock and wished time moved quickly so that she could go on her lunch break already. She thought she would've been fine working as a teller today, but now she wished she was doing consultations instead. The workplace had some early morning gossips that concerned her, but she wasn't aware of it except receiving weird looks and giggles behind her. Besides that there were some rude and impatient customers today as well. Joohyun had no clue why people were so grumpy about their own money even after informing them that she just manages the depositing and withdrawals of their accounts.

After working some more did she finally take her break and away from the workplace. Joohyun learned who had started the gossip as one of her colleagues actually lived in the same building complex and on the same floor as Bogum. He had overheard bits and pieces of the conversation between her and her ex-boyfriend and couldn't wait to tell the others at work after learning a little more, too. Still Joohyun wished that he had minded his own business instead of spreading gossip. She wondered how long before it would die down and they would gossip about something else after.

Anywho, Joohyun comfortably sat outside a small restaurant with the sun blocked by the umbrella and a cool summer breeze coming and going from time to time. She was sipping a pink island ice tea while people watching and eating a smoked salmon sandwich. She didn't have much of an appetite and so thought a light lunch would do her some good than nothing. She reached into her purse for her mobile device when her hand came into contact with something smooth. Joohyun pulled it out and realized it was the black stone that Ukulele had given her.

"I wonder if it tastes like cherries or strawberries when they turn into a ruby gemstone like the blue-eyed puppy had explained."

She observed the stone with an amused look before becoming shock when it suddenly turned into the said ruby and broke into five tiny pieces. Joohyun picked up one of the pieces and felt its texture like it wasn't candy at all. It felt more like an actual real gemstone, but had an airy feel to it, too. Curiosity got the best of her as she ended up popping it into her mouth. She savored the sweet taste of mixed berries as it exploded onto her taste-buds. At that moment her eyes had caught sight of a fancy car with an equally handsome man behind the wheel when it came to a stop due to a red light. In an awe-like state while admiring the handsome stranger Joohyun unconsciously made an indirect wish aloud.

"Oh how I could somehow work for a guy like him and have a boyfriend as handsome as him."

Joohyun swallowed the piece shortly afterwards and almost choked on it a second later when at that moment the good-looking male turned his head in her direction. She averted her gaze and downed the iced tea to distract herself so that it didn't look like she was just staring creepily at him. She eyed the vehicle and the man a moment later just as he had driven off when the light turned green. Joohyun sighed in relief as she shook her head at the situation. She tenderly placed the rest of the gemstones into one of her purse's pockets before enjoying the rest of her lunch and returning to work afterwards forgetting about what she had just done.

When she returned home later that day and entering her room Joohyun noticed that the doll from Flesh had changed it's overall appearance. She clearly remembered that it was still a wooden-like doll with no apparent features when she left this morning. She picked up the now human-like doll and admired how handsome it had become despite the same string tied around its neck. If she didn't know better, the doll's handsome appearance seemed almost familiar. Her fingers slightly held onto one of the bow-tied ends and contemplated if she wanted to pull it loose or not. While quietly staring at the doll she wondered why it had changed yet didn't resemble an exact person she had desired to replace Bogum.

"Wait a minute. Was it because of what happened earlier? Did I do something?"

Joohyun was immediately reminded of the gemstones from earlier. Her eyes widened as she realized that she may have made an unconscious wish when she tasted one.

"What's going to happen now?" She asked to no one in particular.

"Is it going to be bad or good?"

She glanced around her anxiously before settling her eyes onto the doll. She nodded with a determined face as it oddly gave her courage instead.

"Well, I've come this far."

Joohyun told herself as she slowly pulled the string of the bow-tied loose.

"Everything has been decided and I need to see it to the end."

Once the red string became detached from the humanized-like doll did the two items fly out of her hands and into the air. They swirled above her head and around the room before disappearing altogether in a bright yet dark reddish glow. Joohyun shield her eyes from the brightness before she blankly stared at the area where they were once floating before taking a deep breath. She inhaled deeply before releasing it and went about the rest of her day like nothing had occured and letting the grim reaper's doing do it's thing.

[hellzeldagirlsfanfic]

Cost of the Throne - Chapter 2

[Pervious] * [Next]

It had been thirteen years had passed since (Y/N) had come to Prildo Ira. Fino had her taken to the country’s second-largest city, Ckville to work at Saint Mirajane Hospital as a doctor’s apprentice. After eight years working as a doctor’s apprentice, (Y/N) finally graduated into proper doctors.

And being only one of three doctors she was a very busy person.

So she chose to spend all of her spare time in the children's ward.

“(Y/N)!!!” The head doctor, Vilho yelled.

Said woman flinched slightly at her name being yelled.    

(Y/N) sat on a bed belonging to a now five-year-old Zeck. The boy had been in the hospital since he was two because of breathing problems and had stayed since. Zeck was a happy boy despite his condition especially today due to it being this fifth birthday. His mother and father had stopped by in the morning to give him a little present and lots of love.

(Y/N) had stopped by the ward to read him and the other children a book of his choosing instead of doing her paperwork.

It was obvious to (Y/N) what had happened. Vilho had gone to her office to get her opinion on a patient’s diagnosis but didn’t find her there doing her paperwork.

(Y/N) could hear the nurses of the children's ward giggling at her situation that she had gotten herself into, again.

The woman turned to the large entrance arch to wand to see Vilho standing there with an unamused look on his face.

“Hello Dr. Vainamoinen, how may I help you?” She asked innocently.

Vilho walked into the wand then to Zeck’s bed which was surrounded by other children.

“Yes you could Dr.Lace, I was wondering why you aren’t in your office filling out patients’ files?” He question.

“Cause it’s my birthday!!” Zeck exclaimed. “Dr.Lace promised to read to me Gawain and the Green Giant!” he added on with a big grin.

(Y/N) gave Zeck a smile and pat on his head.

Vilho sighed and shook his head.

“Well once Dr.Lace is done, could you ask her to go and do her paperwork,” Vilho said to the children, who altogether agreed to the request.

(Y/N) gave him a malicious smile which he returned with his own innocent smile.

It took two hours for (Y/N) to read through Gawain and the Green Giant. Once finished the children reminded her to go and do her paperwork which she did.

It took half an hour for Vilho to come to visit her in her small office.

“Can I help you Vilho?” (Y/N) asked, not looking up from her work.

The elf stays at her door watched her work. He had watched the somewhat shy and quiet girl turned into a head-strong and outgoing woman who didn’t take anyone's shit.

“I wish you would take more care of yourself as you do with the patients,” Vilho told her.

“What d you mean?” (Y/N) asked.

“You’re going stay here until you’re done with all these patients’ files and miss dinner and sleep, again,” he said.

(Y/N) briefly stopped writing for a moment the looked up at her teacher.

The woman was now to pushed herself far past her limit. Most days she would only eat a loaf of bread for breakfast and maybe the soup and a small loaf that hospital serves at lunch. It was rare for her to have dinner, choosing to focus on paperwork or patients late into the night. She would get about four or three hours of sleep a day. And only took days off when she was really sick.

“It’s not like you don't do the same thing,” (Y/N) shot back at the elf.

“You take it to the extreme,” Vilho sighed as moved from the door to her desk.

He pulled the patient’s diagnosis that he wanted to talk about earlier to her. Once they finished talking, (Y/N) was left to work through her paperwork.

When she was nearly done with work her shift came to an end. She decides to stay until all of it was done but it seemed that someone had another idea.

“(Y/N)!!!” Debbie called loudly into her office. “Come drinking with us!”

Debbie was the head nurse of Saint Mirajane for the last twenty years. The older woman had made sure that (Y/N) was well taken care of and helped her get her room at the boarding house* a couple of streets away. She was very mother duck.

“Did Vilho ask you to take me?” (Y/N) sighed.

Debbie didn’t reply to the question but just pulled the young woman out of her chair and dragged her to Crue’s Cellar, a pub a street way that everyone from the hospital went to drink at.

The pub always lively, filled with laugh and singing. The pub was normally full with labourers, mercenaries, and demon hunters. It was a nice place to have dinner.

(Y/N), Debbie, and two other nurses Marie and Leanna walked to Cure’s Cellar. The pub was already in full swing.

Debbie’s husband was Ryan was already at the pub.

It was clear that he had already had too much to drink due to the red tint across his cheeks. He stumbled to his wife with open arms. Debbie pulled a face at the state of her husband. She met him halfway. She lifted her hands up to his face and pulled his face and pulled the redden cheeks.

“How dare you start without me! Did you have anything to drink?” Debbie said in an angry tone.

(Y/N) sighed at the couple then headed to the bar. She slotted herself next to a familiar face at the bar. (Y/N) leaned her body against her friend’s, locking her arm around their and resting her head in the crook of their neck.

“How has my M’Lady been doing?” (Y/N) asked, with a smirk on her face knowing how much the woman beside her didn’t like that nickname.

“I’m fine, a little bored since I’m not getting enough jobs of late and a little bit annoyed by someone calling me by a stupid nickname,” Lady said as she reached up to pinch (Y/N)’s cheek.

Lady signalled to the barmaid so she could order a drink for them. It took a moment for them to return to the women with a pint of local ale. Both women took a gulp of their alcoholic drink. They both released a sigh of delight.

“Talking about annoyances, where is he?” (Y/N) asked Lady while looking around the pub for a mop of white hair.

“Don’t know,” She told her as she took a sip of her drink. “Morrison told me that some woman came crashing into his shop, destroying the front. He then took off with her,” She explained.

(H/C) stared at the demon hunter in disbelieve. It was very out of character fro their mutual friend to run off like that.

“She must be very beautiful,” (Y/N) commented.

“Or it’s really good money,” Lady said.

The two of them continued to drink and chatted about odd topics until Debbie came and joined the women after she had dinner and a drink with her husband. The women got around each with (Y/N) ordering some food for herself.

It was about eleven when the doctor parted from the pub to return to her room at the boarding house.

(Y/N) quietly opens the door to the boarding house as she didn’t want to wake up the owner of the boarding house Mrs.Hudson.

“Been out drinking again?” Mrs. Hudson's voice echo through the entrance hallway.

“Good evening Mrs.Hudson,” (Y/N) greeted. “I thought you would be asleep by now,”

“I was just about to but I heard someone coming in,” The old woman said. “What did you have for dinner?” She asked.

(Y/N) paused for a moment trying to remember what she had for dinner. “Seeing that you cannot remember what you had come, and have some leek and potato soup,” Mrs.Hudson ordered, opening her door to her apartment.

The apartment’s living room was the same size as her room. Sitting in centre of the back was fireplace with a dyeing fire in the hearth. Over it was large iron pot. Sitting in this was Mrs.Hudson’s leek and potato soup that (Y/N) loves.

There was nothing special about the soup. It was a soup that Mrs.Hudson that made every two or three months. It was the first proper meal in Ckville after living there for four months. It was the testiest meal she had ever had in her life. It had become her favourite meal.

The two of them sat together at Mrs.Hudson’s table eating a bowl of soup and talking about their day.

Once the meal was finish (Y/N) insisted that she washed the bowls before heading up to her room to sleep.

(Y/N) finally reaches her room immediately stripped herself of her clothes.

She first removed her girdle then tugged the ties of surcoat, not fully undoing but enough so she pull green article of clothing over her head. That left her in off white shirt, trousers and dark boots, there were all quickly removed as well. There were replaced with old work shirt of Ryan’s that only came to her mid tights. (If court could see her now most if them would be dead.)

(Y/N) throw her clothes over footboard but kept her girdle tying it to her headboard. She jumped into bed after tying her girdle. (Y/N) lays in bed running her hand over faded yellow girdle until she fell asleep.

When morning came, (Y/N) was woken up by knocker-upper* Pete. She got up the wented to the window and open it.

“I’m up Pete. Thank you,” She called softly to the man on the streets below.

She close the window and got dressed.

On the way to the hospital (Y/N) stopped by a bakery to grab a roll for breakfast.

The roll was finish by time she got to hospital.

(Y/N) was greeted by the night curses that were still on duty on her way to Dr.Sabaya’s office.

“Morning Viji,” (Y/N) greeted.

“It’s that time already,” Dr.Sabaya greeted back.

“Long night?” (Y/N) asked.“There were two deaths,” Viji informed the younger doctor. “It was Elaine and Old Jason,” She clarified.

Elaine was a first-time mother who had a very difficult labour and Jason was just old.

“This the paperwork done for them?” (Y/N) asked.

“Yes. I just have to file them away,” The other doctor replied.

“Leave that to me, I’m sure Shoko would be happy to see her mother before she goes to sleep,” (Y/N) smiled.

Viji returned the smile with her own tried one.

The older doctor gathered her things as (Y/N) took the patients’ file and filed them way.

Once the files were put a way (Y/N) started her rounds the wands. And when the rounds were done is when (Y/N)’s day actually started.

“Dr.Lace!!!” A nurse shouted from the entrance hall.

She darted from the second floor to hall at front hospital. At the door to the hospital was a group of people were filtering in. By their dress (Y/N) could tell that they labourer that must have been working on Ckville’s cathedral restoration. And judging by the state of the group there was large incident at the site.

“How many?” (Y/N) asked as rushed over to help the nurses.

“Five bad ones!” Debbie shouted from outside the hospital. “About seven minors! We can handle those one!” She continued on as lead the patients into the hospital. “The worst of them is in cart at the back. I’ve ready sent someone to get Vilho,”

(Y/N) rushed to the house pulled cart to see how bed the patient was. The man was laying his back, groaning in pain. It was quite clear that his right side of his body had been crushed. The doctor claimed into the cart so she could examine the injury more closely. She summoned her magic to examine the arm.

‘No use, the arm is completely destroyed it must be amputated off,’ (Y/N) thought as she moved down the body. ‘Ribs are crushed but none are broken and the organs are just bruised, nothing that a healing magic couldn’t fix. His leg isn’t that bad as his arm but it would need a lot of time and magic,’

“Debbie!” (Y/N) yelled. “Prepare for an amputation! Right arm!” She clarified.

(Y/N) jumped off the cart once it was stopped at the hospital’s door. She order the able body men that came from cathedral site to help unload the man from the cart to a room on the bottom floor of the hospital. The room was far at the back  of the hospital so other patients couldn’t hear the screaming.

The room was already prepare for the amputation. The men place their colleague on the operation table. Some stayed once their colleague was on the table so they could help hold him down when the amputation started.

(Y/N) tear off the man’s shirt so she access his right arm better.

“Hold him down!” She ordered as she tied a piece of string to cut off of the man’s circulation.

All of the me nodded and stepped closer to the table. (Y/N) grabbed a saw from the desk beside the operation table. She began to cut through the flesh of the elbow causing the man to jerk up and scream out. The men die their jobs and held down the patient.

It took four hours to saw of the man’s arm and to close the cut. It took a further two hours to heal the man’s torso and leg. Once she was finish the man was transported to a bed in a wand.

(Y/N) was tired but there were still patients to attend to. It was night when she finished with all the patients. Vilho ordered her home since she did most of the work today.

For once (Y/N) didn’t argue with her teacher and left the hospital. Though she didn’t go home but inserted she went to Crue’s Cellar for a nice meal.

As normal Lady was sitting at the end of the bar drinking as she waited for a job.

“Evening (Y/N),” Lady greeted. “God, you look tried,” She commented.

“I feel it,” (Y/N) replied.

A plate was placed in front of her with a tankard. (Y/N) look at the plate in confusion.

“I haven’t ordered anything yet,” (Y/N) stated in confusion.

“It’s on the house,” The bar maid said. “We’ve heard what happened at the cathedral and you’ve earned this,” She added on.

“Thank you,” She said before digging into the roast dinner.

Lady pouted at her friend before ordering her own meal.

“Good evening ladies,” The voice of Morrison greeted them from behind them.

Both women turned to face the old info broker.

He strolled over to the bar where they were sitting. He removed his cigar from his dark lips before talking more.

“It’s a rare site to see you here, Dr.Lace,” He said.

“Vilho ordered me to go home,” She told him.

Morrison looked around the rowdy pub.

“This strange home,” He said as took another puff of his cigar.

The ladies laughed at him.

“Do you have any jobs for me?” Lady asked.

The old man became strangely silent for a moment as he took a long drag.

“There hadn’t been any demonic jobs for the last week or so,” Morrison said. “I’ve heard from other that demon attacks across the world have stopped,” He explained.

The women looked at him in shock.

“A lot of them have gone to Mallet,” He added.

“That’s strange,” Lady stated.

“Yeah,” (Y/N) mumbled.

“Let’s hope whatever party they having it ends soon so my business doesn’t go under,” A voice said from straight behind (Y/N) causing her to jump. The person that voice belonged to, wrapped an arm around her neck. “How’s my favourite doctor?” He asked softly into her ear.

“Dante,” (Y/N) sighed.

She turned to her head to see the infamous demon hunter lending his head on her shoulder, with a big grin across his face.

“You asshole!” Lady yelled at the man, jumping up from her chair. “Where did you disappear to for two weeks!? And don’t you dare ask me for money to fix your shop!” she added.

Dante held his arms up in a surrender.

“I won’t be needing to borrow any money from you and I will be you back the money I own you,” Dante said.

Lady looked at him like he had grown a second head.

“What?” Lady replied.

“I got a lot of items from the job. I’m going to sell them in the next week?” Dante told her.

Lady sat back in her chair grumbling ‘I like to see that day’.

The demon hunter returned his attention back to the young doctor sitting in front of him.

“It’s surprise to see you see, (Y/N),” He said.

“Just stopping by for some dinner before going home,” She told him.

A cough came from behind Dante.

“Oh yeah,” He mumbled. “Everyone this is Trish, my partner,” He introduced her.

He lifted his arm up so the blonde woman could step under it.

“Hello,” Trish said.

The woman was beautiful. Her long blonde hair ended around her waist and she had bright eyes. Her clothes were the most thing that made her stand out. A black corset that left nothing to the imagination and low riding tight trousers.

‘I thought what Lady wore was revealing,’ (Y/N) thought.

“It’s nice to meet you Trish,” (Y/N) said. “I’m Doctor Odette (Y/N) Lace but I prefer to be called (Y/N),” She introduced herself to Trish with a handshake.

“It’s nice to meet you too, doctor,” Trish said, returning the handshake with a smile.

Morrison and Lady stayed quite as the both noticed eerily similarities between Dante’s new partner and the drawing of his mother on his desk.

“And this Morrison, a info broker, he’s also like agent to me,” Dante introduced Morrison himself. “And this is Lady, a fellow demon hunter,” he introduced her as well.

“He owns me a lot of money,” Lady stated.

Trish laughed that Lady’s comment which cause Dante frown.

Then the door of the pub was flung open, silencing the whole pub. Stood in the doorway was a young city guard, Joe. He was a good kid, he tried his best to stop fights and keep the peace . He was out of breath.

“What’s wrong Joe?” A man asked.

“Mun… M-Mundus…” he puffed out.

“What about that bastard?” Another said.

“H-he’s dead!”

The pub became silent again but this time for another a reason.

“Mundus is dead!” Joe repeated. “Mundus has been killed by Nelo Angelo in coup d’e!”

The room was stunned.

“And it turns out that Nelo Angelo is actually Sparda’s eldest son!” Joe stated.

Mumbling started through out the room. No one could believe what the young guard had just said but everyone knew that he wasn’t one to cry wolf.

“Well then,” Dante raised his voice. “I guess it’s time to celebrate the death of Mundus!” He shouted raising a drink.

Everyone followed with cheer and raise of their own drink. The pub owner yelled that drinks were on the house for the night. Everyone started to drink, sing and dance.

But it just wasn’t the Grue’s Cellar that were celebrating. All across Ckville, Prildo Ira and the world were celebrating the death of Demon Emperor. All a part the royal court of Quebel. They knew that they would be next.

[therainroguefanfiction]

☁ Drifting Away (Giotto) #08

📑 Table of Contents | ◂Previous

Author’s Note: Okay! I want to clear up a few things c: First off, this is the last chapter that my younger self wrote (I think I was like 16?). Now, in these past eight chapters, I’m sure you’ve come across things that seemed impossible for the time period, and I will do my best to stick to the year 1870 as best as I can from here on out! I hope you will go easy on me~

Rather than using google translate, I now have a wonderful friend willing to help me with the Italian translations (@kiralushia​) who also has this wonderful comic that you should definitely go check out! She has also been so supportive and is the main reason I want to finish this story!

I have decided to keep the flip cell phones for plot purposes and Salmon’s laptop (the story behind this is that they brought the technology from the future along with the necessary components in order to use them in the past). I hope you can overlook this plot hole for the sake of the story!

Finally, I want to state that I have NOT read the manga (yet). I wanted to get this final chapter posted first and now I am going to go and read the proper arc within the manga in order to learn more about the first generation so I can do them proper justice within this story. Thank you so much for reading!

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☁ Cafe ✗ Guardian ✗ Confrontation ☁

You and Zakun had been walking for a good hour or so and, to be completely honest, you weren’t too sure he had a destination in mind. You were starting to think that he was just walking for the sake of it. After ten more minutes passed, you began to get annoyed.

“Oi! How the hell are we supposed to find this guy, anyway?”

“We search.” Another stoic response. Did this guy even have any emotion? Maybe he should have been the cloud guardian.

“Obviously, but we can’t just walk around blindly, ya know. You have to have some sort of plan or idea or something.”

“No.”

You facepalmed, sighing deeply as you begrudgingly followed after him. It seemed kind of hopeless, just walking around aimlessly. How would you even know if you had the right person? You were pretty sure that you didn’t have time to waste but, whenever you looked at Zakun, he looked totally relaxed. Then again, he’d probably be that way even if the world were about to end.

“Okay, how do we know we got the right guy? Just go around slipping the ring onto people’s fingers until we find one it doesn’t reject?”

He sent you a ‘get real’ look over his shoulder and you scowled. “When you first got the ring, it started resonating in sync with your own, giusto?”

You nodded.

“I knew you had gotten a hold of the ring because mine did the same. When you got close to me, they started resonating again, this time glowing brighter. The same thing will happen, only brighter than the first two times, when we get close to the bearer of the ring,” he paused, glancing over at you as you fell in step beside him. “It will act as a compass. The closer we get, the brighter it will become. The further we get, the less it will glow, until it eventually goes out, like now.” He motioned towards the ring on his finger.

You hummed thoughtfully, grabbing his hand and sliding the ring from his finger. You had seen the Gardiano rings before, but never actually paid attention to its detail. The shank of the ring was the body of a dragon, cloud gray in color and the same width as the Vongola rings. On top was the head of the dragon, the same color as the body. It’s mouth was open wide and inside was the Gardiano family’s crest. Its color was the respective multi-colored hue of the fire guardian and the eyes were the same color.

It truly was a badass looking ring.

Zakun slid the ring back on his finger without a word.

“What if they aren’t in Italy?”

“Then we have a problem.”

You stared at him blankly.

He returned the look. “Salmon says the probability of the barer being in Italy is seventy-five percent.”

“That still leaves a twenty-five percent chance that our guy is somewhere else in the world.”

“Are you always so negative?” He questioned, glancing at you.

“No,” you scowled. “I was just being honest.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but suddenly closed it and stopped walking. Digging into his jacket pocket, he produced a cell phone which he then flipped open and pressed to his ear. “Hello?… Not yet… Are you sure?… Fine.”

You raised an eyebrow as he snapped it shut. Honestly, you had never witnessed such a short phone call before.

“Rorian says we should split up,” he paused, holding out his hand. “Give me your phone.”

“Uh, sure,” you pulled the cell phone from your pocket and sat it in his open palm. His fingers pressed into the keys, entering his contact information into the device, along with a couple of the other members, just in case.

“We can cover more ground this way. If you find him, or get lost again, call me. Salmon will call you if I find him.” He turned in the opposite direction and started to walk away.

With a shrug, you continued on your way, your mind running wild with various thoughts. “If I were a missing fire guardian, where the hell would I be? Hmm.”

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

When the sun finally began to rise, you decided it was time to take a break. Fortunately, you came to that decision in front of a bookstore. Opening the door, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and pristine, new books filled your nostrils and it was such a wonderful combination. The bookstore was small, but offered quite a selection of books.

On the right side of the store, in the corner, was a small cafe where you could read and drink coffee or even have something sweet to snack on. The whole atmosphere was calm and quiet, the perfect place to relax. You knew that Zakun would probably be mad, but you were exhausted and needed a few minutes to rest and regain some of your energy. After all the searching you had done, surely a five minute break wouldn’t hurt.

You sighed as you fell into the wooden chair near the corner, arms folded on the small round table with your head on top. The cold wood felt nice against your skin and that, mixed with the sound of pages being turned and coffee being poured, lulled you to sleep. You hadn’t even realized how tired you felt, but it was no surprise since you had been walking since nearly four in the morning and it was now just after eight at night.

You slept soundly with no strange dreams or interruptions which was rare for you since finding yourself thrown into the past and your body was soaking it up.

At least until a burning against your lower chest and stomach jolted you from your peaceful nap. A small groan passed your lips as your eyes slid open. It took a few minutes to realize that your shirt was glowing – or rather, what was underneath it.

You blinked in surprise, pulling at the collar of your shirt so you could see the ring, which was glowing pretty brightly. Looking around, there were only four people around you.

The woman wiping off the counters. A dark-skinned male reading his newspaper. A pale-skinned man reading a Josh Grisham novel. And another male that had just walked in, briefcase in one hand and a newspaper tucked under his arm.

As he walked closer, the warmth and glow of the ring increased, almost to a painful degree and, by the time he took a seat at the table beside your own, it was almost unbearable. His hair was sandy brown and slightly spiky, but slicked back away from his forehead, and his eyes were a moonlight silver. On his forehead was a crescent moon shaped scar and he was dressed in a navy blue suit.

‘What should I do? I know Zakun said to call him… but what if he doesn’t make it in time?’ You stood up, hiding the glowing rings as best as you could, before approaching his table. He was scribbling away onto a thick pad of paper, which had been removed from his briefcase. “Excuse me?”

He glanced up at you, his expression nothing short of serious. “Do you mind if I sit here?”

The man’s slim brow rose and he glanced around the cafe, which was practically empty, before looking back at the paper and shrugging. Without a sound, you took a seat across from him, fiddling with your fingers that were flat on top of the black table. Now, what in the hell were you supposed to say?

‘Hey! Just thought I’d let you know that I’m part of the mafia and I need your help to save the first generation of my family! Oh yeah, I’m from the future, too! That should go over well,’ you glanced up at him.

His eyes were scanning the page, his hand flying across the page at a nearly inhuman pace. You wondered what he was writing, but you couldn’t understand the language.

“Mind if I ask you something?”

He glanced up at you, paused for a moment and nodded before returning to his work.

“Do you… believe that the mafia exists?”

His hand paused, the tip of the pen hovering above the page, but he didn’t look up at you this time. When he spoke, his voice was deep. “A foolish question.”

You scowled, clenching your fist against the table. ‘Be nice, Y/N. Remember that you need this guy, so just be nice.’ “You believe, then?”

“Italy is known for their mafioso.” His voice was monotone, not a single speck of emotion within. Damn, he might just be colder than Zakun.

“Right. So I guess it’s safe to tell you that I’m part of the mafia, then.”

The man’s hand froze and his eyes narrowed into a glare at you before he gathered up the papers and placed them back into his briefcase, standing up. “I don’t know what game you’re playing at, but I refuse to believe that a mere child is in the mafia. Do take your games elsewhere.”

You sat frozen in your chair, blinking a few times as the words sunk in. You then shot up from your chair and growled out, “I’m not a child!” but it didn’t matter, because the man was already gone. With a groan, you fell back into the chair. ‘Now what am I supposed to do? Rory-chan is so gonna kill me.’

“Mi scusi?”

You looked up to see the female worker from before. She smiled softly, placing an espresso in front of you. “Oh, uhh… thank you.”

Realizing that you spoke English, she switched to using it, a thick accent present but her words easily understandable. “No problem. You looked like you needed it,” she smiled brightly, tilting her head to the side and causing her blonde bangs to fall across her closed eyes. “So tell me, did you know that guy?”

“No,” you sighed, leaning back in the chair with your hand clasped loosely over the base of the drink. “I need to, though.”

“You’re not like a spia, how you say, a stalker are you?”

“No. I have better things to do than stalk some guy.” You rolled your eyes. “Especially not someone as rude as him!”

She giggled. “Alright then! I can give you some information on him. Though I don’t know much, I know a little.”

“And you’d tell me, just like that?” You quirked a brow at her. “What’s the catch?”

“No catch!” She smiled, nodding her head. “It seems kinda important that you get through to him, but I’m warning you, he’s a tough costumer!” She giggled again. “His name is Holland and he’s a twenty-three year old owner of some shop on the other side of town. He’s all business – never smiles, never laughs, never even shows any emotion unless it’s annoyance! He’s so stuffy!” She pouted, folding her arms over her chest as she took the seat he had previously occupied.

“What kind of shop is it?”

“Hmm, I believe it’s a book shop, but I am not certain.”

“Do you know the name? Or an address.”

“Un attimo,” she held up her finger before standing up and heading over to the counter, where she grabbed a thin strip of paper. She pulled the fountain pen from the ink bottle, gliding it across the page before returning it and heading back to you, setting the paper onto the paper. “Careful not to smear the ink.”

You glanced at the address written there and had no clue where the hell it was, but you could just ask someone on the street and hope they knew English. Shouldn’t be too hard, right?

“I’ve tried so many times to be nice to him,” she continued. “But he’s just so mean! He comes in here every morning around nine o’clock, reads a few pages from his paper, and then spends close to two hours scribbling away. I thought, maybe, since he comes in everyday, I’d try and be nice, but half the time, he does not even respond! Che maleducato, you know?”

“Y-Yeah…” No, you really didn’t know, but you cleared your throat, shifting in your seat. “So, everyday, then?”

She nodded again. “It was actually pretty surprising, though! Usually he just ignores everyone that talks to him or whatever, but he didn’t ignore you! He actually let you sit with him and he actually talked to you in that deep sexy voice of his, I can not believe it! Maybe it’s because you’re so young,” she put her finger to her bottom lip, which slightly jutted forward as she pouted. “But I’m young, too, you know?”

Again, no, you did not know, but you pretended you did. “Uhh, right… weird…” You dug into your pocket to pull out some money for the drink only to freeze as you came to a realization – you only had yen on you, and you were pretty sure that they didn’t accept that in Italy.

Sensing your rising distress, the girl crossed her legs and waved you off with a friendly smile. “Non preoccuparti, it is on the house. I’m Sandra, by the way, Sandra Moretti. I’m half-American and I struggled learning the language when I came here as a child, but do not worry, you will pick it up soon!”

Normally people didn’t give that much information to someone they just met, which worried you a bit, but you let it go. “Cool, thank you.”

“Sure thing! See you around~”

You chuckled nervously as you stood up, keeping your eyes on her as you headed for the door. As soon as your back hit the glass, you bolted from the store and down the street. Sure, she seemed nice enough, but you knew from experience that coming across people that friendly and willing to give away information to a complete stranger were usually pretty dangerous. Still, you got some useful information from her.

Just then, the phone started to buzz within your pocket and you fished it out, flipping it open without so much as second thought. You instantly came to regret this decision, having to pull the phone back in order to keep your hearing in tact.

“Why didn’t you call?!” came Rorian’s angered voice. You could hear three voices in the background, probably trying to calm him down. “Zakun called thirty minutes ago and said you found the first generation fire guardian!“

“Er, yeah… about that…” you cleared your throat, leaning back against the brick wall. Night had fallen, the streets barely lit up by the pale street lamps scattered too far apart from each other. It was silent in the city, something you weren’t used to. “I did find him… kind of.”

“‘Kind of’? What in the hell does that mean?“

“Calm down, Rorian!” cried a voice that I did not recognize.

“Give me the phone, will you?” Rorian’s cries faded into the background as Sylvian took over, his voice soft and warm. “Hello, Y/N sweetheart. Don’t mind Rory. He’s a bit moody tonight.“

“I told you not to call me that!” was Rorian’s muffled reply.

“I hear you found the first-generation guardian of fire. Is this correct?” Sylvian inquired. It sounded like he had left the room, because the background of the call suddenly became silent.

“Yeah, I’m sorry Syl. I should have called Zakun, but I didn’t want to risk him not getting there in time. I had ’em, too.” You sighed, closing your eyes and leaning your head back against the wall. If you weren’t mentally kicking yourself before, you certainly were now.

“Don’t worry about it, you simply followed your instincts and did what you believed was best.” He paused. “Did you get any information on him? What did he look like?“

“I talked to a girl that worked there. She said his name is Holland, twenty-three years old, and he owns a bookstore on the other side of town. I got the address. He also visits the same cafe every morning around nine.”

“Then we still have a chance. Good work, sweetheart.” His warm smile could be heard within his tone. “Do you remember how to get back to the hideout?“

“I think I can manage.” You responded, but the truth was that you probably couldn’t and would end up just wandering around aimlessly for a while. That was fine, though, because you figured the others would be pretty angry for letting Holland get away, even Sylvian, despite how calm he sounded on the phone.

“Alright. I’ll call Zakun and tell him to return, as well.“

The line went dead and you heaved a tired sigh, flipping the phone shut before sliding it back into your pocket. Back in your own era, you had often made mistakes because you were, in Reborn’s words, brash and reckless, acting before thinking – a lot like Gokudera, but much worse. You often screwed things up and got yourself hurt because of it, but Tsuna was never mad at you.

No matter how badly you screwed up, Tsuna always forgave you, even for your most stupid of moments. The others… not so much. Gokudera would always get pissed off at you for causing trouble for the Juudaime, despite the fact that he causes just as much trouble. Yamamoto usually just shrugged it off, and Reborn and Bianchi would often give you the silent treatment for a week.

You know how when parents get angry at their kids and the kids feel like shit because of it? Well, when someone you care about is disappointed in you, it makes you feel even lower than that, like the scum of the earth.

Now, you may not have known these guys long enough to be considered close with them, but they did feel kind of like family and you were also already feeling pretty low because you had betrayed one of the two people you swore you would never betray – Giotto.

‘And after he stuck up for me. And Asari and Knuckle… I wonder what’s going through their minds. Wait… I take that back. I don’t wanna know…’

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

Three hours later, you found yourself standing in the kitchen of the old abandoned house, staring at the knife. You had never actually tried this, but it should still work. Igniting the flame on your ring, you gripped the handle, letting it engulf the knife. Seconds later, a click was heard and the hole appeared on the fridge. You inserted the ring and the circle of flames appeared, the door swinging open.

You walked down the same dimly lit hallway, taking small, slow steps because you still weren’t looking forward to facing the others, but it had to be done. Better sooner than later, right?

You finally came to a stop in front of the door bearing the Gardiano Family’s crest. Taking a deep breath, you pushed the door open and slipped into the brightly lit room, a fairly large change from the almost pitch black hallways that led up to it. The hushed whispers of the group stopped as they all turned to look at you, a thick silence falling over the room.

You shifted from one foot to the other, refusing to meet anyone’s gaze as you attempted to swallow down your increasing nerves. ‘Man, this sucks. I feel like a kid about to be scolded.’

“So you have finally returned,” Rorian didn’t sound angry like he had earlier on the phone, but the annoyance was still quite present. Guess that’s better than seething rage, though.

“Did you get lost?” Salmon questioned, glancing up from his laptop.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, I did.” You rubbed the back of your leg with your foot, forcing a smile. Your hesitation to return was not a fact that they needed to know – or maybe that was just your damned pride getting in the way.

━━━━━━༻🌧️༺━━━━━━

▸Next

[mtngirlforever]

SRK ❤ pt. 2

So since I'm not really feeling this work day have some Carlos whump with a adorable Tarlos and a baby! Thank you to all you who offered medical input on this! I tried to gloss over it as much as possible so as not to screw it up too bad! Enjoy!

Here is part 1 if anyone needs a refresher https://mtngirlforever.tumblr.com/post/190830195629/srk-pt-1

Oh & In my head for this fluffy story  Iris doesn't have any problems sorry not sorry 

10 months later 

They'd settled into a fairly good routine with Sofia. Iris kept her when they were on shift at the same time which happened more often than not. If Iris couldn't, then usually Grace did if she was off and free. If neither could they resorted to plan c but that rarely happened. They were currently planning her first birthday and waiting for actual words instead of adorable babbles. She'd started walking when she was ten months old and they'd not been able to stop her since. Everybody loved the adorable little girl but none more than her parents. 

They'd left her with Iris for the day as they both had shift. TK was on a twelve covering for somebody and Carlos would be off in eight. They'd left her with kisses and promises to return soon. 

Carlos ended up having to work over when a call kicked off before he clocked out. He’d texted Iris and TK letting them know he’d be working over, but TK hadn’t heard from him since. TK had two hours left in his shift when they got the call to respond to an officer involved accident. It'd been a routine chase until a car came out of nowhere t-boning the side of the officer's cruiser sending it rolling through the air. The officer was currently trapped in his car and barely conscious. TK's heart dropped into his stomach when he heard Grace's calm voice say "Captain it's Carlos." 

Owen gave him an appraising look and Judd leaned over squeezing his shoulder giving him something to ground him. He could only nod back at his dad; his mind running on a loop of praying Carlos would be ok. He had to be ok. 

It took all TK had to resemble being professional when they got there. The cruiser was right side up, but  the passenger side was caved in, and it was noticeable that the cruiser had flipped. TK was in the car before Owen could even finish giving out the orders; he knew his son would want to make sure Carlos was fine with his own eyes. 

It felt like an eternity, but TK knew his team worked as fast as they could to get him out. Carlos was in and out, and TK was worried about internal injuries he couldn’t see. He could tell Carlos for sure had a broken ankle, and multiple cuts and bruises. He was almost positive Carlos had a concussion, and with the way he was in and out, TK was worried something inside was bleeding. As soon as they had him free, TK jumped in the ambulance with Michelle, praying the whole way Carlos was going to be ok. 

They'd been at the hospital for two hours now and TK was going stir crazy. He just wanted to see his husband and know that he was going to be ok. Michelle had called her sister and asked her to keep Sofia longer explaining what had happened. Iris readily agreed and told Michelle to keep her updated. 

Another hour passed before a doctor came out informing TK that Carlos was out of surgery. His ankle had been fixed, and they’d had to remove his spleen. He had a low grade concussion as well. A few of the cuts required stitches, especially one on his head. The doctor was certain he would make a full recovery, as long as nothing went awry and no infections set in. He promised TK that as soon as Carlos was moved to a room, he could see him.  

Owen hugged his son tight once the doctor walked off. He could see that TK was at the end of his rope and just needed a minute.  "It's gonna be ok. He's strong and he's gonna be fine," he whispered. 

"I know… I just…"

"I know," Owen said, giving him a squeeze. "I'm gonna go get Sofia from Iris but you call me if you need me ok?" 

"Yea…. Yea I will. Thanks dad. Give her a hug and kiss from us, yea?" He said giving Owen another tight hug. 

"I will kiddo." Owen and the rest of the team minus Judd and Grace left TK with it. Judd refused to leave until he was sure his little brother got back to see Carlos. 

Once they had Carlos in a room, TK went back to see him, and Judd and Grace went home making TK promise to call if he needed them. TK walks into the room and let's out a soft sigh. He pulls up a chair and grabs the hand that doesn't have an iv in it. He holds the hand tight, finally letting the tears fall he'd been holding in since they’d gotten the call. 

"You've got to be ok. Please be ok," he whispered. He sat there holding his hand and just watching his chest rise and fall until exhaustion took over and he fell asleep. It wasn't restful with nurses coming in and out, but he did get a little sleep. The doctor had told TK with a combination of the concussion and pain meds and anesthesia, Carlos would probably sleep for a while or be really in and out. The few times Carlos woke during the night, TK was asleep and the dim light in the room hurt his head too much to even wake TK.  TK's woken the next morning by Owen calling. 

"Hey dad," he said, rubbing his eyes as he answered the phone. He could hear his baby girl crying in the background and it broke his heart. 

"Hey kiddo. Guess you can hear little miss is not very happy."

"Yea I hear her. Put me on facetime." He just wanted to hold her tight and kiss the tears away but he wasn't sure if she needed to be there and see Carlos like that. 

They clicked over to facetime and TK’s heart broke even more when Sofia kept crying trying to reach for him through the phone. 

"Hey baby girl. You're ok. You're ok," he cooed at her. "Pops ain't that bad baby," he chuckled. 

She kept crying "dadadadada" over and over. She'd started saying dada a few weeks ago, and they were working on getting her to say papa now. 

"I know Sof. I'm sorry baby girl. You're ok tho. Daddy and Papa will be home as soon as we can." 

He blew kisses at her but nothing was working. "Just bring her on down dad. She's being stubborn like her papa," he smiled. "Oh and maybe a change or two of clothes for us?" 

"Yea kiddo if you're sure." 

"Not really, but she doesn't look like she's gonna stop anytime soon," he sighed. There was nothing he hated more than seeing his baby girl so upset. 

"Alright we'll be there in just a little bit," Owen said as they signed off. 

TK put his phone back in his pocket and sighed, picking up Carlos's hand again. "Your daughter is being stubborn just like you," he whispered. "She's giving dad a fit. So you better wake up because I don't want to scare her, you hear me Carlos. You gotta wake up," TK pleaded as he brushed the wayward curls off Carlos's forehead. 

Carlos stayed asleep and TK sighed. He kept rubbing his head and holding his hand just praying he'd wake up soon. Carlos came around a little, but his head was hurting too bad from the stitches and the concussion, that he drifted back off with TK whispering sweet nothings to him. TK hated seeing him in pain, so he was glad he was resting some. TK let everyone know he was wake but really in and out from the pain but they could visit.

Owen and Sofia arrived about thirty minutes later. She wasn't crying, but her little face was still red and she was still sniffling. As soon as she saw him, she started crying again babbling dada as she tried to get out of Owen's arms. "Oh baby girl," TK chuckled getting up and getting her. "You're ok Sof," he chuckled, rubbing her back and kissing her cheeks. He settled back in the chair by Carlos's bed glad she hadn't seen him yet as she snuggled into his neck sucking her thumb. She let out the occasional hiccup sob making TK chuckle a little. 

"Sorry dad," TK said once she'd settled. 

"It's ok kiddo. I remember someone else being just as dramatic when he was younger," Owen laughed getting an eye roll and a smile from TK. 

"Sofia Kennedy, Pops thinks we're dramatic," he cooed, rubbing her back. She just sniffled and closed her eyes, not loosening her grip on TK. 

A few hours later Sofia was sitting on Carlos's bed patting his legs and babbling to TK. Carlos had slept most of the day, only rousing a little while Sofia was napping. The whole team had been by to check on them and when Grace offered to take her, Sofia threw another fit making TK sigh. "Thanks anyways Grace," he told her when she gave him a hug and told him to call if he needed them. 

"Sof, what is your deal?" He cooed picking her up. She had always been easy going staying with someone else until now. 

"She knows you're worried and can sense something is going on," Owen said from his perch in the room. "She'll be ok once you're ok TK." 

TK just nodded letting Sofia snuggle on him some more. He softly talked to Carlos more and Sofia climbed back on the bed babbling to him. She kept looking at TK all confused when Carlos wasn't paying her any attention. 

"Papa's just sleeping baby girl," TK said, picking her up. 

"No no no no," she cried, reaching for Carlos again. 

"Alright baby girl I think Pops needs to take you home," he told her, kissing her cheek. Owen knew how hard this was on TK and he felt for his son. 

"Come on Sof, we'll go check on Buttercup," he told her trying to take her. She wrapped around TK tight crying. 

'Sof baby," TK cooed rubbing her back giving his dad the saddest look. 

"Ty," they barely heard over Sofia's cries. "Sof," Carlos said slowly waking up hearing his baby girl cry. 

"Dad," TK said, pulling Sofia loose and handing her to Owen. 

"Carlos babe? You ok?" He asked leaning over and rubbing his hair back as he gripped his hand tight. The few times he'd been in and out hadn't been enough for TK and he could tell this time he was fully waking up. 

"Tyler," Carlos said, finally fully opening his eyes.

"Hey babe I'm here," TK said softly kissing him. “You hurting? How’s your head?” TK asked softly. He reached over dimming the lights as low as possible knowing they'd bothered him earlier.  

"Sofia?" Carlos asked looking around. He knew he'd seen her napping on TK earlier, and he heard her crying but didn't see her. 

"Dads got her. She's ok. She's just being stubborn," he chuckled. 

"Or dramatic," Owen piped up bringing her back in. 

She was still crying, mad TK had handed her off earlier. "Sofia," Carlos cooed, getting her attention. 

Her big eyes settled on him before she rubbed them and reached for him. "Pap pap pap pap," she said for the first time trying to say papa. 

"She just…. Carlos she said it," TK said, lighting up as Sofia finally said it. "Come here baby girl," TK cooed, taking her and kissing her face. He held her down for Carlos to kiss on her and she turned the tears off. 

"Be easy Sof. We gotta take care of Papa while he's hurt," TK cooed at her when she tried wiggling out of his arms to get to Carlos. 

Sofia was getting sleepy, but cried once again when Owen tried to take her. "Take her home," Carlos said, still sleepy himself. 

"No. No way. I'm not leaving you here," TK said holding Sofia like a football swaying her back and forth to settle her. Her eyes were so heavy as she babbled sleepily watching Carlos. "She'll be asleep in just a few and dad can take her." 

Carlos sighed but nodded. He knew if the roles were reversed he wouldn't leave TK. Twenty minutes of swaying later and Carlos told TK she was out. Her thumb was in her mouth and she was sound asleep. TK shifted her up to his shoulder to make sure she'd stay asleep. Once they were sure she was out, Owen carefully took her telling his sons he'd see them tomorrow. 

TK slipped on an APD hoodie Owen had packed and sat back down by the bed. "You really scared me," he whispered, squeezing Carlos's hand tight. 

"I know… I'm sorry," Carlos said trying to tug TK to him. 

"You know I can't," TK chuckled leaning over and kissing him.

"You can break the rules just once," Carlos turned up the puppy eyes he'd learned from TK and it had TK caving. He crawled in the bed beside him and softly kissed his husband. "Never again, you hear me babe? Never again even if it got our daughter to finally say Papa." 

"I know. Never again," Carlos said, running his hand through TKs hair before they both drifted off. 

[jungshookz]

in the walls; kth

👻 pairing: kim taehyung x reader

👻 genre: spooktober day (3/7); horror but again not scary enough to knOck your socks off

👻 wordcount: 2.5k these r getting longer n longer 

👻 summary: knock-knock. who’s there?  

(picture source here!)

                                    ◢▅◣Ξ◥▅◤Ξ◢▅◣Ξ◥▅◤

“-but yeah, that’s pretty much it!” namjoon smiles as he tucks his clipboard underneath his armpit “congratulations, y/n… you’ve officially moved in!”

you grin excitedly before letting out a little squeal and whiPping around to take a look at your brand new apartment

this is the first apartment that you’ve purchased with your own money so it is definitely a veRy exciting chapter of your life

it’s all yours!!!!!!!!!!

“as you know, i’m up on the sixteenth floor - if you need anything, just gimme a call and i’ll be right down.” namjoon pats his phone tucked away in his pocket and offers you another gentle smile

side note

namjoon is the sweeTEst landlord you’ve ever met

he’s so polite!! and kind!! and you can tell that he cares about every single one of the people who live in his building

he’s also,.,. pretty easy on the eyes and that’s just the cherry on top

(those dimples??? pLEASE)

anywaYs

you should probably figure out what you’re going to eat for dinner

it’s nearing eight o’clock now and you haven’t eaten anything all day because you were too busy getting all your furniture delivered and put together

luckily you had some help from jimin and jungkook otherwise it probably would’ve taken you like two whole days to figure out how to put the couch together

although you will say that jungkook spent half the time trying to find one missing screw from the little plastic baggie full of nuts and bolts so it was pretty much just you and jimin working together  

(eventually he found it)

((it had somehow managed to bury itself into the corner of the room and he accused jimin of putting it there so that he wouldn’t be able to help with the couch and somehow screw it up))

(((jimin had no comment to make)))

to your complete and utter despair, you open the fridge to reveal absolutely nothing

to be fair you haven’t gone grocery shopping yet so you’re not entirely sure why you were expecting to have a fridge stocked full of fresh produce

you could really go for a burger

…thank god for food delivery services

“uh-huh… yep… yeah… got it… mm-hm…” you shut your bedroom door behind you and adjust your head so your phone is better sandwiched in between your ear and shoulder

you reach up to scratch as your freshly washed hair as you continue to listen to your mom on the phone

your hair is still a little damp but you couldn’t be bothered to blow-dry it all the way and you know that if you mentioned to your mom that you were going to go to bed with damp hair she would probably have a heART ATTACK

“i know, mom… yes, i locked the doors- yes, the stove isn’t on- yeS, i double- i triple-checked everything-”

as much as you love your mom you have to admit that she’s being a little toO much right now

this isn’t the first time you’ve lived alone so you don’t even know what she’s freaking out about

she’s just being a classic mom

but also it makes you feel oddly happy to hear her nagging you as if you were still a teenager

“you know, i have to get up early for work tomorrow so i should probably head to bed soon…” right on cue you let out a little yawn as you pull the blanket up and make yourself comfortable on your (brand new!) bed

after about three more minutes of ‘make sure to-’s’ and ‘don’t forget to-’s’, your mom fiNAlly decides to let you go

you plug your phone into the charger and set it down gently on the bedside table after checking that your alarm is set for tomorrow morning

yeP

7:45AM

bright and early

and then you switch your lamp off and all of a sudden your bedroom is engulfed in darkness

besides the soft glow of the moon peeking through your blinds

you didn’t think you were thAt sleepy but now that you’re snuggled deep into the warmth of your soft duvet and cloudy pillows.,,.,.

yeah

you’re dEfinitely ready for a good night’s sleep

it’s when you’re about to fall asleep that you suddenly hear a gentle knock against the wall right above your head

your brows furrow in confusion as you stare into the darkness

…

…

okay maybe it was just the apartment settling-

knock

you perk up and lean over to turn your bedside lamp on before sitting up straight and twisting to look at the wall

huH

interesting

you reach out slowly and smooth your hand over the wall before giving it a knock of your own

and then you wait

…

and you wait

…

and you-

knock-knock

your head tilts in curiosity and you purse your lips

o….kay….

you get up onto your knees and the mattress dips slightly as you shuffle in closer towards the wall

“h-“ you clear your throat, “hello?”

you hold your breath as you wait for a response

maybe you’re just that tired

you’re so tired that you’re imagining sounds

that is a definite possibility!

and now you’re so tired that you’re literally talking to the walls

“uh…” you lean in so that your lips are just brushing over the wall “-can you hear me?”

knock-knock

you jump slightly at the sudden response

okay

maybe your neighbour just likes getting to know you at-

you take a peek at the clock ticking away on your bedside table

11:48 at night

“i, uh, i’m y/n!” you lean in and press your ear against the wall and when you don’t hear a response for a good ten seconds you speak up again “what’s your name?”

all that can be heard is the quiet tick-tick-tick of your clock

“…should i guess your name?”

knock-knock

alright

well

it seems like your neighbour isn’t very chatty but that’s completely fine

you can figure something out

also this is kind of a weird way to introduce yourself to someone but you’re not judGing

“okay, uh… knock on the wall when i get the first letter of your name- got it?”

knock

you let out a little huff and turn around so you can lean against your headboard and you pull a pillow onto your lap

it looks like you’re not going to be going to bed anytime soon so you might as well get comfortable “-a, b, c, d, e, f, g. h, i, j, k- elemeno- p. q, r s, t-“

knock

you perk up immediately “t?”

knock

“okay, t. uh, a-“

knock

oh hEy

that was easy

“ta. a, b, c, d, e-“

knock

“tae? is that your name?”  

knock-knock

“tae.” you test the name on your tongue and decide right then and there that that’s a pretty nice name

tae

“okay, tae. it was very nice meeting you, and i don’t want to be rude or anything, but i need to go to sleep, but i’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

a moment of silence goes by and for a second you think you’ve ruined your first impression with your neighbour but then-

knock-knock

okay! that’s a good sign

you turn to switch your light off before snuggling back underneath the covers

“goodnight, tae.”  

and so, it goes

you and this ‘tae’ person continue having these little interactions every night

it’s weird

even though he hasn’t said a single word to you and has only been able to communicate to you via knocking against the wall, it feels like you have a real connection with him

obviously you’ve been asking him a lot of yes/no questions and that’s how you’Ve gotten to know him

you know he’s 23 years old

you know he has black hair

you know he has brown eyes

you know he likes to play the saxophone

you know he moved into the apartment building five years ago

which is kinda crazy if you think about it because he was an 18 year old living by himself and when you were 18 you were petrified at the idea of even being in a grocery store without your mom (not going to lie - the idea of that still scares the crAp out of you)

you know that his favourite colour is purple

you know that he likes dogs better than cats

you know a lot of small little things about him but you just can’t help but wonder what else there is to know about him

you haven’t exactly built up the courage to ask him if he’d like to meet up in person because this knocking on the wall thing seems to be a zone of comfort for him

and even though you have a description of what he looks like that’s not the same as actually having a face to the name

(which is why you spent an hour the other night staring through your peephole just wAiting for tae to come out)

(no one came out >:-( )

“hey, tae?” it’s about week 4 and a half when you finally decide to do something about the situation

you reach out and press your palm flat against the wall “do you wanna come over to mine one night? or something? i don’t know… i just feel like… you know, it’d be nice to actually meet you and all that, so if you wanna come over sometime i’d totally be down…”

at the 20 second mark of silence you immediately become concerned

o god

u scared him off

you were toO forward

you shouldn’t have said anything!!!!! you shouldn’t have said anything to ruIN this nice little friendship that you made and the you genuinely enjoy being a part of

:-(

“or not! it’s totally fine if you just wanna stick to the knocking, i just-“

knock

you shut up as soon as you hear the familiar knocks on the wall and you give a little nod “…can i take that as a yes?”

knock-knock

the corners of your mouth tug up in a smile and you turn to lean against your headboard

aLright

see?

it wasn’t that hard

“anyways, that’s how i learned that dish soap doesn’t go into the dishwasher at all.” namjoon snorts as he shuts the dryer lid shut and you let out a little chuckle

you haven’t known namjoon for that long but you can safely conclude that uh

he’s a little bit of a doOFus

“oh! by the way, i was meaning to ask you-“ you hoist yourself up on top of the washing machine and reach over to pull your basket full of fresh laundry closer to you “what do you know about tae?”

namjoon’s brows immediately knit together as he leans forward to turn the dryer on “who?”

you falter for a second

“uh, tae? my neighbour.” you hum and continue to diligently fold your clothes

“…tae…?” namjoon trails off and narrows his eyes slightly

hm

he knows every single one of the residents of this building better than he knows the back of his hand

but tae isn’t ringing a bell

…o god

is he a baD landlord????

“wait, are you talking about suite 403 or 401?”

“403.”

“40- wh- are you sure?”

“uh-huh. pretty sure. i’ve been talking to him for a couple of weeks now and he seEms like a nice guy but he doesn’t seem to like talking- which is totally fine, by the way, i’m not bAshing anyone for not liking to talk- i just invited him to come over sometime and i was wondering if you knew anything about him so that when we actually meet i’ll have a pretty good idea of-“

“oh, 403! namjoon suddenly perks up when the realisation hits him, “no one’s lived in that suite for years.”

yeah

no one’s lived in 403 for years

and by that he means that even before he took over the apartment building no one lived in that suite

the previous owner didn’t really tell him too much about it so he himself doesn’t really know too much about it

you immediately stop talking and tilt your head before letting out a snort “uh… no, i’m pretty sure someone’s living in that apartment. i talk to tae every night- he knocks on my bedroom wall and-“

“are you sure you’re not just hearing, like, the pipes creaking or something? because it’s been a while since i last checked those so maybe-“

“no, i’m like 100% sure that someone’s on the other side of that wall, namjoon.” you state firmly and namjoon raises his hands in defence

you swallow thickly and reach into your hamper with a shaky hand

no one’s lived in 403 for years

what does that even meAN

that doesn’t even make any sense!!!!

how could it be????

maybe namjoon’s just getting his suite numbers mixed up or something

that’s probably it

(you don’t bother double-checking that assumption with namjoon in case he hasn’t mixed up his numbers and what he’s saying is completely and utterly true)

when you return to your apartment after folding up your laundry you can’t help but notice that the air in here feels different

this is supposed to be your home

this is supposed to feel like home but the living room light is flickering slightly and you can hear the low buzz of the heater through the vents and at the same time your hands and feet are freezing

you know what

it’s whatever

you’re just going to go to bed!

you’ve had a long and tiring day and you don’t have the energy to think about whether you’re going crazy or not

“i’m not crazy. i’m not!” you mutter to yourself as you crawl into bed and snuggle up to a pillow

“not crazy.” you sigh to yourself as you stare into the darkness

you’re noT crazy

you haven’t been imagining these knocks

you’ve been talking to someone and that person’s name is tae and-

every single one of the hairs on your body shoots strAight up when you suddenly hear a familiar knock-knock

only this time, it’s not above your head against the bedroom wall like it usually is

no

someone’s knocking on your bedroom door

help me help you make your wishes come tru (aka send me a spooky request)

spooktober masterlist // main masterlist

[eugenesmorphine]

Home Is Where My Heart Is // Eugene Sledge Imagine

Taglist: @alienoresimagines​

Words: 2,842

  It was late when I had another nightmare. My body jumping up, sweat covering my body whilst tears filled my eyes. My breath shaky and quick as I placed my arms behind my shivering torso to prop myself up. I looked to my side, the empty spot in the sheets laying on my bed was of course still there. Gene was still in the Pacific fighting the war, while I was still here in my bed at two forty five in the morning from another nightmare. Over and over again I kept seeing my Eugene die over in the Pacific fighting those Japs.

   I would barely have any nightmares, maybe one a week, nothing bad either. The nightmares were bearable. I could sleep after those ones. But after Eugene had sent his final letter stating that he couldn't send letter to me anymore for a while, for whatever reason, I began to truly fear everything. I didn't know what was happening over in god knows where, and all I can do is pray for my boyfriend while he is gone and pray that no Marines show up on dress blues with bad news and a letter. All the worries of everyday life and now the fact that I was having more than one worry about my Eugene. The nightmares now almost happened every single night. Everyone worst than the last. I couldn't sleep after them. So that led to many restless and depressive nights. Only having my prayers and my mindfulness to keep me sane.

   It was now the real morning time. The sun began to rise, I could feel the soft rays poke through my lace curtains and the warmth hit my (S/C) skin. Time to get up and get ready for work. Another morning without Eugene Sledge.

   I tiredly swung my legs over the side of my bed, feeling my toes dig into the soft carpet. I pushed myself up to stand, stretching my arms up above my head. A soft and tired sigh leave my lips as I place my arms back down at my side as I began to walk down my small hallway and walk into my small kitchen. Out of spite, like every morning, I walk to my kitchen and start making myself a hot cup of coffee in the brewer. Yawning as I went to grab my favorite mug. I noticed the small stain of red lipstick stained on the place where I always drank out of it. A small smile curved onto my lips and I brought the mug to the counter and placed it next to the brewer.

   As the coffee brewed, I knew it was going to take a while. Damn that old coffee pot. I walked into my bathroom and shut the door behind me. I began to peel of my night clothes, shivering as the cold morning air hit my bare skin. I turned my shower on, steam began to quickly fill the bathroom as I stepped into the shower, pulling the curtain back to its normal spot. I sighed happily as the hot water poured down my skin. I could feel my muscles relaxing. I ran my hands through my now wet hair and began to wash it. This was my morning routine before heading to work. Wash up, rap my hair in curlers, get dressed, sit down and drink my coffee as I read a bit of a book, once done with coffee I do my makeup, then I walk to the diner I work at and work my days work. Then I come home and eat a small dinner, showering once more and getting into my bed clothes and actually going to bed. Pretty simple.

    Once I finished my shower, I wrapped a towel around my body. I wiped the mirror of it's fog using a cloth, looking back at my reflection. I just stood there for a moment. A quick memory flashing in front of my eyes. It was Eugene. I stood there, staring in the mirror. I watched as he stood behind me, smiling at me through the mirror. I felt tears prick back into my eyes as I smiled back. I felt his hands snake around my waist to hug me from behind. I just stood there, in shock. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest as he grip around my waist tightened. A few tears fell. I was snapping to my senses. "Genie!" I yelled, turning around to give him the biggest hug and kiss. But when I went to wrap my arms around boyfriend, there was nobody there. I gulped as I realized that it was all in my head. More tears fell. Not out of happiness this time. But out of fear thinking that I was now going crazy. I was seeing things for gods sake! I just took a deep breath, wiped my tears, and tried to ignore the thing that had just happened. Pushing it into the back of my head.

   I brushed out my hair rather quickly, soon putting my curlers in just as quick. I then walked to my room, shivering once more as the cold air hit me. I walked into my room, shutting the door behind me. Then walking to my closet to grab a fresh and clean uniform out of my closet. I laid the dress down flat on my bed. Going back to my closet seconds later to retrieve my white pumps. I dropped my towel, slipping on my undergarments and began to get dressed. The thought of Eugene never leaving my mind for some reason. Oh how I missed him. It had been many months since I have last seen him. I lost track in all honestly. Our place in Mobile, Alabama was so empty and boring now the my Eugene wasn't going on anywhere with me. I sighed heavily as I slipped on my pumps and walked back out in the kitchen. My coffee was indeed done and smelt amazing.

   I grabbed my mug and poured some of the fresh hot coffee into it. The steam from the hot liquid floated from the surface for a while. I put a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of cream within the drink and stirred it. I took a sip and let out a satisfied sigh. It tasted perfect. Like every morning. I checked the time. Still right on time. Not running a tad bit late, and it seems I am even a little early today. I smiled down at my clock, pleased with myself. I sat down in my dining chair, placing my mug to the right of me as I picked up the book I had been reading. Opening it's pages and went to the page with my book mark. I removed it and began reading the page. I focused on the words, feeling relaxation with every page turned. I hummed softly to myself as I read and sipped my coffee. Finishing the coffee quickly, I got through what I believe nine or ten pages in my book. I smiled as I placed my book mark back in between the pages. The book was almost finished.

    I placed the book back down smiling. That was until I acknowledged the empty seat that sat in front of me. This was another thing that happened every morning. And with every morning, the feeling of loneliness and sorrow grew within my chest. I shook my head softly, pushing myself up and grabbed my empty mug. Sadly placing it in the sink and walked back to go into my room and sat at my vanity.

   I pulled my chair out, sitting down and staring into my mirror. I pulled out my makeup. Lipstick, blush, mascara, the full nine yards. I had to look pretty in order to get good tips. All waitresses knew that. I began doing my makeup, keeping an eye on the time in the process. Still right on time. I pulled my curlers out of my hair as I finished up with my makeup. My bouncy curls right on point. Smiling in the mirror, feeling good about myself. I just wished Mr. Sledge was here to see me look this nice today. If only. I sprayed a small bit of hairspray in the curls, making it so I knew they would stay in for the day.

   I sat and stared at a picture I had framed in my vanity. The picture of Eugene and I on our first date. His best friend Sydney Phillips had insisted to take it. I was too busy laughing in the picture. My hand slightly covering my laughing mouth, my eyes shut and closed tightly and my head was tilted back. Eugene had an arm around my waist, he was laughing too. Though, not as hard as me. His mouth was open, showing he was laughing, But his eyes were open and staring at me, with only what everyone could say was love in his eyes. His other hand was holding mine, making sure I didn't fall over from laughing. It was quite an amazing picture. It was my favorite one of the two of us. I smiled at the frame in my hand as I grazed my index finger over Gene's face. This was taken a couple days before Sydney had left for the Marines. It felt like a lifetimes ago, though I could remember that day so well. I feel as though it was the best day of my life.

   Before I knew it, I was leaving my home and shutting the door, and starting to walk to the diner I work at. It wasn't far, that's why I chose to walk. I walked through the doors, all my regular customers there had a smile on their faces and a happy greeting for me as I tied my apron around my waist, took my notepad and pen out and began taking orders. That is how my day went. That is basically how everyday at my work goes. Take orders, talk to customers, give them their food and drinks, they pay and give me a tip. This repeats for usually eight to nine hours. Then I help clean the diner and then clock out. Everything about today was the same. Today was a normal day.

   I finished work. And like I said before, it was completely normal. Nothing had changed. I had gotten three dollars in tips and I was walking home. It was a normal walk home. The air was cold, the sounds were normal. Nothing out of the ordinary.

   It was quite late at night when I reached my front door step. I grabbed my key out and went to place it into the key hole. Though, quickly noticing it was unlocked. Confusion and a tinge of fear shot through my body. I knew damn well that I closed and locked that door. I gulped slightly, not letting my fear getting the best of me. I placed my keys between each knuckle, making a somewhat of a claw. I pushed my door open, walking slowly into my home and slowly and quietly closing the door behind me. I took a deep breath and noticed the kitchen light was on. that is odd. I walked slowly to the kitchen, I could hear a familiar hum. Eugene? No way, it couldn't be. Sydney would've told me if my Eugene was coming home or not! I'm going crazy or I'm just hearing things. Is all I thought as I walked into the kitchen.

   As I turned the corner slowly, I noticed a dark green uniform. A slim figure was in the uniform, his back turned away from me. Oh my god. It couldn't be. I heard humming coming from the man. He must've not heard me enter or walk in. I stood there, in shock, clutching my keys and my bag in the other hand. I gulped. My knees felt weak and my breath got shaky once again. Tears of joy filled my eyes. Oh god, it had to be him! Unless I was just hallucinating again. Though, I could smell his sweet cologne and really hear him. I just continued to stare silently in disbelief. My mouth slightly open.

   In just moments the man turned around. The toothy smile and soft face gave it away. My Eugene Sledge was standing there in front of me. I dropped my bag and keys onto the ground, hearing the thud it caused. My arms dropped to my side in exhaustion. Like an entire building was no lifted off my shoulders. Please let this be real God. My mental prayers began to repeat that sentence over and over again.

"Gene? That you?" I asked softly, approaching the man in uniform. I reached to right in front of his feet, staring at his face. Tracing over every feature of him. Not touching him yet, trying to avoid finding out if he had just yet been another hallucination caused by my own grief of his absence. "Are you real?" I asked in a whisper. It was so quiet you could barely hear me say it. I felt a hard lump in my throat forming as I choked back tears. I heard a small chuckled leave his lips. Once again that damn smile forming on his lips. That goddamn smile. I know it isn't ladylike for me to swear but oh how I couldn't help it. I felt his now rough and calloused hand cup my cheek. I then brought my hand to touch the fabric on his jacket and blouse. Comfort and happiness ran through my body as I felt the fabric on and between my fingers. Tears slipped down my face, some landing on Eugene's hand. His eyes softened as my gaze went from his chest and back to his eyes. I could see everything within his eyes. The love, sadness, fear, horror that filled his eyes. But, happiness shown through as his smile grew wider and tears filled his eyes. I smiled as a small laugh left my lips. He was real. This is real.

    "Of course I'm real, why wouldn't I be? Oh god Y/N, I missed you," it was his turn to let his emotions out. I saw a few tears slip from his eyes as his arms wrapped tightly around my torso and his head dug into my neck, his Garrison cap falling off. I quickly wrapped my arms tightly around his neck, pulling myself even closer. I took a deep breath, breathing in the scent of his cologne. I sigh of relief escaped my lips and we pulled away from the hug. The two of us stared at each other for a few moments. He then just grabbed the sides of my face and smashed his lips on mine. I melted into the feelings of his lips on mine. It had been so long since the last time we had kissed and or felt each other and held each other. I needed this more than anything.

    Pulling away once more, out of breath. We laughed slightly and smiled at each other. It was like when we were fifteen again. Now we are both nineteen, going on twenty, and we still are going strong. God I missed this man. A small smirk formed on my face as I ran towards him, jumped and wrapped my legs around his waist as my arms went around his shoulders. I watched his face of shock as his hands went under my thighs to support me. I laughed, throwing my head back. I didn't care if I woke up any of my neighbors in this moment. My Marine was back and I couldn't be happier. I stopped laughing and looked down at my blushing Boyfriend.

  "I missed you Eugene." I said softly, running a hand through his hair.

  "I know Darling, I'm sorry I stopped writing and didn't tell you I was coming home. I wanted to surprise you," He replied. I laughed softly, forgetting the fact that he nearly gave me a heart attack.

  "Promise me you won't ever leave me again Genie," I said softly, with a hint of sadness laced in my words. I felt Eugene's lips hit mine softly once more. I smiled against his lips. God I missed this.

   "Trust me Y/N, I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here in Mobile, Alabama. I'm not letting you out of my sights," His voice was soft and happy. I smiled back down at him and kissed his forehead.

   "I have no problem with that," I laughed softly.

   That night, I had no nightmares. I didn't wake up in a cold sweat, and I was ready for anything with my boyfriend. Now everything was back to normal and perfect. I love my Eugene, and he loves me.